Don’t Quit Your Day Job, or: What to Do When Your Girlfriend Thinks Your Blog is a Waste of Time
by Eric Sociai know, i know, the title is pretty long, but it’s important.
i started this blog last month. since then, i’ve had a couple of unique visitors, and only one comment, which was left by Ruchir over at TechnoMoney because of my previous post about his great blogging how-to site. and has that deterred me at all so far? absolutely not.
to explain the title a little bit; my girlfriend is great. but she recently told me, after i explained to her that i had set up this blog and everything, that “nobody reads or will read your blog. you have to have something to say for people to want to read it.” and she’s right. i know that i haven’t had anything of value posted up here as of yet. but that doesn’t mean that i’m not going to keep trying to find my niche and fill it with as much useful information and life experience as i can.
i’m also, as the title says, not going to “quit my day job” (metaphorically AND literally) because, obviously, i’m not going to make any money from this blog anytime soon, unless some bored deity performs some crazy miracle and throws me a bone for kicks… =P
to all you who are in the same spot i am and don’t quite yet know what you’re doing with your site/blog/whatever; listen, just because people may think you’re crazy to believe you can simply write words online and get paid for it, does not mean you should quit. think about it. didn’t you first realize it was a possibility because of OTHER people on the web that you saw making money from THEIR blogs? that obviously means that it IS possible, and honestly, i believe that ANYONE can do it if they put enough willpower into it. you’ve got to invest something of yourself in order to expect anything in return (monetary or otherwise). don’t just quit. believe in yourself and you can do anything. (tacky, i know.. but still true)
look at me. my girlfriend thinks i’m wasting my time, and even laughed when i told her i finally got a comment and it was from a 10th grader who’s been making money on his blog already. hear that? she LAUGHED. but, here i am. at my computer posting about it. as it turns out, she gave me the idea for my first really serious post (which also happens to coincide with the first day of NaBloPoMo. so it worked out perfectly. =P)
has anybody else had anybody in their life telling them that blogging-for-money was a waste of time and that they wouldn’t get anywhere? i’d be interested to hear how you reacted to them if they did. feel free to leave a comment and discuss. tell your story!
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People who know you well can often be your toughest critic. They usually do this out of love because they don’t want to see you hurt. You’ll most often get this kind of discouragement from a parent or spouse but sometimes from other friends and family.
My wife was skeptical at first, saying stuff like “Isn’t blogging something junior high girls do?”, but, as she sees earnings coming in she’s becoming less and less skeptical. Showing that you’re working toward your goal and showing results will get them behind you in most cases.
@Frank C: yeah i’ve definately noticed a change in my girlfriend’s attitude since i wrote this post.. between then and now i signed up for BloggingZoom (as you obviously know) and when i explained to her what the service did, and what it ended up doing to my traffic on the first day of submitting my content there, she was quite suprised and seemed a little more interested in this whole thing i’m trying to accomplish.
and now that i’ve added AdSense and a few other things i’m working on, not to mention a few ideas i’ve got for upcoming posts, i think she’ll start to see what i’m going for and she’ll be much more supportive.
as always, thanks for the comment
It can have a tendency to be a long hard grind, even when you hear about people who make tons of money just a couple of months after starting a blog. The important thing to remember is that they’re the exception and not the rule.
Quality information, hard work, and yeah, a bit of luck is going to take you further. And once it starts to snowball, things can really pick up quickly.
I definitely agree with Rod..quality information is key and you just have to keep your determination and good things will come to you.
I find that writing about things that are somewhat controversial/subjects that I am interested in often get lots of attention because people like to express their opinions whether agreeing or disagreeing with you.
Keep it up!
Pretty much everyone thinks it’s a joke. My dad didn’t believe I was making any money blogging until he say my 1099. Now he’s got about 10 blogs of his own. Just keep at it and ignore anyone who doesn’t really know what’s going on.
Don’t let them get you down! The trick is to just find what you like and stick to it. You can’t take care of anyone else until you take care of yourself. Looks like your site is doing good!
If you love to blog and you enjoy it, it really isn’t a waste of time. If you’re blogging for money and you’re not making any money, well that’s another question…
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