Publishing a blog on a regular basis teaches you many things, you experience the highs, and you also often become the victim of people who try to take pot shots at you and bring you down, however in the end it depends on how well you can channel your inner Jerry McGuire.
What is it that separates a those who succeed from those who fail? It’s the willingness to sacrifice and take a chance on that idea that keeps nagging at you in the back of your head. The one that won’t let you sleep, the one that you think of over and over again, in the shower, in the car, while you’re walking the dog, while your standing in line at DMV, the idea that’s like that little annoying cousin at a family picnic who just won’t go away.
Sometimes we just get caught up on the conveyor belt of life, we push something “out the door” to meet a deadline real or imagined. We sacrifice greatness and quality because we’re lazy or unmotivated. We settle for mediocrity because we’re afraid to grow, afraid to try something new, and most importantly we’re afraid to fail. Not everything we do has to be great some things just have to be good enough to get the job done. However sometimes we fool ourselves we settle for second best because it’s easier, we push it out and hope that no one notices it’s crap. I’m lucky, I have friends who will challenge me (sometimes in private, sometimes in public) and when I publish something that doesn’t posses that suigeneris MG quality and flavor, I get called out on it, and that’s good, because it sucks being seen as a disappointment.
What’s the take-away here, if you’re going to do something do it with gusto. if you’re going to be a filthy rotten low down no good dirty spammer, then by gosh do it right! Crank up your auto-gen bots and churn and burn through domains like Sherman burned through Georgia. if you’re going to go the content route spend the time build it right, do the research, stomp all over the person who holds the spot ahead of you. They have one page you have three, they have ten pages you have thirty, don’t settle for second. Don’t whine and complain that nobody pays attention or links to you. You want links, you want attention, stand up and do something hard, do something exceptional, do something amazing, do something note worthy, do something impossible to ignore, do anything other than being a crybaby. Stop lamenting over your lack of green pixels and worrying about quadrilateral link exchanges with foreign TLD’s, because other than being another SEO news blog that’s about the least outstanding thing you could possibly do.
Lastly stop settling for average. Instead of creating sites that suck ass and are nothing more than retread web 2.0 BS, create something new and different, take the risk, take the chance, go the distance. You don’t get to be an SEO Rockstar sitting on your kiester trying to be a B player. The only thing that will do is make you that guy sitting alone in the bar at pubcon wondering why nobody talks to you, and then coming back home and crying about it on your blog.
This post may have pissed off a few people, and you know what … good. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to take it lying down, or are you going to prove that you have what it takes to be a player. Telling me I’m wrong in the comments doesn’t prove anything, going off and creating something great on your blog, website or forum, now that will prove something, and just maybe you’ll have found your own Jerry McGuire while doing it.
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Amazing post, so much so that I had to finally comment on your blog and tell you so, MR Celebmaster
Yeah baby!
Your thoughts resonate.
What do people want from an SEO blog anyway?
I resisted the temptation to start an SEO blog for many years. What’s the point, people already have great blogs out there.
But then I realised I have a different perspective, I have my perspective, I have a unique voice and it’s my voice.
The posts I like here are the ones that challenge my view, that give me information I don’t get anywhere else, the ones that elevate my insight.
It’s one of the blogs that I look to as inspiration for my own. This is not suck ass time, it is what it is.
I had an ice bucket of water thrown over me when a couple of sites went off the grid leaving me bereft of my easy income.
So I thought, time to start an SEO blog to crystalize a few thoughts. And I’m amazed to find that people wanna hear what I say.
To me it’s about making your reach extend your grasp, and you know what? Doing that hurts.
But it has to be done.
Great post! Maybe you should become the “motivational speaker of SEO’s”
It’s a lot easier to cry about or criticize the actions of others than it is to improve your own. I see this all over the web and often times I’m guilty of it myself.
A large component of what you talk about above is focus. It’s far better to focus on one amazing project than 10 mediocre ones. (Btw, this is really just a pep talk to myself.)
Reminds me of Surfing With The Alien:
MP3
WMA
RM
QT
and what you said about oranges on my blog is true Michael.
This is a really good post. I found it to be very motivating myself. My blog is only a couple months old and I am definitely looking for ways to separate myself from the crowd out there.
This post almost made me start bench pressing my monitors. Kick ass.
“Show me the backlinks!!”
Do It Fuc*ing Now! Great post!
Now That’s what I’m talking about! You are so right. In a world of 14 gazillion websites, you’d better step on the gas to get noticed!
I have read the “be remarkable” bit a lot Michael but I think its overstated. “Be profitable” is a better mantra for most people in my opinion. I have talked to quite a few webmasters that try really hard to get the “be remarkable” part but because they have no cash flow they can’t achieve it.
Many of the easier cash flow solutions are totally unremarkable.
/*
I hope that makes sense I am not sure I expressed it as well as I could. I guess its just an unremarkable comment
*/
True enough being remarkable is not a guarantee that you’ll be profitable, you need a dash of being promotional as well.
Can I get an “amen”.
Shut up or put up, don’t be another echo-chamber.
Shut up or put up! I think I’ll trademark that as my personal phrase for life.
Hold on, I’m gonna go say it to my always-complaining, pathetically passive roommate…
I’m in the middle of starting a couple business ventures, so I loved the post!
Great post. So much so.. that I have pinned up a couple key paragraphs in my work and home offices.
Thanks man.
D
Great post Michael and I learned a new word
always a good thing!
Just to add to the noise I think many people fail because they do not do the right upfront research.
They often fail to take off the rose colored glasses when doing it too.
By doing the correct research it will help you to clearly see how to differentiate yourself, how to add value to the market – not just more noise – and how to dramatically increase your chances of success.
Thanks again, good stuff.
Bill
This is a great post. We have to build a winning attitude. And ussin And using Jerry McGuire as example is awesome.
I like this post so much I copied it to my blog at: http://opportunitytou.blogspot.com/
Doing what we like and doing it with enthusiasm, passion is the way to success.
I’m inspired. Someone get the goldfish ’cause I’m in! Conformity is for wimps!
Hi brilliant post, you need Momentum but you also need at least part of a Purple Cow!! (Seth Godin) as you say on the blog be remarkable.
Momentum gets cash flow purple cow gives longevity and cash torrent for a while
Marketing skill is keeping it going, but you have to start.
Hi Michael
This is the first time i have been here, but i dont think its the last…
I like part of your attitude “the get out there and do it” part, but i think youre a little over the top with the negative version of it, i mean i do not agree that you can act like an idiot as long as you do it right…
An idiot or a jerk if you will, will always be just that, and more of it if he/she does like you say…
I actually think that the idea that when you do something, do it with all your heart and soul, and im convinced that if you do, you will get the reward somewhere down the road…
Like me, i decided almost 2 weeks ago, that i want to build a good solid content empire, and i have worked like crazy ever since, and im gonna keep doing it, until it brings me a very nice income.
Im done being mediocre and getting caught up in the information overload that ends up giving you information overload, i dont read my mail, more than twice a day, b4 that it was always open and i ended up surfing away because of an interesting link…
But basically i agree, i think we need to give it our best, and go for it 110%, thats what works.
Then when you find gold, just rinse and repeat… if you know how you found it off course
Janno
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