How to face #BlogFOMO – Blogging Tips to Keep Sane

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My definition of #BlogFOMO

The reality of Blogging

When you tell people that you are a blogger, it makes many of them smile.
"This is not a real job."    :‑[  
People dream of starting a blog and live from it, with all the false image that has been created by those who want to take advantage of that.
But the reality is Oh So different.
You know that.
But just for the fun of it, let's list all the things a blogger has to be able to do - don't hesitate to add some to the list by leaving a comment:

So then what happens?

You want your blog to be successful. So you need to learn all that you can and try all that you see because this is maybe what could make you a success.

And the fear of Missing out on implementing something starts showing up. Let's see what happens:

...

Someones says that this tips works wonders.. so you want to try...
but this other person shows the results of another technique... and that looks good!...
but let's not forget the basics... I still have not done that...
Where is my 10th To-do-list?
oh and this is a good tool for managing to-do-lists. Let's try it!...

...

You know what I mean?

Almost all bloggers are impacted at one point or another.
I was once again beginning of August.

• Infant bloggers when there is so much to learn to be able to manage a blog
• Teenage bloggers trying to grow readership and gain popularity with all the social networks and the traffic techniques - even within each places to grow traffic their are sub-divisions of techniques... so much to learn!
• Student bloggers that are trying to graduate and make a living from their blog so considering all the monetization techniques. They are all so different and make many uncomfortable because this is a major step to convince people to purchase through you or pay you.

And you never really graduate 🙂

The causes of #BlogFOMO are a combination of:
Facebook Groups - Newsletter - Webinars - Bundles 

This blogging disease builds up overtime. It can come faster to those really eager to work a lot and quickly grow their blog.
Let me show you how it grows inside of you:

1. You follow a few bloggers in your niche - wow they do a lot - I wonder what works for them...
2. They start explaining a ew things they do. Maybe the blogger recommends to join a Facebook group. Great! Like-minded people to share info with and ask questions
3. Oh learning some great things. Those FB groups are great. Oh look they recommend signing up to get this great ebook. You sign up
4. Then you receive newsletter and they recommend another Facebook group - great stuff, you join!
5. And a few newsletter later, they recommend a product. Fantastic, what you needed to get to the next level. Of course, when you purchase you get access to another Facebook group 
6. And the same way, you sign up other newsletters and join other groups with different focus... 
7. And maybe you see a great Bundle of products for a fantastic price so you go for it and it adds you to many newsletter and groups...

Before your know it, you end up receiving dozens of newsletters with valuable content and seeing content from dozens of Facebook groups in your feed.

You get BOMBARDED by Blogging Tips and Techniques

The reality of Success

When you look at the recents success in blogging (not considering the 'ancient' blogger for which the rules are slightly different), you will see that they have learned to master specific areas of blogging to build their strong base.

For example some have become experts at Facebook reach, others at Pinterest, or SEO.
Some have chosen to find out all they could on affiliate marketing, while other have mastered the pitch to get sponsored articles.

To succeed, you need FOCUS. And #BlogFOMO is the enemy of FOCUS.

Your first step - SURGERY

So your first step, is to cut the BlogFOMO tumor.
You have to pick strategies and decide to leave everything else alone for the time being. Cut through the aggregation of methods and techniques.
It has to be surgical.
No looking back!
Have a look at your blog, your audience and your own preference.

• Pick 2 methods max to grow traffic (Note: I truly believe SEO should be one of them) - to help you, read to my article that list the various options to grow Blog Traffic
• Start with 1 method max to monetize - Learning to sell yourself or a product is not that easy. But the skills learnt from one method will help a lot for the other later - To help you select it, head to my article on how to monetize a blog

It is true that you protect your blog you need several source or traffic and income in case something happens to one stream, but when you are in a growing phase, you will get result 100 times faster if you focus on specific approaches.

So write it down in Big and display it where you work (or as a screensaver).

But even with a well definedstrategy in place, you can still feel #BlogFOMO because of all the info being sent in your direction.
I have a clear strategy but still beginning of August I started having a growing case of #BlogFOMO so I took other steps to get rid of it and I am sharing these Blogging Tips with you. 🙂

That helped me a lot and I hope they will help you find your sanity again.

I know this is one more thing to do, but it is worth it, in order to feel better and restart on a fresh basis

I don't know abut you, but I have joined many many facebook groups about blogging in general or specific aspects of blogging. It is crazy. Let me count...

OMG!!! I am a member of 77 FB groups related to blogging & digital entrepreneurship!
That is crazy. No wonder I was loosing my mind.
So what I did in August (without counting) is ask myself the following questions:
- what is the best general FB groups about blogging amongst all the one I participate in?the one where everyone wants to help, and questions are at your level.
- what are the best FB groups focussing on the Strategies I have chosen to grow and monetize my blog?

For me the list went down to 
- Sharon's amazing DNW group about Blogging in General
- 1 group I use for Pinterest growth
- 2 groups I use for SEO growth
- 2 for my French Blog

For those groups, I selected to get notified so that I don't forget about them.

For all the others, I did not leave them. I just went inside, turned off all notifications and unfollowed the group so that new posts don't appear in my feed.
I can still go inside them if I am looking for a specific answer or see what is happening, but then it is on my own time, when I am ready for the information. It is not shouting at me from my Facebook Feed!

Same for newsletters.
I have chosen the best ones for my strategies and those that I want to keep reading.
For the others I did 2 different things:
- if they were too salesy and not that useful, I totally unsubscribed. Deep breath. I already have a lot of sources for information, I won't miss on anything!
- if they are quite good but just not applicable to me at the moment, I created a folder for them and established a rule in my mailing system to that they don't show up on my mailbox but are stored automatically in the file. This way, I won't see them, but they are here if later they become relevant.

We can see many collaboration offers to get links or other benefits.
I often see people jumping on it like crazy.

I recently saw a lot of people offering to host guest posts for 'best things to do in xxx city' or 'best hotels in xx city' or 'best days trips from xx'. And they were flooded by proposals despite their Domain Authority not being that high.
We are talking about writing a full post with the type of knowledge that can be monetized on your blog just in exchange for a small SEO boost!

So.
Consider each offer. Is the exchange really fair?
Don't jump on all collab opportunity. Weigh in the extra work. Would it be more profitable to work on your own blog?

What are your tips against #BlogFOMO?