So you are sitting there staring at a video on Youtube, but a voice inside you is telling you you need to spend time on your blog.
Well you have been thinking about it for a while now. Thinking and planning but not actually doing anything about it.
A whole bunch of things is holding you back, time, ideas, money.
So you are ambling about waiting for the perfect time, an inflow of great ideas, guaranteed upvotes... and so on.
Well let me crash your train of thought, those perfect circumstances will never come, you will always have to face the problems listed above in various combinations.
And when you realize that everyone faces those situations, you will realize that they are just excuses.
I have interacted with some people on steemit and even those I have been trying to convince to join steemit and they varying excuses.
So let me crush them one by one.
I Have Nothing New To Blog About.
You have probably heard of this saying "there is nothing new under the Sun". And it leaves you feeling that there is nothing you can add to the online converation.
But you have to know it is not about what you say, but how you say it.
This is not the first blog post on Earth talking about excuses bloggers give, but I am writing this from my own unique perspective, something no one else on Earth can do.
The truth is that there is no original idea left, everything goes in cycles, but you have your own unique personality and it is just like your fingerprints, no one else has it.
My Niche Is Overcrowded
So you want to blog about food and you click on the food tag and discover that there are already many talented food bloggers.
Why would anyone want to hear from you?
Well viewing this from another perspective, lots of blogs are available in your food niche because people are hungry for information about food(pun intended).
And they are hungry for new and better information and any old information they knew nothing about.
Even in the food category there are a lot of niches, you can decide to blog about only desserts or main dishes.
Lots of competition should never be your excuse for not blogging.
I Don't Have Time
To me this is the dumbest excuse, i agree that there may be time where you can be absolutely tied up with a project but lack of time should not be a constant excuse.
To be frank, we are all busy, even successful bloggers are.
So how do you find time
You may have to carry your smart phone or a tablet or even a notepad everywhere (and I mean everywhere), take advantage of those random 20 minutes spare time and jot something down.
When you are in the waiting room to see that lecturer or in the car waiting for your child to get out of school.
The only way to achieve this is if you are deliberate about it, if you are waiting for when you have time, it will never come.
What if No one Likes Me Or My Blog
To be honest this is one of the biggest excuse I had to conquer in order to start my steemit journey.
I didn't want to fail,but I knew I would be heading in that same direction if i sat and did nothing.
The only way to know for sure is to start, if you try blogging there is a chance of succeeding and also that of failing.
If you don't try, there is a 100% chance of failure.
I Don't Know What To Blog About
This is another big excuse people give, I faced that early in my steemit days, so I started with writing short stories, then overtime I started The Rainmakers interview series which is still ongoing, I have interviewed steemians like @papa-pepper and @good-karma.
I also started this blockchain blogger series as a way of encouraging steemians who may be having one problems or another.
One Steemian who I know have eliminated this excuse smartly is @ghulammujtaba, he shares extraordinary stories of ordinary people on his blog and he does it well.
You can do interviews or case studies and a whole bunch of other things, and don't worry if your early posts are terrible, they will still be lost in thesands of time.
The best way to learn is from experience.
It is time to dump those excuses and burn them, if these excuses are holding you back, keep in mind that everyone faces them.
Don't lie in your bed and conclude.
Just Write
Thank You For Reading
Share your thoughts in the comment below
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You Can View My Last Blockchain Blogger Post Below
On Steemicide: The Painful Truth About Accomplishing Your Steemit Goals
This Post Is 100% Resteemable
Man this is so true! I used to use every excuse under the sun on why I couldn't post to Steemit, and honestly wasn't having much fun because I always had some sort of paralysis every time I wanted to write.
After about 2 months of nothing to show from my blog, I realized it was time to change my mindset on what Steemit meant to me and what I wanted to get out of it, so I just started posting about what I was passionate about which is gaming and expressing myself by posting my daily thoughts.
Now i'm posting at least 3-4 times a day, and my rep and followers exploded out of no where! I even got my first $100+ post a few days ago which was crazy! I think people need to just stop focusing on whats holding them back, and just express who they truly are on here, and the right people will be attracted to their blogs!
Great post Ogo!
not so easy when the whales have been given a God like status on here, to get hear, you literally haveto go mad, try to initiate convos on comments, steemit.chat , discord, try and follow up their posts, and then ^^maybe** theyll upvote you once and leave. That was my situation a few weeks back. Right now, i just scream until my voice is heard, they say actions speak louder than works, so im working on projects to make sure I cant be ignored.
Yeah it's definitely a hustle to get noticed here, and you right that actions speak louder than words! I stopped worrying so much about what I couldn't control like getting upvotes, Rep, and followers and just posted about what interested me, which isn't very popular on Steemit at the moment haha!
I think that if you keep working hard you will get the attention you deserve my dog!
Hello @waphilip
Thank you for taking the time to read and share your story.
I appreciate. What most people don't know is that they are smarter than they think and that they have a voice.
I personally believe that blogging on Steemit is for everyone, and it just left to them to listen to that inner voice telling them that they are special.
Thanks once again.
@ogochukwu
Very well put ogo!
Just followed you so, i'm looking forward to your future posts my dog!
Thanks for the follow. I appreciate
Other than the money I really don’t have any of these issues. I more or less just got wait for things to grow on their own. It’s something I can’t force. In fact, I think I have the complete opposite of most of these issues.
I have a folder called WIP (work in progress) that I have many things in. some of them are ready to go and be published while others I am still flushing out and trying to shape better. Some of them are short term and others are long term. Some of these things wait in the folder for days or a hard week where I just can't make a blog. Then hey I already have something ready to go. Just got spend 10 or 20 minutes fine tuning it and fixing any formatting or image issues.
I honestly don’t care about niches. In fact, I am far too complex to just want to fit and stay in one area. I see competition as a good thing. If only one person is saying the same thing over and over they become complacent. They don’t want to force themselves to do better. They one day get lazy and then BAM out of nowhere they are now less relative than ever and they just don’t have the ability due to being rusty to reclaim what they had before.
As far as time goes I am a bit slower than most when it comes to getting things done. It’s just something I deal with. It’s one of the reasons I’m using Steemit to get more use to writing in the first place. Over time I can resolve the issue out and I hope one day make a post I can be happy with less time spent rewriting them and trying to find a better way to word things.
Far too many people seem to worry about how the world sees them. As you said you have already failed if you never tried. I actually use to failing and I enjoy it for some reason. It means I have room for progress. I can change things, and be better because of it. I use it to empower myself.
Hello @enjar
Thanks for reading and sharing your views. This is an awesome comment, longer than most posts on Steemit but deeply educative.
The thing is that no matter what you do In Life there will always be people there to criticize you so the best thing to do is to trust your instincts and keep moving.
You just have to keep trying and keep your thoughts on the positive side, someone who helped me develop great positivity on Steemit is @patelincho and I am grateful to her for that.
Locate yourself with like minds like @surpassinggoggle and things will be easier for you.
Thanks once again for reading.
@ogochukwu
Thank you for the reply @ogochukwu. I already know both surpassinggoggle, and patelincho they are some wonderful people and I love interacting with them when I can. They bring so much creativity and passion to Steemit. I find one of the best things to do on Steemit is to find wonderful people to engage with them; even more, engage more often in others blogs than my own blogs. People seem to think if they just put out a blog and someone “important” somehow sees it that will change their life or something. They seem to forget the importance of being social on a social platform and using networking to help build them up.
I spend a lot of time making comments, and a few times putting out long ones. Perhaps that is my true “niche” after all. I just find it more fun to go out and engage in things the community has already created. Perhaps that is another thing people struggle with and need to work on more. Either way, I just find it fun. I get to read a lot of interesting blogs, and meet some very interesting people along the way.
Hello @enjar
It is no mistake that Steemit counts comments as posts.
I have seen countless comments which imparted me more than the main posts itself, and I have made more money from comments than a post on certain occasions.
Keep commenting and watch your blog grow.
Followed You.
@ogochukwu
... BROTHER!!!!!
Yes, I've seen a lot of talk about focusing on a niche and there is definitely a case for that but a wise man once said that "... specialization is for insects." Human adventures and human knowledge and human ideas are both deep and broad. I want to share everything I am into with the world, not just the specific thing that I think will make me rich (not that I don't want that lol)
Hello @edumurphy
It is not a must you should blog about only one topic, there my be times which you may have to share something entirely differrent from your main dish, no onw will frown upon your post if you do so.
I myself constantly evolve the kind of content I post on my blog.
@ogochukwu
To be fair, if i wrote this,I wouldn't get 0.5sbd in all of the 7 days, the only thing helping out my posts on the blockchain currently is the ng curators and their works on the community.
People follow a certain pattern, stick to certain people when upvoting and generally dont look outside of their circle when looking for posts to vote on,this is one of the reasons why bloggers are dropping their blogs and not posting.
Because all the efforts goes to waste. If a whale were to pst same, word for word, their posts could hit big, while ours remain small, its quite easy for you to say we shouldnt abandon our blogs, this is cause youve made it big, and know whenever you post, your circle will vote your work.
Hello @davidthelad
Well since you say I have a voting circle, you should have asked me how I built it, or how I made it big, you should be thankful to @fisteganos and other Nigerian curators working on the Big waves project. As far as your posts are of good quality you will surely earn something for them.
I was once in your shoes so I understand your pain, but you should not let that deter you from shining your light.
Remember i started with Zero Followers too.
Thanks for reading and pouring out your mind.
@ogochukwu
This article reminds me of my stance towards steemit when i first discovered it. I first contemplated on what to write about...usually i used to be caught in this realm of thoughts at nights while in bed. After much ponder, i would sleep off...without putting anything down.
This procrastination was why i lost contacts with very established steemians whose upvotes earned me $80+ in my first ever post.
Later...i found out that one of the people i introduced to the program was already making inroads and gaining ground within the community..l felt challenged and then rolled up my sleeves to face my fears and overcome them.
And i did...
I believe with will for success and a sense of challenge, all the above reasons are easily overcome.
Thanks for sharing...because when people know their weaknesses, they will appropriate arrangementnto overcome them.
Yours ever grateful boy, @eurogee
Hello @eurogee
Building your steemit blog will not be easy, but it is something you have to do if you want the rewards you so desire.
You have to give Steemit what no one else can and that is yourself, your creativity, your uniqueness.
Just Start.
@ogochukwu
laziness, procrastination, fear, these are the things that stops one from blogging, but for beginners, their fears are well placed, after all, a topic well constructed, and written by a minnow with rep 25, would fetch at most a few cents, same topic, written by a whales or dolphin could fetch over 100sbd.
If we all could support a great post, and not be biased as to whether the poster is a known collegue/friend on the blockchain/whale/witness then more people will have reasons not to abandon their blogs.
Hello @destinysaid
What you said is true for Minnows who don't have a following yet. But i have given a way to surmount that.
i talked about the importance of post engagement lat month, it is simply going into Steemit and reading the post of others, it can dropping a thoughtful comment or sharing a story like @waphilip did above.
Post engagement has the ability to grow your blog, it helped me a lot and I still do It. I am not saying it is easy, but it is something you have to do if you want to experience blog growth.
Thanks for reading.
@ogochukwu
From what I've seen, Steemit very closely mirrors real life in its functionality. Much like real life, a lot of it is about who you know and how big your silver spoon is.
However, as I have said elsewhere, Steemit is far far far fairer than real life could ever hope to be. There is no velvet rope here; learn the rules, develop strategies, play the game and you will succeed. You might not succeed THIS WEEK but if you persist and improve and adapt, you will get there one grind at a time.
You are such an amazing person @ogochukwu, you are always motivating us to push to the maximum we can and just don't sit back waiting for success to come!
Work hard and success will follow!
Cheers
@progressivechef
Hello @progressivechef
Thanks for reading and your kind words
I am very glad that my post motivates others, it gives me joy and forces me to put in my best. Have a nice day.
@ogochukwu
@Ogochukwu. I guess the part about the Time is not too far fetched. It has been my very bane when it comes to blogging. But over time i have learnt folding hands on your Chicks makes you no king. The Good is gracious enough to give us fishes, we just have to dig.
I start my first blog last year, and one of my articles was featured in a lot of scientific communities. It felt great although I didn't make any money from the blog. But I'm still proud of myself for taking that first step.
Today, I was thinking of a starting a new blog in new field of interest, and ALL the excuses you mentioned above started popping in my head. I was just about to give up completely until I read your blog. Thanks so much for this helpful post :)
Hello @sufjan
I am glad that this post motivated you to do what you had in your heart, you don't know how happy it makes me feel.
Thanks for reading.
@ogochukwu
so much truth in this post. I actually have a lot of things to say and blog about. I just need to start prioritizing to find more time to write. upvoted
Thanks for reading and the upvote @catieleta
Thank you for the motivation!
I am glad to be of service