Comments on: Practicing What I Preach

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:42:40 +0000

If I was you, i would continue on with it. Why give up or just stop it now. I’m sure you can carry it on and make something more out of it because you obviously already have. Set a new goal maybe? I would just keep going with it. Why stop now?

By: Make Money Online

Make Money Online — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:49:16 +0000

If you hit the goal, just set a new one. At any rate, you should continue writing here if you still have the desire. If not, you could sell the blog and make a fairly substantial amount, I’m sure.

By: Tom Ross

Tom Ross — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:57:47 +0000

I would keep going with it. You’re in such a privileged position with your blogs success it would be crazy to give that up when you have the potential to build it to john chow like status if you work hard.

By: John

John — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:33:22 +0000

Pass the torch. Give it to someone else.. and see if they can better your results in “the experiment.”

That would be my suggestion.

By: Wayne

Wayne — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 02:32:14 +0000

Come on Ben… some goals just take a while, and we don’t always make it in the time we set. You have just been paying your dues, over the next few years you can begin to really reap the rewards of your efforts. I would vote for forget the book and WORK the blog. Good content like yours adds up and reputations grow. I am not a net expert but I have grown a successful business and I know that it takes time even out here. My vote for you would be, dont stop now you have just begun. Law school takes 3 years, med school takes four and then post-doc work, an MBA normally takes two years. This is just the education part… Show the rest of us that it can be done, and with Style and Fun… regards,
Wayne

By: Solo Programmer

Solo Programmer — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:06:26 +0000

I think a book is going to be a hard sell. Unless you can show publishers you have an audience waiting – and I can’t imagine much of an audience if you’re just reworking content that’s already out on the blog.

Personally in your shoes with some success but not able to quit you job I’d look to do some consulting. Take on a blog a week and help them with design, content and monetization. Post up the results here. Sort of like the community reviews that you see on Problogger but with you doing the work. Do that plus the occasional post here and I think you’ll keep your readership and if you show some results from the consulting you can start to charge for it – or perhaps ask for a cut of the increase – ie give me 20% of what you make over your baseline for the next 6 months.

By: Christine

Christine — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 16:17:26 +0000

I’d absolutely buy a book, and I’ve already been blogging for three years. I think it would make a great starter guide for beginners and a nice reference for the more experienced.

I think starting a new experiment, if that’s something you’re interested in, would be an interesting change. Maybe try to start a successful blog network. I also like the idea above about chronicling the process of getting the book published.

By: Ben Cook

Ben Cook — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:50:19 +0000

@Caroline and others, don’t get me wrong, I’m not at 5k a month at all yet. In fact, this month’s income looks like it’s going to be down considerably from last month (which is the wrong direction to be heading). To be perfectly honest I’ve been focusing on a project that this site has sort of spawned but is just in it’s formative stages. If I do hit my goal, I could see setting a new one year goal…. if not, I could be trying to see how long it would take etc…
Interesting ideas so far to be sure.

By: Scott Fillmer

Scott Fillmer — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 14:07:42 +0000

It is interesting to see the different posts going around right now about whether to give up their blog or not or to move on.

I did this. I gave up on it, was completely gone for about 4 months and never really got over having a place to express my thought on certain topics. I now have more topic devoted blogs than I had before, but I do not post in a frantic way, but when I really get an idea or thought and want to put it down.

Getting out and taking a breather helped my postings. I completely switched domain names and everything but it was quite refreshing. Scott

By: Caroline Middlebrook

Caroline Middlebrook — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 09:33:42 +0000

Before I started my blog I was still in my day job and I knew that I wanted to quit and that I wanted to have some kind of blog about my journey with Internet Marketing. I came up with all sorts of ideas for a blog around making enough to be able to quit, or reaching a certain monetary goal etc and that kind of thing but the problem with them is that those ideas had an end point like yours has.

Luckily the name of your blog leaves it open ended. I think it would be a shame to close it down if you reach your goal because $5k income a month is pretty decent! If I was in your position, I would create a new experiment for year two (or some period). Take it to the next level – you’re on a full time income, can you reach $10k a month, or maybe your experiment could be to overtake John Chow – that should keep you busy for a while!