Young Successful Entrepreneur

According to my blog, I am officially a 1-year old blogger!  Woohoo!  Looking back on the year, the thing I value most from creating this blog is NOT the money I’ve generated nor is it the press that I’ve gotten; it’s the people that I’ve met along the way that truly makes the experience so worth while.

For my 1-year anniversary, I want to give back with the top 10 lessons I’ve learned since I’ve started blogging.

10. Blogging is better than television

The number 1 excuse for not starting a blog is “I don’t have the time.”  This past year I learned how much you can actually get done when you don’t watch TV and you turn off AIM and gChat.  I’ve pretty much demolished my TV time and have devoted the time to writing posts.  The result: I have quadrupled my network, been published on 27 publications online, and have found a passion for writing that I previously never knew I had.

Lesson Learned: Cut out TV and online chat to blog and you’ll realize that your life will exponentially increase in happiness

9. You don’t have to join every single social network

When I first started blogging, all the online “gurus” were telling me to join every single online network.  So I went out and signed up for Digg, Stumble, Pownce, Reddit, Mixx, and a bunch of others ones.  You know what, I don’t use any of them anymore and have gained little to no happiness from any of them (Stumble is the only exception).

Lesson Learned: Don’t sign up for a social network or bookmark because you want to build traffic or gain more exposure; do it because you actually like what the site is about and because you want to participate in the community.

8. SEO will bring “inflated” traffic as opposed to organic traffic

While studying some SEO, I found out a neat trick where you go to Google Trends and write a post about a keyword that is currently high in popularity.  Make sure to strategically place the keyword all over the post: place the keyword in the title, in H2 tags in the body of the post, and in bold throughout the content of the post.  You’ll be amazed at the inflated traffic that you can get!

I stopped using this strategy because I felt like a fraud.  If all I cared about was traffic, then I would be no better than those loser bands in the top 40 charts who only care about money and their quantity of fans.

Lesson Learned: Inflated traffic brings you nothing but an inflated ego and some extra cash through ads.  Write about what makes you happy and what you’re passionate about and all else will follow.

7. StumbleUpon is your best friend

The biggest boost of StumbleUpon traffic that I’ve received pushed my site from 200 readers per day to 3,000 in one day!  I was honestly stunned at the amount of traffic 4 positive reviews and 8 thumbs-up can generate for a post.

The great thing about Stumble Upon traffic is that the traffic you generate does stick!  Well, the traffic marginally increases but it is noticeable and you will increase in subscribers.

Lesson Learned: Out of all the social media sites, Stumble Upon is the easiest to leverage for the MOST traffic.

6. Don’t be afraid to write controversial posts

The two most controversial posts that I have written are “Flirt with your interviewer” and “Bush, a retarded cowboy.”

Controversial posts drive great organic traffic because the comments can get pretty heated and it’s always fun to see a debate.

The negative aspect of controversial posts is that you can look like a total douche bag if you’re not careful.  As long as you write from the heart, truly believe in your content, are respectable, and can back up your argument, then I highly encourage you to write about anything you want.  Don’t be afraid of the rogue, angry commentor; thank him because he is making your site more interesting and the conversation more engaging.

Lesson Learned: Write from the heart and you can’t go wrong

5. Compete has an awesome toolbar

If you have not done so already, download the Compete Toolbar.  This is such a great tool to compare site traffic.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming the traffic numbers are accurate.  They’re not.  I made that mistake and looked like a fool when I told someone they had 30K traffic a month (thinking that I would sound smart and well informed) when really they had 100K a month.

Lesson Learned: Use the Compete toolbar for comparisons; NOT for accurate traffic measurements

4. The length of the blog does not matter

I sat in on a Penelope Trunk phone conference where she gave us advice about blogging.  One of her rules was to keep your post around 600 words because any longer and people just won’t read it.

Look, I’m all for shorter more concise posts.  They’re much faster to read and my attention span is close to zilch.  However, I am now of the belief that you should write for fun and desire rather than to just be read.  I still believe that you should be eloquent and concise with your words, but don’t constrict yourself to 600 words.  If your post requires 1,200 words, then so be it.

Lesson Learned: A post is measured NOT by the quantity of words, but by the quality of those words

3. Your theme is SUPER important

One day after seeing that 5 other people had the same exact wordpress theme as me, I decided that it was time to differentiate myself and let my personality shine through my blog design as well as through my words.  I found WP Designer and spent 3 days learning how to design and code a complete wordpress theme.

Oh man it was so worth it!  Those 3 days I invested have given me the ability to design absolutely any type of theme and the knowledge to use CSS and php.  Plus, I now don’t need to depend on a developer or designer to create simple websites for me; I can do it all on my own.  This is the kind of power that an entrepreneur NEEDS.

Lesson Learned: If I can learn html, php, and css in 3 days, then so can you.  Simple website development is easier than it looks

2. Help your friends start a blog

It took me about a year, but I finally got my girlfriend to start her blog.  After a year of excuses and pushing it off to a later date, she finally understands how truly rewarding it is to participate in our community.

Starting a blog with your best friends can be such a rewarding experience.  Make the effort and help your friends start their own blog.  Keep pushing even if they say no; I promise that they will thank you in the end.

Lesson Learned: Your friends are bloggers too; they just don’t know it yet

1. Patience is everything.  Live in the moment; not in the future.

My blog has steadily been gaining momentum and followers at a linear rate.  And you know what?  I’m perfectly fine with that because I blog to express myself to the world and NOT to hoard subscribers or followers.  I believe that blogging is an art, just like music.  Write what’s in your heart’s desire and I promise you that it will be one of the greatest experiences you will ever have.

Lesson Learned: Blog because you want to share yourself to the rest of the world.  Money, careers, and networking will follow if you are genuine and good-hearted with your blog.

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Much Love to you All!