There are over 234,000,000 websites on the internet. There are over 126,000,000 blogs.
On Wordpress.com alone, there are 500,000 posts published every day. This does not include self-hosted WordPress blogs.
Tumblr and Blogger each host millions of additional blogs.
Each day, close to 1,000,000 bloggers push “submit” on a recently drafted post. Although not every blogger is after fortune and fame, they all have something in common: they want to broadcast their thoughts to the world.
They want to be heard. We all want to be heard. We want someone to listen.
But how many of those 126,000,000+ blogger’s voices are heard?
How many blogs do you follow? A handful, if that?
How many of those 126,000,000+ blogs are profitable? And of the profitable blogs, how many earn enough to live off of? Very, very few.
What’s the difference? Why are only a minute percentage of blogs “successful”? How do you create a “one in a million” blog?
The Content Chain – Why Most Online Business Owners Never Reach the Content Stratosphere
I like personal development blogs. It was a piece of personal development literature that got me into making money online.
I read a piece on running an online business. It sounded incredible – be your own boss, work from home, work anywhere in the world… like a dream! I decided I’d start my own online business (and so did thousands of others who read the same article).
But I had no idea where to start. I had no clue what I should write. So I just copied everything the personal development blogger wrote and rehashed it. I put it in my “own words.”
So if anyone visited my blog, they got was the same content they could find on a popular personal development blog – except mine wasn’t nearly as good.
I was a follower.
There are two types of bloggers and online business owners: leaders and followers.
- Leaders are “in the trenches.” They produce unique and valuable content. They’re the HUGE minority.
- The followers are the majority. They read the leader’s content, rewrite it, and post it, hoping to catch the reader’s attention.
It doesn’t work. They’re not bringing anything new to the table. They’re simply copying someone else’s work and claiming it as their own.
Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this method. It’s understandable. Beginner bloggers have the desire to succeed, but they don’t have the how. They don’t know what to write. They don’t know their audience. So they start by emulating success.
It’s a great way to get your foot in the door. It’s a great way to learn how a blog platform works. How to write a post, proofread it and submit it. And, if you get a few readers, it’ll teach you how to respond to comments.
But the only way to get a following is to jump the blog followership. To create content people find truly valuable—content people are clamoring to share on Facebook—you need to be a leader.
Think of your favorite blogs. Why do you enjoy them? Because the content they produce is both unique and valuable. This is content you can ONLY get from one place. So you keep coming back. You keep pushing “like” and “share.”
These blogs are written by leaders.
Answering “What do I write about?”
If you’d like your content to explode, you must avoid the content chain. Follower blogs are just another number. Following the content chain will put your blog at number 126,000,001.
I understand. It’s hard to escape the content chain. It’s hard to create valuable and unique content. That’s why very few blogs ever “make it.”
But I’ve got some great news for you: you are special.
That’s not meant to make you feel good. I really mean it. Humans are very, very similar – except we’re not.
We each have similar “mechanics.” It’s how we can communicate with each other. But we’re also very different. Even though we all have the same type of mind, the way we view the world is unique.
Being brought up, we had beliefs and mindsets programmed into our minds. These beliefs and mindsets now affect the way we view life. And since there are limitless combinations of events that can happen in your life, you can be sure you’re completely unique from anyone else out there.
It’s easy to look at a successful blog post and think, “that was incredible – how will I ever write something like that?”
Well, you won’t. At least not exactly like what you just read. The person who wrote it had an entire life leading up to the creation of that article. Sure, they weren’t living their entire life to publish one blog post, but their life gave them the perspective needed to write it.
As an entrepreneur, it’s easy to remember the days when I was afraid to tell people my ideas. I only had “good ideas” every once in a while. And when I had them, I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them to anyone who could steal them!
Now I’ve realized no one can execute my ideas like me. Sure, they could execute my idea in their own way, but that would be their own idea. You see this all the time with successful entrepreneurs – they have no problem sharing their ideas.
And it’s why you can never copy someone else’s content. You’ll simply be a follower.
If you forge your own path, if you create the content only YOU can create, you’ll automatically be a leader.
Because when you’re creating your own content, you’re the only one who CAN be a leader.
Perspective Injection
It’s funny. When it comes to copying other people, that’s pretty easy. But when it comes to truly express ourselves through our content, it’s writer’s block central.
But it’s not really difficult. We’ve just tricked ourselves into thinking it is. It’s the most natural thing in the world. But getting there is a process of unraveling barriers you’ve put on yourself. For years, you’ve probably thought successful blogs are created by people who are “creative.” People who are “good writers.”
No, they’re created by people who write with their unique perspectives. Creativity and good writing come after.
When you inject your personality into your content, it becomes much more interesting. No one wants to read an article on weight loss. But everyone wants to read an article that describes a unique method you discovered that allowed you to lose weight in two months.
Let’s expand on this.
Say you want to write a series on how to lose weight.
But it’s been done before!
Sure it has. But not by you.
Losing weight is a fairly simple process. All you have to do is eat right and exercise regularly. The hard part isn’t in the process. The hard part is in the mind. It’s fighting the cravings. It’s fighting the habits. It’s telling your body “no” when you’ve said “yes” your entire life.
People don’t care about weight loss methods. They care about the internal struggle. The voice in their head says, “you worked out two days ago, no need to go to the gym again this week.”
Here’s how you inject your personality. You embark on a weight loss journey and document it. You document what you ate and how often you exercised. But most importantly, you document what was going on inside your mind.
These are the real problems. And when you encounter them, instead of giving in, you figure out ways to solve them that work for YOU.
Maybe you associate exercise with something you enjoy. Maybe you really enjoy going to the local coffee shop and reading the newspaper before you head to work. If so, you could start going to a coffee shop right next to a gym, ensuring you can workout before your morning ritual.
Then the problem becomes, “if I go to the gym before coffee, I have to wake up earlier.” How are you going to combat this one?
When all is said and done, you’ve lost weight. But more importantly, you’ve documented all the internal problems you encountered and have working solutions to each and every one of them.
You can now create a unique and valuable weight loss series. One that has never been published before. Because no one could’ve published it but you.
But if it’s written by you, how are you sure your methods will help others?
It’s the separate-but-equal aspect of humanity that, once again, comes to the rescue. Yes, your methods were unique to your situation. But other people go through the exact same problems that you went through. And they’ll be able to use your unique methods to help themselves lose weight.
We humans have very similar thoughts running through our minds. Our minds give us thoughts which we respond to in a completely unique way, based on our beliefs and mindsets.
Learn to Trust Yourself
This mindset is key to creating unique and valuable content. It’s also a fantastic business mindset.
When you realize you’ve got a unique perspective on the world, you realize that competition doesn’t mean a thing. You never need to fear competition, because no one will ever be able to do things the way you can do them.
Does this mean you’re better than everyone else? Kinda. It means no one can do YOU as you can.
Once you grasp this mindset, you realize you can still get ideas from other people. If you read an article that really catches your attention, you can take that article and filter it through your own perspective.
But it’s not copying. Because once you put it through your perspective, you come up with something that’s based around the same idea but is completely unique.
Trust yourself. Realize you have a completely unique perspective. And if you learn to use it, it will become your greatest asset.
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