Earlier this week, I read Yaro’s post, Adopt This Powerful Mindset for Successful Blogging, and it struck me as something very powerful. I know he is addressing beginning bloggers here, but there’s a lot in the post for established bloggers, too.

Yaro writes:

There is something to be said for doing an activity for the purpose of giving with no expectations of anything in return. It’s very hard to feel any sense of dissatisfaction with this attitude in place, which is why I recommend all new bloggers adopt it.

And then he points out:

Ironically, it’s with this attitude that you build a foundation that will likely make you more money than if you focused all the time on content with income as your main motivation. Stick to giving, slowly build a readership, enjoy expressing yourself and I guarantee in time your blog will realize your financial goals as well.

It occurred to me after reading this that even once the money does start to come in, when that dream of going at this full-time has become a very real, very potential thing, this giving mindset that Yaro talks about is still very important. Perhaps even more important, because when you’re standing in the face of all that potential, it is much much easier to lose track of where you came from, and why you’re blogging.

For me, coming to blogging as I did from a web publishing and affiliate marketing perspective originally, Yaro’s entire post has been a reaffirmation of where I’ve felt my blogging leading me this entire year so far.

I was one of the lucky ones, because I started out blogging as an enhancement to my affiliate marketing activities, and so I began making money with my blogging fairly quickly, just from applying what I was learning about affiliate marketing to the blogging platform.

And I also had the incredible fortune of meeting Darren Rowse, and becoming a blogger for first one, and then two of his main sites. This happened as a result of one of my very first forays into the blogosphere, my first steps beyond the small affiliate marketing niche in which I had originally started blogging.

But throughout it all, I always blogged with a “profit mindset”, and while this mindset has served me well, I have been drawn over this past year towards the giving mindset that Yaro talks about.

Personally, I think a mesh of the two mindsets is a very good thing, once you’ve been blogging for a while. If you’re making money with your blogging, it’s easier to find the time to keep blogging. But at the same time, maintaining the giving mindset gives you a great deal of satisfaction and opens up many doorways and opportunities for you.

In many ways, blogging is all about mindset. I think I’ve found the perfect combo, one that works well for me.