Chapter 3 ~ Biggest Lie #2 Exposed: Build It and They Will Come
Ever see the movie Field Of Dreams?
Somehow that old Kevin Costner line “If you build it, he will come” has become the staple for apparent success in blogging.
I’m not sure who, in the blogging world, first transformed that line into “Build it and they will come” but they really mislead and lied to a lot of people … even to this day.
Unfortunately, this is one of the biggest lies out there that’s being told to new bloggers.
Apparently the thinking is, that if you just write great content and that’s it, visitors will magically find your blog and blog posts.
They’ll share it, comment on it, the whole nine yards … as long as you just create it.
Interesting to think that could happen despite the fact that there are hundreds of millions of other blogs out there as well and thousands are being created every minute.
But nope … it doesn’t matter. As long as you write great content, people will discover you. As long as you’re patient enough, people will discover you. As long as you actually want to help people, then people will discover you.
People … will … discover … you!
Guess that’s why if you build it, they will come … only problem is, no one will ever shows up.
And the reason no one ever shows up is because they’ve never heard of you. And that’s partially your problem … as crappy as that may seem.
To illustrate my point, let’s use another example:
Let’s say you’re a baker that decides to create a blog one day and you’re sharing ALL of your secrets, techniques and ideas on how to bake delicious, rich cakes and other treats.
You know you can bake.
Other people have told you that you can bake.
You’ve entered various baking competitions and actually won. That’s the reason you created the blog in the first place.
Now, on your blog you include videos in your blog posts to show, step-by-step, how anyone can bake delicious treats just like you do.
On top of that, you post “insider” information on how to win at baking competitions, what judges are looking for, amateur mistakes that can cost you, etc.
Your blog is full of information that you keep on updating twice a week.
But the thing is, you never see any real results or activity on your blog. You check your Analytics and you’re getting 20 visits a day (if that) when you know that there’s people worldwide looking for the information you published.
You get no comments.
No shares.
Nada.
Though this is just an example, this type of situation happens to hundreds, maybe even thousands of bloggers every hour. So much for if you build it they will come, right?
The real truth is, YOU have to be active.
YOU have to get YOUR name out there.
YOU have to make it happen.
You can have the best, most interesting, informative blog out there but it’ll just sit there if YOU don’t give it the necessary attention and promotion it needs.
Do NOT fall for this blatant lie. Why “experts” are still telling bloggers that “if they build it, they will come” makes no sense at all.
But at least you’re now equipped with the knowledge of knowing that this is a lie and you have to deal with it accordingly.
This means that you create your content and actively promote it to various communities, forums, wherever your audience hangs out.
Remember what was talked about towards the end of the last chapter, it’s worth saying again. For every hour you spend on that blog post, you should be spending 3x that amount of time promoting it.
As long as you remember that, you should have little to no problems.