Reaching A Blogging Crossroads

Slightly over three months ago I started this blog with the objective of chronicling my journey as a blogger trying to learn how to make something out of the Internet. During that period I’m embarrass to say, I haven’t made anything.

So if you had come here looking for that hot tips and insider never-before-revealed-top-secrets about making money blogging, you’ve come to the wrong place.

What you would find here, however, is a story of a man who has realised his mistakes and is now trying to put things right after three month of churning out one unwanted content after another.

Bad start

This blog hasn’t had a good start from Day One. Just minutes after this blog went live with a default Wordpress template, I found myself unable to write the first post.

I was stuck with severe bloggers’ block the minute this blog went live! For two weeks my first post was still “Hello World”, accompanied by one default comment from Mr Wordpress telling me that that was actually a comment and should I want to delete or edit it, I should really be doing that by logging on to the blog’s administrator panel.

I didn’t know where to start or which areas I should be focusing on — what niche I should be focusing on.

In deep hsit

I realised how precarious my situation was. I was in deep hsit. Repeat, hsit.

I told myself I should be writing soon if I ever want to gain something out of blogging. So on the third week, I decided to write something, anything as long as there’s something. A first entry, perhaps, an introduction, probably, or anything at all.

So, I started writing anything at all until three months later.

Although I long suspected that that was not the way to blog it, I had soldiered on like a blind man soldiering on.

Perseverance by a long shot

I kept on posting entries even when I know no one would be interested to read them, naively believing that perseverance alone would be good enough to keep a blog going.

Blogging anything at all for three month is perseverance, alright.

I remember reading from a blog about how one should keep on blogging “even with an audience of one”. I guess in my case, my audience is one audience too few. It’s perseverance nonetheless, but by a very long shot. A way, way long shot.

The truth is, I’d been peddling unwanted goods — stuff that no one want to grab hold of even if they were given for free. Those who did grab some, sadly, did not return to ask for more.

Stall with rotting fish

So I’m left with a stall selling rotting fish — for three months I kept on piling up rotten fish even though I know no one would want to drop by a stall selling rotten fish. Did I hear someone say madness is doing the same thing over and over again with the hope of getting different results?

Not all is lost

But not all is lost in the three months though. On the contrary, I learned a lot — about what not to blog from reading my own blog, and from reading other make money online blogs, whether there were by Malaysians or by others outside Malaysia.

Coming to a crossroads

I have now come to a crossroads. Three months of groping in the dark — and going nowhere — is quite enough already. I should now decide where this blog should be heading and that would mean, there would be no more haphazard entries.

So, what is it going to be? Obviously I can’t be writing about blogging as nobody would want to read a blog about blogging by a newbie when they could get much more superior contents about blogging from other sites.

I can’t be writing about technology when I know virtually zero about tech stuff.

Likewise, I shouldn’t be blogging about how I would want to make money from this blog — tempting though that topic is — when there are many other blogs which not only able present a much more informative content about making money online, but also able to proof the taste of the pudding as well.

Soul-searching

So, what’s that left with? A soul searching; that what I’m left with. A soul searching — something this blog severely lacks.

So, over the next few days I would implement changes to this blog; foremost of which is the theme. I want a new template, one that I no longer want to clutter with banner and text ads. I will instead keep the template simple, but still provide future monetisation option.

I will also inject more substance and style to this blog. I want to make sure that from now on, each of the entry here would be here for a reason, not just to fill the space or to make up the calendar day as was the case before.

I shall still be experimenting here, but it would be no more experimenting by way of writing haphazard posts. It would be a controlled experiment and I want to make sure each entry is posted with some sort of strategy embedded in it.

If I succeed I’ll tell you what it is. If I don’t, then perhaps let me be the only who realise the folly of my own strategy.

Jaxon S,
Learning From Mistakes.