Top 5 Reasons Why I failed In Blogging

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I started this blog in 2008. … 6 years later, nothing grows.

I told myself:

Let’s stop making excuses Santel. Don’t blame the internet. Don’t blame your kids. Don’t blame your wife. Blame yourself!

Yes, you heard it right. I blamed myself.

I should quit.

But I refuse to fail.

I believe in online business like you believe in a beautiful girl.

I keep this blog even I don’t earn a dime out of it. KhmerBird is my brand. That’s what people say to me when they meet me for the first time.

They know and they read my blog.

That’s the good part of it. But it didn’t grow to the level that I expected.

I spent sometime to sit down and review my blogging journey.

This blog post might be useful to those who asked me for blogging course. I don’t have the course available yet. I used to think to open one. A few people asked me for it. But as long as I don’t experience it enough, I prefer to wait.

I will share with you here, the top 5 reasons that blocked my success in blogging. You might learn from my mistakes and avoid them when you decide to start your own blog.

1. I wasted my time to search for shortcuts

I know and I believe making money online is possible.

In stead of trying to find what work for me, I searched for shortcuts. I was obsessed with the concept of making money while sleeping.

I searched for the secret tips to make money online. I searched for Adsense secret tips. I wanted to learn how to make quick and easy money online.

I failed into the trap of internet scams. Even I didn’t pay for the course or buy their products, I lost a lot of my time.

There’s no shortcut in making money.

Online or offline.

Nothing comes without effort.

I dream I could make money while I sleep.

I think I wasted my 2 years of blogging in searching magic formula how to generate $10,000 per month without doing anything.

You can keep looking for it but for me I stop. I stopped looking for easy or fast way to make money online.

I need to find my own way.

You too, you need to find yours.

2. I followed too many advice

There are a lot of useful guides, courses and systems about making money online.

I spent almost $500 to buy a course which helped me nothing. I don’t blame the coach. It was because I didn’t take action and believe in what he taught.

There are also a lot of free tips about blogging, generate traffic and monetization.

If you spend your whole days to search for them, you are losing your time.

I don’t say those advice or tips are bad.

They are sharing their own experiences and efficient techniques. But if you just read and don’t take action, nothing will change for you.

I would recommend you to limit 20% of your time for reading advice. The rest of 80% of your blogging time should reserve to work on your blog, try different things to see what work and what doesn’t work.

Your blog will not change or grown if you just read other blogs.

You need to take action on your own blog. That will help to grow your online business.

3. I didn’t deliver what I’ve promised

it’s bad.

I failed many times.

I made excuses.

But if you think you can’t deliver it, don’t promise. Nobody force you to promise. Don’t say anything unless you are really sure you can deliver it.

I didn’t blog much during the last few years. I lost trust from my readers. They are all gone.

They didn’t know what to expect from me.

If you have a blog, make sure to define an editorial schedule that you can commit to.

I recently reduce from 5 posts to 2 only but I will commit to it. At least for the time being.

You should deliver your value in a consistency rhythm.

I am trying …

4. I wanted to please the world

When this blog started to grow, I wanted to add more topics. I wanted to reach everybody.

I ended up by reaching nobody.

I don’t have time. I don’t have resource. I don’t have money. At the end, I don’t even have my audiences. It is a 6 years waste of time.

I really regret it.

I should keep this blog small and interact with my audiences. I wanted to make it big. I ended up by making it become unless.

If you blog is starting to grow, don’t make any change, unless you are really sure about it.

Don’t make the assumption without any data. Don’t guess what your readers want from you. Ask them if you want. Do a quick survey before doing any change.

I changed the topics very often. I don’t even know who I write to now.

Before starting a blog, you should define your audiences first. You need to have in your mind who you want to connect.

People asked me how to build a popular blog. I told them your blog can’t be popular to everyone, but you can make your voice heard to a few amount of people.

That’s what I am trying to do on my blog as well.

5. I didn’t define tasks and priorities

I declared my goal for 2014 that I want to generate $1,000 from my online business.

I wrote it in a blog post.

That’s it.

I didn’t spend my time to break it down into different income streams.

For example, I should ask myself to get that $1,000, how many possible income streams I should look at? App? Adsense? Advertising? Affiliate? eBook?

Only at last month, I woke up in a very early morning and I asked myself some stupid questions.

I never do meditation but that morning I let myself go.

I asked myself:

If you want to generate $1,000 what would you do today?

I couldn’t answer it.

It’s almost 7 months since I set the goal. I didn’t define any task to accomplish that goal. It’s useless to set a goal without taking any action.

Without action, how it possibly happen? It is not possible right?

Now I almost finished to set up my own system. I will share more detail about it later.

I defined priority tasks that I need to do each day, each month. I stop looking for any system, app or magic.

Everything is working well with me with a note-book and pencil.

I started to develop small habits to get things done and I repeat them everyday.

For example I just joined the challenge to write 500 words per day. I need to kick myself out of my comfort zone to get more things done.

These are mistakes I made when I started blogging. I hope you would learn something out of it. If not, at least this post will remind me not to commit those mistakes again.