I have arrived at the conclusion that I am a blogging failure on Hive and other places where I post. While this is the sort of thing that would make some people sad, it is a relief of sorts. Knowing what I am good at doing, or not doing, takes away the pressure of trying to be great at something that isn't for me. Here is why I am failing.
Consistency
As far as being consistent is concerned, I do this poorly. First, I have far too many interests and too many accounts. As such, blogging on one channel neglects the others. I am too spread out to be consistent in any one blog channel. My topics are all over the place. And, I don't stick to a schedule.
Personality
In real life, I have the equivalent personality of a paper cup with dad jokes printed on it. I think that comes through in the writing.
Not An Expert
I'm not an expert at anything. Again, diverse interests don't help me in this regard. I can't write with any authority on any of the topics that interest me.
To Hell With SEO
It takes me a lot of time to figure out what to write on a blog post. The last thing I want when it's all over is to sit around thinking up SEO. I'm doing this for the joy of writing, which is ruined by spending time to name my images, thinking up meta details, inserting links to other content, and thinking up different words to keyword stuff without keyword stuffing.
It's Not Fun
Once you start blogging as a sort of business, it stops being fun. All of this was supposed to be a creative outlet for me rather than a job. As a job, my writing is more forced and uninspired. When this is the case, I feel less inclined to post. Then, this makes it more forced.
Social Media Links
I do poor job of linking my posts to social media. This is an internal struggle for me. I'm on Hive to get away from those places. And something doesn't sit right with me when I think that I may be getting traffic from people who can't vote up my content. The upvotes are how I would measure the success of a post. But, if people from other social media can't vote for my posts, what am I getting out of it? There are no analytics tools that tell me how much traffic my post has received. Upvotes are the only way I have of measuring a post's success.
Barely Monetizing
While we are on the topic of quantifying, I'm barely monetizing at all. When it comes down to it, my earnings are in the "hobby" category rather than the "business" category in terms of taxation. If you are not from the USA, our taxing agency will only tolerate you losing money at a business for so long. If you aren't profiting, then you are engaged in a hobby. In this case, you can't write off expenses.
I couldn't pay one single bill with the income I receive from blogging. The only reason I have reached Minnow status is because I keep buying HIVE, not because I earned it through blogging.
The Advantage of Failure
This brings me to the important lesson here. While I may be failing as a blogger, I'm not doing too badly from crypto investing. The current market dip is a great opportunity to buy up more HIVE.
I sense opportunity in HIVE beyond what I could earn from blogging. I can accept that I will not attract large audiences, get dozens of comments, or earn several HIVE in upvotes on each post. However, I definitely can take a little bit of cash every payday to increase my stake in HIVE.
One day, perhaps, my upvote will be $1. It won't have mattered if I reached that level by blogging or investing. The net result is the same. Therefore, I can continue to blog for the pleasure of blogging. I don't have to try to force myself to tick all the boxes for blogging excellence with every blog post.
With that in mind, I can turn my time and attention to other endeavors that can generate more meaningful income with less time commitment. The more I can earn elsewhere, the more I can save into HIVE and HBD.