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Attacking The Blogosphere From The Perspective Of A Psych Fanatic

May 24, 2011 17 Comments

by Ryan Critchett

All of us have individual traits that set us apart from other people. For instance. Some people spend a lot of time reacting to the accidents that take place in their lives while others immediately find the lesson and drive on.

There are, however, some common threads in what effective bloggers do that leaves a trace. That’s been my study over the last few years.

Are you a Life Hacker?

I’m not really a life hacker, but more of a mind hacker. My mission has been to dissect the minds of effective bloggers and improve my own mental performance, blogging approach and blogging capacities.

I want to talk to you about how you can get into the minds of some of your favorite bloggers and incorporate their approach into yours, and even integrate the two, for the purposes of becoming more successful and effective as a blogger yourself.

Success Leaves a Trace

Success, defined in this context means gaining an audience, commanding influence, demanding an awareness in the blogosphere and consistently growing.

A perfect example:

Nicholas Cardot from Sitesketch 101 reached 4,000 Rss subscribers and 13,000 Twitter followers in less than two years. Nick has effectively dominated the blogosphere in a short period of time, commanding awareness and building a solid community.

Give a Shit as a Business Strategy

The broadcast message is no longer the default, “giving a shit” as a core business strategy is taking over.

A blogger that epitomizes this concept is Carol Roth. She’s a very savvy business strategist and the author of a recent best seller, The Entrepreneur Equation.

Carol really helps you to critically think about your engagement in the world of entrepreneurship, from a practical standpoint. I highly suggest becoming a daily reader of her Unsolicited Business Advice blog.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it

Zero in on the methods of approach that make people as precise and effective as they are. Find your experts and start studying.

Your mission is not to replicate exactly what the experts are doing, but more to understand their approach so that you can integrate it into yours.

Reinventing the wheel is a lot harder than it looks and sometimes not worth the headache.

I’m engaged in helping people change the way they operate in business, from a functional and social media standpoint. I get more resistance than I get cooperation. The great news is, you don’t need to take it that far. Allow yourself to understand the approach of an expert and incorporate parts of it into yours.

Change it around, add some critical components, tinker a bit and measure your results. You can always recalibrate after your inevitable feedback gets served up to your face like a giant dish of unwanted pumpkin pie at a Thanksgiving dinner.

Who is Your Master

Trying to please everyone is the fastest way to fail.

Since I’ve stopped trying to tailor my messages for everyone, it has helped me to both gain targeted readership on my blog, and to maximize productivity as a result of minimizing time spent trying to please everybody.

People that break through, do so by doing the unthinkable.

The world is designed for conformity, not creativity. One of the most dominating contributors I’ve found in the success of the great bloggers is the ability to stand outside of conventional understandings and dare to be different.

I know, when people see something different, they label it different and start freaking out.

They’re like cave people discovering something new about the planet for the first time. They’ll grunt, behave oddly, poke at it and run away. People just fear change. It’s really that simple.

Here’s a great mind hack for this: replace the word different with new. Anything different brought into the world is going to challenge people’s traditional way of doing things. It may even make them lash  out but there is no change without the new. Be new and hold people’s attention.

Does this mean you should always try to challenge traditional ways of doing things? Absolutely not. Some things are best left alone and are working quite fine but if you have a better way to do something, speak up about it. Don’t be a wimp.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that authority bloggers are authority bloggers for a reason.

Anyone who becomes particularly adept in something thinks differently and is engaging differently. Your job is to learn those critical components, integrate them into your operation and continue to evolve your processes, every single day.

And remember. Be New! People are addicted to new. That is one advantage that you have over established, old bloggers.

  • What is the biggest and best lesson you’ve learn from studying someone else?
  • What advantage do you have that is uniquely yours?
Creative Blogging
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  • http://www.itinerantentrepreneur.com/journal/ Robert Dempsey

    Great post Ryan – looking forward to speaking with you this week. Now to answers!

    The biggest lesson I’ve learned from studying someone else is that I can’t take the lesson as is – I always have to apply it within my context. So as you say, it’s application of the knowledge – take what you learn and make it happen for you as well. Copying is a complete waste of time as our circumstances are never 100% the same as someone else’s.

    The advantage that I have that is uniquely me is me! Hahah that sounds to egotistical but it’s true. Luckily for all there is only one me, but that’s what I bring to the table – all of my experience, knowledge, continuous learning and insanity.

    Keep helping the people Ryan. Many need the change.

    • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

      Robert my man, me too bro. 

      Ah.. super critical identification, applying it in your context. You got it. As easy as that sounds to some of us, there are still thousands of bloggers with the same model. 

      I know what you mean. It totally is true! You have your own spin on things (a very practical and intelligent spin I may add). 

      Back atcha, talk to you soon bro, thanks for commenting. 

  • http://www.slymarketing.com Jens P. Berget

    Hi Ryan, 

    I have thought a lot about what you’re saying and the one thing that I find very interesting, is that in order to copy the authority bloggers we have to spend a lot of time. People who are successful, are successful for a reason, and that’s usually also related to how much time they spend on their business. On the other hand, I’ve also found out that it’s what Robert is saying, we need to put everything in our own context. 

    I can never be Seth Godin, Robert Dempsey or Dino Dogan, but I copy what I learn from all three and add my own personality. And since I’m Norwegian, I also add a nice Norwegian-English touch to the language :)

    Jens

    • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

      Jens my man! 

      Definitely a time consuming thing. I think you make a good point about balance. I think it’s ridiculous to copy anyone’s anything, but I do think that people take approaches to things (often hidden and hard to examine) that lead, solely, to great results. It’s developing a system, or way of approaching eliciting that information that makes what I’m writing about really work. 

      But then again, not everyone is looking to take over the world in the near future. ;)  

      Love your Norwegian-English touch! It’s awesome diversity. 

    • http://www.itinerantentrepreneur.com/journal/ Robert Dempsey

      Not sure how I ended up in a list with Seth Godin (awesome) or Dino (not so awesome :) but that’s really appreciated Jens. Learning goes both ways, and I learn a ton of you as well. Keep being yourself man as you’re awesome. It shows.

  • http://www.newbielifeline.com Sheila Atwood

    Ryan,

    Yes, the world is rigged to conformity. Creativity is stifled at every turn. It is not okay to day dream or to imagine. We see this happening more and more in our school systems.

     ”Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.” Albert Einstein

    No we do not need to reinvent the wheel we only need to make it turn by adding our spin.

    • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

      Sheila,

      Isn’t it? It’s insane anymore! Love that quote. We’ll always encounter that stuff, it seems. Good thing we have each other to counter it, and to remind ourselves that we need no other permission than our own ;) . 

      Thanks for commenting. 

  • http://kikolani.com/ Kristi Hines

    I think the best approach is to learn foundational elements from the authorities and then fine tune them to fit you and your unique personality.  

    As far as advantages, I guess mine would be my personal blogging experience which helps me bond with bloggers and my professional Internet marketing experience which helps me bond with marketers.  I can see things from both perspectives and I *think* do a good job at explaining things in a way that finds a common ground between both.  

    Plus I have a wide, wide variety of interests which helps me get in personally with a lot of people.  If you can find those personal connection points with people outside of their business, like you both play tennis or love photography, then you can establish a stronger network.

    • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

      Kristi, I agree. I like to look at what people are doing, and understand how they get results. Model that, and know what to do with the data, breakthroughs happen. 

      I think you do a good job of that too ;) Your posts are definitely easy to understand, with good information.

  • Anonymous

    Ryan,

    I’m new to this blogging thing so your post had a lot of great insight and meaning for me.

    When I was a kid, I spent hours trying to imitate the intricate movements of the awesome Michael Jordan. Trying to copy Michael Jordan didn’t turn me into the greatest basketball player but it made me better.

    I think when you study someone, the work you put into it naturally makes you better.

    • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

      Mike, that’s exactly it. 

      I’ve never heard it put that way before, and have been looking for more ways to clearly explain my methods for becoming effective in less time, by studying the contributing components. 

      You’re right, it makes you naturally better. That’s the point I want to make to people. The more you think about something, the more it actually (from a neurological standpoint) builds up the networks in your mind to be able to execute on that thing with precision. 

      The human brain is a complicated, extremely powerful thing and if you can learn how you learn, and identify patterns of genius in other’s approaches, you’re a step a head of everyone else. 

      Thanks for commenting. I’m sure you’ll do great. You have the eye. 

      • Anonymous

        Thanks, Ryan. I like what you said here – “if you can learn how you learn…” I think this is the step that a lot of people miss. They are so busy trying to figure something out, they don’t realize that the methods they are incorporating doesn’t fit their learning style.

        I personally learn visually and through trial and error. I like to take something and break it down mentally (sometimes physically), not to understand the concepts, but to see the concepts working.

        • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

          You’re right. That’s one of the foundations right there. Glad you’re with me on that one, Mike. 

          Ah.. to see the concepts working. Very awesome approach. 

  • Anonymous

    Ryan,

    You hit the nail on the head so many times, my eardrums are bleeding.

    Your post got me thinking on how easy it is to imitate behaviors, rather than understand principles. When people on Twitter or any other social network advertise themselves as ‘gurus’ all that springs to my mind is “You phony. You shameless little clone of a person.”
    It’s so much easier to try and appropriate authority, rather than build it. Developing authority is tough. You have to be in it for the long haul. 

    Contrary to what they say, the age of the expert is not over — it will never be. Information may be increasingly democratized, but the way you use it is still your responsibility, and the fact that you can get to it doesn’t mean you’ve mastered it. (But this is an old debate: back in the eighteenth century, Schopenhauer wrote that people mistook possession of books for mastery of the contents.)

    I have to disagree with you on one thing. I believe the world is designed for homeostasis, rather than conformity. Creativity does not exist as a separate category from conformity; rather, they’re two sides of the coin. People both embrace and resist the new. Does that sound paradoxical? Maybe. The apparent contradiction may be solved by positing this not as a dichotomous, yes/no, black/white problem, but one of degrees.
    People will embrace the new, but they need a little convincing first.
    And it is very true that you can’t please everyone.

    As I said, your post got me thinking. Thanks, I needed to read something like this today. 

    • http://twitter.com/RyanCritchett Ryan Critchett

      Bleeding ears! That should be the aim!

      You think that too? I’m using the word phony more than ever now, you’re right, they’re everywhere. 

      I think you make a good point. To really genuinely gain authority, you have to have a long term perspective. Interesting point about people thinking others knew the contents, just because they had the books. That makes me think! 

      Of course that sounds paradoxical! But it’s interesting to say the least. I think you make a good point.. there are many dimensions to the conformity/creativity coin.

      Ya know… I was just doing a post on thought inducing content. We need more of that! Great comment. This was a thought inducing comment! Looking forward to chatting it up more in the future about this stuff. 

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