Do You Speak a Different Language than New Bloggers?

I love watching the Netflix series Narcos.

Why?

Fabulous acting. Amazing stories. Plus, it reminds me of a few of my world travels. Although I never visited Columbia or Mexico, seeing the landscape and hearing the language reminds me of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Peru. I visited each country for months.

But I cannot quite follow the rapid-fire Spanish spoken in the series. Roughly 90% of each episode is spoken in Spanish. I read the English subtitles. I am moderately fluent in Spanish. But this is a different language to me. A language I cannot follow if the speaker spits words out like a machine gun. During my 2 weeks in Cusco, Peru, I only spoke Spanish for 2 weeks. Kelli took a separate trip. I lived in a Peruvian neighborhood. Talk about uncomfortable! Goodness, I had a tough time following and speaking Espanol with native speakers. But I got through it.

No doubt, speaking a different language for 2 weeks was terribly difficult in moments.

It got me thinking; you may be speaking a different language to new bloggers. Sure you recall your new blogging days. We all struggled worse than a fish flopping on the concrete. But often, veteran bloggers speak a different tongue than newbies. Forget about some of the technical aspects of blogging. That’s just the beginning point. Too many veterans falsely claim certain aspects – or most – are totally easy, seamless and effortless, when conveying messages to new bloggers.

Newbie bloggers often have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. This compounds their frustration. Imagine you are having a helluva time trying to get even 1 person to visit your blog. Rough times. Now, imagine some fancy pants, pro-blogger telling you that you need to shut up, stop complaining, and do the easy thing of placing a guest post on a top blog. Are you serious? Newbie bloggers are light years away from placing posts regularly on THEIR blogs. Forget about trying to make inroads on pitching top bloggers opportunities. Get real.

Forget being compassionate with bloggers. Put yourself in their shoes. Think about how you felt in the beginning. Nothing felt easy, for any of us. Blogging from this perspective, you can more easily write in newbie blogger language, using the right words, hitting the right points, and adopting a realistic, non-deluded, honest perspective for them.

If you just began blogging 2 weeks ago, you are still learning how to write and publish a blog post for your own blog. Tell bloggers how you respect where they are at, in their journey. Be with them. Blog in their shoes. Cover the basics; formatting, solving reader problems and hitting the mark in 600 words. Be firm, but compassionate. Be tough enough to inspire new bloggers but soft enough to not overwhelm newbies with nastiness. Find that balance. More than anything, speak new blogger language as best as you can.

Take my eBook:

Blogging for Beginners: 6 Tips to Help You Avoid the Nightmares I Faced

I lay out some freaking nightmares I experienced, during my new blogger days, to help you see I have been where you are. Speaking your tongue. Been there. Suffered through that. Now you feel better about reading my posts. I connect with you. I relate to you. Wow! Feels refreshing, huh? I am not yelling at you or telling you that you’re lazy, or a stupid dope, because you cannot blog comment like a pro after your 5th blog comment, or because you cannot write a 4000-word SEO-optimized post skillfully, your first week as a blogger.

I always like telling newbs how I cried after not being able to write 300 words, as a beginner blogger. Wow, did I feel frustrated? But today I wrote 7 blog posts between guest posts and my blog. Of course, I blogged for 15,000 hours to develop my writing skills. But I know what it feels like in the beginning.

Knowing this, we can bond more deeply….because I am speaking your language.