Hello friends, welcome back to my blog. When I started blogging in 2018, my goal was to create a passive income. Yes, that goal still remains the same. I could only generate a tiny amount of money because I made quite a few mistakes. I have made only $54 so far from blogging for four years. Yeah, I know that is terrible. Today I will talk about the reasons why I have failed so you can avoid them.
Why blogging?
No matter what you decide, you must understand the reason behind your decision-making and be fully committed. Besides working full-time as a pharmacist, I wanted to create a passive income source. I have a strong desire to be successful, but my problem is I didn’t understand what successful means: a nice car and a beautiful house, free of debts, a lot of money, and freedom to choose…
I failed because I thought blogging was simple: write something, and people will read it, then you can make money. My “Why” was mainly about creating income, but I had no idea my passion or who my audience was.
For instance, Lily Ugbaja started her blog FindingBalance.Mom “because I wanted to stay home with my son, do something I love, and still make money.” It only took Lily two weeks to make money from her blog. I am amazed and can’t wait to learn more from Lily.
Do you have patience?
No, I didn’t. I wanted money and success so quickly that I got discouraged when it didn’t happen my way.
I started doing Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) in 2006. I sold socks initially. After six months, I jumped into the BBQ cleaning kit when that business failed. After a year, the business venture didn’t go as planned, so I quickly looked for another way to create passive income without overthinking it. While searching, I came across a few eCommerce platforms such as Wix, Shopify, WordPress, and a few others. I picked WordPress first, but it was not beginner user-friendly, especially for someone like me who knew nothing about blogging.
I can do everything on my own
I spent so much time reading other blogs and watching many Youtube tutorials because I wanted to learn. There was nothing wrong with trying to understand and improve. The problem was learning took time. There were a few occasions where I could find a shortcut to the problem; I implemented the strategy immediately without evaluating the consequences.
For instance, I listed my product under the same listing that belonged to someone else when I was doing FBA. For those unfamiliar, this practice only works when the original seller runs out of merchandise to sell. If they do, my listing will climb to the top. However, instead of patiently waiting, I kept on decreasing the price by a few scents just so that my listing could come first. I failed because I couldn’t outbid their prices and even got harassed by the listing owner.
The bottom line is that sometimes it is ok to ask for help or outsource the job.
Not enough marketing
I kept writing and pushing out articles, but not many people came to read my blog. I wasn’t exposed to any social media platform such as Facebook or IG. I didn’t do a Facebook Group to promote the blog. I didn’t do enough on Quora or Reddit. Basically, I have done nothing to promote the blog.
Not reading enough other bloggers and getting more advice.
I got distracted with other life choices: school, work, feeling lazy, and video games, … I thought, just keep doing my things. Eventually, people will find out and like my materials.
What is my goal moving forward?
I am focusing on producing more quality content at least once a week. My goal is to fix all the mistakes I have identified and generate a small amount of income.
My goal is $50 a week. Wish me luck. If you like this blog and want to learn how to blog, leave me a comment below.
