4 Reasons Tenacity Is #1 Quality Bloggers Need for Success

The fact that only two percent of all the people who say they want to write a book—81 percent of the U.S. population—become authors, provides a strong indication that it’s not easy to sit down and knock out a manuscript let alone publish a book. The fact that 65 percent of all bloggers haven’t published a post in a year or more and only 35 percent publish once a month shows that the majority of bloggers abandon their blogs or fail to create the traffic they need to succeed. Who does succeed? The bloggers and writers who possess tenacity, a quality that has nothing to do with creativity or writing skill.

Why Do You Need Tenacity?

A tenacious person is describe as one who isn’t easily stopped, who is stubborn or persistent, and who holds or grasps firmly to things. This is an important quality to have if you want to blog a book or create a successful blog. Here are four reasons why this is true:

1. You must blog even when you don’t want to or feel you can’t. If you only publish posts when you feel like it, when inspiration hits or when you feel you can, you won’t ever complete your manuscript or attract regular readers. You also won’t drive up your site in the search engine results pages.  But if you are a tenacious writer, you write your posts and publish them on a regular schedule. You make yourself write. (Yes, you can do that…) No matter what, you get your posts done—sometimes even when you are sick! I’ve known writers to sit in hospital beds with their computers, and I was at mine just a day after my daughter was born, two days after a bike accident, and while attending to my mother after she broke her hip.
2. You must write posts and publish them even when you don’t think you have time. Lack of time is the most-often cited excuse for not writing or blogging. You always can find time for the things you want to do. If you are a tenacious writer, you will find a way to write…no matter what. You might stay up later or get up earlier. You might hire a baby sitter, record your favorite TV shows and only watch them on the weekend (or stopping watching TV altogether), write on your lunch break, or devote two weekends a month to writing. You don’t let go of your dream because of a busy schedule. You fit writing and blogging into your life because it is a priority. Currently, I’m caring for my elderly mother. I have not missed a post on any of my blogs. Is it difficult to stick to my schedule and keep my commitments? Yes. But I am committed.
3. You must do things you don’t want to do. You may not want to give up lunch with the girls or your favorite TV show, but if you really want to write your book, you’ll do it. You will be tenacious. You’ll sit your butt in the chair after a long day of work or at 4:30 in the morning, and you’ll keep it there until you finish the next day’s blog post or “installment” to your bogged book. (After all, it’s just 300-500 words!) That’s what tenacious writers do, and that’s how they finish their manuscripts.
4. You must overcome obstacles. The road to becoming an author and a successful blogger contains many obstacles, and you must overcome all of them. Only someone tenacious can consistently tackle rejection, criticism (constructive or not), the need to take on jobs you don’t like (such as promotion and project management), rewrites, self-doubt, low readership, and fear. Every day you must tell yourself, “I can do this! I will do this!” And, again, you must find a way.

It’s Tough But Worthwhile

Sound like a tough road to hoe? It is.

But when your tenacity helps you produce a completed blogged book or manuscript, a successful blog, and a published book, you’ll reap the reward. The moment when you hold that book in your hands, or when a reader writes to say your book changed his or her life, you’ll feel glad you placed yourself in the two percent that finishes the book they said they wanted to write. And, when you experience an increase in readership and comments on your blog posts, you’ll know you provide a wonderful service and benefit to your readers—and will continue to do so long after you release your book.