What You Need to Know that No one told me about other people’s content…
Photo by Nathan Bingle on Unsplash
I’d like to blame the snow falling outside my living room window but that wouldn’t be the real reason I stopped dead in my tracks when attempting to research an article I was at one point excited to write.
I followed all the steps of the articles titled something like “How to Write the Best Blog Post That People Will Actually Read.”
Come up with a title with over a 70 score on CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer.
Check
Make sure it’s in your niche
Check
Outline with an intro, body, and conclusion
Check
Find reputable research to support your statements
Um hold up…
No one said I’d find the same article I had been planning to write but that it would be written so well that it’d scare me away from even attempting to write the article. “If you find similar content make your’s better!” Said many someone’s in those “Write the Best Post” articles I just got done devouring.
But what if you can’t? What if you read the article and you think, “Damn, that’s so much better than I ever would have done.”
Yep there’s a lot of content out there and some of it is really damn good. No one told me that. So what do you do?
You’re somewhat new to blogging and you had promised yourself that you were gonna post at least once a week, no less. And here you are without a back log of “fantastic” articles you can pull out to post, and no article yet to speak of and it’s been a week!
Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash
You panic for a minute.
Maybe you do the dishes or some other form of procrastination.
But you finally sit down and stare at that outline and look at that big bold quote you pinned on your inspiration board, “Consistency is key.” And you remember something else someone wrote recently that now strikes a note with you… something like “you won’t write the best article every day, but at least write something.”
But what about quality over quantity?! Yeah there’s that. But I think when you’re starting out, you need to be there.
So there you go, I meant to write you a post called, “How to Make Your Garden Your Gym,” but instead I stumbled upon Kristin Hickey article “The Research is in: Yes Gardening Totally Counts as Excercise” and I even learned a bunch of stuff I didn’t know.
But I learned something else too. Some days will put you down. Some days will make you question if this really is your thing. And some days you’ll have to pull yourself up and realize, I’m going to show up. No matter what.
Showing up is definitely important. Nothing else happens unless you show up.
I just focus on sharing things I have that are unique. No problem with finding similar content on the Internet if mine is different enough from all the others. People are drawn to seek out variety.
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Hey there, I came across this post as it was resteemed onto my feed. I like how you write and hope that you post the garden gym post someday. I curated this for @curangel. :)
Keep showing up. ✅
When I first started on steemit, I tried to write quality articles every day. I had just transitioned from FB where I had a business account and wrote briefly about what I was doing each day. But on steemit I was able to write articles about what we do.
Then the summer came and I just did not have time to compose articles and posts became infrequent. But I had completed the 90 days of posts I'd set myself in January.
In September I was able to post more regularly and I had decided I would write about what I knew and was doing, with the occasional deeper post. I had really gotten discouraged entering contests and writing suggested subjects, as these weren't things I was particularly interested in.
So now I write what I like, about what I like, and I do not try to do better than someone else, but keep true to what I wish to write about. I will add research if it fits in what I am writing.
And I show up as often as I have something to write about.
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When the summer hits it really is tough to get online and post. Winter really is when i can connect online most. I prefer to write what i want but I also worry that what i want wont be what other people wanna read. Maybe it doesn’t matter, but I’ve got the whole “make my living online” idea in my head and that goal keeps me posting, even if I don’t always know what. Once a week is the goal though (everyday seems impossible!)
Thanks for reminding us this important piece of advice!