I’m in what many people consider the most painful part of their content creation journey: no man’s land. I’ve created enough content to have a presence, but I haven’t created enough content to “get past” anyone. My blog has a lot of articles, but it’s no more filled with content than it was last month. There’s no functional difference between a 3-month-old domain name with 120 articles and a 4-month-old domain name with 140 articles. Not when the stuff you’re writing is designed to help others rather than go viral.
There’s really no way out of no-man’s land. You won’t have enough traffic to drop a product. The writing you do release in the future will help, but not right now. All you can do is keep working.
Will it all be worthwhile?
As far as I can tell, yes.
My blog is starting to get traffic. All of my older articles seem to be showing up in the search console. I was close to breaking 1,000 views as a result of both Google and Medium but buying a domain name seemed to affect my Google search ranking. It couldn’t be helped. I needed the ability to start putting ads on my blog in the future. Gotta get that RPM up by any means necessary. If I keep writing for another few months, this website will be solidly “on the map”. Some might consider it an online publication. Regardless of what it is, I’ll have a business.
Generating revenue for that business is going to be slow and hard. It’s a lot easier to run a large business than it is to run a small one. The goal for now is to just write as much as possible and make it so that Google won’t forget this publication. Beating the hobbyists is one thing, but in order to run a real publication, you need to outperform the pros. This is especially true if you plan on running your business based primarily on advertising revenue. You see, a site like Amazon or Walmart makes about 100 times (at least) as much revenue as a site like YouTube for each pageview. If you’re getting into writing to make a living, you’re going to be writing for a while before you see results.
The Medium partner program, while a cool idea, isn’t going to pay me much anytime soon. Based on what other creators have reported, I can’t see myself earning more than $75 per month from the program as of now.
And yet the benefits of blogging and driving web traffic are blatantly obvious. You don’t need a lot of viewers to make money. Plenty of online entrepreneurs have proven that. So, spending some time writing and locking that traffic in also has value. A consistent 1,000 views per month that users will keep searching for is more powerful for a brand than going viral once. I also still have the potential to go viral, as some of my articles discuss issues that are more “hot button”. Each article I publish makes a little dent in the universe, and for next year or so I can watch my traffic grow. I’m not counting on Mediavine monetization, but I’ll take it if I can get it.
So don’t quit while you’re in no-man’s land if you’re writing a blog. You just need to understand the math behind what you’re doing. Being a full-time writer is a job, and it’s one that many people working at places such as the NYTimes do all day, every day. The goal of writing your way out of no-man’s land is to write enough to retain a similar artist as professional journalist. In order to do that, you’re going to need to write a lot for a long time. But it’s more possible than you think. You just need to practice. Write well, try your best, and stay on topic. Solve real problems, and focus on health, wealth, and romance if money is all you care about. The internet allows you to hyper-target your audience though. So, unless you’re talking about something that truly nobody cares about, you should be able to pull in a few dollars from advertising revenue over the long term. Nothing happens without some traffic though, and in order to get consistent traffic, you need to put out a lot of content. If I were to start blogging all over again, that would still be my main focus.
The easiest way to get through no-man’s-land is to just burn through it. If you make writing your obsession, you’ll find yourself powering through months or even years of work without much effort. This isn’t fun, however, and it can sometimes feel like the end is never in sight. That’s because it isn’t. You signed up to be an online writer, and this is a full-time job. Until you find another way of driving traffic, following your passion is going to mean writing a lot of articles, because you’re competing with absolutely everyone on planet Earth. Making writing your obsession for the chance to make $750 per month might now seem very appealing but remember that blogs sell for 2.5 times what they earn. That $750 per month is equivalent to adding $22,500 to your net worth. This is likely a massive deal if you’re under the age of 27. In my country, high-performing young people work for years to save $23,000. Even in the United States, $23,000 would be a big boost for most under 30s. That’s the reward for getting through no-man’s land. Increased financial security. If you’re from the US, you’ll be able to think about a better car payment. Where I’m from, you can start thinking about getting yourself a new house. Rewards like that are what make grueling undertakings such as starting a business worthwhile in the long run. It’s all within your grasp provided you have the mental strength to keep going.
Thanks for paying attention
