What is the common thing between blogging and losing weight? Unfortunately, both the weight loss and blogging business are victims of false experts who are only after your money by selling you “top secret” eBooks and DVD programs.
You doubtlessly have heard about all sorts of ‘keys’ and ‘secrets’ to becoming an internet millionaire or losing weight and looking like a celebrity. While some of these are of real help to the reader, a good number of them are merely sensationalistic; intended to capture your attention but will not improve you in any way when the rubber hits the road. Others are quite simply poorly researched, offering readers keen on cutting weight or increasing traffic to their blogs false information and leaving them fostering baseless expectations that are duly dashed in time.
The aim of this article is to debunk such theories and put you on the correct path to weight loss or steady streams of blog traffic.
1. Find and Focus on Your Own Niche
Have you noticed that there are general trends in the blogging business? If Twitter is in fashion, then everyone is selling products about Twitter. If Panda is the big thing then everyone is trying to sell you advice about it. You also don’t have to go with the flow when it comes to blogging. Just because certain topics are deemed hot or trendy doesn’t mean you have to abandon what you are really passionate about to try and conform your writing to suit the masses. In fact, blog experts advocate the opposite; write about that unique topic or issue that’s close to your heart. Using specific keywords that other blogs are not likely to use will make yours the go-to site for that particular subject, making it a magnet for traffic.
The same applies in the weight loss arena. You don’t have to comply with the trend. Just because everyone else is joining Weight Watchers it does not mean you have to do the same. Find what is right for you.
2. Don’t Blame Others
I have recently stopped visiting online forums about traffic and SEO. The reason is that most forums are dominated by bloggers and internet marketers who have accepted the victim role and blame everything but themselves for their loss of traffic.
The same applies to weight loss forums. There is a theory that has been bandied around for quite a while now that gives those who should be watching their weight an excuse to succumb to the habits that have led to them putting on the kilos. It gives them a victim’s mindset, blaming everything else but themselves for their weight gain.
3. Beware of Instant Gratification Solutions
It is sad that folks have been deceived into thinking that they can actually cut weight overnight by eating more ‘fat-free’ or ‘low calorie’ food. But common sense dictates that you can only shed those excess pounds by eating less over a long period of time. Any nutritionist will tell you that one of the key steps in tackling obesity is taking in smaller portions and keep doing that for months or years. To tackle your hunger pangs they will advise you to take small portions of food regularly with regular healthy snacks in between, accompanied by plenty of water.
Similarly, bloggers should not be fooled that all they need to do is use SEO techniques, such black-hat backlinking, to grow traffic to their blogs overnight. While incorporating white-hat SEO in blog posts is important, generating plenty of good quality, unique, relevant content is the essence of blogging and is the only guaranteed way of drawing a steady stream of visitors to your site. There is no circumventing this.
Photo credit: joeduty.