Six Month Review Of Buck Inspire
When I first began my blogging journey, I had two critical goals. Beat the Yakezie Challenge and continuously blog for six months. I accomplished the first goal and celebrated with a Blake Griffin dunk. (He is hands down the NBA Rookie of the Year.) I just accomplished my second of continuously blogging for six months.
Lessons Learned
If you let your blog consume you, you can and will burnout. I read warnings from veteran bloggers and I thought they were overly concerned for us newbies. Their warnings were justified as I almost burned out a few times myself.
Health and sleep can’t be neglected. There were many nights when I wanted to read one more blog, leave one more comment, or work on one more post. If you get sick or become sleep deprived, your new passion will suffer as well. Control yourself and find that happy medium between online work and offline rest and relaxation.
Expectations need to be managed. After beating the Yakezie challenge and cracking Alexa 100K, I thought I would be able to walk on water and part the sea. I used this mark as motivation, but when I actually achieved it and the accompanying results were not mind blowingly awesome, I suffered a letdown. Deja vu occurred when I hit my six months. I had to get a grip and remind myself of why I started blogging in the first place. My blog is also a marathon and not a sprint.
Just like when I beat the Yakezie Challenge, I am going back on a stat diet. Constantly refreshing web analytics, AdSense, emails, and comments makes me very unproductive. I will use this time focusing on content, building relationships, and optimizing my blog.
Top Commenters
Money Cone
Aloysa’s Kitchen Sink
Retire By 40
Krant Cents
The College Investor
101 Centavos
Bucksome Boomer
Top Referrals
Yakezie
Budgeting In The Fun Stuff
Retire By 40
Beating The Index
Money Cone
Finance Fox
Top Articles
Alexa Rank
Fiverr: Five Dollar Logos
Accountability Will Lead to Success
Rich Dad Wrong Dad
Note To Newbies
MozRank: Drop that Zero and Get With the Hero
Special thanks to my top commenters and referrals. You guys all rock! What’s interesting are my top articles. Most of them deal with the subject of blogging. One was a guest post from Evan at My Journey To Millions. Thanks Evan! The other one was my reaction to a Robert Kiyosaki seminar.
Should I refocus my blog on blogging itself?
Thanks all for making my first six months a very interesting and fulfilling ride. May your journey be as exciting and satisfying as a Blake Griffin dunk! Next stop, the one year mark. See you all there!
Congratulations Buck! It’s been a pleasure watching you rise to the top in a relatively short blogging span of time!
Thanks for being a big part of the ride MC! Any surprises on your blog journey?
First off, congratulations on hitting the 6 month mark! I know you’ve been really active with your blog and Yakezie as well, so I can appreciate the milestone.
As for your lessons, I have experienced some of these as well, though my blog is now over 1 year old. The way you describe the importance of sleep resonates with me. I’ve spent enough time wanting to make one more comment, finish another post, etc late into the night that I realize that we have to manage our time well and have the discipline to take control of our blog, not let it control us:) In other words, while blogging is a whole lot of fun, let’s keep perspective and balance in our lives.
Also – Blake Griffin’s dunks are something else, aren’t they? Seems like he dunks with fury.
Thanks Squirrelers! Honestly I should thank you as the message about sleep came from one of your posts. Many sleep deprived nights were saved by you. Any surprises in your over a year blogging adventure? Those dunks are ferocious. Very inspiring. A modern day Shawn Kemp!
Well-written and inspiring, Buck. I’ve been backsliding a little myself in the last couple weeks, so this was an especially apropos read.
Thanks! Sorry to hear about the backsliding. Getting busy at work? Think we all have to learn to prioritize and pace ourselves.
Good progress mate! I like that title on mozRank! Everything just takes time.
Best, Sam
Thanks Sam! Glad you liked it. You’re right it takes time. I just need to manage my expectations. Think my imagination was getting the best of me. Also need to refocus on content and relationships. Any advice on improving one’s writing and relationship building?
Congratulations on the milestone! It takes time building relationships, but when you slow down a bit, bloggers are there to help. I’ve had many help when I sick and behind on posting.
I work hard to return the favor and support others as I can. Being a part of the community has been fantastic and I’m glad you’re with the Yakezie.
Thanks Elle! That’s true, perhaps I was rushing things. You’re right, Yakezie support has been unbelievable. Glad you’re with Yakezie, too. Looking back, has your blogging experience gone the way you thought it would?
Burn out is a danger for any venture. Maintaining good physical and mental health is incredibly important for productivity. Congrats on achieving your goals.
The dunks are awesome. Great teamwork on the assists.
Thanks! That’s true about burnout for any venture. Looks like it hasn’t slowed you down as you now have two sites? How have things gone for you? Good point about the assists. Some of those took a lot of skill.
Things are going OK. I am having fun and view what I am doing online as a hobby that might actually reimburse me for my time. It is something to do while waiting for golf season and is better than wasting time on facebook. Who knows, it may actually help pay for golf someday!
Having fun with a hobby and possibly fund another pastime sounds solid to me. Fore!
It looks like our sites are pretty much in the same spot. We both started about six months ago and we both have an Alexa rank just over 100,000. Your blog is one of my favorites, so I’m hoping you don’t burn out!
Funny, we’re around the same spot and both like to add extra entertainment value. Great stuff from your end, keep doing what you do! Do you enjoying writing or making videos more?
They are two separate animals. I would like to focus more on videos because I blog five days a week and make a video once a month or so. I think the demographic I’m targeting (young people) prefer the videos, which is why I do them. They are fun, but a lot of work
Five days a week and a video? Wow, how do you not burnout? Young people seem to have shorter attention spans with all the different entertainment streams. Might have to bust out the video camera and iMovie soon!
Congrats on the progress! Your post on Fiverr just encouraged me to go buy a video, which I just put up on YouTube!
Thanks! You bought a video and now it’s on YouTube? Where’s the link so I can check it out!
Update: I found it. Cool video and I tweeted along!
Congrats! You’ve done great for 6 months!
I’ve limited myself to twice a week for analytics. Otherwise, it sucks too much time out of the day refreshing to see a few more hits!
Thank you! Nice plan. I think my next project is a new AA. Analytics Anonymous! Watching stats all day is bad for you.
Congratulation on making 6 months!
It’s gotta be tough being a Clipper fan, but I’m sure Blake G. makes it a bit easier. 😀
It’s tough keeping the blog going. I think I will let myself take a break if I need one and not stick to the MWF schedule 100%.
Yeah guess every dog as its day. Clipper fans have gone through a lot! Good idea about giving yourself breaks if needed. Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.
Congratulations on the 6 month mark! I’ll have to join you on the stat diet – so much time can be burned up with analytics.
I hear you about the burnout – I’ve gone through several cycles myself. At least now I recognize when I have to scale things down a bit and give it a rest.
We all like to watch our stocks grow everyday, but that’s not possible. The same is true for stats. Some days will drop or stagnate. Recognizing when to scale back is a key skill to have with blogging!
Great idea to do a review. I’m thrilled to be one of the top commenters, but your posts just draw me in:)
It’s a marathon, not a sprint as you’ve found. My alexa ranking goes down and up; now it’s up. That’s not what matters.
It’s the relationships, income and personal fulfillment.
Thanks for your support from the beginning! I try my best to make posts that draw readers in. Great motto. I may need to reorder it to personal fulfillment, relationships, and income. Personally still very fulfilling, strong relationships are coming on nicely, don’t get me started on income. Haha!
I can understand and relate to what you are saying about checking stats too much. Im getting very close to breaking the 200k mark on my Alexa ranking, and yet I expected so much more in the way of results.
I hear ya. You’ve been doing great for such a short time. Keep it up and try not to let your expectations get you down!
Congratulations! For being 6 months old, you’re doing great!
As for burning out, I can relate. I’ve had way to many late nights trying to write the next day’s post. 🙁
Thanks! Initially, I laughed at burnout. “Can’t happen to me!” Spoke to soon, it is a real problem. Like everything else, balance is key.
Congratulations on your achievement, it’s quite a feat for a six month old blog. You are right on the money that blogging is not a sprint but a marathon where we really need to pace ourselves so we do not get burned out.
Thanks! How’s your blog journey going so far? I checked out your latest article. Keep up the good work!