Do you know what you or your blog stands for? If you have a blog or a website, you know that getting loyal readers is very important. They keep your blog alive and thriving with ideas and activity. they keep coming back to read your stuff because they enjoy it and it benefits them. the most important lesson in blogging however is to know what you stand for.

If you don’t know the ultimate underlying message of your blog, and what you’re trying to achieve with it, then no-one is going to stand with you and support you. In order to get loyal interested readers, it’s very important to actually know what you’re saying and what your main message is. For my blog, this message is Personal Development That Works. It’s very clear in the tagline, and from reading a few posts you get this impression.

Blogging on a macbook air

It’s aimed at improving yourself in a way that works for you, and that will actually get your results in your life. Your blog could be about anything, but you must try to have a main message and a ‘thing’ or a cause that your blog stands for. If it’s just a ‘me too’ blog, you may have heard this expression, then no-one will remember it.

What do you notice about the blogs you like to read?

If you don’t have a blog or website, then think about the type of sites you like to read and return to to get new content. What are they like? More often than not, the sites you go back to again and again are the ones with a clear message and a clear cause or purpose. For example, if you read a gardening blog, it’s a blog showing you how to improve your gardening skills and giving you useful tips. It stands for something, so you stand with it.

Hopefully this is making sense to you, and if you don’t have a blog or website, I have a guide for you if you’re interested: The beginners guide to making a website. It’s a great idea to create one because it allows you to gain an online following and express and share your ideas efficiently. If you do decide to start one, make sure to have your blog stand for something.

Why am I talking about blogging?

You may be wondering why I’m writing a post about blogging, when this is a personal development site. Well, the reason is actually 3 fold. Let me explain.

  1. I want to make it clear what this blog’s message is. Unless it wasn’t already obvious, I’m all about personal development that will work and actually help you to improve your life. The stuff I write hopefully you like reading.
  2. If you are interested in starting a blog, this may help you. Starting a blog is actually really fun, and it’s something I encourage all my readers to do, in order to voice their opinions and share their ideas. For help on doing this, I’ve written a Beginners guide to niche websites, and I have some Resources to help you out.
  3. This message actually sort of applies to your physical life as well. I’ll explain more about this in a moment, but it’s good to know what you believe in and what you stand for.

Stand For Something

In your life, you’ll meet a lot of people, each with different beliefs experiences opinions and characters, and it can be easy to just conform and go along with what the people around you are doing or thinking, but I want to explain why it’s important to have your own opinion and direction in life, and stand for something.

Try and think about what you believe, and what it is that you stand for. Is there a cause or a religion you resonate with? Don’t be afraid to voice that opinion and belief when the time is right. The reason this is important is that, specially in early life, high school and college etc, it’s so easy to conform and go along with what other people are doing or saying, even if it’s not what you really believe.

This is dangerous because not only do you acquire false friends who don’t know the real you, but you start to lose track of yourself and what you really do believe in deep down. The things you actually want in life can be drowned out by the overwhelming peer pressure to go out every friday and saturday night to drink the evening away. It’s just what the young people are doing at the moment, but is it what you want?

Of course, this doesn’t jus apply to teenagers, whatever stage of life you’re at right now, there is always going to be some sort of pressure from other people, the media etc to conform or do something you don’t want to do.

People always say ‘get a job to pay your bills’ and don’t really consider what the person in question wants to do with their life. Think really hard about what you stand for, and whether you’re being true to yourself or not.