Top100 (101 – 199)

Part 3

Numbers are only as good as they say they are.

I have been looking around for a site that has listed the best blogs, and ran into 45n5.com which is run by Mark Wielgus. I took a good look at the site, and while I was impressed with such a compilation I was curious to see if while it says it was updated weekly if it truly was. The Top 50 were sure to be all active, meaning active within the last week, So I started at the bottom and you can see the results below.

It’s no wonder why so many blogs are unsuccessful, you can see it, most blogs start out with fire, 20+ post within their first month, then maybe a repeat the next month, but the 3rd month it seems to be the hardest, there’s an imaginary wall. Why? Is it blog cramp? Is it lethargy? What exactly is it?

The fact remains, that as new blogs are started, some of the old ones need to die, i know of people starting multiple blogs, in the hope of make not one, but two or three blogs as successful as JohnChow, and so a $30K month would be $120K. The great thing is some of the blogs that are dying are simply blogs that were started and now have been abandon, which is a good thing, now hopefully their owner can focus on what is truly their passion.

This group is a little different, they have made it through the transition into blogging on a regular basis, now they simply need to develop their ability to create value, to stand out of the crowd, to get noticed. This is the battleground of the blogging underworld, if you can make it out of here, you’ll do pretty well.

No Commitment

Yes it is, you can fight me on this, and I would love it if you did, but those who don’t stick with something are simply not committed to it. I think of someone running a marathon, while I have never ran a marathon, I’m not committed enough to do it. So this is more metaphorical than a real life example, but you have to “REALLY” be committed to running in order to run a marathon. You not only have to train everyday, run like crazy but you have to also eat healthy, you have to take care of your body, you can’t smoke, or drink too much and you have to be committed not only to running but to multiple aspect in your life.

Take Micheal Phelps, that guy is a machine, and while he is out there Doing, he has been training for the past 5 years, he swims 5 hours a day every day , he hasn’t taken a day off in 5 years, now that is commitment, imagine if you put that kind of effort into, well anything, you’d be awesome too.

So your probably wondering if I’ll comment on this groups commitment, and yes i will, they are committed to blogging, yet they seem uncommitted to their brand. While searching through Part 3′s blogs there are many who have no idea what their “focus” is, they simply seem to be following along. A Wise man once told me, “the view from 2nd place is the same as 200th if you a pack of donkeys heading up a mountain, all you see is someones ass.”

Now what

In shut up and blog, I talk about commitment, if you are truly committed to doing something you will do it no matter what, even if you aren’t making any money or becoming famous by it, you do it because you love it. The example below is simply the facts, many, many blogs are started each day, and yet 3 months later they are DEAD.

In blogging or blogging I talked about becoming a Craftsman, which signifies that there is an Art to blogging, find yours and go after it.

Go after Readers, create a place to come for unique and original content, no one like to reread the same content, sure it’s in your words, but if you do that everyday, you run the serious risk of becoming a simply copycat. Go out be unique, even if that means to no longer blog about what you currently blog about. Once you find your passion you will blog much faster and with more passion and drive.

Check out Part 1 or Part 2, Watch for Part 4 (1 – 100) coming later , but for now what can you learn from seeing what others have done, or better yet not done.