The more and more I blog, the less I keep tabs on my “competitors”, if you will. I can admit that even as I type that, I’m thinking “that sounds so ridiculous”. But really, the more I know what they’re doing, the more my blog sucks. Here’s why.
I start wasting my precious writing time on reading dozens of blogs with content that I wish I had written.
But of course, I didn’t write that great post, because I was too busy reading how to write a great post, or someone else’s great posts. It’s too much seeing and not enough doing on my part. Then I get in this funk thinking that “there’s nothing left to write about because everything good has been taken”. It’s a sick cycle I’ve been caught up in before. There are only so many hours in the day, and I should spend those hours creating great content.
I become so consumed in what others are doing that works, that I forget about all the cool new ideas I have.
Yeah, it’s nice to know what marketing tactics work and don’t work. Sure, I want to know what plugins to use and not use. But if I do everything everyone tells me to do, then I just become a pathetic cookie-cutter of those I admire. Where’s the fun in that? Where’s the innovation in that?
Whether intentional or not, I start to mimic their content and lose my creativity.
If I read 50 blogs that say I should be writing articles on how to use Twitter, then I’ll, inevitably, start writing articles on how to use Twitter. Hey, the great bloggers say it’s a good idea, so it must be the only good idea, right? Wrong. I can and should incorporate traditional content into my posts. But I need to add a surprising twist to it all. Think about it: why would anyone want to subscribe to a blog that just paraphrases another (probably better) blog?
Admittedly, the title of this post is somewhat misleading. Obviously I care a little about what the top bloggers are doing that’s making them successful, because I want to be successful and you learn by example, right? Not to mention that leaving blog comments is a great way to get some targeted traffic (and you can’t leave good comments without reading the post first, although I’ve seen people try). But I no longer care enough to follow them daily, analyzing their every little move. A better option for me is to spend a couple hours or less, one day a week, catching up on the blogs I follow in Google Reader.
What about you? How much time do you spend following other bloggers versus writing your own content?
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