The Harsh, but Very Honest Reality of Making it Online
By: Karolina Rickard
Tags: Writing, Struggle, Blog, Reality, Newsletter

I can hear you saying — “but if it was that easy- everyone would be successful”. And I can hear you loud and clear, but why no one shares their experiences about struggles. We can learn from each other or know that you’re not on your own. And that it’s ok.

We read a lot about success stories which are very inspiring and uplifting, especially when it seems there are no more solutions.

I want to share the real struggles of making it online. And hopefully, I could help someone to see that we all have mountains to climb. But grit and passion will lead us to success. I believe in a year’s time I will write one of those success stories articles and share my journey how I make my living from writing etc.

And this is my story so far.

Social Media Journey

I’m struggling to say the least. I’m trying to niche down, I’m trying to find a spin to my niche so that I can stand out. But nothing comes to my mind. I keep procrastinating because I can’t have that perfect solution, which has been sold to me a lot of times.

Does that mean I can’t do it? I don’t have what it takes to win the online world?

The internet world is hard. I’m trying to build my presence but I feel that I’m taking one step forwards and 3 back. Especially I can feel this resemblance with the Twitter platform. It’s a social media platform, where words are powerful and mean more than pictures. I tried Instagram for a while but it never felt me — it felt like I tried to be someone else. So when I rediscovered Twitter and it’s community — I started to believe again that it is possible.

I only have 51 followers, but that’s ok. I need to find my voice, to find my identity so that I can be known for who I am. And only practise will let me grow my voice. I have to share consistently, even though no one is reading my content at the moment.

I absolutely admire people who made it online. I know it takes time and hard work to start earning money.

I bought a few courses to help me kick start my journey.

First, a bought a course about ‘how to’ make courses online or rather how to sell it without having a big audience. I had very high hopes for that. But again and again, I stumble against the same questions — who am I? What is my niche?

Newsletter

My first newsletter went to 10 subscribers. I was very excited, but it was quickly gone when 1 person unsubscribed and others didn’t even open it.

To say the least, it is hard to keep going.

I tried to experiment with different newsletter theme. It was more for me than for the readers, purely so that I could produce the best content I can. That means I need to be as excited writing it as excited my readers should be.

I started with online tools for business, but as much as I love the subject — it's not niche enough to capture more audience. So I tried to go more detailed and chose Artificial Intelligence (AI) as my niche. But that didn't last long as I quickly realised I wasn't passionate enough.

My gut feeling is to write about online tools for business but addressed more to busy parents. I can easily relate to it and write from my own experience. The long term idea would be to build a community of like-minded people to share their experiences.

Blog Posts

Publishing online was the scariest thing I did for a while. Medium opened up the possibilities for me to try it out.

My first blog post ever was “10 Social Media Post Ideas for Beginners”, which got published by Better Marketing publication. I thought- that’s easy! No wonder I got very disappointed when big boys kept rejecting my publications one after another.

I know I need to work on my article structure and expressing my ideas better. That’s why I’m not giving up and will keep trying.

To be able to create we need to keep writing and shipping.

It’s hard to know what to write about and to do it in the best possible way. But in this case, I know — practice is the king. That will make my work better.

Final note

Competence breeds confidence. Work on the skill first and other time you’ll become confident.

“It just takes one peace of content to change your life. You just never know which one that’s going to be” — Gary Vee

It’s a marathon, not a sprint. And there will be falls and desire to quit, but the willingness to try and grit should help me to keep going.

Quitting is not an option!