This morning I broadcast a video on Facebook Live.
5 minutes after wrapping up the video I read this email in my inbox.
Note; I receive such emails regularly…..
A blogger who I did not know – and did not bother to even address me by name – wanted me to give him a backlink on my blog. As if I hand out backlinks like candies to babies, after I gave 10 years of my life to blogging, so I could help people and get featured on world famous sites like Virgin, Entrepreneur, Forbes and Fox News.
Getting featured on my blog is incredibly difficult. Similar to getting featured on Forbes. As it should be; you have to become an incredibly skilled basketball player to make the NBA, and you have to become an incredibly skilled, connected blogger to get featured on Blogging From Paradise.
The blogger who reached out to me this morning is living in Blogging Fantasyland, as are many bloggers who send me similar emails.
These delusional folks mean well, but don’t have any idea of the skills you need to develop, the practice you need to put in, and the time and energy you need to devote to becoming friends with me, to get a feature on my blog.
One Analogy
The dude who emailed me is like someone who spent 3 months practicing basketball – after never having picked up a ball, prior – and then calls the New York Knicks and asks for a spot on their roster. This is asinine. Most human beings would be embarrassed or flat out, would deem themselves insane to ask the Knicks for a spot on their roster, but why do some human being bloggers ask for a link aka roster spot on world famous blogs without having the skills to even make a JV basketball team aka landing a feature on a low level, low profile blog?
I have no idea!
Fear, delusion, and living in Blogging Fantasyland…..the Dreaded 3 Headed Monster of Blogging Failure.
Stat Check
Blogging From Paradise – my blog – has a DA of 51.
The blogger above promised me a link on a DA blog with a DA of 25.
Do they believe they can pull a Jedi Mind Trick on me?
How to Return to Blogging Reality
Follow your passion.
Learn blogging from pros like Elizabeth Kelsey Bradley.
Practice. Create. Connect.
Pros like Elizabeth will show you that it takes years of persistent, generous, diligent practice, plus creating helpful content, plus building connections by serving successful bloggers, to lay the foundation for a thriving blogging business.
Nobody will hand you backlinks.
You earn backlinks by improving your blogging skills to the point where you impress low level, then mid level, then high level, well-known bloggers.
I respect every blogger out there. But only a handful of bloggers have earned the right to be featured on Blogging From Paradise, just like I earned a guest posting gig here on Blogging Tips, and just like I earned the right to be be featured on Virgin, Forbes, Fox News and Entrepreneur.
I did not email Richard Branson and ask him for a link exchange.
I gave 8 years of my life to mastering a skill and to become a well known digital nomad who caught the attention of his writers.
There’s a reason why Virgin and Forbes and Blogging From Paradise are tough sites to get featured on: it takes a lot of intelligent work to land features on these sites, and most bloggers don’t want to put in the work!
Put in the work guys.
Otherwise, you are wasting your time.
Leave Blogging Fantasyland.
Video
Watch the video as I discuss this concept: