I’ve got a problem that perhaps many of you share: the lack of motivation to give things my best day in and day out. This devil on my shoulder always likes to whisper, “Good enough is good enough!” “The world isn’t going to end if you don’t publish 3-4 post a week.”
At least three times this year I’ve been tempted by outsourcing my writing and making everything a little more generic on Financial Samurai. This way, I’ll get less comments to respond to. By “speaking from left to write” where I talk about the basics so that everybody can understand, I’ll have a larger mass market appeal. The temptation was strongest while I was traveling abroad in Europe this summer with only my iPhone.
But each time I felt like not editing a post to publish or skipping a week of writing I think back to one of my greatest blogging motivations of all.
RAISING YOUR MOTIVATION LEVEL
One of the strategies I’ve shared with my readers is to seek out rejection to get yourself motivated to try harder. If you live in a developed country, life is pretty easy. We’ve got subsidized healthcare, running water, electricity, public libraries, public parks, a stable legal system, and a relatively uncorrupt government. Many other countries don’t have such luxuries. To jolt ourselves into action, seek out people or institutions at the top of their game. Because they are inundated with requests, they’ll probably reject you and leave you a little bitter.
The best rejection I ever got was from a university who put me on their wait-list. For the next 10 years after graduating high school I used the rejection letter as fuel to get the best grades possible in order to land the best job possible after college and prove them wrong. It worked.
The reason why we give ourselves goals is to eradicate complacency. The Yakezie Challenge’s purpose is to motivate bloggers to write more and network better online. The 50,000, 100,000, and 200,000 Alexa ranking benchmarks are just focus points to provide anybody who has a tendency to meander. But after a while, there will inevitably be a plateau. Then what? This has been my issue for the past year or so.
THE SLAP IN THE FACE
The best rejection I got was actually from a freelance writer who specializes in credit card reviews. I met him in 2012 at FinCon and I was thinking of doing what all veteran bloggers eventually do and that is hire someone to write generic credit card review posts to start making affiliate income online. Since I only used two credit cards at the time, I felt uncomfortable writing about credit cards I don’t own.
The freelance writer is a nice guy and I don’t know whether he said what he said due to being socially inept or just wanting to brag. But when I asked him his rates this is what he said,
“You can’t afford me.”
I was pretty floored. Was he used to only dealing with clients such as Eliot Spitzer? Did he really think I couldn’t afford $50, $100, or even $200 for an article as someone who just decided to call it a career after 13 years in finance to live off his passive income? I know I’m not JD, Flexo, Jim, Pete or Trent rich, but surely I can afford to pay a couple hundred dollars for a stinking credit card review article! The question is, do I want to spend even a single dollar on some crappy credit card review article that doesn’t fit the voice of my site? Hell no!
The freelancer saved my site from losing its personality and soul for money.
THE INSULT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
It’s been almost 1.5 years since I was told I couldn’t afford this freelance writer’s fees and I’ve got to say I’m ecstatic with the results! Four little words have given me so much motivation to keep on writing original content on Financial Samurai 3-4 times a week. I haven’t needed to hire anybody to give me a break because I remind myself that I can’t afford to hire anybody!
I’ll still have my ups and downs throughout the year like I did after I came back from such a fun adventure abroad this summer. But for the most part I’m feeling the reward of progress. Here’s to another year of motivation “you can’t afford me” will provide!
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It’s 2015 and the bull market continues. Make a decision to be wealthy by taking control of your finances!
Regards,
Sam
Sam, you always have a great way of turning a negative into a positive. I’m not sure so many people could find the silver lining in their insults or failures.
Personally I find myself in good company trying to produce more than one really outstanding post per week for my site (in addition to all the other sites I manage). A lot of the bigger sites I follow tend to validate this since I usually only find one major post on their site as well. But they also follow up with guests or staff writers. I personally find nothing wrong with outsourcing writing or having others manage certain aspects of your blog. It really all just depends on what you want to accomplish. Lots of great blogs have staff writers or sections of their blog that are more “commercial”.
Funny side story: When I was first interviewing people on Elance to write articles for me, I also came across some arrogant writer who told me my whole budget for 10 articles couldn’t even afford his price to write one article. I ended up finding a terrific writer anyways within my price range, and that content I published on my niche site contributed to my earning over +$900 in December.
There’s always a silver lining!
Perhaps a good formula is to write one whale post yourself a week, and then fill up the other spots with more generic posts written by yourself or staff writers to prevent burnout. I might experiment with this, but “You can’t afford me” keeps me so motivated!
I’ve learned readers don’t really care about the author’s background, so going the cheaper, less experienced, freelance writer route is a very lucrative idea. I’ve got an upcoming post about the topic you’ll find fascinating!
My biggest motivation is the promise of flexibility. Even if I’m not making a dime now, perhaps there will be a trickle of income a year or two from now that will add to my income streams, and help sustain my family as a seek more flexible employment.
Once the income starts trickling in, you’ll be hooked. Just be careful not to make every single post a sponsored post or affiliate post. If you do, readership will leave and you’ll start feeling empty that the only reason why you are writing is for money.
Hi Sam, I’m chuckling as I read this article. I don’t need to look for failure…. I try so many new things that I have a long string of failures to keep me going :). Of course the flip side of that failure and continuing effort is that I’ve also got quite a few successes as well :) I liked this one!
Good stuff Barb. Congrats on writing regularly for US News (I think)!
As the phrase goes in the movie The Water Boy, you have made excellent use of your “tackling fuel.” Hehe I’m surprised that guy gave you that kind of answer- he sounds awkward- but in any case it worked out in your favor that you used that as motivation.
I had some blogging burn out towards the end of the year when I also was feeling sick for a while. But now I’m feeling refreshed and want to make up for lost time. When I start feeling low on motivation I try and lighten my work load for a few weeks to refuel. It helps me avoid major burn out. I also switch from my work related to do lists to my personal to do lists. Sometimes just taking time to do things for yourself for a change can be a refreshing motivational boost.
It was some mighty fine H2O! :) I loved the fuel. His words really helped me focus and never give up!
Glad you’ve recovered from your sickness and are doing well!
I remember that guy from when I snuck in. He told MD the same thing. It kind of makes me wonder why he was there at all, if he was just going to turn down bloggers who are looking to hire him.
Really? So I’m not the only one? That’s pretty funny! How did you know about what he said to MD?
I was standing right next to him at the time.
One of the biggest motivation is some of the long term goals I have set up. I like the idea of putting out an e-book once I’ve achieved certain goals of mine. I’ll be able to do a much better job with it if I have something tracking my journey. It will be there to help my brain remember all the ups and downs that occured as I went from point A to point B.
Good luck w/ the e-book. It is A LOT of work with not much return. But it feels very satisfying!
He’s probably dealt with way too many $25/post types and wants to head them off (obviously mistakenly in your case as it seems you pay decently well). Personally, I can’t remember the last time I was approached by someone about my blogging rates who was offering a good rate.
Maybe. But it’s not like he didn’t know about my site or an idea of its traffic when we met in Sept 2011 b/c I’ve been around for 2 + years already, as well as the Yakezie Network.
It was quite amusing.
Frankly, it hadn’t even entered my mind to give it up – having too much fun with it. Strangely, the first time when I started thinking that The Money Principle is becoming too much like work was over the Christmas break. Hence, this article is very timely for me. I realise the need to ‘spice things up’ a bit and any suggestions how to do this are very welcome.
You are lucky! Keep it up!
I am always motivated, but not always creative! It is one of the reasons I stay ahead of the deadline. I usually have a 2-4 week supply of articles because I need to feel inspired to write. After 3 years, I am just getting comfortable with my occasional lack of creativity (writer’s block).
I hear yah Larry. I’ve got a similarly long backlog which gets me in trouble b/c sometimes they go stale!
[…] Yakezie: Sam wrote about what keeps him motivated not to quit and asks Whats been your biggest motivation not to quit all year. […]
My motivation is my daughters. I am a single mum and our income is what I can generate. I look at other single mothers struggling on government handouts and I do not want that for my daughters. I want to be an example for them and to provide them with everything they need and luxuries I didn’t have growing up such as the option of a private education, braces (a need to me, optional to my parents as I should have had them), traveling to experience the world and so on.
They are my motivation for everything and I would have quite completely last year without them.
I love that motivation!
And major prop goes to single mothers! The best multi-taskers and hard workers I know!
This guy did you a big favor, even though it probably didn’t feel like it at the time! Motivation for me sometimes fades, but usually returns in a jolt, via positive or negative reinforcement. One thing I picked up in 2013 was to include smaller goals in addition to the larger ones. It allows me to feel more sense of accomplishment along the way and fuel the fire to tackle the larger stuff!
Definitely a big favor. It’s pretty easy to start slacking a little here and there online until pretty soon a week or two goes by and nothing has been posted.