Marc wrote in. I have a few Marc readers so it’s hard to know which one. But his comment was pretty funny and is totally correct. I thought I’d respond in a post as I have nothing else to write about and when I started to comment I got long winded as usual.
I have to say that reading your blog is like watching an old 60’s show called Gilligan’s Island. In spite of efforts that show great promise, they never get off the island.
This blog is one wild emotional roller coaster. I’m not sure if it inspires or demoralizes. I’ve been hoping for a long time that you make it big, but it seems the lost ball will never get out of the high weeds.
I know what he means. But I have to stop myself from thinking I suck too much when the checks roll in from Adsense, Ebay, Kontera, CJ, Shareasale, Linkshare and Clickbank along with some smaller affiliate programs. I’m not saying that to brag, it’s just that things aren’t as dire as they may seem.
I definitely haven’t gone big. But I definitely haven’t put in that big effort either. I haven’t cracked the code to making 5 figures a month but I meet or exceed my goal of having extra money to do things like snowboarding trips, building a nice nest egg, paying for toys without taking from the main budget, etc.
In many respects I am still a lost ball. I feel like a lost ball if only because I find myself sidetracked all the time. But if you had told me two years ago that I’d be making what I do now I’d have said “cool”. Would I like to make more? Hell yeah. But it takes a tremendous amount of work to make 5 figures a month. It’s not as easy as IM software and ebook pimps would have you believe. And frankly I have a lot more life swirling around me than sitting at a computer all day at work and doing the same damn thing when I get home.
I think my main problem is that I really, and I hate to say it, kind of hate this business. I like the extra money it brings, but I’ve about had it with with the daily grind of Internet marketing. I come home from work and have to maintain this blog or that XSP site. I have articles to write. Links to get. Blah, blah, blah. Outsource you say? I’m not naive enough to think that it wouldn’t have it’s own special problems. Anyway, I simply do enough to play.
It takes a tremendous amount of motivation to be “quit your full-time job” successful. I don’t have it. I don’t make time for it. To get there would take time that I’m not willing to divert from more important things. I like my personal time riding my bikes and exercising. I like being involved with my kids. I give myself a couple of hours extra for IM related activities when I get home from work. It’s not enough to go big. It’s enough to pay for play. The hugely successful people will tell you, if they aren’t lying, that they spend 12, 14, 16 hours a day to rake in the money they are. Even if they are a super guberu they still have staff to manage. I reckon they are still putting in big hours a day to keep their millions rolling in. It’s all about scale.
This blog no longer has a purpose I don’t think. It’s not centered. In my restlessness I tend to seek things that I hope will bring me excitement. Whether that is trying out something like AffiloBlueprint or The Conduit Method or a new piece of software. I would do much better if I could stick with one thing. I cannot. I know what works, but what works is boring and mind numbing. And as I continually seek something that I find interesting I get more cynical and negative. I’m sure you 11 readers get that. You have to make up your own mind with these products that I slag off. I’m just presenting my own particular {twisted} point of view.
I’m pretty sure there is nothing about this blog that will inspire. I think my negativity and transparency destroys that notion. This is life in a real IM world. There is nothing pretty about it. This is what it looks like for a great majority of folks trying to hold down a job, enjoy personal time and care for a family, yet make money online. Nothing glamorous about it. These 22 year old wunderkinds on the net making 15K a month never started out with a full time job. Or have a single income family to care for. Just how many successful online IM folks started their business with kids and/or is the sole person responsible for the family income? Don’t mistake this for whining or envy, but I think it’s instructional to know where I’m coming from. Success for me is different and looks different too.
I made fun of Blog Success the other day for putting up the wrong screen shot. I get that people make mistakes. It doesn’t mean their product won’t be, or isn’t, successful. I used to be a member of Content Desk a long time ago. It’s interesting to see their progression. Anyway, reading their salescopy made me think about what I like about blogging. I spent some zoned out time at work thinking about what interests me and what doesn’t. What I like to read online and why. I spent more time at home bouncing things off the marital unit and trying to really understand WTF I want to achieve with this, if anything.
For instance, I decided that niche marketing kinda sucks large. Interestingly I think I have taken it way too seriously. I spend too much time making a constipation site the best it can be when I should simply post up a pack of articles and move on. If it makes $25 a month it is serving it’s purpose. Dammit, I have an XSP site that I haven’t changed in years and it still sits on top of a top 10 listing for it’s main keyword in Google. It’s simple and it works. It makes $3-10 a day on Adsense alone. Why the hell don’t I do that over and over and over? Does it have 20, 30 or 50 articles? No, it has 13. Keep it simple with no maintenance. I decided that I cannot have bullshit sites that I have no knowledge of or interest in and constantly keep updating. It’s not for me.
I also decided that I can be an effective blogger when I’m posting stuff that interests me. Seems obvious but with all the other shit I’m trying to do I have failed at the one thing that I tend to like and am decently good at. I have a couple of blogs that are on topics I could spend hours yapping about. Yet I haven’t taken the time to make them bigger than they could be.
There is a lot to be said for liking what you do. There are so many schools of thought on this. Some people slag those that spam the net with tons of niche sites and others rag those that try to build real blogs and work them through Web 2.0. I don’t know which is better. Probably the one you ultimately enjoy and make money at. Each has its own successes and failures.
Like many people have said, I need a plan. It’s funny, because in every other facet of my life…I have a plan. Exercise. Tasks at work. Activities with the kids. I am organized and focused in every other part of my life, with the exception of this. And I know why: Outside of IM I focus on those things solely that interest me. Or things that I must be motivated for (like work). But IM does not interest me in how I currently manage it. It isn’t fun. It’s a drag. Nor do I have to be particularly motivated about it. I have to figure out how to change that. I have to look at the things that I like about it and focus on those. The appearance that I am not successful or still a lost ball is valid, yet it’s not because I am stupid, but rather it’s because I simply have not focused on the things that interest me. I follow the herd in many respects and that bores me. And I am always looking ahead at something else to excite me.
I may never get off this island. But you know, the castaways had it pretty good. Go Team Ginger!
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Splork,
Well, you can rite reel goode, and you’re entertaining enough.
So if the money, by itself, is not sufficient motivation, then focus on your passionate interests and write, write, write…I guess. Build out a mountain biking site or a Dad and daughter activities site and authoritize that mofo. Like that pregnant Mother did on SBlog.
The rest, with your IM know how, should take care of itself over time.
I’m a bit lost too, but controlling my fate, or trying to, is inspiration enough for me. I don’t need to be filthy rich, I’d just like to be.
And Mary Ann all the way. I’d like to fava bean her &%^&%^
Hi Splork,
Thanks for sharing – I enjoyed that ramble.
This site is refreshing because in these (IM) circles, we are surrounded by BS images of perfection. Gurus who eat uber-healthily, are top athletes and martial arts experts in their spare time and only work four hours a week but make millions.
Yet the truth is that there are plenty of us who do this full time and have many faults, work many hours and are still a few million shy of our first million.
But of course, if you want to be an IM guru and sell ebooks, you’re not allowed to admit such things. You have to pretend to be perfect.
I do enjoy what I do and of course love the freedom of self employment with no employees – but you can bet that if I made a mint I’d take the hammer to these damn PCs and never log on again.
It’s a wonderful opportunity online (I’m old enough to remember when it didn’t exist and opportunities were much harder to find/create), but you have to wade through a hell of a lot of negativity and ignorance just to do the job.
You see people behaving in ways that they never would if they weren’t hiding behind a monitor and if you’re not careful, it can suck you in and bring you down.
So I come here to get a refreshing dose of reality. To read some quality, honest and humorous writing about interesting stuff – mainly because, it is so hard to find! A real person! Who isn’t posturing and trying to position themselves as something that they are not.
It’s funny how you can end up providing a ‘service’ for people that you probably never envisaged.
Cheers Splork, for being real. Keep it up. I see many more ‘lost balls’ around that are a lot more lost than you appear to be.
Hey Scott. Yea I just need to find inspiration instead of following the herd to the next trough.
Hey Roger. Thanks for the nice words. It’s funny, if I won the lottery this weekend I guarantee I’d take this laptop, with all these tools and log-ons to my sites and fling it into the river. I’d then run out and buy me a tasty laptop for entertainment purposes and never look back.
What amazes me are these dudes who say they make like 6 figures a month and continue to grind away at this shit. How much money do you really need?
Hi Splork,
as one of your 11 regular readers I love your blog.
You say:
“I’m pretty sure there is nothing about this blog that will inspire. I think my negativity and transparency destroys that notion. This is life in a real IM world. There is nothing pretty about it.”
And that’s exactly how it is.
I do work at IM full time and most days I spend around 12-16 hours at and it sucks. I am tired most of the time through lack of sleep, as I have my kids to care for and they need my time more than this wretched IM business.
Yes, I make a living at it (mainly adult though) and I’m the main wage earner in our family, but doing the work still sucks most of the time. If I am to spend time with my kids, I have to take time out and I worry that the cheques will stop coming in, but if I don’t stand back now and again, my kids and me (not to mention my poor long suffering husband) are missing out on so much.
So I like your blog because it is one of the very few that tells it like it really is.
How much money do I really need from this? Enough to pay the bills and for my family to live reasonably well without us worrying about where the next buck is coming from. And that’s the only reason I keep grinding away at it.
Thanks for reading Zania. Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m glad you recognize how hard this is and how much it takes to juggle this mess and your family. It sounds like you don’t let it get too far out of hand and have some quality time with the family. That’s all we can do.
Hey Splork,
Great article, because I can relate to many things you mentioned. For me too it isn’t working out for me the way I would like it to be. I have the feeling that there is something missing only I just can’t put my finger on it.
It is becoming a drag, just like you said. I like the money, but I actually don’t like the things I do. It feels like this is not what it’s “supposed” to be like. Anyway, great article, keep on the good work and count me in as reader #12
Emiel
I appreciate your blog, Splork! You tell it like it is instead of censoring your writing to make IM sound like this perfect, easy, fast thing – which we all know it isn’t!
Like you I like my life outside of IM a lot more than life inside of IM. I’m more interested in what IM can do for me – namely, giving me income when my work as a jazz performer is slow. Instead of having to scramble for some work behind a desk for six months out of the year I sit at my OWN desk and do IM, which to me is still better than working for “da man.”
But truth be told, if I could make income 12 months of the year through my music, I’d throw my laptop in the river, too.
Dan
Splork, why don’t you take all this energy you have and channel it into just one authority site? I know there is a line of thinking that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket, but if you build a good HUGE purely whitehat site, I don’t see how you can go wrong.
What if over the next few years you stop buying software and new IM thingies, and just single-mindedly focus on that one site?
The way I figure it is you can always sell a good authority site later if it fails to pull in big dough, even if it’s only a “medium” player.
Hey Splork,
I always plop in to check your blog now and again because of your refreshing honesty, which is so rare in today’s IM world.
Don’t say it sucks, because it doesn’t to me. You’re both funny, witty, and articulate, but the best part is you tell it like it is, and that resonates with many true experiences of others.
I have literally damaged my health in so many ways doing this shit, and trying to recover my health and sanity reminds me of the madness I used to be submerged in.
A better paying job, and seeing real chicks face to face…and time with family…etc, is one of the advantages of a real job. I don’t mean IM here.
Pretty much ditto for what most of the other commenters said. I like reading your blog a great deal. I feel the same way about a lot of what you are saying. Us other ‘lost balls’ actually find inspiration in your honesty–it helps me keep this whole thing in a realistic perspective.
Just two things. Can everyone here honestly say they hate all of the IM work? I agree, a lot of it is drudge and I’m only making a couple a hundred a month so far so I’ve got quite a bit more drudge to go before I start making real dough. But of this drudge, I sometimes get some geek enjoyment because I figured out how to tweak the something in the php code or found a quicker way to bookmark. I think most people in IM have some geek in them (otherwise they would look at some other business after two months) and there are some tiny satisfactions to be had on many days. I have no desire permanently keep these long computer hours, but the little things help keep me going at least.
The other thing is I HAVE to believe there is a place between this “drudge” level and super guberu. A place where it is not a 12 hour work day every day, you’re outsourcing a good deal of work, and you can quietly making your 6 or seven figures without hawking “making a million” products. If there’s not, shoot me now, but I’m thinking there is.
If you keep writing, I’ll keep reading. I hope you keep writing.
Reader Number 11
Hey Tracey. Thanks for reading. If you can figure out a cool way to make some bank without wasting away at the keyboard then I’m all ears.
I remember a time when I liked all the geeky stuff about this. But I realized the fun geeky stuff didn’t pay. What pays is the boring crap like writing articles and getting back links. But I do know what you mean about the little things. Figuring out a piece of software or tweaking some code is rather satisfying.