I used to not be a very successful blogger. That’s not to say I’m successful now or that I’m where I want to be, but before Wage Slave Rebel I had a very hard time making anything work. Why? Partly because I’d never bothered researching how to run a successful blog (I wish I had read Problogger’s 31 Days to Build a Better Blog back then) and partly because of an abundance of doubts about who I was and what I had to offer and an immense fear of being rejected.

I had started several blogs before this one, but just halfheartedly. Instead of registering a domain or getting a paid host or planning out some posts, I launched ugly, pathetic, and empty Blogger and WordPress.com sites that mostly contained only introduction posts talking about how awesome the blog would eventually be. If I was able to overcome my laziness and the inevitable boredom such an anonymous project offers, the subsequent posts I managed to write were what I found at the time to be profound, gut-wrenching accounts of the human spirit. In reality, they amounted to cryptic emo lyrics.

That was fine by me, though, because even if the posts were bad I never used my real name. I never wanted to be found. I thought that if I was a really bad writer at least no one would know I was the one doing the writing. I had it in my head that I wouldn’t promote the blog or reveal my identity until my “genius” had been noticed and I’d gathered a following.

This is a catch-22 of sorts, as you’ve probably noticed, because if I didn’t reveal myself or promote the blog how would I ever connect with people enough to gain a following and if I never gained a following, what would keep me motivated to write?

THE CAUSES OF ANONYMOUS BLOGGING

I had three basic problems.

First, I didn’t have a clue what I was good at. I felt completely inadequate. If you want to create a blog, it ought to be about something you are both passionate and knowledgeable about. This is a question I’d never asked myself, though. I knew a few things I was passionate about, but I never felt knowledgeable enough to write about any of them.

Second, I wrote for myself alone. Don’t get me wrong, if you aren’t writing for yourself, blogging isn’t worth it. But if you want an audience, you have to start writing for that audience, too. You have to learn how to blog effectively. No one wants to hear about the mundane daily soap opera that is your life. People want interesting stories that inspire and posts that offer practical advice. People who read blogs mostly want to solve some kind of problem. If you aren’t good at finding solutions or telling stories, blogging isn’t for you. At the time I never really believed I was good at either finding solutions or telling stories.

Third (and most importantly since this contributed quite a bit to the first two of my problems), I was scared to death of being rejected. I didn’t want to write a post that was riddled with errors. I didn’t want to convince myself I was an expert only to later be revealed as a fraud by one of my readers. This is why I never attached my name to anything. I wanted so badly for this thing I liked to do (write) to be loved that I rejected it myself so that it could never be rejected by anyone else. How self-defeating of me.

HOW NICKELBACK HELPED START WAGE SLAVE REBEL

I despise Nickelback. They sound like a thrash of metallic static synced with the monotonous grunting of adolescent poetry. Even worse, one static-synced-monotonous-grunt-session (referred to by the band as a “song” though I’ve yet to see any resemblance) sounds all too similar to any other given static-synced-monotonous-grunt-session. They are, without a doubt, the masters of mediocrity, the sultans of shitty singles, the peddlers of prosaic noise.

Coincidentally, they are also the fetchers of fortune, the followed by fans, and the deities of the dollar. They are, in a word, millionaires and there’s something to be respected in that.

They know their audience. They play for their audience. They sell to their audience. No matter what their detractors say or how poorly they are rated by top critics, they stay on top. The bigger they get, the more hated they are and yet their fanbase grows.

Thinking about this it occurred to me. No matter what it is you do you will always have people who dislike it. The more successful you become, the more true this is. So, in my case, I had two options. I could let the detractors stop me now and never gain an audience or I could let myself eventually be disliked and simply ignore them while I surrounded myself with people who could actually appreciate what I do.

And that’s the key. To blog, or really to be successful in anything, you have to be willing to let people tear you apart. You have to realize that there will always be people who dislike you and you have to learn how to deal with that. The best way to deal with that is to ignore them and to focus on the positive feedback you do get.

If you want to start a blog, own it. That’s the most important advice. Put your name on it, relate to your readers, engage them personally. Be friendly and don’t try to be cryptic or profound. Be practical. Write, but also listen.

I started doing that about five months ago and over 200 subscribers later it seems to be working.

[Note: Some links in this post are affiliate links.]

[Credit: Photo by dwanmac]

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3. How to Blog Effectively
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