Right in line with the article yesterday on my Zero Tolerance Policy, I wanted to go into a little bit more depth about getting past the excuses and getting into what it really takes to be successful. Michael Dunlop from and IncomeDiary.com and I were talking during a recorded interview over the weekend (will be published on RobbSutton.com) about what it is that makes some bloggers successful and others not at all. While there are a lot of contributing factors to successful blogging, there are several different themes that run throughout the blogging industry that are absolute truths.
What is the secret to success in blogging? Well…you won’t be too surprised because it is the secret to success in just about everything. Taking action! I can not tell you how many bloggers I talk to on a regular basis that want success in blogging, but they are too busy reading instead of doing. Don’t get me wrong, taking advice from those that have been there before you has a ton of value, but there are a lot of bloggers that get stuck in that rut. All they do is take the advice in the form of free eBook, eCourses and seminars to do absolutely nothing!
That’s right…they spend all of their time and money learning instead of doing. I don’t know if it is fear of failure or the inability to get the car started and start driving, but these serial learners do nothing but talk about their next big idea instead of actually trying it out for themselves.
The Secret To Success In Blogging And In Business
The secret to success in blogging and in business in general is taking action. There are times you are going to fail miserably flat on your face, but at least you tried! Now you can take that knowledge and apply it to your next success. If you spend all of your time worry about whether or not you are going to make it…you never will. If you are waiting on that next informational product or course to make your blog successful….guess what…only you can actually make your blog successful.
You need to sit down and take a serious look at how you spend your time. Are you spending the majority of your time learning or doing? Learning has its place and it is a valuable part of the process, but it is on the only part of the process.
Are you going to be part of the 10% that actually takes action and sees success? Or are you going to be part of the 90% that has the knowledge and does nothing with it? That choice is up to you…and only you can make it happen.
13 comments
I admit, I’ve being learning more than doing.
I’ve had time management issues pertaining to my blog too. I’ve started to plan my day to make sure I can do everything I need to. Hopefully, by doing this it won’t take 3 days to write a post. I’ll be able to cut out the distractions.
I make a list at the beginning of each day of all of the tasks I need to complete. Seems to help get action instead of time wasters.
Yes, taking action is key. Too bad only 10% will take action after reading your video while the other 90% will do nothing.
I’ve been working on my blog commenting (as you might have noticed on this blog) and one of my actions is to sit back and think about what I learned in each post then if I feel like I have something relevant to say I leave a comment. That at least gets me started on my content creation.
A lot of my ideas for articles come from the blog posts I read. So if I can start my creative juices by first commenting it sometimes leads me to thinking about other ideas for my own blogs.
Commenting is a vital part of blogging. It is a lot about that connection with your readers and other bloggers. I really need to do it more often on other blogs.
I love your article and have to admit that I have been guilty of learning and learning and not much action at times. I am glad that I found your site, I like the way you are not afraid to tell it like it is. I respect that.
Thanks Jason! There is really only one way to tell things in my opinion. The rest is just sugar coating to make it easy on people and that isn’t good for anyone.
You bet! Action does all sorts of good things like getting stuff done.
Some of my successful friends actually track how they spend their time… in 10 or 15 minute increments… it’s worth doing at least for awhile… hard to lie to yourself about how hard your working if you’re actually tracking your time.
Doing that for a little while can get you into better habits for the long haul. If you ever feel like you are straying…you can pick that process back up again.
Hey Robb,
I don’t know how I ran across your site recently but it is one of the newer feeds in my RSS. Something sparked me into subscribing, and I’m sure glad I did!
I’m a video guy, so I like posts like this.
I watched a video last week from 99% (don’t know what it is) and Seth Godin was one of the speakers.
http://vimeo.com/5895898
This video REALLY pushed me over the edge. You know, I’m not the guy that doesn’t take action. I am totally action oriented and all about working my @$$ off to get where I want to go.
But one thing that REALLY stood out to me in this video from Seth is the simple ‘Deliver’ mentality.
Yes, I take action. Yes, I have 1 or 2 major things I get done each day. Yes, I am seeing success in my blog.
But do I ‘Deliver’ my products when I say I’ll deliver? (the blog is in support of my company)
The answer is no. I have open ended development that is ridiculously long. That ended with that video.
The next day I shook things up with the guys that work with me on some projects to the point where a few of them felt they should probably just leave the team since they couldn’t take enough ‘action’ and assist us to ‘deliver’.
Simple, but I need other people surrounding me to deliver, or I need to know they can’t be so I can deliver myself, because I know I can deliver. (say that 10 times real fast)
I really like your semi-abrasive writing style. I’ve become increasingly annoyed with all the ‘noise’ in the blogosphere. I have a LOT of RSS feeds, and honestly, I probably catch 1-2 good articles a day, and that’s it.
The rest falls by the wayside and I don’t even waste my time with stuff that doesn’t capture my attention anymore because I am simply too busy TAKING ACTION.
Sometimes we all just need to turn off our email, turn off our RSS (or don’t check it), turn off twitter, and just bloody get stuff done!
Love your Zero Tolerance.
These are two very powerful ‘One-Two-Punch’ posts. Great job!
Thanks Chris! Delivering is a large part of it as well. I think a lot of people think everything has to be perfect on launch…and that isn’t true. It’s better to be out there and gauge reactions sometimes to see where you stand. Like you said…delivering.
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