Personally I never consult my mental chatter when making decisions. Mine are done without any spoken or thought words. However words are the only way I can convey what I want to convey to you.
So if one were to ask oneself the right questions before making a blog post (or making a blog at all, or doing anything), they would be as follows.
1. Do I really want to do it? Is there a true heart's desire here?
2. Is my decision being influenced primarily by social concerns which are not fundamental to the manifestation of my heart's desire?
3. What does the blog visitor get out of visiting? What does the visitor get out of coming back again and again?
4. Is my analysis of what my visitors get self-centered, or based on a sincere observation and analysis of those for whom this site would fulfill a desire?
It all comes down to some very simple fundamentals with which I add explanations. The first 2 are inwardly focused and deal with aligning with one's heart's desire, and the 3rd and 4th fundamentals are outwardly focused, dealing more with strategy (practical concerns for the manifestation of the heart's desire).
The first two fundamentals deal with you, your feelings, your desires. While they aren't enough to assure popularity and monetization, without adhering to them your blogging endeavors will weaken you, tapping you of energy, and even if you achieve monetization and popularity, it won't be worth it.
1. If you want to do it regardless of payback, do it. If the only thing that motivates you to do it is money or popularity, do not do it, unless money or popularity is what you truly desire.
For most people, social rewards including money, are not true desires but socially influenced concerns of the mind. They are also practical strategic points which can help manifest true desires.
By sticking to your desire and ignoring the periphery concerns, your endeavor has true substance, instead of being an empty money-grabbing, site tweaking, community watching self-obsessed exoskeleton (for if money/community was the true desire, it would magically be substance itself, which for most of us will not pan out that way). These periphery concerns are of no use until your endeavor has been manifested with substance. Even if it's not perfect, or unoriginal, and doesn't make a cent, if you really wanted to do it, then you will be all the happier and more powerful for having done so regardless of social rewards (monetary is part of social, money and its power is of society).
Please be clear that when I speak of core desire I in no way mean that to make a blog is necessarily the most fundamental core desire of one's being. Rather that it is a strategic manifestation closely aligned with one's core desire. Core desire can never be accurately described with words.
2. Concerns about doing it right, or how original it is, or how it compares to what's out there, or whether it will bring in money, are a total waste of energy before anything has been done.
This is more an extension of #1 and a guideline to avoid pitfalls than a fundamental dictate in itself. Namely, the pitfall is allowing social concerns to dictate action instead of core desire. These social concerns include:
- money
- social standing
- reputation
- what others think about you
- how others feel about you
While it cannot be denied that such concerns have practical value, these are ultimately strategic concerns for fulfilling a manifestation of core desire, and usually are not the manifestation itself. If you have a genuine heart-felt desire for these manifestations, that's one thing. But if you do not, to be influenced by them is deadly.
The following fundamentals are not to be put into practice until the first two are fulfilled. Beware that if you focus on these fundamentals without adhering to the first two, you will ultimately undermine your very being. In fact it very well may be worse for you to be successful at being hollow and out of track with your desires, for you will be inclined to believe that things are going good for you when in fact you are being prematurely worn down by your lack of inner alignment.
3. All that matters to a blog's monetary success, and popularity/readership is that the visitors get what they want out of visiting the blog, and that they get what they want out of continuing to visit the blog again and again.
This is all that matters when it comes to a blog's social success. For the purposes of this forum thread I will define social success of a blog as consisting of:
- Bringing in a satisfactory income for the time spent
- Getting a large loyal readership
Keep in mind: Regardless of fundamentals 1 and 2, if 3 and 4 are not dealt with, do not in any way believe that you are working on making a socially successful blog. Fundamentals 1 and 2, while certainly contributing to a blog's social success (building a foundation of alignment, power), are a seperate being's personal issue and are not social success strategies. Fundamentals 3 and 4 are social success fundamentals.
4. In determining what brings maximum value to the blog visitor, take great care not to confuse what would be of value to the visitors with what would be of value to you. Beware of self-projection onto others.
Much like fundamental 2 in relation to fundamental 1, fundamental 4 is more of a pitfall avoidance strategy based on fundamental 3. Namely, what is to be avoided is looking at potential visitors of the blog through the lens of self. So many make this mistake in all areas of life. One of the most common and destructive manifestations of this error is men and women assuming the opposite sex, particularly a lover or mate, wants certain things, based on their own desires, completely ignoring sexual polarity. In just the same way, a blogger will time and time again fail to see that a visitor of a blog has a completely different thing in mind from someone who writes a blog.
Be careful not to make this mistake, or you won't be giving the visitors what they want, only yourself what you want.
Keep this in mind: Most people's blogs fall into the category of self-centered. This is why a vast majority cannot possibly attain a large chunk of readership and monetization, as they are largely self-serving. If such a self-serving blog adheres to fundamentals #1 and #2, and to popularize/monetize would violate these fundamentals for the blogger, then it is in the best interest of the blogger to maintain the blog as it is. If monetization/popularization adhere to #1 and #2 more so than self-centeredness, then it would be in the best interest of the blogger to abandon the self-centered approach and focus on the visitors' desires instead.
Adhere to the fundamental four and while your victory is not gauranteed, you will have fought the good fight and cannot possibly have any regrets!  |