Frankly, I don’t know what took me so long to put 2 and 2 together. Blogging isn’t really an enterprise for me. Although I do hope it will become popular enough that I can ultimately sell some of my own products through it, but that’s not it’s primary purpose.

I did make the mistake of monetizing it too soon, though (I think). Somehow, Google decided that there were fraudulent clicks on their ads and banned my site. Fortunately, since my purpose isn’t primarily to make money from my blog, I didn’t take that very hard. Besides, when my blog “makes it” there are plenty of other ways to monetize it, if I’m so inclined.

As for other dips in life, business, etc., I think it’s important to continuously remind yourself of the reasons you want to succeed. For me, it’s my family. When the pictures in your wallet, on your cellphone, and on the desk in your office aren’t enough, maybe it’s time to take a break and spend time with those reasons. Playing with my son, or talking with my wife or daughter for awhile usually renew my perspective. Sometimes “awhile” is a lot longer than other times.

Thanks for asking about my ‘dip.’ I go through them with everything. Blogging is no different. I am determined to push through this one. There is no quit in me this time.

I liked what Alan Watts wrote about life – All human misery is caused by a basic misunderstanding about reality. Life/Reality/The Earth/The Universe/Our Relationships are inherently unstable – they are constantly changing – even the mountains are moving – just so slowly we can’t see them – the earth is hurtling around the sun at 66,000 miles per hour – EVERYTHING is constantly changing – even us – we are supposed to be changing and evolving and aging and growing – and change comes with peaks and valleys – ons and offs – light and dark – but we keep looking for safety and stability and predictability in a reality that is neither safe nor stable nor predictable – it would be boring and dull if it was safe and predictable – life comes at us in waves and it is our resistance to change and the expectation that these waves of change should be motionless and flat that results in our misery. Our misery is directly related to our lack of acceptance.

So in a nutshell, I have to accept that I will experience reality in the context of ever changing waves that are sometimes unexpected and unstable. There is nothing to cling to, there is only doing the next right thing.

So to get through this dip, I will picture myself in the valley between two waves ready to ride to the top of the next one knowing what I have learned will better prepare me for the next ‘dip.’

His advice? “Keep Moving”. That’s it. I didn’t have to run all of the time, and sometimes I might be crawling. But as long as I could keep some kind, any kind, of forward action, the dip would end, and I’d come out the other end a stronger person.

Thanks for the outstanding post, Steve. How is your dip going?

I think with blogging the biggest part is understanding that this is a marathon. It’s about building a readership slowly over the course of a few years. Everyone hits slumps. You just have to learn from them and do everything you can to create compelling content. If I didn’t enjoy blogging for its own sake I’d probably quit. It definitely isn’t fast money.