4 WAYS BLOGGERS CAN OVERCOME ANXIETY WITH THEIR ONLINE PRESENCE
You’re doing SO well.
You came up with a really great blog post idea and spent hours putting it together. Now, you’re ready to put it out there.
But, hold on.
You don’t want to promote yourself. The thought of people not wanting to read it, of it not being your best work, of the imposter syndrome - you can’t bear it.
You think there’s no way people will leave comments on this post and there’s no way other bloggers out there will share your content. You’re actually not sure if you’re cut out to be a blogger.
Having anxiety about running an online presence is very real. For a lot of bloggers, promoting ourselves online feels very unnatural and salesy. It’s alien.
So how do you make the whole thing easier? Well, after four years as a blogger, I thought I’d share some ways you can overcome anxiety for good with your online presence.
#1 | REWARD YOURSELF FOR PUTTING YOUR CONTENT OUT THERE
Well done you! You just spent hours taking photographs, writing content and formatting your post to make it the best it can be. Now you’re ready to put it out there online.
Instead of worrying or feeling scared, you should be smiling! Cross “publish this week’s blog post” off your to-do list and count that as a success. Reward yourself for it.
Promoting your content is important, but it shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all for you. Content is king and you’ve got to remember the journey you came on to bring this piece of content together.
Reward yourself. Be proud of it.
#2 | DON’T TAKE IT PERSONALLY
You run your blog alone - it’s yours. So, of course, it means something to you on a personal level. You dedicate yourself to it, giving your thought, time, and passion to each piece of content. It’s no wonder you’re fearful of the self-promotion part.
You fear that all the energy and love you put into bringing this blog post together isn’t going to be noticed. You worry that people just won’t like it.
You fear that readers will take one glance at your blog and will tweet you saying, how can you possibly think you can make it as a blogger?
I can tell you for sure - this will NOT happen.
You might not get any comments or social shares, but that does not mean that people aren’t reading your content. There are a lot of silent fans out there.
Just don’t take it personally. Blogging is a business, whether we like it or not. Millions of blog posts are published each week and it’s difficult to get noticed. As a blogger, all you can do is make sure you’re putting 100% effort into the creation, giving your readers value and getting your content out there as much as possible.
You’ll get pageviews and engagement if you spend your time promoting your content in the right places. The more consistent you become at this, the more your online presence and community will grow.
So, just try and remember not to take it personally if one blog post doesn’t do as well as others. Keep an eye on what your readers are enjoying and create more content that they’re engaging with.
#3 | TRACK ALL YOUR BLOGGING STATS
Do you want to know the number one thing I’ve been telling my new coaching clients? If you want to effectively grow your online presence, make it your priority to track everything you do.
As the saying goes, if you do what you’ve always done, then you’ll get what you’ve always got.
To help get a breakthrough with your online presence, start tracking your stats monthly. Numbers aren’t the most important thing when it comes to blogging, but they’re important in order to know how to move forward. The more you track, the more you can evaluate and the more you can improve, which gives you more chance of growth.
You want to track website stats, including:
Sessions
Pageviews
Average session duration
New sessions (%)
Users
Pages/session
Bounce rate (%)
Returning/new visitors
Top referrer
Top page
For social stats you can track:
Twitter:
Total followers
Followers gained
Number of posts
Total engagements
Total impressions
Average engagement rate
Number of retweets
Number of likes
Number of replies
Most popular tweet
Instagram:
Total followers
Followers gained
Number of posts
Likes gained
Likes V last week
Engagements
Impressions
Reach
Most popular post (based on likes)
Facebook:
Total likes
Likes gained
Number of posts
Total reach
Total engagements
Most popular post
Giving yourself goals of the numbers you want to aim towards each month is a great way of encouraging you to take action.
I tell bloggers to track these stats on a monthly basis, usually on the first day of every new month. Then you can look back at the whole month in review. Then once you’ve reviewed your stats, you can set new goals for the month ahead, based on what your progress has been like.
So instead of just guessing whether your promotional efforts are working, track your stats, reevaluate and improve next month. That’s how you grow.
#4 | DON’T STOP PROMOTING
This is what happens to a lot of bloggers.
You spend ages writing your blog post for the week. You format it, publish it and promote it loads on the day it goes live. Then once that day is done, you don’t mention it again.
Hold on there! You just spent all that time putting that post together, to only give it one day of attention? You should be promoting it the following day, the following week, the following month - all. the. time.
I bet you’re thinking, but what if people get really annoyed with seeing the same piece of content all the time? It’s very unlikely that the same people are going to see each piece of self-promotion you do - especially on Twitter.
The average lifetime of a tweet is 18 minutes and people check Twitter at different times of the day. You want to be sharing your content at multiple times throughout the day so you’re getting as many pairs of eyes on it as possible.
If you want more readers and engagement, then you need to overcome the fear of self-promotion and put it into your schedule. Make a list of all the places you want to promote your piece of content, so you’ve got a solid strategy to follow for each post you publish.
Don’t let anxiety get in the way of your blogging success
We’re always so hard on ourselves, aren’t we? And it’s no different when it comes to blogging. You will always find something to criticise yourself on.
But guess what? You will overcome that anxiety, I promise. I’m in a position now where I have a strategy in place or self-promotion that I know works. I know what I need to do to utilise each specific platform. I have no doubt in my ability to create valuable, actionable content for my readers.
You will reach that point. You might already be there now, without realising it. With dedication, self-promotion, and networking, you will get a breakthrough with your blog and online presence.
Now it’s your turn - what’s the one thing holding you back from promoting yourself online?