Spin Sucks 153: 7 Ways to Succeed at Blogging

Blogging is hard. In fact, it’s often the most challenging thing a communications team can take on. They have high hopes and high expectations, but for whatever reason, it ends up flopping. Truth be told, if we’d started Spin Sucks today versus 2006, it wouldn’t have made it the three years (THREE YEARS) it took to gain traction. I wouldn’t have had the patience to keep going—just like every other executive on earth. 

It’s definitely worth it and it’s afforded my business tons of opportunities it wouldn’t have otherwise had, but making the case that you need to do it for a year, let alone three, is crazy. 

A couple of weeks ago, my youngest brother DM’d me on Twitter with a link to the Washington Post article about Trump ending his blog after 29 days.

He said:

Now you can brag about running a more successful blog than a former president could.

And not just a former president, but one who seems to think his you-know-what doesn’t stink.

If THAT isn’t something to write home about, I don’t know what is.

But yet, on June 2, Trump’s blog, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump,” disappeared from the web, replaced by a sign-up page to “receive EXCLUSIVE updates.”

In true Trump form, he told The New York Times that the decision to shutter the blog, launched only a month prior, was merely a pivot to a new social platform (surely not Facebook or Twitter, which have upheld their suspension of Trump’s accounts). 

Although Trump has not conceded that he stopped blogging due to low readership, the numbers show otherwise.

Last month The Washington Post reported dismal numbers, noting that the website housing the blog “attracted fewer estimated visitors than the pet-adoption service Petfinder and the recipe site Delish.” 

Because, you know, he would never, even admit defeat…but also, only a month isn’t that much time, no matter who you are.

While this certainly makes me laugh—and I love being able to tout I’m a better blogger than he is, we’ve all been in the spot of an unsuccessful owned media campaign—blogging or more.

On this week’s Spin Sucks podcast episode, we’ll talk about what you can do if you’re just beginning a corporate blog or owned media program—and need it to be successful lots faster than Spin Sucks.

Resources Included

* Washington Post article

* The New York Times

* The Washington Post reported dismal numbers

* PESO Model Certification

* Spin Sucks Community