Where’s Jon?
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Yes, I’m still alive and I have been resisting the “why I haven’t been posting lately” post, but I guess it’s only polite to provide an update.
A couple weeks ago I realized that the current trend that my online business was on, just couldn’t continue. The central problem was the I was spending more and more time doing maintenance tasks rather than moving forward. Yes, income was increasing but way too slowly.
A quick inventory revealed that I had something like 35 websites, 100 domain names, 15 email accounts, 6 hosting accounts and 7 places where I had domains registered. I began to feel sick, but more importantly I realized that I was not on the road to wealth and success.
I don’t know what the long term solution is, but short term I know that I need to reduce the number of pieces of online debris that I am attempting to juggle. I’ve begun to sell websites. I’m on my third auction at SitePoint and the current offering is my Real Blog Videos (see auction in progress).
I’m not sure how deep I will continue to cut, but I am VERY tempted to sell everything and start over completely. I’m fairly confident that it would only take me a couple months to replace a full time income starting from scratch, especially with a decent whack of cash in reserve to use to hire out tasks, and a complete lack of distractions.
Reflections About Blogging
There are some other reasons why I haven’t been blogging. The idea of just taking a break seems to have developed out of a growing resistance to writing on a regular basis on this site. If I was ProBlogger or CopyBlogger, I’d work these into a well thought out thesis about the life of a blogger, but I’m far too busy selling stuff.
Blogs Promote Clutter
It has occurred to me that blogging promotes Internet clutter. I’m not a newsy blogger, so I really only produce articles with my idea on a certain topic. While a lot of bloggers seem to be able to cover the same topic over and over again (hopefully from a unique angle each time) I can’t.
I can’t help thinking that if blogs had better information architecture, I could just write one article on market research and I wouldn’t have to talk about that any more. Possibly add to it, but not a constant re-inspection. With this format a good niche blog would thoroughly cover a topic with about 25 to 50 high quality articles, rather than an endless parade of tepid posts.
Blogging is a Treadmill Activity
I don’t like treadmills and blogging can feel like posting just for posting sake. Who says you need to have 5 articles a week, or that you can’t just take a week or 3 off? Does a blogger inherently make a promise to ride the treadmill for his/her readers?
I began to question the need for constant new stories, better to disappoint the treadmill watchers and write only when I was really moved to it.
It’s Good to Step Back & Reflect
My blog was lacking in direction and this is partially caused by riding the treadmill and not taking the time and space to reflect on bigger picture stuff.
Despite larger than ever economic pressure, that’s what I’m doing now.
I Don’t Like The Blogging Clock
Related to the treadmill is the “blogging clock”… you know the one. It gets re-set every time you post a story and begins to ring loader and loader the longer there hasn’t been a new post on your site.
I think I began to enjoy defying that voice in my head saying “IT’S BEEN 4 DAYS AND YOU HAVEN’T POSTED.”
Now, after a couple weeks of not posting, I seem to have broken the blogging clock’s grip on me. It doesn’t mean that I will magically want to post daily again but it does mean more quiet in my head.
In some ways this de-connect from blogging was in-evitable, I never really have had the right personality type for a blogger. I’m erratic, inconsistent and not particularly social.
I do value the readers of this blog, and so I do hope that you don’t feel disrespected by what I’ve just spoken of above, it was certainly not intended. Hopefully you’ll stick around or drop in once and while to see if I’ve come out of hibernation.
In the meantime, I’m going to try and line up some “best of” posts. Like I mentioned above, blogs suck at information architecture and the best posts are almost always buried in the archives, so I’ll pull out some of my favorites (and yours) and highlight them in case you missed them the first time.
All the best & feel free to leave a comment or question,
Jon Symons
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Hi Jon, just came by on a whim. Sometimes you need to take a break and there is no explanation necessary. Yes, this blogging thing does give you a pressure to post. It’s amazing, but still imaginary.
See you around,
Nneka
Excellent analysis Jon!
I’m glad you decided to let us in on what’s been happening in your world.
Thanks for all of you help…stay in touch!
Tyler
Hi Jon,
Man, I totally feel ya. I too have kind of started treating my website like a red headed step child as well, mainly because I am so busy trying to make money and my blog isn’t necessarily built for that purpose.
I actually just recently started posting less and found it kind of liberating (I don’t feel so bad if I go a day or so between posts.
Anyway, get those legs back under ya…and I will keep visiting to see how things are going..
Jon, you have a great resource here that people can dip into for years to come.
I don’t like the treadmill idea either that the probloggers are on.
At least you blog for people where I have a tendency of blogging to search engine robots so I didn’t put too much emphasis on cultivating my readership.
Maybe you could do a post about your experiences of taking the advice of Internet marketing Gurus and how it helped or hindered your progress? This is something that I don’t recall reading on other blogs.
For example you created a product (Real Blog Videos) in response to maybe a certain Guru’s info product creation tutorial? And now you are selling it.
Jon:
My suggestion is just create and sell products. This what I’m beginning to focus on too. This blogging thing can suck the life out of you, if you let it.
It’s great to provide good info but let’s face it, this isn’t charity. This is business. We have to treat it like any other business. If you create good products and market them right, people will buy them. Post free content only enough to keep the sales growing. Like Brausch, i guess.
Leon
Congrats. I almost started a blog until I realized that as a business model blogs really aren’t conducive to the “4-hour work week” philosophy. The pro bloggers have essentially created new part / full-time jobs for themselves, with audiences that expect new posts every couple of days (if not every day). They’re spending an awful lot of time online writing, networking and researching and that’s not adding to their quality of life.
There are other (dare I say, “easier”?) ways to make six figures online that don’t involve adding to the echo chamber.
The responses are rather interesting… who said _you_ had to write your own blog entries?
-Jim
Interesting thoughts, Jon.
There’s no law saying that you can’t take a break. If blogging is a treadmill, it’s self-imposed. I focus on one article per week and the day of posting varies.
Having so many websites, domain names, email accounts, hosting accounts and domain registrars could certainly drain energy/enthusiasm.
What you write is worth reading, whatever the frequency.
Yeah Jon! Your only big successes so far have been from following the Brausch model. Why not stop posting and follow the Brausch model completely. One of his proteges just released a report that tells how he only writes about 2 blog entries per month. The rest are all ghostwritten.
I don’t follow any of those other probloggers advice anymore. They are all working jobs they created for themselves. Brausch is down in Costa Rica working a 2 hour work week now. That’s twice as good as Tim Ferriss’ four hour work week.
An excellent decision, Jon!
It sounds like you are burned out and need a couple months of vacation, somewhere away from computers.
Nice piece of work Jon… certainly a thought provoking one.
You must concentrate on one big project, that brings in a lot of money, that’s how I’ve made it to the top. Working hard for a $1m/year website, is better than working even harder for 100 other little website with little or no income.
Ahh, the blogging clock, I know it well. I’ve been planning for the future a while now, a future that involved the blogging clock being handled more and more by other people because like you, I don’t expect to *want* to blog forever.
My ideal is to earn what I do now from blogging but only blog when I feel like it…or just sell out for a million
Very timely.
Thanks Jon!
I’ve thought a lot
about the blogging clock lately,
what with my upcoming novel launch
and all my other side projects.
Fortunately for me,
most of my blogs are set up
for very short posts.
The only beast I had was NoLimitsLadies.com
but my solution for that
is to move to more of an interview based blog.
More interesting for me
(’cause I learn along side my readers)
and quicker to do.
Will I pare down some more?
Maybe after the first book launches.
Jon,
I totally empathize with you and myself have held off blogging until I figured out who my target market is and what problems I could potentially help them solve.
Yet your decision is a little perplexing. I actually came across your blog today as a result of a reference mentioned from James Brausch’s blog. In it he mentions that you are one of his Magical Email customers.
I’m a regular visitor of his blog and know how often he and his ghostbloggers write about Freedom and Business systems.
Just curious..Is your recent enlightenment due to valuable knowledge gain from his program? If that is the case, did you create this blog before, during or after your Magical Email enrollment.
It’s my understanding that a blog is or at least should be a part of a larger business monetization system. More specifically, a blog is the intial place that introduces you, your business and or product/services to others.
At any rate, your blog was one of the more beneficial places on the internet. I will definitely stay tuned and wish you continued success.
Good luck John, sorry to hear you have semi-given up on the blogging. I know it can be hard work and a long process.
A blog is too much work, unless you just have 1 and work on it full time.
Man Jon…you hit it “on the head”. I am in the same boat as you, having tried to diversify with 26 adsense blogs, of which only a few have gotten clicks and made money, even with aggressive article marketing, original content, etc…
I have my own products, plus adsense sites, and I do affiliate marketing in my niche, so to say the least it’s WAY overwhelming, kind of like how you feel.
I am also tempted to sell several of my top ranking sites if I can get the right dollar amount, but do not know how to sell them at those sites like sitepoint, etc…
I may just do what you did and clean out the added stress and distractions.
You’re spot on. I wrote an article called “Don’t Get a Blog” (under “Make a Website” on my site) that says a lot of the same things. That’s why I use Wordpress only as a CMS, and don’t actually blog. Plus, keyword sniping is a more sure-fire way to make money with a website, though it will take a while to “get rich” that way.