Last Sunday’s #Blogchat topic was whether bloggers should try to post consistently, or only when they have something ‘epic’ or ‘awesome’ to share. I’ve made my thoughts known on this topic, I believe that we can’t create awesome content until we first create a lot of non-awesome content. Blogging is like anything else, we get better with experience.
Throughout the course of the conversation, many people offered that you need to be creating epic/awesome content, or else what’s the point? The message was: If you can’t blog something epic, then don’t blog at all.
Then Marcus walked in and dropped this:
I’m late jumping in here, but all this EPIC talk is scaring the crap out of many bright minds that are intimidated to share. #blogchat
— Marcus Sheridan (@TheSalesLion) February 11, 2013
And there you go. If you are someone that’s considering launching a blog (whether for yourself or your business) and all you are hearing is ‘If you can’t be awesome, then don’t blog’, what’s your reaction going to be? You’re probably not going to blog because you don’t know how to be an awesome blogger!
The punchline? The people that are telling you that you have to be awesome to be a blogger didn’t know how to be awesome when they started either! In fact many of them are probably still struggling mightily to be awesome every single day and many of them are failing every single day. Lord knows I fall into this camp far more often than I would like.
So let me clear the air right now: If you are a new blogger, or you’re thinking about starting a new blog, do NOT focus on only creating ‘awesome’ content. Focus on doing the best you can, and learning as you go. If you do that, then the awesome will come.
And for those of you that think that’s BS, that I should NEVER tell anyone not to be awesome, STFU. If you want to see other bloggers be awesome, then stop telling them to be awesome and show them how to be awesome.
We need fewer talkers, and more teachers. And Marcus is right, we need to stop scaring away new bloggers by asking them to reach an impossibly high standard from Day One.
A standard that many of us experienced bloggers miss every single day.
Well said Mack – and Marcus! Awesome and EPIC are great but getting it done, getting results is better. [Insert “if a blogger blogs a great post, but no one reads it, is it still great?” joke.] This isn’t an excuse to throw up crap, just a much needed reality check. And right there w/ you Mack – I’m also over the ‘just do it’ kind of advice – measure! create! engage your way to success! in just 15 minutes a day! – without the HOW, it’s empty words.
I’ve written stuff I wasn’t sure about, got a lot of feedback while other posts I thought great, crickets… then seen A-listers write more or less the same and everyone goes bananas. Whatever. I keep right at it and here’s a big reason why: Forgetting that it’s an impossible standard, who decides what’s Awesome or not? Oh that would be your audience, your readers – and you won’t know what THEY find awesome until you hit ‘publish.’ FWIW.
You have to walk before you can run, and I think we bloggers tend to forget sometimes what it was like when we started out. We get some experience under our belts and want everyone to do like we do, and match our level. I also see this when people talk about how we need more ‘advanced’ topics. Well the newbies aren’t ready for that, they are just getting their feet wet.
Mack,
I think “awesome” is like beauty – in the eye of the beholder. If we are simply true to ourselves when we blog, fully connected to the message that we’re passionate about sharing and making sure we’re conveying it clearly, then it will probably resonate with at least one person. And it may even change their day or inspire them. *That* is awesome. And sometimes just sharing our message helps us reconnect to ourselves and our passion. *That* is awesome. Awesome is not about the blogger’s experience or level of the topic, in my view, it’s about how our words connect with and impact ourselves and others. 🙂
Lisa I agree but at the same time I wonder: How many people know, truly know what message they are passionate about, and if they do, how many of them are confident enough to share it? I don’t think everyone is, and I think if we talk about how they have to ‘be awesome or go home’, then we are just adding unnecessary pressure to them.
Anyone that’s blogged for any amount of time knows that it takes a while to ‘find your voice’ and ‘get your groove’. I just worry that we might be (unintentionally) scaring off some people from starting a blog.
BTW I’m so glad you launched your blog, what, already 3 years ago? 😉
Spot on, Mack! With writing, as in all things, you’ve simply got to do it to get good at it.
This post is being shared with both the adult and the just-getting-going teen bloggers in my life right now.
Good post and good points, Mack and Marcus. It is hard, even for the most awesome of people to create epic stuff day in and day out.
Marcus makes a good point, and I think its one that is frequently overlooked. People are so busy being experts and gurus that they aren’t really helping people find their way. This is also one of many reasons that I stopped attending some of the chats. To paraphrase Marcus, a poor little novice can’t possibly hang (or learn, Mack) in such lofty company, so they stop attending, look for another chat that they feel they can fit in with, or worse, stop writing.
Most of us may have a few epic thoughts and experiences, and eventually develop epic writing skills, but most of us live ordinary lives that we can teach people through. And, that is the purpose of blogging for most people, I think.
Martina that’s a great point about chats. I think what also happens, to a degree, is that some newbies think they will look more credible if they repeat what the ‘experts’ are saying.
Which means a lot of people are saying that you shouldn’t blog until you have something ‘awesome’ to say.
How many bloggers do you read that truly create ‘awesome’ content on even a semi-regular basis. If I can find a blogger that writes an awesome post 10% of the time, I will subscribe instantly.
I think all of us need to think about how our words and advice is resonating with people that are far behind us on the learning curve. Are we giving the same advice we sought when we were at their stage? Are we being helpful or looking to make ourselves look better, even if it’s at their expense?
I’m not even going to get into the overuse of “epic” when it comes to blog posts but I am with you here. I like to blog. Sometimes I like to write about topics I’m passionate about but they are not necessarily the best posts I’ve ever written. I’ve been blogging long enough to be okay with that but for someone starting out, being so focused on writing the most amazing post ever is intimidating. I love what you’re saying here. Just start writing.
Thank you Casie. I remember it took me 4 days to write my first blog post, because I read on all the other blogs that your blog post shouldn’t be longer than 3 paragraphs! I spent 4 days trying to figure out how to whittle down a 6-paragraph post into 3, and finally said to hell with it and published the post.
Luckily, I learned early on to ignore the ‘experts’ and ‘rules’ 😉
I think you guys have hit the nail on the head, and I totally agree with you. Unless I feel I have something amazing to write about and share, I hardly ever post to my blog. And I think it leads to a never ending cycle that is hard to break.
If you don’t publish anything, you will be discouraged when you go to write your next post, and when that fails, you will continue in the downward cycle.
Andrew and that leads to another problem: When you rarely blog, you never get comments. And if you never get comments, that can kill your interest in blogging.
And saying at the start that your post has to be ‘epic’ or else you shouldn’t blog…that doesn’t help matters.
HI Mack,
The concept of “being awesome” won’t die because it is a way to separate the “teachers” from the students. The people who have experienced success in the blogging world use it passive aggressively to describe what they do while creating an unattainable goal for the competition. What is an awesome post anyway? Awesomeness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. A poorly written post that solves a problem for the reader is awesome. A well-written post that goes viral at the expense of another serves little purpose. except for providing Andy Warhol’s proverbial 15 minutes of fame.
Instead of dying a long overdue death, “being awesome” is crossing channels. Last month, a speaker at an email marketing event started his presentation by telling the audience that they needed to “be awesome.” It was the top priority in his “how-to” presentation. As long as the “teachers” continue to spew this nonsense, people will continue to be paralyzed by the fear of not being awesome enough.
Hi Debra. I hear this all the time in #Blogchat. We’ll be discussing something about blogging and someone will pop off with ‘Just be awesome!’ I will always challenge them and tell them to TEACH us how to be awesome, to tell us what that means. They never can. It’s a soundbyte, and like I said we need fewer talkers and more teachers.
Wow. I really missed an interesting #blogchat I can tell. But I have to say I’m with you. If your blog is only about showing your awesomeness, I’m probably not going to read it that often. I want to read blogs that give me a person’s ideas, prompt me to think or simply make me smile at times. I enjoy awesome blog posts, don’t get me wrong but as a reader, I don’t expect awesomeness every week and if I actually want to follow a blogger, I want to get to know the blogger, their ideas, etc.
Janice every #blogchat is interesting, but moreso when you are there 😉 I want to read bloggers that help make ME more awesome. Do that, and *I* will tell everyone else how awesome YOU are.
Teaching vs talking.
Mack, you already know how I feel about this.
Well said sir, and thanks for keeping it real.
Really looking forward to BlogHOT.
Marcus
Thanks Marcus, your tweet was like a kick in the gut, that was the point I was dancing around, but you brought it home perfectly.
See you in LA in 6 weeks!
Whether blogging or business, the mantra of “be awesome” works for two people: home run hitters and strike out victims. I prefer a steady string of doubles.