5 Ways Fishing is Like Blogging

Okay this post is inspired by a blogging contest running on Bloggers Compete and honestly the title is what made me participate in this contest.  I wanted to compare blogging to something I had seen it done on many other sites and wanted to try my hand at it.

So I was thinking about what to compare blogging to and after recently fishing in an upstate lake with no results I decided to see how blogging compares to fishing.

So here are 5 ways fishing is like blogging

#1 It’s Called Fishing not Catching

When fishing people tell you to not expect to catch anything on your first cast or even maybe in the first hour, you can fish for a hours or even a full day and not catch a fish.  Maybe you didn’t use the right bait, or maybe you didn’t hit the right time or season.  Who knows, but blogging compares to fishing except you are trying to catch readers or an audience and instead of catching them one at a time you are trying to catch schools of readers at once.

#2 When Fishing Blogging Use the Right Bait

Hey, when fishing if you use the wrong bait for the fish you are trying to catch then you will end up catching nothing or the wrong type of fish (if lucky).  When blogging you have to target your article or even your whole site to a specific audience.  Know which readers you are trying to catch and make sure you write for those fish.  After all you aren’t trying to catch a technology readers with a celebrity article?

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#3 Reel Slowly When Fish Reader is Hooked

So your fish reader has just bitten and clicked on the link, now you want to make sure you draw and keep their attention by slowly reeling them in.  Draw them into your first paragraph and each subsequent paragraph with fresh quality content.  If you cut in too short with a useless short article or scare them off with a splash page or big ad in their face they will cut and run.

#4 Aim for the Big Fish

In some cases you aren’t interested in catching small fish that are barely legal limit, this is nothing to be proud of and won’t put enough food on the table.  In blogging sometimes you want to attract a bigger fish, this could mean a larger crowd or even someone who has more notoriety and status and therefore if they enjoyed the article they may share it and cause it to reach an audience far wider than you would have been able to reach on your own.

So find a big fish in your niche and write something about them, their site.  Then share the article with them, bug them about it and maybe they will enjoy it and share it to a much larger audience which could get some readers.

#5 Don’t Quit Fishing Blogging

Fishermen don’t quit if they don’t catch anything after a few hours or even if they don’t catch anything the whole day.  They keep coming back next time to keep trying to fish, trying different baits, lures, times of day, lakes…etc.  There are always new tactics, niches, ways to try and attract readership and one size does not fit all.

Never stop trying and if you find you have a passion for blogging don’t stop experimenting with new ways to attract fish because once the schools start coming you will find they will gradually keep building up into long time readers.

There, what did you think of my 5 comparisons of fishing to blogging?  Share your feedback and help me win the contest.

Bloggers Compete is always looking for bloggers who want to create contests and get more participants.  It is a useful site if you want coordinate your blogging contests in one location and keep track of everyone who enters.  With Bloggers Compete you get to engage with bloggers by setting contests where they have to write posts or blog entries to participate and this in turn puts you in touch with other bloggers and helps build your social networking in addition to gaining quality backlinks from other blogs for hosting a contest.

This is my second entry into a Bloggers Compete contest, and I am looking to start a contest of my own soon there.

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-Justin Germino