Posledná aktualizovaná: 27/27/20 | 27. september 2020
V januári 2008 som sa práve vrátil z cesty po celom svete. Bol som zlomený a dostal som v nemocnici dočasnú prácu. Mojou úlohou bolo sedieť tam, odpovedať na telefóny, otvoriť poštu a zvyčajne nič neprelomiť, zatiaľ čo asistent na plný úväzok bol na materskej dovolenke.
Za pár dní som si povedal: „Toto nie je pre mňa.“ Byť späť v skrini sa cítil, akoby som bol späť na rovnaké miesto, ktoré som odišiel. Rovnako ako posledných 18 mesiacov na ceste sa nestalo. Bolo to nepríjemné. Chcel som byť „tam vonku“ – to mýtické miesto, ktoré bolo kdekoľvek inde ako doma.
Sedel som v tejto kabíne a premýšľal som: „Čo by som mohol urobiť, aby ma cestoval?“
„Spisovateľ cestovného ruchu“ sa zdal ako dobrý nápad.
Začal som teda blog, ktorý predstavujem svoju prácu, získal som koncerty na voľnej nohe, možno napísal nejaké príručky a dúfajme, že si z toho všetkého zarobím na živobytie. Predstavoval som si kríž medzi Bill Bryson a Indiana Jones.
Obťažoval som svojich dizajnérskych priateľov kvôli pomoci, naučil som sa HTML, napísal blogový príspevok po blogovom príspevku, spojený s ostatnými blogermi, postavil príbehy online publikáciami a prišiel na SEO a sociálne médiá.
Dnes je výročie môjho prvého príspevku. Nemôžem uveriť, že som stále v stánkoch neskôr. To, čo sa začalo ako online životopis, sa zmenilo do spoločnosti, ktorá obsahuje túto webovú stránku, charitu, konferenčný kurz blogov, komunitné stretnutia, zájazdy, elektronické knihy a najpredávanejšiu knihu NYT a monografiu.
Takže pri dnešnom výročnom výročí scenára sa chcem podeliť o niektoré hodiny podnikania/blogov, ktoré som sa naučil (často tvrdým spôsobom) v poslednom desaťročí:
1. Byť prvý pomáha, ale nie je to predpoklad.
Keď som začal, cestovné blogovanie bolo v plienkach. Začínajúc predtým, ako sa stal hlavným prúdom, určite pomohol prispieť k úspechu, ktorý mám dnes. Bolo by hlúpe poprieť to.
Ale nie je to najdôležitejšia vec. Koniec koncov, Netscape bol prvý – ale koľko z vás to stále používate dnes?
A môžem vymenovať desiatky a desiatky blogov, ktoré sa dostali pod napriek tomu, že začali skoro.
Ale oveľa dôležitejšie je, že môžem pomenovať desiatky a desiatky blogov, ktoré sa začali v posledných rokoch, ktoré sa darili neuveriteľne dobre.
Čo je oveľa viac ako prvé, je pretrvávajúce a inovatívne, vytvára kvalitný obsah, poskytuje niečo, čo rieši problémy vašich čitateľov, vytváranie sietí a mnohé ďalšie veci. „Byť prvý“ by bol nízky na mojom zozname „vecí, ktoré potrebujete na úspech.“
2. Chystáte sa zmeniť – a rovnako aj váš obsah. To je v poriadku.
Váš život sa zmení – a rovnako aj váš obsah. Najprv som chcel veľa cestovať a len blog. Teraz chcem zostať viac na svojom mieste. Vytvorte rutinu. chodiť do posilňovne. Napíšte oveľa viac kníh. Možno začnite podcast. Mentor viac. Urobte oveľa viac komunitných udalostí.
V podstate už nebudete kočovní.
Dlho som sa odolala tejto zmene. Snažil som sa byť stále osobou, ktorej som bol, keď som začal celú túto vec. Čo by som bol, ak nie kočovník Matt? Ako by táto stránka pokračovala?
Potom som povedal: „Koho to zaujíma? Pokiaľ táto stránka pomáha ľuďom cestovať, nie je skutočne nevyhnutné, ak som vždy na cestách. Obsah záleží oveľa viac ako na čomkoľvek inom. “
Ľudia to budú buď milovať … alebo sa nebudú nachádzať (alebo mimo), cesta to nezmení.
Okrem toho sa zmenia aj životy vašich čitateľov. Starnú tiež. Budú mať nové túžby. Možno ľudia prestanú čítať váš blog, pretože ich považujú za nudné. Alebo vyrastú z vašej rady, alebo jednoducho prestanú cestovať. Nezáleží na tom. Takto to je.
Život sa mení pre vás a vašich čitateľov.
Nerobte si starosti.
3. Nerobte to za vás. Urob to pre svojich čitateľov.
Viete, kto sú najúspešnejší ľudia? Tí, ktorí sa prebudia a premýšľajú o tom, ako zlepšujú život niekoho. Ľudia, ktorí robia čokoľvek, robia z nejakého dôvodu mimo seba. Ak je vaším cieľom získať úplne bezplatné cestovanie a ako robiť skvelé veci pre seba, internet vás rýchlo unaví. Nikto nechce čítať príbeh niekoho, kto robí veci, ktoré nikdy nemôže urobiť. „Inšpirácia porno“ zachádza iba tak ďaleko.
Všetci chceme, aby ľudia – a spoločnosti – ktoré vyriešia problém, ktorý máme v našom živote. To môže byť čokoľvek od svetského „Potrebujem vedieť, ako sa lepšie obliekať“ k ezoterickému „Čo dokončím svojím životom?“
Bez ohľadu na to, čo robíte, urobte to pre svojich čitateľov. Zamyslite sa nad tým, ako vyriešiť svoje problémy.
Urobte niečo, čo núti vaše publikum ísť: „Pretože som sem prišiel, môj život je lepší.“
Pre mňa to pomáha ľuďom cestovať lacnejšie. Zistite, čo to je pre vás. Vaša misia by nikdy nemala byť „Ako môžem vylepšiť svoj život?“ Ľudia to uvidia. Byť osobnosťou na internete trvá iba pokiaľ je váš Schtick v móde.
Ak je vaša misia zameraná na čitateľa, obsadíte skúšku času.
4. Pretože vaši čitatelia chcú, aby ste uspeli.
Vaše publikum vás chce podporiť. Čítali vás z nejakého dôvodu. Dajte im spôsob, ako vás podporiť. Nemysli si: „Ó, ľudia majú radi úplne Free stuff. I’m gonna need to throw up ads and do brand deals or I’ll be broke.” people want to support artists and creative people they love. Don’t be scared to sell them a product you created.
Or start a Patreon page.
Or do tours.
Or create a subscription service for added content. mark Manson does that for $5 USD a month. Vieš čo? A lot of people pay that.
Give people a way to support you and they will surprise you. because when you create something that helps people and improves their lives, they want to support you. They will go out of their way to do so. because everyone wants to help those that help them.
5. how you monetize will change greatly.
There have always been easy ways to make money online. First, it was Google’s ad network, AdSense. You’d slap up a few ads that looked like normal links and people would click away.
Then it was banner ads. (Those both still exist, but how numerous of us click on banner ads?) then it was selling text links to companies trying to game SEO. then sponsored messages that did the same thing but were supposedly harder for Google to detect.
Each was a fad that people said would last forever. (Now, it’s “influencer” marketing, where everyone with a following gets totally free stuff, and people are still saying the same thing about that.)
But everything changes.
If you’re only doing the most popular thing to make money online, you are going to fail. When the tides shift, you’ll be left holding the bag and having to start over again.
Never rely on a fad for your income. EVER.
For example, you used to be able to sell e-books for like $50 USD. Now, thanks to Amazon and people used to $1.99 Kindle books, that’s changed. no one purchases expensive ebooks anymore. Ebooks are a cheap product. We sell a lot of ebooks and had to adapt our model…but it also forced us to figure out other ways to monetize.
We used to rely on one page for a lot of our affiliate income but then it dropped in Google and we had to scramble to figure out what to do.
Always assume whatever it is you’re doing is not going to last. It will keep you innovating.
6. create your own products.
Continuing on that idea, own your income stream as much as possible: e-books, tours, T-shirts, whatever.
When I started out, I sold a lot of text links (see #5). then one day it all went to zero after Google changed its algorithm. It didn’t bother me, though, because by then I had already moved on. I had e-books. then tours. then courses. A hostel. A conference. Diania. I had diversified my income and created my own products.
Having your own thing — no matter what it is — implies you don’t rely on others for your income because you never know what could happen. Amazon could kick you out of its program or cut its payout in half (we got kicked out for a few months and lost thousands. Luckily, we’re back in but that money is gone), influencer marketing could change, brands might not want to work with you, or someone could cut their affiliate rate or stop providing their program altogether.
When 100% of your income is from other people, you are 100% at the mercy of other people. creating your own products allows you to be independent.
Always own your income.
7. Your first stuff will suck.
Years from now, you’ll look back at your first articles and go, “Who the hell wanted to read this? This is horrible!”
Or you’ll look at the first version of your site (see above) and go “What the F was I thinking!!!” It’s only natural. It implies you’ve grown as a writer (and a blogger). It’s about progress, not perfection.
In the beginning, don’t obsess about your work (whether writing or design). just put it out there and go back later and fix it.
Why? You only get better by doing. never wait for perfection. and if you wait for perfection you’ll never start your blog. There’s no cost to putting up a website.
Just get it up there and fix the problems later!
8. SEO is not a dirty word.
A lot of bloggers think SEO is this dirty thing, that optimizing for Google takes away from the “humanness” of their website. but every day, billions of people search for answers to their questions. Optimizing your site for search engines implies that your site can be the one that answers their question. It’s a source of limitless totally free traffic!
Over the last decade, focusing on SEO has given me a huge advantage and has helped me reach millions of people, earn a living, and get media mentions (I once got a big feature on CNN because the journalist found me on Google).
Learn SEO. It will pay dividends in the long run.
9. write for humans.
But still, write for humans. Don’t put in overly optimized content, because, at the end of the day, you want people to connect with your website. no one is faithful to WikiHow or another generic information website. people read blogs because they connect with the voice behind them. optimize for Google, but write for humans.
Want to take your blog to the next level?Get for my totally free blogging mini-course and I’ll send you my best suggestions and tricks on how to grow and make money from your blog!
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10. There will always be setbacks.
Six years after I started this blog, I lived on credit report cards for three months. I had put all my money into a Kickstarter project, and until that ended, I was broke. I hit my fundraising goal, paid off my bills, and launched the app. but it turned out I didn’t know how much work apps were, and, by the time I stopped updating the app, I was down $10,000 USD.
I’ve run sales that didn’t go anywhere. launched books no one bought. hosted webinars no one showed up to. Made t-shirts no one wanted. Redesigned parts of my site that caused conversions to crash. Hired consultants that didn’t do anything but sap my bank balance. I tried video that went nowhere.
I’ve failed constantly.
The trick is to remember that failure is a teacher. Sure, it sucked wasting time and money on all these projects that didn’t work out but we took the lessons from these projects and improved the site and reader experience in other ways. If you believe in your mission, just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn, and relocation forward. You’ll find another way to get your message across.
As Edison said, he didn’t fail, he just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.
11. people will be really mean. I imply really mean.
The Internet brings out the best — and the worst — in people. They will get really mean. I imply so imply that you’ll want to curl up into a ball and cry. You might actually do so. I have a whole folder of all the imply emails I get.
You have to learn to develop a thick skin. because it is only going to get worse the bigger you get.
It takes time to learn to do this, but don’t take it personally. It’s never about you. It’s about their problems and their lives. people like to troll to make themselves feel better. You’re just their current target.
Just disregard the haters and relocation on. It’s simpler to say than do, but you must!
Because for every troll, there are a thousand people who value what you do.
And, when you get a troll, send this video:
12. start an email list.
From the day you start your blog, start an email list. Tweets, Facebook, social media — people miss those updates all the time.
Social media changes all the time. Facebook says “pay me or never your readers will never see your content,” Vine goes out of business, and Instagram does some funky stuff — and all of a sudden you can’t reach people anymore.
But no one misses an email. everyone checks their inbox all the time! email is still king. My greatest mistake was not starting an email list best at the beginning. forget about the likes. get emails and you’ll always own control of your audience. No algorithm can take that away from you.
13. never call yourself an influencer.
Stephen King has influenced a generation of writers, George Lucas a generation of sci-fi fans, Gloria Steinem a generation of women. Ditto to folks like gene Roddenberry, Ernest Hemingway, Tim Ferriss, Carrie Fisher, Gal Gadot, Levar Burton, Mr. Rogers, Steve Jobs, and numerous others.
They got people to do something. To better themselves, read more, follow their dreams, and strive to be better.
They influenced.
Do they go around calling themselves influencers?
No.
Why?
Because being an influencer is a fake profession created by millennials and social media “stars.”
You have influence when people listen to you. When I find myself thinking “What would Bryson do?” — that’s Bryson’s influence. My friends have influence over my life when I follow their recommendations. In some ways, I have influence when I suggest something travel related and someone does it.
You have influence when you offer value and make someone’s life better.
You do NOT have influence bec