I really like your attitude Kevin! I totally dig that you are all out creating an amazing community of people you can connect with.

Although I have to say you can still reach the masses and have a powerful impact on them yet still maintain your small, yet supportive community of loyal Kevin fans. ;-)

Plus I think if you really want to be ProBlogger, you can; it's yours to claim if you want it bad enough. Won't be an easy task, but what a hell of journey it will be, don't you think? :-)

The only issue is health, look at shoemoney and problogger they are the 2 biggest around but lost their hair :)

Oh, simply great! Numbers are indeed status figures. I personally wonder most times if those huge numbers on facebook and twitter amount to any thing - in terms of interaction. Are they really interacting? Do they really care about one another?

I concur with you, build a relationship you can enjoy and don't just go for the numbers.

Hello Kevin,

I think blogging is about small victories which could, but also don’t need to lead to the big ones. As you said it is all about fun and interacting with interesting people.

Adam

While I appreciate your comparison to Problogger, I just do not talk to myself like that.

It is understandable that we can make powerful connections with small tribes. That is where we all started.

Correct it is not about buying the biggest everything.

I do not equate having Darren's level of success to just monetary.

There is an opportunity to find another option instead of the traditional Either /Or paradigm.

Darren has often said he is where he is because he kept putting one foot in front of the other, which sounds like what you are doing.

You reach the heights to which you envision yourself.

Kevin,

Thanks for the shoutout my friend. Really thought provoking post. I think it's safe to say many us will never been as big as a problogger. But the good thing is we don't need to be. As Seth Godin said with 1000 true fans we can pretty much have the world. I'd say when I started to focus everything on people instead of numbers, that's when everything started to make a dramatic shift.

-Srini

Hi Kevin, I would definitely agree with you that the quality friendships are a whole lot more important than just playing a numbers game.

I think cultivating relationships are pretty much my goal on both twitter and on my blog.

Take care!

Kevin baby!!

You're aproblogger to me buddy :)
I like your realistic outlook and the fact that your expectations are inline with what you know is realistic for the circumstances you are in (ie: you still need to take care of the family and the job etc)

Also, your take is spot on, and I think this was summarised nicely by JP in the comment above. so I second that :)

Oh btw: thanks for the support on, well everything really!

Respect

What Richard said. :)

We can so easily get caught up in the comparison cycle, Kevin, that this is a great reminder to enjoy where you are right now. Be consistent, authentic, and by all means, have some damn fun.

I have been building my blog one relationship at a time and that suits me just fine. It's all coming together better (and way different) than I could have imagined.

xo, LMB

Speaking of numbers, there are plenty of numbers which reflect why most of us will never join Problogger.

I haven't looked in a while, but ProBlogger was started in 2004. Darren's blog has over 10k indexed pages... hundreds of thousands of backlinks... Not only are his subscriber numbers huge, but he also has thousands of pages of content and the links to support them for search traffic.

Anyone who's starting out now has years worth of content creation, link building, community building, etc to catch up with Darren.

Hi Kevin,
I think in many ways the process of blogging really is about finding peace with yourself and what you are doing on your blog. There's no need to compete with other blogs out there. Your blog is your own personal space to do with what you will. If you are at peace with that concept, then your blog will grow as it was meant to be.

Quality vs. Quantity.. quality wins. I only play the #s game because unfortunately that's what people see as 'social proof'.

Thanks for the link, Kevin!

I think that's a great way to go about things Kevin because what happened (a lot) with Problogger was that it happened at the right place at the right time.

Thinking more realistically will let you set realistic goals (which can be accomplished with hard work).

Like you said, don't pass up the chance to play in the big leagues but be comfortable at your own level and always push to go a bit higher each time you hit that milestone.

In fact, it may not be your fault, perhaps you've been hacked? About half of the time I refresh this post I'm directed to gossipcenter.com with absolutely no way of getting back here. If this is on purpose, I'd recommend finding another advertising platform.

First time here. I have to say, the giant intrusive ads that take over my browser, and then when I click "skip ad", then take over my entire screen with a new window...are very uncool.

However, I see you around a lot, especially on Twitter so I thought I'd stop by.

I'm not sure I caught the "Why" in this post. It seems you've listed a bunch of thing you're okay with not achieving but I don't see why you can't...except for the intrusive ad bombs. ;)

I think it's always possible to achieve your dream, as long as you keep moving, keep learning and keep improving.

Kevin..TY for the mention here.. I Appreciate our friendship to man.

To me a Pro Blogger, isn't all about the numbers.. I think it is more about how many people you help. and if you are making a living at blogging.

If you can do those 2 things well, then to me, your a Pro Blogger.

As I see you and your blog grow.. I know your on your way man, just glad I could be a help to that :)

I so relate to what you are sharing in this post Kevin. I am meeting amazing people as I visit other blogs. Not only am I learning heaps as a fairly newbie blogger but I am becoming part of a great blogging community. My blog has never been about the numbers. I want to give my readers quality posts and converse with them so we can all journey together. Sure, I want to eventually be able to earn from my sourced products I am putting out there but firstly I am appreciating getting to know other bloggers. Thanks for sharing.