Ever felt like giving it up?

I've been writing online now for around 3 years. I'm starting to get a bit tired of it though. The work I'm doing is not creative enough, and I'm starting to feel like I'm getting RSI in my wrist

Does anyone else feel like giving up at times?

I'm currently doing around 20,000+ words a week, which probably doesn't help. I've made a couple of positive steps towards reducing my hours. I spend more time writing for my sites nowadays, like the one in my sig (check out my content and let me know what you think). I want to try and build my forums up for the future. Alongside this, I've just invested in a cleaning business, in a sector I have previous experience in...

Rant over

 

Sure, I do.

I feel like giving up when...

• When the spammers outnumber my site visitors.
• When the spammers find a new site before it even has any backlinks and is just barely indexed by Google.
• The days my ad revenue goes down by half.
• When clients disappear into the wind.
• When clients disappear for weeks at a time and then demand immediate attention.
• Every time some scumbag steals my work and posts it as their own.
• Every time some even bigger scumbag hacks one of my sites.
• My webhost goes down.
• My idiotic AT&T Internet connection fails 50 times a day.

But, I keep doing it because...

• I love the building aspect of what we do.
• I love writing and learning about new things
• I love the excitement of meeting a new client and digging into what they do to help them grow their business.
• The days my ad revenue doubles.
• The excitement surrounding when the ad revenue check arrives.
• The even bigger excitement when the client payments come in.
• When a client says, "Wow, I never realized people cared about that. Yeah, they come to me because I'm the only one offering that. I guess I could use that to promote my business."
• Being able to work at 2AM if I want to.
• Being able to take a day off in the middle of the week if I want to.
• Not having to go to a J O B.
• A sick day doesn't have to mean not getting anything done.
• When someone visits one of my sites and drops me a line about how much they enjoy it and appreciate what I'm doing.
• I no longer have to deal with the catty bitch that every office always seems to have.
• I share my desk with two beautiful kitties who love being with me.
• My office is down the hall, not across town.
• I actually have an office equipped with the equipment, desk and chair of my choice.
• A bank account that is actually moving in a positive direction.

It's a balancing act emotionally. I could spend hours filling both lists. Like everything we humans do, there's good and bad.

When a client drives me nuts, I walk away from their project and work on one of my own or play a silly video game for a little while. (I like the word-based ones on Yahoo!. They help improve my typing skills and vocabulary.) When my own projects get me down, I hit up my regular clients to see what's shaking.

I've found having hobby sites is really helpful. If I'm getting worn out writing about a topic for one client, I can switch to another client or get some relief from writing about something of my choosing.

When the day has more doubt than promise, I leave the house and do chores. There's something about being able to go to the store and say, "I want that. I don't need it. I just want it." Once I open my wallet and remember the days when I had no discretionary spending money, I again see the promise of what I'm doing.

When all else fails, I've found giving in to the frustration and having a bit of a "I hate the world" screaming rant also works. Then the cats look at me like I'm crazy, I calm back down and fire up the computer and go back to work.

Hope that helps. It's good sometimes to know we're not entirely alone.

 

Hehe...awesome post. Not just me having semi-regular mini breakdowns then

Love this one "When clients disappear for weeks at a time and then demand immediate attention."

Yeah, the hobby site thing I also get. I've just set up 3 forums, all in niches I am active in; business, dirt bikes & hiking. I'm hoping they can be my place to wind down and hopefully bring me in some revenue in the future

Thanks for the post, made me chuckle

 

I have given up many times, not making money online mind you, just certain flavors of it. So far, I have given up on proxies, Adsense and certain types of online writing jobs and am much better off for it. I have cut down my work/frustration time and am much happier while making a steady income. I always want/prefer to work on my own sites, but I am not very good at it, so I have to make the bulk of my money by way of sites not my own.

When I feel bad about where I am financially and feel the slightest bit of compulsion to consider a "Real job", I remind myself how much I would hate slaving away at a 9 to 5 job with commuting time not factored in, and that for 5-6 days a week. All of that just to earn what I reasonably could by working far less hours and doing far more enjoyable work online.

 

We all have our "bad hair" days, so to speak. But what matters most is that we are able to look forward again, not to another bad hair day, but for something more positive. Cheer up, guys! Life is too short to dwell on all its negative aspects.... Just keep writing and help someone else who's also having a bad day.

 

Yes, it's easy to feel giving sometimes,
but when I remember my main reason for doing this, and the goal + the dream that I have for my business,
I said to myself that everything is going to be all right, then I keep on going with my hobby.

 

Very rarely do I feel like giving up. If I have a lot of spammers, then I try to isolate them and then capitalize on them. After all, that is what strategic adsense placements are about. Sometimes you can fool them.

Don't do things because you think you can make money at them, do things because you enjoy them and let the fruits of that labor sprout and grow over time. Even the most high paying jobs are not worth it if you dread it.

 

I think we all get burned out sometimes. While I'm just starting out with my freelance writing, I was definitely burned out in the past with previous jobs and even my own hobby. Taking a step back and concentrating on yourself is a good way to get over the hump. In your case, it sounds like you might need a new focus. Hopefully your new cleaning business will give you a new one and some new found energy. Good luck with it!

 

This is the route i've taken, which is why I'm doing forums rather than IM type stuff in my spare time now. I participate in a couple, so thought I'd make my own

 

I once saw a movie called "Never Back Down", it is about a boy who comes very close to his goal and doesn't know it and just gives in. Then when he realizes how close he came to he realizes that he would "Never Back Down" again.

 

Yeah I've seen that film before, fairly decent and worth watching.

 

When I feel like I'm working too hard for too little return, I take a break, then come back and look for higher paid work. I hate doing bulk content work, but if I can increase my rates and decrease my output, that feels better. I'd rather write a few good words - that I'm proud to share with other clients - than churn out tons of junk for someone who cares more about quantity than quality.

 

Yea I feel like giving up every time I start an article hahahaha

Keep at it mate

 

Well Said!

 

GrantDraper I know the feeling all too well. Although I am not so much a writer I have a background in building websites for clients... which after a time is soul destroying. I found taking 1-2 weeks off 4-6 times per year works (if its possible for you too do this!). This helps me recharge my batteries and get a fresher perspective

 

Love this one "When clients disappear for weeks at a time and then demand immediate attention."

Yeah, the hobby site thing I also get. I've just set up 3 forums, all in niches I am active in; business, dirt bikes & hiking. I'm hoping they can be my place to wind down and hopefully bring me in some revenue in the future

 

if i were at your place, instead of giving up, i must have focused on improving.
if you are writing 20000 words per week, that means you are a hard working fellow.
BEING A PSYCHOLOGIST, i will advise you to do 40000 words per week for three months, save the extra money and invest in something that can be success and that can increase your productivity in monetary terms and leave this business as winner.

one of my friend started writing articles for 1 usd per 400 words two years ago, he worked hard and six months as a writer, meanwhile started his own websites and blogs. now he own more than 100 medium niche websites and he is earning around 8000 usd only from adsense ( you can imagine the rest of his income).

it is just a fruit for thought.
best of luck

 

Working harder and harder until you success is a myth.
Sometime something just doesn't work , no matter how much effort you put it.
With that say, I think that you CAN earn a living as a writer.
And you can be as creative as you are, as long as you deliver the result, ie. conversion, traffic, ...
Besides just writing articles, why don't you try e-book, press release, whitepaper, resume, ... Just to name a few.

 

Like most things in life, the secret is in enjoying the job not the profit.

 

I have been writing past many years and once or may be twice in a year I go deep into depression and feel like quitting. Sometimes its about losses in the business, delays in payments from clients and many more but this is the time I introspect and start the cleansing process. Over a period of time rust forms in our brain and there is need to cleanse it. In such a case, I take a week off and do all those things which I have vying for all these days..its about fulfilling desires completely so that they don't trouble you for a long time to come. On a daily basis, i beat boredom and negativity by playing online games and by watching some really great movies. It really energizes me and I am back to my best.