10 Tactics To Make Your Blog Stand Out
One of the things I enjoy the most about blogs, especially blogs that are run by one individual, is analyzing why the blog is successful.
What is the magic ingredient that makes this blog succeed, when so many others fail?
Based on my observations, here are some of the elements you can apply to make your blog something special. Note you don’t have to apply all these ingredients, one could be enough, though of course if you apply more than one you increase your chance of success.
Adopt This Powerful Mindset for Successful Blogging
This is an email I sent out to my early notification list for the launch of Blog Mastermind. The mentoring program is coming along smoothly and thanks to the help of a bunch of talented people we should have the program ready for the first group of students by the end of May.
If you are interested in learning more about the mentoring program, what to be first to find out when it launches and would like to receive blogging advice like the article you are about to read then you better get over to BlogMastermind.com and sign-up to the email list.
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I did an interview about blogging and I was asked for my number one recommendation to give new bloggers. I thought back to my early days blogging and the main sources of discouragement I faced.
The most frustrating aspect was watching other bloggers making good money online and making very little from my own blog at the time. There were a particular few moments where I remember thinking I would throw in the towel because I felt I really wasn’t getting anywhere.
I usually felt worst when another blogger talked about their success and I felt I was working just as hard as them and not getting nearly as good results, or just after attempting to make some money from my blog and earning absolutely zero.
What is interesting was when I felt BEST about blogging, and it’s this point I want to really ram home to you today, especially if you are still in your first six months of blogging or about to begin.
I Just Bought A House and Recommended Links
I like to start the week with a big meaty blog post but I haven’t had a chance to write one for you yet because of one very good reason – I just bought a house!
Yep, my first home purchase, a three bedroom townhouse in Brisbane where I live in Australia. It’s in a suburb about 7 kilometers away from downtown Brisbane, within the very popular and expensive “inner city”.
The Brisbane property market is nuts at the moment and I’ve spent the last few months since I returned from Canada hunting for a home only to find that most places are gone by the time I find them or I have to compete with five other buyers in a horrible silent auction process. That’s the problem with a city growing very quickly in population and not enough land to go around.
The market in Australia is pretty much like this everywhere and it’s a scary thought that for a lot of people, especially people in my age bracket who might be limited by working normal jobs (yet another reason to be an entrepreneur – no salary ceiling) that they may have to rent for a long time or choose to buy property far out from the main city area.
Thankfully I found a place that I like and can afford. It’s not ideal in location but I’m pretty happy with it, especially as a first home and investment. Keep your fingers crossed for me over the next few weeks as I go through the loan application process and all the other things you need to get done when you buy a house. I’ll have some photos of it for you once I can finally say it is mine.
Today I’ve been busy getting all the little details sorted with the property purchase, so to keep you busy I thought I would offer some recommended links. I’ve been saving up a bunch of good links for a few weeks now so take your time and enjoy…
Recommended Links
- My friend Erik Vossman from Hawa’ii offers up 41 Links to Help You Start a Blog Network. There’s some great links and tips for any blog empire builders out there in this post.
- How to Be a Successful Blogger: Learning From the Best presents some quick points on what it takes to become a great blogger. Any time I see my name along with the likes of Michael Arrington I have to send out a link
- Kevin and his site Blogging Tips is the latest text link sponsor of my blog. His blog topic is pretty obvious and you might think it’s yet another blog about blogging, which it is, but I can tell from the post frequency and content quality that Kevin is serious about this project and it’s worth checking out.
- I might be a bit late with this one, but if you are interested in a gig as a paid b5media blogger covering the topics entrepreneurship and start-ups, then this job ad should interest you.
- The team over at Young Go Getter published a great article – The Devil & Online Advertising – which struck a cord with a lot of people considering there are currently 74 comments on it as I type this and it has been dugg 103 times too. If you have an interest in online advertising, and as blog publishers you should, then have a read of this article.
- The Lazy Owner continues a recent theme I wrote about on my blog last week with the article Freelancing is Not a Business Model. Hopefully freelancers really get the idea that if they want freedom eventually some form of business structure and systematization is necessary.
- The Go BIG network has launched their new service called Projects, which is a clearing house for connecting freelancers and service providers with start-ups looking for help. The idea is that start-up companies, who may be tight on capital, can offer equity or stock options in exchange for labor.
If you ever want to see your site in my recommend links here’s a tip – write something worth recommending for starters and send some link love my way in the article. I check my referrer stats everyday and I often come across other bloggers who mention me or my blogs in a post and of course that’s one of the best ways to get a blogger’s attention and some link love sent back your way in return. No promises of course, but it’s a good way to start relationships.
