Hi,
Page views. Unique visitors. Total visitors. Number of blog comments. Email Subscribers. Facebook fans. Number of followers on Twitter and Instagram and Pinterest.
As bloggers, these are the numbers we all think about and pay attention to. A lot, sometimes even more often than most of us would dare to admit.
We obsess over that next milestone, or start to panic when one of them drops. And we convince ourselves that somehow our success as a blogger is tied to whatever metric we happen to be paying attention to.
But are you SURE that metric you are worrying about is the metric that actually matters? What if you are spending your time chasing after the wrong numbers?
It might just be what is holding you back.
Not long ago I got an awesome email from an Elite Blog Academy student in response to the weekly letter I send out to all EBA members.
"Thank you, as always, for the encouragement. I read every single email you send and they truly do make a difference in my business. I have wanted to quit on several occasions, most recently in February when my Pinterest traffic tanked. It was devastating, frustrating, irritating, embarrassing and I wanted to throw my hands up and just move on. BUT, I didn't.
What I did do was stop checking my stats and earnings every day like you recommended. I put my head down, blinders on and just did the work. To make a long story short, I've been seeing successes I never dreamed of!
I truly believe if I obsessed over what I saw as failings, I would have never had this opportunity put in front of me.'"
What I love most about this email is this (paraphrased) line: "What I did do was stop checking my stats every day and put my head down and did the work."
Because THAT right there is the secret to success!
What's NOT a secret is that Pinterest has changed a lot in the last couple of years, or that Facebook algorithms haven't been great for bloggers or that Google is now going to start penalizing websites for having pop-ups, or less than stellar content.
The reality is that the Internet is ever-changing, and if you are going to find success as a blogger, you need to figure out how to transcend those changes. In other words? You need to create a business that is immune to the ups and downs of vanity metrics and instead pays attention to the metrics that matter.
And what are the metrics that matter? The ones that you can control.
Measure your success in numbers that you have the ability to change. Otherwise you will find yourself stressed out and overworked for no reason.
For me, this has meant focusing on growing my email list, rather than tying success to social media, and I want to encourage you, over the next few weeks and months, to choose only one metric to focus on. It doesn't have to be the same as mine (though it can be if you want it to) but make sure it is something within your control, that you have the ability to change. Then put your blinders on and focus single-mindedly on that one single metric.
You might just be amazed at the results!
Oh, and if you need help figuring out which metric to focus on? Well, that's where the Genius Blogger's Toolkit can come in pretty handy. It includes some pretty amazing courses & ebooks focused specifically growing your audience, expanding your reach and maximizing your income, including my own Social Boom course (which is a $297 value all on its own!)
When it comes to focusing on the metrics you can control, I'm especially excited about these:
- Boost Your Blog Traffic: 50 Strategic Steps to Increase Traffic To Your Website and Make It A Success (eCourse) by Frances Vidakovic, $47. With over 50 lessons, this is a simple yet comprehensive course designed to immediately help you boost your website or blog traffic in a strategic yet effective way.
- SEO Playbook for Bloggers (eBook) by Niki Robinson, $49. Covers all you need to know to start optimizing your posts for search.
- The Beginner's 40 Day Action Plan for SEO Success (eBook) by Sarah Hardee, $9.99. Get the action plan to tackle SEO to grow your business, generate more leads, and increase your income through organic, free traffic from Google.
- The Blogging Machine (eCourse) by Sandra Clayton, $199. Walks you through the exact system you can use to create an endless flow of traffic that generates leads and sales like clockwork.
- The Secret Sauce to Skyrocketing Your Blog Traffic (eBook) by Angela Mary Vaz, $29. An eBook that will take your blog from newbie level to intermediate/advanced. This ebook will help you gain long-term traffic and will teach you how to build an audience that keeps coming back for more.
- Pin Practical Influence (eCourse) by Monica Froese, $197.
No comments:
Post a Comment