Patience Is the Key
For the past 3 months I have been working hard at this blog, and more recently Nameseek and it has to be one of the most frustrating things I have ever experienced.
A lot of webmasters will go through the same thing at one point or another. I have been building websites for about 10 years or so and this certainly isn’t the first time I have felt frustrated by a website I have built that isn’t getting the results I know it should be.
Three months ago this blog was barely up and running. Since then it has received a few thousands hits and made about $20. When I look at it in that perspective, it’s not a bad achievement really. I would have hoped for more, but it really is not that bad.
Every day I wake up, check my email and look at my statistics for the previous day. Hits over the past few weeks have been fairly steady, with no low lows and no high highs – it all have been fairly consistent. But I am still left wanting more.
After I check my stats I go to my affiliate networks and check how much I have made. Most days it is nothing, other days it’s a few cents here and there. Sometimes I go weeks without making a single cent. Again, I am left wanting more.
So once I have checked all of my stats and how much money I haven’t made, I go to Nameseek and see how many domains were added over night. And once again – sometimes a handful, sometimes 50, sometimes none. By now the frustration is starting to build and I am about to throw the laptop out the window and scream.
You may have noticed that I have not blogged for a few days. That is because I was about to throw in the towel with both websites. I was annoyed and frustrated and really thinking about the point of these projects and if I really need the hassle. I am giving up 2-3 hours a night, after my 8 hour day at work, working on these websites and getting nothing back. What’s the point?
I have a good job, I am making enough money to survive. I have a house, I am living overseas and travelling the world and I have enough money to throw around every now and then. I don’t really need the extra money from these websites. Why put myself through all of this?
I was on the way into work today thinking about why I started these projects. The original idea was to document my journey as I attempt to make money from the internet.
At the moment I am definitely in the thick of this journey, loving it sometimes, hating it other times. This IS the point of what I am doing. I am meant to hate it sometimes, it is meant to drive me to crazy and I am meant to feel great satisfaction when things go right – like when I made my first affiliate sale earlier this month.
Patience is the key. Three months is nothing. I can’t expect results after three months. I need at least 12 months of hard work before I will start seeing the rewards, and hopefully by then I will looking back at this post and thinking how glad I am I didn’t give up.
So the journey continues, good times, bad times….this is why I started the blog in the first place. It isn’t meant to be easy.
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Hey Daniel,
Good to see you’re still at it. It can be frustrating building traffic. It took me ages to get a following on my blog, and its’ in a fairly specialised area. Do you use feedburner to see how many are subscribed to your feeds?
Chris
There are so many “make money online blogs” that it is hard to get a bit of a following. Though this appeals more to new bloggers than those who are already established.
I use feedburner and at the moment there are about 8 subscribers, it is up and down but hasn’t dropped below 6 for a few months!
Thanks!
Dan
hmmm… a blog about… making money from blogs? yey. good luck with that
Not only making money from blogs – making money online in general through blogging, websites, affiliate marketing, etc. Lots of people make money from blogs, look at Johnchow.com for example. $40,000 a month from blogging about making money online.
I glad to hear that you are going to continue with your blog. It will end up paying off. You have now bypassed that 90 day hurtle.
My blog is also very new. I appreciate knowing about how long it takes for traffic to increase greatly and how the income slowly increases and continues to get better. Thanks for the post and I will now be less discouraged during the possible rough periods.
Hi Mate,
Thanks for the comments!
I was actually at your blog today. I like what you did with the contests. I was thinking that I have to do something similar.
Drop me a mail and we can discuss stats and revenue. I would also be interested in knowing how you are going. Maybe we can have a chat and compare notes!
Thanks
Dan
Glad you’re still continoue… if not probably i won’t read your blog rightnow
thanks rahman! Things are getting better so I might be here to stay!