Photo by Marcel Germain

I was just like you. I blogged for years and made little money. Pennies, not pounds. Cents, not dollars. I enjoyed what I did. I loved the gentle tap of the fingers. I loved the feeling of a new post going live. But I didn’t love the struggle to develop new ideas. The struggle to start a new post. The struggle to survive as a blogger in an ever growing and distant abyss of excellence.

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Photo by Rishibando

This is a guest post Pamelia Brown of AssociatesDegree.com.

Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” What was he talking about?

You have this great idea for your blog, but you’re unable to get it up and running. The little voice inside your head tells you this idea is going to make you the big bucks. You can finally pay off those daunting college loans. Edison implies in his quote: there are tons of smart people in this world, most of them with some pretty great ideas. You may or may not be one of them, but that doesn’t matter. In the end, your work ethic and consistency is what will get you ahead.

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Photo by See-ming Lee

I discussed yesterday about how important your reputation is in order to build a successful blog, so today I want to discuss actual methods to build that reputation.

Guest Posts

I still remember when guest posting started to become popular amongst the blogging crowd. The first person I saw who truly took advantage of guest posting was a young lady called Jane May. She came on the blogging scene very quickly and back in 2007 wrote some of the first guest posts on John Chow’s blog. She wrote a series of excellent blog posts and quickly became a popular name with John’s audience. Soon thereafter, she sold her own blog for what I’m sure was a very nice figure.

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Photo by Madeira

A funny thing happened tonight. As I sat here contemplating my next move within the blogosphere, I suddenly found my light. My light to follow to lead me to success. To lead me to great things. To lead me to what I want in life.

But before that light appeared, as I sat here contemplating my next move, I realised within myself there was actually no move for me to make. At least not until I knew where I was going. I realised, very suddenly as though a light had been shone inside, that I didn’t know where I was going. I was lost on a road, with a map in front of me, but no idea where to turn. A map can only lead you where you want to be if you know where that place is.

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Photo by The U.S. Army

July 1998. I was 10 years old. It was a hot Summer day, and the whole town was out at the annual charity gala. People were on the fairground rides. Others were eating ice cream. And even more were watching the display of acrobats, gymnasts and pampered pooches in the main arena. Me? I was watching with intent as person after person fell over the edge of the 100 foot drop and flew down the zip line, only to be quickly stopped at the bottom by two British Army soldiers.

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