Confessions of an A-List Blogger (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Confessions of an A-List Blogger

[Angela]

oooooohhhhh I have a feeling your post is going to get an awful lot of attention in the blogosphere!

[Akashic_Librarian]

Oh wow Steve. For some reason that post just reminded me why I wanted to be a success. It could have been the tone with which you wrote but it just inspired me more than most of your articles because it had an energy about it that just sent my soul reeling!

[John P]

So what did Wil Wheaton do?

[Savage]

Originally Posted by John P

So what did Wil Wheaton do?

In 2006 he corrupted his "Wil Wheaton dot net" blog while trying to upgrade Moveable Type. He then basically abandoned it and set up a new "in exile" blog on Typepad instead, where he's still blogging a year later. That of course did a lot of damage from a traffic perspective.

[steve0617]

You said:

I learned of another interesting work model from a Jay Abraham seminar recording I heard to many years ago. Jay reported that some of the most financially successful people used a pattern of alternating weeks between their work and personal life. So they’ll work hard one week, and the next week they even go into the office at all.

I think you meant:

I learned of another interesting work model from a Jay Abraham seminar recording I heard to many years ago. Jay reported that some of the most financially successful people used a pattern of alternating weeks between their work and personal life. So they’ll work hard one week, and the next week they won't even go into the office at all.

Great post....

[Savage]

Originally Posted by steve0617

won't

Yup, I fixed that as well as several other typos. It's that darned typo gremlin who resides on my web server...

[Minsc]

"I also do a lot of journaling to worth through specific issues as they arise."

To work through specific issues?

EDIT: You fixed it already so nevermind... (refreshed the page)

[ArthurHung]

This post aside from being an inspiring and informative read also kills quite a few birds in one stone I would imagine.

Way to be a role model in efficiency, Steve.

[Paul C]

That was an informative perspective on success.

Great article.

[aaronmp2003]

It would not be possible for me to agree more with Steve's perspective on blogging for a living. As I write in a similar field as Steve, I chose blogging as my vehicle for some of the same reason's as this article talked about - time and the financial freedom to enjoy it.

Steve, you did a great job of not only describing "a day in the life," but also of painting a good future picture. Although I have only been seriously blogging for about 6 months, I have already seen several blogs cash out of the game.

On the content side, I have also seen the benefit of being able to put a "personal development spin" on just about any circumstance that is of interest to me, yet still make that post worth my readers taking the time to check out. That keeps me motivated with a never-ending list of useful concepts to blog about, thus ensuring the lack of a need for an exit strategy.

Hey, if I can turn lessons from Star Trek or the Wonder Twins into blog posts, I can blog about anything!

[shnu]

Firstly, I'm curious as to what those last five RSS feeds were...

Second, I wonder how the high valuations your website receives (which do not seem out of line with what I have heard from SEO pundits) bears on your maxim of "express abundance". Certainly the high traffic, and the attractive nature of that traffic, is a testament to your past success here, but looking forward, doesn't it create something of an imperative to more highly levarage what you have? From an accounting point of view, if you say that the site is worth $2 million, the online-content industry has a 12% return on capital, and you would earn $100,000 if you worked for someone else or worked at something that didn't involve your website, then if you were not earning at least $340,000 a year, then your assets (you & your website) would be underperforming.

Of course you may be earning this much, and no doubt this accountants-eye view is not what makes sense from your subjectivist stance, but doesn't it at least provide some kind of measure of just how abundantly you are expressing yourself?

[Brutha]

$340,000 a year, then your assets (you & your website) would be underperforming.

When he ears 40k/month that are 480k total in a year.

StevePavlina.com is currently the most popular personal development web site in the world as well

When you have a Alexa rating of 4000 and lifehack.com has one of 1000 I don't see how your site is the most popular.
But then everything is subjective

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Brutha

When you have a Alexa rating of 4000 and lifehack.com has one of 1000 I don't see how your site is the most popular.
But then everything is subjective

I think you mean lifehacker.com, which is a software, productivity, & tech site. I wouldn't label it a personal development site though -- I use the term to refer to holistic human development (i.e. self-help), including health, relationships, finances, etc. Otherwise you can label just about any site as personal development if it helps you grow, such as Wikipedia or MySpace.

[John Wesley]

As an aspiring professional blogger I always enjoy reading about how Steve got where he is. I'm inclined to think that talking about his earnings and traffic has done a lot to create buzz amongst other bloggers. It all adds to the perception of success and perception is reality.

I think I'll write a post about how a made it to 3,000 visits a day and 2000 RSS subscribers in 6 months.

[The Wise Turtle]

That list of priorities for responding to requests was extrememly helpful to me, as I'm right now in the middle of coming up with a business plan that I believe has the potential to make an enormously positive difference in the world, and I do indeed need the help of people like you, Steve. And now I have a much better idea of how to go about getting that help. So, thanks for helping before I even asked! :-)

-The Wise Turtle
Coming Soon - A meme that greases the wheels of the world

[shnu]

Originally Posted by Brutha

When he ears 40k/month that are 480k total in a year.

Yes, I missed that, thanks.

[Nathan]

Enjoyed the read Steve. I also appreciate how you blog on a personal level and don't feel the need to hide information. Thanks.

[rusty]

Hi Steve,

That was a great post and real inspiration to me. Knowing that If you can accomplish something like this then I can too.

Thanks

[Mark24]

Originally Posted by John Wesley

As an aspiring professional blogger I always enjoy reading about how Steve got where he is. I'm inclined to think that talking about his earnings and traffic has done a lot to create buzz amongst other bloggers. It all adds to the perception of success and perception is reality.

I think I'll write a post about how a made it to 3,000 visits a day and 2000 RSS subscribers in 6 months.

I would be very interested to read that when you do.

[John Wesley]

Mark,

If you'd like to check it out I plan on posting it to my blog on Monday. Follow the link in my signature and subscribe if you feel so inclined. It's writing in a similar spirit to Steve's.

[Mark24]

Will do and look forward to the Post John.

[FriendlyOne]

Hi Steve -

I've been following your blog for a while now - thank you!

I noticed a couple of weeks ago that you had Kontera ads on your blog - and then today I don't see them anywhere.

Did you stop using Kontera on your site because it was affecting your AdSense CTR? If it wasn't for that reason, what was it?

I'm happy to wait for a blog post on this topic if you're planning on writing one.

Does anyone else have experience with a relationship between these two modes of ads?

[aaronmp2003]

I remember a few weeks ago that Steve was talking about taking the Kontera ads down. I use them on my site and I have talked to a few other people about them, and there is definitely some discourse over their use.

Many people think that they disrupt the flow of the content, and many publishers don't feel like Kontera gives them enough control over how the links are displayed, i.e. - How many links per page, how close the links are together, etc.

As far as affecting CTR for other campaigns, I have not heard anyone say that Kontera significantly affected their other advertisers. That's just me, though, and I'm sure there are others who have a different opinion.

[SuperStar]

Steve, I recently read another similar article by someone who's "internet famous" - and reading yours, I thought you'd be interested and could relate to what he has to say.

The Joys of Being On The "Y-List"

[guscave]

Hi Steve, really enjoyed the blog. I've been podcasting for over a year and found some helpful tips that I could probably use for my site..

You mentioned that most of your income from the blog comes from joint ventures. Can you give a little more detail how these came about, and how that works? Did you go out searching for them or did they come to you because of the popularity of the blog's traffic?

Thanks,