Introduction
It has been officially 7 months now since I started my blog. I have been working so hard on it ever since along with my other social media related accounts. Recently, I had to make a hard decision as to what to do with it in the future after speaking to several other bloggers and after analyzing my own performance. Although to me, it does not really feel like a hard decision, because I know it is for the better, it still remains a major pivot compared to the more traditional path that any aspiring blogger should take.
What I Learned From My Mastermind Meetings
Like I said previously, I wanted to join mastermind groups after hearing that advice from MrBeast (one of the most successful content creators on YouTube). Being part of one really opened my eyes as to what exactly I was getting myself into. What struck me the most was just how much more experienced and knowledgeable other bloggers were and yet, unlike me, they were not unemployed 🤨😅. Everyone I met all had separate jobs and/or businesses which kind of makes sense considering it is after all the definition of a side-hustle (something you do along with a paid job). On that note, I discovered from talking to them that very few are actually obsessed and passionate about purely blogging. Instead of obsessing over small details and overanalyzing, they simply stick to the basics of publishing some articles that will rank and making sure their websites perform well enough (pretty logo, design, readability, etc.). In my case, I was trying to inspect every 1% detail I could from articles such as trying Instagram embed links, YouTube links or subtle things like that. A meeting that really changed my perspective was with Kathleen Trewin from Lifebykathleen. She basically laid out what my future may look like if I were to pursue it long-term like she did for 10 years. She did exactly what I am doing right now when she started so she is literally the most relatable I could find. Long story short, my life would consist of publishing blog posts, optimizing the keywords, advertising new posts on social media, learning from other bloggers (through courses and masterminds), repeating the process and just letting it grow over time. She still worked at a job and with her husband’s company so blogging was never her main source of income. She worked on it probably for 10-20 hours per week along with her studies, work and family. She was very honest and she said that she never hit even large 5 figure numbers (more than 10 000 USD$) per year from her 10 hard years of blogging despite continuously learning and having mastermind meetings!! That was a serious reality check for me making me really realize that I will never truly achieve crazy wealth from it. I have really pondered on that lately and I really felt somewhat discouraged to be completely honest.
Slowing Down On Documenting
I had this obsession of documenting through writing as much as I can my life which I will refrain from doing now that I have spoken to other bloggers. I can’t possibly write down everything and trying to do so will turn me insane. On top of that, I will publish less frequently. Because I set out for myself the goal of publishing in three languages, I now know for a fact after doing it for 7 months that I will burn out miserably if I keep going like this. That is because publishing three new articles per week (in English) would be the equivalent of 9 articles in total. Consequently, that would also mean that I would have to write more than one post on certain days. The more articles I can pump out in English, the more I would of them I would have to translate. In theory, I know I can write more than 3 articles per week ( and I have done it several times), but the translation part will drain me badly. It will clearly take a toll on me especially because I also have YouTube channels to run. If I was going to grind that hard, I wouldn’t be able to deliver any high-quality content in neither all three languages nor the YouTube channels! I even started to notice this right now, because I have a very hard time catching up with so much of the English content I have already. Therefore, my absolute limit (on my own) will be to publish one high-quality article per week. That would be the equivalent of three articles considering the three languages. A part of me feels a bit worried that within a year, I could only publish 52 articles in each language which feels low to me, but again, it is my maximum without compromising quality.
I Am Always In Front Of My Laptop 😰
For 7 months, I was glued to my laptop just grinding endlessly and trying to make the damn thing work. I spent close to at least five hours a day publishing articles, editing videos, replying to messages, emails and much more. Including distractions, I would probably be spending something like 7 hours in front of my laptop every day. Even though I don’t track my hours, I know this for a fact after filming days in my life literally just sitting and working. Not trying to make any other bloggers (or content creators) out there feel too much like shit, but I felt deeply pathetic. I was capable of so much more than that and there was so much of the world to discover than just being stuck in the house living like that. I was sitting in front of it for hours just trying to grind out articles, social media posts and everything that it kind of made me depressed. I did not want to look like that for the next 10 years, because I would look back and feel like an utter loser stuck in front of a screen barely earning 4 figures per year (in USD$). I wanted to experience life, meet cool people and learn skills and only then self-reflect through writing. I have been doing the complete opposite by writing endlessly and watching beautiful sunsets go by feeling depressed. I did not see myself living that kind of life not one bit. I no longer need to work more than 5 hours a day. I believe that 2 (or 3) hours tops of honest work is enough and there is no point in worrying about doing more. Doing honest work daily and consistently enough is what matters most to me. I feel less guilty after working at least a little bit on it rather than not at all. I always feel bad for not delivered some amount of work daily. It is like any athlete who needs to workout every day to stay on top of their game. It does not have to be specifically connected to their sport, but as long as they stay physically and mentally active, they can maintain their physical prowess and abilities. In life, as in business, I believe in the compounding effect of my daily work. I always use my family back in Madagascar and even my abusive parent as a “driving fuel” . If they were to ask me what have I been doing or aren’t you supposed to be so great, I need an honest and real work to demonstrate my progress beyond just housekeeping. If they were to be dismissive about my skills, work, previous accomplishments, then at least, I know for myself that it is not true. I don’t care about them, but I really am adamant on not being like them and not living their same shitty lives . I did not have a choice, but to live in the same housing unit as them, because I could not afford to move out, but during my time spent with them, I want to know that I have done my absolute best to have a better life for myself. I don’t want to look back and kick myself internally for not having done anything. That is my biggest fear and my most regret-inducing recurring thought. Since I decided to do this for myself, I don’t have a choice, but to put in the work no matter how small. It’s the path I made a firm decision to take so I have to own it.
Not Giving Up
Blogging will always be my creative outlet. A big part of my life has been to just constantly journal my life events and thoughts and I need to share all of them in some way. I would rather get them out there by blogging instead of holding them inside of me. For instance, it is a great way to make sure that whatever book I read, I can share my notes and show them to anyone that I have truly read it. Even on my darkest days, I just find myself writing. Therefore, this part of me will never change about me, because it is my self-therapy. I need this even more during the good times, because it reassures me that I have what it takes to work on it no matter what and not just when times get hard. I need a distraction and something to work and think about. I don’t want to stagnate and not engage my mind in anything. Nonetheless, I will no longer consider blogging as a main source of income. I will shift my focus onto my YouTube channels and Instagram. I find them to be so much more fun than writing many SEO-based articles . I enjoy the process of writing articles purely for therapeutic purposes and for putting into words all of the chaotic thoughts of my mind. I can only engage in flow state whenever I am writing (or creating) anything that genuinely come from my heart instead of creating content solely based on SEO 😂. Therefore, it will be purely an artistic masterpiece of my memories, life events and diary. Don’t get me wrong though, I will maintain my mastermind meetings and I will take every opportunity I could get from it, but I will stop unhealthily obsessing over it. I will not ,for example, worry about my monthly traffic, pageviews or any SEO related metric. I will still try promote my blog, get backlinks, guest posts or anything worth doing, but I will not try as hard compared to creating video content. I will keep improving it slowly and daily like I told myself, because I know that it can’t take off somehow unless I put in honest work. I will use it purely for legacy plain and simple. I don’t care about updating old articles to optimize their rankings. I will leave them as they are to show my growth (unless there contain broken links). I will not write about trending topics or about common search results, but rather just about anything that I feel compelled to write about 🤣. I realized that I am just not meant for the whole blogging strategic approach involving keyword rankings or social media optimization 😆. I am also keeping my blog to maintain my writing skills in any of the languages I know. I use it to practice my Spanish and prove my progress in the language. I will still need to pay for the web hosting and domain name in the future, but for what it is worth, I don’t think it is that bad of an expense.
Not Dwelling On My Past
Like a business owner once told me back when I visited Pennsylvania:
Make mistakes, suffer, lick your wounds and carry on
In the business of content creation (if you consider it as a business), you are not rewarded for effort. I can confidently say this, because I spent hours editing videos, formatting articles, researching topics and networking, but none of those ever returned me huge sums of money. This is in direct contrast to school life, where you could be given extra marks just for submitting any school work. That is not the case if you are self-employed or any kind of businessowner. It is not to say that my efforts (or anyone’s) are futile, but it sort of reasserts the idea that I have to enjoy the process and be continuously fulfilled and satisfied that I have done great work. It is precisely that lack of enjoyment in the work that motivated me to pivot that drastically. I was not motivated enough to pursue writing SEO-based articles day in day out. However, I discovered enough passion for filming and editing videos. If I am going to travel indefinitely, then I guess this will be my occupation.
Conclusion
I wanted to end this post by mentioning that, I still think blogging is worth trying as a side-hustle. I would have regretted even more not having tried it despite having the resources and the time. If anything, starting a blog is probably the most popular and advertised online side-hustle idea out there. I guarantee you that all the most popular articles around the topic of side-hustles will all mention it, because it is a universally doable project for literally anyone. It has almost zero barriers of entry unless you don’t have a credit card to pay for the web hosting and domain name for one year. In my opinion, it is the third purest DIY online side-hustle out there after starting a YouTube channel and an Instagram page. Even if you want to try it for a year, IT IS a worthwhile experiment. However, IT IS NOT an easy side-hustle no matter how convincing other successful bloggers may sound. Someone like Kathleen who has been doing it for 10 years and who still has barely reached even 5 figures in USD$ per year (and mostly just 4 figures per year) just goes to show how unpredictable it is. Honestly, I would say that blogging is only good for the few people who are REALLY passionate about writing SEO-optimized content and social media. I am 100% NOT one of those people. Although it can give you a glimpse of what it is like to be self-employed, it is not a get-rich quick scheme. Generally speaking, from my experience, it is a terrible occupation if you need to pay any debts or need immediate money. If that is your case, just get any job. I have never met a blogger (online or in-person) who started one from literally 0 savings and possessions to support themselves fully. Even the most successful ones out there ALL either had some prior savings from regular jobs before blogging full-time or side jobs along with a blog. NOT A SINGLE SUCCESSFUL BLOGGER has ever started one to escape from extreme poverty (just think about it, you need at least a laptop and an Internet connection😅). No matter how much bloggers out there try to preach you that they started from nothing or had no other resources, it is just not true! If anything, they are trying to exaggerate their stories to elevate themselves. See it for what it is and don’t get misled. Otherwise, you will feel pathetic like I did from gluing myself in front of a screen for hours daily while not getting back any meaningful results. Just some food for thought…
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