The Challenge of Constant Growth

Regardless of what type of website, blog, or online business you run there is always a challenge to continually grow. Growth is necessary for any business, online or off. For bloggers, making money is not the only measurement of growth. Any number of things, like number of visitors, subscriber counts, search engine rankings, number of links, and Alexa rankings, can all be used as measuring sticks to judge your success. When growth isn’t happening in these areas it can be discouraging. Putting in effort with no results is not fun, and this is what leads many bloggers to eventually give up.

Ups and downs are normal and (most of the time) unavoidable. In fact, it would be boring without them. But this challenge for growth can takes its toll on any of us. With that in mind, there are a number of things you can do to meet this challenge head-on, and minimize the down times. Here are a few tips:

1 – Have realistic goals. Getting discouraged is easier when you set the bar too high. By setting more achievable goals you’ll be motivated to try to achieve them, and you’ll feel better when you do.

2 – Track your goals and results. Goals don’t do much for you if you never track them to see how you did. After tracking them for a set time period, start over with new goals to keep pushing yourself. I’ve set up an Excel spreadsheet to help myself keep track of my goals and accomplishments. It’s just a simple spreadsheet with columns for goals, actual achievements, and % of the goal accomplished. I’ve uploaded the blank spreadsheet to my website so you can use it if you like. The formulas to calculate percentages are already there for you.

3 – Celebrate minor victories. This will go a long way in increasing your motivation. Take a little bit of time to enjoy the new record number of subscribers you’ve reached, or the increase in visitors. That’s what you’re working for, so celebrate when you achieve your goals.

4 – Know what specific types of growth are important for you. For me, subscribers are more important than the number of visitors I receive. Subscribers result in long-term potential, whereas traffic can be gone in a day. But if I were selling ads, traffic might be more important. The key is to know what you want, and then set up an action plan to reach those goals.

5 – Have a strong network. Your blogging friends and contacts are a great source of information. When you need some advice, don’t be afraid to contact others that you’ve built a relationship with. Most bloggers are happy to share the things they’ve learned with others. This can help you to get through some challenges without as much struggle. Of course, you also need to be willing to help those in your network when they are in need.

6 – Turn the challenge around and use it as motivation. For me, Technorati ranking is a somewhat useless number (partly because there are so many ways to manipulate it). Even though it doesn’t really increase the value of my blog, I use it as motivation. Being a competitive person, I check my Technorati rank regularly and it pushes me to keep moving up. See if those things that are challenging you can also serve as driving forces.

7 – Be consistent. Sporadic effort will almost always have poor results. Poor results lead to discouragement.

8 – Try new things. As you’re working to build your blog, don’t be afraid to use some new methods. You never know what can work until you give it a try. Try commenting on new blogs, or submit a guest post. Be proactive and discover new ways to grow.

What other ways to you overcome the challenges of consistently producing and growing?