Burn out is inevitable. I’ve noticed those who lash out most online are the one’s who are the most tired. They don’t want to write more content to keep things going. They let the summer months of slower traffic get them down. They see other bloggers create products and call them a sell-out. It’s much easier to discredit others than work harder to create more progress of your own.

I love blogging because of the tight correlation with effort and reward compared to what happens at work. So many of us are addicted to blogging when we first start because we experience immediate feedback. When we see new comments from our post we get excited. When we see our Alexa ranking drop another 50,000 points we do a mental victory lap and keep on going. I firmly believe that anybody who sticks with blogging for at least six months will highly likely reach the one year mark and beyond.

So why do some hit a hump? One reason is that consistently producing content is difficult. We’ve got day jobs and families. But I suspect another big reason is because we see others who’ve started at the same time achieve way more success than us! Everything is not only relative in finance, it’s relative online as well.

THE COMMON COMPLAINTS ONLINE

I’ve been around for four years now so I’ve seen several blogging life cycles that always start with excitement, to realization, to apathy, to sometimes anger, to disappearance altogether. Only a minority really keep on going.

So what are the common complaints from apathetic or angry bloggers about other bloggers?

* They “sell-out.” We’ve discussed whether blogging is a form of charity in a previous post. Given all of us spend way more time on our site than our market hourly wage, I do not understand for one bit why there is something wrong with selling a product you’ve created, highlighting an affiliate whose product you use, or writing reviews on products that might be beneficial to your users. This complaint always comes from a blogger who makes little or nothing online. You know they’d love to, but they don’t have the skills to sell or the fortitude to create their own product yet. It’s easier to just complain about bloggers violating “the true essence” of blogging rather than figure out a great win-win scenario.

* They aren’t doing what they are saying. If you are a frugal blogger, you better not be buying that item of clothing other than at Walmart! If you are an early retirement blogger, you better not lift one finger on something that may generate you income! If you are a entrepreneurial blogger, you better not take on a side job to help make ends meet! The list goes on and on where those who are unhappy with their progress feel a need to box others into a strictly defined space. The fact of the matter is that life is an evolution. Each day is but a snapshot in time.

* They don’t have the credentials. Most bloggers who have this complaint are older, more educated, or think they are much smarter than the average person. When they see someone talk about how to become a millionaire without being a millionaire themselves it pisses them off. We’ve had a great discussion on Yakezie.com about writing and saying things we have no idea about. Given there’s no blogging certification online, we can all say whatever we want. It’s up to consumers to parcel through the smoke and mirrors. The solution we’ve come up with is to just be upfront with our situation and offering up the role of the pontificator. But for those complaining about other people’s lack of credentials, go ahead and write your own highly credentialed post if you’re so worthy!

* They blog about blogging to make money. Everybody knows the fun logic of blogging about blogging to make money blogging. The “purests” will think this way of blogging is one big joke, especially since so many of these types exist. But let’s say you’ve been blogging for years, don’t you have the credibility to teach people about blogging? I think so. Whether you’ll find enough readers and make money is a different story. The real question is why do people care at all about what other people do? At least they have the guts to try.

* They are so narcissistic. From income reports, to videos, to pictures of vacations, to blog status updates, it’s easy for a lot of people to get turned off by so much “look at me” self-promotion. Yet without self-promotion it’s hard for readers to get to know who you are or find credibility in your actions. Self-promotion is a skill that some can deftly display without making it seem too much like self-promotion. The problem is skills have to be honed before aggressively utilized. Deploy too soon and you might blow yourself up. If you find a blogger to be narcissistic, then read something else.

THE SOLUTION

Nobody is perfect. What’s important is to use real-time feedback in terms of traffic, comments, and income or lack thereof to see what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. If you start going from an average of 10 comments a day to 3, it’s probably because your content is boring, too self-congratulatory, or not useful. There really are no other reasons.

If your income drops by 20% one month, it could be due to a seasonal slowdown as we’ve discussed. Or maybe it’s due to a Google algo update. Perhaps your content is just not convincing enough and something has to change. The reality is that there’s a combination of factors to figure out.

Progress is hard. Success is even harder. I’ve highlighted the five complaints above because I’ve gone through every single one of them when I first started out. Come to the realization that everything is rational in the most meritocratic environment on Earth. If our traffic is fading, we write more. If our income is sucking wind, we develop new income streams. If you are starting to burnout, then absolutely take a break by posting once a week instead of more. The goal is to get to that one year mark so that you’ve got a large enough portfolio of traffic to keep the traffic going when you aren’t thanks to Search.

Complaining is such a loser way to go about things. Don’t resort to discrediting people’s efforts. Someone will always have it better than you. Instead of being envious, why not just go to their site and figure out what they’re doing right? What they are doing is as plain as day!

STARTING A MONEY MAKING BLOG

I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, learn how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes like this one.

Leverage the 3+ billion internet users and build your brand online. There are professional bloggers now who make way more than bankers, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs while having much more fun, much more freedom, and doing less work. Get started. You never know where the journey will take you!

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Updated for 2017 and beyond.