Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Blogs and Writing: An Interview with Jonathan Milligan

15 traits Book display with framework transparentI met Jonathan Milligan last year at a leadership conference in Texas. Since then, I’ve linked to his blog at JonathanMilligan.com and drawn from his wisdom in the EverFocus System. He has a new book about blogging and how to develop your blogging into more than a hobby.

Even those of us who are blog as a sideline or an extension of other habits can benefit from this work. I had the opportunity to send Jonathan a few questions, and he answered them and encouraged me to share those answers with you. Here they are:

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In the book, you start off by talking about the blogging pyramid of success. What is that exactly?

Over the years I’ve discovered that new bloggers want a step-by-step roadmap. More than anything they want other more successful bloggers to tell them exactly what to do. There are so many things you can spend your time on and what new bloggers fear the most is wasting their time. They don’t want to blog for a year only to look back and find out they spent their time doing the wrong things. The blogging pyramid of success is a one page roadmap that helps aspiring bloggers know where to spend their time. You can get your own copy at http://BloggingYourPassion.com

You make a point in the book that the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful is their mindset. Can you give some examples?

Sure. The more I’ve spent time mentoring other bloggers I find that their mindset slows them down more than anything else. How we think impacts our actions. If we doubt, we don’t ship. If we lack confidence, we don’t publish. Some of the more important mindsets include: patience, resilience, and passion. 

What advice do you have about blog post titles?

Blog post titles are super important. Think about it. You can have other sites rank higher than you in the search engines but if you have the more compelling title, they will click on yours. It’s also especially important when sharing your blog posts on social media. People will click on your link if the title is intriguing or interesting. 

If you could only give one piece of advice to a new blogger, what would it be?

Build your email list. What catapulted me from a hobby to doing this thing full time was a concentrated effort in growing my email list. For me, it’s more important that how many blog visits I get a day. We all want more traffic, but building an email list will help you develop those long term relationships. 

Is there a danger zone of chasing fast results compared to staying focused on passion during low-result times? 

Yes, there is a danger. We all want instant results. We want instant results so badly we will change strategies regularly and chase things we are not passionate about. At the end of the day, money will never fill your purpose bucket. You need to blog on things your passionate about in order to build an audience. 

Where can people better connect with you and learn more about this new book?

The best place to connect with me is over at http://BloggingYourPassion.com. If you’d like more info on the new book, the 15 Success Traits of Pro Bloggers, you can find out more at http://BloggingYourPassion.com/book

 

If you are looking to push your blog writing habit past something that just drains your time, look at Jonathan’s stuff. It’s worth it. Also, for those of you who like audio learning, check out his podcast here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/simple-life-habits/id565942255?mt=2

A few minutes at a time can really strengthen your approach.

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