Have you ever been disconnected from your blog for more than one month?
How does it feel to be away for so long, to the extent that you don’t even visit your blog at all? I don’t really know about you but the truth is that I can’t even imagine myself staying for one whole week without hitting the publish button on my blog. I mean, it’s near impossible (except I’m on holidays).
Now, I understand this may sound kind of wired to you but my friend Theodore spent the last two years without looking at his blog, isn’t that preposterous? I know you are thinking this is crazy, but you need to hear what happened first before turning your eyes.
In this blog post, I will tell you about my very good friend Theodore Nwangene whom I’m sure you might have known before now if you’ve been blogging for like 3 years. He has his blog at Blogging Coach (dot) com. I will tell you why he almost walked away from blogging if not for my prayers. It’s not funny, I really prayed 😉
NB: This is part of my Thursday series where I feature exciting bloggers
The Story of My Friend (Theodore Nwangene)
Theodore was one of the first bloggers I connected with in 2012 and ever since then, we’ve remain good friends even though we haven’t met in real life (That’s the beauty of blogging).
He is an African, Nigeria precisely and the last time I visited Nigeria, I tried to see him in person but he was very far from the state I visited so as a result of that, we couldn’t see before I travelled back.
Theodore was a very passionate blogger when I first met him which was one of the reasons we became friends in the first place. He publishes new blog posts on his blog twice every week without missing it at all but all of a sudden, he stopped updating his blog. Days turned to weeks and then to months without even a single post on his blog. All my efforts to reach him initially were in vain which got me worried.
At first, I said to myself maybe he has decided to quit blogging like most of the other guys I know but on the other hand; I was praying and hoping that he’s fine and healthy.
Until one day, he sent me a message that he wants to sell his blog in order to solve his pressing financial needs and that was when I concluded that he was actually tired of blogging. I tried all I could to convince him not to sell the blog but instead, source for money from any other means but he made me to understand that there was no other way he could raise the money he needed. Of cause I would have loved to help him with the money in any way but I wasn’t in a very good shape at the time.
He finally listed the blog for sale at flippa as you can see from the screenshot above, but as it turned out, the site was unable to sale which I assume was because of a very good reason, maybe God actually answered my prayers because I do know that he can make a lot from that blog if he gets serious with it.
Why He Really Wanted to Sell His Blog
There is something I want you to understand about this story. I knew that it wasn’t really just because of the money Theodore needed that made him to want to sell his blog.
I was able to ask him few questions after he was unable to sell the blog and from our conversation, I found out that the main reason why he decided to sell the blog was because the blog wasn’t making him much money at that time.
The little money he was making from TBC did not equate all the time and efforts he puts into it so as a result, he lost his motivation and decided to take the exit route (Which is the same route most people usually take).
You see, I know that you have a passion for teaching people what you know via your blog, you really want to change the world in your own little way through your writing but the brutal truth is that you still need money to carry out such quest successfully. The moment you’re doing it all alone and the money isn’t coming, unless you have a very strong will…..you’ll definitely get fade up and then quit.
I’m sure you’ve also been in such situation before. But the most important thing is the decisions we make during such moments. Its either you find something to motivate you and keep moving or you quit. It all depends on you.
But one of the best ways I’ve found to keep yourself motivated each time it seems rough is to know your “WHY”. Knowing the single reason why you started this business in the first place and always having it in mind, will always carry you through those tough times.
It could be that you started blogging so you could support your family financially, make some money doing it so you can quit your day job. Or maybe you just want to educate people about something that you are really passionate about, and you want them to sit up and pay attention. The reasons could be endless but the main thing is to know yours and always stick it at the back of your mind.
You just need to have a good reason to always move forward no matter what challenges you encounter. Robert Schuler said it very well in his book, “Tough Times Never Last, But Tough People Do”. Don’t just allow those small huddles to weigh you down and prevent you from achieving your goal of building a popular and successful blog, remember those tough times are also part of the process of achieving greatness.
Welcome Back to Blogging Theodore
Now, the good news is that Theodore is finally back to his blog and I was so excited when I saw his latest post the other day. It was like a dream come trueJ.
He did not only start blogging again but, he’s doing it in a very different way now and I urge you to always visit his blog because, he has lots of plans coming.
One thing that I’m proud of is that while he was away, he wasn’t idle. He invested in some coaching programs from some of the already established bloggers on the internet (Jon Morrow, Alex Jeffrey, Chris Lee, etc.) And he promised to reveal everything he learnt from these courses on his blog and that sounds great
He’s also writing a guest post for you which will be published soon so, stay around for it.
Connect with Theodore:
Please drop him a comment to say welcome back