Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

Back In Time, What One Thing Would I Change?

April 21, 2009 | Advice, Feature

When you’ve been in any business for awhile, you look back and see the long list of things you wish you had known when you began. Do you ever do this?

Here’s the question asked by Louis:

If you could go back in time, just before you launch your business blog, what is the “1 thing” you would like to change? and Why?

It is a great question. Seriously, the same question was asked of the speakers at the Masters Seminar I was just at this weekend. It is a great question because it draws out really good lessons from the people who have been at it for awhile.

My first (and still largest) blog is PCMech. I started this site back in 1997. That is a frickin’ eternity in Internet-years! I’m proud to say that I’m still online after 12 years and I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon. Have I been doing everything right since then? Hell no!

The biggest single thing that I’d like to go back in time and grill into myself would be this:

BUILD A LIST!

I didn’t begin collecting email addresses on PCMech until the site had already been online for about 6 years. The amount of subscribers I gave up by doing that isn’t even something I want to think about. Plus, back then the tech blogging market wasn’t nearly as competitive and saturated, so I had the opportunity to be one of the major players in the market and I feel as if I more or less bypassed it.

Don’t get me wrong, PCMech is most definitely one of the major players in tech blogging. We’ve got longevity and we’ve got alot of traffic. However, there are younger sites out there doing a lot better than PCMech and, again, its all because I wasn’t building the list and approaching it like a business.

And there’s the motto I will leave you with…

Approach Blogging Like a Business

That is, if you WANT it to be a business. If you’re just doing it for fun, then more power to you. However, after about 3 years of running PCMech, I was thinking about business ambitions but I was still treating it like a hobby. I was being very short-sighted. I wasn’t thinking about leveraging the site to build long-term relationships. And I gave up a lot of ground with that mistake.

So, build a list. Build your network. Build your brand and your relationships. These are the things that will provide steady growth and longevity for you on the Internet.

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  • It's amazing that there are still people perpetuating the myth that a list really isn't important. The reality is that it's probably the single biggest asset you can have, but it's not really about the numbers on your list but the quality. I've seen lists of 3000 earn 10x what a list advertised as having over 1 million subscribers earns.

    By no means is a list the only way to market but it is the one asset you can turn to over and over again.
  • One of the blogs I started a while back was simply out of enjoyment. I never thought about subscribers, much less rankings. I was just engrossed in the topic and it was all about bringing a fresh perspective to the niche. There was something truly liberating about that experience.

    I agree that one should approach blogging like a business. But I'd love to find the balance between doing what you love and making a profit from it.
  • I think regardless, even if you ARE doing it just as fun, the point to take here is, COVER YOUR BETS! Like you, others might start projects more for the fun of it. But what happens when they start to succeed? Prepare for success -- that's the best thing anyone can do. Capture the emails right away. If you don't use them and don't get business-minded later, then no sweat. No love lost. But if you do, you'll be ready to make something out of it.
  • I completely agree. I waited several years to start capturing opt-in email subscriptions for my primary business as well and it is something that I recommend to every single client of mine. In fact I just wrote a blog post about how to increase your email signups. http://blog.sd360.com/2009/04/easy-tips-to-incr...
  • Building a list is so important, but for me it would be sticking with on project instead of always flipping to a new one. I wasted a good couple of years that I could have been building one single site.
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