The key to succeeding on the internet, is to not have to high expectations starting off. Most bloggers have not quit their jobs, and are not relying solely on their blogs, unless they are already making a lot of money from it. Most of us, are doing this for a hobby on the side, and hoping that we might pick up a few bucks here and there along the way. If that is your mindset, then you will definitely succeed. However, if you are doing this working yourself crazy trying to make 1,000$ a day like John Chow and Steve Pavlina, you’ll… well… drive yourself crazy… There are very few bloggers who actually make that much money, and yet everybody talks about it, like it’s so easy. You need to be Very patience and have an inexhaustible niche to be writing in. All of those success stories, blogged for years. Yet, now we have all these people who think they can make a million bucks in a month or two. Statistics say 90% of blogs don’t last longer then two months, if you last longer then that, then just think about the possibilities. That means your site will be in the 10% left in competing in search engines, social sites, for traffic… If you are expecting right off, to make a bunch of money, and get a lot of traffic, it just won’t work. Patience is key, as well as knowledge and insight. You have to have the ability to find a popular niche, but not one that is overcrowded, and then be able to give new insight on that topic. In most niches, you’ll all be writing about the same things as everybody else, but you need to be able to analyze it in a different way, and to twist it to give it new meaning.

My #1 advice for you in blogging is this, have low goals starting off. Have high ambition, and a good work ethic, post as much as you can, but if your goal starting off, is to get 100 visits in one day, that’s fine. 100 is not very much, but if you start small, and let the success of your blog determine your goals then you’ll never get frustrated, because your blog will never be underachieving. But then once you get those 100 visits, move it up to 150, or 200. These last couple weeks I was getting more and more frustrated as mastersofseo didn’t perform as well as I’d hoped. Then I realized, that I was seeking an unobtainable goal at this stage. Maybe in a year I can have those same expectations, but not after only a month. So don’t get frustrated with your blog if it’s not doing as well as you wanted to, keep writing, keep researching, keep searching for new ways to market yourself, and don’t let other people influence your goals. Start small, and let it grow. 

Let me show you an example using my site. When I first started, here were my goals, for my first month.

1. 100 visits in a single day,
2. 1000 visits in a month,
3. 1$ in money

Those were all very obtainable goals, and I surpassed them in about two weeks, so I made them a little big larger.

1. 250 visits in a single day,
2. 3000 visits in a month,
3. 5$ in money

Again, pretty easy goals, are you noticing a trend here? All along the way, I was very excited about my blog, because it was always performing better then I expected. Since then of course, I have moved on to much more lofty goals, but I still follow the same format of start small, and let it surprise me or not, but either way I am not disappointed.

Now you maybe saying, but I did set low goals, and I still didn’t match them, what do I do!?!? Then just remember what I said earlier, blogging is a slow ride, it’s a test of patience. If your not matching your goals at first, then make the goals lower and lower until you can match them. As long as your getting at least one hit a day, then you can always have goal. And if your not, then email me at don@ifbdesign.com lol because I can send you at least one hit a day.