Hi, I am Josh Wilner and I am happy that you have decided to visit my corner of cyberspace. I am a writer/marketer/friend and family man.
My professional background includes more than twenty years in working with businesses to help them do a better job of connecting with their existing and prospective customers.
More specifically I have worked with companies of all sizes from the Fortune 500 to the new start up to help them build, develop and grow their social media and marketing plans.
I love spending time with my family and friends. I enjoy music, reading, writing, playing sports and laughing.
You are so right. Defining a blog as successful is very subjective.
There are a lot of blogs out there with large readerships and I’m sure making great money for their authors but if I don’t personally find the content useful does that mean it’s unsuccessful? No of course not. Like beauty, success is in the eye of the beholder.
I am glad you enjoyed it. I hope my accent wasn’t too hard on your ears. My kids laugh when I tell them that people notice our accents, but that is because they are used to being surrounded by other American kids so no one notices their voices.
We all sound like a bunch of California kids, which is accurate.
Anyway, I think it is really important for bloggers to understand what they consider success to be because without that it is impossible to measure and determine if you are getting it done.
Very nicely put. The way many people measure “success” of a blog is highly different. Like, I know people who get upset because they have “only 60 comments” and some who are okay with 2 comments because the work intended through their blog is paying them well.
So, maybe it is about how you measure it and what matters to you!
Great video. I would agree with defining success. Failure of a blog is usually related to a combination of not properly promoting and not providing content readers are interested in. Find a pain point for those in your audience and solve it. Then promote it to those people. Love your emphasis on time, I can’t agree more. The internet seems to have bred an increasing need for instant gratification.
Great job Josh! Found you through Common Sense on Triberr. ๐
Welcome to the blog. You are absolutely correct about finding a pain point and then offering a solution. I see a lot of blogs that miss that and then read posts wondering they write in which they wonder about why they aren’t doing better.
It is a crowded field out here and if you aren’t offering something that helps others it can be very difficult.
Very good stuff Josh, and you got it right. Determine success is different for everyone based on whatever criteria they set, and a one-off big hit that goes viral doesn’t get it done either.
I have had a lot of discussions with people who want to know how to make their content go viral but relatively few of them think about the downsides of a one-off event.
There really is no secret formula to hitting that home run and it has a proclivity to make some people act foolishly.
A while back I had a post that was linked by a large FB page and it caused a huge traffic spike. It was nice and I am happy it happened but I didn’t retain nearly as many of those visitors as I would have liked to.
I have to accept responsibility for some of that but I also know that some of that had nothing to do with me. Some of those people aren’t in my target demographic so they were never going to stick around.
Anyway, the point here isn’t to get lodged in a discussion about viral issues but to say that we need to establish a personal definition of success so that we can create customized goals for our blogs/businesses.
As you mentioned, I think it depends on what people define as a successful blog to them. I know that my poor blog just sat there by itself for over a year. Once I started venturing out and connecting with others is when I saw an increase in traffic and started getting comments.
To me, my blog started becoming successful when people started talking about me. I started getting a lot of comments and people were referring others to my blog. Was I making tons of money from those efforts? Not yet but I was starting to build a following and relationships with others in my field. That to me was what a successful blog really is. Other may have their own opinions.
Great question and good answer. I appreciate you sharing your views with us Josh.
It is important to have a personal definition of what success is and you do. That makes it much easier to try and determine if your blog is heading in the right direction. Otherwise you can founder around and find yourself struggling.
When my blog lead to some writing jobs I was able to turn around and say that it was a source of revenue and not just a hobby. That is important.
I have read some posts recently from people who complained about how much time they put in to theirs because they didn’t feel like they were getting the kind of return they wanted.
Tim Bonner
Hey Josh
You are so right. Defining a blog as successful is very subjective.
There are a lot of blogs out there with large readerships and I’m sure making great money for their authors but if I don’t personally find the content useful does that mean it’s unsuccessful? No of course not. Like beauty, success is in the eye of the beholder.
Loved the video. Thanks for sharing.
Tim
Josh
Hi Tim,
I am glad you enjoyed it. I hope my accent wasn’t too hard on your ears. My kids laugh when I tell them that people notice our accents, but that is because they are used to being surrounded by other American kids so no one notices their voices.
We all sound like a bunch of California kids, which is accurate.
Anyway, I think it is really important for bloggers to understand what they consider success to be because without that it is impossible to measure and determine if you are getting it done.
Hajra
Very nicely put. The way many people measure “success” of a blog is highly different. Like, I know people who get upset because they have “only 60 comments” and some who are okay with 2 comments because the work intended through their blog is paying them well.
So, maybe it is about how you measure it and what matters to you!
Josh
Hello Hajra,
I maintain that success in blogging has always been subjective and that there are very few if any uniform measures that can be applied.
It really depends on what goals you establish. Are you looking for a book deal, for income, for community?
It can be none or all of those things and they don’t have to all happen for someone to feel like they have had success.
Charity Kountz
Great video. I would agree with defining success. Failure of a blog is usually related to a combination of not properly promoting and not providing content readers are interested in. Find a pain point for those in your audience and solve it. Then promote it to those people. Love your emphasis on time, I can’t agree more. The internet seems to have bred an increasing need for instant gratification.
Great job Josh! Found you through Common Sense on Triberr. ๐
Josh
Hi Charity,
Welcome to the blog. You are absolutely correct about finding a pain point and then offering a solution. I see a lot of blogs that miss that and then read posts wondering they write in which they wonder about why they aren’t doing better.
It is a crowded field out here and if you aren’t offering something that helps others it can be very difficult.
Mitch Mitchell
Very good stuff Josh, and you got it right. Determine success is different for everyone based on whatever criteria they set, and a one-off big hit that goes viral doesn’t get it done either.
Josh
Hi Mitch,
I have had a lot of discussions with people who want to know how to make their content go viral but relatively few of them think about the downsides of a one-off event.
There really is no secret formula to hitting that home run and it has a proclivity to make some people act foolishly.
A while back I had a post that was linked by a large FB page and it caused a huge traffic spike. It was nice and I am happy it happened but I didn’t retain nearly as many of those visitors as I would have liked to.
I have to accept responsibility for some of that but I also know that some of that had nothing to do with me. Some of those people aren’t in my target demographic so they were never going to stick around.
Anyway, the point here isn’t to get lodged in a discussion about viral issues but to say that we need to establish a personal definition of success so that we can create customized goals for our blogs/businesses.
Without that definition it is awfully tough.
Adrienne
Great question Josh!
As you mentioned, I think it depends on what people define as a successful blog to them. I know that my poor blog just sat there by itself for over a year. Once I started venturing out and connecting with others is when I saw an increase in traffic and started getting comments.
To me, my blog started becoming successful when people started talking about me. I started getting a lot of comments and people were referring others to my blog. Was I making tons of money from those efforts? Not yet but I was starting to build a following and relationships with others in my field. That to me was what a successful blog really is. Other may have their own opinions.
Great question and good answer. I appreciate you sharing your views with us Josh.
Have a great weekend now.
~Adrienne
Mitch Mitchell
Man, I always seem to get to a place after you. lol
Josh
Hi Adrienne,
It is important to have a personal definition of what success is and you do. That makes it much easier to try and determine if your blog is heading in the right direction. Otherwise you can founder around and find yourself struggling.
When my blog lead to some writing jobs I was able to turn around and say that it was a source of revenue and not just a hobby. That is important.
I have read some posts recently from people who complained about how much time they put in to theirs because they didn’t feel like they were getting the kind of return they wanted.