The Blogger Dilemma: The Difficult Art to Exist (on the Internet)

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

We are the tree and the Internet the forest.

I am the tree falling right now…am I making a sound (are you reading me?).

How much information are we exposed today outside work and family?

News, dozen of blogs we follow, hundreds (or thousands) of people we follow on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin. Pinterest, Line, Whatsapp, Wechat, Snapchat, Tiktok, etc. etc).

How can we possible follow everything?
We cannot…even thought we pretend.

The same happens to everyone, too much (addictive) inputs and not enough time.

Thus the question to all of us bloggers.

Who’s reading us?

The blogger dilemma

• • Who is really reading my blogs?
• • Who’s reading it with involvement (or only to use my audience to his advantage)?
• • Should I keep writing if nobody is reading me?
• • Am I bringing value? ..or better… Do I care to bring value to the community or I care only for myself?
• Grabbing the attention of people in internet is increasingly difficult due the one (even less) second attention span we have today in these era of overflow data. We get attention when we touch some nerves, when we say something interesting, useful, when we are able to present it correctly.
• A fantastic picture exploding on the screen and our face, a blog post addressing exactly the topic we think about all day long, a video that makes us cry…

• In a nutshell…when you deliver emotions:
• • Do you have something to say?
• • What is your message?
• • Why should I be here reading you and not the other millions of blog out there or playing Candy Crush?
• • Where is the VALUE FOR ME in what you say?
• • Where are the EMOTIONS?
• • Will I be a better person after reading what you say?
• Blogging changed the rules
• Everyone is (technically) reachable anytime/everywhere and EVERYBODY can speak to 3.2. million people right now.

Read it again please.

Everyone is (technically) reachable anytime/everywhere and EVERYBODY can speak to 3.2. million people right now.

• This leap in technology is amazing.

• Few years ago (20 I would say) we were barely able to keep contacts using landline phones and only with people whom we knew.

With the advent of the cellphones we extend our reachability everywhere and all the time.

Even thought you might be used to this reality or you are too young to remember the world without cell phones, think for a moment on the great impact of it on our lives.

Think about the implications of being able to reach  an audience of 3.2 millions people right now.

Well…I am doing it…right now…with this post…and you are one of those 3.2 millions people.

I don’t know who you are.

You don’t know me (at least personally).

But we are connecting.

You can change my life right now just sending me an email, a tweet or a comment.

I might have already changed your life.

• Blogging and money
• Who is writing a blog has a passion, whatever is the message.

• The passion is usually so strong that the blogger would love to blog all the time thus (unless the blogger is very rich), he would love to make blogging his primary source of income.
• All considered, if someone wishes to make some money from blogging, this desire  is not only fair but sacrosanct because if I, blogger,  am producing and offering value (thus I have  readers) such value should be rewarded.
• Conversely if I don’t produce any value…very likely I will not have readers thus I will not make any money through ads or products.

• That’s simply and brutally the real law of the market

• No value produced = no money gained

Why should it be the opposite?

• The problem is that most of the people employed (so a big portion) cannot realize the equation value = money because they cannot link the value of staring a computer in a cubicle with the making of “something” (a products, a line of code etc.).
• Even worst, sometimes (often?)  in the corporate world  such link doesn’t even exist…people doesn’t produce any value but they get the paycheck anyway…overachievers  will compensate their lack (and get frustrated).
• Conversely, blogging is pure entrepreneurship:  you get money in direct proportion of the value offered…no office politics, cheating or friends of friends game is playing here.

Always remember the 4P of marketing, they apply also to your blog:

• P as your Product: the Value of you offer
• P as your Promotion:  are you promoting your blog in every social channels? Are you networking with other like-minded blogger?
• P as Place: Is it easy for the reader to access your blog posts?
• P as Price: Are you offering a service with a reasonable price? Are you offering it for free? Or it’s too expensive?

Understand that if only one P is not satisfied by your offering, your blog will be a major failure.

Your product has no value? Nobody will buy it (in case of a blog, nobody will read it…why wasting time to read things that have no value for the reader)?

Your blog is great but you don’t advertise it enough? Nobody will find it.

Similarly if you publish it in a difficult website to navigate or in Social Channel nobody uses, people will have trouble to access it.

Your e-book or course is great but you charge too much vs the perceived value of the reader?
Nobody will buy it.
Conversely,  you are not charging anything for your products or use affiliate links? You will not have revenues (in same cases this is acceptable since not everyone is blogging for revenues).

• What to sell
• Making some money on the blog can be fairly immediate and easy with affiliate links and random ads. One of the rule of the thumb (you can find many rules on the web) is that you make roughly $1/year for each visitor you have per day with a Bounce Rate of 100% and roughly 1000 pages published on your blog using Google AdSense (with a CTR of 1% and CPC of $0.25).
• Without going into the details…yes you can make some money from your blog inducing your readers to click on Ads but you need a lot of traffic so something to say (again: No value produced = no money gained).While I do believe in the power of marketing and creating a network of bloggers/people with identical interests I am a firmly believer that readers sticks with you if you have something valuable to say.
• Why I don’t believe in Google AdsYou might have noticed I don’t have Google Ads on this blog (and in others blog).
  Conversely I had them in others websites used for pure marketing/commercial activities where they makes sense since the only goal was promotion of products and services.
• Blogging for me it’s a different story, I do want to share with you my story, suggesting you some products I use and consume and I really want to share to the world since EXCELLENT for me and making some money in the process.
• Filling my website pages with  Random computer generated Google Ads suggesting you some Shrimp Antonia Bag Pink Size One it is simply not for me.
• Conversely suggesting you to use great tools like Personal Capital to keep tracking your finances is something I really believe into it like in other products I do really use and enjoy on a regular basis.

What now?

Use the gift of communication to be brilliant, to express yourself, to change the world.

Don’t scam people or treat them like stupid, take out those annoying Google Ads pushing your readers to buy crap just for you to get the commissions.

Have something to say, bring value in this world and value will pay you back in form of money, notoriety, personal satisfaction or just inner peace….the most important one.