10 Things Learned After Blogging for 10 Years

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10 years. That’s how long I’ve been blogging and working online. I sure have learned a LOT blogging for all these years.

Actually, it’s MORE than 10 years.

My 10-year anniversary was this past February – so now it’s more like 10 years and 2 months.

Or this many DAYS:

I kinda dread counting the HOURS I’ve spent working these past 10+ years, but at an average of 9 hours a day (which is on the light side) that means I’ve been working in internet marketing for….

10 YEARS blogging for money is a LONG time - here's what I've learned that has helped me with my blogging success all these years.33,426 hours

If I spent that same amount of time working a nice “safe” $15 an hour job, I would have made $501,390 gross pay over that same time span.

Which is about $50,000 a year BUT remember, I would’ve had to work that same average 9 hour days, 7 days a week with NO days off and NO vacation time…. ugh!

Over these past 3,714 days blogging and working online, I’ve learned a few things {{grin}}

I’ve also been in the process of changing my WordPress permalinks so my blog posts would have a different url structure (I talked about that whole process in this recent post I made).

Part of the process is checking all my past posts here at PotPieGirl.com, making sure things work properly, and – helping Google RE-index all my blog posts from alllllll these years.

As I was re-reading posts I made from 7… 8… 9 years ago, I was pretty amazed at the things I said then, that absolutely figured prominently into me still being here now, doing this, today.

I’d like to share 10 of those things with you today.

1. Don’t Be an Echo

This is absolutely one of the things that I not only learned very early on about blogging, but something I stills stand by and practice to this very day.

Do NOT Be An Echo

That post is full of great advice for bloggers and all content marketers. It is something that makes a BIG difference – especially THESE days.

2. The 3 Things We Always Should Be Doing

As content marketers (bloggers), there are 3 main things we do that I list out in this post.

Nope, that quote/list is not mine (I tell you where I read it), but it IS what we do.

By the way, most bloggers don’t do #3.

But those 3 things ARE what we, as content marketers, DO.

But at times we get caught up in the actions of #1 and #2 in that list that we forget what really matters if you’re in this for the long haul.

3. Remember What It’s Like to Be New

In my post titled ‘When I Was a Newbie, This Made a BIG Difference For Me“, I talk a lot about the things that really bothered me when I was new to blogging and internet marketing, but I also share what made a BIG difference for me.

Being surrounded by folks that are doing what you do and learning what you’re learning is a BIG deal.

What’s even more important is surrounding yourself with folks who are doing BETTER than you are doing at that moment in time.

Like this post where I share my details of going to a swanky and private Super Affiliate conference in Las Vegas… I was BLOWN AWAY by how other marketers (who were way ahead of me and much more successful than I was) did things and thought about things.

It was a huge catapult to my results AND my mindset.

This business we’re in can be lonely – be a part of something.

But here’s the truly magical part – and something that has helped me more and more as the years go by – by being part of a community that includes people of all different experience and success levels, you will be reminded daily of how much YOU have learned…and how it felt to be NEW to all this.

No matter what “niche” you are in, there will always be people coming to you, or reading your content, that are brand-spanking new.

Always remember what it FELT like when YOU were new.

You can read about my Vegas Trip here (and about my embarrassing “blonde” moment while I was there).

4. Your Success Is a Direct Reflection Of…

Also in that same Las Vegas story post, I mention a quote I had heard once (and I probably have the quote wrong), but it goes along the lines of:

“Your success is a direct reflection of the number of lives you have touched”

It ain’t keywords or your Google traffic that make you successful… it ain’t your page views or your Pinterest repins or your followers or the size of your email list either.

All of those things are bringing PEOPLE to you – and it’s what you DO once they’re there that leads to your success.

5. Be Everywhere

I have said this time and time again: Be EVERYWHERE.

GO to where your “target market” hangs out – interact – answer questions (and use those questions for blog post ideas hint hint!)

If your niche is “purple widgets”, where are the people hanging out online that talk about purple widgets?

You don’t know? Ya better find out.

Where are the people going to ask QUESTIONS about purple widgets? Are you there answering questions?

No? You might want to rethink that.

I didn’t get to this place of being able to make a “10 Years Later” post by quietly posting on my blog only and waiting for people to come to ME.

It doesn’t work that way.

It didn’t work that way for me – it didn’t work that way for others who have been around a long time… and it most likely won’t work that way for you either.

6. The 3 Things That Lead To Success

I have this post titled “Why Do Some People Succeed?” where I share a story about meeting a very successful Professional football player in a bar one night.

I asked him WHAT made HIM so different from ALLLLL those other guys trying to make it in Professional football – what made HIM so different.

Honestly, I’ve heard about the egos of professional athletes so I really expected an “ego” type of answer.

But dang, that is NOT how he answered me at all.

These are the 3 things that he feels led to his success – and I absolutely believe those are the same things that led to my own success.

7. Things WILL Change

It’s possible that you don’t know this about me, but my family and I lived through a tornado hitting our home quite a few years ago.

Yep, me, my (now ex) husband, and my 2 little kids were home in the middle of the night when a tornado whipped though and destroyed our home (you can see pictures here).

It was terrifying!

We (their father and I) were literally running though the house, each with a child in our arms, running for cover as the tornado was wreaking havoc all around us and TO us.

Talk about “winds of change”!

Know what’s even worse about that whole tornado situation?

We had stayed up ALL NIGHT watching the weather and watching for the tornado warnings… and we didn’t get into bed until we were given the “all clear” from the weathermen that the risk of a tornado hitting was over.

And THEN… after we relaxed and thought the worst had passed… BAM!

Tornado.

It’s one thing to KNOW a massive change is coming your way…

but being blind-sided by massive change… well, that’s enough to mess ya up.

Listen to me, please…

Change IS going to happen when you’re working online.

It IS.

Some changes you’ll see coming – or even get a feeling in your gut or see the signs.

Other changes will blind-side you and make you want to throw the whole damn computer out the frickin’ window and QUIT.

You MUST be tougher than that.

You can read my tornado story here (and see the pictures of the damage)

8. The TRUTH About Money

I once published a post titled “A Day in the Life of PotPieGirl” that was actually pretty fun to write – but I didn’t think a soul would ever READ it.

My life is … well, it’s pretty boring, for the most part.

Oddly, readers loved it – said it made me more “normal” to them.

(it really cracks me up to be called “normal”! haha!)

In that post, I talked about going to the bank that day which led me to start talking about MONEY.

I’m so VERY glad that I learned the TRUTH about money – and that I have lived it ever since.

9. You ALWAYS Know Enough To Make Money Blogging

In my post after working 9 years online titled “What I’ve Learned After 3,396 Days of Internet Marketing“, I said something that I like to go back and read quite often:

You ALWAYS know enough to help someone else.

That was one of my biggest hold-backs when it came time to start a blog.

I didn’t think I knew anything worth sharing.

Turns out, I did.

Because I was sooooooo smart?

Oh heck no!

BUT, the more I learned, the more I had to share.

I may have only been 2 steps ahead (or less) than most of my readers, but what *I* learned was helping them move forward.

That’s what it’s all about.

I also share the story of my first sale (I acted like I won the lottery!) and the terrible HORRIBLE thing I did AFTER I made my first sale (ugh! still can not believe I did that!)

That post is here.

10. Most Excuses are BS

There’s a saying that presented itself to me wayyyyy back in 2001 when I was contemplating divorce from my (then) husband.

If you’ve been there, you know this is a HARD decision and makes for super stressful times.

The saying is:

“We remain the same until the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change.”

That saying spoke VOLUMES to me at that time and still to this day when I find myself hesitating to make any change in my life (work life or personal life).

Translation of that saying: Nobody will do a damn thing to change until it becomes unbelievably painful to NOT make changes.

And even then, there are many that STILL won’t make changes.

There’s a reason it’s called “The Comfort Zone”.

No, not because it is comfortable in an enjoyable way – but because it’s comfortable in a KNOWN way.

Painful KNOWN situations tend to be a LOT less scary than the potential pain of a NEW unknown situation (or the “pain” felt due to making the change (ie, DOING something about it).

That’s also the saying that whispers in my mind every single time someone gives me a “reason” why they can’t take advantage of internet marketing to make a dramatic change in their life.

I’ve been helping people with online marketing for a long, LONG time – I bet I’ve heard every “reason” in the book – and then some.

I don’t know if you know this or not, but I have a list of 21 reasons blogging may not be right for YOU.

And guess what? They’re all BS.

The only person that makes any of those 21 things a “REASON” for not doing this, is YOU.

But that all was a huge lesson for me about not only myself, but about those I about killed myself from exhaustion trying to help.

No one does a damn thing to change until THEY are ready AND they take action and initiate the “pain”.

You can NOT do it FOR them.

So there’s my 10 main things I’ve learned in the past 10 years online.

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3 Comments

  1. Virginia Reeves

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