PUBLISHING FOR PROFIT AND INFLUENCE: It's all about passion

Publishing for Profit and Influence: It’s All About the Passion
After maintaining several blogs for a couple of years, learning about web publishing and observing different niches, I have come to the conclusion that success for web publishers mainly relies on how much passion you have for the topic you cover. Not exactly a ground-breaking insight, you might say. But let me explain how I personally came to realize this.
I’ve built quite a few sites throughout my life online and the only ones that remain or thrive are the ones covering topics, for which I have a very deep and strong interest. The other sites gradually slowed down and died because I only had a passing fancy for them.
Initially, I created these failed sites because I thought the specific niche was lucrative or because I saw how well some other people were doing. When I started them, I didn’t even know much about the field. For me, it was all about getting more pageviews and transforming that into ad revenue. That was the height of my goal. And nothing more.
Over time, these sites died off because I lost interest in writing for them. I ended up spending more time on the sites about topics that I loved. I slowly built these sites up while enjoying the interaction with people in the same niche. It just felt a lot more natural.
Blogging can be difficult. It takes time and energy to write. Sometimes you’ll get busy with other things in your life. You don’t see any money or benefits. Nobody is reading you. Nobody comments. Nobody links to you. You don’t seem to grow. Even though you try.
When this happens, the only thing that will keep you going is your passion for the topic. If you are truly interested in the subject, you won’t give up easily. You won’t stop. You’ll make time to write. It won’t be a chore. You’ll enjoy it. This high level of enthusiasm overcomes the inevitable inertia you’ll sometimes face as an individual web publisher.
Image Credit: Hide N Seek
It’s not too difficult to own a profitable or influential site. You just need to give a damn. You need to really care for the site, enough to use it as a vehicle to explore the topic and share your knowledge with others. While profit is important and a part of your motivation to blog, you care more about spreading your message and getting others engaged.
I honestly believe that you can take any great interest you have and transform it into a popular website. You already have the motivation and background knowledge. All you need is to learn certain skills: for instance, like how to use social media to increase exposure for your brand as well as other online marketing methods.
The most essential thing is your passion for the chosen subject. If you love it, you’ll persist in publishing and you’ll naturally be motivated to learn how to share your content with others. Interest is by far the most important ingredient for influence and profit.
Some might suggest that you don’t need to be interested in a field to make money from it. After all, you can hire people to write and just manage the business. I agree to some extent but even when it comes to managing the business, I’ve noticed that I tend to work harder for sites I care about. Why? Because everything I do for them is more fulfilling.
The same theory applies for hiring bloggers. I’ve noticed that the ones that are the most interested or involved in the field are the ones that’ll go the extra mile to make sure an article is terrific. So make sure you hire writers that are exceedingly fervent and willing to learn. You can always train the writer and teach him/her shortcuts or skills.
You don’t want word bots that can churn out the daily post, you want a fanatic, someone who loves reading and writing the same stuff even on their off-days. Trust me, he or she will enjoy the whole process and you all will have a more meaningful relationship.
So it’s all down to passion. If I could recommend one fundamental building block towards success as a web publisher, it would be this: you should be obsessed or in love with the topic you’re writing about. Everything else can and will be sorted out over time. You’ll learn new skills. You’ll make new friends and you’ll know exactly how to grow your site. Don’t worry.
If you’re thinking about setting up a new blog and am deciding between a ‘profitable’ or ‘popular’ topic and one that you really care about, pick the one that interests you the most. For what its worth, I have found that in the end, these websites make me a lot more money and give me more influence than the other sites, no matter how lucrative they seem.
In web publishing, passion almost always transforms into influence or profit in the long run.