Blogging and Working Out

All people who work out fall into a particular persona. There are the consistent lifters, the Gung Ho lifters, the flashy lifters, the New Year lifters, and the social lifters. While this might be a stretch, all bloggers, male or female, happen to fall into one of these categories as well. I only bring this comparison up because understanding your blogging character will help you attain success.

Like any veteran gym member understands, the worst time of year to work out is during the New Year–the few short weeks falling after January 1. Quite surprisingly, some bloggers fall into this category and I happen to call them the New Year blogger. Running parallel with the New Year lifters these bloggers have a plan. It has been a long year of waiting, but they are ready to blog. New Year Bloggers have purchased their domain name, hosting, e-books, and blog template. January 1st roles around and things look great. Theirs families even get in on the action helping to gain momentum. But like most regular bloggers understand, this crowd thins out, drastically. Like a mirror not showing that ripped body fast enough, I feel the search engines play a role in this blogging pattern. SERP success just doesn’t happen fast enough. Visitors and readeres don’t come fast enough. Income isn’t generated quick enough. What all must understand is blogging doesn’t come easy and it definitely doesn’t come over night.

While it is not quite as annoying as the flashy gym goer, the flashy blogger is just as unproductive. The flashy lifter does so much right but downplays the most integral part of getting in shape. The flashy lifter stands around and stares at themselves in the mirror and they flex what little muscles they think their body contains. It is so funny to find blogs and bloggers that fall into this category. Man, these flashy blogs look great. They have beautiful designs, great plugins, widely popular images, and their code is flawless. But these flashy bloggers forget about the most important thing. They never actually add any blog postings. A beautiful site with no content equals wasted time.

My personal favorite at gym is the Gung Ho lifters. They work out hard for several weeks. Drastic change and growth is just around the corner. And boom, the Gung Ho lifters get board. They stop working out and you don’t see them for several months. And then, just like they never stopped working out they show up and start working out all over again. Sadly, in a few months they are in the same boat and have moved on to better things. It’s so disappointing to visit a blog that fall into this category. It seems as though the author has spurts of great growth but they are never able to stay consistent.Week after week they painfully blog everyday, sometimes twice a day. Then out of no where you don’t hear from them for months. This type of blogging can have such a negative affect on visitors and SERPs.

Next at the gym we have the social lifters. The social lifters are liked by everyone, they have plenty of followers, they talk a big game, they help spot and uplift other gym goes, but they miss out on the actual lifting part. While this type of blogger has mastered part of the game, the social blogger has no content of their own to promote. They can tweet and status update like no ones business but when it comes to producing interesting content they fall desperately short. To help illustrate this point I will ask one simple question:  Would you rather have 50,000 twitter followers or 50,000 unique visitors a month?

Now, for the best type of lifter. He/she is consistent. They set their goals and they stick to it. The plan happens to be simple, straight forward, and attainable. Rain or shine they lift and over time their body develops and they get into shape.  The consistent lifters seem content with slow progress and have the ability to think long term. As far as I can tell, the best bloggers seem to follow this same strategy. While they might seem spurts of great growth, they actually prefer slow, consistent progress.

While this is a funny and unique way of looking into the blogosphere I do feel there is some credence in the jokes above. Enjoy it for what is worth and don’t think to hard about it. Find where you stand and if you happen to be unhappy with where your at make the necessary adjustments. Just remember, the most successful bloggers are steady and persistent.

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