It's been a while since I had my first blog.
About seven years have passed and I must say that I've realised that having a website or a blog is nothing like it seemed to be.
Though I'm not going to tell my blogging story here; instead I'm going to list a few up's and down's of running a website and/or a blog.
up's of having your own website or blog
Knowledge on many different topics
Obviously, if you're to have a website or a blog, it's useful that you talk about something that you know of. Making things up may push visitors away while if you write in a way and show that you actually know what you're talking about is going to attract more people.
Though, it's not only about traffic; having blogs and websites also teaches you new things because you're — supposedly — making some research about the things you talk about there.
Friendships
Depending on the type of website/blog you run, you may or may not get to know some of the people who visit it. These people are obviously ones to share the same interests as you, since if they didn't, they wouldn't have fallen on your blog or website in the first place.
Money & "fame"
As we know, the Internet has long taken over all the world and basically everything can be made online — including money and getting famous.
People like Justin Bieber became worldwide famous through the Internet... though let's not talking about that because it's not the point.
If you're lucky enough, your website/blog can reach a level of exposure that brings you many opportunities and can actually make you famous. Though, this kind of rarely happens and when it does, it's mostly with fashion blogs and websites.
Making money online, on the other hand, can be quite easier than getting famous.
If you're good at something, you can sell your services on your blog/website and who knows you can actually make a few good bucks out of it.
I personally have earned over 100€ in less than a month with my website!
It's a good way to spend time
Yes, you may not go out that much if you get to actually enjoy blogging a little bit too much, but that's not only bad, is it?
Blogging feels great because you get to talk about something you like and catch people's attention with it — which is supposed to also make you proud of yourself. And it's a great way to spend time if you're ever bored.
Personal development
As weird as it may sound, having a website or a blog can actually help you developing yourself as a person. How? Well, simply because you kind of get to know yourself better through all the research you might do and you also learn a lot of things you thought you already knew, for example: how to ignore some people, as we're going to see further on on the down's of having your own website or blog.
down's of having your own website or blog
Time consuming
When it comes to running a website/blog, time is the very first "down" on the list.
It requires time, obviously. Depending on the type of website/blog you're running, you have to keep updated on the topic you talk about and that means more research; you have to update it often if you don't want people to lose interest; you have to design it, which is probably what takes the longest out of one day.
If you're not willing to dedicate a (big) part of your time to a website or a blog, then you shouldn't have it.
Lack of ideas
We all know how painful it is to want to do something and not having any ideas for it.
This is probably one of the biggest issues that website/blog owners come across whenever they want to either post something new or even give a fresher look to their page.
It can be frustrating & infuriating
True. Having your own website/blog can be quite annoying sometimes, especially if you want it to be successful. Seeing the stats not going up and always going down is usually one of the main reasons why people delete their websites/blogs after a few time having them.
It takes lots of patience until your website or blog starts to be found by the search engines like Google, but when it starts getting noticed, the traffic and success is guaranteed.
People may not always be nice
As in "real life" too, there are always people who aren't that nice no matter what you do or say. In my case, I've mostly came across ridiculously nice people, thanking me for what I do and cheering me for all the work; though, as I already expected, there's always someone to try to break down your mood.
The most annoying cases I've had since dearSillyblog is online actually happened this year when I decided to provide Adobe cracks for whoever needed them. One of the people who emailed me about them was doing nothing else but question my work and method on how to run my website — and they went further on with it, I don't really know with what goal since they achieved nothing in the end. The second person actually brought me a slight headache but also helped me a lot with the traffic to both this blog and my website, so whatever they were trying to get from it, it quite turned out on my favor and I appreciate them for it.
All this to say that you'll always find someone who doesn't like you nor your work with your blog/website. Though it's solely up to you whether or not you'll let those meaningless creatures actually affect you and make you step back from what you worked hard on and love.
People may not always be nice
As in "real life" too, there are always people who aren't that nice no matter what you do or say. In my case, I've mostly came across ridiculously nice people, thanking me for what I do and cheering me for all the work; though, as I already expected, there's always someone to try to break down your mood.
The most annoying cases I've had since dearSillyblog is online actually happened this year when I decided to provide Adobe cracks for whoever needed them. One of the people who emailed me about them was doing nothing else but question my work and method on how to run my website — and they went further on with it, I don't really know with what goal since they achieved nothing in the end. The second person actually brought me a slight headache but also helped me a lot with the traffic to both this blog and my website, so whatever they were trying to get from it, it quite turned out on my favor and I appreciate them for it.
All this to say that you'll always find someone who doesn't like you nor your work with your blog/website. Though it's solely up to you whether or not you'll let those meaningless creatures actually affect you and make you step back from what you worked hard on and love.
Copyright problems
Obviously, this couldn't go past unnoticed.
The copyright issue is probably one of the most usual problems that people face when they run something online. Some random person comes to your website/blog and steals your work, using it as their own... well, you can see that from two points of view but on either ways, it's still annoying. Nobody steals anything if they don't like it and if it's not of good quality, that's a fact; though you can go from the most regular way and lose your temper over it.
Something that is good for everyone to know about this, though, is that once you create something, it is yours by right and nobody is allowed to steal it. Though, there are some points that may not work well in your favor as a creator...
You can't call legal means upon someone who "stole" your work unless they're selling it without your consent or if you're the owner of an actual well-known trademark. If you're simply a blogger or a website owner who made pretty graphics that got stolen by someone, you can't really do much more than talk to whoever did that and live with the fact they actually stole your work.
However, if someone actually created their own work though using your ideas, it's not exactly considered a copyright violation — when it comes to graphics, obviously. This is because there's not really a proof of who made it first, unless you're a recognised trademark as I mentioned before. Also, if you're to accuse someone of stealing something from you, make sure you're not accusing them of something that makes no sense, such as using the same colors as you on their website, or using the same font.
It may not be as cheap as you think
That's right, having a blog/website may not be as cheap as you think it is. It depends, though.
On both cases, sometimes to reach success you have to invest. This includes having your own domain address, which can vary from 10€/year to over 100€; it means having a web-host which is not exactly the cheapest thing either; plans on file-hosting websites if you share files and need more space or a bigger size for each file you upload; etc...
Obviously, these are things that have to be well thought of before getting a penny into them.
If it's not worth it, then stay away from it.
If it's not worth it, then stay away from it.
