This guest post is by John Smith of WeightLossTriumph.
If you visit your favorite blogging tips and marketing tips blog today, you will come across a lot of tips, ranging from tips on writing well to tips on building an audience.
The reality is that a lot of new blogs spring up every day, and the majority of these blogs are bound to fail right from the beginning. It’s not because there is something wrong with their approach, but because they fail to neglect something really important: their wellbeing.
Do you know that blogging is not only a physical challenge? It is also a mental challenge.
There are a lot of things we bloggers go through every day that no amount of practice will help make easier, but by focusing on being okay in every aspect of our lives (mental, emotional, physical, etc.) we’ll find those challenges easier to deal with.
In this article I’ll be touching some subjects bloggers hardly discuss online, and I’ll be giving tips to help you deal with them.
Dealing with criticism
Do you know that one of the major dangers of being a blogger is being exposed to criticism? If you’re still a new blogger you might not have noticed it yet, but in over two years of blogging, I have seen several clear examples of blogging criticisms. In fact, I have seen bloggers been sent death threats, and I have seen several bloggers quit because of that. Why? Because they chose to give value to the world through their blogging.
If you think blogging is a bed of roses, or if you think everybody will be your friend, then you need to think twice. There are hateful people online hiding under the cloak of anonymity. There are also people who are ready to vent their anger on you as a result of some personal problem they’re facing. The best way to deal with this is to be prepared, and to get ready for the worst at any time.
Blogging has a great emotional connection to it, and a lot of bloggers these days are starting to pay the price of being celebrities. You need to realize that there are people that will come and vent their hate against you for no reason whatsoever, and you should be ready for them.
I’m not trying to say you should fight back. Instead, I’m telling you not to take it personally. You need to realize that their reason for criticizing you isn’t because you’re the problem. You should also know that not all criticisms are bad. Naturally, there are healthy and unhealthy criticisms, and it is your duty to be able to differentiate the healthy criticisms from the unhealthy ones, and to improve where necessary.
Dealing with failure
Another problem you have to deal with as a blogger is failure. It can get really tough when you plan to achieve something in six months and can’t achieve it in one year—especially when you see another blogger getting better results with what looks like little to no effort in the same time span.
The first tip I have for you is to try to avoid jealousy. You need to realize that failure is part of the game, and that we all have our own challenges and our ways of dealing with them. Don’t be jealous of another blogger’s success. Jealousy is always unhealthy. Instead, take a look at what that blogger is doing, what approach he or she is taking, and start viewing the person as healthy competition.
It’s also very important not to allow your fear of failure prevent you from trying. You need to realize that failure is part of this game, and that not everything is bound to work. If you’re afraid of failing, you will have a hard time succeeding. Your first step is to eliminate every fear of failure within you, so that you can easily try new things no matter what the outcome might be.
Eating well
Do you know that the food you eat can have a great impact on several aspects of your life, including how you think and solve problems, and how you react to emotional challenges?
Have you ever woken up and found it difficult to work hard or get motivated for the day, even though you had a normal sleep the previous night? While sleeping and resting regularly is great, it is very important for you to realize that the food you eat will to a great extent influence your physical activities.
Most things we do as bloggers require us to think and plan effectively, and we also have to deal with the results emotionally—whether good or bad—which is exactly why it is important for us to eat good food to help ourselves be more effective. In other words, eating junk foods makes you dull and emotionally weak, and as a result you will only create poor work that brings bad results. The results will also deal you a massive blow since you’ll likely be emotionally weak.
If you’re emotionally strong, you can easily turn even the worst of problems into a lasting solution, so being careful with what you eat should always be a priority as a blogger.
While you might think you will make a lot more money and get fast results by “saving time” by eating junk foods, you’ll often discover you find it difficult to focus and concentrate because you aren’t in the right frame of mind to do quality work.
Improve your diet, and you’ll be amazed at how much your blogging will improve.
Exercising regularly
Do you know that regular exercise has a lot of benefits, including helping you gain energy and making you more emotionally stable?
I have observed carefully what I can do on a day when I exercise compared to a day when I don’t. I’ve noticed I can get two times more work done if I spend around two hours a day exercising compared to when I don’t.
Are you in a bad mood after waking up in the morning? Do you want to get some serious work done in any given day? Spend at least one hour exercising every day, and you will be amazed at what you can achieve.
To be honest with you, exercising isn’t that easy if you haven’t done it before, so start with ten minutes a day, and then scale it up till you can do one hour a day. Trust me: you will want to do more of it when you see the benefits.
I think, as bloggers, we have a lot more to worry about than our content and marketing ourselves, and we also have to be taking regular measures to ensure we’re physically and mentally active. The above are a few tips that can help you! I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments.
John is an expert weight loss blogger who teaches people how to lose weight on WeightLossTriumph. He also gives the best nutrisystem coupon code and medifast discount code on his blog.
Obvious affiliate is obvious.
Thank you so much for this article! I have been blogging for just over 3 months (actually really seriously trying, before it was just whenever). I have dealt with criticism over the most random thing and I am gaining readership, but I don’t know if it is fast enough to make all the time and work worth it. I get very emotionally affected by my visitor and page view information when I know I shouldn’t.
It has been a growing experience for me. I love blogging and am working on getting my first ebook out. I have had to come back to the fact that I like what I do, and I am proud and excited when I go back and read. I am able to write much better and faster with practice. All these things are things I can control and can be proud of, so much of the rest of the internet world and if people come or not is not in my control.
Since blogging for money in the first little while is virtually impossible anyways, blogging needs to be because I want to and I enjoy it. I just need to keep the primary focus on that. All the fun, nice people I have met have been great too!
Thanks again, just starting out, I feel I need all the help and encouragement I can get :)
Dealing with criticism and learning how to not take things personally is a really important point you make here John, and some people are obviously more sensitive than others. I’m quite a thick-skinned person, having worked in journalism for about 8 years, but I remember one woman once started something of a hate campaign against me via other forums after I’d written about my concerns about an extreme very-low calorie diet on one of my other blogs.
It seemed she took my comments about the diet personally, for some odd reason, and I really found it quite hard to deal with this woman saying horrible things about me on other parts of the net. The post itself still brings people in supporting this diet, who call me names or say nasty things because they believe I’m hateful or jealous or misinformed.
It seems that if people have had short-term success doing 500 calories a day (as it inevitably is, which I’m sure you can appreciate!) they take it very personally when you try to point out the dangers in that way of doing things. Anyhow, what I’m trying to say ultimately is yes, I very much agree that you need to not take stuff personally! Even I wanted to avoid the internet completely and hide when I had this onslaught of supporters of the said diet shouting at me, and I’m from Manchester (haha).
Well, I was sitting here thinking: “I’m hungry” and “I should get on that elliptical across the room”, but I was struggling to finish a blog post at the same time. I read your post and now I’m properly motivated. I’ll go have a bite to eat, have a work out, and then come back and finish that blog post. Thanks for the reminders!! :)
Well structured post! Remember the post called “Don’t Ever Write Without this Writer’s Warm-up” that helped me a lot.
“Dealing with criticism”
In most of the cases i have to deal with bloggers that criticise me for nothing. idk. Maybe envy. because my blog is better ranked, i write better posts and i have more visitors.
New bloggers need to have realistic expectations. They can’t expect lots of visitors after a few weeks. It takes time. If you go into it understanding that you will be much more likely to work hard and stick it out.
Thanks John,
Dealing with failure is probably the biggest, at least for me. I’m going on 6 months with my blog, recently posted my 50th article, and have made nearly $10, so no early retirement for awhile.
Thanks to articles like yours, and sites like Problogger, I know I’m in good company. I’m hopefull that 2012 will see me well past the $20 mark…
Cheers,
Rick
Being jealous is easy but I like to take it as an opportunity to learn and be inspired. I know if I work hard enough that I’ll get there some day.
Exercise really boosts my day! Especially when I’m sitting all day.
These are perhaps some of the biggest tips that we can take away for our blogs. Since I am a fan of Zen Buddhism, it’s also important to be able to learn how to orient yourself correctly towards your goals. Sometimes all it takes it getting the right mindset to be able to get started and seeing the results that we want to see.
Regarding exercise, I just wanted to share a little experience of mine that other readers might find useful. A few years ago in my blogging career I started P90X expecting that burst in energy and productivity you mentioned. I was eating well and exercising every day, but I still felt like I was doing less work and getting less done. I finally realized that I felt like I was doing less because I was doing it all so much faster. After a work out I would work in a short, blinding flash of productivity and get everything done in less than half the time. When I reevaluated how I measured my productivity, I realized I was actually too productive. Now I had so much more I could be doing and wasn’t.
Just a thought for anyone who might have felt the same way.
These days, daily thousands of blogs created. But for getting success in blogging we need to post new ideas that attract the readers. Most of newbie just post the article about something that posted by thousands of Bloggers. for success we need dedication and new ideas.
You are so right John and this is something we easily neglect as bloggers. I’m usually taking care of kids or stuck to the laptop and my well-being comes a very distant third. I intend to start paying some attention to that. Thanks.
Hi John,
The outer world mirrors the inner world.
How we take care of ourselves – mentally and physically – plays a chief role in how successful we become. How you feel determines how you live. So much easier to find inspiration for blogging when you eat well, exercise, meditate, and do other forms of mental science like visualization and affirmations.
As for criticism, it’s about the ones criticizing, not you. Remind yourself that the individual projecting on you is simply upset with themselves. Move forward and try not to let it bother you too much, because it is not about you.
Thanks for sharing your insight.
RB
Thank you Thank you. This is what happen to me at the end of 2011. I ran out of energy, I dropped the podcasts, and the posts were greater and greater effort.
Same for me. As the cold weather and darkness set in, it became harder and harder to get in quality exercise, and to keep the kitchen stocked up well enough to eat good food. My energy levels dropped, my emotional fortitude all but disappeared, and my blog posts got worse and worse, and were never on schedule. That just added to the sense of failure. It’s time to get back in control again.
I think John has some solid points on blogger way of life. Especially about dangers that it has. Political bloggers suffer the most. But I think it is a matter of time when their weight will matter in the long run.
Question: Approximately how much time and effort should you put into a blog before you can determine that it’s really not going anywhere, profit-wise? I’m thinking 6 months to a year, and if the traffic and earnings aren’t at least starting to trend up by then, it’d be time to either re-evaluate your strategy or else resign yourself to the fact that it’ll remain more a hobby than a source of income.
Anyone want to weigh in on this? I’m interested in thoughts from you more experienced blogger folks!
You’ve got some great points here, John. I would tend to compare my blogging success with that of other bloggers and that was counter-productive to what I was trying to accomplish. Accepting criticism as ‘part of the job’ is something most people still struggle with but they can overcome it with patience and persistence. Good work.
I am sad I dropped a previous blog when it was just starting to glean some real response, for pretty much all the above reasons. Thanks so much for a great reminder as I set sail in shark infested waters once again.
My blogging has improved a lot since I started walking six or seven miles per day last summer. I’ve lost a lot of weight and stopped drinking too. I know that last part sounds funny but it’s true. Drinking and blogging don’t really mix that well.
It’s true. When I was acting, taking care of my “instrument” (my physical body and voice) were paramount. It’s no less true now that I provide marketing and website services to small biz owners. If I’m not healthy, I cannot handle the stress of running, marketing, and growing my business. And pro-blogging is (MUST BE) at its core a BUSINESS.
Nice post, good positive advice and perspective. As for the naysayers hidden under the cloak of anonimity, sure it happens, but I think if you are blogging because you have passion for and love writing about your particular topic (or in my case whatever the he-ll I feel like writing about) then you won’t care about these people. Being an internet bully is as passe as skinny jeans on hipsters.
the above tips are good, and not only apply to blogging but to most, if not all, professions. personally, having a passion and “carefree” approach to blogging solves most of the issues outlined in this post. blogging / making money online is not for the desperate, and those that attempt to while desperate are likely to face and fail the challenges outlined in this post.
the above tips are good, and not only apply to blogging but to most, if not all, professions. personally, having a passion and “carefree” approach to blogging solves most of the issues outlined in this post. blogging / making money online is not for the desperate, and those that attempt to while desperate are likely to face and fail the challenges outlined in this post.
John,
Although usually guest posts here are quite average, yours should be included into every book about blogging. These are four very important and also very omitted points that everyone should keep in mind. Thank you.
Thank you Great Article!
Eat Well ! got it! :)
Don’t forget about the stalkers sending you e – mails without an end. This is especially happening as soon as you get more than 1000 readers per day.
Great tips especially about the jealousy part or feeling defeated seeing other bloggers doing so well right away. It’s very hard to start when you have 2 followers and see other’s with thousands, but there will always be someone with more. It feels like it can take an eternity, but you’re so right to look at those succesful blogs as guidance, inspiration and healthy competition.
So, you’re talking about balance.
We need balance in our lives, that’s fore sure. Thanks for that. Kind of like “garbage in, garbage out. In my mind, the biggest challenge I am facing as a blogger is really good content. The rest is balance and patience.
Enjoyed this post… You can have great writing skills – swaying your reader’s emotion at will. You can have an aesthetically beautiful site, you either spent $10,000 on, or designed yourself. You can have a dedicated server at Rackspace and an amazing custom WP theme. You can have the best in-bound links (like from PB.net!) and 60,000 RSS members and 2,000 “likes” at Facebook.
If you don’t have the motivation, the perseverance, to produce great articles for your blog every day – you don’t have what it takes. Most will fail. Most won’t understand why they failed. At least you’ll know after reading this article!
i have no idea whether there are others in this league but i surely like being discussed by critics. They are the ones who will tell you what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong
Wow, never thought how eating and exercising could affect my blogging. But it’s actually true! I feel really groggy when I don’t eat breakfast, and it lasts the whole day so I can procrastinate and don’t want to work on my blog.
Great insights.
I have a bit of a different take on criticism informed by two elements:
1) a recent story on entrepreneurialism said that you want to be loved or hated but if you’re in between, you’re dead. So, if people are reading your work and having a strong reaction, that’s opportunity
2) without a doubt, more of what is called journnalism is nothing more than the authors taking an extreme position to generate increased readership. The Boston sportswriter who criticizes the 13-3 Patriots? The guy is from San Diego, he could care less, it’s a job. If his story goes viral, just greater publicity.
The other point I’d make is while it may not take 10,000 hours to separate from the pack of bloggers, there is the craft of writing, actually having something valuable to say and then being able to successfully get that voice heard. The confluence of all 3 is actually pretty rare.
These are issues that you will need to deal with throughout your blogging career – whether you are just starting out or whether you have been at it for quite a while.
I always need to remind myself to put “me” first – and blogging second.
Sitting in front of the computer for hours on end is not healthy, and taking breaks for exercise and for a sound meal are so important.
Thanks really much, I gotta jealous less. But I usually eat well and exercising before everyday I’m starting to blog.
I was not expecting this holistic approach- but I LOVE IT! I appreciate the fact that you mention food and exercise. I have noticed that I do think much more clearly after starting a new eating plan eliminating many commonly enjoyed foods.
what most bloggers don’t know is that when they are criticized, they should use deck criticism to fuel their fire into blogging creativity for success in longevity :-)
If you really want to blog then you should realise it’s not going to easy all of the time. As with all things, it requires motivation, determination, effort and self discipline. If you have all of these things then it will be a little easier. All people have good days and bad days but to achieve something you have to put the work in.
Thanks John for this holistic approach to blogging. As you mention, blogging is not just about writing, design, goals and an audience. It is very much about who we are and where we are at. I find my daily walk an essential element in creating good posts and in maintaining my motivation. Sleeping on a topic is also a good aid to get the creative juices flowing the next morning.
A very fresh take on blogging. A very useful reminder. Dealing with internal stuff, criticism and failure, is as important as dealing with the external stuff, the eating and exercise. As bloggers, we are easily forgetting time by sitting in front of our monitor a lot. I myself often setup an alarm to remind myself to take a break and eat, and exercise. Many times it is tempting to think that one hour of exercise is such a waste of time. But we want to blog for a long time because we love it and enjoy doing it. What a sad thing if our blog reaches a million dollar milestone, but yet our body is reduced to 10 cents.
wow.. thank you very much for your advices and tips for blogger. I really appreciate it. Your post can motivate me to improve my blog and also my daily life as a part time blogger.
great post. It really makes sense that your health and general well being should take priority. If you are not getting enough sleep and you are eating bad food then obviously you are not at your best and your work, creativity even the ability to deal with other people is minimised. Exercise is addictive and is the best addiction one can ask for because it makes the other parts of your life a wee bit simpler.
Can you see me through that little hole on my computer or what?! You are talking to me. Before I found Darren’s blog, I was and still am blogging on several sites which have just consumed me.
My family has a direct shot of me everyday as I sit here at the kitchen table and blog! I smoke heavily & drink coffee like crazy, I just love this!
I’m not trying to blog for a living, I genuinely love reading and writing…HEY I never said I was good at it, but you ALL are!
I have really read some real>>> how do I say this without using expletives? POOOOP!
After finding this blog and the REAL people here, it’s a real breath of fresh air…Thank you!
I love constructive criticism/debate and find it highly conducive to building bridges and communities online. In my earliest days of blogging, I poached a troll from a young girl’s blog and suggest he pick on someone a bit bigger. I deleted all his pure profanity posts… however when he made a point (even though he was being aggressive about it)… that’s when I had him. I took it seriously and opened up a proper dialogue… he acknowledged it and it actually stopped him trolling (at least on my page).
In some ways I yearn for days like those to come around again… but as of late, people seem reluctant to leave comments. I think Twitter and Facebook have a part to play in this… even if you link to posts on the social networks… it is very hard to draw people away from the main sites to look at your work.
I think Disqus is a great tool for helping out here… because it brings the conversation about your posts into Twitter/Facebook and if people can see there is an existing dialogue, it can often be the very thing that draws that draws them in. People are curious/nosey like that. :)
Hey John,
I think blogging is tough. I have tried blogging before and it takes a lot of time and energy to manage it and the competition is tough. If you are blogging for yourself it is fine but if you want readers to find you or keep coming back to your blog, that is hard ass work
Darren how to optimize our eating disorder then? What can we do about it?
This is spot on. Once I started exercising regularly and eating better, I was able to be a blogging powerhouse. My boyfriend, a cop, recommended the change in my exercise route to help me deal with the pressure of managing multiple blogs while working full time. It’s a great stress reliever; when I do receive criticism, I see it as someone taking the time to share their POV on my site instead of a direct attack against me.
Great post.