The Passionate Blogger

Man, I hear you on this post. I hate work, and let me tell you, blogging ain't work. It's freakin' fun! :grin:

One of the best post on John Chow in a while. I think Passion can be translated to everything in real life.

I totally agree. I never choose a topic except what I really, really care about. Sometimes this means blogging on obscure philosophy -- but the search results keep on coming.

good post john

I like your point of view, John. I was trying to decide on a particular niche to make money by blogging too, and ended up back to basic.. blogging! That is, write a story or a blog on what you like/what you are passionate about.

I write what I want in my blog and yes it only attracts 30-40 people a day, but it's fun to write them and doesn't fit into any particular niche ^^

I started my blog 6 months ago with no online marketing experience, and I have gotten up to $100 a month this month on 10,000 uniques, but I am frustrated sometimes when it comes to driving traffic (and money).

I'm not sure I picked the right niche, sports--it's a topic I am very interested in, but it is pretty general and as a whole doesn't have a huge online audience.

The most frustrating thing is there is really no benchmark to measure yourself up against this early in a blog's life.

This is exactly what I needed to hear tonight. I love to blog. I don't care if I ever make a dime doing it. I don't need money. I need to create something with intrinsic value. That's my passion. A beautiful photo. A humorous passage. A meaningful poem. Something that is uplifting. That's it.

Excellent post. Great advice on it too :mrgreen:

to keep the juice flowing.. how about working smart.. or blogg'n smartly.. exploiting opportunities etc.. for sure that would earn you bucks right.. :grin:

I enjoy working on my blog way more than I like my actual job. That alone is the difference that keeps me writing away.

I love affiliate marketing. :) It's fun. That's the main reason why I can work 15 hours in a day and get up the next morning and do it all over again. I dont do that ALL the time, but I've had my moments.

I agree 100%. I had a music blog and I blogged every day. It was awesome and my traffic jumped to 1k uniques per day in no time. I stopped blogging because of other priorities, but I know my future lies within music (my passion).

i make much closer to zero from my blog and i have no problem with it. getting up in the morning to get to work by 8:00...now that's hard work...

It is true, you must have some sort of passion for what your doing, if not then it is like having a job and working for someone else. It is amazing how much you make off of what you love John. I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and a great new year.

Interesting post, great read of the day I might say. Keep up the good work!

-Mike

I love blogging about travel, has a way of reminding folks the great need we have for taking vacations and enjoying some well deserve R & R which not only relieve stress, but it also has a way of rejuvenate our body soul and mind. I am fairly new to blogging
and I do not consider it hard work because I am having fun sharing
traveling tips and videos with the world. :smile:

Bloggin or art, it does not matter, it can and must be hard work sometimes, that does not mean it ain't a passion. You see whatever energy you put into something as you mention. I really think it's possible to see or feel when someone puts his sweat and blood into something rather than copy or take the easy road.
It can be called hard work, it can be called passion, the point is, that investing time into something is the most expensive thing you can do, never underestimated the value of your own lifetime. It's over somewhen and you ain't got credit for more. At least in this place called earth.

I am trying with something new as I 'lost' Agloco. Only now I see that I was with Agloco with passion . In last weeks I made few different blogs , but I just do not like, i feel nothing.
May passion is folclore, but it seems to me it is not good article to earn some money. Wht do you think , should i try with folclore?

You have to passionate and also have some skills in writing.For many is hard to put on paper what they think.

good blogging tips, thanks john!

Its great to have the chance to discuss these issues in a venue different than my site, thanks to John for the opportunity

I agree with John that it doesn't seem like work when blogging about something I really enjoy and feel passionate about. For me, its time better spent than mindlessly surfing, I'd rather be productive.

It has require effort and perseverance for me to achieve significant readership and pagerank. Money and access to GM have been side benefits.

That's true! I try to find all blog contests and sweepstakes running on the Internet. That's fun for me and if I'm luck I can will $100 bucks or books from JohnChow by making a blog post :mrgreen:

I'm sure if johnchow.com made $0 you would scrap it and stick to being passionate about ttz media and the tech zone, or at least there wouldn't be as many posts as you do.

yes it's true. i agree with u

i agree with u.

Amen.

I dropped everything, sold my house, left behind all my friends and family to do just that.

I have no idea how or if it will pay off, but it doesn't really matter because I'm doing what I want to do.

I have yet to run a single ad on my website and I don't know if I ever will. I really just want to share what I'm doing with people who will never be able to do something like this.

Its true.

I sold my house and left my life behind me just so I could go and pursue my dream and share it with others in the process. My blog is the vehicle for doing that.

I live out of a bag, sleep in run down buildings and its all worth it because it is what I enjoy doing.

I have no idea if it will ever pay off, but I get great positive feedback from people and even if nothing ever pans out, I still got to see the world. It really isn't work.

If you are passionate about your topic, writing about it makes it all the easier. But there are lots of passionate sports fans that would rather sit around on Sunday and drink beer instead of starting blogs about their favorite teams or sports.

I think its silly for anyone to say blogging is hard work as well. If you hate writing or hate doing a little research online, go play outside with your kids in your free time. Now, unless you are a professional blogger who spends all day posting on tons of different blogs with tons of different topics, researching things you're not interested in, no reason to complain :mrgreen: .

These comments are true!

First off it has been great to share my experience with JohnChow.com, it's a different venue than my usual outlet.

I agree with John, although I do put a lot of effort into the site, I truly enjoy it. As I mentioned, in the past I probably spent similar amounts of time surfing around, but now Im putting that same time to productive effort.

Like anything else, it's best to find something you love doing and run with it.

Money and access to the carmaker have been side benefits.

Yeah...Passion is the differentiating factor. If you start blogging because you want to make money, you will definitely stop if the money doesn't come. This doen't only apply to blogging but also to the choice of career. People should learn to choose a career which matches their passion and the money will come in later.

hardwork pays off . . :!:

Excellent point. Also, if someone is blogging on a topic which interests them, they're more likely to have had some experience in that topic. Why should I read a blog by someone who is a noob in their chosen area? There is probably something else that person actually knows something about, they might to well to blog about THAT instead.

"Passion is very transparent. People can see it and you can’t fake it. Readers are attracted to passionate bloggers because they’re blogging about the topic for love and not money"

So true! :!:

I`d hazard a guess the majority of people saying it`s hard work are jumping on a `make money online` bandwagon and indeed are making very little money. So working for nothing, i guess can translate into thoughts long the lines of `It`s hard work blogging`.

Maybe those thinking it`s hardwork should jump off the saturated bandwagon and leave it to those who are actually making money blogging or at least give their blog a point of difference rather than just rolling out affiliate deals.

I would actually turn that statement on its head.

I do a lot of things - I have a full-time programming job, I do web development as a hobby, I write music, and I blog.

I don't view what I do as hard work in the sense I don't find it really difficult to do web development or music composition. It comes naturally to me. However, I do work hard at everything I do, i.e. I do a lot of it.

Or is it not possible to be passionate about work?

you just nail them in the head john! :mrgreen:
now i have an excuse for not earning thru blogg'n.. i.e passion :twisted:

kidd'n aside, actually, my project stemmed out from passion. because i wanted to learn i founded hr egroups and joined some just to learn. passion can really spell the difference.. i may not be earning like some of the guys here.. my site may be flooded with marketing programs (i just wanted to survive since its costly) still its not about making money, it's about trying to be different with other professionals out there. this is the only means possible that i can have a project of my own. that i can call my own. this is how i become and i enjoy doing it.
kodus!

The most important thing when starting a blog/website is picking the right niche. How do you pick the right niche? Well, it is up to you, but the most important factor is (should be): write about what you like, and the flow of ideas will never stop. You won't run out of fuel (inspiration, that is), `cause you're writing about stuff you too, are interested in.