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If you ever tried blogging you may know what I’m talking about when I say, “…even though it kills me sometimes!” 🙂
I’ll get more into that later, but I will talk about the positives first about my blogging life and then some of the down sides. There are pro’s and con’s to any job or role you take on and I want to share my point of view on this role in case you want to be a blogger too.
I will go through the following:
WHY I LOVE MY BLOG LIFE!
The reasons why I love my blog life include:
Being Able To Work Anywhere Now
Remember when I boasted about getting my first laptop back in Feb? Well, I have been using it everyday since opening it that day and have been loving it.
I love being able to work where my children are hanging out instead of me being stuck in my home office upstairs and being on my desk all day.
Even when I’m home alone, I get to go on my patio on a day like this, sunny in low 80’s with light breeze, and work on my laptop all morning like this.
When I feel the mood, I can go to Starbucks for a change of scenery as they offer free wifi and I can work there while sipping a cup of expensive coffee (no, I don’t do this often!)… but hey, I get free refills on regular coffee!
It’s convenient to jump on my laptop anytime and be able to do a little bit of work here and there.
If I’m not writing, I’m doing something else like checking stats, learning something on some site, and always doing something that has to do with my online business.
The laptop life is really awesome if you can have it and I really am grateful to have this opportunity to do it.
I know a lot of people can’t do the same so I don’t take this for granted and appreciate every minute of it.
Being Able To Work On Things I Love
My blog life has really given me something I really love to do. I love technology and being online, and trying to make a living from it, although grueling at times.
I didn’t know I can write like I have been the last nine months and I’m amazed with the length of my posts and the things I’m able to write about.
Because I can do this, I feel I have finally found what I really like to do: blogging, talking about how to blog, and teaching others how to make money online too.
I also want to help others do the same thing if this is what you want to do and that is the sole purpose of this blog.
There’s still so much for me to learn and I, by no means, know it all, I’m probably still at the tip of the iceberg as they say.
But everyday, little by little, I’m able to to take more in and learn more from all the experts I follow and from the many fellow members I’ve met on the platform where I learned all this blogging business from, Wealthy Affiliate.
In my online efforts before this blog, I opened two online shops but have closed my first one shop earlier this year to focus more on this blog.
I still have my doll shop that I don’t really pursue at the moment, meaning I don’t really market it except doing a few posts a week on social media to keep it active but my passion is not sewing.
I actually never sewed before except during high school for a class. So I kind of picked it up again just to make the dolls and build that business.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved building that doll shop, I just love having a business is what it is, I didn’t so much enjoy the sewing because it was very hard for me to do.
Sure I got much better at sewing the dolls through my day and night of practicing and the business was doing well in its first year.
It was the second year when I thought things through to find other ways to make the dolls so I don’t have to. Because manufacturing them elsewhere didn’t seem feasible or practical, it seems like I have to do the sewing myself at this point of the business.
Thinking about the constant sewing didn’t make me feel good at all which was physically tiring and didn’t think that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life.
Even though I was proud of my unique dolls that I solely created, I had to think hard about what I wanted to do if I wasn’t going to keep sewing, then affiliate marketing came back in my mind.
I say came back because I tried blogging before I started my online shops, years ago now. When my kids were really young and I wanted to still contribute financially to my family, I thought of doing blogging then.
I was doing it on my own without any training or anything and trying to use affiliate marketing at that time to make money online.
Because of health issues with my sister, my blogging efforts were dropped to help her and then I never picked it up again because my focus was gone and didn’t think it was working for me.
I’m so glad I’m back to blogging now and using affiliate marketing to help me monetize my blog.
I was smarter this time though, before I started blogging again, I wanted to make sure I did it right. I wanted to make sure I will be successful this time.
That’s why I researched and researched and even paid for some programs that were just awful because their methods were totally unethical in my opinion and I didn’t want to make money like that.
I’m so glad I had found Wealthy Affiliate to help me build this blog strong from the start and now I know how to structure my posts, how to get the right keywords, and will make even more money from it in the coming year when my blog ages even more and gains higher authority.
Having my online business in blogging has been the best thing for me so far, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything!!
Being Able To Learn Things That Feed What I Love To Do
There is literally so much to learn in blogging and affiliate marketing. I don’t think I’ll ever get to learn it all but I take in little bits everyday.
Doing research on an issue that got me stuck and be able to overcome it was a huge accomplishment for me. I love learning about technical things about my blog even though it’s hard to understand at times.
I do my best and kept pressing on, then it all works out and I find my answers. It’s amazing what determination can do!
Reading and writing are really not my strong suit, but they seem to come natural to me when I blog or read about things I want to learn about for my business.
This is another reason why I feel this is what I should be doing because I don’t get sick of reading or writing about these topics that involve my blogging business! Lol
So that’s how you’ll know too, if you love what you’re doing, it’ll come easy! 🙂
WHY MY BLOG LIFE SOMETIMES KILLS ME!
Now the harder things of my blog life:
THE AMOUNT OF EFFORT WITH LITTLE RESULTS
I haven’t blogged for that long yet, just nine months, but for some, it’s long enough to call it quits.
To tell you the truth, I have thought about it too even though I love it so much.
Why? It’s because it takes a long time to earn a significant amount of money that would make a difference in your life.
Especially when your blog is about making money online like mine is! Why I started with this niche and not a less competitive niche is beyond me but I know I will get there, it’ll just take a little longer.
I put a lot of effort into my online business here, I write 5 days a week (read about how I create my writing schedule here) and I’m always doing something that has to do with this business.
My posts are not short either, I write 1,200 – 2,000 words easily per post, and most of them take 3-5 hours from start to publish ready.
Just yesterday, I wrote two posts, one 1,800 words and another 2,700 words… never set out to write that much but I did and it’s a great feeling to accomplish so much.
I’m never far from my online business either and even on weekends I still dabble a bit in it even though I’m supposed to be completely hands off to spend quality time with my family.
So the part about blogging that kills me, that most people will probably won’t talk about and will probably scare lots of people away, is the amount of effort it takes with little results in the first year.
Until your blog is over a year old, you will think it’s not work or you’re not doing it right and probably quit just before you see results.
In the first year, you will see some results, I’m not saying you’ll see nothing. I’m earning some money but nothing worth talking about yet.
I’m just saying your earnings won’t be enough to quit a job until let’s say your blog is in its second or even third year to finally earn consistently and in an amount that significantly affects your life.
Every niche is different as well, some niches start making good amount from four to six months onwards and keep climbing from there.
When and how much a blog makes depend on a variety of things as well as your own time and commitment to your online business.
There are many things along your blogging journey that will frustrate you and make you want to quit like: not ranking, not ranking high enough, and not ranking on first page! Like I’ve said before SEO is a bitch!
Not knowing what Google wants can sometimes make you want to pull your hair out! LOL
There will also be set backs… like all of a sudden YouTube decides not to let anyone earn ad revenue when your channel doesn’t have 10,000 views or more.
My YouTube Channel is young but it was already making a small amount every month, and that would have only continued to grow as I continue to add more and more videos.
Now, I have nothing until I get my channel to 10,000 views, I’m at 2,700 views as of this post.
Or, another set back when your number one product you’re promoting all of a sudden goes kaput! Bye bye revenue again.
You never know what will or can happen with your online business but I know I need to push through these bumps in the road, adapt and move on.
Success is never a straight line, it’s usually a very curvy road to success.
I love what this one member, Chris Lee, at Wealthy Affiliate said in his 3 year update:
Yes it’s sometimes difficult and frustrating and it seems like all of your hard work is not getting results but I promise you; if you keep going.. you will see results. I know that just as much as I know the sun will rise tomorrow.
This gives me so much motivation to keep going and to know that I WILL see results.
Here’s another member’s quote, JasonHeard’s, that I must have on my blog because it’s exactly where I am today and I’m just at the brink of the flood gates opening up for me:
I remember what it was like not long ago, wondering if my efforts will ever pay off….
It personally took me a combined 9 months to earn my first $61. (I’ve had friends laugh after sharing this with them).
9 months later, I earned nearly $4,000 in a single month. ($3957.59 to be exact. Not so funny).
So that means it took Jason 18 months to earn almost $4K a month! Will I sacrifice (is it even a sacrifice?) and work hard for 18 months so I can earn $4K a month from my website? HELL YES!
The success stories on that platform really keeps me in check when I’m feeling down about my results or where I think I should be.
I know I’m impatient by nature and this is testing my limits but I must work hard and continue as everyone has ever told me to do and all that I’ve read.
An internal motivation I have to keep doing this even though it’s hard at times is because this is what I truly want to do.
I want to make a passive income stream from my blog!
I want this to work for me and I want to do this for my family!
I know affiliate marketing works, and I know blogging works – I’ve seen too many success stories to think otherwise.
I’ve also tried too many things to start over again, so this blog is it!
I have to make it work, it’s really do or die! Lol I need to make this work and finally contribute to my family financially again in a big way.
I may start new blogs as well to see if another niche will be better but I feel that will only take my time away from this one. So, I will only start another one if it does not take time away from this main site.
Nonetheless, my plan is to just keep persisting onwards and continue what I’m doing, plus more.
I know one day I will reap the rewards when the flood gates open up to me.
I will be ready to receive!! 🙂
Let’s make money online!
