I wrote recently about being a little frustrated because I was writing posts trying to show people how they could succeed and “live their dream”, not only if that dream was to live in the Philippines, but whatever the best dream for them was.
And people are not reading those articles, in droves.
How do I know they are not reading them?
It’s not really by measurable statistics. My page views and unique visits are pretty much constant, no matter what I publish … most traffic here comes from Google searches about living in the Philippines, working in the Philippines and such.
My advertising income is pretty much within normal variance as well. In fact articles about entrepreneurship often attract much better paying ads.
But the questions people ask and the responses they give me show me very clearly that what people “say” they want … an honest way to “live their dream”, and what people really want to read is completely out of whack.
Maybe I should install some sort of Philippine-related “Farmville” applications here so that people could spend their time playing games and pretending rather than moving toward a goal. I dunno.
I saw recently that the issue is certainly not mine alone. One of my favorite fellow bloggers is a lady named Penelope Trunk. Penelope actually does what so many people say they want to, but don’t.
She lives on a farm, trains, consults and helps people (for money and satisfaction), raises her children (home schooling them, outside the abysmal US education system which is still hung up on teaching what people should do for last century to prepare them for jobs that won’t be there this century) and, in general, being an interesting, self-assured person who marches to her own drummer.
Anyway, I thought this little transaction that took place between Penelope and her editor recently was pretty interesting:
Take more advice. It will help you.
In the last week I have written three blog posts that my editor told me are stupid. The first one was about the Olympics. April Ross, a silver medalist in beach volleyball, said that she quit playing indoor volleyball because the practices were too regimented. That made me realize that there are some professional sports that are entrepreneurial. Beach volleyball is one. The coach works for the players, instead of the other way around, and the players drum up their own money instead of receiving a paycheck from the team.
My editor said, “I hope you have a great photo for this post,
(ed note: I suspect by “Great Photos” the Penelope’s editor was thinking of some of the amazingly well-behaved and highly stressed bikini bottoms struggling to cover the amazingly tanned and firm but supple butts of female beach volleyball players. Must be one of the most photogenic sports in the Olympics and unlike its close second, girl’s gymnastics, most of the players are not “jail bait”. But I digress … never underestimate the prurience of the average TV viewer/blog reader
)
… because your readers generally don’t respond with much gusto when you write about entrepreneurship.” (my emphasis)
So, here’s a good chance for people here to tell me. Comments are open. What do you want to hear about, aside from how you can become self-sufficient, self-reliant and make progress toward living your dream, whatever that dream might be.
And Penelope, keep writing what you think is important. And John, thanks as always for the support.
Related posts:
- Jobs And Business Are Both People To People — In Or Out Of The Philippines
- Would You Be Surprised To Know It Is YOU Who Makes YOU Happy?
- More About Living and Working in the Philippines From People Who Know
- Living in the Philippines — How People Find This Site
- Saving Energy for Practical People
I often get frustrated that people seem to ask the same questions over and over again. I know that you have answered the same question, especially about Visas, many times over. A search of the sight would usually take care of that for them.
That’s not exactly what this article is about, but it’s related.
What I want to hear about is the Philippine government finally getting their s**t together and fix the infrastructure in this country. I guess you have no control over that though. That would help a lot of people achieve their dreams easier.
Thanks for the good words, John Jackson. Good to see you around again. So you were visiting the “land of the big BX”, were you? Funny thing is, that’s where I am now too, but although I enjoy some of my old pastimes in Colorado, I enjoy the Philippines as lot more. I’ll be back at my usual duty station RSN (Real Soon Now).
I hope you are having an easier time than I had on my “vacation”. Or as I say in my latest post “Vacation Over — Time to Relax”.
I agree. I thought going back to the old stomping ground would be all kinds of wonderful, but it did not live up to the expectations, except for the steak, hamburgers and the milk.
I was certainly glad to be back in the Philippines and especially back to Calbayog City and home.
Oh I am enjoying myself in Colorado just fine. Spent the day at the state fair yesterday, resting up today. Milk. mmm, m steak, oh yeah, mostly fresh fruit and real salad fixins.
I’ll be home in the Philippines soon enough, but I certainly am enjoying my trip to the sates this time.
Hi Phil,
I’m a long time reader and I love your blog. I love your posts on following your dreams and giving your readers ideas on how to become their own boss. I know you may hear this from other readers but I’m being 100% honest when I say this, you’ve been one of my inspirations to make me pursue my dreams. I won’t get into it too much here but I just wanted to start by saying thank you.
Now onto the topic at hand. I hate to say it but I think a lot of us Filipinos have this fear that something will go wrong. To chase after our dreams and fail would be a loss of face and that’s just something that a lot of us aren’t willing to risk. I mean, the Philippines’ richest man is Henry Sy, a man who actually immigrated to the Philippines from China. I’m not saying Filipinos can’t do it, it’s just that fear of failure that we have to get over. It’s like a lot of us don’t have confidence in ourselves and we don’t even want to try.
I still notice it from many relatives and sometimes even from myself. I think most Filipino kids are taught with their parents telling them “don’t do this” or “don’t do that” because their parents don’t want them to get hurt. I know my parents brought me up that way. What they don’t realize though is that we need to go through some of those hardships and pain (within reason of course) to become stronger people when we grow up. If we’re constantly told NO or DON’T DO THAT while growing up it’s tough to grow up confident in yourself.
So when you tell us Filipinos (I’m guessing the majority of your readers are Filipino) to “follow you dreams” there is this built in “I’m not good enough” syndrome that’s there and no action is taken because “well, what’s the point I’m probably not going to succeed anyways.” Some have it worse than others but I believe that anyone can overcome it.
So take this as one vote to keep your “inspiration” posts coming. If you’re getting discouraged that you may not be inspiring all or even the majority of your readers just remember, you are inspiring some of us out here and we are listening.
Howdy, Marcus. Hey thanks for all those kind and thoughtful words. As you can see, I made an article out of them … you had way more good thoughts than could be covered in a little comment box.
Thanks for writing in, come back soon.
Honestly? LOL! I want some inputs on blogging.
I do not “need” the money as much as some other people, I guess. But I want to get to the point that I could have a fairly average income-generating blog. where I can branch out into a different part of law.
I think more than anything though I really need more time. But I guess that may be an entirely different topic all together.