Have you ever noticed that when you leave a restaurant there is always a bowl of mints near the exit? From low-class diners, to high-end eateries, restaurant owners are giving away free mints. They give their patrons decent meals and send them off with a little something extra for the road.

It feels great. That just-brushed clean feeling puts a huge smile on your face as you leave the restaurant, and there my fellow friends and professionals, lies the rub.

The food may not have been amazing, but you left feeling great. You might even go back to that restaurant to try to duplicate that feeling. The restaurant owner knows this, so he will continue to give out free mints for the road.

Well, blogging and consulting is no different. Your success is directly dependent on how you make people feel.

Feeling Great

When I started blogging back in 2005, I scoured the internet for resources on how to make money online. I came across ebooks like The Rich Jerk (a complete scam), Digital Point, and Problogger. I fell in love with Problogger because every one of his articles gave me a specific action to implement on my blog. And, within six months, I was earning good money on the internet.

Now, do you want to know the morale of the story?

Here I am, nearly three years later, talking about those action items Darren gave me. I don’t remember his writing, I don’t remember his analogies, and I don’t remember his action items, but I remember he helped me succeed and it felt great.

Tip: Focus on giving your readers something they can take home with them (a mint maybe?)

Feeling Frustrated

The new growing trend in the internet marketing world is pop-up subscription boxes. Sure, they convert great, but are they really the people you want subscribing to your site?

Probably not.

The people who subscribe are probably looking for free stuff and moving on to the next website that will offer them more free stuff. This isn’t true “Permission Marketing,” a la Seth Godin. It’s tricking people who wouldn’t ordinarily subscribe into subscribing to your website.

Do you know what also happens? People like me and Leo Babauta are immediately turned off by these subscription boxes because it ruins the user-experience. It gives us an upset stomach before we eat our meal.

Tip: Make us feel great, and we’ll remember you forever. Make us feel terrible and you’ll have to work extremely hard to get us back. After all, you wouldn’t ask one of your restaurant patrons to lick a bar of soap on the way out.

The Bottom line

Your content may be mediocre, your analogies may be below par, and your sentence structure may need work, but if you give your readers or clients a mint to make them feel great, they will come back for more and consistently talk about you, your blog, and your company.

Bonus: Have you seen the main characteristic of successful bloggers? Well, it’s not happiness. It’s discontent.

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Talent? Luck? Content?

Just what does it take to become a successful blogger?

When I started blogging, I set the lofty goal of receiving 1,000 unique visitors per day. I had no idea what I needed to do as I was receiving less than 50 unique visitors per day.

I would stay up all night writing content and I would stay up all day reading websites on how to get people to read my blog.

Eventually, I achieved my goal, but what allowed me to do it?

Great Content?

Professional bloggers like Darren Rowse, Shoemoney, and John Chow regularly recite “great content” as the best way to become a successful blogger.

But was it really my content? Probably not as I was a mediocre writer.

Back then, my articles were unoriginal and boring. I actually had no idea why anyone would read my writing.

Social Networking?

Other experts like Neil Patel claim social networking is the key to becoming a successful blogger.

However, I didn’t regularly build a social networking profile. As a matter of fact,  I disliked both Digg and Del.icio.us.

And now, you are still wondering what allowed me to achieve my goal and I am going to tell you.

Discontent

As Thomas Edison once said, “Discontent is the first necessity of progress” and that is what allowed me to achieve my goal.

I was so discontent with my present situation (<50 unique visitors per day) I was unable to think of anything other than achieving my goal.

More specifically, every single day I would work with unending energy and concentration on achieving my goal and eventually I did.

I may not have done it in the most efficient manner, but I accomplished what I wanted to do and discontent allowed me to do it.

Are You Discontent?

Are you discontent with your present situation? Well, it’s time to use that discontent constructively and let it fuel your desire to becoming successful.

Bonus Tip

With discontent being the main trait of a successful blogger, comfort is the main trait of an unsuccessful blogger. As soon as you get comfortable with how you are doing, the chances of remaining successful decreases.

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