I am aware that you might consider this an extraordinarily tenuous link.
Worse still, many of you may be thinking, “What on earth is cricket?” The specifics are not particularly important — I could be talking about any sport. What is important is how my experience today provides a great metaphor for the fickle world of blogging.
What Does This Have to Do With Blogging?
Bear with me for two minutes and it will all come together — I promise.
I play for my local village cricket team (very English, I know). We had a great day today. We batted first and put on a decent score. We then bowled them out for 31.
In case you don’t know, that is a spectacularly low score. In fact, in my 15 or so years of watching and playing cricket, I have never seen such a low score in either amateur or professional formats of the game. Look to a 70-0 American Football Score or a 15-0 soccer score as comparisons.
Where Are You Going With This?
Here’s the twist: I woke up this morning and loathed the thought of playing cricket. I have had an absolute nightmare of a season. I was ready to throw the towel in for the foreseeable future. I hated cricket. I was a failure.
And now? I can’t wait to get out there again. I took 9 wickets, for 23 runs, in 9 overs — my best ever figures, an all-time club record, and better figures than most cricketers could ever possibly hope to achieve in all of their years of playing. All of this, on the back of a completely hopeless run, where it felt like success was an unreachable target.
How Does This Link to Blogging?
Blogging is often just like my cricketing experience.
You might spend weeks or months working your tail off, for little or no reward. You are ready to throw the towel in, just like I was. It seems hopeless, and you’re getting nowhere. But then, completely out of the blue, you get a spike of traffic. Perhaps a big time blogger mentions you. Perhaps Google finally sits up, takes notice, and plonks your site on the front page.
All that hard work, in one moment of pure concentrated glory, becomes entirely worth it. Everything suddenly gets easier. You’re not scrounging around for scraps of traffic — people are piling in through the front entrance.
This is not a unique occurrence – ask almost any successful blogger and they will talk of this phenomenon. Almost every successful blogger was once a low-traffic, desperate blogger.
So What Can I Learn From This?
Have confidence in the quality of your content, have patience in the knowledge that success can be just around the corner, and capitalize when the traffic arrives on your doorstep. Bear those three things in mind and you can go far. When you are at your wit’s end and ready to give up, don’t give up.
And as for my cricketing future? Well, I’m certainly playing again next week, that’s for sure! Wild horses couldn’t stop me!
William says
Hi Tom
I happened to come across you on Twitter and clicked on your website. I must say I like what I see. I am currently starting my first website and your blog is providing some excellent guidance. I think I’ll become a regular reader.
With regards to your sports metaphor, that pivotal moment really begins in dressing rooms, training pitches and gyms away from the public eye. Everything in life takes so much practice but it’s not really practice if you love doing it.
I guess if you want those moments in life than you got to love what you do.
William
Tom Ewer says
Hey William,
Well damn – it only took 8 months but I finally have a comment on this, my second ever post! You have made my day 🙂
That aside, what you say is true, and is a great attitude to have.
Thanks!
Tom
Josh says
Hi Tom
It’s a year since the last comment, but here is comment number two.
I only recently found your site and was so impressed by your content that I went back to the beginning to read them all!
As a cricket fan, I was delighted to read your analogy to our great game especially on the day that Australia became the first side ever to declare in their first innings and then lose by an innings.
I guess it goes to show that even when you’ve succeeded, you’ve been the best at what you do and you have the sort of confidence they had to declare on low score, it can all go wrong in the end. You are never better than your last post
Keep up your sterling work
Tom Ewer says
Hi Josh,
It seems like I wrote this post a lifetime ago! Thanks for the comment though 🙂
Quite right you are in your summing up. Looking forward to the Ashes this summer (and winter!).
Cheers,
Tom
Tim Elliott says
Thanks for re-tweeting about this post. It’s one I hadn’t read before. Your retweet plugin seems to be doing a good job for you and I’ll be installing it once I have a decent number of older posts on my blog.
I recently blogged with comparison between my favourite sport, rugby, and running an online business. I think we come to similar conclusions – stick at it!
http://www.timeweb.co.uk/325/why-running-an-online-business-is-like-a-game-of-rugby/
Tom Ewer says
Awesome! I’m a Rugby fan myself (albeit I only tend to watch the Six Nations and the World Cup) — I suppose I have to be given that I’m from Rugby 🙂
Susan says
I am fascinated by your honesty and excited about the possibility of creating a stream of revenue from blogging. I currently am an executive officer for a not for profit association.
I dream of working from home so I can play a vital role in my granddaughters life who will be born soon. I have not designed a website and am still researching.
Tom Ewer says
Hey Susan,
I can relate to your position — part of my motivation for quitting my job and making more money was so that I could spend more time with my nephews and niece, who live 4,500 miles away from me in America. Such strong motivators can be invaluable.
Cheers,
Tom