The post Lyle Dennis made about his GM Volt blog was met with a lot of positive comments. However, one comment stood out that I want to touch a bit more on because it’s come up quite often. The comment was made by Nate K and goes as follow.
Not bad, the fact that it takes hard work may be under-emphasized though lol
Now, I can’t answer for Lyle but I can honestly tell you that I do not consider what I do to be hard work. Yet, I hear this time and time again that blogging for money is hard work, that I work like hell to get to where I am today, etc. My personal feeling is many people use the hard work angle as an excuse to not build their blogs.
It’s Not Work If You’re Passionate About Your Topic
Lyle’s passion for the Chevy Volt has translated into 273 posts about a car that is still at least three years from production. Is that hard work? To me, it would be. However, I’m not as passionate about the Volt as Lyle is. For Lyle, finding information about the battery powered Chevy isn’t work, it’s relaxation!
For me, John Chow dot Com isn’t work for. The TechZone isn’t work. TTZ Media isn’t work. This is what I do for fun. The fact that the fun makes a lot of money is just a bonus. When your topic is your passion, then it isn’t work. It’s only hard work when you’re doing it for other reasons, like just blogging about a topic because it could make you money.
I think way too many bloggers are choosing their niche based on how much it can make and not on what they are passionate about. There is absolutely no way Lyle could have racked off 273 posts on the Volt if he wasn’t truly passionate about it.
Passion is very transparent. People can see it and you can’t fake it. Readers are attracted to passionate bloggers because they’re blogging about the topic for love and not money. While passion is transparent, a lack of passion is equally transparent. If the only reason you’re blogging is because of money, then yes, blogging is very hard work.
How do you know when you pick the topic you’re passionate about? The answer simple. You would blog about it whether it makes you $27,240.83 a month or zero.