Heads up: This blog post is a long one requiring a cup of tea or coffee to go with, but for those of who are struggling in your career or business right now, it is worth the read because I will take you through my process of going through the reality that my business must change or die, and my spirit along with it.
For you bloggers who are feeling kinda at the end of your rope with trying to make money from your blog(s), this long post is worth your time because I'm doing something I'm calling, "The Flip." Everyday Tweet is one end product of this process.
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Here's the latest around the Thriving Media water cooler. Last January, I went to the Philippines for vacation with my parents. Besides the quality time with the folks, the best part of the trip was being a whole ocean away from my day-to-day life so I could get a fresh look at my business, Thriving Media, and my blogging career.
I had to make some hard decisions because although I have managed to carve a really good brand and online presence for myself, to be perfectly transparent because I know many others are in the same boat, my balance sheet is in the red, and mentally and emotionally it's taken it's tool. In January, I had been hanging off the ledge, and here's how I'm climbing off....
One of my favorite quotes I've seen on Twitter is from @RachelKatz
That quote struck a deep chord in me because my current three blogs, Back in Skinny Jeans, Noshtopia, and The Everyday Blogger on a grand scale make sense because they help make the world a better place, but from a revenue perspective, the blogs are not sensible because even with all the work and promotion I have done for as long as I have, generating revenue has been more like 20/80 than 80/20.
Fortunately, I do have some financial aid, but the run rate is coming to a dead stop soon like any day. You can imagine my stress.
Sometimes gifts come packaged as nights curled up in the fetal position
So while on my vacation, I started to re-strategize as I'm doing work I love and want to make a long term living from those passions. I just have to figure out the revenue puzzle. One wondrous thing that happened right before I went on vacation was Twitter put me on their Suggested User list, and I was gaining like 14K Followers a day. I went from 1200 to 42k Followers in 30 days. No joke! I knew this gift was no coincidence but I wasn't quite sure what to make of it...that is until recently.
Despite having a couple of those "sobbing fetal position on the floor ready to go dust off the resume and get a regular job" moments, I know I'm not done-done...at least not yet. I believe my ability to tolerate this money pain and continue to move forward despite feeling many times like giving up is a sign that I am doing my life's work.
I'm willing to fight and stick through the hardships in order to get to my dreams because in my heart I know this pain I'm feeling now although heart-aching is not heart-breaking. Going back to the world of working for other people would break my spirit which is far more painful than what I'm experiencing now.
So really...What do you want?
So instead of basking in the pity pool which I am prone to do from time to time (hey, I'm strong not bulletproof), I got creative. First I asked myself point blank,"What do you want?" You can't get more authentic than, "What do you want?" The immediate answer was love, money, and a dog. I miss having a pet. I'm in an apartment not so good for dogs so Butters (see I have a name already) will have to wait.
Now we're down to love and money, so how do we manifest those two things because the current strategy is not reaping the desired results. As Dr. Phil would say, "So, how's that workin' for ya?" Me, "Um, it's not."
The truth comes out from deep waters
I thought being a blogger was my true love, but sitting on a beach in a foreign land watching the sun set, it hit me, I realized, no, really it is not. Yeah, *yikes.* I love blogging but it's not my true love. Now, we're getting some deep truths to rise to the top. This could explain a subconscious road block to manifesting money from blogging which truth be told is mind breaking work for little pay...at least in this point in time.
Also, there is the topics I blog about and what I was feeling about each one of them.
- Back in Skinny Jeans is mostly about body image, beauty, pop culture and the media's influence on how we see ourselves, and frankly, I feel done talking about that stuff...on a day to day basis. I went through this period once before, and now I think I'm really done. And mostly it's because I feel I've said all I needed to say at least right now. Again, that could change, and I am still working on turning that blog into a book.
- On Noshtopia, I had to come up with ideas and recipes for eating healthier in a hectic life, and food is a great link bait topic but it's very involved work because you have to budget for food, plan recipes, cook, clean, take pictures, and then blog about it.
- The Everyday Blogger was my attempt to help others make a living as a lifestyle blogger. On paper, I know I'm qualified to blog about this topic, but in my heart, I was feeling like a fraud. I know hard on myself. Worthiness issues came up because all I could think is that I really haven't made enough money in blogging to stand on my own feet without financial aid, so who am I to give others advice on something I haven't nailed myself yet.
Blogging professionally is more lucrative, again in this market, if you are in one of the easier high traffic topics like tech/web, business, politics, gossip or mommy blogging. Higher paying advertisers yes want to associate with good content but you also need the numbers, big numbers, and I'm pulling in decent numbers, but again, not enough to live independently.
Another revenue stream option is to delve into the world of the Internet marketers and do eBooks and product launches. I checked it out but it's not for me at least the way your typical Internet marketer would do it. But things can change.
Unraveling our true love
Now that we know what we don't want or like, it's time to focus on what we are good at. It dawned on me that something I'm really awesome at is pointing people in a direction or sharing one of my experiences to give people inspiration on their journey to a more authentic life. In this blog's About Us page, I share my outlook on authentic living.
I'm big on the authentic thing so it's easy to see why I thrive in social media, it's all about authenticity. I am good at and enjoy writing, cooking, photography, design, and giving advice, but as I thought deeper, I really don't want to do any of those things as a full time profession but yet, I'd still like those aspects still be part of what I do.
While riding in a cart being pulled by an Albino Carabao, it hit me that I love the platform of blogging because it gives me the best medium to convey my true love which is helping people live more authentic lives. And there it is, we unravel our true love! I say "we" because now I feel like me and my soul are on the same page.
I resonate more with "authentic" versus "best" because the word best for me can still trigger the Inner Perfect girl in me who equates best = perfect, whereas authentic means real, genuine. I find I'm more at ease working on being the real me, and when that happens the best naturally comes out.
And there we have love. I was thinking more of a husband but hey, love is love, I won't judge the packaging, and I wasn't specific. Just receive gratefully. I did have a love-of-my-life husband like moment recently but we'll save that story for another post.
Now, we're down to money
So the new question is, "How do I make a living helping people live more authentic lives?" I don't know exactly, but wow! It all makes better sense and the picture has became much clearer. I see opportunities now instead of road blocks. {Insert song, "I can see clearly now" by Jimmy Cliff}
And from my sea of confusion and doubt, the seed idea for Everyday Tweet came to be.
I did that exercise where you jot down the business people you admire and write down what you like about each one of them. On my list was Oprah, Martha Stewart, Robert Kiyosaki, and Steve Jobs. What I realized what they all have in common is a deep love for a topic and have found multiple outlets to generate revenue from each. As well, all four are highly creative individuals who experienced some pretty tough times in their lives. For example,
- Oprah loves to help people live their best life. She conveys her love through media: TV, radio, film, magazines, books plus her philanthropic works. She experienced sexual abuse as a child and had a child who died at infancy.
- Martha Stewart loves to help people create finer living. She conveys her love through TV, merchandise, magazines, books, and the web. I'm also impressed by the social media savvy of @marthastewart. Martha went to jail.
- Robert Kiyosaki loves to help people boost their financial well being through learning. He conveys his love through books, events, games, seminars, and coaching. Robert was a Marine who fought in the Vietnam War. He became a millionaire at a young age and then lost it all.
- Steve Jobs loves to innovate and give people the most amazing technology experience possible. He conveys his love through Apple, Pixar, technology, and investments. Steve's birth parents gave him to an orphanage where he ended up getting adopted by the Jobs family. At 30, he got kicked out of Apple the company he co-founded. He is battling a life threatening illness.
So now, if I take myself as an example. I love to help people live more authentic lives. So far, I've been conveying that love through the subjects of healthy living, food, and life purpose work through online mediums; blogs, videos, photographs, podcasts, and Twitter (although Twitter is considered micro-blogging I consider it more social networking.)
Behind the scenes what most people don't know is that I have on the creation table a book deal I'm trying to get for a series of books, a line of merchandise (My college degree is in Product Design), and possibly some TV. These things are not hot hot but they are in the works...slowly, and I'm okay with that for now.
Wisdom from a mentor: Be one of the best in the world at something
I'm grateful that I'm able to see vast opportunity, but bigger is still too much. Back to day-to-day work, the amount of effort I'm putting into 3 blogs, Twitter, and the occasional contract work is breaking me. I'm super human in content creation but no one can operate like I have been long term, and come out without losing their sanity or affecting their physical health. Not possible.
When I was at NVIDIA in 1998 the early days, co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang had this motto, "We will not extend ourselves into new markets like laptops, workstations, or phones until we are the best in the world at desktop graphics."
Jensen's philosophy is to be the best in the world at one thing first and then parlay that success to the next thing which for NVIDIA at the time while I was there was first the desktop, then the workstation, then the laptop. If you try to do too many things at one time, you just end up producing many things at lower quality. Better to do one thing at a time superbly.
Web analytics helps you see what you're good at
So, what is it that I am quickly becoming one of the best in the world at: Twitter: @skinnyjeans. I've proven that with a 41k Follower base at this moment. I'm in the top 250 in the world including celebrities according to Twitterholic, and so far in the Twitterati rankings if you did a Top 10 focusing in the area of authentic/healthy living topics I'd be on that list with the likes of Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Martha Stewart.
But why am I so good at Twitter because after all it's just a platform, a blank canvas? Here it is:
I discovered this about myself when with the help of a friend, I did some web analytics on all my blogs and my Twitter links, and looked for what was most popular and got the most action in terms of things like clicks, links, mentions, and Retweets, and it was the tiny stuff.
And what makes my content so compelling? I believe it's because I tend to focus on being a cheerleader of others, creative, funny, useful, insightful, and keeping on the look out for cool stuff that helps people reach their goals and dreams.
For example, On Back in Skinny Jeans, Tuesdays are my highest traffic days because it's "Better Than Nothin" Tuesday where I give people a high-5 and an effortless idea for taking tiny steps towards their health goals. On Twitter, a simple daily hydration reminder catapulted my social capital. On Nosthopia, one simple picture of a cool snack like hummus in a tube or Lollipop chicken gets good traffic and links.
And now we do "Condense & Flip"
After that light bulb moment, I gathered all the ingredients I had acquired since my trip to the Philippines, and came up with a new blog dish:
Everyday Tweet, "Helping people live more authentic lives in small ways."
Business wise here is my new plan of action which I'm going to do as an 8-week experiment. Yeah, I'm not ready to do anything totally extreme like put blogs on the chopping block. This blog experiment could work fabulously or fail horrendously, but no matter, for the love of our higher purpose, we must take chances, and again trust in the process.
Tactics:
- Condense: I created Everyday Tweet as a way for me to condense the efforts of three blogs into one. This will help me to 1. Do the Jensen-like thing and focus on becoming one of the best in the world at one thing, and 2. Give me more time to do consulting work because that is where I can make some real substantial money fast. I'm listening to the CNBC guy's advice.
- "The Flip": Previously, the blogs were the focus of Thriving Media and Twitter was just one source like Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, and YouTube supporting the blogs to drive some traffic. Now, I'm going to flip that around. My Twitter @skinnyjeans will now be the focus of the business and this blog Everyday Tweet will be supporting the Twitter. Here we have an illustration (click for larger view):
Yeah, this is a radical idea. So far, I haven't heard of anyone doing this yet especially another pro blogger who is a leader in their niche. If you have, please send me their way. The thought behind the Flip is, "Focus where the eyeballs are." On Twitter, I have the attention of way more eyeballs per day than I get on all 3 blogs put together times xyz. Plus, on Twitter I have much easier access and pull to new readers and influentials because of my big Follower number. And lastly on Twitter, I get 80/20 results, bigger impact/less work.
- Back in Skinny Jeans, the bigger and founding member of the 3 blogs will not be completely inactive during this 8 week experiment. To keep my Google page rank, I am going to post reruns of the "Best of..." much like TV during the summer season. Twitter has helped me get new readers so these reruns will actually be new for many of those folks.
- Monetizing: Monetizing Twitter efforts is still a big "up in the air" for everyone include Twitter the company. For now, I will continue to do CPM based advertising and sponsorships on Everyday Tweet, and some affiliate programs like Amazon. I will be very proactive in doing consulting work.
And it all started with one small tiny action
In this post, I've shared quite about my business, my fears & doubts, and things that normally I'd consider "pounding the chest", ego stuff, but I'm sharing this not to show, "Hey look at me I'm da bomb!" but to demonstrate that when you find your sweet spot, when you start living your passions, and stay committed to them and not give up even when the days get dark even though you feel like chucking it all, utterly amazing things can happen. And likewise, there are many things you just can't plan on or for because maybe they don't exist yet.
There is no way I or anyone else could have predicted that I'd become one of the top Twitterers in the world. Twitter didn't even exist when I started blogging in 2005. In fact, I remember them doing Odeo. And all this I have today started back in 2005 when I took the small action of cleaning out the clothes in my closet and came across a stack of my "skinny self" jeans. I wanted to wear those jeans again, and so I did the next small action and wrote a blog post about it.
Even small, ordinary, mundane actions can take you to places you never knew existed, and can take you to your dreams in ways you could never have planned or predicted. This is some of the magic of tiny actions. So, just start walking forward.
From one of my favorite business motivation books, The Go-Giver
So, we're not waiting anymore, and neither should you. Show the world the authentic you!
