The past week had been particularly bad for me, in as far as blogging is concerned. I’ve been blogging as usual, had even revived one of my old blogs, but the return had not been forthcoming.
It was a strange week in which none of the Adsense ads on my six — now seven — blogs registered any click. Its zero earning from Adsense day in and day out across all blogs during the week, and this was compounded further by the lack of opportunities for paid reviews.
Adsense performing 30 per cent better in March
The only little consolation for the month of March was the fact that I managed to surpassed the February Adsense income.
However, not earning a single cent for one clear week — and possibly more if the trend continues — is something that could bring chill to the bones of any novice blogger like me.
I’m hoping to better the March’s Adsense performance this month, possibly by 30 per cent to keep the month-on-month momentum of growth going.
Having said that, I must stress that the overall Adsense income is still very negligible even with the 30 per cent jump last month. Nevertheless, a growth is still a growth and I shouldn’t be complaining too much about it.
Renewing blogging enthusiasm
I intend to blog better this month and to surpass anything and everything I’ve achieved in March either in terms of blog post quantity or quality or in terms of traffic.
I know for a fact that a successful full-time blogger had once written no less than a dozen posts a day, and maintained that momentum of performance over a period of at least three months in his early blogging career to take him to where he is now.
That’s a huge amount effort to sustain over a long period; no wonder then why he is among the most successful bloggers around today.
It’s that time of the month
Last week was that time of the month for me, the agonisingly painful start-of-the-month blues, the time to pay all the bills and fees and loans and whatever have you.
It’s one thing to pay the bills, it’s another when the bills are taking more than 60 per cent of your monthly income; and if you are an average income earner — the lower part of the average, that is — you’ll know what I mean.
Blogging should be emotionally — and in some cases, financially — rewarding
I know there has to be a way to pay those bills other than taking from my salary and I’m not talking about earning the extra money in any illegal or immoral way; that is, if blogging is not immoral as some ignorant fools — like the alakazam-class politicians — would want to believe.
I know for a fact that some bloggers are earning top dollars each month and I’m not talking about the foreign A-Class bloggers who earn tens of thousands in USD a month from full-time blogging.
I know of a fellow Sabahan who earns no less than RM10,000 a month from his blogs and websites. I also know of a Sabahan who earns between US$900-US$1,200 consistently month after month, from Adsense alone, not to mention other monetisation strategies.
The all-elusive Internet dollar
To me though, the Internet dollar remains elusive. I’ve been blogging for months now without much success, perhaps because I’ve not been implementing the right strategies or any of the strategies at all.
I’m already earning some income but they are a trickle too small to be rewarding. If at all, it was just enough to pay for my hosting service and keep several of my domains alive.
There had been times — on many, many occasions — that I felt that I was blogging in futility, and had even entertained the thoughts of blogging just for the sake of blogging without aiming for any income.
Not quitting
But one thing I’ll not do is to quit blogging. One thing I can keep on doing is writing blog contents across my seven blogs, including this one, week after week after week.
I want to keep on blogging and if blogging income is not forthcoming, then so be it.
A blogging antidote from Entrepreneur’s Journey
I was in that agitated state of mind when I found an alert on my email, coming from Yaro Starak, telling his blog readers of a new post he had put up over at his Entrepreneur’s Journey blog.
It is titled “How To Remain Productive When You Feel Like Giving Up“.
I consider Yaro a mentor even though I’m not one of the participants for his blog mentorship programme, the Blog Mastermind.
Yaro had written in the blog entry that:
“One of the characteristics I believe is at the heart of my success and the success of most entrepreneurs, is an ability to keep working in the face of failure and an ability to force yourself to be productive when you don’t feel like it.” [...]
“For you beginners out there, one of the greatest challenges you face is your battle with self doubt. Others around you will scoff at your attempt to buck the trend to start a business, your own results will come slowly and for a long time you will have to work every day for little reward. Patience and willpower are necessary at this stage.” [...]
“There is a point where you need to take stock of progress and make changes or even quit altogether. Unfortunately most people take the exit door all too early and this lack of action merely reinforces the already prevalent lack of results.“[...]
The blog entry is just the kind of antidote my agitated mind needed as I take stock of my blogging activities.
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