I get asked this question sometimes. People want to know what tool I suggest for succeeding online. More specifically, bloggers want to know what one tool you really need to succeed. Or what tool they really need to succeed online. I get it. People want the tool or the secret or the thing to guarantee their success. But a rude awakening waits for you.
I don’t need a tool to succeed online. I don’t need anything to succeed online. The only genuine tool you need is a generous blogging mindset filled with trust and relative detachment. That’s it. That’s how you succeed online. Your mind is all you need to get started the right way. More accurately, a generous mindset is what you need to get going. I did not begin blogging with this generous mindset. I had to cultivate it over many years. That seems to be par for the blogging course.
Today I helped a bunch of people for free through my blog and guest posting. I also published a few videos on Twitter and Facebook. Everything flowed smoothly. I gave no second thought to getting anything from each creation. This is being generous and chill about things.
10 years ago, I may have created one piece of content over a week. In-between I just messed around offline. Then I desperately tried to squeeze as much as I could through that single piece of content. It was a horror fest. Eventually I developed a different mindset because professional bloggers taught me differently. Being generous, trusting in the process and relaxing about it all helps you succeed online.
Don’t get it twisted guys; certain tools are fairly necessary to succeed with blogging. Buying your domain and hosting to blog on wordpress.org means you use this platform as a tool. That would make WP your number one tool to use for becoming a successful blogger. Beyond that, not many tools are necessary. I say this from personal experience. I rarely if ever use tools.
My generosity prospered me. I became an island-hopping professional blogger not because I use specific tools that made me successful. Nope. I generously helped people for years. My generous service increased my exposure, skills and credibility. Being seen as a credible blogger with high visibility helped me go pro. That’s it.
The journey felt bumpy at times because I faced my fears and still faced some today. My generosity via my mind tool was the most important tool I needed to succeed with blogging. Toss in wordpress.org as a must-have tool but understand that without the generous mindset, the blogging platform won’t do anything for you.
Think of it this way guys; does the carpenter build a house or does a hammer? Or does the carpenter build a house or does some carpenter technique? Of course the carpenter builds a house. The hammer is just a tool. The specific technique is just a technique. Both are lifeless and flat-out worthless until a skilled carpenter puts the tool or technique – aka hammer or strategy – into action. Do you see what I mean?
Everything starts with your mindset, your practice, your generosity. My professional blogging career has largely been driven by the intangible. Nobody can measure your generosity. People may try to label it but it’s almost like a no thing. Right? What is generosity? What is mindset? Although these are energy waves, you really can’t measure generosity dependably. No one can measure someone’s mindset. But these tools make or break a blogging career.
Think of it as a mental tool more than anything. That’s all that matters if you want to become a professional. You need to be generous to succeed online. Allow that idea to seep into your mind. Then, the only physical tool that you really need is a self-hosted blog for branding, monetizing and customizing purposes. Ditto for ownership purposes. You better own your online real estate or you’re done online. Free platform bloggers get kicked off for one of a trillion reasons in a heartbeat.
You don’t want to be a free platform user because you’re not even a user, you’re just the product. Unless you pay the domain and hosting bills, you are the product and your likeness, content and everything associated with your user account is owned by the people who pay the domain and hosting. It is that simple.
Get your mind right. Cultivating a generous mindset is the tool you ultimately need to succeed with blogging. I meditate daily. I also do yin yoga. I do Kriya yoga too. Power walking daily helps me as well. These are just a few strategies that helped expand my awareness to foster my generosity but there are endless ways to be generous. Do what helps you feel free. Follow your passion.
Face your fears. Be more generous. I learn to fall in love with the process, not the outcomes. This is another quality professional bloggers tend to cultivate over the years. Some people seem naturally generous based on how their parents raise them. Others need to learn to be generous.
I am blessed in that my parents were generous but I also had some negative programming around money and success. I had to largely learn to be generous because I had some limiting beliefs to release before I gave freely without expecting much in return. But that was my journey. Your journey may be different.
Conclusion
What tool do you really need to succeed with blogging? A generous mindset. Start there. This is the beginning point of online success. After that, the one tangible tool that you will need is a self-hosted WordPress blog. From there the possibilities are genuinely endless.
eBook
Do you feel excited to hop into the blogging game but a little bit lost? I have been in your shoes. Goodness I wish I had a guide for aspiring bloggers over a decade ago when I was a green newbie online. So I went and wrote an eBook to help all prospective bloggers out there become successful online by beginning the blogging game the right way. Buy the eBook here:
11 Proven Tips for Aspiring Bloggers
