The good news is that it’s not very difficult at all to find “tips” and “advice” on blogging success. You don’t even need to go through the trouble of doing a Google search — make a wrong turn somewhere as you futz around “writing” and “marketing” circles online and you’ll inevitably bump into yet another self-proclaimed guru telling you what you absolutely positively must do or have for a successful blog.

Uh huh. That’d be like getting golf swing tips from folks who can barely break 100. And ask any golfer — no shortage of those kinds of gurus out on the golf course either. Such is life, eh?

Me? Not a guru. Not by a long shot. Hate the moniker for one thing — always reminds me of booger for some reason, heck if I know why — and although I’ve been at this Wordpreneur blog thing for many years (way before most of us even heard the word “blog”), it’s been a heck of a roller coaster ride for reasons that, although I do have my educated and experienced suspicions, I don’t really care enough about to peg down and be sure of exactly. That’s just my long convoluted way of saying I’m not a booger guru.

But I do revisit these “tips the gurus like to bandy about” periodically, out of habit really, and usually during down cycles. Like where Wordpreneur is now, judging from its Google PageRank, which has been quite a roller coaster ride (there’s that term again) of late.  This year PR started off at 0 or 1, I think, then 2, then jumped a bit up to 4 — woo hoo! — then now back down to 2, with me just doing the same old same old. Go figure. Well, I guess I’m trying to, which is why I’ve been revisiting these effing booger guru tips yet again.

Well, good news or bad news depending on your point of view, there’s nothing new. The basics and fundamentals are still, well, basic and fundamental, and the booger gurus still know diddly squat.

But this exercise was not a total waste of time, mind you. I did notice a few things — hard not to when they keep smacking you across the face with the same dead smelly fish over and over and over again. It doesn’t hurt, of course, that I love sushi, but that fish face smacking does start to smart and get noticed after a while.

What I noticed: Not only the same tips and advice regurgitated over and over again, but also the same bad or at the very least misguided tips on blogging success, each one presented as doctrine and ostensibly from experience (gotta love this crowd, eh?). Here. in this and at least one more post, maybe two, are what I believe are the top 3 of those myths. How will this info help you on your quest for blogging success? Heck if I know (I told you I’m no booger guru). But here it is anyway.

Myth #1: Content is king.

Puke. Sorry about that, reflex from seeing that bit of “wisdom” just one time too many. It’s “well, duh” advice for one thing — of course we’ve got to pump out good useful content regularly and consistently, who the hell doesn’t know that? — but it’s what everybody else is doing as well. So why are a tiny few successful at it while the rest languishing in obscurity? Because the successful know the “Content is King” mantra? BWAHAHAHAHA! Here’s why they succeeded, Grasshopper: It’s because they’re better at the promotion and marketing thing.

I hate hate hate hate hate HATE this reality — absolutely HATE self-promotion — but that doesn’t eliminate the truth of it. Maybe, just maybe, we can find a few examples of actual bloggers who’ve managed to build financially successful blogs exclusively with their writing and without doing any kind of promotion and marketing (including networking, remember) — but so what? Using them as a template for our planned course of action makes about as much sense to bank on as me telling my kids not to worry about their future college tuition because, hey, someone won the Super Mega Lotto Jackpot once so, my three little babies, “No reason why daddy can’t do the same, eh?”

Right.

Point: Your ability to promote and market what you write is, quite frankly, your blog’s most important CSF (critical success factor). Ideally, you’ll want to get someone else — a marketing dude or dudette — who can take care of all that for you while you focus on developing your content. But, guess what? That marketer will know that you can likely be replaced with little if any difference to the $$$ figures, but s/he can’t. So if this is the kind of deal you’re looking for, you better get it in your head that you are actually getting into a serious gosh-darned marriage here if you really want this to lead anywhere.

(If your “marketer” truly doesn’t know this fact, then s/he knows squat, isn’t worth sh*t to you as a marketer and just going through the motions… dump the bozo.)

Don’t believe me about this marketing CSF? What do you think Steve Jobs really was? He sure wasn’t the content, Grasshopper.

That “content is king” stuff only really should be bouncing around your business competitive psyche levels up (plural)… many plurals up, when a whole bunch of other things have already fallen into place and are happening. The vast majority of folks never get close enough to even smell any of that.

Bottom line: I just told you what your blog’s success relies upon. And I hate it.

Next: The 2nd blogging success myth. At least.

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25 Ways to Write for Money. Open your eyes to a variety of ways to make money with your writing skills, many probably previously unknown to you!
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Related posts:

1. Top 3 Myths of Successful Blogging – Part 2
2. Top 3 Myths of Successful Blogging – Part 3
3. 7 Strategies for Successful Blogging

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