It’s bound to happen. You’re going to compare your blog, your design, your numbers, anything to other blogs. It’s human nature. If you never compare, good for you! You’re a rare breed!

Comparing your blog to other blogs is a waste. A waste of feelings. A waste of effort and most importantly, a waste of time. There is a big difference in comparing your blog to another and learning from another blog. View other blogs with a learning eye, not a comparative eye. If they do something you want to do, learn how to do something like that on your own blog (of course without directly completely copying them).

If another blog has way more followers than you, find out why instead of wallowing in the fact that they have 100 times more followers than you. I know, your blog is sooooo much better than theirs and you just don’t understand it. How about trying to figure out why this blogger has so many followers? Has the blog been around a lot longer than yours? That could be a reason. Do they advertise? Do they do giveaways? That could effect it. Can you not figure it out? Move on! Don’t get stuck on one blog trying to figure out why they are so successful. Spend some time on this site and you’ll get a lot of tips on how to build your blog.

Did another blogger get a sponsor that you wanted? Who cares?! Instead of having an “oh poor me” attitude about it, try and find out why they got it. Are they Tweeting at the brand? Do they have ton of pageviews every month? Figure it out, but if you’re just going to wallow, you’re not going to help yourself at all. To be honest, you really don’t know how hard that blogger tried to get that sponsor. Maybe they sent out emails to 50 different companies and heard 49 rejections before they got a sponsor. To assume that things are falling into other blogger’s laps will only discourage you. The truth is, nothing will fall into anyone’s lap. Getting sponsors, getting readers, getting followers; it all takes work.

Your blog is YOURS. It’s what you make of it. Nothing anyone else does on their blog should change the way you feel about your blog. You will gain readers by being true to yourself not only in your writing, but in your design, pursuit of sponsors, monetization and promotion. It will show and people will appreciate that.

This is not a rant by any means, but this is definitely a subject where some cold hard truth and self reflection is necessary.