Today I opened my fortune cookie to find not one but two fortunes. It is always fun to get a little more than you expect. One was a new fortune and the other one was one I had gotten before. Who knows, if these demos go well this week then maybe fortune #2 will come true. But, since I got #2 before you can go read that post and I’ll talk about fortune #1.

You Will Soon be Crossing the Great Waters

Crossing the great waters? Hmm, I wonder if I’ll be winning another trip. I know that I’ve been getting phone calls from a cruise line saying that I won a cruise. Actually I haven’t been getting the calls, Allison has when I’ve been busy. I don’t recall entering a contest for a cruise where I would have put my home number. I did enter the twitter contests for @CruiseSource and @CruiseDeals. However that was a contest where you had to call in. So I figure that this cruise contest that keeps calling is a scam. So I don’t think a cruise is on the horizon.

What Does this Fortune Mean for Bloggers?

If I was to interpret this fortune for successful blogging then I would say that “Crossing the great waters” means that I’ll soon be bridging the gap between good blogging and great blogging. How will I do this?

How to take a Journey to Excellence

As a blogger your journey to excellence 9i.e. crossing the great waters) requires certain tools: Consistency, Voice, Value and Vision.

Consistency: I blog daily, some people say you don’t need to, I say you do. Even if you don’t publish posts daily you need to write every single day to maintain your momentum.

Voice: Find your own voice. There is nothing that makes me more uninterested in a blogger than when they simply regurgitate blog posts of other bloggers. No one wants to reread a good post by a good blogger re-posted and re-written by a less skilled one. Find your own voice and you will find an audience.

Value: Give your audience something worth reading. Do you provide content worth talking about? Do you engage your audience? I respond to every comment on this blog, Well except for the very occasional cranks, and that I think is what makes people come back each day. That and occasionally I take a decent photo.

Vision: Do you have a vision for your blog? Are you working hard to make one complete vision or are your posts scattered, unfocused and uninspired. Stay focused to your vision for your blog.