In response to my article on the Blog Herald, What Does it Really Take To Blog?, a new contributor to the Blog Herald, Jason Kaneshiro, gives his perspective in Making A Long-Term Commitment To Blogging… Don’t Break The Chain:
Q: What does it really take to blog?
A: The ability to make a long-term commitment.
Much blogging advice contains an over-arching theme of preparing for the “long haul.”
He’s very right.
Most of the answers to my question revolved around passion and commitment, but Jason is very right. It takes time, a lot of time, and a commitment to the “long haul” time requirement to make a success of your blog.
He beautiful points out that it’s easy to write five blog posts with passion and energy. It’s not so easy to write 360 more to cover your first year of blogging. Then he points out wisely:
It’s another thing entirely to write 1,000 – which is most likely the point at which you’ll begin to see any return on your time investment.
Teaching workshops on the business of nature and travel photography, and blogging, I tell my students to plan for three to five years before you earn enough for food and shelter, before you start making the profit that will buy more equipment, vacations, and fun clothes. It’s no different for bloggers who begin this process with the idea of making tons of money at the most, or paying for web hosting at the least.
It takes time. It takes planning. It takes trial and error, with a lot of error, before you find that magic combination that brings attention and profits. What works for one won’t work for another, and what works for you may only work for you, not everyone else.
So the answer, while still a complex one, does mostly rely upon endurance, persistence, and the willingness to keep going in spite of the obstacles and learning curve.
But then, isn’t that the answer to success in anything?
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Copyright Lorelle VanFossen, member of the 9Rules Network, and author of Blogging Tips, What Bloggers Won't Tell You About Blogging.
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6 Comments
I agree that persistence is an important quality, but this way of thinking doesn’t help any decisions to be made.
For example, my blog (bloggingfingers.com) is 3 months old. In its third month it made roughly $400, which is already a nice profit. Does that mean I’ve skipped the ‘long haul’ and should sell out or does that mean I should continue for a year and see if I can multiply that $400 per month by 10?
In other words, the enthusiasm must be sustainable 😀
One thing that will help sustain your enthusiasm is to network with people in the same area. Try to get people interested in what you are doing and offer. Such people if they are truly interested, will keep on encourage you in what you are doing.
Matt: Blogs can make money, blogs can also not make money. And sometimes the money trickles in over time, never growing. Just like any business, it can start with a bang or a whimper. When you’ve been doing this for a year, two, three, or like me, 14, then report in on the “long haul” and see how your perspectives changed. 😀
You’re right. Nothing in this world is easy, everything comes with a price – effort, time, money? Just be persistent and keep yourself motivated, I’m sure anything’s possible.
I’m a new blogger and mainly started out just to write for myself. The fact that I’m still writing for my own personal pleasure hasn’t changed, but by being committed, I’ve definitely changed as a blogger. It’s really easy to become overambitious when you get the first surge of traffic, especially since new blogs have the potential to grow at an extremely fast rate. It does take a continued effort, patience and inputing a consistent amount of time into it (just like with any project, or even, relationship for that matter)…it’s exciting, motivating, and daunting all at the same time!
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[…] This pondering kept my mind busy while I was performing a monotonous task when Lorelle VanFossen in Blogging for the long haul pointed to Jason Kaneshiro’s post Making A Long-Term Commitment To Blogging… Don’t Break […]
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[…] Blogging Success is About The Long Haul: Blogging success can be measured in many ways, but for most, if you can keep up the “long haul” of blogging for a year, two, three, five, or more, then consider your efforts a success. […]