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.
