Why Even Blog For?
Something, something, something..... inspiration.... I'm the sh#%, buy my product.
Week 2 in the midweek rant room with Joelioliolioliolio! It's sunny outside, I just finished scrubbing my toilet, afterwards I ate my lunch (don't worry I washed my hands they actually smell like bleach). So I'm sitting there, eating my salad sandwich, nachos and salsa, thinking what am I gonna write about this week in my blog? It's gotta be something creative and interesting, you know what all the bloggers write about. But what though?
My full realization is this probably 99.99% of blogs are probably the same type of information spewed over in a number of different ways, I made this up, it's probably not true, a more true statement is that 81% of bloggers don't ever make $100 from their blogs. So what! since when did successfully writing blogs only depend on the bottom line? First Instagram! Now Blogs? Well I officially suck, I'm making exactly $0.00 from my blog, I did make $20 this morning testing a couple of websites, in between learning the most difficult language in the world (OK so its not ancient Egyptian, but its still hard). It turns out that blogs are mostly used for selling self help books and affiliate marketing. So why even blog then? I don't currently do any of these things. Well I guess its about the time for me to outline why it is that I'm bothering with this weekly Wednesday rant.... following is a comprehensive list of what I'd like to get out of this mess:
Experience: it has been a long time since I have dedicated this much time to writing, I need to put the time in to get the brain juices flowing and to get better;
Fun: ever look back on something you did and think oh that was fun? Or what the F#%ck was I thinking, I want this to be either of those;
Money: somewhere along the lines I'd like to make some bankroll from this thing;
My Project marketing: I have these ideas and I need space to present them to a wider audience, maybe I can build that audience here.
Respect: ain't no street cred here, fool!
How exactly I'm gonna get from here to there I don't know, I don't even really have a great plan, but I do know that I'm trying and well that it's OK to suck. How do I know that it's OK to suck? I got a sign from above! It was an end of January Christmas miracle! As I was typing this blog, a famous YouTube vlogger, Peter McKinnon posted a video titled "It's OK if you suck", and of course I watched it, procrastination is my friend in all of this right? Anyway the video basically goes on to say that you should still do something even if it sucks. You just never know where it may lead you to. Reminds me of last week when I created a video on YouTube myself, about Australia Day in Canada (you should watch it if you haven't already, please?). Just before I hit the upload button I remember the gut wrenching feeling that this video sucks! I put all this effort into it and it sucks, I was in my Girlfriend's Grandmother's basement at 2am, when I got the final urge to just hit that dang button. Did the video suck? Well, according to my good mate and self confessed social commentator Jesse, he felt the urge to say "oi, I got a question tho... why ten and a half minutes?", you never miss a beat do ya guy! Great question? I didn't think of the length of my internet video once during the hours and hours of tediously cutting footage to better more consumable lengths! Still doesn't answer the question, did it suck? Well in my opinion it did and it didn't, this was my first attempt at filming, editing and producing a video of this kind, given that, I think it turned out great! However in comparison to, the millions and millions of internet videos out there its probably a pile of poop. All besides the point! What I'm most happy about is that I moved one step closer to achieving and not sucking at something that I am passionate about! An ability to express creativity and put it out in front of people to judge and comment and view, that feels good!
So why even blog, vlog, be creative? It's such a stupid question. Why even get up and go to work? Why do anything in life? I think for me the best reason is to continue to grow and adapt to the world I live in and push my career in the direction that I want. If that's a good enough reason for you, it's good enough for me?
Cheers,
Joel