If you are a blogger or you are intent on building up your own blog, no doubt you’ve read time and time again that if you keep at it and get through those times when your blog is very quiet and there is little to no activity, you will inevitably reap the rewards for doing so.
After all, if you’ve spent months creating good or great content, don’t you deserve to at least now have a “buzzing” blog, which is getting a ton of comments in reply to many of your posts? Where would the motivation come from to continue if you are not seeing regular feedback in the form of comments (or at least visitor count) for all your efforts? Or indeed, if you are intent on making an income, if you are not seeing any cash flow for your time investment. Let’s face it, there are much easier ways to make money than working a blog! Or at least in the early days, weeks and months that is surely the case.
There have been times in the past 11 months since I first started this blog (just prior to the Warrior Forum 40 Day Challenge) when I’ve wondered is it really worth while continuing. After all, visitor levels have not increased that much to what they were within the first couple of months (which is my own “fault”).
On the other hand, some of my posts have attracted a lot of interaction, which is always a good thing of course. But many posts do not attract interaction. Its important to get a sense for which type of posts will encourage comments and which type of posts will not. That way you will know in advance what you are in for and you will not feel demoralized when the comments are not so free-flowing.
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So, how is it that my blog has not increased much in visitor numbers, but I’m still keen on building it and trying to better it? Its not because I had a wonderful early insight that one day I’d make an insane income from it, that’s for sure! I used to believe that and did in fact have another blog on the go before this one. It failed miserably because I had little idea and little true focus on where to take it.
Up until about 2 to 3 months ago, I was very much focused on SEO as you no doubt know. And even if you are merely working a few sites for SEO, it can be very time consuming. Even if you are outsourcing some of that work and using SEO tools for the rest of it, it can still take a lot of time and focus and its very draining of energy levels, which can then bring about something of a tunnel or blinkered vision.
A lot of your innate creativity is limited and not at all free-flowing. And we all have some ability for creativity if we know how to search for it (often its best not to search for it but let it flow “naturally”, but that is easier said than done because the act of searching can come out of sheer desperation).
What with the recent Google algorithm changes and what with the large reduction in my internet marketing income (from almost $4k in December down to slightly over $1,500 in February), its time to focus much more on my blog and move away from working pure SEO on a variety of websites.
That’s not to say I will not be discussing SEO on the blog here. I’ll have more time to read up on “new events” occurring in the world of SEO (with particular emphasis on Google), and I still feel that I can offer up some good and relevant opinions on the subject matter and not merely hot air which does happen a lot in the world of SEO commenting and line of thought.
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But to get to the main point of this post. I’m now taking something of a different direction in my career online, and its not at all something I would have even considered a few months ago or even a few weeks ago. But I sense that – apart from it being hard work, its going to be a lot of real good fun too. And I’ve made up my mind that even if I’m only just getting by with regards to an income made either online or offline – even if I am only able to pay my basic monthly bills and be able to afford a few meals out and perhaps the odd cigar and bottle of red wine 
($1,500 to $2k US per month is really fine for that and provides a very good quality of life where I currently reside in Kuching, Malaysia), then as long as I’m having fun doing what I do almost every day, then this is the most important thing to focus on and not on where the money is going to come from.
If I focus and worry about always making more money, then my creativity is being very limited and my focus is going to be blinkered too.
By taking this line of thinking, providing you have a base income that is just about enough to pay your bills (whether that income be from a j o b or from your own internet marketing efforts or whatever), you are freeing yourself up to taking on other opportunities and to carving out a different mind set which may – up till now – have actually been a hindrance to your income levels.
If you are so fully focused on making money, then you are going to be missing out on many other opportunities which may actually prove to be a lot more successful and a lot more lucrative. And I sense that this is only just now dawning on me. I sense a bit more freedom with regards to being chained down to the “make more money” mentality (many if not most of us first enter the internet marketing world with the idea that we will make a ton of money and don’t really care too much as to exactly how, even if it means occasionally treading on other people’s toes), and instead its more about the “enjoy my online work” mentality.
And what will come with that - I cannot help but feel I’ll be attracting much more positive energy towards myself and within myself which inevitably, one way or another, will lead to more “wealth” both in the sense of a much more pleasurable and worthy life journey and also very possibly a much more attractive income (without having to grind out 100+ hour work weeks).
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If this seems something of a rambling post, I do apologize. Its quite difficult to write from the heart while at the same time put the words “on paper” in such a way that it makes real good sense to others.
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So what did I mean by “if you keep at it (blogging) you’ll inevitably see more opportunity coming from it”?
Well, as a good example of this – recently I was approached by a gentleman who created a product some years previously that obviously has a whole lot of potential but has missed out on that potential due to a lack of marketing savvy or something along those lines, if I can be so bold to put it that way.
Now I am not the first internet marketer that this gentleman has approached, and nor am I the most enlightened either – what do I really know about using Twitter and Facebook as a potential marketing medium? And what do I know about writing great sales copy other than to write from my heart about products that I really like?
But the opportunity has not been right for those other IM guys he’s approached before, whereas for me and where I am right now in terms of my IM “career”, it could be perfect.
And if it were not for my blog here, then I would not have this opportunity, its as simple as that!
Due to my blog and the few things I’ve done up till now to “market” my blog (I’ve done very little, actually) this gentleman was able to find out who I am, what I have done and figure out (at least to some extent) whether I would be up to the job of us working together – whether I would indeed be an asset to his business.
Thus, you can in this case view my blog (and yours too if you are of the mind to do so) as being a bit like a huge Curriculum Vitae which is open to every possible prospective employer and business investor who has (or has not) internet access.
That is certainly not to say I’ve been writing and adding to the blog as a way to market my abilities in terms of getting employment or business investment (etc.).
But no doubting this is what will happen. Given time, more and more people will come to you too because you are building up your own credibility via your blogging activities as being something of an “expert” in your field and thus one of “the people to go to”. And this effect has every possibility of snowballing too! The more people who find you via your blog, the more people will find you via your blog, if you see what I mean.
If I was still busy beavering with my own sites and with my SEO efforts as much as I have been over the previous few years, then I doubt very much I would have taken on this opportunity. In part because I may not have been able to see the wood for the trees so to speak, and also because of lack of available time (and energy).
But because I’ve taken a big step back from the SEO grind (at least for the time being), I’m now able to focus much more on my blog and thereby I’m open to other opportunities that very possibly will come my way mainly because of the existence of this blog, over the coming months.
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Thus, the point here is, if you continue working your blog and marketing it via different pathways – blog commenting, guest posting, forum commenting (and, in my case, forum thread creation), article marketing and so on so forth, then you are opening up all forms of potentially wonderful opportunities to make real progress – not only in terms of making a seriously good income, but also in terms of working in areas that you never dreamed of doing only a few months previously.
It may even be down to a single post that you write that sparks a sincere interest from others and sets you on a path of your dreams!
If you keep on creating great content for your blog (no matter how pointless that may seem right now because the visitors are not materializing fast enough for your linking) and keep on doing at least some marketing for it and chipping away at that side of things, you’ll slowly but surely turn those little streams of visitors into larger streams of visitors, which could then turn into an avalanche of visitors to your blog.
The more this happens, then inevitably the more opportunities (and fun times) that will come your way!
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{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Well put Joseph. I think more to the point is that anything worth doing is worth doing well, and as a result, the more you will receive in the end. I can relate to this.
-Matt
Hi Matt, thanks for chiming in! I guess blogging is kinda similar to many businesses if you choose to go down that route with regards to making an income with it. If you keep at it and you maintain some level of self belief in what you are doing (which is often far easier said than done), then there is a good chance that the perseverance will pay off in one way or another.
And furthermore, you don’t even have to monetize a blog in any way to make money from it, which is what I think the vast majority of people don’t really understand.
Cheers Matt!
Hi Joseph,
Seems like your writing is getting a bit more introspective. I hope you are still going to keep at IM as you are certainly an inspiration. There are only a few IM blogs out there that do say it can be lucrative, but intense hard word. Changing it up and diversifying is not only a good way to clear your mind and get some new perspectives, but also creating more sources of income, thus a little more stability in an increasingly unstable world.
By the way, know of any good online resources (free) for images to use on my sites?
All the best,
David
Okay.. so I’ll keep my blog then..
For weeks now, I have been contemplating on whether or not to delete my blog since it has not generated any income for me. I started it April 2010 and changed it several times to different formats. At first it was a personal blog, sharing things about me and my experiences.. then I changed it to an online store, selling 2nd hand laptops.. then I changed it again to some sort of product site, an extension of our business website.. and then finally, I made it to some form of article directory, posting there some of the articles I wrote for other people to help them with article marketing. I thought that since they have been asking me to submit them to different article directories, why not post it on my own blog. At the same time, I thought that it might help me earn some money with Google ads.. Although, I’ve been doing this for more than a month now and still, I’ve not earned anything..
I’m actually thinking that it will not lead me anywhere.. that I’m better of as a writer..
Cheryl recently posted..HOW TO GET RID OF STRETCH MARKS – the eBook By Dr Cheryl Weisz- MD
I mean, that I’m better of writing for other people and earning from it..
Cheryl recently posted..HOW TO GET RID OF STRETCH MARKS – the eBook By Dr Cheryl Weisz- MD
Joseph, keep on blogging! It will be worth it. Even Yaro and Pat Flynn went through beginning stages where they had doubts but by sticking to it, they’re now making good money with a big following. I went through some of Pat’s old posts to see the amount of comments he use to get, and they weren’t much. Now they number in the double or triple digits.
I read how John Chow began by commenting on his own blogs to encourage more comments. If it’s going to get the word out and encourage discussion, why not
I’ve personally seen how good content and consistent marketing will pay off in the end. Even with the downsides to blogging, it still beats a cubical job hands down. I think persistence is the key. It’s pretty hard to fail unless someone is scamming others. But if we keep at it, eventually it will pay off.
PS. Almost finished reading 40 Day Challenge, I love it
lots of useful info. Good stuff!
Hi David, yes I’ll be keeping on with the IM stuff – I love the location independent/boss independent lifestyle far too much to give up on IM!!
That’s precisely what I am doing – changing things around quite a bit and adding in some new perspectives which hopefully will add to a more stable “condition”. I’m just not keen upon relying on Google to be paying my pension for me because I know that they are more intent on taking care of themselves than they are of me, which makes perfect sense. And in such circumstances its very natural to be focusing on other means to hedge up on the shortfall. As you say David, its an increasingly unstable world we live in.
Re free (of cost and copyright issues) images… check out this site…
http://www.sxc.hu/
You need to use the search box at the top – search categories – or else you will be provided with iStock images which attract a fee.
Regards and thanks for letting me know your thoughts David!
Jo
Hey Che, Che hey!
Blogging is hard work in the early days, months, even years. Let’s make no mistake about that. I suspect many folks who start a blog think that if they add some decent content then they’ll see an income from doing so. I too made that error, which simply leads to demoralization because it rarely if ever happens that way. Believe it or not but I purchased a “mom’s blog” from a young Filipino lady about 2 years ago. Its a great (very broad) niche to get into and can easily be monetized from many different angles, but I had no idea how to monetize it well, nor did I have clear cut goals about how best to progress with it, so it fell by the way-side. Another dumb mistake I made (and I made tons of dumb mistakes!), but I never gave up…
I think it wise to start out with a clear-cut ‘system’ in mind for your blog. Choose a topic wisely – something you really enjoy and want to share with the world, so to speak. Something that even when you are getting little to no visitors, you still feel motivated enough to keep plugging away in an effort to share your message, share your knowledge.
And you have to be prepared to not only write the content for your blog but also to get out there and let other people find out about you and your blog. So as I mentioned in this article/blog post – that would tend to mean doing stuff like blog commenting on related blogs, guest posting on other related blogs, visiting related forums and answering questions and solving peoples “problems” (ensure you have a signature link in your forum profile which leads back to your blog), going to Yahoo Answers – or whatever.
On the other hand, Tia Peterson (from BizChickBlogs) told me that mainly by adding in lots of really good content got her blog from being popular to very popular. Her blog is now a collaboration effort however (it was a one lady effort at the start but she worked like the proverbial lady Trojan to get to where she is now, and with a number of fairly clear goals in mind from the ouset, albeit those goals were re-shaped along the way), so adding in lots of fresh content becomes a lot easier when there are a number of folks chipping away at the same goals and sharing the spoils.
How about monetization though? Many folks when they think about blogging also think about making money from said blog. There’s two things to consider here, and the latter is one that I did not “get” until more recently. Firstly, if you are not making money from your blog in the fairly early days, are you still going to be motivated to continue with it in the longer term? If not, then you need to choose a topic or niche which, while it fits well with you and what you want to convey to the world, it also can be monetized in some way. So that monetization could be via affiliate sales, via AdSense, via advertising (which tends to be successful only on highly trafficed sites), or creation of your own products – be that information products or otherwise (stretch marks ebook for example!). There is another way however and that is to add value to lots of people’s lives but don’t monetize your blog. By doing that, you’ll find that folks are attracted to your blog and to you, which can then mean that you are a sought after commodity, which can then become thoroughly lucrative in terms of income. This method will generally take quite a long time to achieve (unless you are a “name” at the beginning), but if you have clear cut goals from the start then its perfectly achievable.
And its my thinking that success breeds success – the more success you gain, the easier it becomes to gain even more success – the snowball effect. So its a case of seeing through on those early successes before the struggle really begins to pay off for you.
I’ve got an idea which I’ll put to you later on today Che…
Hope you are well!
Jo
Zoe,
I never did get around to reading all of Pat F’s story – I really ought to though – both he and Yaro are an inspiration to me, as they are to so many.
I never realized that John Chow comments on his own blogs to get the ball rolling. I’ve done that too on occasion so looks like I’ve got good company!
I had a look at your site a couple of days back Zoe – I love your avatar lady! Who did that for you?
Happy you are enjoying the 40 Day Challenge eBook! I purchased an eBook the other day and although it cost twice as much as my own, the value for money is nothing close to mine. In fact, I’ll probably take advantage of the money back guarantee – I’m not the guy to be doing that but I do tend to compare eBooks that I purchase (very, very few these days!) with my own, and if it comes no where near with regards to quality content, I’ll happily ask for my money back. I guess I set my own standards high then
With regards to blogging:
I think when or if I end up starting a blog down the road it will mostly be me actually trying to help people. So many people get caught up in the “start a blog to make tons of money” mindset that they often forget that the only real reason that people who have successful blogs have them because they really take the whole “I need to make money” thing out of the equation. Now, with that being said the end goal for any successful blog is to make money but really the only way I can think of to get to that goal is to actually help people.
This is precisely why I think this blog is going to do quite well.
Christopher, you think this blog is going to do “quite” well do you?
I think the “helping others to gain success” is a thoroughly sensible way to make progress either with a blog or without. And you do make a very good point there – most successful bloggers probably do not set out on the blogging path with the thought that they are doing it to make a lot of money. They do it for a number of other reasons instead.
But I do also believe that some blogs are owned by folks who never wish to monetize or to make money from their efforts. Some blogs are set up merely to get a message across and income is last on the list of essentials.
Yes, this blog will do well as long as you set out to try to help people.
I think that is a valid point: some people set up successful blogs just to get their message across. However, since your blog is in the IM industry almost everyone who sets up a blog has the end goal of $$ in mind. The people who actually make money are the ones that are the exception to the rule and put people first before money.
Yup, in the IM industry it does appear to be so that money is higher on the list and comes well before everything else, which often has the effect of devaluing the blog.
Btw Joseph, when I’m at a friend’s place, your first 3 blog posts don’t show up. Even the comments aren’t showing (I was telling her about your website and the 100 day challenge.) We were browsing and trying to find this post.
Thank you for the comment. I did my avatar in photoshop.. it’s kinda lame but I based it on me. Since it’s a beauty blog and I wanted to make it more personal.
Your ebook has good content. I’m implementing a few things from it today. I recently bought an ebook from an IM as well and I must say, I felt so ripped off because it was full of crap, I asked for my money back.
With making money online, or in any other venture, I think it’s also the mindset of the person. I have a friend who makes six figures on eBay selling leather jackets and he only began over 12 months ago. He put in the effort but I think it was also his mentality that made him a success. The same with my friend who got his Adsense account banned by Google. He was making really good money because he was diligent with his marketing and he wrote good content. I think the reason why his blog did so well early on is because of his success mentality as well – almost every venture he goes into makes money. That’s the kind of mentality I need to cultivate myself hehe.
Thanks for the feedback Zoe! Hmmm… I thought I had figured that issue out re the blog posts not showing. The vagaries of WordPress!
Thanks for sharing my site (and Challenge) with your friend – that’s what this whole thing should be about – word of mouth as being a true measure of popularity and not all this nonsense backlinking palava! Ooops, did I really just say that??
I don’t think your avatar is lame at all – its real cool!
I’ve purchased 2 IM related eBooks over the past 6 months, one went back for a refund and the other was not much better to be honest. Money-makers for the product developer and not too much more than that!
Good to hear your friend is seeing so much success via eBay! I bet that is hard work so I hope he or she is getting a very good return for investment on the grind work. Personally (so I am finding) I’d prefer to have less money and more free time and flexibility. The thought of grinding out life to “retirement” (or an early death) appalls me!
Maybe you could provide the web address to your friend’s blog Zoe (the one who had his AdSense banned for no reason)? Haha – almost every venture I’ve gone into fails in one way or another. I must be doing things right then – often takes a ton of failure to see success, lol!
Joseph! A recent study shows that relative happiness stops increasing in correlation to earnings after you reach £46k or more (that’s just over $70k for you americans).
Carry on what you’re doing because you enjoy it, not because you want to make money.
Once you earn a decent living…surely living life is more about doing what you enjoy and being happy and making those around you happy rather than going for more and more money. Afterall…what are you going to do with all the extra money? Probably find stupid ways to waste it on things you don’t need, just to try and justify your guilt for consumerism (by ‘you’ and ‘your’ I mean a person in general, not you lol).
Many people are stuck in the whole 9-5 grind and living paycheck to paycheck because they have not much choice, nor know how to break free from it. But those of us that see the light, we can free up our timetable and spend our spare hours doing things we like, enjoy, and helping others (that’s what makes me happy anyway).
Nice big ramble you’ve made in the post…but it is enlightening.
All the best,
Ben.
Ben recently posted..Update- Week 22
Very interesting findings Ben!
Yes, I’ve been reading in The Four Hour Work Week about some of those folks who make a vast amount of income but feel empty inside because they do not have a concept of how to truly enjoy life.
I sense that many of us have a choice to break free from the 9 to 5 grind, but we choose not to go forth and make that choice. Instead, living out life in the belief that we are “safe” if we grind out a job, even if we are thoroughly unhappy doing so. And the more responsibilties we take on (in the hope that it brings us happiness) the more unhappy we often find ourselves.
Let us choose differently, Ben!
Regards
Joseph
It’s true, the best marketing is marketing you don’t have to do yourself. Word-of-mouth rocks.
The eBay friend works smart, he hires offshore virtual assistants to help him. He also outsources his products (made in China.) But he did invest heavily with his own money and it did pay off for him. He also has high margins on each product so it allows him to offer “free shipping” and able to pay the ebay fees no problem.
Here’s the URL of my mate who got banned from Adsense: http://www.motorv8.me
Poor bugger had all his earnings stripped away and wasn’t given a reason for why they cancelled his account.
Hey Zoe, yup – if you can get a profit margin over and above the eBay fees then you could well be onto something! Mind you, even if you are merely breaking even by using eBay, there’s the idea whereby you set up a website and make all further sales from there to people who have purchased from you on eBay, which should mean more money in your pocket at the end of the day – its a thoroughly solid business model, really.
Thanks for the link to your friends site Zoe. I hope he’s still able to eek out profits online, regardless Google god’s heavy handedness. Its really sad when this sort of thing happens but it can lead to re-focusing and improving on previous performance in terms of income. I hope your friend has been able to do just that!
Jo
Joseph,
Seems to me that you are on the right path… money is a lot, but not everything. We all do a bit of soul searching every now and then. SEO and zombie site building takes the life out of you and it is great to get the passion going again.
The blog I started to get some of my thoughts out is definitely neglected, not monetized and not made to look pretty. That might change but it may not. I am having a lot of fun just getting themed quality content for the readers out there on my sites and am slowly reaping the dividends from that.
Some people say that you should make achievable goals which you can control and enjoy the journey. How’s getting 10,000 pages of quality content placed on the web? Seems far fetched and a bit unrealistic but I bet I can get there.
The money is already coming in somewhat so the bills are basically taken care of. This is definitely an interesting journey, and a lonely one unless you surround yourself with good people…. and you are one of them.
Thanks,
Tom
Tom recently posted..Make Money Online within a week… no cost involved
Tom, no wonder your comment went to spam – Make Money Online within a week… no cost involved. LOL! Selling your body or something, maybe?
By the way, I’ve just deactivated a couple more plugins. Homepage still not showing?
Quoting you…
“I am having a lot of fun just getting themed quality content for the readers out there on my sites and am slowly reaping the dividends from that”.
That’s it Tom – if you are enjoying what you are doing plus making money from it, you have a really good and long-term workable combination there! Its when one or the other (or both) disappears that its time to re-assess.
Oh, shucks Tom, that’s soooo sweet and you got me all blushing! “This is definitely an interesting journey, and a lonely one unless you surround yourself with good people…. and you are one of them”.
But to be serious again, lol… I’ve managed to make quite a few “true” friends online whom I have never actually met in person. Now, if you’d have asked me a couple of years or so ago if I thought it possible to make true friends online, I would have answered in a negative fashion. I was wrong!! You can actually make real strong friendships online, even without meeting face to face – I’m a convert! More power to the web!!
Take good care Tom and keep up the slogging on and off the Warriors!
Joseph,
Selling your body online would definitely be one way to go…. haha. That post is mostly directed to the broke people not knowing what to do to survive. It’s about slaving away writing for others, except this is a sure way to get income quickly without building up any type of resume. I set up multiple accounts on one of the services with a fake resume and got through their probation fairly quickly so its a tested method. Definitely wouldn’t write about something that I haven’t tried myself.
The home page is finally showing… which meant that it was one of the plug ins that you turned off today.
It’s so nice of you to blush… didn’t know that I would have that type of an effect on you. Before coming here though I have had interaction with some other marketers but didn’t really trust them much so it wasn’t until you that I noticed… hey, some of these guys might be a bit corny… but they’re not so bad… lol
I checked out your guest post on Flynn’s blog.. nice write up.
Tom
Tom recently posted..Make Money Online within a week… no cost involved
Hey Tom, my first website was a gigolo website, LOL! That was quite some time ago however, and well before my IM days.
What is this about you setting up multiple accounts and a fake resume?
Ah, great! Home page finally showing up! That is music to my ears Tom! I can now go back and re-activate the 93 de-activated plugins!
Haha – yes, I’m corny. Deep down I’m all mush and corny-ness
Thanks for checking out my post on Pat’s site, and for your glowing feedback. Only one trollish comment thus far, so not doing too badly in that department – I thought it may attract rather more than just the one. How about your thread on Warriors? I’ve not seen any trolls lurking about there, but maybe I’ve missed something…?
Joseph,
Demand Studios is a content mill which pays for articles that go on eHow, Cracked etc.
They pay $15 per article, and I made a post to let people know how to get this money quickly. In order to see if anyone could get hired I made up a couple different resumes and applied under different names while sending the money from each account to the same paypal address.
I guess I just wanted to be sure that the system really works before saying anything about it.
I need to figure out how to get my picture next to my response, otherwise if there is a different Tom out there… they could say things and people would think it’s me… lol
Once you re-activate all those plugins the home page will probably explode… what do you need all of them for anyway
Tom
Tom recently posted..Make Money Online within a week… no cost involved
Thanks for your explanation Tom – I had no idea about all of this!
Plugins – I’m a plugin collector. Instead of collecting things like model cars and like model airplanes (as you do when you are 43 – no disrespect to anyone intended), I collect WP plugins. And if insanity has not already struck, it certainly looms!
Plugins are becoming the bane of your life at the moment arn’t they? haha. Sometimes I wonder if model airplanes would be easier?
Ben.
Ben recently posted..Earnings Report- March 2011
Model airplanes. I love the thought of them, but the technicalities of them would no doubt confound me Ben. I’ll stick to WordPress for now, even though it is from time to time a real pain in the rear