I was recently chatting with a friend on ICQ who has built a network of websites for himself after losing his full time job due to downsizing. I checked his google analytic stats and he’s getting a decent amount of traffic to the sites from search engines and he’s putting in the time and effort to make sure the sites are updated and timely. During our conversation it became very clear that he was not entirely pleased with what he was doing.
During the conversation he confessed that he had not earned a single commission in the four months that he’s been working on the sites and while he had only set modest revenue goals, he wasn’t sure how to hit them.
He noted that it wasn’t just the lack of sales that were bothering him. He didn’t like the fact that his traffic could increase or decline at the drop of the hat depending on how his site measured up when the spiders came crawling through and checking out his content. The biggest problem that he had encountered through the last four months was the fact that he had become very bitter and disliked the content he had originally selected to blog about and the affiliate programs he was trying to sell for.
I don’t recall where I originally found this quote but its really stuck with me. “Do what you love or don’t do it.” End of story. We discussed his dilemma and I told him that if he wasn’t excited about what he was doing then he wouldn’t give it his best efforts and ultimately the quality of his work would decline.
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After chatting for a couple hours we came up with an overall game plan for him to continue his blogging efforts including divesting some of his properties and starting fresh. We went over some of his hobbies and interests and figured out how to incorporate that into a couple new blogs and a directory. Lastly he agreed that if he began disliking the work he’d identify the reason for it (was it lack of income or was it lack of interest in the project) and make a decision based on what he found.
In the end I think his new projects have great potential to build an audience quickly and the sales opportunities are much more abundant. He’s a fantastic blogger and I can’t wait for his new work. I will be sure to share the links for his new projects when they appear!