I was asked an interesting question in a recent interview that got my mind stirring. Many of the people I converse with in the blogging industry often look at my cooperate background and how it helped me become a successful blogger. For the first time, I got asked a different question that actually made me want to change the way I am attacking robbsutton.com.
My next question is: Did you have a background in business before you started blogging? If so, do you think it helped or hindered (or maybe both in different ways I suppose).
The section in blog and italics is the part I have never been asked before, and – honestly – had not taken a real look at up until this point. In my blogging history, I have used my corporate sales background to secure six figure review product numbers and blogging revenue. But…I took this all from the approach – from day one – as a businessman looking to make a serious income online. I set goals and I started achieving them by knocking each one off the list.
An interesting thing happened, I started seeing a lot of success! So…like any good businessman…I started tweaking my goals and my approach to see even more success down the road. Things were rolling along perfectly, until I saw that question…”or hindered”.
Then I really started thinking about it. Part of what made my cycling blog so successful was the honesty and feeling I have put into each article and review. I knew from the start that the basis of the site had to include those two aspects because – for the most part – my competitors do not have that edge. They are largely financially backed with a lot of different writers, so the personality of blogging is pretty much lost in most cases. They do an incredible job at providing information, but that feeling is not there.
Then I started taking a serious look at robbsutton.com. By default, this site should feel like me…and it doesn’t. As I sit in a hardwood floor office with a wood desk, one light on and the glow of two screens starring me in the face with a cup of coffee in my hand…everything feels warm and inviting. I am able to sit down in my world, crank out blog articles and feel at home. Then…I visit my site and it feels bright and cold. That isn’t me at all! Have I looked at robbsutton.com as too much of a business and not injected enough of my personality into the design to bring you guys into my world?
I do not think I have accomplished that at all. With a site that is about me and my blogging, I need to bring you guys into that world through my writing and the feel of the site. I took such a business approach to this blog that I forgot that the connection between blogger and blogger is the most important aspect of growing blogs! Within the next couple of weeks…I am going to change that. As you visit robbsutton.com, it is going to feel like you are stepping in my world.
I started this process by changing my Twitter background design last night. I had Rob over at Twtterwalls.com put together something that I felt showed my world. You can check it out here. The next step is to bring this site back to my desk and into my blogging world as I grow my blogs and create a business that personifies who I am…
The great thing about blogging is the ability to be yourself and get rewarded for that honesty. Often times – ok…most of the time – in the business world, we have to put on a different personality to get the job done. There is a certain aspect of “kissing ass” and “ultimate professionalism” that has to take place in order to see true success in the corporate world. You are constantly trying to impress, buying dinners, hanging out with people you really don’t even like and engaging in activities that are another version of you…not the real you. While we all wish that was not the case, it has become part of the game that everyone knows and no one talks about.
The beauty of blogging is that you can completely remove those negative aspects of doing business and actually be more successful by injecting more of your personality into your blogging and being even more transparent. So…as you look at your blog…does it speak to who you are? Or is it an attempt to “look” professional to make more money?
Image by ramenlover