This guest post is by Rick of www.morebettersmarts.com.
I know we all want to be like Darren, sipping Margaritas on the beaches of Australia and occasionally opening his laptop to see how much money his guest bloggers made for him today, while beautiful women clean his glasses with $100 bills.
But do the big guys truly remember the thrills we newbies are currently experiencing as we grow our sites from poor, to inferior, and someday, God willing, mediocre?
Some milestones, in no particular order, that top my list are below. How about the rest of you?
1. The first ‘Like,’ first ‘+1,’ first ‘Share,’ etc.
And suddenly we’re channeling Sally Fields with tears streaming down our face shouting, “You like me, you really like me!”
2. Breaking the 2M Alexa rank
As God is my witness, Alexa will someday acknowledge my site exists.
3. Seeing the bounce rate drop from 100% to 80%
Cool, someone actually stayed long enough to read a second article?!?
4. The day the blog finally paid for itself
Sweet, the wife says I can keep blogging for another six months.
5. Looking at all of those green areas light up around the world on Google Analytics
I didn’t even know Tuvalu existed, and they’re reading my article on their telecommute! Wait … who telecommutes in a nine-square-mile country?
6. The day we made more than one stinking cent from Adsense
Woo-hoo, someone clicked an ad!!! Wow, 41 cents … early retirement is now in sight.
7. Learning how to put an ad above the header
It only took an entire weekend and most of my sanity, nobody’s clicking on it, but man it looks great!
8. The first comment from a stranger
Of course then I smothered him with thank you notes, a link to my email updates, and an invite to guest post. Funny, I never heard from him again…
9. Seeing the first major spike from Stumbleupon
Sure, now I know it’s not that big a deal, but wow that was exciting going from three to 300 hits … then back down to five.
10. Problogger accepted my article
I have truly arrived … a press release is in the works.
Where are you getting your thrills?
Of course, the tongue was firmly in cheek when talking about ProBlogger. I give Darren’s site credit for at least half the stuff listed above, as well as helping me maintain my perspective.
Keep enjoying yourself, and add your own milestones below!
Rick is the owner/author of ‘More Better Smarts,’ supplying practical wisdom to help improve your life at work, home, and play. Visit Rick at www.morebettersmarts.com.
Hehe, you’ve hit most of mine already, another which I will hopefully see relatively soon in the future is my first check from Google/Amazon when I finally hit their payment thresholds.
Agree, because in life we sometimes can not do better than yesterday and all eyes are on google world, and it’s sometimes sad
This is brilliant, it does remind you of where we started and how we have matured as bloggers, I remember the first time someone clicked my affiliate link, didn’t buy I might add but i nearly jumped out the window with excitement.
This excitement is definitely what keeps us going :)
Thanks
Joe
This is insanely serious and interesting! I like this: I know we all want to be like Darren, sipping Margaritas on the beaches of Australia and occasionally opening his laptop to see how much money his guest bloggers made for him today, while beautiful women clean his glasses with $100 bills.
Lovely article!
Sheyi
I can relate to all of these points. Disturbingly funny!
“Disturbingly funny” was exactly what I was going for, thanks!
Hi Rick
You totally hit it man. I thought I’m the only one who notice the thrill. Nice to know that I’m not alone. Thanks a lot for the article.
This was a great article. I really related to the Stumbleupon thing. The first month I started my blog, one of my posts got over 6,000 hits in one day. I was obsessively checking my stats and seeing them jump by the hundreds was pretty exciting. So far that has been a one time thing but that post is still floating through the site and I still get traffic on it all these months later from Stumble. Right now I am kind of doing my blog just for fun and I really do not know what I plan on doing with it. I am working on learning how to get more traffic and what not and who knows what will end up happening! I am currently living an internet lifestyle to some degree but would like to be earning more from it. Just need to be patient and keep learning.
Or the first time you received the notification email from Paypal, someone has bought your product or service or blog ads… Those were the days…
I’ve received several of that but I still can’t get over the thrill of that notification from Paypal.
Sheyi’s comment was as funny as this post! A great article to read on a Sunday afternoon. I’m going to print this off and put it in the front of my blog folder so I can check things off as I go – I’m proud to say I can definitely check off the lower than 2 million Alexa ranking, at least on one site, so I’ll adjust that ;)
I have to say I’m still ridiculously proud of the fact that when I log into my Facebook page there’s one person talking about me. Of course, that might well have been me talking about me but seeing as they don’t make that part clickable I happily delude myself that someone likes me, they really like me!
My first (and only) StumbleUpon was only six hits. It was still exciting!
It takes so little in the beginning, doesn’t it?
I have yet to hit #4 (blog paying for itself). I’ve come the conclusion that some of us have to work harder and it’s going to take us longer because of the niche we refuse to give up and what our blogging voice is. We’re stuck with what we have to work with and we have to persevere.
Great post! Way too funny. I would like to be Darren as well.
So that is what Darren is doing… I always pictured him with his family and in front of his laptop, but Rick: Your point of view seems totally legit.
And about the thrills, I am still awaiting for some of them to happen!
Thanks for the article (And for the nice laugh I had).
omg, I can relate to all of these except for getting a blog post approved on this blog. My grammar isn’t that perfect yet to submit one. lol
I still remember my first comment i got on my blog. I was kissing his behind so much and never heard from him again. Might of been a bot but wow, someone actually submitted a comment. I do allow guest blog posts on my blog and for the longest time, no one wanted to submit one because i wasn’t a famous guru like Darren for example. A friend of mine wrote a blog post and i was on cloud nine thinking i was going to make it big time.
Umm, i’m still not big time yet but i love blogging and will never give up. The Stumble traffic spikes make me want to go to the bar and buy a round of beer for everyone. Of course submit another blog post and the hits are like 10.
*pinch’s self again*
Great blog post, you read my mind when you wrote this. lol
I like the part: Sweet, the wife says I can keep blogging for another six months. Sometimes I have a little problem with my wife about being occupied with my blogging :). I must say comments make me thrill.
I keep telling her that $1.62 each day will really add up over time…
Brilliant and funny! Each new ‘first’ has been awesome and I am smiling right along with this post.
Wait, you can clean glasses with money? I need to make more momey, asap! :)
I know where you’re coming from Rock!
I’ve been there, and I’m far from being where Darren is, so I keep making new goals to reach so I can keep getting those thrills.
So true!! I almost cried the first time I got a comment that wasn’t spam.
Yeah, damn spam always making you think that you actually have one legit comment.
I almost hated loading up the Akismet plugin, as spam comments were the only comments I had…
So funny, and so true! 41 cents from ad sense? Oh heck yeah.
Thanks to the spike from this article, I’ve nearly tripled that!
This is so incredibly true! I just wrote a post very similar about over checking your stats, I called this issue OSCD (obsessive stat checking disorder) and how to avoid it! I still go through this with every new site I make!
HILARIOUS! Loved this list. I would add – the first subscriber, and then breaking 100…500 (counting to 1000 now!). The first unexpected trackback/link. The first sleepless night dealing with an unexpected WordPress gitch :-).
Or the first time you accidentally messed up my ‘custom_functions.php’ file and my entire site disappeared! I was desperately scrambling until I managed to login the server and edit the file at the source!
Nowadays, anytime I edit the php files, I’m also logged into Bluehost (my server) just in case.
Not really a success, but it really felt good when I had it up and running again.
Yes! And finally reaching the payment threshold for Adsense and Amazon Associates. It’s so exciting to see that first deposit hit your bank account.
Rick, you forgot to mention how Darren surfs on sea turtles, tickle fights with dolphins and out swims the sharks – for fun! The guy’s superhuman!
You’re totally dead on though. You have to treat every small victory as the biggest one of your career. Because as a young blogger, they’re all big.
I also find that many bloggers don’t get to see very many mini victories because they don’t promote themselves enough.
They think their content isn’t good enough. But your content isn’t as important as building relationships. Like selling vacuum cleaners door to door, you’ll never get a sale if you don’t get in front of people.
For example, I didn’t know what a blog was a year ago. My blog is only 3 months old and I only have 11 blog posts published. My first three blog posts where a ghost town in terms of Facebook Shares, Likes and Twitter Tweets. When I finally decided to start putting my self in front of people by promoting on Facebook and Twitter – everything blew up!
My fourth post got 50 Shares, 7 Tweets, and 11 Likes. My latest post currently has 118 Shares, 11 Tweets, and 52 Likes. And the one a couple before that got 113 Shares, 43 Tweets, and 34 Likes.
Not bad for a rookie, eh?
So yeah, enjoy and celebrate every victory, but also make sure you’re MAKING those little victories happen by unabashedly promoting yourself.
Thanks for the laughs, Rick.
Thank you for helping to keep it real for us average bloggers. Every comment is an Oscar moment for me!
A very entertaining post and congrats for nabbing a guest blogging gig at ProBlogger.
This is really funny, how about finally getting paid for all the hard work and dedication.
i didn’t really have these thrills, so here’s 10 other thrills to experience as a newbie blogger: http://gusset.net/blog/2012/03/10-thrills-we-newbies-experience-that-the-top-earners-have-forgotten/
Love it! My blog is about six months old now, but it absolutely is a thrill as it heads another new milestone. It’s what keeps me motivated!
Thanks for the great post, Rick. Good luck with your blog — I’m sure this post is going to help you tons!
Thanks Jon!
Great post! I can totally relate to most of your points, and I’m working toward the others.
I recently returned to my blog after an extended illness – I went over a year without posting (I know, I know…) and was reminded of one of the things that always made me smile: Google Reader pushes out my new thoughts and meanderings (and once in a while good ideas too) to a global audience in less than 15 seconds after I click the Publish button.
It’s easy sometimes to become complacent and overlook the potential power that we bloggers have.
Thanks for the smiles Rick.
I did the whole “print screen” thing the first time I made .01 (yeah, one cent) from Adsense . . . and it was TEN WEEKS after I’d installed Adsense.
Printed it and taped it to the monitor — it’s still there, sort of like stores have their “first dollar” framed.
Outstanding! Love it.
How about the first time someone buys from your amazon link, even though it wasn’t the product you linked to.
Or the first time another website included you in their blog roll. I used to post to my Facebook page every time someone new linked to my site. Haha
Maybe one day I can laugh at this, but right now it seems to be the sad truth. I believe in what I am doing, but it sure can be lonely and sometimes I feel like a blind man in a labyrinth..
I also find myself saying, dang! That is a great post. Too bad no one will see it. Well, it ain’t called StumbleUpon for nothing. My day will come.
This is so fantastic and so very true. I love it when I figure out how to fix or improve my blog. Just yesterday, I finally figured out how to build and submit a sitemap – it wasn’t hard at all!
I still need to do that, how about sending me some info on how you made it work?
Refreshing to know I’m not alone.For hose of us just starting, or trying to fumble our way through, it’s nice to hear a light-hearted reflection that we can really relate to.
This is hilarious. I’m just eight months in the blogging world so I can completely relate. I love it when I’m reminded that what I’m going through as a newbie isn’t unusual.
Congrats on your post. Hope you get a lot of traffic to keep you up at night looking at stats.
This post takes me a few years back ; those days when I was a beginner cherishing every change I successfully made to my blogspot blog like adding Adsense, three column footer etc etc. Nice article, for bring up those good old memories
Waking up in the morning to an email saying you’ve sold your first affiliate product — and it just happened to be Problogger’s 31 Days blogging eBook.
The day i got my first follower is the best moment!
OMG, this made me LOL in real life.
My colleague is still grinning and his secretary is looking at as scared to death :D
Excellent article.
Nice post. its really too funny.thanks!
I got some blogger who doing the same thing as me being my followers, however there is only of them likes to my Facebook’s page. In the end, I want to figure out how I can find a way to make more friends with others.
I’m looking forward too…
My first Google deposit – I came very close last month. Maybe this month is it!
Getting an affiliate product sale
Someone Pintersting a post – my blog site is very visual.
Getting 50 people on my mailing list. OK, I have 19 now + 67 Facebook likes.
This month, this month…
Thank you for this wonderful article, Rick!
It’s great to hear the fact that we avarage bloggers sometimes forget – even the most popular blogs have first started small. I am still a beginner and I wish to reach almost all those goals that you mentioned above. Heck, it’s a party time when someone comments on my article!
One other thrill that comes to my mind from the very beginning is when you have just posted your very first article and you notice that someone has found it and read it. Sure, it’s probably your mom, but still… Someone has read my article!
Congratulations for guest blogging at ProBlogger!
lol. I certainly remember my first post that got more than 5 facebook likes. It was nice.
I am very pleased every time I get a new subscriber, comment, or” like” on wordpress, but for me the cool first blogger thrills have come as I see my writing and photography expand–I get a bit braver (I’m writing about menopause/midlife), I take a funkier photo, I publish one of my poems and it gets tweeted on Vibrant Nation, or people send me notes that say, “I love your blog. You’re writing about a topic that really calls to me.”
Thanks for this blog and the support you are giving all of us!
I liked the part about it taking all weekend to get the ad up. WordPress is great and it does amazing things but sometimes, all the apps and add-ons just make it harder to find things and get things done. I can certainly think of a much simpler blogger world where posts and a couple of side ads exist!
I can relate with these, especially the first earnings part.
Haha. Best. Article. Ever. I love it. :) Except the Adsense. They’re dirty thieves. Boo. :(
How very true! I’m still in the newbie stage and all that you’ve stated are very fresh in my mind. The firsts of everything. =)
The first time I started a blog and hit the publish button, I figured ” Hey! there’s around 7 Billion People out there so I had better glue myself to my chair, eyes fixed like a hawk on my PC Monitor for all those comments that will need to be replied to”
A week later(Still glued to my chair—-unable to blink my eyes) feeling like Tom Hanks in “Cast Away” my PC Monitor, has now taken on the role of “Wilson” .
All jokes aside, I think many if not most new Bloggers would have had these experiences in one shape or form. I do remember some of these “events” that you have listed. I am sure everyone has a number of personal Blogging stories that are like a roller coaster ride of highs and lows.
This quick quirky article just re-inspired me! I’ve been hitting a bit of a lull since adsense decided to cancel my account and permaban me, but I just finally started up again with chitika and am still working on my making my banner ad sexy haha! Great write up!