How Blogging Can Change Your Life and Career
From my latest manifesto, âBlog Is a Platformâ
This is a random selection of chapters from my latest book (manifesto) â Blog Is a Platform. You can find it the Kindle and Paperback versions on Amazon.
A Blog Is a Platform
«The secret to success is to build the foundation for it,» wrote James Altucher.
Itâs true. To become successful in anything (business, freelance, job, life), you need a platform.
What is a platform?
A «platform» is anything that can give you external opportunities. Having a platform makes life easier.
Having an audience is more important than having savings, real estate, investments, or business in todayâs world. A blog is an ultimate platform.
Other examples of platforms in life:
â Business
â Investments
â Trust fund
â Fancy college degree
â Real estate
â Fame
â Good genetics
â Good looks
Not everyone is privileged to have these things.
I have none of those.
I donât have a business (although Iâve built one in the past).
I donât have any investments (only debts).
I donât have a trust fund (my father went bankrupt when I turned 20).
I didnât finish college (I dropped after 7 months).
I donât own real estate (my family rented apartments).
I am not famous (yet). I donât have great genes (my family has ample cases of cancer, obesity, mental disorders, and alcoholism).
My looks are pretty average, too (I wouldnât be able to be a Hollywood star).
Sometimes I laugh when I look in the mirror because I look like a sloth (literally speaking, my face looks like that of an animal sloth).
But anyone â even someone with a sloth face â can build a blog. Anyone can build an asset â a platform â which will give them other opportunities (and I am talking about way more exciting opportunities than just making money from ads).
Anyone can have a platform if they set their mind to it.
Pick Yourself
It was 2007. My school friend was at my house in California for a sleepover. I showed him a new computer which dad bought me for my birthday. He took it from me, typed something and said:
âHere, check this out. Itâs called YouTube. You can watch any music video you want on this website for free.â
Too bad, my childhood friend was wrong.
YouTube doesnât exist so that you watch more Lady Gaga videos. It wasnât created so that you could waste more time.
YouTube wants you to make your own show. To broadcast yourself. Medium wants you to write. Anchor wants you to upload a podcast. Spotify and Soundcloud are waiting for your latest song.
Yet, they are not going to pick you. Nobody is going to call and say, âHey, congratulations! You should start a podcast right now. Hereâs what itâs calledâŠâ
If youâre an aspiring movie director, waiting to be picked by a wealthy Hollywood producer, stop. If youâre someone who wants to become a writer when they grow up, donât wait. And if youâre a musician, looking for a label to sign up with, please donât waste your time any longer.
Because in todayâs world, the only permission you need to do what you love is your own.
What Blogging Can Do For Your and Your Career
A blog is an ultimate platform because it can give you all of the things you need to become successful.
A blog will make you famous (i.e., help you build social capital). A blog will make you money. A blog will get you hired (and be an alternative to your obsolete resume). A blog can be an asset, which you can sell. It can help you build a business with no marketing costs. It can help you make friends. Showcase your work. Promote an important cause. Teach you how to communicate. Multiply your efforts a thousand-fold. Allow you to learn all your life.
You can even obtain an immigrant visa to the United States (yes, you can actually apply for an O-visa as a blogger, given that you fulfill specific criteria).
The opportunities and by-products are endless. Weâll explore them more in the later parts of this book.
And yet, most people view a blog only as a way to make money by selling ads. These people donât realize, however, that they are artists.
The âStarving Artistâ Problem
I have a good friend, he is a professional musician. Letâs call him George. Most people find his music tastes weird. But he canât help himself. He keeps listening to the same songs over and over. He replays them on either the piano or the guitar and sings along, too.
Because he has to make money, George takes on odd jobs every now and then. Mostly itâs web design (although he is a terrible designer). In essence, he would make some company a logo for $100, buy groceries, and spend the rest of the week «off,» playing and listening to his music.
The problem came when George started to compromise his taste. He suddenly stopped playing and listening to music he liked and started listening to naysayers who told him he was weird.
Soon George learned that a local club would pay him to play electronic music. George decided to become a DJ. He followed the money.
Now, thereâs a rule that you may or may not know about money and wealth generation in general. Itâs this: money only comes from doing something valuable to others. And it doesnât necessarily mean that what you find valuable will be valuable to others. Thatâs something called a âstarving artist problemâ â you do what you personally like. Still, you confuse what you find valuable with what other people find valuable.
In the old world, youâd have two options:
A) Adapt. Become like my friend George, and compromise your taste to make money. You would take gigs that would pay well to play something you donât want. You would change your music style and adapt it to the audience. You would produce what other people find valuable, and you would follow the money. After all, the bills wonât pay themselves, right?
B) Tell the world to âfuck offâ. And accept that you probably wonât achieve any monetary success. That would be George before he found out about the DJ gig. If you chose this option, you would sit at home, play your music, listen to whatever you want, and not care what the world thinks. These are the street artists of the world, creating something only they find valuable, not caring if somebody likes it.
Both of these options are viable. But again, they work for the old world.
The new world â the one we live in today â allows you to instantly connect to people who have the craziest, weirdest tastes imaginable. These people donât have to live nearby.
If youâre obsessed about pink silk pillows, you can tens of thousands of people on the web who are just obsessed about them as you are. These people will be from various backgrounds and walks of life, someone will be from Pakistan, someone from Russia, and someone from Uganda, who was so happy to log on the local library computer and find a soulmate. This is the key principle of the â1000 true fansâ concept developed by Kevin Kelly, which weâllâ go over soon.
Now back to the old world solutions. The problem with telling the world to fuck off is obvious: you die poor. The myth of a âstarving artistâ is that â a myth. Most great artists are rich. The problem with adapting is not that obvious though.
What happens when you adapt your work to the audience, trying to fit their tastes â not yours â is that your art ceases to be art. Your writing becomes a copywriting job. And what used to be your unique music becomes CD office landlords use for elevator jazz songs. Remember, whenever money becomes the sole purpose of art, it ceases to be art and becomes a transaction.
Your art today has two variables: the content and the audience. In the old world, there was only one â the content, while the audience was constant. You couldnât find a new audience that easily in the pre-Internet era. You had only one audience â the one in your city or village. Today though, you can find any sort of audience with a click of a button.
Go on Reddit. You will find a âsubredditâ (a forum thread) for just about anything: from cat-video lovers to people obsessed with FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early).
The rule of money still holds true, you will need to create something other people find valuable to get paid. Thatâs just how the world works.
But unlike the old world, today you have a choice: you can either change your content (thus, adapting and turning your art into a freelance gig) or change an audience â and globally source the people who will understand and relate to your work.
The âstarving artistâ problem turns out to be not a problem after all. And I hope my dear friend George reads this, and will never compromise his taste again.
Blog Is a Scam
If you want to become a successful blogger, Iâve got bad news for you. Youâve been scammed.
A blog is a scam because people get into it, wishing to end up in the top-1%. Yet, blogging is like a lottery in this sense. Everyone wants to become Kim Kardashian, yet only 0.001% will.
By celebrating people like Kim Kardashian, youâre secretly celebrating your own potential success at winning the lottery.
People donât know what theyâre getting into. And theyâre not to blame, because all they see on Instagram these days are rich, money and champagne. All you see on social media is top-1% of life, so you think that all life is that way.
(Itâs not true even for the people you follow on Instagram)
The truth is, you donât need a lot of followers to become a successful blogger. You donât need to sell your soul, and you donât need to do things you hate and say things you donât believe in. Quite the contrary, to become a successful blogger (or artists of any type), you need very little.
What you definitely donât need is to constantly check your stats and obsess over your follower count. To be able to drive ahead, you have to look forward. You wonât be able to drive if all youâre doing is watching the rearview mirror, wondering how much youâve gone so far.
Make it easier for yourself. Lower your expectations.
Start with 1,000.
1,000 True Fans
This is an idea developed by Kevin Kelly â the founder of Wired magazine, that went viral among creatives. You can read about it on Kevinâs blog by googling: «kk 1000 true fans».
In short, it says the following:
1. The Internet allows you to find, connect to, and aggregate people with your unique tastes. The Internet is a big village, and there is no limit to the number (or variations) of communities you can build. One person can be a part of several communities at once.
2. To make a decent living as a creator, you just need to find 1,000 people who truly love your work. Your âtrue fans.â
3. The definition of a âtrue fanâ â is someone who is willing to drive 30 miles to the other side of the city for your next CD. Itâs not the same as your âFacebook follower.â These people will buy anything you produce. Such loyalty is earned through hard work on your part.
4. This model works if youâre able to find those 1,000 âtrue fansâ and are able to generate $100 worth of value per year. Then the following math takes place: $100 x 1,000 = $100,000 per year â thatâs living to most folks.
The beauty of this idea (and why it spread so quickly) is that you donât need to be a millionaire-blogger. You donât need the same amount of subscribers as Kim Kardashian to become successful.
Pick your niche. Find your 1,000 true fans. Build genuine relationships with them. Produce $100 worth of value per year. Enjoy life.
149 Farnam St.
$149/year.
Thatâs how much Shane Parrish (of Farnam St. fame) charges members of his âLearning Communityâ at www.fs.blog. You can pay more if you want, but thatâs the minimum.
Even though most people are now familiar with Shaneâs work, he is still very niche. His blog was first created by high-level individuals from the investing world, who would benefit from learning the methods of âvalue investingâ (Warren Buffet) and accurate decision-making.
Warren Buffetâs office is located on Farnam St. Hence, the name.
At the time of this writing, Shane has almost 200,000 followers on Twitter.
Imagine if just 1% of those people became a member of his community (which is super conservative).
1% x 200,000 = 2,000 members. Or $298,000/yr in recurring revenue.
Not bad for a blog, right?
How To Be a Great Leader
On a high level, the Internet is nothing but a collection of networks. And because we spend so much time online, our lives start to be dominated by these networks.
A real-life example of a network: association. An association of modern-day leaders. Entrepreneurs. Association of musicians. Writers. Poets. Any society is, essentially, a network.
The Internet allows anybody â with a click of a button â to create their own society, their own network. If youâve got more than 2 people on Instagram, congratulations â youâve got a network.
You canât lead the Internet â thatâs the whole point of it. But you can lead within the Internet, by creating your own networks (societies, communities). By creating your own network, you become its leader.
As a blogger, influencer, or content creator â youâre a network leader.
«The great leaders Iâve studied are all people whose energy and drive are directed outward. Itâs not about themselves. Itâs about something greater than themselves,» wrote Jim Collins.
As a blogger, you have a responsibility. Youâve got influence, and people are watching, reading, or listening to you. To be a great blogger â a great leader of your network â it has to be more than just about you.
You dedicate yourself to a mission. You use your content to either promote that mission or build on top of it (business, charity, organization). If you â as a blogger â can be a business, why canât you be a charity and use your influence to fundraise for important causes?
You donât have to do all of that. Itâs a matter of choice, and an «if/then» question: if you want to become a great blogger, then thatâs what you do.
You can make money from ads and talk about yourself all day long, or you can dedicate yourself to something more important, and use blogging as a tool to build a business, promote an important cause, or even advance your own career.
Itâs your choice. The good news is, you donât need to become great.
Greatness Is Overrated
No matter where you go on YouTube, youâll see advice from «great» people giving out «great thoughts» so that we, too, can become «great.»
But greatness is overrated. Itâs oversold.
What I love about â1,000 true fansâ model (or â100 true fansâ which Iâll talk about later) is that these things are doable. While being great â not as much.
You donât have to be great to get 1,000 true fans â youâve just got to be diligent about your work.
You donât need to write like Neil Gaiman if you want to be an author. Being average is good enough. You donât have to be like Steve Jobs if youâre an entrepreneur, simply being patient and attentive, and having a healthy dose of risk tolerance can make you a few million dollars. Itâs absolutely doable to build an email newsletter with 2,500 people on it.
Itâs not The Secret, and thereâs no payment-upfront-after-signing-up-to-my-free-webinar. I am not saying cliche bullshit like, follow your passion.
I am telling you the truth, which I realized myself in 2019 and then started living it.
You can make a living doing something you love.
Itâs far more reachable than being great. And unlike greatness, itâs less likely to break your heart. You can go extremely niche, be yourself, follow your passion, be a complete wacko, and still make money.
The biggest change that the Internet brought to the world is this: the ability for anyone to just be themselves â and monetize that.
Itâs time to get rid of the old world mindset our parents instilled in us.
Donât be great. Being yourself is more than enough.
Give and Take
The Internet is a network comprised of networks. Medium is a network. YouTube is a network. Your Instagram account is a network, which you are a leader of.
When youâre a part of the big network (such as the Web or YouTube), the value of the network expands as more people come into it. This is called the Metcalfeâs Law.
«Metcalfeâs law states the effect of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system», says Wikipedia.
Networks created a new type of economy. Some people call it âconnection economy,â youâll hear me use the term âpassion economyâ further in this book. The name doesnât matter, the idea is the same: this new economy is the opposite of the industrial zero-sum, dog-eat-dog economy.
In the old economy, you took what you could â and you protected what you had. You had scarcity.
In the new economy created by the Internet, you donât care about any of that because the rules are different. Itâs not zero-sum. The more you give, the more you get.
By Metcalfeâs law, if you join the network, everyone benefits. 1+1 = 3. At the same time, when you give value to the network, everyone benefits. If you donât give value, everyone suffers because we miss out.
As an artist and blogger, focus on what you can give to the network. Donât leave anything to yourself. Show us your gifts.
If you focus on giving, the taking (money, followers, fame) will take care of itself.
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