A few days ago, I had an interesting discussion with a fellow writer. We were discussing the many ways online writers find to build residual income with revenue share from various writing sites or using adsense on personal blogs. It was then that she revealed to me that she "never clicks on ads" on people's blogs.
Intrigued, I prodded her a bit to find out her reasoning. It turns out that she is suffering from the illusion that other writers were her competition and she has set them up as the enemy. She doesn't click on adsense ads because she is afraid the other writer will becomes successful with their blog and end up giving her too much competition.
It's a logical thought, really, but there are some holes in that type of logic. The first being that she assumes there are not enough readers to go around and that if one writer amasses a great following of readers, there will be fewer readers for her. Unless both writers share the same writing niche, this simply isn't true. There are millions of readers out there.
Readers don't read just one blog or visit the work of just one writer. As painful as it may be to admit, most readers don't even remember who the writer was once they leave your page--and many really don't care. Readers don't seek out writers, unless of course, you become known in a niche writer who provides information no one else has. Readers seek information, inspiration and entertainment. When you provide what readers want, they often return for more.
I think her biggest stumbling block is the notion that if other writers somehow make money from their writing that she will make less. This one makes no sense to me. How much money you or I make from our writing really doesn't have an impact on how much other writers make.
Instead of viewing the success of other writers with envy or suspicion, I have decided to learn from their success and to support their efforts whenever I can. If I visit a blog or read an article and notice an ad that interests me, I have no reservations about clicking the ad--after all, it has been targeted with my interests in mind. If in the process some hardworking writer earns a few cents then I am glad to contribute to their success.
Intrigued, I prodded her a bit to find out her reasoning. It turns out that she is suffering from the illusion that other writers were her competition and she has set them up as the enemy. She doesn't click on adsense ads because she is afraid the other writer will becomes successful with their blog and end up giving her too much competition.
It's a logical thought, really, but there are some holes in that type of logic. The first being that she assumes there are not enough readers to go around and that if one writer amasses a great following of readers, there will be fewer readers for her. Unless both writers share the same writing niche, this simply isn't true. There are millions of readers out there.
Readers don't read just one blog or visit the work of just one writer. As painful as it may be to admit, most readers don't even remember who the writer was once they leave your page--and many really don't care. Readers don't seek out writers, unless of course, you become known in a niche writer who provides information no one else has. Readers seek information, inspiration and entertainment. When you provide what readers want, they often return for more.
I think her biggest stumbling block is the notion that if other writers somehow make money from their writing that she will make less. This one makes no sense to me. How much money you or I make from our writing really doesn't have an impact on how much other writers make.
Instead of viewing the success of other writers with envy or suspicion, I have decided to learn from their success and to support their efforts whenever I can. If I visit a blog or read an article and notice an ad that interests me, I have no reservations about clicking the ad--after all, it has been targeted with my interests in mind. If in the process some hardworking writer earns a few cents then I am glad to contribute to their success.
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