To be successful, is always the aim, but it needs lot to be done to make our mind a success mind! Here are 10 most important psychological hurdles, you might face some time or other while on the way towards your goal of successful blogging.
1. Impatience
It is extremely hard to go on writing each and every day without getting a single penny in the bank account. For a normal 9 to 5 man, it would really sound pathetic. And the most important thing is you are working so hard that you are seeing your day turning out to night and vice-versa on your computer clock. And then sometimes you would feel “what should I do to attract lot of visitors all of a sudden, now I cannot resist any more”, otherwise some might even grow so impatient that they may feel the 9 to 5 job job a better alternative to blogging. Impatience, when in real, is really hazardous to your determined goals. I would say if you dream to become a successful blogger overnight, you are definitely impatient. It should always be remembered that if glory comes fast, it has to go fast. Rome was not built in a day, neither would be your successful blogging kingdom. So be determined and hardworking, success will definitely follow you.
2. Misinterpreting freedom
When we do what we can, we are true to our resume and a good resource for the company where we work in. But when we do what we want, we are true to our self. People start their own blogging venture to make their souls free to express them fully. Thus, the word freedom comes here. But most of us misinterpret freedom to do whatever we want and whenever we want. Here a big evil has an entry in. When you wish to grow in a particular field, you have to excel in it, day by day. Your words and promises represent your existence and if you turn out to be casual taking it as freedom, you are doing a big mistake. Neither you have a company to push its policies nor you have a boss, you are responsible for whatever you do. If you want to be stable, you have to obey your own commands that you have set for yourself. So literally speaking you are free to define the rules but are bound to follow them, as success follows trends and therefore you have to have some trends of yours! So again, the phrase ‘Freedom with responsibility’ gains importance. so when blogging, write with freedom…but do follow your own rules!
3. Losing focus
This is the worst mistake you could ever make if you are starting your own blog. You have started your blog for a purpose, on a topic base, about which you can go on writing and sharing what gives you pleasure. But due to any reason like money or apparent interest shift or anything else, you lose your focus on your title, it is really bad for its future. We can do many things on internet, like go on browsing and wandering here and there. We have to ask ourselves that ‘do I want to be “Jack of all and master of none” or want to gain perfection in some field that attracts me’. Satisfaction in work always comes when you stand to be distinct somewhere, at least you feel so for yourself. So try to concentrate and focus on what you wanted and want to be. always keep a keen eye on your ultimate goal, obviously the one which is other than only money!
4. Inconsistency
Inconsistency is a kind of disease that most of us suffer from. I am too not an exception, sometimes, I agree. But I know it causes a lot of loss to me as it breaks my flow and even sometimes damages my confidence levels also. We make some plan and start traversing on the determined path to achieve our goals. Being inconsistent, breaks that path in parts and pieces, and to join the pieces again we need to put a lot of extra time and effort. This also results in losing the charm when we finally achieve the goals. This is why inconsistent genes are spoilers. So, better is, you can plan less for a day, or prepare the plan thoughtfully and follow it regularly. Don’t miss the checkpoints, always be regular. It is difficult to write on consistently, but believe me if you are consistent in your efforts, you create and leave back a positive impression. Consistent people are more welcome than creative but casual or irregular people, as the former ones are the most dependable.
5. Lack of confidence
If you are not confident about what you are doing, sit a while and ask yourself “can I do it?”. If you get answer as ‘yes’, then good, you can definitely do it, at least would give a strong fight. But if you get answer as ‘no’, better you analyze how important it is to be done. If not so important, better you quit and do something which you are confident about and really believe in. If you do not have self confidence you will always be de-motivated by small-small failures and your feet would again turn back to return to the start. So, if you are very strong that you have to do whatever you have chosen, say to yourself “Let anything happen, I will do it!” Self belief is the best friend of you in your all difficult and challenging times.
6. Copy-Paste bug
Copy paste is really a very good invention in the world of computers because without it, there would be piles of tasks pending today to be done by typing data again and again manually. I know that every success story requires procedural repetitions. While blogging, you can put repetitions in your process and effort strategies, but avoid repeating the data and articles of others. Copy-paste would really damage your initial image. You could dump a bulk of information to your blog, by copying it from others, either by word by word or some part of it. But remember, you have started your blog to let the world read what you write about your thoughts, your views, what you wish to share and not to fill your website with chunks of data that could never turn out a creation out of you. So do take time to ideate. Just you have to sit in solace and get a design out of your thoughts. You can definitely take guidance and reference from others, but avoid picking an dumping!
Also, there is one more aspect to this thought. Sometimes, we feel that what should I write about some topic, it has been already written by so many people. But believe me, content matters, but the most important thing that matters is how do you present your content. That definitely makes a difference. If it was not true, then there wouldn’t be a lot of movies on the same base topic like love or patriotism or corruption or space or anything. Sometimes, central themes are same, but we like the one those are more convincing and which are presented in a better way. So, whatever maybe your topic, if not new, still you can create a difference in your writing.
7. Ignoring data
Never ignore the data that you are collecting, either from your analytics or Alexa or Technorati or from the comments you get or any other tools or processes. Study it carefully as it would contribute a lot in deciding your future strategies. Professional blogging not only involves writing and writing about a particular thing, but it also involves a deep analysis of how people are reacting to what you are writing. You can improve your topics and sometimes can have a little shift in your writing direction depending on what people want to read and what they are liking more on your blog and out of you.
8. Family and Friends
We work for them, we indeed love them a lot. In fact we cannot live without them. But sometimes it happens that we cannot concentrate on our work with them. This is the case with many of the bloggers, as professional blogging demands lot of concentration and hard work. And in the initial stages, friends and family members show a very little respect to such type of independent ideas. Sometimes it also happens that we cannot say ‘No” to some events and gatherings or say TV shows with them. But it really disturbs our pace. what I suggest in such cases is sit calm for a while with your near and dear ones and let them know how serious it is for your satisfactory career life. Keep aside some definite time for them, and let them know that by showing such understanding towards you, they are actually helping you out to create your own presence and are making you grow.
9. Easy Money concepts
To live we need money, yes it is true for bloggers also! We, the bloggers work hard and harder to create our own existence in this vast online world. But we cannot only stop up to that. We have to earn out of our efforts. So it is not a bad thing to keep money in our minds. But these ‘Easy Money” allures that go peeking in and out of your mind can sometimes be a hurdle to your long term plans and expectations, because it can cause dispersal of your concentrated efforts. So, first of all decide how you would like to earn your bread and butter. If you go after easy money concepts, maybe you can lose some good fortune that you could have got if you would have been consistent in your efforts. I do not say that you should neglect the money making offers totally. I just ask you to pick them up carefully, always keeping focus on your topmost priority.
10. Rigid Beliefs
We are not blank heads. All of us have some conception as and beliefs about the blogging and social network building strategies. We have beliefs about what should be written, what should be shared, whom to build the relation with, which country is good to target and so on. But sometimes our beliefs become so rigid that we cannot come out of them and become innovative. So we cannot either try some new things out. This again makes us followers of old beliefs and existing trends. So what I suggest is, we as bloggers, can always keep our mind open for all the new technologies and all the online community across the globe. Flexibility always saves you from breaking and being open always increases your acceptance.
So overcome these hurdles, and I am sure that you definitely would stand strong in this world of blogging and online money making. If you have your own thoughts on this topic, please feel free to post them in comments. I would be glad to be a part of the brainstorming.