With all the millions of blogs in the world, how do you get people to subscribe to yours? Over at Copyblogger, Carol Tice offered this answer:

Every writer has a secret weapon only they can use. Know what it is?

...

There is only one you.

...

Only you have your memories, experiences, ideas, and point of view. Create a blog where that uniqueness can shine through, work hard on your blog writing, and people will read you.

But is that true? What if you're losing your memory, never do anything but sit around watching weather forecast reruns, and blindly accept the point of view of whoever's voice you heard last? What if you're the world's most boring person?

That's an exaggeration, of course. But it's a valid question, and one that I'm sure is in the backs of a lot of people's minds.

Let me give you my take on it.

First of all, you're not the world's most boring person.

The odds of the world's #1 most boring person ever reading my blog are probably even lower than the odds of winning the lottery, which we know are pretty low. So I guarantee, you're not that person.

There's probably no subject in the world that nobody is interested in. There may not be very many, and they may be really weird. But the fewer and weirder they are, the more likely they are to love your blog if you cater to their interests.

On the flip side, if you think you're the world's most interesting person, you're wrong about that too. And the sooner you figure it out, the sooner you'll stop boring people by blabbering about yourself all the time.

Second, you don't have to let your boring side shine.

Being yourself on your blog doesn't necessarily mean being your whole self.

You wouldn't post every thought you ever had about everything on one blog, right? Of course not -- each blog focuses on one topic. Similarly, you don't need to integrate every part of your personality into your blog.

Reader Comment:
Antone Roundy said:
Carol, Thanks for providing the inspiration for this post, and for stopping by to comment. It's always easier to write fast when you've got a good idea to start from. Rick, Yep. Whatever your motivation is to blog, it'll show in your writing...
(join the conversation below)

Your blog doesn't even have to reflect what you'd normally consider "the real you." Spend some time creating a detailed mental picture of who you'd like to be and blog as that person.

Is posting as a made-up persona fake? It could be. If you blindly adopt the attributes of somebody you vaguely want to emulate, it may be. And if you claim to have accomplished things you're still only aspiring to, that's definitely over the line.

But if you blog as your ideal you, is that not the real you? It's certainly part of the real you -- it's your aspirations. Which leads me to my final point.

You can become more interesting -- don't think for a second that you can't!

Do you think people can't change? Ignore the fact that many people don't change much. If you haven't seen changes in yourself for a long time, ignore that too. Do you really think people can't change?

If you do, that's one thing that needs to change!

Right now, you have an image of who you are. It's based on how you've responded to past experiences, who others have treated you as or told you you are, etc. Your choices and actions tend to be based on what you believe someone like you would do.

But that can change. Here are some real-life examples.

  • Part way through college, I transferred schools and moved away from home. The moment I got away from everyone who'd known me all my life, I was freed from the constant, subtle tug of their expectations -- expectations based on all sorts of things that the real me had outgrown. In many ways, I instantly became a different person.
  • After graduation, I got a job doing software quality assurance. Six months in, I had my first performance review. I went in expecting the stereotype -- a long list of things that needed to be improved. But that's not what happened. I discovered how happy my manager was with my work, and got a big raise. Again, my expectations for myself instantly shifted.
  • When I started that job, I didn't have a car, so I rode my bike about 4 miles to and from work each day. Everyone instantly decided I was into fitness. I hadn't thought of myself that way before, but it stuck...for a while. I should make that change again!
  • In the job, I got various assignments to do things I'd never done before. By tackling a number of them successfully, I lost the fear of trying new things -- a fear that haunts a lot of people.
  • Not being afraid to tackle new challenges enabled me to quit that job three years later (after I'd been moved to a different, very boring project) and start my own business.

You'll notice that a lot of the changes in my life have come when my environment changed, leaving old expectations behind.

Starting a new blog is a perfect opportunity to reinvent yourself with new expectations. If you think your old readers or people around you will hold you back, don't tell them about the new blog, at least till you've established your new self.

When you do (or when they discover it on their own), just tell them flat out that you decided a while back to make some changes, and if they want to know who you are now, they can look at your new blog to see. Everything you've written there and what your new blog's readers expect of you will be a mountain of evidence to back you up.

Of course, you don't want to have to sneak around behind everyone's backs to make changes. As much as possible, enlist your family and friends in helping you change. If you've got the kind of family and friends that will support you, once you've chosen your new direction, tell them to expect it of you.

...and then ignore them if they don't, and keep moving forward on your secret blog!

The point is that being yourself is a powerful key to blogging success. But you don't have to settle for your boring old self. Use your blog to help you become your ideal self.

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