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I have first registered tycoonmag.com, December of 2013 with the aim of creating a blog that makes money. Specifically, a magazine-style, online entrepreneurship blog to help other entrepreneurs start their own entrepreneurial journeys to success.
If you’ve been researching online businesses and been reading “how to build a successful blog” articles, you may be familiar with the many dos and don’ts of blogging.
Things like keyword-matched domain names, researching and dissecting your top 5 competitors on the Google search results for that specific keywords, and that you should write a better article than ones already written for that topic.
How much better?
The blogging gurus of the world explain that your target keywords should appear in your blog title and in the first 90 characters of your article’s first paragraph. Also, it is important that you write a long-form article on the subject, ideally, it should be longer than the top 5 Google search results on the subject. It should also be noted that you have to consciously spread your keywords and synonyms thereof along your article while still making your article read and sound “natural” as if you’re writing for the human reader and not the search robots.
This, and many other successful blogging rules, kept me from writing articles I would have written in the last 6 years. Reason being?
I always wanted to craft the perfect blog post targeting low-competition keywords, with decent to high demand.
This is one example of how perfectionism kept me from building a successful blog. More often than not, it stopped me from publishing content altogether because I just couldn’t think of what to write about.
And while I tried a lot of many keyword-research tools to search for entrepreneur-related topics to write for, I just couldn’t pull the trigger.
Finally, I started researching keywords like, “what topics to write about in your blog” simply to get niche suggestions, instead of the answer that I was hoping to get.
I then researched other successful blogs and how the authors write their content. Of course, each blog and its authors have a variety of writing approaches. Some follow the recommended keyword-based blogging structures, while some don’t.
Naturally, keyword-based blogs attract a lot of organic traffic from search engines like Google and being successful businesses of their own, I would assume that these blogs actually make a lot of money by organically ranking well on the search results of their target keywords.
But how about the other blogs that look like personal blogs but are also killing it with monetization? Don’t they attract traffic as well?
Or are the publishers already popular even before they launched their blogs, so people simply find whatever they publish because of their already popular personal brands?
My research led me to believe that the authors of these not-so keyword-based blogs may have not been popular before they gain traction in their blogging businesses.
Success Leaves Clues
Personal bloggers turned business bloggers.
So, these non-keyword based bloggers seemed to have started personal blogs that they turned into sustainable businesses for themselves.
I like that.
For years, I tried to compete with keywords. As a result, it stopped me from actually writing articles that I enjoy. Instead, I was forced to write articles for topics that I don’t like and have no expertise in whatsoever.
I just realized that Tycoonmag, though a business blog, is simply my blog as a chronic entrepreneur and business-minded person. Heck, I could write anything here!
Going forward, I know, not everything I will write about will appeal to visitors like you but each post and/or article that I publish is going to actually come from me, naturally. Which is going to be an enjoyable, creative process, instead of a chore.
The reason why I rarely published articles is the fact that I was trying to publish the best article I could come out with on keywords that people search.
While it’s a lucrative way of building a blog, it stops me from actually writing the articles. This hurt my business for years!
What if I just wrote and published any article ideas I had in mind since 2013?
Well, my blog may not still make enough money to consider it as a real money-making business but I think I would have grown as a writer and publisher but I really feel that the business (blog) would be in a better position.
Just do it!
You may not be trying to build a blog to make money but just the mere fact that you’re reading this article gives me a slight indication that you’re probably someone who’s an entrepreneur or a creative hoping to build something for yourself and your loved ones.
If you plan to build something big, one lesson I’ve learned is to simply do it. Yes, that’s the Nike tag line. Doing it imperfectly will take us farther than waiting for the perfect blog post, or perfect opportunity, or perfect product.
I remember when I was first out of the university. I was hopping from one job to the next and I was never running out of options.
I’m a boxing fan, and back then Manny Pacquiao was already popular as a professional boxer. One reason why Manny was a great boxer (still is), is the number of punches he threw and lands compared to any of his opponents.
That was my philosophy when it came to applying and landing jobs early in my working career. I kept applying and not wait to be called. I just applied and submitted a bunch of resumes. Get interviews, and evaluate the position to see if I really wanted the job and if the job is actually going to take me where I wanted, at least financially.
Business is a Process, Not an Event
If you’re trying to build a blog, an Amazon FBA business, or any other business for that matter. One thing I realized when it comes to building businesses is that building a business is not an event.
When I was younger, I’ve started many businesses. Most of them were businesses where I got invited to a seminar and I was one of those unsuspecting would-be entrepreneurs in the audience who started the business at the end of the event and came home with a starter package.
Sounds familiar?
Yes, I joined a couple of those, because I was going to be rich when I join them, and just like anyone, without much understanding what the soap business was.
Fast forward to today, I now know that building a business is a process and the fact of the matter is that you may not make any money during the first couple of years of your business, at least not profitably.
I realized that building a business, no matter what it is takes a lot of effort and consistent action. You just can’t build a real business by showing up 2 or 3 times a month.
You have to show up to learn the process and build your skills.
As Les Brown puts it. You have to get started to be great!
But getting started isn’t enough, far too many people have started blogs, e-commerce stores, and YouTube channels, but they didn’t’ stay long enough to succeed.
Understanding and accepting the fact that building a business is a process, instead of an event will empower us to consistently do what’s required to be successful, which is taking action, every day if possible.
When it comes to blogging, the experts say that you have to publish keyword-based articles and that you have to scientifically write and structure the article to rank on the search engines and be found by your target readers.
While effective in other niches, it may not be for my entrepreneur blog, I think I’m better off writing. Yes, just writing. It allows me to write freely. Lets me say what I want to say, even if I’m not publishing keyword-based articles, it will allow my blog to move forward and enjoy the creative process.
Who knows, you may find it some other way…
