If you want to be great, think great.
Here are some my favorite blogging mindset and brain ticklers from around the web.
The 10x Method: Why Good, Unique Content Needs to Die
- By: Rand Fishkin
- Go to the Source!
An incredible thinktank dissertation from Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz. He explains why “good enough” isn’t, well good enough. And with over 500 million blogs in the U.S. (and counting) as of 2021, I think he’s on to something.
But the real gems are in the comment section. Moz debates risk, content length, scalability, and other side effects of 10x content with other SEOs. Go educate yourself and spend some time in the comments!
Purdue University OWL
- By: Purdue University
- Go to the Source!
Beloved by writers around the world, the Purdue Online Writing Laboratory (OWL) teaches students, authors, and businesspeople how to write in changing world. The OWL serves everyone from students to authors to researchers – and I consider it a necessary resource for every blogger!
Getting to $4,000 a Month On Your Blog (A Real Timeline)
- By: Income School
- Go to the source!
Should be required viewing for any new blogger. Dispels any pie-in-the-sky notions of get-rick-quick-ness. The guys at Income School break down a realistic timeline for achieving a full-time income on a well-built, average blog.
How I Started a Blog and Made $1 Million (in Under Two Years)
- By: Adam Enfroy
- Go to the Source!
No, I’m not suggesting you’ll be the next Adam Enfroy. You won’t. He’s an affiliate marketing manager-turned-blogger-himself, and he leveraged all his professional skills to found what’s become the fastest-growing affiliate blog of all time.
And Adam is the first to admit that he’s one of the gurus who made most of his money teaching … well, other people how to make money.
No, go visit his blog to see how one of the world’s most successful affiliate marketers does business. Examine his ad layouts. See when, where, and how often he includes affiliate links. His entire website is a living, breathing sales funnel. Monkey see, monkey do!
Backlinko (by Brian Dean) Sitemap
- By: Brian Dean
- Go to the source!
If you click the link above, you’ll be redirected to a sitemap.
Which is kind of weird. But it’s one of the tricks I use to navigate a website, learn about its architecture, and learn its history.
Backlinko is rather famous for rising quickly to fame with just a few dozen posts. Dean followed the 10x Content rule, and his SEO blog quickly became one of the web’s (and my) favorite SEO sources! I love Backlinko for its high production value, original studies and analysis, and practical tools.
Anyways, navigating the blog’s sitemap (hint: you can find most websites’ sitemaps by pasting /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml after the domain address) is a quick survey of popular topics and what posts are recently updated.
Take notice of the image count! Most backlink posts are chock-full of graphs, charts, images, and visuals.