How many people out there are creating websites and praying every day, wishing for traffic and success? A lot of people think “if I publish this post, share it on Facebook and Twitter, hopefully it gains traction, becomes viral and takes me to the next level!“
When it doesn’t work, it’s easy to be discouraged and drop off. The strong stay – they keep working and keep evolving.
But still people look at things they could be doing, methods of promotion, people they can approach to share their articles, influencers and people with tremendous reach and think “I’ll try that one day.”
Why “one day”? A little thing called fear.
People won’t admit to being afraid, they won’t take a leap or share their thoughts because they’re afraid of rejection, negative feedback and feeling like they’re inadequate. They won’t admit it and instead chalk it down to ‘a waste of time’ since it won’t work.
I got 2 quick stories for you.
I created my first website when I was 15 called Blind Eye.
I was just a young & naive teenager who wanted to show off the desktop wallpapers he made in Photoshop. I surfed the net and found many websites of other artists who were famous for their skills – and mine were pretty ordinary by comparison.
One day I came across a website called Dead Dreamer (it’s still up but much has changed in the least15 years). I saw he had a links section with 2 or 3 people in there – so I sent him an email to my site, requesting a link on his link page – and I too would link to him.
A few days later a handful of visitors turned into hundreds a day – a big deal for me back then. From less than 50 to over 250 visitors a day in one hit!
You guessed right, he shared my link.
I since tried other websites but was shot down. I eventually changed interests and worked on my career as a graphic and web designer.
Fortune Favors the Bold.
When I got into blogging a few years back I started a Martial Arts Movie website. I installed WordPress, wrote a couple of reviews and put together a Facebook page. I wrote up my ‘mission’, to watch and review a particular list of some 250 movies and then went onto Facebook and posted onto the walls of some famous Martial Arts Actors.
I then went to work and forgot about it.
When I checked my Facebook page at lunch, my whole 3 fans was now up to over 500 fans (or ‘Likes’).
There’s a guy named Scott Adkins, who plays a character named Boyka who has a cult following. He was also in Expendables 2 as Jean Claude Van Damme’s right hand man. He’s huge and one of the most popular actors in martial arts movies today – look him up on YouTube and you’ll see endless music videos put together by fans paying tribute.
This little mention kick started my Martial Arts movie blog.
Scott Adkins shared my page to his massive fanbase. Scott’s fanbase now exceeds 2 million people.
Within a few days I was shy of 1000 fans and it kept growing from there. In time Scott shared a few more of my posts and images and is directly responsible for over 3000 of my fans.
I spent 20 seconds to tell him I was a fan and loved his work – I told him that I’d “started a website I thought you’d appreciate” and inserted the link. Then 3000 fans came from that 20 seconds.
It wasn’t that long ago I reached out to a handful of the internet’s most popular marketers to share a post I included them all in, most of them shared it and drove 2,615 visitors to that one post! (more info here)
It’s an approach that works if you offer something valuable.
Don’t be afraid to reach out to the highest level for help or promotion, just don’t come across as too selfish. Stand on the shoulders of giants and make your time count. You might find that something good comes of it.
It didn’t make me, but it helped boost my momentum to get me moving and make the website popular. I’ve since had to make it work myself by trying various promotional methods and understanding my audience and giving them what they want.
Forget about fear and take action!
Fear that gains too much respect prevents action. Action is what gets results. Accept your fear but take action and it will eventually disappear. After that you’ll just be someone who takes action fearlessly.
Be bold, take a leap and put your work out there to be torn apart.
I’ve had my work torn apart more often than it has been loved. But each time my websites grew at least a tiny bit. There are so many haters out there, it’s the internet after all! Check out YouTube comments, Reddit posts, forums, Facebook or anything and you will find more haters than anything else because the majority of the world is filled people who have opportunity and don’t take it.
You don’t live in an African village, fighting to eat. You’re on your phone or sitting at your desk reading this post, so you have opportunities. Some opportunities may be big and others may be small but they’re yours and you need to take them.
Put your best work out there, listen to the critics but don’t let them discourage you. Take massive action!
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- How I created an ‘Outreach Post’ and got 2,615 visits to one Blog Post
- A Quick Lesson on Success, Marketing and Fear
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