You’re probably thinking that blogging is nothing like dancing. With dancing, there’s rhythm, a beat of the music, there’s counting steps…with blogging, it’s more like a free for all. LOL.
But just like you learn how to dance in the same way as everyone else, every blogger on the planet, who becomes a blogger, starts as a beginner in the exact same spot.
We all learn the same dance.
We all learn the same steps….
There’s traffic.
There’s analytics and numbers.
You have social media like Pinterest, Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Instagram, etc.
There’s posts and pages.
There are pictures.
You have to learn SEO.
You learn how to grab a readers attention with good titles and then deliver great content.
We all learn about promoting and how we should create products.
There’s emails from readers to check and respond to.
Comments on the blog to attend to.
There’s monetization to learn.
…and the list goes on and on and on.
We ALL learn the same things. We all learn the same dance, the same steps.
It’s important to learn the steps to a dance. If you try to go out there in front of a crowd and wing it, not having the solid foundational steps down, you could come off looking awkward and off beat. People will know you don’t know the routine.
In blogging, we all must learn those foundational steps. But as with dancing, you MUST put your own spin on it.
This is the #1 thing that separates the top bloggers from the bloggers who could be so much more.
The top bloggers all put their own spin on their blogs. They learn the dance steps, and then they go their own way, do their own thing, make the dance THEIRS.
There’s a certain point in your blogging career, when you stop looking around at what everyone else is doing. You start doing your OWN thing…you may fail, you may fall, but it’s yours. Just like every dance is completely different, every person is completely unique. Two blogs cannot be the same. They may teach the same subject, but they are completely different.
I stopped looking around at other blogs. I stopped reading other blogs outside of ‘for fun.’ I didn’t want to be tempted to copy what someone else has to say. Their idea. Their dance.
I got off all the email lists. I stopped following a lot of bloggers. Not because I suddenly didn’t like them or because I think I’m so much cooler (I’m not), but because I want my own dance, and you should too!
When I first started blogging, I remember reading this blog who said that she went on Pinterest for one hour a night and pinned on a secret board all the ideas for posts she liked. She would read their articles and take what they had to say and spin it in her own words.
Even as a new blogger, when I heard that, I was appalled. Her site is basically recycled. There’s nothing new and fresh about it. She’s not doing the work herself. She’s following the dance as she was taught. She’s not putting her own talents into the dance, which ultimately, and I hate to say this, shows a lack of talent.
You can only make it so far riding on the coat-tails of someone else. If you want to advance, you HAVE TO learn to dance yourself. It’s not something you can’t learn. I had no blogging experience before I started this site and it is going extremely well. Sometimes I’m still in shock of how well it actually does. My purpose is merely to help people do what I do.
I’m a single mom who has been able to make money from home as a stay at home mom (SAHM) for 14 years! I feel like if I can make a living from home doing what I enjoy doing, so can you. You don’t have to make money blogging, you can make money online in a myriad of ways, but you CAN MAKE MONEY!
That’s it. It’s pretty simple, right? Yet, people really love it and the site is a huge success.
It’s not recycled, it’s mine. My ideas, my thoughts, my emotions and feelings.
What kind of blogger do you want to be? What kind of dancer do you wanna be? You want to copy everyone else? Or do you want to SHINE?
If you want to shine, I encourage you to have the courage to put blinders on. To stop looking around what everyone else is doing and just THINK. Think of ways you can bring your readers more of what THEY want. Think about more needs you can meet…how you can serve more people…how you can tell them more of what they need to hear.
As with ANY business, I do not think it’s okay to focus solely on money. You HAVE TO think of the people you are serving. If you’re only purpose for a blogging career is money, I hate to tell you this, but you won’t make it.
How can I possible know that? Because I’ve seen it in every business I’ve ever worked in. That person who only cares about money…they never make it. People know. Your readers will know. And it’s not something you can fake.
You’re either genuine or you’re not. It’s simple.
Listen…
I dare you to SHINE. I dare you to think of the possibilities and don’t hold other blogs as a crutch, looking around thinking you’ll NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH.
YOU ARE!
Go out there and SHINE!!! Be yourself, put your OWN spin on things. That’s the only way to make it in blogging in my opinion, and that’s the only way you WANT to.
What do you think? Do you think there’s a lot of copying on the internet? Do you feel like so many blogs are all just the same…with the same content and same words? Do you have your own dance yet?
