Do you want to quit blogging, as well?
As a new blogger, I did SO many things wrong and it made me want to wave the white flag and surrender.
And, I did.
There were 6+ month stints where I wasn’t blogging.
I eventually picked it back up and now making money online is my full-time job.
Here’s what you can learn from my mistakes and why I quit blogging.
Why I Quit Blogging
It really boils down to these key reasons:
- The wrong niche
- Not enough time
- No direct ROI
- The scarcity mindset
Let’s explore these topics a little more!
The Wrong Niche
A lot of people say that you should blog about what you can endlessly talk about.
Well, for me, that was career advice from the perspective of a college student going out there and getting his dream job.
The only issue is that I didn’t personally care for the niche.
My advice was sound. That wasn’t an issue.
It just felt contrived and it felt like it was something that other people were pressuring me into. So much so that when I launched in November 2017, I didn’t actually get a post up until August or September of 2018.
I formally launched on my birthday in late September (with a whopping TWO posts and a quiz). But, hey, that quiz performs the best for me out of any post on my site.
The topics just didn’t flow out of me like they do on this site.
I just had no desire to continue down that path. There was SO much resistance.
I think a lot of people look at something that’s not making any money — and mine definitely wasn’t — and think that it’s a reflection of them.
It’s the same story with me.
I was investing all this money from my part-time campus dining job into the blog and had nothing to show for it. And, this was something I wanted to do full-time after graduation.
The cherry on top of being in the wrong niche was that I was making false claims.
I alleged that I would be able to help people land their dream job.
So, back in September, when I applied for my dream job at Marriott International for their manager-in-training program, suffice to say that my concept was entirely shot when they rejected me after the second stage of the interviewing process.
Not Enough Time
When I started my blog, I was very busy (as most people are).
I was a:
- Full-time college student at Johnson & Wales University
- Part-time employee for campus dining
- Officer of the largest club on campus
I just didn’t have the time for blogging.
I didn’t have time to create content. No time to promote the little I could produce.
And, since I started off with the Genesis framework having no knowledge of coding, I had to spend HOURS just to accomplish a color change with CSS.
Needless to say, it was a very exhausting process with no end.
Thankfully, I have Grayson Bell to manage the tech side of things, but it wasn’t always like that.
I’ve learned that batching tasks has helped me with managing my time, but not having any time really made me think about quitting blogging.
No Direct ROI
As a new blogger, it can take MONTHS to gain traction.
Even longer if you’re only focused on Google and don’t use Pinterest.
So, when you don’t have time like me to produce content, you don’t get any traffic.
Without traffic, I was getting no return on my investment of time and money.
It can be a very vicious cycle.
But, what I learned throughout this process was that I enjoyed freelancing.
And, with freelancing, there’s a very clear ROI on the tasks that you perform. You get compensated for them.
If someone paid me for all the blogging tasks I did, I might have not been as quick to quit blogging.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen until you have the traffic and have implemented monetization strategies that have proven themselves.
Now that I’ve seen some significant ROI from freelancing and my business as a whole is making money, I’m putting more resources into resurrecting my blog.
I’m happy to report that it’s going well.
My Google traffic has more than quadrupled since February when I started my interview series and my Pinterest traffic has been doubling in recent months.
I’m also starting to make affiliate income — PASSIVELY.
And, I’m doing this full-time 🙂
The Scarcity Mindset
I’ve been following Natalie Bacon for some time now and I love what she has to say about the scarcity vs. abundant mindset.
It’s so true.
I quit blogging because I didn’t think there was room for me.
I saw established blogs in my field and didn’t believe that I could compete with them.
Sure, the geeky strategist in me could concoct a plan to rival them and build a better mousetrap, but I wasn’t compelled to take action.
I also thought that if I put myself out more, I’d get scrutinized.
If you had a fake headline like me, you would’ve been concerned, too.
Honestly, I think what brought me back to blogging and online business was freelancing.
I began to realize that even though there were a lot of freelancers doing what I was doing, I was still getting clients and making the bills rain.
Making moolah can be quite the persuader.
What also makes me feel better and abundant is the niche that I’ve arrived on.
It’s unsaturated and that gives me a lot of room to grow and establish myself as an expert.
I don’t have to compare myself to the competition because there aren’t many people with my unique point of view and mission.
Mindset is such an important part of online business.
Conclusion
Did I steer you on the right track?
In this article, we went over why I quit blogging, including:
- The wrong niche
- Not enough time
- No direct ROI
- The scarcity mindset
If you’re still unsure of whether or not to quit blogging, I’ve got a more in-depth article with advice from over 20+ bloggers from when they decided to stop blogging.
Read “How to Stop Blogging (and Grow Your Business)” right now!
Cheers to future success!
