Out with the old, in with the… repackaged old?

Solomon told the world that there is nothing new under the sun and I can’t help but agree. Especially in the blogging world. As I spend more and more time reading other blogs and doing blogging related research I’m quickly discovering one truth that seems universal to all blogs. We’re all blogging about the same things, in the same general time frame as at least 10 other bloggers! The only noticable difference is how we package the information. You’ll notice I’m using the word “we”. This is because I am just as guilty as anyone else.

On being an original

Jesus Christ was an original. No matter your belief or lack thereof you can’t honestly sit there saying he wasn’t original. His words had impact over two thousand years ago and they have impact today. I’m not suggesting you should be writing a blog that has timeless impact on people (though I’m sure you’d love to), but I am saying that you should be original. How many blogs do we need telling us how to position and blend our Google Adsense ads? Don’t believe me?

• Make Money Online
• Kenny Tran’s Insights
• Adsense by SEO
• Naked News

There are tons more. Those are just a few I pulled off of the initial search I did for “adsense position blend” (without the quotes) at blogsearch.google.com. What do they all have in common? They’re all presenting the exact same information, but each one is packaged slightly different. And where did they get this information? If you clicked the links in the paragraph above the list I just made you’ll see where they got that information.

I’m not attacking or disparaging the writers of these articles. I’m just pointing out what we all know, but don’t seem to understand. It is hard to be an original, but the benefits of doing so need no introduction. The questions that beg to be asked; Is your content original? Is your blog original? Are you original?

Imitation is NOT the sincerest form of flattery

This goes hand in hand with originality. If you’re blog isn’t original you have to be careful to when your jumping on the bandwagon way to late in the game. An example is the “make money online” blogging phenomenon. I don’t know who the original was, but I’m thinking it was John Chow. Regardless if you don’t like John Chow’s advise why not try the advise of Carl Ocab who claims to be a 14 year old Phillipino teaching us how to make money online. Don’t like Carl? Why not check out Money Maker Info? Still not satisified? Do a targetted google blog search for the term “make money online” and see how many are listed.

Another example I can think of off the top of my head is the follow me while I learn how to make a living by blogging. Once again I don’t know who the original is but for your reading enjoyment (and their reader base) I’ll give you a short list.

• One Year Goal
• Blogadollar
• One Man’s Goal

By no means a full list just enough to get the idea across.

Breaking the mold

Now the question becomes how does one become original? I have a few suggestions that should help out.

Walk away from the computer

That’s right in addition to the health benefits of getting up and moving it will allow your mind to work without influence of others. That doesn’t mean you can’t research your topics or read what others say about things, but part of being original is having original ideas. If you can do a keyword search of your topic and it pulls up a list that would take you 50 years to get through there’s a pretty decent chance it isn’t an original idea.

Get out of oversaturated markets

It’s always easier for a fish to swim with the school than it is to swim against it. Sometimes however it doesn’t hurt to break away altogether and go it alone. That doesn’t mean you do something so bizzare that no one wants anything to do with you. It means you differentiate yourself from all the rest. The saying goes Birds of a feather flock together. The question you need to answer is would you rather be a feather or an entire bird?

Stop trying to keep up with the “Jones”

If you find yourself always trying to compete with a handful of other blogs to get articles written before they can you’re not doing yourself any favors. Being first is fine, but being original is priceless.

Review, revise, rework, and rebirth

So you’ve been blogging for 6 months now and you’re not getting anywhere? It might be time to reconsider.

• Review – Review your content for the past few months against the blogging community in general. You’ll be able to tell just how original you really are.
• Revise – You don’t need to throw all your old articles out. Breathe new life into them by revising them and making them truly original. You’ll need to decide if this is worth the time and effort it takes versus writing new content.
• Rework – Spend some time reworking the entire concept of your blog. This goes beyond the post level. This is basically a redesign of purpose.
• Rebirth – Once you’ve reviewed, revised, and reworked your blog you’ll need to bring it back into the blogging world. Remember when you first started and the countless hours you spent on simple promotion? Welcome back and this time put even more effort into it.

Is your blog an original or do you need to work at it a bit? Perhaps a more pertinent question would be does it bother you if it isn’t an original?