These days a person can start a thriving online business in just “8 Simple Steps”. There are so many resources out there on “How To” start a website and “The Best Way” to get new subscribers. Information is literally right at your fingertips.
When in doubt just ask Google, right?
When I started my blog just over a year ago I had absolutely NO Clue what I was doing! I knew I had something to say and I had always dreamed of writing; therefore a blog seemed like a no brainier.
So I sat down and started writing.
The illusion of “if you write it, they will come” is common among new bloggers – myself included. At first this idea seemed to be working… when I wrote something there were dozens of people showing up to read it. Dozens! I was thrilled! I had gone from zero to dozens literally overnight. But eventually I started to realize if I was going to increase my traffic I was going to need to do a little research.
It wasn’t long before my eyes began opening wide to the extensive world of running a blog.
Unfamiliar phrases and terminology were coming at me from all angles – SEO, meta data, keywords, CSS, HTML, even robots! Robots… really? I always imagined there were robots pulling the strings behind the scenes somewhere…
The more research I did the more complex everything became. It’s not enough to just write anymore, you are ultimately building a platform.
I tried to focus on learning one new facet a month. I watched webinars, and tutorials, read guides, and emails… all with promises to make me “the best” at what they were teaching me. There were “experts” on everything, all of them ready with tips and tricks to make it all appear “simple”.
It seems there are “8 Simple Steps” for everything these days.
One day I received an enticing email which promised to reveal the “5 Steps to Success” but when I opened it I was bombarded with links and references to numerous other posts with similar promises – “The 8 Golden Rules of this” and the “3 Easy Steps for that”… The more I tried to determine which one I was going to read, the more overwhelmed I became! So I closed my laptop and made a run for it!
I’d had enough!
Now, don’t get me wrong… I am in no way discounting the valuable information out there. These resources helped to get my blog where it is today… but at some point we need to back away from the computer and remember the precious resource we have as Christians that matters more than anything else – God’s Anointing!
Just before the re-launch of my site in November 2012 I was neck deep in research hoping to find the “1 Great Tip” that would help me “attract” the right audience. One day God stopped me dead in my tracks and spoke directly to my heart, “It’s my Anointing that will attract.” Wow! He went on to say, “You keep your eyes fixed on me and I will attract the audience.”
And attract He did… and continues to do.
When I finally let go of that “8 Simple Steps” mentality and simply allowed His Anointing to flow through my fingertips as I wrote – my blog soared to new heights! As I released the burden of attracting the audience to Him the only thing I was overwhelmed with was His presence.
We need to remember that God loves us and wants to bless everything we put our hands to.
God wants to draw in the audience to read what is pouring out of us through the gifts that He has given us.
While I still continue to do research I often stop when I feel I am about to jump in too deep allowing His words to flood my spirit, “It’s My Anointing that will attract.”
His Anointing is the “1 Step” that matters most in blogging… the only step that will take your blog from where it is now to where He wants to take it. You just continue to allow God to work through you, speak through you, minister through you on your site(s) and His anointing will drive in more traffic than you can even imagine. . . just let go, and allow His Anointing to attract.
“The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;” Isaiah 35:1-2a
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