How to Create Your Best Blogging Year

Whether you’ve been blogging for a while, began this year or are setting up your blog for a New Year launch, I know what you want. You want to create the best blogging year possible. You want to attract lots of visitors, gain tons of subscribers and even make some money on your services and products, which could include a book you blogged. How can you do that? Let me tell you…

Stop Making Excuses

You always can think of a reason not to do what you say you want to do, such as blog three times per week, create a blog plan, guest blog, or even hire a designer to help you begin blogging. But how often do you instead find reasons to do what is necessary to become a successful blogger?

I’ve heard the reasons why most people don’t manifest their dreams or achieve their goals. Maybe you’ve said something similar: You don’t have the money. You don’t have the time. Your significant other (or your mother or siblings or friends) won’t approve. You don’t think you’re good enough, smart enough, expert enough, old enough, or young enough. You have too many responsibilities.

Truthfully, these “reasons” are excuses.

How do I know this? Because the people who really want to do something always do. They find the money. They find the time. They drop their self-doubt and fear. They take the risk. They make realizing their dreams a priority despite other responsibilities.

What about you? Are you ready? Will this be the year you drop the excuses and do whatever it takes to become a successful blogger?

Move in the Direction of Success

Henry David Thoreau said, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” It can be that simple.

To begin creating your best blogging year, do what Thoreau suggests:

1. Take steps toward your dream.
2. Live the life you imagine.

First, chunk down into manageable pieces the things you need to do to develop a successful blog or blogged book. Then work on them on one by one. Identifying smaller pieces helps you feel less overwhelmed, gives you a starting point and helps you take action. Your small steps might include:

• writing posts three times per week
• featuring expert guest bloggers
• Tweaking your SEO
• Promoting posts more frequently on social networks
• Creating a free gift to encourage subscriptions

Once you have identified your small steps, begin taking them—and moving toward your goals—one step at a time. In this way, you advance confidently in the direction of your dreams and live the live which you have imagined.

Remember, as you take those steps, behave as if you’ve already achieved your goal. The more you act as if you already are a successful blogger (and author), the more easily you become that.

Create a Vision of Success

Additionally, to live the life you imagine—to create a vision of what a successful blog looks like to you, envision it. See yourself as a successful blogger, feel like it would be like to have achieved this goal, and imagine how doing so would affect every aspect of your life. What would your life be like? Your mental picture of success aligns you with what you desire.

Consider creating a written vision that details what success looks like for you—actually achieved. Or create a vision map, a visual depiction of your goal or dream; this is a bit like a collage.

Professional athletes know the value of visualizing success—creating a mental picture of themselves crossing the finish line, hitting the ball or finishing a routine. The mind doesn’t realize that mental images aren’t real; the body fires off the same messages to the muscles and helps athletes train even though they aren’t physically moving muscles. The same holds true for you. The more often you visualize yourself achieving success, the easier it will become to do so when the time arises.

Be Prepared to Work

Theodore Roosevelt said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”

Attaining success in any industry is difficult; blogging is no different. Many aspiring bloggers (and authors) give up before they achieve their dream. They aren’t willing to do the work, and they don’t have the stamina to continue blogging consistently and regularly until their blog takes off (as well as after it does).

To achieve blogging success, be prepared to work hard and long—for the whole year or longer! And then be prepared to continue working. I hate to say that nothing easy is worth doing; it’s nice when you can achieve your dreams with little effort and that doesn’t make the achievement of that dream or goal unimportant or meaningless. But you must be ready, willing and prepared to work hard and sometimes long to create a successful blog.

If you don’t know what actions to take to improve your blog or the results you achieve with your site, read the series of 25 posts on Blogging Basics for Authors that begins here.

Find Your Why

To ensure you have the stamina and don’t become the type of blogger who gives up, know why you want to blog, blog a book and succeed at this endeavor. Understand your purpose and your passion. Determine if you have a calling or a mission. When you know your big “why,” you are more likely to continue moving forward no matter what.

You’ll have more tenacity when your goals are on purpose—when you build them upon the reason you want to realize your dreams. And that willingness to persevere will carry you through when the work feels hard or tedious.

Take Advantage of Opportunities

A dearth of opportunities exists to help you manifest your dream of having your best blogging year ever and becoming a successful blogger. You can find a number of coaches and consultants, tools and systems, books and blogs, classes and conferences, and experts and authorities to help you get where you want to go. The only question is this: Will you take advantage of these opportunities?

Possessing an awareness of opportunities and taking advantage of the right ones and the right time is the last skill you need to develop if you want to manifest your best blogging year in 2015. Pay attention to the chances you have to get the support you need. Ask yourself the tough questions: Would taking a class or hiring a coach help you get where you want to go? Is it what you need most right now to realize your dream? And…is saying that you don’t have the money or the time (or whatever) just an excuse?

How badly do you want to become a successful blogger (or author)? How badly do you want to create your dream?

Imagine what your life would be like if you had that most successful blogging year you can imagine…

This year, don’t let anything stop you from taking the necessary steps to fulfill your potential and realize your dreams.

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