| Beliefs and Myths — Believe Me

Beliefs and Myths — Believe Me

23/08/2008 by: RP

Way back in April I came across an interesting article by By Monika Mundell entitled 5 Common Beliefs About Blogging. I saved it in my drafts folder here with the idea I’d like to revisit and expand on some of here ideas. So, April until nearly the end of August? How prompt is that? besides, it will be more up to date now

My7 thrust in writing this is to get some of you out there sitting on the fence to commit and take that first blogging step. It’s one of the most effective ways to "get your feet wet" in the online world, can cost as little as zero dollars and zero cents and it will give me something to read … that’s right I faithfully promise to be a lifetime subscriber to any blog which claims its start here at www.retiredpay.com

Here’s a few things to consider before you make a final decision.

Blogging is passe

Whoever told you this probably doesn’t even have a blog. Much like in MLM when people don’t understand the concept of the business idea they warn you off without having a clue on what it actually takes…,

Couldn’t agree more here. If anything, in the past year, blogs have been exploding rather than diminishing in importance. A couple years ago there were folks like Darren Rowse and a handful of other probloggers, large magazine style sites like Engadget and Lifehack … unarguably popular but arguably not blogs at all as much as a stream of semi-related content with fans to read it. Today businesses unrelated to the Internet find their blogs very important to customer and colleague communications, up to blogs from the ‘C-level’ at huge corporations … see Randy’s Journal for just one ‘big guy’ example.

All the good ideas are already used

Don’t be fooled into thinking that you cannot come up with a great idea that will be an instant winner. Bloggers often make the same mistake and just follow the crowd….

I feel a little bad reading this one, because I am a bit of a tech type guy and it is probable that some of my previous articles here have turned people off … I do like to watch the bits and bytes dance at times. Let me assure you there is virtually nothing you can do online that is simpler than getting a blog started. I, like many others in the business, use WordPress and my own server simply because WordPress is free and I already had the server for other ventures … but let me give you just one example that is free, bulletproof and just about as easy as sending an email to grandma .. www.blogger.com. Many guys ‘in the know’ will tell you a gazillion reasons why you shouldn’t blog on "Blogger". But their advice is just that, their opinion. Here’s a couple guys who makes money every day with sites on Blogger, basically no investment at all … Grizzly … Mike … there are many others. So do not let tech tension or the fear of even a 5 or $8 domain name investment put you off. If you want start a blog, go to www.blogger.com and start one.

You need to be a tech geek to blog

Hell no you don’t. You learn as you go. I did. ….

And me too. Heck, I’m learning every day and I’ll certainly wager Monica is as well. You just start, with a plain vanilla simple layout and template and start telling people about your idea … the rest will follow. Actually I find what tech knowledge I do have is often a handicap because I am off tinkering with this gizmo or that technique when I should be tapping at the keyboard producing content.

It’s too hard

To be honest, if you think this then it is. At least for you. Blogging isn’t hard at all…..

Again I am in pretty harmonious agreement here. The hardest part about blogging is to commit some time and effort. That’s basically all there is to it. Let me give you an analogy I heard a few days ago.

Sam and Fred entered a physical fitness sort of contest where the object was to push a car across a finish line, starting like three miles back, all by hand. Well Sam started off in a big rush but the going soon got hard … and he saw at the side of the road a nicer, lighter looking car than the one he was pushing … so he started pushing that one instead. And later he saw another great deal, easier pushing for just a few more dollars so he went for that, and then stopped, loosing all his momentum again and again, buying the rights to push different cars toward the line.

Of course you probably know the outcome, now don’t you? Fred started pushing the very first car, built up a steady speed an (most importantly) momentum, so the that the car didn’t grind to a halt every time he hit6 a matchstick in the road). Slowly, slowly, steadily and ever more steadily the finish line got closer and closer until finally he was there!

All you have to do is be Fred and not Sam. keep your eye on the prize, do not take side trips and make extra expenditures and, even if the ‘car you are pushing looks old and decrepit, just keep leaning on it and do not lose your momentum. You’ll soon find that blogging is not really that hard at all.

It’s easy to make money

Actually it isn’t. Blogging doesn’t always need to be assimilated with making money anyway. Your blog can be your voice of reason, your teaching tool or even your personal diary. Either way, your intentions are not to make money but to help others…

This is the most profound and the least understood tip I think I have seen over the years. Monica is not the first and she surely won’t be the last to make the suggestion, but how ever can we get people to read the tip and learn from it?

Start a blog about something that interests you. Start a blog to support a business idea you already have or want to get off the ground. But do not start a blog about making money online and then try to make money from it. It’s like going to Las Vegas with dice loaded against you.

But Dave, I hear you say, isn’t that what you’re doing here? Well yes, but.

a. This is not my primacy blog nor my primary way of making money.

b. I am aiming this information very narrowly at a group whom almost no one writes for … seniors and reti4ees wanting to empower their retirement and make money online.

In that sense I feel there is some uniqueness to what I do … but the fact that I may be skirting the edge of the ‘don’t’ advice I just gave a few paragraphs back does not invalidate the advice.

Ever heard the expression, "Do as I say, not as I do"?