A 2-Minute Guide To Staying Motivated As A Blogger When You Have No Readers

Last week I crossed 400 subscribers on Youtube.

I heard Casey Neistat, a guy with 9,000,000+ subscribers, say this about growing a following once:

• Crossing 100 subscribers is hard

• Crossing 1,000 subscribers is easier than crossing your first 100

• Crossing 10,000 subscribers is easier than crossing your first 1,000

• Crossing 100,000 subscribers is easier than crossing 10,000

And so on and so forth.

The point is, it’s always toughest in the very beginning of your journey growing a following. This is where 99% of the real work lies.

But most people quit before they get anywhere near 1,000 subscribers on Youtube, or 1,000 followers on Medium.

So, how do you stay motivated when you’re hitting brick wall after brick wall?

I’ll tell you.

Celebrate Every Little Win You Get

Did an article get 5–10x the normal views you typically get?

Great. Celebrate that.

And use that as a market signal that you’re a good writer and can repeat that again in the future.

Honestly, if I write 20 posts and 19 of them bomb, I’m okay with that. At least I know that one of them succeeded and I can figure out a way to write a similar article in the future to get more views.

All the time I see writers who write a viral article lose interest after the next 4 articles they write crash and burn.

The other day I got this comment from somebody:

That’s all the encouragement I need to carry me through making the next 50 videos. When you’re starting out, you won’t get that much encouragement from people. You’ll be lucky to get one comment every few weeks that makes you feel amazing.

The key is to latch yourself on to every comment you get — every small win — and use that as motivation to keep going.

You need to learn how to make mountains out of molehills.

Buy a cake when someone comments that they loved your article. Great. You’re resonating. So many people expect so much when they write online. They expect to have 1,000 followers and 10,000+ view articles within the first month or something.

Sorry, that’s probably not going to happen.

So lower your expectations down to a dirt floor level and celebrate every crumb people pass your way. I truly believe that’s the secret to growing a following online.

Get my free 5-day course about how to get your first 1,000 followers on Medium right here. :)