Gorgeous day today in Opotiki, New Zealand, as you can see.
Click this link/image:
Go ahead; I’ll wait.
This is my latest blog post on BFP. Pretty stunning, eh?
My wife Kelli and I are house sitting in Opotiki, New Zealand. This town is one of the prettiest little spots in perhaps the most gorgeous country on earth.
I do blogging breathers frequently because traveling is a core component to the Blogging From Paradise brand.
But even more importantly; I blog about my offline life to prove a living, breathing, human being with interests and flat out a life outside of blogging mans the ship at my blog. Being human allows my readers to bond with me on a deeper level because we are all human.
Doesn’t matter if you spend a month in New Zealand and share images from this eye-popping region or blog about taking your kids to school. Or maybe you share a few stories from your 9-5 job. I connect with that. I used to be a security guard in a shipping terminal.
Millions of human beings connect with your stories about taking kids to school or writing about your 9-5 job or sharing a little tidbit from your night at the movies. Humans love humans. Humans connect with humans. Human bloggers gain credibility by sharing stories from your offline life.
How often do you pull back and share stories from your life outside of blogging?
Are you doing this at all?
Blogging 24-7 Is Boring
I love blogging more than anybody. But blogging about only blogging, 24-7, is boring. Humans who blog have interests outside of blogging. If you see and feel a human behind a blog you relate with said human, bond with said human and these powerful bonds grow your blogging traffic and business like no other connections.
I used to see this blog’s owner Zac Johnson as a blogging god many years ago. He made millions as a pioneer of the online business movement. I admired him but he seemed so far from where I was blogging-wise nearly a decade ago.
But after visiting his blog I saw Zac with his beautiful pet dog. I had dogs growing up. Instant connection. He went from blogging god living a life that seemed impossible to me as a struggling newbie blogger to a human being, a lot more like me than I previously thought. A spark appeared; I need to really follow and learn from this dude.
Then we gradually bonded; I felt confident reaching out to him because he was a dog lover, and human, just like me.
Guys this sounds silly on a conscious level but on a subconscious level you need to be human and share interests through your blog to be credible, to be believable and to be reachable to many bloggers.
We befriended each other, Zac invited me to guest post on this blog and we even had lunch in New Jersey. During our chat we talked blogging but also shared how we were both basketball nuts. How neat!
Bond sealed.
These type of genuine friendships build both party’s blogging success but more than that, these bonds make blogging fun.
Same deal with me and my friend Alonzo Pichardo. He’s an internet marketing heavy and respected web designer.
One of those spark moments in our bonding was me discussing old school rap; both of us are fans.
We decided to chat about how to succeed online through his podcast and after only 3 episodes we’ve registered over 150,000 plays.
Be human.
Then allow your offline life to bleed through your blog, business and brand.
Doing so makes you more credible, helps you form genuine bonds with like-minded bloggers and makes this journey much more fun.