This post from Darren Rowse about how many hours and years he put in before becoming a successful pro-blogger got me thinking about how most of the big names try to make it look so easy, and how that’s really a disservice to their readers.
There are three ways to become really successful online: hard work, uncanny good luck, or dishonesty. Lately I find myself thinking that third one is more common than we’d like to admit, and some of the big names who never share even a smidgen of their methods actually can’t tell us how to build a huge online living honestly… because they didn’t. They lied and misled and said one thing while doing another.
My point is not that dishonesty is unethical. It’s that cheaters do not share their secrets because you might be a whistle-blower. Now, honest people won’t tell you every secret, either, nor should they – they have a right to protect what they’ve built. But they tend to share a bit more than cheaters because they don’t have that extra layer of paranoia that comes with talking out both sides of your mouth. And you know what else? I don’t think most of them have a secret.
I know one or two people who have sites more successful than mine. They’ve shared a lot of their methods with me, including some juicy, clever tricks. None of those tricks ever made a huge difference for them or for me. The reason their sites are successful is that they’ve worked hard, they’ve followed the basics, and they’ve been at this longer than I have. That’s it.
Oh – and luck. No matter how good you are, there are no guarantees people will link to you and find you. A little luck is very important.
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Updated: January 25, 2008, first published: Posted in Blogging.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I have been at this internet thing for 5 years and I have to agree with you. It seems you do the right things and nothing seems to work. Then you write that one article that to you is just another article and you suddenly get a ton of traffic. As far as you are concerned nothing has changed.
So, is that just good luck, or success born of hard work in the fires of the steel mills of your life? I really don’t know. But, I still keep writing and trying new things and each day I seem to learn a little more.
Good luck. I think 2008 will be a great year, even without paid text link ads!
I think the hard work allows luck to come to you. If you keep at whatever you’re doing, you’re improving the odds that sooner or later luck will strike.
Good luck to you too!