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Monday, April 6, 2009

Frustrated in Blogging: What to do?

Well, sometimes I feel frustrated when I do not get that desire result from blogging. You know that blogging is a kind of self publishing and here you are totally on your own. Not only that but also you need to remember one thing is that it is a very tough field and competitive. You can not always win. Sometimes what you will see is that your entries are bringing a lot of traffic that means visitors and page views but you are not earning enough money or the amount of money you expected. It happens to the all professional bloggers all the time. It has happened for me a lot and especially during the time of economic recession, it is a very bad thing and sometimes it really puts pressure on my nerve.

I depend on Blogger for my only source of livelihood and this is a very big challenge for a person living in any country. Yes, there are some professional bloggers who have found a lot of success but I am not one of them. I have found decent amount of success but it is still mediocre level. So, I assume that most bloggers are like me and there is a good chance that out of hundred visitors who will read this entry sometimes in near future or after that at least eighty or eighty-five of them will have the same problem like me. You may wonder what to do in this kind of situation.

As I stated earlier, I give all of my time in blogging and I tried to earn my living by it. I have been doing it successfully for the last three years and only recently because of economic recession this source of livelihood has come under threat. I understand the condition because no matter what profession I would have been right now, I would have suffered and suffered some kind of anxiety and uncertainty because look at the economy of United States of America. In the last one year, nearly six million people have lost jobs and it is surely not a joke. Here in third world countries, we depend on our families and relatives a lot. Our family members even sometimes close relatives or some friends come in support of each other in time of crisis. This is a very big advantage of Asian countries where society is still traditional and family based. That is why, when I think of the American bloggers I really get afraid and feel some sympathy for them because they have lost a lot in the last few months.

Well, if you are looking for my way of consolation then I should share my advice with you. To be honest with you, when I was a school student, one day a teacher asked to write about our aim in life. Most of the students wrote that they wanted to be a doctor, engineer, businessman or a teacher. I was the only person who wrote that I want to be a journalist. In fact, I did not have that much idea about the meaning of the word but I understood that it is related to the newspaper and it is related to the writing. I enjoyed reading books form an early age. All my life, I feel that this was the profession for me. I feel that it was destined in my fate or I always felt that this will be the field for me.

So, from the age of eight or nine, I had the dream to be a journalist or writer. Well, in third world countries, journalism does not bring a lot of money and I understood this matter when I entered into university to study bachelor. Then, instead of studying journalism, I went to study English because in my country, if you are good at English then finding a job is never a problem. Fortunately I could have some decent grade in university and all through my academic life. So, I did not have problem to find a job but as I stated earlier that writing is in my blood literally because both of my parents were journalists when I was born. So, after finishing university I joined in a university job and when I was a university student, I started writing news paper just for hobby. Yes, I started to earn some money but it was never enough and I understood that journalism or freelance writing can never be the main source of income for me because I had a lot of family responsibility. However, I had the dream and continued the dream. In fact, after few years of doing teaching job in some universities, I understood that I always wanted to be that. Teaching is a good but I wanted to be a full time writer. Well, I also found that it was impossible because journalism or freelance writing as a hobby is excellent but it is not ideal for me who needs to pay the house rent and some other bills and manage home expenses.

Then I found not only that, but there was another problem that bothered me a lot. I did not have enough space to write. I felt that my writing was not bad but I could not find enough writing assignments that would bring payment. This matter frustrated me a lot. Well, looking back at the past, I understand that the magazine editors and news paper editors had limited space to fill up. It is not that they don’t give me many articles every week that I can write and they can pay me. They have to fill up the limited space with the writing of other people too. That is why; it was difficult for me to write the things that I wanted.

Another big problem that I encountered was that I wanted to write about business and economy especially about Asian business and economy. However, most of the news papers and magazine I saw- they published syndicated reports of news agencies or foreign media. So, there was hardly any scope for me to write about this topic. Or I wanted to write about sports but there was not adequate opportunity for me.

Then I found out blogging in 2005. At first it was like a hobby for me and when I had some time I wrote some entries. Then in 2006, I decided that I wanted to be a full time blogger because this is the best place for me to showcase my skills as a freelance writer. Well, I applied for almost everyday for two months to every opportunity that I could find in internet. However, most of the people were not eager to hire me because I live in a third world country like Bangladesh and I do not have any credit card or any other form of online payment at that time.

Fortunately, God was kind with me and I got an amazing breakthrough in my career. I continued writing in my two personal bloggs and I tried my best to write quality content. I never had this feeling because I was not earning any money so I should tried easy write content without giving enough effort at that time. Fortunately, I applied to Know More Media who just started a few months ago. They were impressed with my personal blogs and felt that I could be the right person for their South Asia business blog. So, I got the job and fortunately at first they didn’t ask for any result. They invested on all the bloggers and I could use the time in a very good way. The rest is literary history for me and I have been earning full time revenue from blogging for the last few years.

 

Now, let me come back to the original topic of how we can find consolation when the condition is tough. I have seen many ups and downs in the last few years. I told you my background and my story because this way you could get the exact picture. You see, I always wanted to write on the topic that I like and love. So, with blogging this is the best way. I said to myself that at least with blogging I can write whatever I like and whenever I want. It doesn’t matter if the magazine or news paper doesn’t have any space. With any kind of hosting and domain offers by popular hosting companies like Godaddy or Blue host, you can literary write millions of words and yet the space will never be finished. So, I really do not need to worry about with. If you do not wan to spend any money for domain and hoisting there is always Google Blogger/Blogspot that gives you everything for free and even you can put some advertisements to earn money. Second thing is that blogging has given me really the scope to turn my passion into a living.

When I was in university or after I finished my university, I could never imagine or dream that with writing someday I could earn my living. To be honest with you, still it is impossible for me in my own country. However, blogging has given me the opportunity to work with internet and work with American companies and advertisers. I am particularity grateful to Google because Adsense has really given me the opportunity to make some decent amount of money with my content.

So, we can see that the main thing that I said to myself is that with blogging I have really got the opportunity to do the thing I love most in my life. I always though that for writing I would have to suffer a lot but blogging have really given me the space and opportunity to write. I do not need to worry if the magazine editor will like it or not. I do not need to worry if my writing will be published in next month’s issue or not.    Even I do not need to worry that after getting a published whether I will get the money in time or not. Really these are very big blessings for me.

In blogging, I can publish anytime I like. It does not matter if it is Sunday or Monday or Friday. It also doesn’t matter if it is 500 words or 5000 words entry or article. All it matters is that I have to try and write some content. Thanks to searching engine like Google, Yahoo or MSN, there will be always some people who will come and read my entries. If my contest is good, there is no need to worry as other people will happily read and even some other people write about me and prevailing to my entries. It has happened many times and some of my entries even got linked by Wikipedia, my blogs, blog mentioned by Times Online, Channel 4 of UK, even New York Time blog. I could never dream that someday my works will be linked by New York Times. It is an honor and I feel always very happy for this matter.

So, this is the thing you can also say to yourself when feel frustrated about blogging. 

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