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.
What a great article, now is it a bad thing that most of those points made me laugh!! So so true, maybe once a blog does take off we need to take 5 minutes to remember that days we were trying zoo hard to get all of the above! Nice work, best thing I’ve read all day!
Getting my first micro job to post for FREE on GigWebsite.net. This was a very exciting day. After reading your post it made me realize to live life appreciating everything as if it were as exciting as the first. Thank You.
I love it! This is totally me, #6 cracks me up. I think I’ve had 79 cents for 3 months. :)
I’m still waiting for my first comment from someone other than my Mom, sister, or girlfriends.
lol@#3
I definitely hear you on the Adsense win — I sometimes find myself getting crazy excited about 23 extra cents, until I remind myself that just because 23 cents is more than 2 cents doesn’t mean it’s a lot. Ah, well — the journey continues!
I received the first comment in the second day by someone who said was working at Google. This happened just three days ago, so I think I am in the right path.
ps: Stumbleupon can be really useful, although I still (after four days) get less than 5 hits per day thanks to it.
I couldn’t help but to laugh most of the post, thx :-)
Very relate able post, lol. Especially the Adsense points. When I made my first dollar from Adsense I was shocked because I thought it was a joke! That was after 5 months of blogging. Love it…
LOL! Very entertaining read and SOOO relatable! We have to learn to laugh or we would be crying! :)
I am totally LOL-ing reading this article. For me? I remember my first email subscriber… Phew… Heaven opened!
Funny! My favourite thing was the first time I made more than one cent from adsense – even if it was only 16c. In fact, it still is my favourite thing to check my adsense at the moment and now get excited if it’s more than 16c…
Great article! :) Amazing to read such posts.
That’s so true. I can remember being so very excited about people commenting. I still am but not the same excitement!
The 1000 hits in one day spike from Stumbleupon was pretty exciting too!
Getting my very first comment on my very first blog, (way back in like 2003-2004,) is what I remember. Also my first RSS subscribers.
Rick – your sense of humour in the article is a breath of fresh air! It’s the first uplifting, humorous article I’ve read in a Long time…and in sitting at this computer it’s nice to laugh a bit! I’ve been working from home for nearly ten years now. I can distinctly remember getting my first adsense click, my first affiliate sale, my first sales lead….even to this day getting leads into my inbox excites me like a kid on Christmas morning! I’m not at the Australian beach margarita sipping stage, but my life ain’t so bad either ;)
When someone subscribes, that’s what really excites me.
To think that someone finds my content good enough to stay updated with it. I have a whole 29 subscribers now!