20 things I learned FROM 12 YEARS blogging

Last Updated: 9/27/20 | September 27th, 2020

Back in January 2008, I’d just returned from my trip around the world. I was broke and got a temp job at a hospital. My job was to sit there, answer phones, open the mail, and just typically not break anything while the full-time assistant was on maternity leave.

Within a few days, I said to myself “This is not for me.” Being back in a cubicle felt like I was back to the same spot I left. like the last 18 months on the road hadn’t happened. It was dispiriting. I wanted to be “out there” — that mythical place that was anywhere but home.

Sitting in that cubicle, I wondered, “What could I do to keep me traveling?”

“Travel writer” seemed like a good idea.

So I started a blog to showcase my work, get freelance writing gigs, maybe write some guidebooks, and hopefully make a living from this all. I imagined myself a cross between bill Bryson and Indiana Jones.

I bugged my design friends for help, learned HTML, wrote blog post after blog post, connected with other bloggers, pitched stories to online publications, and figured out SEO and social media.

Today is the anniversary of my first post. I can’t believe I am still at it tentwelve years later. What started as an online resume has morphed into a company that includes this website, a charity, conference, blogging course, community meet-ups, tours, ebooks, and a NYT best selling book and a memoir.

So, on today’s tentwelve-year anniversary, I want to share some of the business/blogging lessons I learned (often the hard way) in the past decade:

1. Being first helps, but it’s not a prerequisite.

When I started, travel blogging was in its infancy. starting before it became mainstream certainly helped contribute to the success that I have today. It would be foolish to deny that.

But it’s not the most essential thing. After all, Netscape was first — but how numerous of you still use that today?

And I can name dozens and dozens of blogs that went under despite having started early.

But much more importantly, I can name dozens and dozens of blogs that have started in the last few years that have done incredibly well.

What matters much more than being first is being persistent and innovative, creating quality content, providing something that solves your readers’ problems, networking, and numerous other things. “Being first” would be low on my list of “things you need for success.”

2. You’re going to change — and so will your content. Asta e ok.

Your life is going to change — and so is your content. At first, I wanted to travel a lot and just blog. Now, I want to stay in place more. build a routine. a merge la sală. write much more books. maybe start a podcast. Mentor more. Do much more community events.

Basically, not be nomadic anymore.

For a long time, I resisted that change. I tried to still be the person I was when I started this whole thing. What would I be if not Nomadic Matt? how would this site continue?

Then I said, “Who cares? So long as this site is helping people travel, it’s not really essential if I am always on the road. The content matters much more than anything else.”

People will either love it…or they won’t, being on (or off) the road won’t change that.

Moreover, the lives of your readers will also change. They will get older too. They will have new desires. maybe people stop reading your blog because they find it boring. Or they grow out of your advice, or they simply stop traveling. Nu contează. That’s just how it is.

Life changes for you and your readers.

Don’t worry change.

3. Don’t do this for you. Do it for your readers.

Do you know who the most successful people are? The ones who wake up and think about how they make someone’s life better. The people who do whatever it is they do for a reason beyond themselves. If your goal is to get totally free travel and how to do cool stuff for yourself, the Internet will rapidly tire of you. no one wants to read the story of someone doing things they can never do. “Inspiration porn” only goes so far.

We all want people – and companies – that resolve a problem we have in our life. That can be anything from the mundane “I need to know how to dress better” to the esoteric “what do I finish with my life?”

No matter what you do, do it for your readers. think about how to resolve their problems.

Do something that makes your audience go, “Because I came here, my life is better.”

For me, that’s helping people travel cheaper. figure out what it is for you. Your mission ought to never be “How can I make my life better?” people will see through that. Being a personality on the Internet only lasts so long as your schtick is in vogue.

If your mission is reader-centric, you’ll stand the test of time.

4. because your readers want you to succeed.

Your audience wants to support you. They read you for a reason. give them a way to support you. Don’t think, “Oh, people just like totally free stuff. I’m gonna need to throw up ads and do brand deals or I’ll be broke.” people want to support artists and creative people they love. Don’t be scared to sell them a product you created.

Or start a Patreon page.

Or do tours.

Or create a subscription service for added content. mark Manson does that for $5 USD a month. Știi ce? A lot of people pay that.

Give people a way to support you and they will surprise you. because when you create something that helps people and improves their lives, they want to support you. They will go out of their way to do so. because everyone wants to help those that help them.

5. how you monetize will change greatly.

There have always been easy ways to make money online. First, it was Google’s ad network, AdSense. You’d slap up a few ads that looked like normal links and people would click away.

Then it was banner ads. (Those both still exist, but how numerous of us click on banner ads?) then it was selling text links to companies trying to game SEO. then sponsored messages that did the same thing but were supposedly harder for Google to detect.

Each was a fad that people said would last forever. (Now, it’s “influencer” marketing, where everyone with a following gets totally free stuff, and people are still saying the same thing about that.)

But everything changes.

If you’re only doing the most popular thing to make money online, you are going to fail. When the tides shift, you’ll be left holding the bag and having to start over again.

Never rely on a fad for your income. VREODATĂ.

For example, you used to be able to sell e-books for like $50 USD. Now, thanks to Amazon and people used to $1.99 Kindle books, that’s changed. no one purchases expensive ebooks anymore. Ebooks are a cheap product. We sell a lot of ebooks and had to adapt our model…but it also forced us to figure out other ways to monetize.

We used to rely on one page for a lot of our affiliate income but then it dropped in Google and we had to scramble to figure out what to do.

Always assume whatever it is you’re doing is not going to last. It will keep you innovating.

6. create your own products.

Continuing on that idea, own your income stream as much as possible: e-books, tours, T-shirts, whatever.

When I started out, I sold a lot of text links (see #5). then one day it all went to zero after Google changed its algorithm. It didn’t bother me, though, because by then I had already moved on. I had e-books. then tours. then courses. A hostel. O conferinta. Evenimente. I had diversified my income and created my own products.

Having your own thing — no matter what it is — implies you don’t rely on others for your income because you never know what could happen. Amazon could kick you out of its program or cut its payout in half (we got kicked out for a few months and lost thousands. Luckily, we’re back in but that money is gone), influencer marketing could change, brands might not want to work with you, or someone could cut their affiliate rate or stop providing their program altogether.

When 100% of your income is from other people, you are 100% at the mercy of other people. creating your own products allows you to be independent.

Always own your income.

7. Your first stuff will suck.

Years from now, you’ll look back at your first articles and go, “Who the hell wanted to read this? This is horrible!”

Or you’ll look at the first version of your site (see above) and go “What the F was I thinking!!!” It’s only natural. It implies you’ve grown as a writer (and a blogger). It’s about progress, not perfection.

In the beginning, don’t obsess about your work (whether writing or design). just put it out there and go back later and fix it.

De ce? You only get better by doing. never wait for perfection. and if you wait for perfection you’ll never start your blog. There’s no cost to putting up a website.

Just get it up there and fix the problems later!

8. SEO is not a dirty word.

A lot of bloggers think SEO is this dirty thing, that optimizing for Google takes away from the “humanness” of their website. but every day, billions of people search for answers to their questions. Optimizing your site for search engines implies that your site can be the one that answers their question. It’s a source of limitless totally free traffic!

Over the last decade, focusing on SEO has given me a huge advantage and has helped me reach millions of people, earn a living, and get media mentions (I once got a big feature on CNN because the journalist found me on Google).

Learn SEO. It will pay dividends in the long run.

9. write for humans.

But still, write for humans. Don’t put in overly optimized content, because, at the end of the day, you want people to connect with your website. no one is faithful to WikiHow or another generic information website. people read blogs because they connect with the voice behind them. optimize for Google, but write for humans.

Want to take your blog to the next level?Get for my totally free blogging mini-course and I’ll send you my best suggestions and tricks on how to grow and make money from your blog!

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10. There will always be setbacks.

Six years after I started this blog, I lived on credit report cards for three months. I had put all my money into a Kickstarter project, and until that ended, I was broke. I hit my fundraising goal, paid off my bills, and launched the app. but it turned out I didn’t know how much work apps were, and, by the time I stopped updating the app, I was down $10,000 USD.

I’ve run sales that didn’t go anywhere. launched books no one bought. hosted webinars no one showed up to. Made t-shirts no one wanted. Redesigned parts of my site that caused conversions to crash. Hired consultants that didn’t do anything but sap my bank balance. I tried video that went nowhere.

I’ve failed constantly.

The trick is to remember that failure is a teacher. Sure, it sucked wasting time and money on all these projects that didn’t work out but we took the lessons from these projects and improved the site and reader experience in other ways. If you believe in your mission, just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, learn, and relocation forward. You’ll find another way to get your message across.

As Edison said, he didn’t fail, he just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work.

11. people will be really mean. I imply really mean.

The Internet brings out the best — and the worst — in people. They will get really mean. I imply so imply that you’ll want to curl up into a ball and cry. You might actually do so. I have a whole folder of all the imply emails I get.

You have to learn to develop a thick skin. because it is only going to get worse the bigger you get.

It takes time to learn to do this, but don’t take it personally. It’s never about you. It’s about their problems and their lives. people like to troll to make themselves feel better. You’re just their current target.

Just disregard the haters and relocation on. It’s simpler to say than do, but you must!

Because for every troll, there are a thousand people who value what you do.

And, when you get a troll, send this video:

12. start an email list.

From the day you start your blog, start an email list. Tweets, Facebook, social media — people miss those updates all the time.

Social media changes all the time. Facebook says “pay me or never your readers will never see your content,” Vine goes out of business, and Instagram does some funky stuff — and all of a sudden you can’t reach people anymore.

But no one misses an email. everyone checks their inbox all the time! email is still king. My greatest mistake was not starting an email list best at the beginning. forget about the likes. get emails and you’ll always own control of your audience. No algorithm can take that away from you.

13. never call yourself an influencer.

Stephen King has influenced a generation of writers, George Lucas a generation of sci-fi fans, Gloria Steinem a generation of women. Ditto to folks like gene Roddenberry, Ernest Hemingway, Tim Ferriss, Carrie Fisher, Gal Gadot, Levar Burton, Mr. Rogers, Steve Jobs, and numerous others.

They got people to do something. To better themselves, read more, follow their dreams, and strive to be better.

They influenced.

Do they go around calling themselves influencers?

Nu.

De ce?

Because being an influencer is a fake profession created by millennials and social media “stars.”

You have influence when people listen to you. When I find myself thinking “What would Bryson do?” — that’s Bryson’s influence. My friends have influence over my life when I follow their recommendations. In some ways, I have influence when I suggest something travel related and someone does it.

You have influence when you offer value and make someone’s life better.

You do NOT have influence bec