( Part 2 ) No One Reads Your Stupid BLOG!

( Part 2 ) No One Reads Your Stupid BLOG! In part one of this series we learned that there are a few blogs that people actually read. These blogs are daily must reads. The bloggers have fans. What they say matters.

Who are these people, and how can I become one?

When you start blogging you take the time to learn the ropes. You learn the dos and don’ts. You see who are the big dogs in your field. You learn the social media avenues that your counterparts take. You learn so much, that you start to fancy yourself somewhat of an expert. I mean, all you have to do is follow the path that these other people took, and BAM!!!! You will be an internet success.

Then you write your first post. You quickly discover that No One Reads Your Stupid BLOG!

How did this happen? We followed all the steps that were set in stone as far as the internet can see. It really was stupid of everyone to tell us all of their secrets. We have all of their secrets. We are sitting here with all the secrets … and a blog that no one reads.

This next truth is something that you must learn right now. You must come to grips with it. You must never forget it. You must never deny it.

There are 2 different kinds of very popular bloggers, and for today’s post, only one applies.

You have to be very talented, knowledgeable, and work extremely hard.

Spencer Hall of EDSBS and now SB Nation fame is all of those things. This is not a secret. He wrote about college football. He wrote with passion, and he was noticed. Now he is respected. His Twitter feed is followed closer than my blog. ( Once again, that is not me whining. That is a fact, that you must come to grips with. You want to get to that point, but you are not there. ) If you like college football and know how to turn on the internet, then you know him. If you like sports blogs, then you know him. If you are a sports blogger, then you want to be him.

The internet is full of Spencer Halls. You know them as J.E. Skeets or blah blah blah I’ll spare you the name dropping / brown nosing.

My point is that those people ONLY got there because they were very talented, knowledgeable, and work extremely hard. They did not have any secrets. They did not have the inside track. They did not get a link on Deadspin, and then the next day they were bigger than SI’s Hot Clicks. There are no shortcuts to having all of these things. The respect, fans, readers, and traffic comes as a direct result of the hard work.

If you just want to have a blog for fun, then no one will read it, and you need to happy with that. If you want people to read it, then you need to put a ton of work in.

In part 3 of this series, we will look at the other category of popular bloggers that get traffic. Please do not get excited. That category is harder to get into than this one.

P.S. In the past I have written about how talented Spencer and Skeets are. They are perfect examples of hard work paying off. I hope at some BWB conference that we can all meet up, but I know it will go just like this ( see video below )