If you are doubting yourself, just listen to Michaelangelo who said that “the greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Don’t be one of the 95% of the people who are going after “realistic goals”, go after the top 5% and set your goals above your competitors. You will spend the same amount of time achieving the mediocre goals as you would with bigger goals. Then why set your goals so low? Aim high for 2012.
Below are Five Ways to Make 2012 Your Best Blogging Year
Be a Serious Blogger
You have to take your blog seriously or else you are not going to achieve your goals. Because the startup cost for a blog is so low, many people tend to spend too much time in the beginning and then close to nothing after the first few weeks. As I mentioned in my book, it won’t happen overnight. You will have to take your blog seriously and learn to treat it like an investment or like a real business. If you had paid $150,000 for your blog, will you leave it for four weeks before you return to the business? Well visit your blog often and pay attention to what your audience are looking for.
Be Yourself
A blog is a personal site where you get to share your knowledge with your fans and it should remain that way. It is about building relationships. You and your readers will define your blog as it grows. Your readers will continue to help you build your blog BUT that will happen only if you be yourself first. Don’t start a blog pretending to be someone else OR don’t heighten the expectation of your readers by committing to things that you can’t deliver. Just be honest and share what you know with your readers.
Have a Mailing List
No mailing list No Money. It is that simple. If you are not building a quality mailing list along with your blog, you are wasting your time. If you want your blog to make money, you need to invest in a mailing list solution. I recommend Aweber . Their fees are affordable for newbies and as your list grows, your profits will justify the fee increases. Without a list, you have no one to speak to when you post an article or talk about a product, or whatever. Start building a mail list today.
Post Regularly
You MUST post on a regular basis. Now I am not the most fit to say that but like many of you, I am setting my goals high for 2012 as well. Your posting habit will dictate your blog success in making money on the internet. Like all of you, I started off this blog and have not made a single penny for months. Why? Because I was not posting as much as I should have. Once I started engaging my readers through a mailing list and postings, things started to turn around. Now, I could still do a good job on this and I hope like all of you, I will maintain a consistent posting schedule.
Own Your Blog
You have to get your own domain name for your blog. If you are using a blog provider like Blogspot or Wordpress.com, you have to switch today. It doesn’t cost a lot to have your own domain name hosted with a hosting provider. This way you will grow your blog and you will own full access to your blog. You can do whatever you want with it and you can choose to monetize it whichever way you want with it. There aren’t that kind of flexibility with other blog providers.
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At the end of the day, it is a decision you have to make for yourself. You need to decide if you want to take your blog seriously or not. It is all up to you. I recommend you take Michaelangelo’s quote and stick it on a sticky note to your computer screen. Just do it and you will see how powerful that is.
