Are We All Going Insane?

Let me get off my hamster wheel for a minute so I can type this.

I have to wonder if we’re all a little insane. How so? Doing the same thing over and over, day in, day out… that is the definition of insanity – expecting a different outcome from routine efforts.

The stuff I’ve thrown at my wall resulted in a huge mess on the floor. Nothing sticks, so what do you do? You go find another guru. AKA “shiny object” syndrome.

Been There, Done That…

Do the gurus know it all? They achieved their massive following by giving sage advice. They sold courses and books. Made viral videos. We try to replicate their success, but think about it: that’s “past tense.” It’s been done. What worked a few years ago doesn’t work (as well) today.

You Need “F You” Money to Wing It

I’ve been winging it for decades now. My wings should’ve been clipped years ago. The money I’ve spent on courses, books, etc. has left a damaging dent in my checkbook. Those with “F You” money can afford to wing it. It’s called “testing” and they have fun with it.

The “fun” in doing all this just isn’t there anymore.

But I keep hunting for that nugget in the courses and social posts. You know, the ten-ounce gold nugget that will transform my life, and magically make traffic appear. I keep chipping away at the hardpack and sluicing for all it’s worth.

Speaking of traffic… you know it’s the lifeblood of any website, right? Since last October, 90% of organic traffic to blogs has been decimated. In What’s Up With Google Nowadays? I shared my thoughts on the “HCU” update. I’ve been trying to come up with a derogatory acronym for HCU. Talk about wasting time!

Anyway, Google’s Helpful Content Update penalized sites that extensively use A.I. “Rightly so,” I chortled to myself. But then backtracked when I admitted that I had used A.I. too. So, more hamster-wheeling is taking place. You see, I can see the A.I. in my posts from a mile away. If what I’m reading on my blog page doesn’t sound like me at all – I have to get rid of it or rewrite it in my own words. Or, as my other website host says, “Just Add You.”

I’m now busy updating content that I know has too much A.I. in it – instead of writing new content (with the exception of this new content on SupaBees website). Updating and removing A.I. in past posts is such a “time suck.” A.I. was supposed to help us, not hinder us. But I fell prey to its enormous allure, and now I’m paying for it – traffic- and time-wise.

Ad Revenue Down – All Around

Last night I realized that not only are advertisers and bloggers who have AdSense on their sites being negatively affected, dollar-wise, but so is Google! They’ve also (surely!) seen a massive drop in ad revenue tied to their own (unhelpful) HCU algorithm.

I think I’m a little naive where advertising/AdSense comes into play. I’ve been instructed to write about what you know about, to create a page that is useful to readers, with a CTA. OK, so far, so good. But then we’re tempted to add AdSense ads resulting in people leaving the page before they’ve even read it, which Google then dings us for having a high bounce rate.

If you’re a blogger reading this, then I know I’m preaching to the choir. I know things evolve; nothing ever stays the same (thankfully – or we’d all be bored to death). But I’m running out of stamina. My hamster legs and arms are getting tired. My eyesight is getting worse. But kudos to me! Why? Because I keep on trying. Time to change tack – again.

My latest shiny object, er, course purchase is Couch to 5K by Sammie Ellard-King. Nice guy. Teaches British families and kids the power of saving money, you know, the stuff they don’t teach you in school. Sammie’s course is about Instagram. I purchased it because I don’t know a thing about IG (meaning, I don’t know how best to use it). I have a half-assed account with a handful of followers.

Viral Videos – That’s One Virus I’d Like To Catch

Sammie extensively researched what works, and what doesn’t video-wise on IG. But that’s the trouble with me and courses. I get too far in the weeds learning Step 4 of 14 and that’s it. The course learning comes to a screeching halt – and along comes another shiny object: Flipboard.

Flipboard: The Best Kept Secret?

I’d never heard of Flipboard. It was brought to my attention by the folks at the Alt G Conference. According to Michael Dinich – who is having great success with Flipboard – I asked Michael inside the Flipboard Slack group if joining Flipboard today is like getting in on the ground floor. He replied:

"It's been around for about 12 years so I don't think it's the ground floor, but I do think it's like a best-guarded secret." 

An accidental secret or not, the idea of Flipboard is to flip blog post URLs. Not hard to do. And you need to gain followers (groan, where have I heard that before!) OK, so you gain followers.

But my gripe is this: If all you do is flip and follow – nothing will happen to those flipped blog’s URLs. Meaning? We all need to go and visit that page before we flip it. Read the post, read it! Don’t give the poor blogger a high bounce rate! Then go flip the Magazine posts that are in line with your Magazine(s).

Too Big to Fail?

Do you think Google is too big to fail? I think they think so. But if they did fail – who will fill their shoes? Bing? Yahoo? Duck Duck Go et all. Maybe. I don’t have a crystal ball. And if I did have one, I’d be tempted to learn how and when I would die, and that would take all the “joy” out of living life today.

You never know what’s around the next corner; what “thing” will work for you blog-wise. It’s a case of not giving up. It’s not my time to curl up and die, though some days I surely feel like doing that.

I do wonder what keeps me going. Am I just a stubborn so-and-so? Probably. But I refuse to give up. That’s why this SupaBees site was created; so I could rant and rave here; and get stuff off my chest. And in doing so, maybe I’ll see some bright light off in the distance, beckoning me to success.

I’ll let you know when I find it!