Truth isn’t all about joy and beauty. It has an unsavory side that often conjures images of loneliness, perspiration, and pain. Here’s a bit of the latter:
How To Make Money By Writing A Blog
Write without pay until somebody offers to pay. ~Mark Twain
The web is flush with purse-snatchers and trust agents who exhort you to build a community then monetize it with calls to action and promises of overnight success. They tell you to follow your passions, to hustle, and to keep your eye on the prize.
Ignore them.
The web has changed the way we identify and toil for prizes. There was a time when water was boiled by chopping wood and rubbing sticks together until lonely flames flickered beneath the pot. Now you are connected with others who already have fire, wood, and wind to help you reach your goal if you will but ask for assistance. Forget about writing that ebook to give away. Nobody is actually going to read it. Focus on connecting with people who have a sense of direction. They’ll help you identify, clarify, and move toward reaching your own goals.
Hustling has negative connotations for a good reason. Hustling isn’t about quality or building reputations. Hustling is about creating a profit even when there’s nothing of real value to sell. If you’re a good hustler, stop blogging and go sell knock-off purses on the street to tourists. Tourists are a lot like people on the web because you can easily convince yourself that ripping them off doesn’t matter because you won’t see them again. Good luck with that.
Passion is beguiling, delicious, and all-consuming. You don’t want your blog to be a passion. You want it to be an abiding interest. You want it to be something you can set aside while you spend time with your family then come back to because you still find it appealing.
If you try to connect instead of collect, unrepentantly pursue quality in your work, and prioritize your life so that the people you love are never hurt by your projects, you might not actually make truckloads of money.
But you’ll make a difference in the world around you and I daresay you’ll be happier doing it.
I’ve said my piece, would you like to pontificate on something of your own? The floor is yours!
Interesting post… am I catching very subtle digs at several social media A-listers here?
I think what you say is mostly correct. Focus on connecting and doing good work, but I think there are ways to balance that with being able to make a decent living too.
I’m not saying that making money should be your sole focus (which is why I keep having a hard time bringing myself to try affiliate marketing), but I also think that if you’re not trying to make money through your online exploits (indirectly or directly), then you’re just fooling yourself.
Am I wrong for that line of thinking?
It’s okay if you don’t think it’s correct. Comments are a good place to disagree.
Only you truly know your line of thinking. Perhaps you are fooling yourself if you say that you want something other than money from your communications online? If that’s the case, then you need to start pushing for some cash, bro!
Every advance of human communications has come with a parade of people who see it only as a means to capitalize. After all, money is the end game. Anyone who uses media as a device to share art and beauty and empathy are morons. Remember, do well THEN do good. Everything has to serve the end game. Nothing else matters.
Great post Seth.
seth, you are by FAR my favorite blogger. you say the best stuff in the most cut-to-the-chase manner. my eyes kind of pop when i read things like:
“You don’t want your blog to be a passion. You want it to be an abiding interest. You want it to be something you can set aside while you spend time with your family then come back to because you still find it appealing.”
wooooh! exactly.
as one in the process of creating an entertaining, inspiring, engaging, multi-layered, all-interwoven, comprehensive yet simple (i know, but i’m trying) website and being consumed by it and then burnt out by it, it is becoming clear that the buddha’s middle path is the ticket.
because WHY am i creating what i’m creating online? to change the world for the better in a human-sized way. was it gandhi who said, “BE the change you seek in your world”?
well, i sure don’t want to be in a world where everyone’s looking at screens all the time.
so thanks for the encouragement in the direction of balance. and thanks for every single one of your posts. and yes, they’re worth money to me
.
jeanne
Jim’s comment is interesting in suggesting that the only purpose for any of this is to make money. That may be true, but whenever that’s the only objective, the outcome is never what you want it to be. Of the people I admire, none set out with money as their only objective. Steve Jobs only cares about changing the world and has made billions. He didn’t start by wanting to make billions. Alex Bogusky has only one interest: do more of what he likes and less of what he doesn’t. He has to be the most successful ad guy alive today.
I think there’s a balance, even as it relates to blogging. Blogging should be part of the process of connecting you, making you more valuable to a community, developing your thoughts and ideas (because you’re writing them down and getting feedback to them). Do that well and you get better at what you love. Get better at what you love and you’re more in demand. Become more in demand and you make more money. Make more money, and ideally you have more time (and a fatter checkbook) to make a difference.
Thanks Edward! I like how you brought everything together in the last part of your response.
As for Jim, I think he was being a tad tongue-in-cheek with his hard line statement. He is, after all, the dude who takes joy in posting free writing exercises to his blog. =)
A great read Seth.
Although I don’t necessarily agree with the definition you give of passion, or why it’s a bad thing, I can see where you are coming from. If your blog is your platform for changing the world I could definitely see it being worthy to having a passion for it.
As for hustle – some of the connotations are bad, although I take these as my principle reasons for occasionally using the word when I’m busting my ass on a project.
“to play a game or sport in an alert aggressive manner”
“to obtain by energetic activity”
Those aren’t necessarily negative to me. The other aspects of hustle can be negative (agreed).
My favorite line is this: try to connect instead of collect, unrepentantly pursue quality in your work
I think you can have passion and hustle with that.
Mr. Simonds,
1. That picture: freakishly, fetishly creepy. If you wanted to make “truth” as visually abhorrent as possible, success! *shivers w/discomfort*
2. Beautifully stated: “Truth isn’t all about joy and beauty. It has an unsavory side that often conjures images of loneliness, perspiration, and pain.”
3. I still don’t know how to make money by writing a blog.
Just write until someone pays you? Like “build it and they will come?” Is this the advice to contrast the hustling purse-snatchers and trust agents talking about overnight success, calls to action and building a community to be monetized? You blend terms here of things I abhor and things I appreciate, so I’m confused. I’m not inclined to throw the baby out with the bath water.
I extract common sense principles of relationship-building from people like Chris Brogan and Mitch Joel (two authors who have heavily influenced my social media education). The material that inspires me is what aligns with my natural instincts – to connect with, care about, relate to and help people. People want to believe in reciprocity, and I’m one of them!
Your post complements the advice I’ve gleaned from others. I guess it’s just too much to hope for to live a balanced life, enjoy what you do, make a difference in the world AND make money. Until such a dream might come true, I continue to write…and wait.