The Lonely Road of Problogging
685 words | Last Updated: September 11, 2007 |
Problogging can be a very lonesome activity. You might end up just spending time with your computer. Your friends won't understand exactly what it is that you do. You'll have lots of time, but no one to share it with. Fortunately, there is a way to get off the lonely brick road of problogging.
First of all, congratulations to LiewCF.com who recently celebrated his second anniversary of full-time blogging. He candidly reveals what he now has after a couple of years of problogging in Malaysia.
Here are some suggestions on how to minimize loneliness:
1. Focus On Writing.
Probloggers tend to handle both the writing and technical aspects of blogging. The "technical" aspects pertain to tweaking the way a blog looks, updating WordPress, installing this or that plugin, optimizing the code to make it more search engine friendly, and other things that force you to spend too much time in front of the computer.
Focus on writing. Let someone you trust handle the technical side for you.
2. Get Away From Your Computer.
Are you spending too much time reading other blogs, buying how-to ebooks, commenting in other blogs, answering comments in your own blog, or reading various news items online?
Get away from your computer. Read books and newspapers. Listen to the radio. Take a walk. Invite your friends to lunch with your problogging money.
3. Establish Reasonable Writing Targets.
Three 400-word useful articles a week is a reasonable writing target. The secret is consistency, though. If you plan to write on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, then stick to the plan.
I've seen budding probloggers consistently make one post a day for two years, before their traffic reached over a thousand visitors a day. And if they had ideas for two posts, they would defer the second post to the next day.
In other words, they stayed consistent. One post a day, everyday. Not one post today, then two posts the following day, then no posts the day after.
Of course, if you're a fairly normal human being, you'll realize that it's hard to be consistent. When you do find the inspiration to write 5 articles, you can command WordPress to publish those articles one at a time over the next 5 days. (Details will be revealed in an upcoming post.)
4. Don't Become A Full-Time Problogger.
Try to avoid seeing yourself as a full-time problogger, lest you expect yourself to blog for 8 hours every day. Nothing can turn you into a boring person faster than spending 8 hours alone in front of your computer every day of the week.
Try this: One hour for reading or research, 45 minutes for actual writing, 30 minutes for blog-hopping and commenting, 30 minutes for email reading/answering. That's two hours and 45 minutes each day.
This assumes you focus on writing, and outsource the technical aspects of WordPress security upgrades, photo / audio / video uploading, and other techie things to others who would readily do these because they'd rather avoid writing.
(TIP: A lot of people online hate writing. They'd rather tweak their site design, read ebooks, or watch online videos.)
5. Prepare For The Death Of Your Blog Muse.
You will definitely reach the point when you have nothing left to blog about. The earlier you accept this reality, the better you can prepare for it.
And if you plan properly, your hiatus or blog sabbatical will not necessarily mean the drying up of your problogging income. In an upcoming article, you will discover a multi-pronged web strategy that will help protect your online earnings even when your blog muse gives up the ghost, or jumps the shark, or kicks the bucket.
Problogging doesn't need to be an exercise in loneliness. If you can manage your time and resist the urge to read anything or whatever online, you can still harvest the fruits of problogging and have the time to enjoy them in the company of your friends and loved ones.
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"The Lonely Road of Problogging"
First Posted: September 11, 2007 | Filed in: Make Money Online
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im no problogger but it's really a good advice to stay off the internetz once in a while and experience life outside cyberspace (haha that sounded so weird. life outside cyberspace?!).
I am the example? LOL
I don't consider myself a problogger... I do earn a little "baon" money from blogs though.
Life outside the Internet is actually interesting sometimes.
These days, the Philippine blogosphere seems to be full of intrigue
Makes me want to keep myself within my circle of online buddies on LiveJournal.
In any case, for me, tweaking the blog's inner workings is fun! One of the most fun activities to do when you have the time. It makes you feel more in control of how style and content will match.
@jamie - at first, it might sound weird. But for those who spend a lot of time online, it has a certain ring of truth.
@Miguel - your post got me thinking about the future blogging.
@Clair - thankfully, there are still intrigue-less places in the blagaspir. Tweaking can be fun, and also helps relieve the stress brought about by writing deadlines. And life outside the internet? Well... there's always sapin sapin!
I earn a lot from my problogging gigs and I spend so much time in front of my pc especially on weekends that my friends are complaining that I am developing weird sleeping habits and all. But I am just following what others say... strike while the iron is hot. I am just giving myself a year or two and then I will stop.
Love this post! Eventhough I blog more than 12 hours a day, I still find time to read and go out to have fun with friends. Although I limit it to at least 2x a month.
Will look forward to more posts about problogging, Manuel
Hi Sasha! It's great to meet someone online who blogs a lot, yet has and makes time for friends and non-computer activities.
Thanks to your post (High and Mighty and Bewildered), I'm now discovering a beautifully growing part of the Philippine blogging community. I'll regularly visit Sasha-Says.com from now on. =)
eto si ria (http://www.pogispotting.com) pang social life ang problogging gig niya. she found a way to combine the two.