Blogging is not for faint of heart

Pushing a rock

This stuff is hard.

I’m thinking about shifting the focus of this blog from “Finance” to “Finding a job”. The blog has always had several goals for documenting this journey, but at the end of the day, I was hoping to generate some supplemental income to support my family.   I’m slowly realizing that’s going to take a few years before that’s possible.  If it’s even possible.   I’m still working on ways of building traffic and subscribers, but some of this is going to be more about long term relationship building.   I’m just not sure I can forego income during that entire time.

Stamina and gas in the tank at the end of the day

One of the focuses includes health changes as we age. I don’t know about other people, but when I’m working for an employer, I leave it all on the field most days.  I’m tenacious with follow up and conscientious with efforts toward the company’s goals.  Couple that level of focus with any kind of commute, (especially in the NYC Subway system) and that doesn’t leave me a whole lot left for side projects in the evening.  I also did another previous post on some other challenges of aging.

A lot of moving parts

For someone with my ADD-style workflow, minutes can seem like hours when working on an intricate problem.  Screwing around with WordPress settings isn’t exactly a joy for me. Also, this requires consistency in your posting, both new articles and interfacing with social media channels.  I’m going to see what a reasonable budget would be for maintaining a social media calendar and changes to the physical site.

What I’ve learned from plodding away at this for a year, is that Blogging looks like it has evolved into the “consolidation / deconsolidation”  life cycle that I’ve witnessed in business over a number of decades.

Many years ago, the traffic just showed up almost immediately.  Recently, I listened to this podcast from an RV lifestyle blog that says that blogging is a terrible business.  (RVE 74)  This was a little eye opener and I’ve anticipated most of these challenges, but like a lot of other bloggers, frustration builds over time.

Not quitting, just some re-focus

For now, I think the best “bang for my buck” is to take some of the new skills I’ve learned during this period, and focus my immediate future posts on:

Job search and networking.
Sprucing up the LinkedIn Profile
Focusing on building even more skills that might be applicable to full time employment.
Focus on networking with others

I have a regular old job interview today, so those are always good opportunities for reflection and adjusting course.

Have you ever felt like giving up, or radically changing the focus of our efforts?  I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

 

 

You may also like

3 comments

  1. You’re right – it is tough! I work full time and have a toddler at home, so finding the time to work on my site can be challenging. I was doing well getting up early for months, but the extra work that comes along with the holidays has derailed me somewhat! Just wanted you to know that I can relate. Good luck at your IRL interview! 🙂

    1. I haven’t made a single dime from my blog but it really is a lesson in discipline and has provided me with a lot of personal growth. Thanks for commenting!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *