Turn Blogging Frustrations into Inspiration

Stressed? Are you blogging for money or for pleasure?
(photo credit: Vinicius de Carvalho Venancio)

Blogging frustrations can put down even the most optimistic and prolific writers at some point. 

For the daily blogger, running out of content to write may be a problem. For the prolific blogger, time management may be an issue. 

For newbie writers, attracting an audience and letting the netizens find out about your blog site are known hurdles.

Apart from time and traffic, what are the biggest challenges in blogging?

The list can be long, but one element that always crops up is money. According to one anonymous Samaritan at a local forum, blogging is a good channel for your thoughts and a wonderful way to showcase your expertise on a subject or two. Add money into the equation, and expect frustrations along the way -- for your first blogging venture anyway.

The statement, of course, was not aimed to discourage blogging newbie writers but to give a realistic outlook on what to expect. I greatly enjoyed his correspondence and thought that his advice was worth sharing with the reading public. So, how do you turn blogging frustrations into inspiration? Here's what he said:

Authentic Job Sites for Newbie Writers

Is work experience costly? You bet! It's the excuse that companies give when hiring newbie writers and paying them minimum wages. Of course, when the minimum wage is within the standards of Japan, Singapore or the United States, I'd zip my mouth and quit yacking. I wouldn't even dream of working from home....

One of my pet peeves is peanuts for pay. Peanuts are yummy, but hey, I can't live on them forever. Kidding aside, beggars can't be choosers, so as a newbie writer, I started with slave wages just like everybody else. I recall that the first abstracting project I took on gave me $0.25 for 250 words (P10). That was close to 10 years ago and it was for charity really. My best friend needed my help and she got it. (I don't know how today's writers are making ends meet with much less for more work. Good Lord!)

I did get my foot at the door with the help of a few resources. I'm going to list them here just so you know where you too can get started . Don't expect me to smatter around and drop names like "Get a Freelancer" and "Craig's List" -- all of which I heard nasty scam stories about and didn't bother checking out. These are the authentic sites that worked for me: