Successful Blogging requires a plan! A big plan.

Just commented on Blog Strategies by @danielsnyder1. I favour Chaos fuelled by Passion instead http://j.mp/hKPICKless than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhoneMark Mapstone
markmapstone





Hey Daniel,

I just read your blog post and all the comments. If I’m not mistaken, based on everything you and your commenters have conveyed, no-one has been blogging past 5 years. I didn’t even spot anyone blogging past 2 years and even you admit to only blogging for 6 months. Which is both admirable in the scale of most blogs abandoned after a couple of days and interesting, because you advise from the theoretical rather than the actual.

I have been frequently blogging for 7 years now. One specific blog I run is in its 5th year. I’d like to challenge you, that a plan isn’t needed at all. Only Passion, Patience & Persistence.

One don’t even need patience and persistence really. One’s passion should persevere regardless of the appalling stats, lack of comments and loneliness of one’s own social echo. In the absence of Love for what one has chosen to blog about, any direction will not necessarily fail, but definitely need revising time and time again, probably reach the point where one fails to bother with it anymore and use one’s instinct and gut reaction instead.

(I used the context of ‘one’ in the above, as I feel you are doing really well in comparison to many bloggers)

I know you cite money only as an example based on what you see as many peoples motivators to be. But unfortunately you do not cite any other motivators for me to challenge you on… so bear with me …

Money as a motivator will fail, as money doesn’t give you direction – only desire to reach a financial state. What happens when you have that financial state? (either through blogging or a real world job). Money won’t be the motivator anymore, the blog risks dying. Some people start blogs because they want to have a voice, because they don’t feel they are being heard in their real lives – what happens when they get in a relationship with a partner or grow a family, with all the ears required to fill that need? Again the blog risks dying.

The only thing I see (from an experience perspective) as a solid grounding consistent motivator long term is an unachievable goal: educating people, sharing knowledge, fighting for a massive global change – being part of a movement that transcends beyond money, fame, material possessions, a sense of belonging, love for a person, or a change of job. Anything that can easily be achieved, you may achieve…. then what reason is there to continue blogging? The goal dissipates.

Money is simply a by-product of doing what you do really well… and wealth (& opportunity) arrives in directions that you cannot plan for.

Can I suggest Chaos as a ‘plan’ (strategy or guide)? Following your gut instinct for your natural enthusiasm for a goal so big that it will be with you forever, well after social media has died, facebook has changed and twitter is nothing more than a flashback to that quirky time when we thought 140 chars would ‘change our world’.

Now I’m not suggesting just Chaos, as that too will fail in the absence of Passion – but at least you won’t need to worry about sticking to your 3-5yr strategy, which was typed up on some blog (and/or) post somewhere 3-5yrs ago, or printed out and faded on the notice board by the window.

Does Passion & Chaos deliver results? It does. Oh damn it does… and it isn’t forced, fretted over, the causation of stress, or even the worry of appearing ‘unprofessional’ to your peers. It just delivers… massively. I can tell you more about what worked for me and the evidence I have to back at the above waffle up too. But we’ll need a skype chat for that.

So, sorry to challenge you… I hope you enjoy reading my thoughts…. but from an old blogger to a young one – plans are the last thing you need to worry about.

All the best – Mark

I agree with this comment btw: http://bit.ly/fzwBL9

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