And it starts again.
I once again have the strong urge to start a niche blog online as a side project and make money from it.
This cycle repeats itself every year. I get so inspired by something online that I want to repeat it. This time, it is an awesome website called allaboutberlin.com – a site that explains Berlin to expats. I was surprised to see that the site is someone’s full time work, and the creator lives just a few blocks away from where I currently live!
Not that living close to someone matters in the world, but when you see something being in close proximity to you, you feel related to this person automatically. You have something in common with this person.
Coming back to blogging – the urge to start something is very strong. And when I want to start, it generally isn’t my personal blog. I don’t think I will ever monetize my personal blog directly. Why, you ask? Well, 2 reasons – One, I don’t think I add enough value to people via this blog that they’ll pay me for it. Two, the topics on this site will continue to change over time as I evolve in life.
But I don’t know what “niche” I want to operate in. All I know is this – the value I add should be tremendous that people are willing to pay me directly for the value. They’d be like – “how is all this information available for so cheap?”
I have been thinking about this for the last few months, but have wavered about committing to it. This is not the first time – I have started three blogs in the past and shut them down after a while. The reasons for shutting them down were different each time, but one thing that is clear is that the time investment is high.
With all that’s going on in life, right now is not the time to start something if I cannot give it enough time. Heck, I don’t even know what niche to operate in.
But over the course of this exploration, I realized that I want to own an online property. Like buying a house, but on the internet. The key difference is that while in the physical world, you need a significant amount of money to buy a house, but on the internet, you need a significant amount of effort to make the property worthwhile.
“Worthwhile” — people want to pay you a visit.
But that being said, the one thing I am going to do more often now is to post more content here. That way, I can at least get over the inertia that comes with starting something new.
Once I am in the motion, when the time comes, I can then jump back in right away.
Coming to posting more consistently, here are a few things I will change:
- Not worry too much about “does this content fit what my audience wants?” I’m writing a bunch of things to find interesting people online, and add value in any way I can.
- No need to have the right word count, the right SEO, the right tags & the right picture. Just free flowing text. I love how Seth Godin ensures that he posts every day, without worrying too much about any of these. Just share your perspective.
Basically, I want to remove as much friction as I can about writing online. I want to treat this blog as my type of social media.
Some things you can expect me to write about – Tech products & startups, movie and TV scripts, cricket, Formula One, and maybe more. Let’s see. I think even I’ll discover what I like to write about as we go.
Let’s get started, and then let’s get better!
Let’s hope this time the cycle lasts a lot longer, as there are fewer things to worry about.