Today Brian Clark from CopyBlogger shares his Blog’s Tipping Point
I think the tipping point for Copyblogger was the beginning of 2007. I had a good first year, attracting 10,000 subscribers, and as the new year began I decided I wanted Copyblogger to be one of the top blogs.
That hadn’t been my initial goal; I had just wanted to join in and let people know what I could do for other projects. But then I thought, “If you want to be viewed as an expert at social media and content marketing, what better proof than by growing the blog bigger right out in front of everyone?”
In 2007 Copyblogger tripled in traffic and subscribers, and it was all because I changed my mindset and decided to just do it. It was a lot of fun, and it demonstrates that more than half the battle goes on inside our own heads.
10k subscribers in 1st year !! thats an amazing stats.. and its all about hard work and dedication ……
Good points.
Self-belief and a desire to succeed are important for someone who wants to be a successful blogger.
You can’t just put a site up, tweak the template a bit, post every couple of days, and expect to be a success.
Believe in yourself, work hard, learn from others, and go out and make it happen.
Wow…. 10K in the first year. That is awesome! Hope to be there some day.
Very “secret-esque”. That goes to show that the power of attraction may actually work.
“Change Your Mind, Change Your Life,” eh? I know it works for me. Now to apply it to blogging.
This tipping point reminds me of something I read at confidentwriting.com where Joanna discusses Stephen King’s book on writing. She has this awesome excerpt from his book, and the last line is powerful for whether you apply it to writing, blogging, or life:
“You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair – the sense that you can never completely put on the page what’s in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.”
WOW… 10k subscribers in one year. I wish I could have that many visitors in a year for now.. not to mention that amount of subscribers.
What a wonderful start! 10K in the first year…that’s amazing!
Success starts with the power of pure intent, something that I’ve similarly observed in a lot other blogs and successful entrepreneurs. Congratulations!
I should start by saying I love copyblogger. Ok, now to the but. . .
“In 2007 Copyblogger tripled in traffic and subscribers, and it was all because I changed my mindset and decided to just do it. It was a lot of fun, and it demonstrates that more than half the battle goes on inside our own heads.”
On the usefulness scale of 1 to 10, this gets about a negative 37.
True to be.Self confidence can make wonders.”I find hardly any time posting few posts in my blog”,this was my intention till i read this post.Now i am making my self muggin up “There’s always a way when you have a strong will”.Think that you have only two years to live on this earth,and work accordingly.If you come to know that you will put aside all the unimportant work and start on the important work,you will definitely make it great.After a month just check your stats,you will be definitely ahead of your competitors if any.But anyhow this is a great inspiration to me as from now on i am starting all very fresh.Records are meant to be broken…..so let me check if i can break it.Today its Friday 16th of 2008…Have a great day copyblogger.
i think having the right domain name help his success to a degree similiar to this blog
I like that your “tipping point” was something that happened in your own head. It wasn’t the world that had to change, but your own way of thinking — and that’s something that is quite within your control. Amazing what a small difference in perception can do.
I was an early(ish) subscriber to CopyBlogger, and while I certainly don’t know all the details (and have probably forgotten or incorrectly remember many others), there’s a lot more to it than this post gives on.
In terms of the tipping point with the /audience/, I’d say it happened sometime around April 2006 when Brian started really pushing his landmark “Copywriting 101” series. The FeedBurner subscriber chicklet only appeared then in May, as I assume the readership grew quite quickly in April..
Before April, a lot of the posts were vague and very.. normal. At some point Brian seemed to recognize how well his January 2006 (I think?) “How to write headlines that work” post was attracting visitors, and began writing a lot more like it. The social bookmarking sites, Digg, and a ton of bloggers caught up with his very powerful, well “headlined” articles did the rest.
Perhaps there’s more to it than that, but in CopyBlogger, more than in any other blog, I saw a strategy going on, and it played out really well. That’s why I admire it so.
10k the first year. Wow…
I’m not sure what to say.
Live From Las Vegas
The Masked Millionaire
you must be kidding if you think i believe the story self-confidence and hard work….
10K readers in the first year – I think the tipping point must have been in month two or three, not after the first year.
oh the all important ‘mindset’….It is the key…And the often overlooked key…
I love copyblogger too. But, his secret of success is because the consistent quality of the writing and success on SBM, not the vague ‘changed my mindset’ – I think he had the right mindset to get 10,000 in the first year.
this is it, just make decision and go after it!
By the way when I set goals I set max. medium and min., no matter what,… I hit something.
Anyone has thoughts on the subject?
Congratulations on great success Brian…
Congrats to Brian! I think everyone has their own “tipping point.” I also believe that the tipping point only comes if you’re continuing to do something out of a labor of love. I love working on my site, it doesn’t feel like “work” to me although at times, it is a lot of “work”, especially the video editing stuff. But in the nine months that the site has been up, I’ve never thought to myself that I HAVE to work on the site now (with a full time job), more than I WANT to, and look forward to it! Hope that’s everyone’s else’s mindset…
Brian also (in my observation) thinks like an entrepreneur, not a hobbyist. He makes decisions in a businesslike way and he thinks about his next actions the way an entrepreneur does.
When he does something, he does it for a concrete reason. And when he finds something that works, he does more of it. I know that sounds simplistic, but those are two habits that can create truly massive results. (Just a guess, but I bet Darren has also cultivated those habits.)
There are lots and lots of resources for those who want to learn to do this yourselves. You can quickly find many books and Web sites on developing a more entrepreneurial frame of mind. (Start by reading “The E-Myth” if you have no idea where to begin.)
Once you have that very effective, action-oriented entrepreneur mindset, then “deciding to do it” really can produce those amazing results. I know it feels like “it can’t be that easy.” It isn’t easy at all. But it’s simple. Big difference.
I was of course very excited to start writing for Copyblogger regularly, but I’m even happier to have the chance to interact more with Brian and see how he does things. He’s one sharp dude. :)