Be Your Own Boss

Darren Rowse, the Pro-Blogger has an article titled 3 Factors to Consider Before Starting a Blog - Maintaining Blogging Momentum. One of the comments asks about the future of blogging, and that is something that I have thought about for about a year before I converted my e-mail and paper newsletters to blog format: what is the future?

A paper newsletter is great because it often gets read — there’s no need for a computer, a monitor or any labor. Sometimes it gets tossed on a pile and read a few weeks later, but it always seems to get read. My comment to reader ratio was VERY high when I was in paper form. People took the time to log on and send me an e-mail. With my blogs, that isn’t the same case, and my return readership has dropped. A print newsletter was good for me since I could write 5-10 articles a month, and people felt like it was a lot. Now, 30 articles a month doesn’t seem enough, and the paltry 15 that some of my sites receive is even worse.

I feel fairly certain that the blogosphere will have an imminent collapse as a newer creation/aggregating/distribution media format comes out — the biggest problem for most bloggers is the lack of quality and interested return traffic. Getting 2000 uniques a day is great, but if they’re not returning and becoming active readers, many bloggers feel they’re just spinning their wheels. If you’re getting 2000 readers visiting a day and only 3 comments (or worse, none), you’re really not getting much for your time, even if the ad revenue is decent.

The blog network is a start but even the networks run into distribution problems. As more blog networks pop up, the ones already out there battle for the readers. Eve as new readers enter the blogosphere, they seem to get lost in the madness. The distribution of blogs is currently the worst media distribution format I’ve ever researched. I’ve thought the best blog distribution structure would be the aggregator — companies that go out and actually read blogs daily to throw them into a news-clip like website. Yet many professional bloggers hate the aggregator because they feel like they’re being stolen from (I, on the other hand, openly allow people to take my writings and use them as their own). The number one problem with distributing something that others are displaying for free is that they don’t want others giving them out for free either. It is a real problem.

Do you close your blog to subscribers only, giving out free articles here and there? A few successful bloggers do that, but it can take years to build a profitable subscriber base. My print newsletters took years to break 3 figures in subscribers, but quickly grew from that point. Do you run a blog with article snippets and then charge for the remainder? I don’t think that is a good promotional tool, either.

Over time, the bloggers with the most time and the least need for income will be the ones to overtake those who need the income (and can’t afford the time) — if both have something similar to say. I don’t believe blogging for money is a casual business venture, and I do believe that the costs of entering the business are so low that we’ll see a ton of competition, even if it is short-lived.

The downside of “easy” competition in any market is that it can saturate the market and actually destroy it. Imagine if it was cheap to make diamonds (just dig them out of your backyard) and 500 people opened diamond stores in your city. Who’d want a diamond? Imagine if it was cheap to build a Ferrari (pull car parts off of a tree) and they could be sold for US$500. Who’d be driving Ferraris? Look at the number of failed cheaper BMW, Audi, Cadillac and Mercedes models.

Blogs are no different — the authors have to have more than just information and something to share, they have to have a drive for getting readers to return. For some, they just want you to visit one site, click some revenue generating link, and never come back. These bloggers will be the quickest ones to leave as the income (initially) is very low. They spend more time trying to spam forums and other blogs in order to get thousands of one-time visitors to come and leave. That isn’t a good business plan. Some bloggers put a site together and abandon it after 30 days, but the site might still exist for years. Visitors to these blogs tend to see how unprofessional blogging is.

What is the right way to attack this new media industry? For me, I believe you should look at your first professional/amateur blog as an education. Some people go to college for 4+ years. Some people go to trade school for 2+ years. Why shouldn’t a new business be similar? The first few years of any business is an education for the entrepreneur — an education you pay for by reducing your income. Rather than dropping US$50,000 on a 4 year school program, how about reducing your income by US$50,000 over those 4 years and putting your whole self into the business?

Some who go to college hold a part time job to pay the bills. If you’re wanting to be dedicated to a new business, make a 4-year plan and pretend you’re going to college. Get that part-time job to cover the bills, and spend the time you’d spend in school focusing on learning your market, learning what skills you have, learning how you can sell it and what customers are willing to pay or exchange with you for your time and information.

Being a professional blogger is not an overnight change, it might not even happen in 1-year. Some professional bloggers have been going strong for 2-3 years and are only now starting to see incomes worthy of quitting their day job. The same is true of restaurant owners, realtors and hotdog kiosk owners: there is a long term educating period where you learn the ropes.

Today is the best day to start a blog or a business. You don’t need to dive in with your whole body, though, you can just stick your toe in the pool and get acclimated. There will come a time when a big leap of faith will need to occur, but up until then, you can try to see how well you can dedicate yourself to your business, whether it is an online journalism career (blogging) or something more physical.

Building momentum in any business comes from previous successes. But if you ignore the initial period as a learning time frame, you’ll surely fall away from the business, no matter what it is. There comes a time when the biggest investment is your time, but how do you pay the bills when all you’re gaining is knowledge, not income?

Building blogging momentum is no different than building momentum in any business — you have to get over the learning bump, which can take years. Don’t just write and promote, though. Write and ask your friends and family for criticisms. Write and talk to successful bloggers on what they’d recommend you do to make things better. Join some writing forums and review other writers who then review yours. The initial cost of business is time, not money. The time to learn and hone your skills is the best investment you can make, no matter what market you want to get in. Once you are happy with your work, only then will you be able to focus on momentum and building return customers.

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