I recently learned that it was time to migrate my blog from Medium.com to WordPress the hard way. I was always thinking about doing it, but for some reason Medium banned me without explanation. This sucks, but it’s ok. I expected that I would make my career off of Medium. What I didn’t expect, is that Medium would make it so hard for me to get my content off of their site. So now I’m stuck. I have to copy paste all my articles one by one, and I’m forced to rewrite the links in the hopes of not losing too much Google traffic. My website only has a little more than 1/3rd of its original content posted right now, and I’m absolutely miserable. it’s been this way for four days. I hope the effect isn’t too intense. One benefit I’ve seen to being forced to do all of this repost though, is being able to reread my old content. It was terrible. I’m not a bad writer. People were saying I had talent a long time ago. But the content just isn’t good and there are no two ways about it. This is normal, and I don’t think people should be too discouraged if they feel as though they are running a blog that is kind of subpar. This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme. It’s a skill that you need to develop.
You probably don’t know your niche
If you know what you’re going to write about, you probably aren’t an expert. If you’re an expert in your topic, you probably aren’t yet an expert in blogging. You can’t necessarily outline posts quickly, or write them in a manner that’s easy to read and engaging. This all takes time and practice to learn how to do. Don’t get discouraged. Remember that you’re starting an online publication. You won’t be able to just write a single article and print money.
You probably haven’t gotten comfortable with you style and voice
Even good writers struggle with this when starting new projects. The style of your blog is one of its most important aspects. If you haven’t figured it out, you haven’t figured it out. The only want to figure out what your style is, is to write.
It takes time to rank
You don’t know what your best work is, and you don’t know what your most popular work is. Writing a bunch of articles and getting the nonsense out of the way allows you to throw spaghetti at the Wall and see what sticks. You will invariably get better at writing after you have 200 articles under your belt. Just deal with it and put out as much content as possible. Don’t worry if it sucks, as long as your work isn’t offensive or obviously incomplete.
Do your best to create good content
I don’t think you should ever shortchange your audience, but if you do it during the beginning of your career, you’re likely going to suffer. You need to be writing the best content you can in order to have a fighting chance at getting famous or even any attention at all. People will ignore you if you blend into the crowd or fail to put effort into your work. Creating good content is the key to success in making money online.
Just keep writing
After about 200 articles, you feel like you’re hitting your stride. The fact of the matter is that this is a job, and there are lots of skilled professionals trying their hand at it. You can’t simply step in and expect to take over the game. It takes 400-800 articles to make a professional blogger. That sounds like a lot, but that can be done in less than 2 years of full-time work if you’re focused. It’s possible to buy your freedom if you focus.
Your blog is going to suck at the beginning, but if you stick to it and believe in yourself, it’s actually very possible to see success as a result of your blogging efforts. I’ve gotten a taste of it, and now I’m addicted. I’ll definitely be earning a good living as a result of my work soon. And I’ll have written far more than 200 articles by then. It’ll have definitely been worthwhile, as I’ll be able to afford all sorts of nice things for myself and my family when my work is done. Good things take time.
