Success May Only Seem Instant

  • Posted by Allen
  • February 24, 2007

I recently sat with a journalist for an interview about my online businesses, he asked me to bring some paper and statistics that may be worth a mention. One of the things I brought with me to the meeting was my Adsense earnings spreadsheet for 2006 and 2007, including a graph.

When the guy took a look at my 2006 graph, he pointed at December and said “this is when you started taking it seriously, this is when you went problogging”, I then tried to explain to him that I started working hard earlier during last year, but the results didn’t immediately show in my Adsense earnings.

When he asked me “why?”, I knew I was talking to someone who isn’t tech-savvy, and that I will probably have to elaborate how things work in order for the readers to understand as well. I think I came up with the best way to explain how success usually “hits” in blogging.

Here’s an excerpt of what I said:

See, when people look at the jump between November and December, they only see the instant change that happened in that duration, they think it happened within a month and that’s why I get so many of them asking the “how to make $1000 from my blog” questions.

But that’s really not the case. Like most bloggers that started off with nothing but will, you’re like a little toy car. You work so hard, but there would be something pulling your coil, making it stretched and preventing you from kicking off, but when your coil does eventually get released - the speed in which you drive is much faster and more significant, more like a rocket.

It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity. (my favorite quotes)

Do you think the readers of that newspaper will understand? =)

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February 24th, 2007
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Nomar
Posted on:
February 24, 2007 at 4:46 pm

Good explanation, I hope people will understand. The people that wants to understand will, the quick readers will not.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
HMTKSteve
Posted on:
February 24, 2007 at 4:57 pm

I ran AdSense for almost two years before I got my first check. I considered dropping it at one point! Now I make enough to get a check every month.

Hard work pays off. Even John Chow ran his blog for a long time before getting the massive traffic and earnings he now enjoys.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
derrich
Posted on:
February 24, 2007 at 5:54 pm

I hope this is the case for me. I’ve started writting more often and more consistently.

And forgive my ignorance, Allen. But I don’t see any AdSense ads on your blog. (Don’t worry. If the answer is readily apparent, I’m going to smash my laptop over my head. Maybe.)

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Armen
Posted on:
February 24, 2007 at 6:06 pm

I still think it’ll only make sense to people with a bit of a notion about what Adsense is, etc.

It takes people a long time to learn the basics.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Allen
Posted on:
February 24, 2007 at 6:28 pm

Armen, we didn’t even mention Adsense in the interview. We were just looking at the graph and I told him that’s 95% of my monthly earnings..

derrich: I should probably make a post about this, you’re not the first one to get confused. I make most of my money from an entertainment blog I own, but don’t mention it here, for obvious reasons I guess.

Allen.H

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
Ryan
Posted on:
February 25, 2007 at 9:12 pm

What obvious reasons are those?

They’re not so obvious to me. :D

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
Allen
Posted on:
February 25, 2007 at 10:46 pm

@Ryan: lol, you’re a tough one. Well, I’m often criticized for being so blunt and honest; some people say they want to improve but don’t really want to hear the truth and the causes of their current state. Thing is I’m going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not, and some people may revolt over that.

I’ve developed quite a nice relationship with my Adsense representatives, but still like to keep things as safe as possible. It’s not a big deal if somebody does find out what my blog is, but I prefer to stay discrete about it at the moment :).

Cheers,
Allen.H

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
Ryan
Posted on:
February 26, 2007 at 12:46 am

I’m glad to hear you’re blunt, but you wouldn’t know it by the response.

Be blunt with me. Are you saying you are afraid someone might go and click on your AdSense ads, thus putting your account in jeopardy?

Google’s smart, and they’re going to pick up on click fraud pretty quick. As such, if someone were to go nuts and click on my ads like a fiend I’d be sure to report it to Google, and they’re smart enough not to ban me.

To each his own, but just be blunt about it… that’s who you are, right? :D

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Allen
Posted on:
February 26, 2007 at 1:17 am

That is one of the concerns, yes. There have been attempts to ban me using “click campaigns”, but Google has shown consideration and they know I’d report if I noticed anything invalid.

Now, I’m not going to expose myself to unnecessary risks just for the sake of being appreciated or recognized as the good blunt guy. Nice try though ;)

Regards,
Allen

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Ryan
Posted on:
February 26, 2007 at 1:27 am

That’s all I was looking for. 8)

I agree that a lot of people just want a quick fix or whatever they need to start making lots of money online.

Too bad it doesn’t exist!