Read on Twitter
This month marks my thirteenth year in the travel industry. I registered my domain all the way back in Feb 2008. I've learned a lot about writing and business since then, most of the hard way. Here are some of those hard lessons:
First, this ain’t easy. This is work. People think this is just buying a domain, putting content up, and presto, success! No. This is constant work. It's building a business. If you don’t plan on devoting all your free time to this, keep it as a hobby.
Failure will happen. A lot. The people who succeed are the ones who accept that, learn from their mistakes, and move on to the next project. The ones who get too emotionally caught up in failure and never move beyond it are the ones that get left behind.
Don’t quit your day job until your hobby can support you. Otherwise, the financial pressures will cause you to take whatever you can for money and you'll just end up on this hamster wheel chasing scraps, always in motion, but never moving forward.
The people who succeed are also the ones who change course and pivot when situations change. If you keep doubling down on a strategy that gives diminishing returns, you’re fucked.
Forget what people say. Luck has a ton to do with success. Being in the right place at the right time with the right idea plays a larger part of the story than most people want to admit.
If you’ve been doing whatever it is you do for five years and you're still struggling to pay the bills, go get an office job. There’s nothing wrong with calling it quits. In fact, successful people know when to throw in the towel.
And, remember, no one else has any idea as to what they are doing either. We’re all just learning as we go. Even the “gurus.” Don’t be too hard on yourself if things go wrong.
Learn to write. There’s so much crappy content out there. Just because you write doesn’t mean you can. Take a class. Get an editor. Even if you can write just ok, you’ll still be better than 90% of the people out there.
Pick a niche. There are too many creators out there to be a generalist. You need a “beat” these days. Something that distinguishes you from everyone else. If you’re trying to be "just another backpacker blog”, you’re gonna fail. That worked in 2008. It does not now.
Success is all marketing. There’s too much content out there to be found organically. This isn’t Field of Dreams. If you build it, people won’t come. You got to go out and promote, promote, promote. The hustle is real.
Network outside your niche. Be someone else’s expert. Trying to be big in your industry will limit you. There are more people outside your niche than in it. Network, network, network. I saw the most success when I took my message outside travel and to other industries.
If you’re trading your time for money, you’ve already lost. The people who don’t grow are the ones who trade time for money. Don’t do things that take away from building a business that makes money while you're sleeping. Own your revenue stream. Time is not scalable. Money is.
If you’re not getting your audience off social media, you're screwing yourself. Hot platforms and algorithms constantly change. If you’re not directing everyone to your own website / email list, you’re at the whims of companies who don’t care about you. Own your audience.
If you’re only working with brands, you're doing marketing. Don’t pretend it’s something different. Your product is your audience and your customer is the brand. You’re a mouthpiece for ads. Don’t dress it up differently.
Hire people. Seriously. You can’t do it all and, if you try, you’re not going to succeed. Hire people who do things better than you can so you can focus on your core strengths and being a leader.
Be you. People follow content creators because they want to follow real people not generic brands or content. Be real, be authentic, be human. Some people will like it, some people won’t. But who cares? You can’t be everything to anyone anyways. So don't try!
If you’re creating a product, actually think about the "why" of it. What problem does it solve? Don’t just create something you think sounds good without first seeing the needs of your customers. Your readers might not even want it.
If you’re not focusing on SEO, you’re missing out on constant, easily monetizable traffic. SEO pays bills. Not followers on social media.
You don’t need to always feed the beast on social media. Take breaks. Trust me. No one is gonna notice. Your readers want you to live a normal life not always be posting.
Finally, remember: No one cares about you. You are not the center of the universe and “look at me” content only goes so far. Do something that solves someone’s problem and they will stick with you forever.
