Art Of Money

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Robin Good has an interesting post about how to make money with your blog. The post has a list of tools for how to monetize a blog, some of them are undiscovered and will probably be new and interesting to you.

But, almost as an aside he tosses in a little pre-amble on the topic that really turns out to  be a wake up call that a lot of bloggers, including myself could benefit from taking to heart:

They keys to them (ed: ways of making money) are your dedication to this, your ability to focus and follow a specific field (and not everything that appeals to you), and the quality and depth of your writing.

…to focus and follow a specific fields is a commonly discussed method to have success blogging, but way too infrequently is depth of your writing given as the key to your earning potential.

It takes uncommon effort or some form of exceptional ability to get above the crowd, which is where the real money is. Whether you produce 20 posts a day, or you always have the scoop, or you just provide value with ringing clarity, there are many ways to go deep on your topic.

Monetizing content is given way too much emphasis. It reminds me of when I was in film school and we used to be able to spot a film a mile away that had the script “influenced” by the accountants. Guess what, these films made money, but never as much as the ones that were made by a director with a vision or a meaningful story to tell.

Strive for excellence and people will throw money at you just to be associated with you, the tough part is that, like the student film director and the professional poker player, you’ll need to forget about the money if you want to do well.

Here’s a last quote from Robin’s article:

…the fact that most of them (bloggers) make only a few dollars a month is only due to them choosing to be too self-referential, parochial in scope, purist and idealist in spirit (but rarely in the facts), too shallow in their content, too broad in the focus…

How To Go Deep Then?

For me, the thing that prevents in-depth writing are: believing that I don’t have enough time, poor workflow habits, not allowing a space of reflection.

Belief in time poverty is a big one. I can use too busy as an excuse for a lot of things, including mediocre blogging…just gotta get something up there, I haven’t posted for 3 days!

Sound familiar?

Time poverty is a symptom of not enjoying yourself. It doesn’t mean that every post needs to be a Pulitzer candidate, but every post should be allowed to be it’s best and I see that sometimes I just have to hit “Publish” and move on.

Poor workflow is a major contributor to bad blogging in my opinion.

When I first began training as a bartender (yes, I’ve had a lot of different jobs) I remember the person training me giving me hell for being disorganized as I washed the glassware. The dishwasher was broken and we had to wash them manually. The bar was very crowded and I couldn’t keep up.

Finally one of the customers, seeing my dismay yelled over to me, “pretend you have a million of them to wash.”

Almost instantly I got it and I saw the situation completely differently. I stepped back for a second or two and planned out how it could be done better, with the idea of having to get a million glasses washed. It became clear I needed to be more organized, and systematized.

Same goes for blogging. What kind of system suits the quality and quantity you are trying to produce. In depth blogging requires a system for organizing, cultivating and developing story ideas. Imagine you were going to compete with ProBlogger and be judged on quality and quantity, how would you need to change your habits so you could do it and not use any more of your time. It is possible, at least I believe it is.

The last cause of mediocre blogging is not allowing yourself a space that encourages reflection.

Do you ever just take time to sit and think about things in your topic area?

Most bloggers don’t, and I’m  coming to see that this is a primary ingredient for success. I was reading today about how Albert Einstein came to his theory of relativity while pondering the many patents that he was processing and wondering about the common assumptions that were being made by the people filing those patents.

How many patent clerks, or anyone else for that matter, are missing real depth, just because they don’t allow enough space in their routines, to  ponder and reflect about what is going on in front of their noses?

If you want to get to depth, you may need to turn off the cell phone and the iPod and just listen to yourself think once and while.

That’s my recipe then, want more money? Give yourself time and space, get an efficient system in place and make reflection a part of your everyday mental diet.

Here’s to more depth and more cash in the bank,

Jon Symons