Yesterday Court took the time to point out some of the biggest mistakes he made in his first year of blogging. It was suggested that he then write a less-modest post about what he did right in that first year. I’ve known Court since he started this blog; I’ve read every post and worked directly with Court on projects for almost that whole year.

Folks, you’re not going to get Court to write that post. But since it would provide valuable insight, I’ll write it for him. Since I’ve observed this blog very closely from day one, and worked on it directly for the last few months, I consider myself qualified to tell the story.

I will also say that although I’m going to sing Court’s praises in this post, you better not dismiss it as fluff. This blog is a thorough case study in marketing, branding, and relationship building, so you’d be wise to print this post off, put it in a prominent place near your computer, and read it every day.

With all that said, here are the four most important things I’ve seen Court do in his first year running this blog.

1. He Began With the End in Mind

You’ve heard me quote Covey before, and here it is again. I know for a fact that Court knew from the day he put his first post on this blog exactly why he was building it. Court has invested a couple thousand hours into this site, and I’m here to tell you that the only way you can sustain that kind of effort is to have an incredibly compelling ‘Why’ behind the work you’re doing. Figure out what yours is, allow yourself to develop a burning desire associated with that outcome, and remind yourself of it every single day.

How can you apply this?

Figure out what the ‘Why’ behind your blogging is, and remind yourself of it every day. Hint: “To make money” isn’t specific enough. Your blog should have a clear place in your business plans and goals. Define it, and stick to it.

2. He Utilized the Law of Reciprocity

Sorry, just trying to sound smarter than I am. The short way of saying that is Court knew from day one that you have to give to get. And if you want to get a lot, you have to give even more. From early on, I observed Court giving away every bit of information he had, along with every new thing he learned, to his readers. Several times I expressed the concern to him “Hey, man, if you keep giving it all away for free, you’ll never be able to make any money off the site.” I was dead wrong.

How can you apply this?

Write every post with a sincere desire to improve your reader’s situation, and don’t hold back. Court is proof that your audience will sense that sincerity and respond in kind. This is truly how you create raving fans.

3. He Became THE Trusted Source for His Audience

On this blog we have received literally hundreds, maybe thousands of comments to this effect:

“Thanks, Court. I haven’t seen this quality of information explained so well anywhere else on the web!”

Sure, Court has years of experience behind his posts, but he has chosen to take the time and extra effort to make sure that his audience would get a huge amount of practical information from the site. There are people with more experience than Court who can’t match his quality of content because they just won’t invest the time to deliver the message as well. Court won’t post (or allow posts) that he doesn’t believe will give his audience tangible value, NOW.

How can you apply this?

Focus on the return on investment (ROI) for your readers. They’re not giving you money, but they’re investing time by reading your posts, and more time implementing what you teach. Ask yourself, “What new skill can I give them that will matter TODAY?”

4. He Didn’t Try to Be All Things to All People.

If you read the business book Good to Great, you’ll learn that the best businesses in the world discover one thing they can be the absolute best in the world at. Rather than trying to be everything to everyone, they just stick to their core strength and do it over and over.

Like everyone, it took Court a while to figure out his place in the blogosphere. After a few months of giving good information on quite a few topics, Court published his article on Keyword Sniping. The response was overwhelming.

Soon after that he realized that he could provide the best information in the world on clean, effective niche search engine optimization and monetization. Since that realization several months ago, it’s safe to say that 80% of the posts on this site were directly tied to that topic.

In the future, you’ll see Court expand his brand to ecommerce, affiliate marketing, and more. But you won’t see that transition until we’ve said absolutely everything we can say about how to create and monetize niche blogs.

How can you apply this?

This is a tough one, because it’s more a discovery than a decision. All I can say is that you always need to be looking for that one topic, that one niche, that you are more qualified than anybody else to teach. As your audience grows, let them direct you to what you can be the very best in the world at.