Any basketball fans out there?
I’ve followed basketball for about 40 years. From playing through the junior college level to following the game on the high school, college and pro levels I had seen thousands of players excel on the court.
1 particularly entertaining player comes to mind when I think about today’s blog post topic.
Tim Hardaway.
Tim pioneered the wicked, dazzling, difficult to defend crossover move adopted by icons like Allen Iverson and later, Kyrie Irving.
Hardaway filmed a series of commercials for Nike where he would say:
“I got skills.”
He had serious ball handling skills with a lightning fast, tight crossover and his entertaining UTEP 2 step move because the guy practiced like mad at developing his dribbling skills, just like Kyrie Irving and Allen Iverson.
The most direct, clear way to position yourself as a successful blogger is to follow the lead of these 3 basketball dribbling gods: practice developing your skills to become well known for your skill set.
I personally saw Kyrie practice like mad at his ball handling skills when he was a high schooler at St. Patrick in New Jersey. I recently watched a documentary about Allen Iverson where at the end of the show he explained how practicing and practicing some more is one way to mimic the moves of ballers you advice on TV.
As a blogger, 1 skill comes to the forefront of your blogging campaign: being a skilled, confident writer.
Knowing this, you should be writing 500 to 1000 words daily or more either for practice in a Word document or as guest posts.
Video
I filmed a Facebook Live video underscoring this idea earlier today:
By doing 1 thing – practicing your writing every day – you develop the skills to be a successful blogger. More than that, you position yourself to be a successful guest poster, blog commentor and eBook or paperback author.
I wrote and self-published 126 eBooks through the simple habit of writing daily. I developed my skills through practice, practice and more practice, and here I am.
Shortcuts?
No shortcuts exist in the practice game.
Kyrie would not have among the greatest handles of all time if he practiced dribbling for 10 minutes daily. Or for 30 minutes a few days weekly. He spent 6 to 8 hours a day or more practicing to become one of the world’s best bloggers.
Ditto for Allen Iverson.
Ditto for Tim Hardaway.
These guys had or have skills all ballers admire because they persistently practiced their skills to a point where they outshone the competition.
You will outshine virtually all bloggers in your niche by writing for practice daily. Toss in your guest posts, blog comments and postings to your blog and in time you will have spent thousands to tens of thousands of hours writing.
You cannot help but to develop skills. You cannot help but to become a successful blogger. All because you did 1 thing, and did it well, practicing your writing daily for months then years, while most bloggers in your niche skipped the practicing step and tried to cash in before they developed any polished skills.
Practical Tips
- practice writing 1000 words daily in a Word document
- trash the document to detach from your writing
- write and submit at least 2-3 guest posts weekly to develop your writing skills and to gain greater confidence in your writing
- write lengthy, valuable, in depth comments on top blogs from your niche
- study successful bloggers; note how these bloggers are continually practicing, developing their skill set
Once you get more comfortable with writing, as you continue to practice writing add a few other skills to your blogging skill set. I became a Facebook Live addict and my presentation through this platform has helped me build a stronger and more recognizable blogging brand.
Your Turn
What skills are you developing today? How are you developing your skills? Are you practicing your writing daily? Why? Why not?
Do you have blogging skills?