How do you like that title? It should read 5 Ways To Overcome Ego To Build A Successful Blog but I took out two “to” words. The title sounds like a caveman wrote it. Why? I decided to override my ego that likes me to sound smart and instead write a clunky title that disrupts people out of their unconscious scanning patterns of the Google SERP results.
My hypothesis is if I can disrupt the searcher’s pattern with a clunky title they will pause ever so slightly longer on my blog, consider it consciously (instead of only subconsciously), and increase the odds they will click through. I’m pretty sure it will work. All I had to do was override my ego, which is fitting because this is a blog post about overcoming ego to win the blogging game. So, welcome, friend, if this is how you arrived, glad to have you here. Let’s get started.
How To Override Your Ego To Build A Successful Blog
The overall theme of overriding ego to build a successful blog is by humbling oneself, the reason for this is because the proud cannot learn. To learn, we must understand and admit there is much we don’t know, which is a humbling. Juxtapost that against the know-it-all moron, they are like that because of an out-of-control ego. They would rather maintain a big ego than win. Tame the ego.
1. Read Low-Level, Entry-Level 101 Blogging Books
Personally, some of my best gained blogging knowledge came from reading low-level Welcome To Blogging 101 type books that I could have easily deemed as being “beneath me.”
Just a week ago I was perusing through such a title and the chapter was talking about increasing website speed and it said something like “be sure to format your images in the new WebP format, which is 25-35% smaller file size than JPEG or PNG yet maintains equivalent image quality, thus allowing your website speed score to increase without sacrificing quality.”
Huh?
Sure, enough, after looking more into it this is 100% true and I have been unnecessarily slowing the performance of my blogs. It would have been easy for me to think all of my images were already as optimized as they could be, but they weren’t and, luckily, I caught the mistake because I have no problem reading blogging books that are “beneath me.” Then, while doing research, I found out there’s an even better, newer file format called avif!
There is a reason so many high-level performers often say “back to the basics.”
2. Build An Uncool Blog Instead Of A Cool Blog
I‘ve written before about the importance of focusing on strengths rather than interests. Us bloggers tend to gravitate toward building “cool” blogs which are health and fitness, finance, travel, and, of course, “lifestyle.” I admit it’s okay to launch a blog in one of those niches if that is truly your strength over interests, but usually it’s not.
- TractorData.com About as unsexy as it gets, yet this blog reportedly earns $10,000+ per month by writing about the latest in tractors and farm equipment.
- OhioTropics.com A blog about a guy growing tropical plants in his home in Ohio, per a podcast he was on he averages $10,000 per month (some months up and some months down).
- Quietmyhouse.com A website about, you guessed it, making your house quieter. Unknown what the dollar amount per months is, but in the thousands.
Build the boring blog you know about if your goal is to be free via blogging. You can do the exciting stuff after you’ve earned your freedom.
3. Work On The Blog Instead Of Fantasizing About Success
A defense mechanism of the brain is to fantasize about versions of ourselves that are way, way better than our current selves. That’s the ego.
If things aren’t the way we want them in our lives, no problem, the brain will come up with a fantasy to make itself feel good, giving us a little mental buzz. While creating a vision of what we want life to look like is important, many people with big egos end there–yes, many people who massively underachieve in life have massive egos.
If you already know what your vision is, no need to sit around and waste time daydreaming about it in order to sooth the ego. The work must get done.
4. Go The Hard Route Instead Of The Easy Route
The ego wants the easy path because it decreases chances of embarrassment and looking dumb; however, it’s the hard path all bloggers who are serious about making a full time living from writing words must take. Choose hard mode over easy mode, even if chances increase for a bruised ego.
Hard Mode forces us to grow. Easy mode does not. Hard Mode will hurt our ego. Easy Mode will not. Hard Mode will lead to reward. Easy Mode will not. Obviously, the ego must be put in its place in order to achieve blogging success.
5. Ego Hates Suffering, But Suffering Must Be Embraced To Win The Blogging Game
As I said above, ego wants to play the game of life on easy mode. But that is not an option for those who want to win the blogging game.
In order to win, yes, you must play on hard mode; and while playing on hard mode you will encounter suffering. Enduring suffering is a requirement to build a better blog. The ego does not like that fact. The ego will try to give you off-ramps, also known as excuses, for why you should not go the hard path that includes suffering: “Let’s find a way to optimize this!” “This type of work is for the normies, not me!” “How can I 4-hour workweek this?”
There are no shortcuts! To win the blogging game the ego must be tamed and we all must do the hard, hard work over an extended period of time. Because that’s what it takes to win. A huge ego will not lead to winning. Overcome the ego, friend!
Until next time! Blog on, friend. Blog on.