It’s easy to start a blog but if you have no talent you will never make money out of it. Sorry, but this is how it goes in this world. You can subscribe to all the best sites that share blogging tips but if you have no talent your situation won’t change.
If nobody cares about what you think and write you will always be a loser, and there’s no St. Darren Rowse who can save you. Once you get this simple thing you will have a better life, I promise you.
This is not just about blogging, it’s about your life. Cultivate yourself, find out what you like, read books, trash your TV, change your partner more often, walk away from that computer already.
Don’t trust people who want to teach you how to become like them and try to keep you with them.
Trust people who push you away and encourage you to follow your own path and face your demons.
Note: I mentioned Darren Rowse because he is the editor of ProBlogger, one of the most popular sites dedicated to blogging tips. I only used his name for editorial purposes and I respect his professionalism as well as his sensitivity.
Pingback: Holy words | Luca Sartoni
Pingback: Sante parole | Luca Sartoni
I wasn’t sure whether it was best to submit this comment here or at your last post.;-)
For me, one of the ‘secrets’ of personal happiness is the fact that I don’t have to love someone to have sex with them.
I love my sex partner as a friend, not ‘romantically’, and I know the feeling is mutual.
This has worked well for six years now, for both of us.
So it’s a matter of convenience, and there are no emotional entanglements, which are the Achilles’ heel of so many relationships.
Which means that neither of us are wasting psychic energy that can be better used pursuing all the other things that make us happy.
I love it. For me it is about becoming harmonious within. Know yourself inside and out, be real, be honest about it, and if you can do that I think the worldly world elements fall into place.
A few comments:
1. I agree with you on many levels – except when you say it’s something I’ve not told my readers. I’ve written about this issue (and those around it) on numerous occasions. However the posts where I attempt to give readers a realistic view on making money from blogs (ie where I tell people that only a small % of people actually make much) are not the ones that tend to get linked to (or read) by many people. People take notice of what they want to believe (ie that they can become rich quickly and easily from blogging) and read – and tend to ignore the reality checks.
The reality is that most bloggers don’t make much money blogging, that those that do usually do something unique (or they are first to a niche) etc.
2. Having said that I agree with you – I do think that even a blogger with less talent than others can improve their blog. It may not make them rich – but there’s always room to improve and get better at what you do and that’s what ProBlogger is about. My hope is that those who want to raise their blog’s earnings from a coffee a week to a coffee a day will find the answer on my blog just like those who just want to improve their writing or some other aspect of blogging.
3. I think the best thing you said above was:
“Don’t trust people who want to teach you how to become like them and try to keep you with them. Trust people who push you away and encourage you to follow your own path and face your demons.”
I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve written about making blogs unique being the secret of successful blogs. I’ve ranted about people copying others so many times and attempted to help people find their own unique voice. The reason I focus so much on it (examples here, here here – just a two of many times I’ve talked about uniqueness and differentiating yourself) is that I believe that in 99% of the case where people do become successful (as bloggers or just in life) it’s as a result of doing something different from the crowd.
A prime example of people not differentiating themselves is around the ‘make money online’ topic of blogging. A new blog starts up every day on this topic – usually by people who’ve never actually done what they write about. They do it because they see others apparently being successful at it and just follow the crowd. In doing so they almost guarantee that they won’t succeed because they lack credibility, expertise and any uniqueness in what is a very crowded space (I go on about this here.
Not wanting to disagree with you – but I guess I take issue a little at a post that says that I neglect to tell people about something that I actually see as central in what I’m on about.
Everybody has to understand that old-way journalism is dead and has been replaced by blogging… everyone has the possibility to write and to try to make a name of himself… that’s internet is all about… everyone can try… and money will come if you have talent…
Dear Darren,
my post was intentionally provocative and not towards you and the value you provide with your blog.
I have recently met several people who are obsessed with making money with blogs and most of them are idiots and can barely write in their own language.
I have also met people who pretend to teach you how to stand on your feet and find your true inspiration but subtly want you to depend on their judgement.
I mentioned you because you are universally known as one of the most important bloggers in the Web and everybody refers to you when it comes to suggestions and tips.
It is important to encourage people to try blogging, but in order to be able to make money out of it you really need to provide something *valuable*.
For this reason, I undoubtedly agree with you; mine was just a way to say that it’s not easy to stand out of the crowd and people should really dig a lot inside themselves to find out what is their way: SEO, Feedburner and SEM cannot make miracles.
Thanks for stopping by and good luck.
Livia:
I can agree with many of the things that you write in this post, but there’s one that I don’t see the importance of:
“Change your partner more often” – do you really find it to be important to do so? I don’t. I’m pretty happy with the idea of a constant partner/wife.
Pingback: Internet Voice » Blog Archive » Internet… the place where Talent emerge… and Blog with the Heart…
Mark,
it depends on the partner! My last one was as inspiring as a needle in the a*s.
:)
“I have also met people who pretend to teach you how to stand on your feet and find your true inspiration but subtly want you to depend on their judgment.”
Livia, this bothers me, too. The other side of this however, is many, if not most, people (unconsciously) depend on others (esp. “trusted” authorities, gurus etc) for validation.
It goes both ways.
I used to want to break these people out of their trance, but I think most of the people that are this way want the outside validation more than they want what they claim they want.
Instead of wasting my energy trying to help people that don’t really want to commit to change, I just focus on those that truly do.
Livia – thanks for the reply. I appreciate it.
I understand what you were doing – the problem is that being provocative by using the name of another person can actually be misinterpretted by your readers who may not know the person you’re talking about or understand that you’re not actually meaning what you’ve written.
I’m particularly sensitive to this (probably overly sensitive) as a result of a similar situation a couple of years back when a well known blogger wrote a similar post about me. They were being provocative and wrote in a way that got them attention – but in doing so said things about me which were not true. Unfortunately this lead to two things:
- Firstly, it hurt my reputation and business. The flow on effect was that other readers who didn’t understand what the blogger was doing took what they’d written at face value without checking to see if it was true, jumped on the bandwagon and started laying in on their own blogs
- Secondly, (and more importantly) one of the people who read the orginal post who was suffering with a mental illness happened to live in my city. In their mind the unfounded allegations made against me became an obsession for them and I ended up with stalker who put my family, property and self at physical risk.
OK – this is an extreme example – but I guess it taught me the power of blogs and the responsibility that bloggers need to take when they write about other people.
I agree with the main arguement of your post (it’s actually a powerful and important one) – but I guess would have preferred it if you’d left anyone’s name out of it unless it were true. To me (and I’m biased) your main point actually becomes secondary to the title of your post. In some people’s eyes the post becomes one about me rather than the valid points you’re making.
Alternatively you could have still written a great provocative post with a more neutral title – ‘Why You Might Not be Good Enough to Make Money Blogging’ for instance would have been a fairly confronting title – and on topic.
Anyway – I guess I just wanted to shed some light on what went through my mind when I read your post.
This is an interesting example of the tension between the accepted idea that people are free to say what they want about ‘public’ figures (short of gross libel or slander) and the right of every person to be left alone.
Here, though, Livia, you’re not really saying anything ‘about’ Darren so much as using his name to make a point.
It was effective, but I think I’d have to agree with Darren on this one.
I think anyone who’s ever been terrorized by a stalker would be sympathetic to his plight in this case.
Darren,
I simply wanted to name a popular blogging tips site and yours was the first that came up to my mind.
I absolutely understand your point. The post was in no way against you and I will add a note at the end specifying that.
no problem Livia – I do understand what you were doing. I just wanted to let you know how it feels to be used in this type of way.
No hard feelings at all.
Peace – Darren
There are money to be made on the internet, you just have to tink outside the box, and listening to others that have suceeded
can never be wrong.
Good luck all!