It Gets Frustrating!
So the time came for me post a new article, and as I sat here staring at the little blinking cursor along with my blank screen, I pondered my positioning in the blogging world now that I’ve been at it for about seven months. It’s been a long seven months, and caring for this blog has been very similar to caring for a plant. I have to nurture and feed it on a regular basis, or it will wither and die, and I have to start all over. Taking a blog under your wing is very much like caring for a living thing. It is pretty big responsibilty that shouldn’t be taken on a whim.
Sometimes I wonder if the investment of time that I put into this website is worth it at all. This is my first attempt at starting a blog, and I’ve heard from several successful bloggers that they never achieved success with their first one. Some of them have launched two, three, four or five blogs, and never found the kind of success that they wanted to find! Maybe they spread their efforts too thin, or maybe they never were able to find a niche that clicked with readers, or just maybe, it is a indicator of just how unusual it is to be a star in the crowded world of blogging?
Financial Matters
As it stands right now, my wife and I barely get by financially, and we are definitely living paycheck to paycheck. My dreams for Swollen Thumb Entertainment are large, and I want it to be a place people can go to to find original music, novels, movies, and all kinds of things. I also want to be able to have this be my primary job, and to finally work for myself. However, I made a vow that I was going to build this business with a solid foundation, and not prop it up with money. In other words, I vowed to invest as little money as possible, so that I could connect with my readers via the subject matter, and so that I could make as solid business decisions as I could. What I mean by all of this is that I will only spend money on this business that I have already made!
With this in mind, I knew that progress would be slow, and as of this date, I still have a good ways to go before I can say that I’m making a profit on this business. I do have a few more money-making ventures that I want to roll out in the near future on this site, but I feel that I need to see better results and progress on the foundation of this blog, the writing! After all of these months, the writing isn’t getting the results that I want it to, and I’ve had to go back to the drawing board a few times and rethink my approach and my strategy. It certainly hasn’t been easy, and it certainly hasn’t gone at all like I thought it would.
The Drawbacks:
- Blogging will eat up a LOT of your free time.
- You will have to continually improve what you do.
- At first you won’t receive much positive reinfocement.
- You never know which articles will resonate with people.
Don’t get me wrong, I love blogging. I honestly wish that I had started doing this years ago, because it has filled a void in my life that I’ve had for a long time! Blogging is a resonsiblity that gives greater meaning to my life. This doesn’t come without a price though, and I knew I had my work cut out for me. My expectations for starting a blog were low to begin with, and I knew it would be difficult to get the ball rolling. With this is mind, my thoughts have shifted towards other people who decide to start a blog because they’ve heard success stories about bloggers who make a very comfortable living off of blogging, and other bloggers who make five figures a year from blogging alone!
Don’t Do It For The Money
I am not just saying this from my own perspective, but the opinion of all of the successful bloggers seem to be that you SHOULD NOT do this unless you have a genuine love for writing. The very act of blogging should resonate with you, and it should be fun for you to do. You should WANT to blog, even if you don’t make any money whatsoever. Because if you don’t enjoy the act of blogging itself, you will not have the patience and the discipline to become the type of blogger who makes serious money from it!
The reason that blogging was such a natural decision for me is because I am a highly opinionated person. I’ve gone through my life having opinions on just about everything there is. It’s just part of my personality. And it’s always bugged me that people didn’t want to hear my opinions, or bother to debate them with me. That’s what I love about the blogosphere. I can put my opinions out there and possibly convince other people to share them. OR I can put them out there and people can convince me to alter my way of thinking if they think I’m wrong. It’s happened a few times before!
The Positives:
If you’re interested in becoming a blogger, I urge you to do so only if you’re like me, and want to do it for the love of doing it, not for the promise of making big money. You have a unique perspective on life, and you should share it with the world. Learning how to build a successful blog will make you into a better person. It will network you with some truly intelligent people, give you a newfound sense of responsibility, and will help you to learn how to put together more coherent thoughts. I honestly believe that ANYONE who wants to be any kind of writer should try blogging first.
So if you’re a blogger, I invite you to share your thoughts on the subject in the comments below, and tell everyone about the kinds of struggles that you’ve had with blogging. Did you ever entertain the idea of giving it up? And if so, what make you continue doing it, even when it wasn’t as fun as you hoped? Whatever your thoughts are, I want to hear them!
Trey, you are brilliant at what you do and there is no way that you should even consider giving up. At seven months the blog is still very young and virtually undiscovered, so keep plugging away mate.
When I first started blogging it was merely for SEO purposes. Then I found out it could be used for bringing in extra cash but now I do it because I love it. I have 9 blogs and my favorite makes the least amount of money and takes the majority of my time and I don’t care, as long as I continue to enjoy what I am doing.
Sire´s last blog ..Blog Me This You Blogging Fools
Many years ago, I thought about giving up my business blog. It wasn’t because I didn’t have anything to write about, or that it wasn’t making any money, which wasn’t its purpose. It was because I felt like I wasn’t able to give it the time it deserved. And, if I couldn’t give it the time it deserved, then what was the point?
Then I lost my blog. The hosting company I was using totally crashed, and I lost my website and my blog. I had all my website files on my computer, so that was easy. But I didn’t have any of my blog files. I stressed about it for a short bit, and that’s when I could have just walked away.
Instead, I knew I had a lot more to say. So, I went to Google and was able to recover every post I’d ever made, and put them all back on. Well, I did eliminate a couple. Then I started making sure I kept to at least a schedule of two posts a week on that blog. Since then, I’ve added two other blogs, and now I write more frequently than ever before. I also write for a living, which means I’m writing all the time, for others and myself.
And I’m making some money. Not as much money blogging directly, but because of my blogging, people have found me and asked me to write other stuff. See, the Laws of Attraction, which I like to tout here and there, say that if you want to make it in this world you can, but it might not manifest itself exactly how you thought it might.
So, buck up, keep writing, and if you’re looking for writing ideas visit my blog and go through my writing tips at the top. Or just follow Sire’s blog; he’ll write about anything! lol
Mitch´s last blog ..Commission Junction Rotating Banners
Heck, forgot to check the thing about following up on comments.
Mitch´s last blog ..Demand Studios
Ahhh, the olde 7-month blogging wall. I hit it too.
Blogging ebbs and flows, as life does.
If you want to get more serious about it, I strongly suggest reading ProBlogger for constant tips and tricks, spanning every possibly blogging facet you could imagine.
If it were easy everybody would do it and do it well. But NEVER GIVE UP on what you really want, NEVER GIVE UP, Trey!
Jannie Funster´s last blog ..Yes, Kids Do Say The Darndest Things
Trey, you’re a very good blogger. I know how it feels sometimes as a blogger, and it isn’t easy. You’ve been at it for 7 months, and you’ve made it far. Don’t quit now. Keep working at it and your dream of a place where people can come to get music, novels, etc.. will come true. You can do it man!
The Gooroo @ iBlogPlanet´s last blog ..Using Testimonials To Increase Sales
@ Everyone
Thanks for your kind words. I was never actually going to quit blogging, I was hoping that people who were considering starting it would read my post and realize that it’s not all fun and games.
@ Sire
Thank you. In a way, your comment here has partially inspired me to write my next article, which I am very proud of, btw. There is an awful lot of to be experienced in the blogging world, and I think we, as bloggers, should do more to share this joy with others. Thanks for commenting!
@ Mitch
I do believe in the law of attraction, and I also believe that it won’t always manifest the way that you want. That’s why the people who are usually most unhappy with their life and career are the ones who had a preconceived idea of what they wanted, and couldn’t roll with the punches. That was pretty much the point of this article, blogging isn’t going to be exactly what you expect, and it does take discipline and hard work to make it happen. Thanks for commenting!
@ Jannie
You’re right. If it were as easy as some people make it sound, everyone would be doing it. And while it does seem sometimes like everyone does it, (lol) very few people do it properly. And on a timeline, you have a sharp drop in number of bloggers versus months doing it. I’m not sure when the drop levels off, but I think it’s somewhere around the 8 month to a year mark. A lot of people decide around that time period that it’s not fun anymore, and quit. Well, that won’t be me. Thanks for the kind words and the comment!
@ The Gooroo
Thanks for the encouragement. I also have a lot of respect for what you do. Like I said, my main point with this article was to discourage the people who think that blogging is easy, it wasn’t a cry for help or anything. I do appreciate the kind words though.
I understand what you mean. You’re completely right — blogging is not easy at all. I (along with all your other readers) have a lot of respect for what you do as well. You’ll make it big some day soon!
The Gooroo @ iBlogPlanet´s last blog ..Keyword Optimizer SEO Plugin
This one resonated with me! I love your honesty and really relate to your points.
I love writing and enjoy blogging. I’m not in it for the money yet, although I need to move in that direction. It does suck up my free time and I find I write more than I read. I miss reading all the good stuff out there, and glad I found your blog.
It’s hard when you pour yourself into a post and no one cares. I’m on my second blog already and it’s hard getting your readership back after abandoning the first one. I’m still waiting for my first comment, so I hear ya.
Keep pounding.
itauditsecurity´s last blog ..Sampling Hazards
Hey Trey, it’s nice to know that I can occasionally do something that will inspire someone to write an article.
I reckon I had best find out what the result of this inspiration was.
Sire´s last blog ..WassupBlog’s Ultimate Blogging Contest
@ The Gooroo
Thanks a lot! Thanks again for your kind words
@ itauditsecurity
If there’s one thing that I am, it’s honest in my writing. It’s probably going to get me sued one day. lol.
I’m not really in it for the money yet either. I don’t make enough on my ad impressions to worry about profit yet. However, I DO use my earnings as a barometer for how successful my current strategies are working.
One thing I’ve learned though is that you shouldn’t be too concerned about your comments. Just because people don’t comment doesn’t mean that they don’t like the articles. I’ve noticed people retweeting my articles without commenting before, and other people want to talk to me about what I write, and these are people that never leave comments. Just try to accept the satisfaction of knowing you wrote a good post. Thanks for coming by!
@ Sire
Like I said before, you keep me on my toes, brother. I don’t always agree with what you write, but I like how thoughtful discussion follows you wherever you go!