The Blogger Cycle of Stupid

29 | Posted In Life & Mindset by David

An awful lot of bloggers fall into this trap. Recently, I heard it referred to as “the cycle of stupid”.

See, I have a mission. And simply put, bloggers will keep falling off the grid unless they exit this cycle of stupid. That doesn’t help the world. Nobody gains when you arrive at the almost inevitable end of the cycle of stupid – which is… quitting.

So, the cycle of stupid looks like this…

You start a blog. You follow all that advice about finding your niche based on your passion. So, you have this blog. Then, you spend a LOT of time messing around with themes, widgets, plug-ins – basically immerse yourself in technical things you don’t know anything about.

Months later, your blog is still a bit of a mess. But, you’ve resigned yourself to it and moved on with content. You might even start building a list. All your efforts then go into content creation and growing traffic. You figure you’ll “monetize” it once you get more traffic. Until then, you won’t even try because you won’t make much and you’re afraid to piss off your audience.

Congratulations, you’re on the cycle of stupid.

The cycle of stupid is when you spin your wheels building something which has no cash register. In other words, you’re building something with no way of returning value to you for your work. You’re building your own slave-driver.

Don’t feel bad if you’re on this cycle. Most bloggers are. However, it is time to do something about it.

If you have a blog and you’re not building a list, you’re on the cycle of stupid.

If you are building a blog and a list, but you have nothing to sell them and you never do anything to make money, then you’re on the cycle of stupid.

If you’re trying to build traffic – yet you have nothing to OFFER them, then you just might be…. on the cycle of stupid.

So how do you get off the cycle of stupid?

Create an offer.

Have something to offer people as they come to you. Give your blog a reason to exist other than for the purposes of occupying your time.

If you have a blog and you’re working to grow it, then immediately build two things:

  1. A squeeze page to get people onto your email list.
  2. An offer – something to SELL them. It can be your own thing or an affiliate product. But, you need an offer.

This is ground zero. From here, things grow and all the pieces start to come together.

But, unless you have these core fundamentals – a blog, a squeeze page, and an offer – you really haven’t yet created the basic building blocks of your empire. You’re on the cycle of stupid.

If you don’t have a blog, follow this tutorial on how to set up your blog.

If you don’t have a squeeze page, check out OptimizePress or Premise. I personally prefer Optimizepress, but both make child’s play out of building squeeze pages.

If you don’t have an offer, then sit and make it. It can be just an ebook. It doesn’t need to be long or involved. Just helpful.

We live in a weird economy right now. Things are happening. This is no time to stay on the cycle of stupid unless you just like the view from there.

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  • Anonymous

    Funny timing David and appreciated as well.  I have about 5 “offers” in production and keep getting sidetracked.  I need to dump 4 of them (for now) and finish 1.  I also think promoting relevant affiliate products more frequently in my content with full disclosure is a must.  It’s amazing how obvious it is and how difficult it is to execute on.  You can’t make money if you’re not selling something
    Wow, how stupid does that sound
    Peace
    Mark

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Yeah, just focus on one at a time. Much easier that way. Also, don’t fall into the trap of making it so large that you never finish it. :-)

    But, the way I see it, if we’re creating content for our blogs and find the time to do that, we should have the time to do the other things, too. :-)

  • Anonymous

    I think I’ve been on the cycle of stupid from time to time because of creativity.  While I might have a creative writing block, I could still tweak my site / modify graphics / etc and feel the accomplishment that comes from “creating.”  I just got to the point where after a redesign and a few weeks of tweaking, I said “enough.”  I’ve also stop visiting blogs on creative web design because it was taking my focus off of content.

  • http://www.theskooloflife.com Srinivas Rao

    Well said David. I think the real gem is at the very end. People get too caught up in turning their first product into this huge ordeal. The first thing I ever put up for sale was a 10 dollar class on growing your blog with interviews. It’s not going to make me rich but I still earn money from that and I created it over a year ago. 

  • PrimalMinimalist.com

    I’m going to make this my #1 priority, to create a product, or affiliate and start my list. Not to mention finalizing my logo.

  • http://jenmccoy.com Jenny McCoy

    I generally love your posts and your blog was a huge inspiration when I was getting started, but I think this post is short-sighted. Not all blogs aim to make money. Some are just about sharing ideas. I’ve had one for over two years and I’ve never once tried to monetize it. Instead, I’ve used it to landed a couple dream jobs in NYC, not because I had thousands of subscribers, but because they liked my ideas and they saw that I was committed to them. Becoming an affiliate marketer isn’t the dream of all bloggers. Sometimes they just need a place for ideas, feedback and more ideas. Maybe this post was only targeted at those who wish to make their living off their blog, but there are more of us out there. Some aspiring to test ideas on blogs for stand-up, sketch or just as a public exercise of creative thinking.

  • http://smartboydesigns.com Christian Hollingsworth

    I believe that many times people are blogging for their passions, but if their aim is to make money, and then they just quit, then yes, they’re not doing things right. There’s always a way for bloggers to monetize their traffic, and keep at it.

    For some of my blogs, at the moment, I keep the offers light – because I have it planned that an offer will be coming in the future. That tactic works very well too.

    Always have a goal.

  • http://blogtrainingclassroom.com/blog/niche-profit-classroom-review/ John Hoff

    Hi David.

    Great way of putting it. I get people from time to time emailing me with something like this…

    “John, I’ve been trying to make money on my blog for about a year now and I’m still not making anything. How do I make money with it?”

    It’s not an email you can answer in a couple minutes because like you said, even though you might have the building blocks (blog, traffic, list), that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to make money. You have to plan and map it all out. Being a successful entrepreneur goes beyond *things you can do*; it involves time, patience, failures, and organizing assets at your disposal in such a way you make money.

  • http://www.thepadrino.com/ The Padrino

    I agree several factors come into play when determing how to make money especially online.

  • http://www.stevescottsite.com/ Steve Scott Site

    David,

    Great way to putting this.  I “heard” Jeff Foxworthy while I was reading this.  “You might be on the cycle of stupid if….”

    It kills me how many people start blogging, make no attempts at list building, a squeeze page, their own products or really any connection beyond simply cycling in content and then turn around and say, “It doesn’t work”

    It is like not putting gas in a car and wondering why it won’t take you anywhere.

  • http://www.jamienorthrup.com Jamie Northrup

    I feel like I’m on the cycle of stupid even though I’m making money on all my blogs, but I’ve decided to cycle for another few days as of November 1st, I will be spending 80% of my “blogging” time writing ebooks, I have 4 planned, but my goal is to complete at least 2 of them (including content, editing, graphics and landing page). Hopefully this will help me get out of my version of the cycle of stupid.

  • Anonymous

    Hi David. 
    Thanks for the post.  I was looking at the theme Optimize Press that you link to at the end.  It looks interesting for sure, but after watching their entire video and reading their entire squeeze page, I have one very big question.  What does a standard blog post look like with the theme?  I do not want every post to look like a squeeze page or sales page.  Do you know the answer to that?  Thanks.   

  • http://twitter.com/mskonfa1990 Kerwin

    I’m sure @drisley:disqus will answer this, but it looks like any other blog post Lorraine. You can add pictures, videos, text, comments, blog or facebook comments, etc.  The squeeze/sales pages are done using the Pages section of WordPress, not the Post section which is where you write your blog posts.  I can’t show you my example at this very moment as I’m working on content for my membership site :-) .
    The theme is a very simple one.

    Hope that helps.

  • http://twitter.com/mskonfa1990 Kerwin

    I guess my cycle is that I take too long to launch something; but almost there now :-) …

  • Anonymous

    That does help Kerwin, thanks. 

    To  make a membership site, what do you use for security, passwords, etc.?  They mentioned a  plug in but I can  not remember the name of it.  Can you make just a few pages of the blog password protected or does it have to be the entire site? 

  • http://kkomp.com Shazzalive

    There’s a free plugin for WordPress called “Private! WordPress Access Control Manager” which may be what you’re looking for to start off with. You can configure individual areas as members-only areas. There may be issues integrating it with other content-management systems, though; so, after very little time has elapsed and things swiftly progress, you might find paid-for alternatives suit you better.

  • http://aremorch.com Are Morch

    Hi David.

    Another great article and reminder for us that read your blog and newsletter.

    Still do a lot of brainstorming ideas for building my list. It has becoming easier as I have taken a lot of time to build a solid platform for myself. 

    My primary focus is to serve my niche market which is natural part when you are a Hotelier. One of the strategies I spent a lot of time is like you to give a lot of value. And you always over deliver. 

    One of the elements I learned that I not spent much time on was the receiving part of giving. This is something I learning more of. To quote Forrest Gump Stupid Is as stupid does. Learning can sometimes be like that.

    Cheers.. 

    Are Morch
    Hotel Advisor and Social Media Strategist

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    What Kerwin said. :-) The blog theme with Optimizepress is a little basic, since that’s not really its strength. The best way to use OP is with a separate installation of WordPress.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Absolutely, but that’s why, when I described it, I said:
    “You figure you’ll “monetize” it once you get more traffic. Until then, you won’t even try because you won’t make much and you’re afraid to piss off your audience.”

    I’m talking to the people who do want to make money from this. If one isn’t doing it for that reason, then the story is completely different.

  • Anonymous

    I have monetized. I make more than 60% more than what I did before I started blogging. I just do it in the corporate field. That’s what I was making a point about. Not all blogs have to drive to affiliate sales to be profitable or worthwhile. That view is kind of small these days.

  • Lisa Squared

    Okay, I admit it, I am on the cycle of stupid. Thanks for the illuminating post, David. 

  • http://www.althafahmed.com/6-reasons-why-keyword-research-is-bad Why I hate Keyword Research

    Excellent post, though the title is a bit insulting LOL. I was stuck in this cycle the whole of 2007. I really know what it means. 

    But then, there is another view to it. Many bloggers don’t serve ads or promote products in the first few months because they fear Google may sandbox them for their aggressive commercial intent. 

    We can’t really overrule this angle.

  • http://home.allpurposeguru.com David

    Have you been looking over my shoulder? I feel very convicted. Let’s see. I have content, AdSense, affiliate links, but no squeeze page. I knew I needed one, because even though I have had a GetResponse form for a while, no one has filled it in. I just had no idea how to make one and too many things to do already to investigate. And now you take pity on me and send me not one but two idiot’s guides to making one.

    It’s one of the things I will have done by the end of the month. I think I still need to come up with a separate freebie related to each blog. (I started out with way too many ideas and wound up with four blogs to feed, and none of them are paying their keep.)

    Thank you very, very much.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    That’s misguided, though. For one, it is stupid to get so aggressive with ads that it overpowers the site. But, Google won’t sandbox you merely because you have ads. Or because you promote things. Just be helpful and not a spammer.

  • http://Mazzastick.com Justin

    It seems to many new bloggers have a problem with the monetization part of blogging. There is a limiting belief in there that is preventing them from receiving value for all of their hard work.

  • http://www.althafahmed.com Althaf Ahmed

    It maybe stupid David, but some big names had suggested this thing in the past. I ain’t kidding. 

  • http://www.mortgagebible.org Mortgage Rates

    Nice post about Blogging Stupidity. Without knowing the outcome of their blog majority of the new bloggers get trapped into this cycle of stupidity. These tips can help a lot for new bloggers.

  • http://tipsmeme.com Marko

    Well expressed David. Another excellent article and lesson for us that read your website. Even though I make some money online I still feel like I’m in this cycle sometimes.

  • http://greatbeautydeals.com age defying beauty products

    I agree with you. I sometimes get trapped. maybe because I am not looking the bigger picture anymore.. I am more of thinking about NOW.