How-To-Retire-Young.com

Archive for September, 2010

I have been having problems recently with my motivation, I need to work harder on this blog and I also need to find a real job in the meantime. I have been struggling recently with both these tasks, but my cash flow is running low and I need to start soon. This got me thinking about why so many bloggers fail in what they set out to achieve.

I do have my excuses, I am currently traveling, which means I have better thing to do than go job hunting or sitting in front of a computer. I also do not have the constant affordable internet access that I used to take for granted. But this is not why most bloggers fail.

It is a fact that the majority of blogs do not make any money. While some do not try, there are many bloggers who try to make money and fail. The main reasons why many bloggers will quit after a few months is because they get bored and impatient, or they run out of things to say. Personally I am not trying to make any money yet, but I’ve made no secret that I plan to do so in the future.

My lack of motivation and internet access lately has made me feel like I’m failing already in what I set out to do. But I don’t want to quit, instead I thought I’d look at why so many other bloggers fail:

• Not taking blogging seriously: blogging for money is not like other blogs, you need to work hard and fill it with content, as well as promote and monetize your blog. Blogging for money is not as easy as some make it out to be, you need to treat blogging as a business that requires work. This has probably been my biggest blogging sin lately.

• Low start-up costs: This is one of the big pluses of blogging or making money online in general. It is also one of the reasons why so many people quit. It is easy to get into the ‘make money online’ business, but because it requires very little investment, it’s also very easy to walk away.

• Blogging and Internet Marketing Problems: There are many blogs out there with great content, but unfortunately not all bloggers know about internet marketing. Blogging and marketing is a fine art (that I’m still learning) and there is more involved that just writing a post and slapping some ads/affiliate links over it. A lot of bloggers are simply not very good marketers, and this is why so many bloggers fail to make any money.

• Blogging for Money and not for Passion: Have you seen how many make money online blogs there are? People are starting them up every day expecting to stand out from the crowd, but nearly all of them will fail. A lot of people make this mistake because they find out about blogging and making money online through reading blogs and then decide to try and follow the crowd. If you are not passionate about your topic or do not possess the expertise you pretend to have, it will show. You may also run out of things to say if you are not passionate about your chosen niche.

I have tried to avoid this last point by blogging about travel and living abroad as well as blogging, because this is what I am doing right now and have plenty to say about the subjects. However I am probably guilty of the first point, I haven’t worked on this blog as much as I had planned.

Hopefully I will settle down somewhere soon and find a real job to keep me going while I work on this blog. I have given myself two years to get this blog to where I want it to be, so I do have time. I’ll keep you posted on what I’m up too, but just recently to be honest I’ve been playing too much and not working enough. Lack of work and effort is probably the main reason why most bloggers fail.

I am currently traveling on a working holiday visa through Australia. With this particular visa in Australia there is an option to extend the visa for another year if you meet the criteria. This is something I am seriously considering as I’m looking at this as a once in a lifetime opportunity and have no intention of rushing back to England any time soon.

To extend your working holiday visa in Australia, you need to do do three months of specified work in areas classed as Regional Australia.

The main options open are farm work and fruit picking, but there are other sectors to work in like mining or construction. The list of specified work goes into this in more detail.

Whilst working you will need to complete a form or provide evidence of the work to qualify for the second year, so bear that in mind when you start. To extend your visa, or for more information regarding specified work and qualifying regions in Australia, download the second year working holiday visa form, which you will need to take to work with you when you start.

That is all you need to do. Australia is obviously short of workers in certain areas so this is an excellent opportunity for all travelers to extend their stay, and one I think people should seriously consider if they have no commitments back home.

I am writing this post because I am looking to extend my working holiday visa. This work can be done at anytime within your first year and I still have eleven months to go. However personally I would like to do it soon if I can, before the weather gets too hot, and so that I am not rushing around panicking in my last few months.

I am looking to settle down somewhere soon and find a “real job”. Until I do this I will not be able to work on this blog as much as I would like. As I have said before, if I appear to stop blogging in the near future, it probably means I am stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere with no internet access.

Since starting this blog I have been traveling a lot, starting in Thailand and I have since been working my way around Australia. Working and traveling with a laptop has proved to be quite a challenge. Being constantly on the move has caused a few problems when it comes to blogging and making money online.

There are two main problems I have encountered:

Internet access: Finding decent affordable internet access has been harder than I expected. If I was made of money then I could stay in top hotels with high speed wi-fi, but that is not the case. I have been staying mainly in hostels, and many hostels do not have wi-fi access. Of the ones that do, most charge extra and the rates can be quite high.

Motivation: I can’t blame anyone else for this one, but when traveling around seeing new places it can be quite difficult to get motivated to sit down and do some work. I am on the other side of the world right now and there are so many things to see and do, sitting in front of a computer screen is not high on my list of priorities.

So working and traveling is proving to be quite difficult. It may be the dream job for many people, including myself, but that does not make it easy. The logistical problem of finding cheap quality internet access, as well as the inevitable problem of getting motivated, are proving quite a challenge for me.

To be honest, I am falling behind. By now I was hoping to have a few more posts, and to have promoted my blog a lot more. In fact at the time of writing this I am probably still talking to myself. For now that’s not a big problem as it is to be expected when starting out with blogging, but it does not help with the motivation!

Whilst I admit I’m still having troubles with working while traveling with a laptop, I do have a few hints that I’ve learned.

• Research accommodation – If you are on a budget then your options for wi-fi internet access may be limited depending where you are traveling. However even some of the cheapest places do have free wi-fi access. You should do your research before you arrive to find out where they are.

• Be mobile – Be prepared to change your accommodation if your internet access is not good enough for your needs, especially if you are in a large town/city, you have a lot of options.

• If you find a place with decent affordable wifi – USE IT! I’ve been to a couple of hostels with good quality free wi-fi but I probably didn’t make the most of it. So if you’re traveling and stay somewhere with decent affordable internet access, make sure you use it as at your next stop you may not be so lucky.

• Be productive- use your online time wisely, don’t spend too much time fooling around on the net and chatting away on facebook.

• Set goals/deadlines – This can be difficult on the road, but if you do have good internet access then you have no excuse not to set yourself goals and meeting certain deadlines.

So if you are looking to work and travel with a laptop then be prepared for some challenges. Whilst it may be a dream job it is not easy. I may soon be heading to regional Australia and I am quite worried things could get harder, I have no idea what kind of internet access awaits me.

I may not be able to update this blog as much as I would like to over the next few weeks, I could be stuck on a farm in the middle of nowhere. If I appear to go offline for a while it does not mean I have given up on this blog, and I will be back.