This is  a guest post from Fit Jerk. Now this guy tells it straight and makes people sit up and take notice. A fitness professional with a wealth of experience which includes online marketing, he has a tremendous following, FJ over to you;

Now that blogs have become more popular than the pope, it’s pretty much mandatory for a website to have one… or be one, and this is where the problem starts. Their popularity is their curse. It doesn’t matter what type of content you look into (audio, video or written) because a shit load of misguided souls are playing this game backwards.

Instead of creating content about a topic that vibes with their core, they look around for an audience first. This is NOT how this game is run. Even if you blog for a living, you need to stop treating this process as “product creation” because a blog is about creating content, which never stops… therefore if you’re busting your ass for the sake of pleasing an audience, you will eventually lose. Why? Because at some point you’ll get exhausted, you’ll get tired of pleasing and bending over for some random ass mofos. It isn’t sustainable for the long term.

So, if you shouldn’t blog for an audience, who should you blog for? Before I spit out the obvious answer, let me tell you why “I” blog…

  • It is my idea dumpyard… albeit a very organized dumpyard. Every random thought, idea or breakthrough gets crafted into a post and gets thrown up for future reference.
  • Also, my memory is pretty shitty so it’s nice to have an organized site I can re-visit often to see what I came up with. I get to benefit from my own thoughts, how sick is that? It’s like my personal vault… open for the world to see.
  • Legacy. No one owns my content, therefore I get to carry it into the future with me. My content is my reputation, it reveals who the fuck I am. My content is me… and as long as the internet is alive I will be too… even when my physical body is dead and gone. You want to live forever? Produce some good shit.
  • It hones my skills as a writer. Trust me, no one is born a great writer… it takes practice. Some obviously pick it up quicker than others, but everyone has paid their dues. Everyone had to experiment and take risks in order to find their “voice” and you need to do the same. If you don’t believe me, then visit your favorite blog and hit up the archives. Read posts from their very first month and compare that shit to their recent masterpieces. The difference is like night and day… it still blows my fucking mind how much a person can grow and improve in just a span of one year. Ridiculous.

So going back to my original question, who should you blog for? Who is really your audience? Well if it isn’t clear by now, slap yourself. Because the answer is YOU.

You need to blog for you… not for some minority, not for links, not for traffic and definitely not for some fucking AdSense chump change. You need to blog for you. When you do this, EVERYTHING else just takes care of itself and falls into place.

When you stop blogging for you, a few things happen:

1. You start to deviate from your true passion… and like I said, when you do this you will eventually get tired, exhausted and will want to kill yourself. I wonder what the suicide rate is amongst “blogging for money” bloggers. Might be too early to tell.

2. Your content gets watered down. Ok, say you don’t kill yourself and are still pumping out content for an audience and topic where you see dollar signs. Well guess what? All it takes is for a dude or gal to come along that know what the fuck they’re talking about, love what they do and POOF. In a very short amount of time, they will single handily out-do your best efforts. I laugh when “lifestyle” bloggers try and give fitness advice. Shit cracks me up.

Now I want you to think about something… IF YOU CONTENT ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU, THEN WHAT MAKES YOU THINK IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ANYONE ELSE?

Make this your core philosophy and  you won’t need to worry about who you’re reaching out to. The day your content is good enough for you (I myself am my own toughest critic), it will be more than good enough for the masses… and believe me they will come. Like bees to honey, they will come and divulge in your golden sweet nectar.

You don’t need to hunt for an audience, it’s right there under your nose. Adapt the fishing mentality instead. This will also give you the extra time needed to connect with those that truly matter.

- FJ

“While he has a passion for writing and oozes the entrepreneurial spirit, FJ is a Fitness Expert first, and focuses on impeccably accurate advice that is delivered it in a straight forward, No-BS style. Drop by his fitness blog for more info.

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Filed under: Guest Post • Motivation • Useful

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