Every morning, I go to the gym for my workout. I workout six to seven times per week, doing weight training on even days and cardio on odd days. Because I exercise during a time when most people are at work, I pretty much have the gym all to myself. This gives me a lot of time to think about blogging and ways to increase Internet income. I find I think better when I’m working out. I also discovered that working out is very much like blogging and the principles for workout success are the same for blogging success.
It Requires Efforts
The mantra of bodybuilding is no pain, no gain. In other word, if you want to get in shape, it’s going to require some effort on you part. The same can be said for blogging. The blog isn’t going to update itself (unless it’s a spam blog). You need to put forth the effort to build it and take care of it during its growing stages.
I personally feel that working out requires more effort than blogging. Some will disagree and say it requires a different type of effort – exercise requires physical while blogging requires mental. That may be. However, you can hire someone to blog for you. You can’t hire someone to exercise for you. Well, I guess you can but that kinda defeats the purpose.
You Have To Keep At It
In my post on How To Make 2009 Your Best Blogging Year, I said that having a consistent posting habit is the key to blogging success. You can’t be an on again, off again blogger.
The same can be applied to working out. You won’t see any results after one or two workouts. You have to keep at it. I’m seeing a lot of people at the gym right now because of the New Year resolution lemmings. Unfortunately, most of them will be gone by next week. What’s worst, they’ll be stupid enough to keep their membership going because they think they’ll go back someday. Gyms love those kinds of members.
It can take years before you start seeing the fruits of your blogging labor. Fortunately, you won’t have to wait that long to see the results from working out. However, you’ll see nothing from either if you don’t keep at it.
You Will Hit A Plateau
This happen a lot with weight training. As you continue working out, you get stronger and can lift more weights. However, you will come to a point where you can’t go any higher because your body will hit a plateau. Hitting a plateau is very common with blogs as well. The blog starts and grow at a very nice rate. Then traffic or income stalls and nothing you do seems to get it back on the growth curve.
The way to break out of a weight training plateau is to mix things up and try new things. This is how you break out of a blogging plateau as well. My blog hit an income plateau a few years back. The solution was a complete redesign to make more room for advertisers. The next month, blog income double and continued to grow.
What can you change up to break your blog out of a plateau? The list is endless. Maybe you can do a few guest post on another blog or run a contest. You can even try to pick a fight with a blog that’s bigger than you. However, this doesn’t work as well as it used to.
Real Life Social Networking
The nice thing about working out at a gym is you get to meet other people with the same goal of getting into shape. This social interaction is very good motivation to keep working out.
Blogging has its own social network as well. Whether that is through other blogs or Twitter, you have access to literally millions of like minded bloggers to help keep you motivated and on the right track.
There Are No Short Cuts
When it comes to blogging and working out, many people try to take short cuts. Whether it’s some miracle pill or some get rich quick blogging scheme, the results are almost always the same – it doesn’t work.
It Gets Easier Over Time
While there are no short cuts, you can take some comfort in knowing that blogging and exercise will get easier over time. This is especially true with exercise. The first week at it, my body was aching all over. By the second week, I felt much better.
While blogging may make you a head ache from time to time, if you stick at it and never quit, you will see results from it. Just like you would if you hit the gym everyday.