A Metaphor for Blogging - Fishing

Just this Saturday, I went on a fishing trip to Sandy Hook with a few of my friends. As we fished off the beach and casted our rods, I began to realize how much blogging was like fishing in many ways.

In fishing you need the perfect rod, the right type of bait, and the right line and sinker setup for whatever you aim to do or catch. In blogging, you need the right type of blog layout and the right type of content to catch the right type of crowd or to accomplish whatever you set out to accomplish.

In fishing you need both the patience and willingness to wait, even if, at the end of the day, all you get are a few bites. In blogging, patience is a necessity, because hardly ever does anyone become an instant success overnight. And if your blog only gets a few “bites” here and there each day, you have to learn to be content with it, even though you should always seek to get more.

In fishing, chance plays a humungous role. Maybe the fish aren’t biting today. Maybe you just picked a bad spot. Maybe the weather wasn’t on your side. Or maybe your bait wasn’t right for the fish in your area. Blogging’s the same way. According to Problogger, Darren Rowse, a lot of his success owed a lot to being at the right place at the right time. This isn’t so surprising because of the chaos and vastness of the Internet. Literally, the Internet has become a vast ocean where probability plays a huge factor in getting people to see your site.

When I finished the fishing trip, I only caught two Sea Robins (the fish pictured above). Though, my friends caught several times more fish than me, since it was my first time fishing off the beach, I was glad enough to get my two. Unfortunately for me, I also ended up catching a real bad sunburn in addition to my fish.

With all the similarities shared between blogging and fishing, it’s a good thing that, unlike fishing, blogging doesn’t give you sunburn!