This is my second “Wanna be a Great blogger” series (by following examples of an animal).
From the book of Proverbs:
Go to the ant, you sluggard; observe its ways and be wise! It has no commander, overseer, or ruler, yet it prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat
Here the book is talking about laziness and how we should overcome it by following the “leadership” of the ants. How to blog like an ant? What does an ant have to do with blogging?
How to overcome laziness in Blogging by being an ant
- Motivation – An ant “has no commander, overseer, or ruler”
If you do a bit of research about the ants, the Queens don’t actually rule and told the ants what to do. The ants themselves know what their roles are (as a soldier, a worker, etc). It’s interesting, isn’t it? How they work without anybody telling them what to do. How about you as a blogger? Who are your “rulers, commanders, or overseers?”. Does anyone or anything actually force you to blog? What’s your motivation? Does it come from the inside or from the outside? Learn like an ant, that keeps on working without relying upon someone or something to “whip” you out! - Plan ahead – “It prepares its food in the summer; it gathers at the harvest what it will eat”
Have you actually prepared for the future of your blog? Or you are the type of “do whatever I can now, and see what will happen later”?. Unfortunately I’m the later type. I do what I can now and hoping something will happen in the future. It’s sort of works but not optimally. The ants work during the summer where food are abundant and enjoying their food during the winter. Have you actually “collected your food”? Have you done the best for your blog? Things such as: themes, content, traffic & link building, etc. You’ll never know when one day an “important” person visits your blog and give you a one-time opportunity for you. If your blog is not ready, that one chance will be gone forever!
I’m lucky to be chosen as one of the Best Geek Blog finalists by Nuffnang. I never thought this would happen. The finalists were chosen by the committee based on design, content, and user friendliness. I’m “lucky” that this blog has enough of them to be selected. What about your blog? Have you been taken care of it well? - Focus
An ant is focus in the task at hand. To be focused however, you need to have a goal. The ants’ goal here is to collect the food for the winter. Have you ever had a goal what you want to achieve by blogging? Just pure passion? Making money to replace your full time position? To be recognized in the blogosphere? If you never have a goal, set one NOW. If you already do, how focused are you in reaching that goal? An ant is only doing what it should: focus on reaching the goal. It works hard for the goal and will not stop until the winter comes.
Find out the things that make you lose focus! Run away from it! Sometimes you think that you can fight it, but you know you can’t! Facebook? Playing games? Know your own weaknesses and “run away” from it if you want to focus! - Initiative
The ants don’t just sit there idly waiting for the food to come. They go out from their nests and search for food. They go out from their “comfort zone”. Be initiative! Ask around if you are looking for private advertisers. Email those vendors if you are asking for a review unit (which I normally do to get that first “break through”). Wanne befriend other bloggers? Then take the initiative first! - Be Persistent
Ever play around with an ant while it’s carrying a food? I had when I was a kid. I purposely put a few obstacles in front of it to see what it was gonna do (I know, I was a mean kid lol). It’s funny how an ant would still keep on fighting to go back to its nest, still carrying its food. All of us have experienced ups-and-downs on our blogging “career”. The big question is, are you giving up? If you are, then it’s time to read my other post “Wanna be a great blogger? Be a turtle!“ - Teamwork
Ever felt like being alone in blogging? That’s what friends are for! When a food is too big to be carried by an ant, the other ants come and help. It’s good to share the burden with someone. Someone who shares the same vision as you. That’s what we are all here for! We understand each other and we understand how hard it is to keep on blogging especially when things get tough! Connect with other bloggers! Share your personal thoughts and treat them as you treat your real life friends (well we are all real, it’s just that we are miles away from each other and have our own personal life!)
The book of Proverb closes this section with:
How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax, and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man!
Learn from the ants! Don’t be lazy and start preparing for your blog’s future NOW!
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
An ant is the best when it comes to being industrious.
Ridiculous blogger´s last blog ..Life After Typhoon Ondoy
Your writing surely make me aware how blogger can learn from everything even from an ant. Nice writing friend.
LetUpdate´s last blog ..Learn Email Marketing from eBook
Nice writing. To be Focus and Persistent is the hard one for me.
It can be great to get out of your comfort zone every now and then – it’s such a powerful tool that might learn you a very big lesson or too as well!
Ants are annoying to have where you live, outside or inside… but they’re cool to look at it, when they set up one of their “highways” for food transportation and they have two-way traffic. Whenever two ants are getting closer, they “bump” into each other for just a split second before continuing on their path. And it’s not just something that happens every now and then, but almost all of the ants did it.
It was interesting to watch but probably not so relevant when it comes to blogging – bumping into each other as you pass on the road
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..European Union Might Ban iPhone Within EU
The substance is called “Pheromone”. They left it on the road as a trail (or the highways as you called it)
I did my research well, lol
I thought they exchange information when they bump in to each others: eg, hows your day? hows the traffic (in front)? Have you tried that new gadget? etc etc….
Casey @ Free wordpress themes´s last blog ..GenM 3
That was a nice list, I love it. If you want to succeed in blogging you have to push yourself to the limit as you said be an ant.
Michael, you just saved an ant’s life when the little creature crawled by this very second! ^^ Well, Techpatio do have a point about bumping to each other in blogging apart from all the relevant points shared in the post. The motivations I got is to be observant, persistent, and a little teamwork/care from each other is always great — a reward from the hardship that those who’re not into blogging may not understand. No matter how, I’m glad I bump into some kind bloggers along the way, including you too.
Now is it just me or anybody fancy for ‘A bug’s life’? =P
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Ching Ya´s last blog ..11 Great Posts From Readers’ Blogs
Thanks Ching Ya, the same goes to you too!
I mentioned about the Queen on the post because of the “Bug’s life” movie! In that movie, the Queen was telling them what to do, etc where as the research papers say that the real Queen only breeds and doesn’t actually order the ants around
I agree with you on multiple levels. We do need to be able to motivate ourselves and not rely on others to motivate us to do what’s important.
Congrats on being a finalist on nuffnang
Focusing on your goals is key and taking action to get to them is what we all need to do.
Who ever thought ants could be molded in blogging, interesting post Michael.
Blaine Bullman´s last blog ..6 Benefits Of Blogging
Thanks, Blaine. Oh there are lots of interesting things happening in the world, we just tend to look over it, simply because The ants are small and aren’t strong creatures by nature
When I started blogging two years ago, I asked myself why didn’t I discover blogging when I had the luxury of time to blog. The passion started to strike hot when I also had to attend to my work and studies. I wish I had much time to do all those things to become an ant, because now I feel like a turtle-blogger, lol! But I’m glad I haven’t been into facebook farming and games.
Marlene´s last blog ..Make It A (10 o’ clock) Habit
Tell me about it, Marlene.. some times I wish we have more than 24 hours a day
I have time to blog but don’t really have the time to “market” it 
Great post!
I am on the same boat as yours.
Nihar´s last blog ..Champions League Twenty20 2009 – Cricket Schedule – Match Timings – Channels Telecasting
Hello ..
Salam kenal ya …
Just thought I should drop say HI since I’ve been voting for you under the Best Geek Blog
It’d be nice to meet another Indonesian at the Awards nite!
(kayanya cuma kita berdua yang finalist orang Indonesia ya?)
Salam
Leonny
http://www.oureverydaythings.com
(Fellow blogger under Best Parenting Blog)
Leonny´s last blog ..One late afternoon @ Marina Barrage
Halo Leonny
Thank you for dropping by, I’ll make sure I vote for you when I do my 2-3 hours voting runs heh heh..see you in Singapore!
Great article, Michael! Tweeted it! An ant really is a hardworking animal, even though it’s very small.
By the way, do you remember me? You were the first commentator to comment on my blog, Gloson Blog. Now I have been blogging for 1 year already and have been enjoying the process.
Best Regards,
Gloson
Hey Gloson..that was like a year ago right?
*after looking at your blog*, Oh! Actually, it is! It was back in November. Glad to still see you around and blogging!
Haha! Thank you very much! Glad to see you blogging too! I’ve subscribed to your blog btw
Gloson´s last blog ..My Poem Performance of “Once Upon a Twice”
More or less Slow and steady win the race. good to see you back in action, I miss your post on blogging. I hope to see more content on blogging here
Harsh Agrawal´s last blog ..Free Wordpress Theme VS Premium Wordpress Theme
I know Harsh..I purposely reduce the blogging tips posts because I want this blog to be more “technology” focused
More bloggers should take heed of this sage advice
Blogging can be hard work, and there are days when you just want to let it go. But you have to keep pushing hard before it can start rolling by itself without your constant supervision. Great post.
Jen | UPrinting´s last blog ..54 Beautiful Holiday Greeting Card Designs
I really like your comments about motivation. Something inside you needs to keep you going – if you have to rely on people to keep you blogging then you really aren’t meant to blog in my opinion.
(And thanks for visiting my blog…)
Paula from Affiliate Blog Online´s last blog ..Blogging Using the Wordpress iPhone Application
Yup. Even if we rely on “something” and not someone, it still is not the perfect motivation for us to blog
Really good article, you aren’t told what to do blogging, no bosses to give you orders (unless hired by a company as a blogger). You have to know your roles, though unlike an ant which has one role in its life, you will be the worker, soldier and breeder for your blog.
Dragon Blogger´s last blog ..New Leapfish Features Coming Soon
Worker, Soldier, and Breeder? Looks like you have a bit of research about the ants yourself
The thing about having no boss and no one to tell you what to do is so true. I think that that is the hardest thing to do, to have to create everything out of thin air on your own…
Teen On Da Rise´s last blog ..2 Amazing Sites
Hi Michael…its really great to read your blog…im a blogger too..i pretend to be…just started to blog from last month onwards..i know bloging really needs lots of time and lots of efforts…i was really learning some very good stuffs from this post and i will be your regular reader from now onwards…as i started blogging.. i need more tips…and more stuffs..thanks for this post…you rocks….have a nice time and hope to have a great list good posts in the future..thanks….
Unni Krishnan´s last blog ..How i decoded the “mvc_utils.php” file in Sugar CRM ?
Thanks Unni! Glad that my post can fire you up to be a great blogger. Keep the passion up and the hard work will pay off at the end
I think when you are passionate about what you are doing, you will do it even without a boss watching over you. I have been practicing a profession in healthcare and couldn’t find what’s wrong with me why I feel so contented and unalarmed not having stepped up in my career for a little more than 7 years. And then I realized, maybe it’s not for me. I am not so passionate about it as I am with my writing. I write a lot that I need no supervision to do it. I can write so many articles a day with exceptional quality without revisions. Sometimes it pays to know and do what you love because it is with great love that we produce great results.
I have to say that I have never thought of ants like that before. When you list it like this, they do have a number of redeeming features. I usually just think of them as a pest! Great article though, those assets are definitely all needed to be a blogger.
We can always learn great things from great people. This time, it’s different
Haha well in a way, it’s true. They exchange information when their antenna meets each other. Not sure whether they are talking about gadgets though