Am I deluded for thinking I could have a successful blog?

[Saba]

Hi everyone!

 I have been writing for Thought Catalog and my own personal blog for years, but in the last year I decided to try writing professionally. I just graduated from a degree in Neuroscience and Psychology, and I have the time. But to have a successful blog, you have to market yourself. And somehow, marketing takes the passion out of it for me. I hate pimping my content, and it most marketing tactics seem futile. I also worry that maybe I'm too unique in my interests, too obscure in what I write about.

2 Questions:

1) How do I market my blog while keeping my passion for it? How can I stay passionate while making my passion profitable? 

2)  Do I have to write more palatable content, or just keep marketing? Does anyone have tangible advice for marketing a blog?

I also need real criticism. My friends and family just say "good writing", etc. I need some to hear some harsh truths about how I can improve. My blog is https://sabastudies.com/ . 

Thanks guys  

[Amit]

1> Give a thought about who needs this stuff. better to not go for a larger audience in the starting. and share it with them.

2> keep working on yourself. Having width is important but depth is what you wanna advertise and go for, to taste success 

[Jacobsrw]

23 minutes ago, Saba said:

Hi everyone!

 I have been writing for Thought Catalog and my own personal blog for years, but in the last year I decided to try writing professionally. I just graduated from a degree in Neuroscience and Psychology, and I have the time. But to have a successful blog, you have to market yourself. And somehow, marketing takes the passion out of it for me. I hate pimping my content, and it most marketing tactics seem futile. I also worry that maybe I'm too unique in my interests, too obscure in what I write about.

2 Questions:

1) How do I market my blog while keeping my passion for it? How can I stay passionate while making my passion profitable? 

2)  Do I have to write more palatable content, or just keep marketing? Does anyone have tangible advice for marketing a blog?

I also need real criticism. My friends and family just say "good writing", etc. I need some to hear some harsh truths about how I can improve. My blog is https://sabastudies.com/ . 

Thanks guys  

Do some research around independent blogging, since it is a unique way to build a business but also a difficult one.

I had quick look through your website it looks appealing and fresh. However, it’s best to have a good understanding of who you are writing to and the needs of the consumer who desires it. I may be one of the fewer who would read it, so a specific audience requires first discerning. 

As for marketing, I recommend Facebook, Pinterest, Google and maybe YouTube. People are likely to consume content through the medium which best suits it (most likely google for blogging). But also YouTube has a lot potential too. Create accounts on each platform, run adds and see where your audience most arises.

I too struggle regarding your marketing predicament. I don’t want to market inauthentically but it’s essential in order to attention. It’s all about balance.

Ive been blogging for the last few years and found that it mostly revolves around your target market. Curating content in which suits their needs but also facilitates a unique view.

I use blogging to supplement, along with podcasts, products, art and other various content.

If this is to be your sole income, you’ll need to ensure content is fits the audience’s consumable capacity. Attention spans are dissipating very quickly these days. Short and sweet is sometimes best.

Edited May 31, 2020 by Jacobsrw

[OmniYoga]

there is already 1000's of such blogs, coaches, and self-help content, more than a person can consume in their life,
I have a friend who post regularly on his blog about coaching and self-help and a youtube channel - but he has no audiance less than a 100 views for a video, so the marketing is very important, honestly it's rather even more important than how good your conent is ... that's brutal reality, there is litte chance your work will go viral by itself like a magic

I guess you need to ask yourself:

why people should invest time in your content?

what is unique about your blog? that will attract enough of ppl
what is in it for them ?

imo only blogging is already outdated - youtube is current blogging and it's already getting overcrowded,

so like Leo's says in Life Advice For Young People - Part 2 it's time to start thinking what is the next thing after youtube?, cuz this is where we are heading, 

of course you can still make it if you're enough stubborn and relentless 
 

watch this is if what I wrote resonate with you

Edited May 31, 2020 by OmniYoga

[supremeyingyang]

@Saba

Hey Saba,

I do not run a blog, so take this as the criticism you wanted. First of all it's already great that you made a Website and wrote 4 Dozens of Articles!!

- I believe it is possible to get a financial successful Blog!! People tell all the time things like 'the Golden Age of Blogs is over', but people want new fresh Content => there is opportunity

- I feel you blog is very strong influenced by Leo Gura and/or others like him. You need to get more authentic to feel a burning Passion.

- You got to ask you this Is you Blog rather Mainstream or Niche ? Right now I feel its to Niche for a Mainstream Audience and to Common for a Niche Audience. If you choose Mainstream you would mainly translate ideas to normal people, which would be also quite a hustle and important. If you choose the Niche Audience you would need to be constantly ahead of the Pack to feed them new Knowledge.

[IAmTheHolySpirit]

 

 

 

 

 

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Hi everyone!

 I have been writing for Thought Catalog and my own personal blog for years, but in the last year I decided to try writing professionally. I just graduated from a degree in Neuroscience and Psychology, and I have the time. But to have a successful blog, you have to market yourself. And somehow, marketing takes the passion out of it for me. I hate pimping my content, and it most marketing tactics seem futile. I also worry that maybe I'm too unique in my interests, too obscure in what I write about.

2 Questions:

1) How do I market my blog while keeping my passion for it? How can I stay passionate while making my passion profitable? 

2)  Do I have to write more palatable content, or just keep marketing? Does anyone have tangible advice for marketing a blog?

I also need real criticism. My friends and family just say "good writing", etc. I need some to hear some harsh truths about how I can improve. My blog is https://sabastudies.com/ . 

Thanks guys  

 

Hello love, yes, you are completely deluded for thinking.

You won't have a successful blog, because a successful blog can only be when the successful is creating it. You must realize yourself as the source of the universe itself, that is success itself, and only the source of the universe can write a successful blog.

Now, when you discover yourself as the source of the universe, the desire to make a successful blog might fall away, because you no longer depend on the "success" of the "blog" to be happy. You only want a successful blog because you believe it will make you happy. That is complete delusion.

The only thing that will ever make you happy is to realize yourself as god, the source of joy, love, peace and compassion itself. Until then, you will be deluded in every single action, thought, emotion or sensation that appears in consciousness. Literally your whole life is 1 big delusion. But that is fine, because the moment we recognize this, we can move towards that which is true. Just by understanding what I am saying you are already dropping off massive baggages of delusion.

God has no passion for anything. God is dispassionate, and that is why it is so great. You must not look to stay "passionate". Only ego is "passionate", you are meant to transcend that.

The fact that you are asking "Will this be successful?" and "How should I do this?" is already proof that you are not aligned with yourself. Your true self is not insecure, it doesn't need any help from outside sources, it takes care of itself automatically in a divine way. Stop entertaining all this personhood nonsense, all these insecurities, all these doubts. You have no question to ask anyone. You are already the highest intelligence. The universe's intelligence is what you truly are. It is comical to believe that you need any help at all from anybody. You are THE HIGHEST INTELLIGENCE, WISDOM ITSELF. But you must discover yourself as this first. You must not believe me, but see for yourself. I recommend instead of wasting your time on delusions like this blog, first realize yourself, I recommend watching Moojiji on youtube.

[kagaria]

@IAmTheHolySpirit do you able to abide in higher consciousness 24/7? I mean Do you sometimes forget that you have been the real self.  Sure self is always the self, but still not everyone is conscious of that and is not able to perfrom miraculous healing, etc. You know what I mean?

[IAmTheHolySpirit]

Just now, kagaria said:

@IAmTheHolySpirit do you able to abide in higher consciousness 24/7? I mean Do you sometimes forget that you have been the real self.  Sure self is always the self, but still not everyone is conscious of that and is not able to perfrom miraculous healing, etc. You know what I mean?

Yes I know what I mean.

There is a belief from the mind saying "You are not always the higher consciousness" but that would just be a thought perceived. I am the highest self and I can't be anything else. Once you see it like that, you are choicelessly 24/7 enlightened. Because there is literally nothing that can be "not enlightened". Ofcourse I say "enlightened" but that is just a title. I mean knowing your true self. It is actually very simple and once you get over the delusion that you can EVER be separate from the self, it'll be clearly seen you are always, ever-presently the self. 

It is only when you believe thoughts, emotions or sensations in consciousness that you "forget yourself". You must identify to not be enlightened. So it is easy for me, I just see through all delusions and illusions and naturally what stays is the self. I don't identify with anything at all, and by this simple "exercise" that "I" am not even doing, naturally only the highest is present. 

When you see that "you" who needs to "abide in consciousness" doesn't exist, it is just a thought, therer is only consciousness left. Nobody to "abide" in it. There is only consciousness and a dead "ego" you could say. The longer you are in the state of no-ego, the harder it'll be for the ego to "resurrect itself" by luring you into identification with thoughts, events, appearances, emotions and sensations. I am the self beyond delusions, and all delusions are easily perceived by the power of discernment that is extremely useful in remaining as the self. The power of discernment is the only power you truly "need" to remain as the self. Everything else is a waste of time and effort, all you need to do in life is to discern: Is this true, coming from enlightened consciousness or is this coming from egoic-consciousness?

You must not follow any action that is forced/suggested to you by egoic-consciousness. Absolutely deny it, because it will automatically put you in a situation in which the egoic-consciousness appears to have the better hand. Don't play on the ground of the ego, you must stay in the ground of your own self. Only once you are stabilized in the self, you know what you are beyond belief, beyond distractions, once you simply know there is nothing that can touch you anymore, you DECIDE that nothing can touch you anymore, you simply DECIDE to NOT identify with ego, no matter what, this gives you incredible power because you are DECIDING to be in acknowledgement of that which you TRULY are. 

So for now don't look for anything else other than the confirmation of your own true self. Anything else is a complete distraction. A few months of consistently and using the power of discernment, you should be enlightened beyond "going back" or "relapsing" or "identification with the mind".

[kagaria]

@IAmTheHolySpirit omg thank you sooo much! Just wanted to say again a big Thank you for all the selfless work you're doing! Going to follow this great advice and read your other insightful posts. Such a gem! Honestly we are so lucky.

[IAmTheHolySpirit]

Just now, kagaria said:

@IAmTheHolySpirit omg thank you sooo much! Just wanted to say again a big Thank you for all the selfless work you're doing! Going to follow this great advice and read your other insightful posts. Such a gem! Honestly we are so lucky.

You are lucky for being able to see it. Bless you.

[hamedsf]

if you're being lazy and work-shy and lying on the couch 24/7 and strolling around social media aimlessly and you think all things will work, in that case, yup that's self-deception! 
but if you're genuinely doing the real work and you have positive thoughts about the outcome so that's not some delusional thoughts, that means you're doing it properly.
answering the marketing question, you should be blogging out of love and passion towards the subject, be creative in the process, not ruminating obsessive compulsively about how to turn your blog into a business, let it come naturally, of course, you can learn the ropes for knowing how to do it but if it doesn't work, don't force things and let it happen naturally along the way!   

[EnlightenmentBlog]

I see you've been recently active, so I'll write. I can't access your site somehow. Maybe it's not available in my country or it's down. Anyway ...

Blogging and articles replaced newspapers and magazines in the early days. It was fairly easy then. Now there is an oversaturation. Either you have to be an unfailing god expert that people can't live without or market the shit out of whatever you're doing.

The thing is, beggars can't be choosers. If you try to build an audience, you've got to write provocatively, click-baity, keep people's interest with stage orange subjects with a little bit of a higher stage nuance. See Leo's early videos and you'll see what I'm talking about. Over the years you can raise the bar and hopefully a portion of the people will stay. But as I see it, it'd better stay a hobby.

All the luck! Peace V

[Brandon Nankivell]

On 01/06/2020 at 7:13 AM, Saba said:

Hi everyone!

 I have been writing for Thought Catalog and my own personal blog for years, but in the last year I decided to try writing professionally. I just graduated from a degree in Neuroscience and Psychology, and I have the time. But to have a successful blog, you have to market yourself. And somehow, marketing takes the passion out of it for me. I hate pimping my content, and it most marketing tactics seem futile. I also worry that maybe I'm too unique in my interests, too obscure in what I write about.

2 Questions:

1) How do I market my blog while keeping my passion for it? How can I stay passionate while making my passion profitable? 

2)  Do I have to write more palatable content, or just keep marketing? Does anyone have tangible advice for marketing a blog?

I also need real criticism. My friends and family just say "good writing", etc. I need some to hear some harsh truths about how I can improve. My blog is https://sabastudies.com/ . 

Thanks guys  

I don't give my blog much attention but have managed to build a profitable YouTube channel that allows me freedom to do what I love and have a bunch of free time. Similar principles apply to a successful blog. So to answer:

1) For now, go with something like 10-20% market, 80-90% create. You could consider writing on Medium as Medium can do the marketing for you - all you have to do is write awesome stuff. This has been a big part of our YouTube strategy. Make awesome content that I love, a specific audience loves - and the algorithm promotes videos for us. Sweet deal!

1.1) Don't have a razor-sharp cookie-cutter answer here for you unfortunately. But what can help: Continual self-awareness of what dispassions you, why it dispassions you, and working through false beliefs regarding how you'll make this profitable whilst maintaining passion. Do some basic work on targeting an audience where similar writers are already profitable but once you've done a bit - forget it. Write from your heart. And re-evaluate the financial viability months later.

2) Start off writing whatever hell you want! Rosie Leizrowice could be a great role model for you. Over time, you may find the sweet spot where you write what you want, and it just happens to be a hot/profitable topic.

Consider collaborating with fellow writers once you're ~6 months in.

[Rhodes]

Hi Saba,

It seems like your neuroscience/psychology skills make you the perfect type of person to develop some higher-conscious marketing - like Leo discusses in this video: https://www.actualized.org/articles/the-deep-problem-of-marketing  

I think your are in a no-loss situation here because you can use your education in a creative way that feeds back into your passion. So even if it doesn't work, at least you will have created something positive; which will probably spark your imagination and give you even more profound insights to write about.  

[Michal__]

Cannot access your website, have you shut it down?

[Clawz]

Think if you need it

[Yarco]

I'm a freelance writer -- people pay me to write blogs and articles for their website, and I've got a couple sites of my own that get about 6,000 unique visitors per month.

I would review the site you've listed but your link is broken.

On 5/31/2020 at 5:13 PM, Saba said:

But to have a successful blog, you have to market yourself. And somehow, marketing takes the passion out of it for me. I hate pimping my content, and it most marketing tactics seem futile. I also worry that maybe I'm too unique in my interests, too obscure in what I write about.

No, the blog itself is your marketing. Can you describe what kind of "marketing tactics" you think you need to do to have a successful blog?

If you think you need guest posting, backlinking, paid ads, and that kind of stuff to be successful -- no.

But you do need to actually write about topics that people are interested in, and use keywords that people are likely to actually search for. Anybody can make a successful blog even in 2021, but it can't just be what most people think of as a blog.... which is basically just a rambling journal about personal experience that isn't searchable.

Aaaaaaaand I just realized this post is from May and people bumped it for some reason, so I'm going to stop replying now... if OP is still around and still has specific questions lemme know.

[Nahm]

“I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.”

”Orange is young and full of daring, but very unsteady for the first go round.”

― Jimi Hendrix, Bold as Love

You can never find what you’re looking for when you go where you don’t want to go.