23 Things I’ve Learned After 7 Months and 500 RSS Subscribers
90 Comments by Nate Whitehill / August 8, 2007 / Posted in General
Yesterday, my blog officially hit 500 RSS subscribers! It has been almost 7 months since I started blogging. I have learned a lot of new things over the past few months, months which have changed my life. Before I share with you what I have learned, I want to thank my readers and rant (just a little bit).
Thank You To Everyone!
First of all, thank you to everyone who has been a subscriber to my blog.
To those of my readers who are new bloggers: You probably know, blogging is not easy at first, but if you stick with it and work to become successful at it, it has the potential to change your life.
Yes, I said change your life. I am not joking when I say blogging has changed my life. The knowledge that I have gained, the connections that have been forged, and the ventures that have emerged have all been a direct result of consistent blogging over the past 7 months. Life is better than ever and a huge portion of that is due directly to my blog and my readers.
Make Money Online?
Those three words above have become synonymous with the fairytale of blogging for riches. Everyone wants to know how much money they can make from blogging. Unless you have been blogging for several years (like John Chow, Darren Rowse), the answer is “not much.” I propose another question - instead of “How much money can you make from blogging?,” ask yourself, “How many long-term, loyal, and diverse relationships can you establish through blogging?” The answer: A lot. Blogging has incredible potential to unite like-minded individuals. That is the true power of blogging.
In other words, I would rather sacrifice short-term profits in exchange for long-term trust, credibility, and authority from my readers (and possibly, from future clients and business partners).
I started my blog about the same time I quit my job at the Apple Store. I am not a professional blogger and I didn’t quit my job to become one, but blogging is definitely something that has taken up a lot of my time since I quit. Through blogging, I have increased my business, expanded my contacts, and learned new skills that will serve me for the rest of my life. Because of the positive effects it has had on my life, it is something that I won’t be giving up on any time soon.
Even if I became a millionaire tomorrow, I would still blog! There are just too many personal and professional benefits - plain and simple!
Here are a few things I have learned after seven months and 500 RSS subscribers…
- Becoming self-employed was the best decision I ever made.
Quitting my day job at Apple was risky, but damn worth it! In all honestly, the experience of becoming self-employed over the past several months leaves me feeling like I have been unplugged from The Matrix. Here are five steps I took towards self-employment. Hint: the sooner you start planning, the sooner you can quit. - Appreciate your readers.
If you are a new blogger, show your readers appreciation as soon as possible and on a regular basis. This will build loyalty early on, which is something that is harder to do if you are a new blogger. - Getting on Digg is completely overrated.
Crashing your server, non-targeted traffic, and rude commentators. Not my cup of coffee. There are much better ways to generate targeted, high quality and sticky traffic. - Writing reviews of other bloggers serves as a great platform to develop relationships.
I wrote a review for Stuart from EarnersBlog.com back in February. The review was for a contest he was holding. To make a long story short, I won the contest, and since then, Stuart and I have become good buddies. He inspired me to get into some of my best moneymaking schemes. - Networking with other bloggers ASAP is KEY to success.
In my first week of blogging, I met David Wilkinson from TechZi and Vinay and Anthony from MadWhips. All of those guys have become good friends over the past seven months. We have already collaborated on a project and we are planning several more for the future. - Engage and measure the feedback from your readers.
Using a poll is a great way to encourage reader participation and at the same time, use it to collect feedback and improve your blog. - Share your passions.
If you have other passions or hobbies, write about how others can learn to do what you do. I wrote a long, two-part post on my web development process from start to finish. - Embrace the fundamentals of SEO.
If you are looking to become a successful blogger, you must learn at least the basics of SEO. - There are many benefits to becoming a business. You should incorporate as soon as possible.
- Holding a blog contest is a great way to increase traffic.
I gave away $50 in May for a contest celebrating my 1000th comment. The contest produced a solid boost in traffic. - Define the focus and purpose of your blog ASAP. Stick to 2-3 topics maximum. If you don’t define the focus of your blog, readers may not know what they are in for. In May, I slightly changed the focus of my blog and saw my readership increase dramatically.
- If you can do something for three months, you can do it as long as you want.
Once you hit the 3-month mark in blogging, it’s kind of smooth sailing. Unfortunately, 99% of blogs started don’t last beyond 3 months. - At some point or another, every blogger feels the pressures of trying to blog consistently.
Blogging consistently can be very difficult at times, especially while we have other things going on in our lives. Sometimes, we may feel like we are running out of ideas for topics to write about. I wrote about several reasons we don’t blog consistently and it helped me better understand what it takes to continually produce original and interesting content. - Pay as much attention to the visual design of your blog as the content. By paying attention to the layout of our blogs, we are effectively changing how our blogs subconsciously communicate to our readers. Here are five ways to make your posts more readable…
- Don’t try to monetize your blog right away. Monetize your blog when you achieve a PageRank 4 or average 500 pageviews per day. The question then becomes, what are the best ways to monetize a blog? My favorite and only way to monetize a blog is through private advertising, such as text links and banners. Private ads are non-obtrusive, blend in nicely with the site, and eliminates the worries of click-fraud. Once you have achieved a PR4, here is how to sell your blog’s advertising…
- Make sure that when you monetize your blog, you do it with a thoughtfully conceived plan.
There is a fine line between monetizing your blog and annoying readers with large Adsense blocks. Adsense is overrated for most blogs and does not earn enough money for new bloggers to justify putting it on their blogs. Is a few dollars a day worth scaring off XX number of readers? If you are truly serious about blogging and earning money online long-term, then you must establish a seriously large readership before you ever think about making a dime off of them. That reasoning right there inspired me to say goodbye to CPC advertising. - Know which of your blog posts were the most popular ones.
Sometimes you can use this information and release a follow-up post that is just as popular, if not more, than the original post. I released a follow-up to my “5 Tips To Make Your Posts More Readable” post and it received a boat load of traffic! - Get rid of your blog’s stock header image ASAP.
As I mentioned earlier, taking critical design elements of your blog into careful consideration can play a tremendous role when it comes to increasing repeat visitors. Your header image is one of the first elements people notice when visiting your blog. What does your header image say about you? Doesn’t it make sense to trash the stock photo and develop a unique visual representation of your brand? - Blogging is not a fad.
There are a hugely beneficial networking opportunities available to anyone who is willing to put themselves out there through blogging. Unfortunately, most people’s conception of a blog is completely wrong. Even when I first started blogging, I had no idea about its powers and uses. I attempted to dissect my new understanding of what a blog is through this article - Define: Blog. - Learn which types of posts produce the most response.
After you have been blogging for a few months, it becomes clear what kinds of posts generate traffic and which don’t. Once a relatively consistent readership is in place, it is interesting to see how much traffic, comments, and linkbacks particular posts receive. - Read as many books as possible.
I have never been a big book reader, but several books I have read lately have changed my perspective on business and marketing. Reading lots of books and ebooks is key when trying to become successful online. One book is “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” by David Meerman Scott. I wrote a post recently about establishing authority that referenced his book and he ended up commenting on my blog! How cools is that? - Stand out from the crowd.
Video podcasting is a great way to differentiate yourself in the blogosphere. Be a “purple cow,” as Seth Godin says. Josh and I recently tried our first video podcast, and even though it didn’t come out perfect, it was a risk worth taking as it got a lot of good feedback and new traffic to our blogs. - Be patient when trying to grow your blog.
It took me 3 months to grow my RSS subscribers to 100, but only 1 month to hit 200, 2 weeks to hit 300, 3 weeks to hit 400, and 4 weeks to hit 500. It is always fun to write a post in which you analyze statistics and provide explanation. Those kind of posts usually result in great linkbait.
Conclusion
This is the longest post I have ever written. Trying to summarize seven months of knowledge is more difficult that it would seem. I would classify my first 5-6 months of blogging as an ENORMOUS learning curve. Learning curves are a vital part of everyone’s growth. In the first six months of your blog, I encourage you to imagine your brain is a sponge and it is soaking up as much knowledge as possible.
Since I quit my day job at Apple, I have learned so much about business, blogging and marketing, I feel like I could easily write a book. Hey, maybe I will.
Thanks again, everyone! Here’s to the next 500!
n8 you are the man! Awesome post and congrats on your 500th subscriber. I bet you will hit 1000 sooner than you think.
Congrats on 500 RSS subscribers! A true milestone!
I read every bit of it, great advice– especially to new bloggers such as myself
Hey Nate, congrats!
The really cool thing will be to see how many you have after another 7 months!
I’ll be honest, I usually don’t comment on people’s posts, but this post was honestly very useful. It’s the kind of posts I’d recommend people read right when they start blogging. Congrats on your success.
Congrats Nate. I bet you reach the 1,000 mark before the end of the year!
those are some great tips, its great that you share what you know with your readers!
Nate, this is a very interesting post. You’ve summarized the learnings very well.
That’s a big milestone to make, Nate. The great thing about big numbers is that they attract even more attention to themselves. I think you’ll find that you get to 1000 users in a much shorter time frame than this first 500.
Here’s to 10,000 subscribers in the future!
Thanks for all the tips. I think one of the traps I’ve fallen into is spending too much time writing articles on subjects that don’t get much traffic. My stats clearly show which articles do well and which don’t. Perhaps I should focus more on the articles that do well rather than waste precious blogging time on articles hardly anyone will read.
Great post nate !! Up to 1000 !
Greate write up mate, congratulations on getting to where you are today
I agree in principle with the three month thing. Of course, it’s a lot easier to blog now than it was when I started.
I agree with the monetizing, I’m thinking of getting rid of the CPC from my personal blog, it’s just not earning me much money!
John Chow hasn’t been going much longer than you (11 months I think), that’s nothing! Darren’s been going for yonks. So “age of blog” has got nothing to do with money earnt (otherwise my 7 year blogger ex-girlfriend would be a millionaire), more quality of blog and subject of blog is more important.
But then again, networking is important. The “Build it and they will come” mentality is certainly not true in blogging.
Awesome post Nate and congrats on the 500. I’m sure the next 500 will come a lot easier for you than you think, so keep writing inspirational posts like this and you’ll get to the top.
Congrats Nate!
Wow, One of the best posts on blogging I have ever read. Congrats and keep up the great work. David
Well done dude, i’m sure the only way for you is up now!
Wow, this is everything I wish I knew when I first started blogging. Well, I guess better late then never. Thanks for the info.
It just shows the benefits of a consistent and professional approach. Nice stuff Nate and keep it up. I enjoy reading your blog.
Good stuff Nate. I’m happy to discover your blog.
Great work Nate. It shows what determination and consistency can do. I hope to be where you are in a couple months.
I have really appreciated your site since discovering it maybe 2 months ago. You always have great content. I couldn’t agree with you more on the networking thing. I had no idea when I launched my professional blog back in January how many networking opportunities would come with it. Congrats on getting to 500 subscribers!
Good job and fantastic work. I read about 5 of your previous posts that you linked to and found them all to be very valuable. Keep it up!
Well done, Nate.
This is a very well written post, which I’ve come to expect here. Keep it up!
Congrats on hitting 500, and this post was fantastic! A great way for me to pick out some of the best posts from your archive.
Keep it up, and I wonder where you’ll be in another 7…
wow congrats man good work
Big congratulations. I love reading posts like this, and your blog especially is a very enjoyable read. Inspires me to keep at it.
Simon
Very true - and I love the design changes that you’ve made on your site!!
congrats on 500, I look forward to reviewing this site on my blog soon.
New to your blog, you are on the ball. I will definitely be back.
congrats good going I am into my 5th month you have inspired me to keep pushing forward
Thanks. These changes are just the teasers. I’ve got a huge design change coming later this month.
congratulation! Nate Whitehill… you build your online presence perfectly…
This is a great post, will take sometime to digest:) I admit I haven’t being back that often but you seem to start to post very powerful post after you tell a story how you improve your RSS subscribe.
Well, keep up the great work!
Nice list Nate! I think networking with other bloggers and sharing your passions are big ones. If you don’t network with other bloggers, it’s difficult to really get your name out there. Since I started networking with other bloggers (after our chat on IM) I’ve really started getting more visitors. Thanks! Sharing your passions is another one that will get a blogger some exposure. When someone shares their passions, others that share those same passions will feel inclined to comment and share the article. These types of articles I think get the most attention.
My blog has been alive now for just over three months, so hopefully that’s a good sign. I plan on doing it for a while, so we’ll see.
Nate, Congratulations. I really appreciate your comprehensive and thoughtful article. As a natural part of my personal development consulting, I often encourage my clients to write, and, for many, to write on a blog. I expect to share this article many times and include a link to it from my WritingByCoaches.com web site.
Congrats and great to read what you wrote.
I’m indeed in a very similar situation as yours - Just quitted my job, now blogging (though it’s not the cause at first place) and planning to start my business. I’m still at my honeymood first week of being self-employed but it’s feeling better than ever. Therefore really nice to heard what you say - blogging hard to hit my own 500 RSS - hope it’s not that far…
I was thinking about starting a contest for my blog but couldn’t come up with anything. I suppose a cash prize wouldn’t be that bad, although in a perfect world I would have a wonderful sponsor prop gifts in my lap.
Very nice article.
The Swiss_Mouse needs to work on building relationships with other bloggers. Item #4
And item #23 is inspiring.
Thanks Nate. A lot of useful information to take on board. I have a lot of things on my “to do” list now.
Excellent compilation of SEO and monetizing wisdom! My new money blog’s only a few months old but I’m learning a lot thanks you guys like you. Mine’s more of a money/finance/money tips blog than a SEO one however. Keep up the good work.
-Raymond
http://www.moneybluebook.com
Nate, this post was amazing man, subscribed to the feed and look forward to more.
Congrats! This excellent article will get you more reader and traffic.
Great! This will be my new bible
Thanks a lot Nate!
Great post and congrats. Its great to stumble upon a blog with a small readership and watch it grow to a nice sized community as yours has.
Look forward to reading your blog when you hit 1000 RSS readers.
Very informative post. Thanks a lot!
This post has helped to give me hope in my blogging efforts. Thanks for posting your thoughts and reuslts from blogging.
Very interesting article, but what caught my attention the most is the site design.. its really nice looking.. grats mate
Nate,
Good tips! Are there similar WP plugins to Comment Relish? I’m looking for something that shows latest posts, top posts, and comments in a tabbed setting.
Very well written Nate, very informative too. I look forward to applying some of your suggestions.
Wow.
There’s such a lot to learn. I’ve been blogging for, wait for it, not even one week!
You’ve just got yourself one more subscriber because I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot here.
Thanks very much, this was indeed a very good read.
Congratulations on your milestone Nate. Been doing my usual weekend “new blog search” and have gone through about 10 of your posts already. I can see now why you have had such successful growth.
PS: You also have a new subscriber.
Wow! This is phenomenal. I’m BRAND new blogger (just hit my one month birthday today). And your post has just enlightened me to many things. You make a ton of valid points, and every words is worth reading. You just gained yourself a new subscriber.
I am definitely going to pay close attention to number 12.
Good for you on becoming a fellow entrepreneur. I did it four years ago and can tell you that it will only get better and better. My wife and I are self-employed and see corporate America for what it has become. Companies are always worried about losing employees to competitors; they should realize that a growing number of people are just leaving to do their own thing.
Martin
toolkitforsuccess
You are great blogger Nate i have been blogging for 4 months now and i just made 30 rss subscribers it is hard to increase your rss subscribers
I think this is one of the best advices I have read so far. You got yourself a new regular reader.
Very insightful post. Thanks for sharing.
Great article to start with…
great points you have here. i 100% agree about digg traffic.
its funny i started blogging more than a year ago. but its only now that i found time to read more about blogging success. if i had known all these when i started i would be making lots of money now
Honestly saying certainly it good success, But blogging not going to succeed every time. one of my mate has created the different different languages of Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing on and published on his post, but before that another person had catch those info. from over there, after that he had issue with the duplicate content and his blog was not stable in indexing although he made frequently changes in his blog. Still it’s Great for you, it’s such a nice that i am also one of the member of NWH.
Blimey Nate!!
This post has some major track backs!
Great Article!
Getting visitors to the blog is may be easy stuff but to 500 RSS subcribers in just 7 months, it’s great achievement. Congratulation Natewhitehill Team and doing well in future too. As i am also going to subcribe your feed. Best of luck.
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