Want to know something that drives me crazy? A lot of the advice you’re getting about how to grow your business and how to grow your blog is old. Really old.
Old advice lurks at conferences, in online courses and in blog posts your favorite bloggers write. It means well and is offered by smart people – sometimes whole panels of them.
This has been a pet peeve of mine for years, and I’m in good company. Last week it came up on the Marketing Over Coffee podcast, on a business coach training call I was in, and just the other day Shenee Howard’s posted about it on Facebook.
What’s the big deal? A lot of people groan about how new freelancers and coaches claim the title “expert” before they have the experience to back that up. The thing is we're all pretty savvy! Those people are easy to sniff out. But how do you figure if well-meaning advice from people you look up to is just plain wrong?
You need to learn if you want to protect yourself from damage and avoid the traps that block smart bloggers and business owners from the success they want.
Wait, why are blogging experts giving out old information?
Learning a skill, building a blog, and making your way to conferences takes time. It takes time to cultivate a reputation and to be invited to speak at events, and during that time a lot can change.
Things change fast.
When Google changes its algorithm, your website can lose hold of its search engine placement overnight. When social media sites add new features and adjust their search, your referrals or viral growth can evaporate. Tactics can have “best before” dates on them, and need adjustment as they become more widely used.
For bloggers and professionals, the problem is that after your blog or website reaches a traffic tipping point, everything is a little easier – but it also gets fuzzier. With a popular blog or business, crafted with skill, consistency and care over time, you have more invested fans who are ready to receive your work. But in practical terms, while you’re doing a lot right, you also have a larger margin for error that doesn’t sink your business. And with more people exploring your website at any one time, you have a built-in higher chance to succeed.
Most of us never get there, and we look up to the people who do.
But when you don’t have to be as strategic or precise to get people to take action, you feel like you’re great at it. So you might drift away from reading up, tracking and adjusting your performance and keeping your skills sharp. And soon enough, you’re selling online courses or are speaking, teaching blunt techniques that may work alright for you, but that aren’t going to change things your readers and students.
“There is nothing quite as effective, when it comes to shutting down alternative viewpoints, as being convinced you are right.” – Ed Catmull in Creativity Inc.
And of course, this happens. We all have blind spots, and most of us fell for doing the work of what we love. We didn’t fall for A/B testing the specifics of how we present our work.
(Though if you did, we should be friends.)
So how do you win?
I think you the key is being open but critical, testing things out on your own, and seeing what the person's track record is. Do other people hire them for their results? Are they curious and engaged? Do they walk their talk? Ever mention training or research on social media? I'm betting you have a great radar for this already.
And I'm not special! I'm subject to all of this, too. I’ve been blogging on a weekly basis since 1998 and started my current site in 2008.
That means that in internet time, I’m a fossil.
And I ran the day-to-day operations as an owner of a business partnership for the last five years. In internet business time, I’m a relic!
Especially when the majority of microbusinesses fail within their first three and a half years, with more women leaving their fields than men in America. (from most recent global entrepreneurship monitor)
By my argument, you should be suspicious of me! And being critical about the advice you take in is amazing, so test for yourself if the “big picture” of my advice rings true for you.
To win online you need two ingredients: passionate curiosity and the scientific method.
Curious bloggers are on the lookout for answers. They dabble, read up, and listen to people’s opinions on the pieces that make up the digital world they’re in. (Content marketing! SEO! Email marketing! Business strategy! Social media!)
Curious business owners are committed to learning and are excited by new ideas. They’re interested in how things work, why people make decisions, and why X+Y=Z for their work and websites. They don’t have all the answers, but they work hard to choose curiosity over fear in their work.
Science-minded bloggers look for patterns. They look in their income, in their traffic, and create theories about how to maximize or direct that attention in a measurable way. They research and test, and then reassess and test again.
Science-minded business owners aren’t paralyzed by trying to avoid mistakes. They know that any results they get from their adjustments are a good one. Any information they get from running an experiment (from looking at email open rates, to launching a new product) can be used to refine your approach, so while it still hurts when things go wrong, it doesn’t play with their self-worth.
What I want to do – through this blog, creating courses and if you bump into me at coffee – is to teach you the principles that can help you build a strong and flexible online world for now and the future. I want to show you how to create a healthy business from a little online presence, and how to streamline your products or services, so you don't have to give your whole life over to your business to earn a living.
And truly, if doesn’t sound like what you want, or where you want to go? You should take a minute and unsubscribe from my feed or my newsletter because you’re not going to find what you’re looking for with me.
What do you say, are you in?
LAST UPDATED ON: March 4th, 2015
CATEGORY: All Business & Blogging Posts Content Marketing Strategy
One of the main culprits in sharing outdated and incorrect information is the Tweet Old Post plugin. It’s imperative that content marketers regularly audit their content and spend a little time archiving that which is no longer evergreen. Then, these same content marketers need to change their plugin settings so these archived posts are no longer tweeted.
That’s an interesting perspective, Mallie! You’re right that with undated posts and a plugin like that broadcasting your content, people can be lead in the wrong direction and the content marketers won’t even know they’re doing it. Taking that time to archive old content is really important. Great point, thanks for commenting and adding your opinion!
I’m a very new blogger, and am very much in that stage where I’m stumbling about, trying to figure out what I’m doing and realising that there is a LOT more to blogging than can be found on the surface. I really enjoyed this post as it was a wake up call, and made me realise something that I hadn’t until now: research is key.
It’s simple enough to read an article that says “6 ways to get the best out of Google Analytics”. Doesn’t mean I’ll have the same level of understanding as the author by the end of it, who’ll have had to read up on what Google Analytics is and gotten a deeper, personal understanding.
Curiosity may have possibly killed the cat, but a lack of curiosity seems like it will definitely kill a blog. Thanks you for this article! It’s opened my eyes to a lot of things, got me motivated, and got me thinking.
You’re exactly right, a lack of curiosity can paint you into a corner and really limit your success. I’m glad you’re not falling into that trap, it’s a huge credit to you, and your blog. Keep finding little ways to be brave with your online space every day, and thanks for commenting!
Kyla, this is SUCH a great post. My blog is still just a baby blog, and I’m not close to hitting that traffic tipping point that you refer to (yet!) but I’m working towards it, and I will be keeping this advice in mind — especially the part about being diligent about testing and tracking, something that is not really my favourite!! :) I’ve been reading your blog for a while and really appreciate your perspective — and this is one of your best posts, hands down. Thanks so much!
Cheers,
Kristen
I read a lot of different people when I restarted my blog and what I hated the most was that so many of them sound like get-rich-quick schemes. I find that unappealing and a huge drain on my enthusiasm. I ended up cutting those sort out of my feeds and I am slowly finding the joy of blogging again.
You made the cut, Kyla. :-)
I know what you mean, Jen! I was out with a friend the other day about sharing what works for us without being cheesy or salesy. I check by reading posts outloud and trying to catch anything that would sound natural if said in a “smooth jazz radio announcer voice” so I can cut it! I’m honoured to make the cut for you, and congratulations on finding the joy in blogging again! I’ve fallen in & out of love with it many times and am happy to be in that place now too. It takes work, but it’s a good place to be :)
Really interesting – thank you. It reminded me of something we discussed on the Google Hangout the other day (thanks again for that!). I often read things that have worked for others, try them out and then….crickets. Or it works for a while and then suddenly grinds to a halt. But I’m learning that everything has to be flexible; you can’t take someone else’s strategy and apply it to your blog. You have to adapt everything to suit your audience and be prepared to keep on tweaking and adapting…it’s a tough lesson but I’m getting there.
Thanks for leaving your thoughts, Janet. Remember that by being interested, curious and trying out new things you’re already way ahead of the curve – even when it’s frustrating. You’re doing great work and I’m excited to see your online world grow to keep up with you :)
I have to admit to getting out my journal and taking notes when your post arrives every week. I carve out time to get as much as I can. I wrote today, “I love the day Kyla’s post comes. Her advice and tips ring so true for me.” This is all before I started reading. So it’s a good day!
In September, we took an online course with the same type of “expert” you are referring to. She has a shit load of followers. As we have tried to implement some of her so called strategies it seems like we could become rats on a wheel, chasing our tails. She wrote a rant today on Facebook about her 17,000 followers not getting her updates and she’s all in a panic about the algorithms etc… It kind of sickens me when I see someone do this. It’s not like she’s offering useful information on FB – she’s just using it to drive traffic to her site, which is how she makes money. So it seems like she is slamming someone else for doing the exact thing she wants to do. I am making reference to “her” as an example but she’s not the exception.
I am still so new to all this that I can swing from one end of the spectrum to the other so fast it isn’t funny. But I am learning to follow my gut and I can’t thank you enough for your help. Your work truly resonates with me and I love the posts so much. Keep up the great work, you really have your finger on the pulse of things.
My blogs’ aim is to help build blogs into brands, which as you are well aware means that I’m in no position to stop learning and researching. If I’m not on the internet reading up on something, I’m in the bath with a book on content marketing or the like, and my entire social media feeds are full up with content curators and so called experts sharing their key ingredients to a successful brand. Jen from Jennypurr taught me to be more intentional with what I consume as there is a ridiculous amount of information out there – and yes you can implement elements like SEO, but with algorithms changing, what works for some people isn’t going to work for everyone, no matter how clued up you think you are. This is a flippin’ hard industry to be in, especially when people turn to you because they trust your advice and resources, a slip up can damage your reputation – something that takes years to build! Fantastic post Kyla, this acted as a good reminder to me that I need to backup what I’m writing about and look into when others’ content was originally posted before I quickly press that re-share button.
Rebecca-Louise | Autumn Leaves for bloggers and creatives
I’m glad that you’ve been finding a way to make staying in the loop work for you, that’s so important. And you’re absolutely right that a reputation is hard earned and we have to have high standards as someone giving advice to others.
Case & Point: Last month I was reading a widely used and highly regarded book on coaching, when a friend mentioned that it didn’t cite any sources, even though the whole book was rooted in psychology that would be easy and helpful to cite. I thought that she must be mistaken because I’d heard so much praise for it, but when I checked again she was right. Talk about a reality check!
As consultants, coaches and pros we’re not infallible, and it’s hard to be aware of our own biases but the important part to try. If we bring our honest, authentic selves to the table then we can offer our insights while acknowledging that we’re human. That’s why my philosophy is to learn how to I can ask better questions and find the answers – and teach other people to do the same thing for themselves – because that’s not limited to a specific algorithm or timeframe.
I totally agree. I started blogging back in 2010 always with ‘passionate curiosity’, but it’s during the last 6/8 months that I actually started to doing researches with the ‘scientific method’.
You know, it’s just like those Pinterest post images that say ‘200 ways to gain new followers on Facebook’, they may apply if you started blogging a couple of years ago and you opened the related Facebook at the beginning. But now, starting from scratch is very hard even for celebrities. You have to pay to let your contents reach the 50% of your followers, it doesn’t matter how many hashtags you strategically use. Google changed its algorithm and so did Facebook.
That’s why I think you have to read tons and tons of stuff before to put in action what you’ve learnt (and call yourself expert!).
‘To win online you need two ingredients: passionate curiosity and the scientific method.’ is pure genius, Kyla!
Thanks for commenting and sharing your experiences, Alice. Discovering what you want from your online presence, if you like to write, what you like to write about and how to engage with all the moving parts of blogging takes time. And it can feel overwhelming, but having that experimental mindset can make a huge difference in how this all feels.
The great thing is that if you can get specific enough, and have systems set up that lighten your load, you can make a huge impact from a small blog or website. My site isn’t high traffic and has never been, and I started my email list seven years late (only this fall!) and I’ve been able to make a good living. If you’re not tied to the idea of making a pennies each month from pageviews as your only way to make income, you open up a whole other world. Glad to know you’re coming along for the ride! :)