Be Weary Of Bloggers Sharing Advice On How To Blog

Meet Marc Ensign. He is one of those people that are on the mission to save the interent. You know? One of those misguided lunatics that feel righteous enough to tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing. It’s fine, there are plenty of people like him. So I am taking the liberty to fix the fixer, tell him how hypocritical he is, and just enjoy the process. Because I like being a douchebag like that, from a time to time.

I’ve encountered his blog post on “blogging your ass off”. And I got sick and tired of having people write crap advice that doesn’t have anything to do with reality.

Be Authentic?

First piece of advice is on being authentic. The hell with that, if you try to be authentic, you probably aren’t. Just share your own mind, in your own natural way, and you will get to the “being authentic” tribe. To many people try to be authentic nowdays, and usually just being yourself solves the problem. Anybody who tells you to be authentic, highly likely isn’t authentic himself. Just a copy of a copy of a copy… You know, like a parrot, repeating the phrase that sounds like it has a meaning, while in fact it doesn’t.

Be afraid and have butterflies in your stomach?

The second piece of advice, he spews is about being afraid and having the butterflies in your stomach. That is bullshit as well. You need to get excited, and not give a fuck about what anybody thinks about the writing you push out there. The worse thing that can happen to your post is to be forgotten. And that is a pain. Get excited, but don’t be afraid, because if you suck, nobody will notice! If you are great, you will get the desired result. We are living in the era of abundance of creation, where anybody with a keyboard, like the person that wrote the post, that provoked this one. So get over it. If Mark could write a shitty blog post telling you how you are supposed to blog, why wouldn’t you be able to use your First Amendment, your “God’s Given Right” to say what you mean. If what you write has value, people will pick it up. It’s highly unlikely that you will be scrutinized. So publish with no fear. Mistakes will help you get better along the way. You gotta find what’s working for you, and fear is the enemy.

Do you need opinion on everything?

Third piece of advice is that you need to have an opinion. Sometimes I don’t have an opinion, sometimes I just share what I’ve found, and I flow with it. This advice holds merit though, even though you don’t have to follow it word for word every time. This alone could help you though on being authentic. Opinionated people like our Mark are attracting more opinionated douchebags that resonate with his way of thinking. And that’s normal. But not everybody resonates with that. Stick to your guns, you will attract people that think like you, and you’ll be fine, even without voicing your opinions too much. Sometimes give yourself time to develop an opinion. Don’t be one of the army of opinionated douchebags, just because they told you that it’s good for blogging. It isn’t.

Do you really need to give a shit?

Fourth piece of advice is that you need to give a shit. Well, this is poorly expressed, but the point is properly reflected. Do I give a shit every single time? I don’t know, I am not bothered to care to much about it. I give a shit about what I Think Is Important. I freestyle it. I don’t fake giving a shit, if I truly don’t.

What if you aren’t extraordinary?

Fifth piece of advice is You Must Be Extraordinary, which is complete and utter crap. First of all, you might not be extraordinary. You can work on being extraordinary, but chances are, you are mediocre piece of shit like 99% the rest of us. And if you try to fake that you are extraordinary, you will fail on the writers first piece of advice of being authentic. At the end of the day, don’t try to be someone else, just be you. And if you aren’t extraordinary, stop trying to be. Get out there, and give your best every day, and it will count. Follower by follower, newsletter subscriber by newsletter subscriber, you will gather enough attention, and enough of the people that care, that you will make a difference. Sometimes even ordinary people have a chance with consistency, and you might be one of them. Over time, as you practice, as you continually write, you might get to a point where you will become extraordinary, but instead of trying to be something you aren’t and push yourself into the direction of mind fucking yourself, to a point where you feel uncomfortable with publishing things that aren’t “extraordinary enough”, be concerned about what you create, and just get out with it. If you get afraid of publishing, soon enough you will stop publishing completely. Putting extra pressure on yourself and your need to be extraordinary, will slow down your content creation process, and you won’t have enough content in order to gain any sort of traction. Blogging is highly competitive environment, and if you don’t publish, there is going to be an army of third world bloggers with broken english, that will. And they do get attention. And they do something with their lives, just because they know that good enough is often more than good enough!

Do you need to embrace your shortcomings?

Sixth piece of advice is about “embracing your shortcomings”. Why would you even connect your shortcomings with blogging is beyond me? Why would I think about something negative, instead of positive? Just get out there, don’t think too much about negative things, because thinking about negative stuff, will prevent your creative process.

Instead of even thinking about your shortcomings, think about your strenghts, don’t get stuck in the negative thought cycle. The more you think about your shortcomings, the more of the opportunity for excuses you will have. Focus on the strengths, and work the way you are designed.

Do you need to have a right reason?

Seventh piece of advice is quite possible the biggest bullshit of them all. You need to have the right reason. Who is the person that is writing this crap advice anyway? If you want to blog for cash, there is nothing wrong with it, but you need to understand that you need to provide value, and generate trust with your readership , in order to get anywhere in your “blogging career”. You need to write stuff of value. And if your goals are revolving around ranking positions, email subscribers, all of those are worthy goals.

Making money is a good enough reason. For me, even bigger reason than making money is liberating my time and location, so I can be wherever I feel like. And that is pushing me hard enough to write more, create more, and enjoy what I do, because I have the reason for it. Is it the wrong reason? Hell no, it’s the reason that keeps me going. Whatever rocks your boat is a reason enough for you to keep going. Stick to that reason. Don’t fake that you care for trees, if you don’t give a fuck. Ferrari is motivation in an of itself, don’t worry if somebody thinks that your reason is not good enough. Who are they to judge you?

Do you need to be human all the time?

Here this blogger talks about automation and how it is evil. Automation is helpful, and I am using Buffer daily. It automatically gets shared across the social networks, but my followers got used to me sharing useful things in this way. I am spreading myself throughout the day and I get my messages out there. Automation is productive, and batch tasks. Don’t worry if somebody doesn’t like it. Just make sure that you are sharing useful links and that your efforts equate in value given to the people that follow you, and you’ll be good to go. I remember that Tweet Adder helped me spread my message wider and further, than I could possibly do it on my own! It expanded my reach, and helped me connect with numerous other people. Just because somebody tells you it’s wrong, it doesn’t mean it truly is. You will reach out, and as long as it works, you do it. Don’t let some blogging righteous shmuck tell you what’s wrong or wrong. Use your own head, and do what delivers you the results!

Give value is bigger priority than being human!

The point where I agree with the man

Blogging your ass of is hard. And you really need to like to write if you expect to make money blogging. And there is no truly right or wrong path, that you need to follow, except getting out there, and making the right friends. And when you make enough of them, and when your message starts getting a voice, and your audience starts to resonate well with what you’ve got to say, you will get there where you want to end. Think and grow rich. Step on the few legs, find your own place under this big internet umbrella. Don’t listen to every advice that is limiting your thoughts and ideas. Be you, don’t care to much about being authentic. Sometimes people will hurl to you, because you are the first person that they’ve read. If somebody already wrote something similar to yours, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do it better. Just get out there, no fear, and keep doing it, until you start getting it right.

Only thing you can go wrong, is to quit. Quitters never win, and winners never quit! Don’t be a looser. Do your own thinking.