Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them – Part 2

In What are You Most Afraid of about Blogging? I asked you to lay bare your fears about blogging. In Blogging Fears and How to Overcome Them – Part 1, I took some of those fears and made them less fearful for you, and the response to that was gratifying. Here in Part 2, we continue to shine light into the dark corners of the blogging mind. Here are the next batch of blogging fears we haven’t yet covered:

• I’m afraid I’m being too obvious and simple (or I haven’t researched enough)
• I’m afraid I won’t make any money
• I’m afraid of putting myself out there, afraid to hit “Publish”
• I’m afraid I’m not really helping anyone (lack of feedback)

I’m afraid I’m being too obvious and simple (or I haven’t researched enough)

This blogging fear is felt often (but not only) by more experienced bloggers. They’re afraid that they may be wasting their readers’ time with information they already know. Information that is beneath them.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you can’t get too obvious.

Your own perspective is completely warped and cannot be trusted when it comes to this. Let your audience response be your guide. Think of it this way: you are much farther along the path than your readers are. You’ve already been where they are or have yet to go. Your own experience and knowledge are all old news to you—but not to anyone else.

The longer you’ve been in business and blogging about a subject, the more you will feel like you’re repeating yourself or you won’t want to write anything because you’ve already written it.

But, do you have the exact same audience now that you did in the past? I hope not! Your audience is gaining new recruits all the time, and everything you do now is completely new to them.

People who study something intensely and get really good at it (and who also may be naturally talented) often suffer from “expert syndrome” in the sense that what’s obvious and easy for them is not at all obvious and easy for others. The challenge is making it obvious and easy for others. One easier way to do that is to remind yourself what you take for granted and what is obvious to you, and state this obvious information for others.

And people always need to be reminded of the fundamentals. Who is a true expert? One who always remains aware and practices the fundamentals. Who is a true teacher? One who can impart the fundamentals effectively to others.

Research certainly plays an important role in blogging (and should play a more important role than it does for most bloggers). But there’s a point of diminishing returns where you’re not really making the post any better for all the research time you’re spending. Get your point across and get done. Endless “research” is a delay tactic. It’s self-sabotaging perfectionism.

Don’t let perfection be the enemy of “done.” Or in this case, “published.”

I’m afraid I won’t make any money

The more you focus on something, the more likely it is you will move towards it. This is how the mind works. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re focusing on a goal or a fear. When you learn how to ski, you’re told: “Don’t look at the trees, look at where you want to be.” If you look at the trees, you will crash right into them. Because you focused on them, instead of on where you wanted to be. When you’re driving, you look ahead to where you want to steer the car. You don’t look at the cliff at the side of the road, or you’ll drive right off it.

What does this have to do with money? Everything. If you focus on your fear of not making money, what do you think’s going to happen? You’re going to move towards what you focus on: not making money!

Now, here’s where it starts to get even weirder: you might think the solution is then to focus on making money, instead of the fear of not making any.

But you’d be wrong. Money is not what you should focus on. What you should focus on is selling something that helps a specific group of people solve specific problems. Focus on meeting the needs of your market. Focus on creating value for your market, for which they will gladly pay, and the money simply takes care of itself.

Focusing on the money instead of the market is backwards, because the money comes from the market. Not the other way around.

If you are relentlessly focused on meeting market needs, the money will come. Market needs are the true North of your compass. Take your eye off true North and your course will stray.

I’m afraid of putting myself out there, afraid to hit “Publish”

As strange as it sounds, this is one fear you should have.

Why? Because if you’re not a little afraid to hit Publish, you’re not trying hard enough. You’re not digging deep enough where the juice is.

Most people are total chickenshits. Most people never put themselves out there (you will find people like this in meetings a lot). If you put yourself out there even just a little bit, it’s like turning on a blazing light in a dark cave. Blogging and hitting Publish means you’re already braver than most people. Most people are too afraid to even comment on a blog.

But who are the biggest and most popular bloggers in the world? Are they people who are afraid to hit Publish? Certainly not. In fact, the most popular bloggers in the world are the ones taking the most risks.

Heather Armstrong of Dooce got fired because of her blog and she’s gone on to become one of most well-known and popular bloggers in the world. People like Clay Collins, Johnny B. Truant, Naomi Dunford, Nathan Hangen, Penelope Trunk, and Elizabeth Potts-Weinstein are putting themselves out there with each post. As a result, their audiences (and their incomes) are growing.

Let me put all this another way: safe blogs are boring and who the hell wants to read boring blogs?

I’m afraid I’m not really helping anyone (lack of feedback)

People don’t always tell you if you are making a difference to them or not. How do you know you’re really helping anyone? There are three things you need to know:

• Getting feedback and participation is something anyone can learn
• Feedback and participation does not happen without compelling content
• You may not recognize all of the channels you have for feedback as such

Most bloggers simply fail to ask for feedback. Ever notice how Chris Brogan nearly always ends his posts with a question? That’s no accident. That’s deliberate, and it’s designed to foster engagement. Techniques like that can be learned by anyone. Where can you learn this? Any good blogger, either by example (watch what they do, how they do it, why they do it, and the results they get), or by instruction (Problogger, Copyblogger, Chris Garrett, John Haydon, Danny Brown, and Chris Brogan again).

But note that feedback doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It has to be triggered. Asking for feedback on a boring blog post or a post that doesn’t particularly help anyone is a lost cause. Without compelling content, the only feedback you’ll get is silence.

The secret?

Solve problems.

The posts I get the most positive feedback on are the ones that solve specific, real problems people have, like how to add a blog to a website, or how to wrap text around a video in a blog post, or how to market your business on Twitter.

Finally, feedback comes in other ways besides comments, like through social networks, email, and visitor analytics.

Stay With Me

We’re not done with this series yet. Here’s what we’ll tackle next time:

• I’m afraid I’ll go “too far” with personal content and turn off readers
• I’m afraid I’ll write something that’s already been done a million times
• I’m afraid I’ll be exposed as a fraud

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