Content | Content is King (& Other Blogging Myths)

You've heard it before: "Content is KING". In fact, you've heard it so often that you have probably started believing it. And as a result you are probably completely overlooking some of the more important aspects of blogging. Hey, don't feel bad. I believed it too for a really long time. 

Until I realized that my posts weren't getting Pinned or shared and no one was leaving me comments. Until I headed over to the blogs run by bloggers I admire and wondered what the heck they had that I didn't. 

Let me tell you folks, when I finally really thought about it and analyzed the major differences between me and them, content didn't even make the list. Wanna know what did? You know what to do...

1 | DESIGN

Now I am so not saying this just because I happen to be a blog designer. I'm saying it because it's 1000% true. If you don't take your blog design seriously, if you still have some stock or premade layout on your page, you are seriously missing out my friends. 

Why? Because no one wants to do business with someone who has the same layout, structure and design as someone else. Believe me, when brands, sponsors or anyone else lands on your page, they see your design and overall feel before they read your content. And if you have the same design as Sally So Hot over there, well.... That content is never getting read. 

2 | BRANDING

You may think that design and branding are one and the same but they are absolutely not. Your design is part of your brand but it is not, in fact your brand. You can work for a million dollars with the best designer on the planet but it isn't going to do any good if you are not your brand. Yes, many blogs are collaborations now. But you know what? Each person who contributes in any major way is part of that blogs brand. 

Having the greatest logo, or a custom designed background isn't going to really help you build your brand without a vision so make sure that you are 100% invested in yourself before investing in your brand.

3 | CONSISTENCY

It takes a lot of time to roll out quality content. Any blogger worth his or her salt will tell you that each and every post can take hours to days to write. My start to finish process often takes me a week per post with drafting, read throughs, graphics creation and finalization. But just because it can take so long does not mean you should not be posting on a regular basis. 

If a brand or sponsor lands on your home page and sees your last post was six months ago with absolutely no reason or explanation, they are going to point their mouse to the little exit button and right you off completely. No one is going to even read that profound post you shared back in May if you haven't posted since you published it. 

When it comes to "content being king" you really have to be careful because most times it simply isn't. Think more of your content as the spoon to your cereal bowl. You've poured the cereal but no one is going to eat it without the spoon. 

To list just a few other gems in blogging mythology (blogology, yup, it's a thing), I give you my favorites:

Link Ups Help You Grow Your Blog

Wrong! Why is this wrong? Because 99% of the people who join link ups never bother to read a single thing on your blog. They stop by, click a post and type "Great post! Follow back! >insert annoying emoticons< from #RandomNameOfLinkUp" and you never hear from them again. I have joined more than my fair share of link ups and bailed after one too many carefully crafted comment that resulted in zero connections.

Newsletters Help You Connect With More Readers

WRONG! Why is this wrong? Because statistics show that very few people who (willingly) sign up, rarely open their newsletters and after a few too many come in, rather than unsubscribe, they mark as spam. Don't believe me? MailChimp agrees with me. Worse yet, there are a slim number of subscribers who sign up for a newsletter that doesn't offer an opt-in. Horrible state of society, isn't it? 

The More Social Media Followers, The More People Read Your Content

Wrong! Why is this wrong? Well, I recently signed up for a service called StaCounter and what I saw kind of surprised me. Although I do post regularly on social media (ok, on Twitter), a surprisingly low amount of readers enter from one of my social links. In turn, a surprisingly high number of people are coming directly from Google. What is even more telling is that I don't come up in any number one post on Google. Nor do I pay for keywords. In essence what this means is that word of mouth and clients telling friends. 

Overall, blogging and growing your blog is a personal experience that you really need to trust your gut with. You can read a hundred posts about how to expand your reach but in the end only you know what works for you and what you are willing to do to make yourself a profitable blogger or creativepreneur.

Start the Discussion:

How many blogging myths have you busted?

What ways are you making your blog work harder?

Happy Blogging!