From Hobby to Hustle: Navigating Blog Challenges

When Writing Feels Like Work

 Some days, writing feels like therapy. Other days, it feels like unpaid overtime. There are days when I sit down to write and have absolutely no idea what to say. I like writing. I really do. But sometimes it feels like a chore, especially when it’s for the blog. It starts to feel like an assignment with a deadline. And sometimes, it actually is. I’ll set a goal to publish by a certain day, and I’ll push through to make it happen.

I launched the Art Abides blog about a month ago. I dove headfirst into the world of personal blogging and content creation. So far, it’s been going pretty well. I’m proud of how the site looks. It’s clean and professional looking. Like it belongs. If I’m being honest, the blog was a two birds with one stone kind of idea. On one hand, I enjoy writing. It felt like something fun and meaningful to do. On the other hand, it’s a potential side hustle. Another attempt to turn one of my passions into income and maybe finally learn some side hustle lessons along the way.

False Starts, Real Lessons

I’ve had side hustles before. None of them worked out. If they had, I wouldn’t still be driving a truck for a living. To be fair, there haven’t been that many. Years ago, I started a food truck and called it Alpha Dogs. A regrettable name for a food truck. Maybe it would’ve worked if I’d stuck to hot dogs, but I didn’t. The idea was to sell Chicago, Coney Island and Mexican Sonora style dogs. Like my blog, in which I can’t pin down one specific niche. I couldn’t pin down one dish to cook and sell. There were more than enough trucks selling tacos already and I didn’t want to jump into that pool. But you have to know your market and on the southside of my town the market wants tacos. Can’t blame them. Who doesn’t love tacos? I kept my menu as-is, but ended up selling tacos off-menu just to make a buck.

“Do you sell tacos?”

“No, but I can make you some,” I’d say.

Then came real estate—house flipping. I’m still not sure what went wrong there. It was a ton of work for very little return. When the numbers don’t add up, you start cutting corners. You start to buy less expensive materials. You hire inferior contractors. You start doing more of the labor yourself. At that point, you stop owning a business and just own another job. It stops being fun. I had a “friend” in the business who could’ve helped with advice and expertise. She didn’t. Maybe she wanted to see me fail. Maybe it was just bad timing. Californians were moving to Texas in droves, driving up housing prices. Their deep pockets and fresh equity from their California home sales made it hard to compete. Even when i found a good deal. Ten other investors would come crawling out of the ground like money starved zombies. And more often than not, they outbid me. By the time the sale closed, it wasn’t even a good deal anymore.

Why This Feels Different

There’s been other small ventures. Nothing as major as the food truck or real estate. But this blog feels different. For one thing, I enjoy it. I want it to grow. I want it to matter. Initially I didn’t get into it for money but yes, some money would be nice. Maybe not now but eventually. I know I can get better at the writing part. I’m not terrible, but there’s room for improvement. There is always room for improvement. What I don’t know is blog marketing. I don’t know how to grow a personal blog beyond my personal circle and actually reach readers. Some advice says to stay consistent and keep putting out quality blog content. They say that it’ll grow organically. That feels a little naive to me. Other sources say that strategy fails without SEO, promotion, and networking. I don’t know what works yet.

The Sting of Silence

When we launched Art Abides, my wife, Maria, and I invited everyone on our friends lists. We asked them to follow the page and subscribe to the blog. Between us, we had about 200 friends. About 50 followed the Facebook page. Only 14 subscribed to the blog. That stung. I don’t even think all of our family members subscribed. Actually, I know they didn’t. And yeah, that hurt. But it didn’t surprise me. It makes me wonder, though. If my own friends and family won’t support me when it costs absolutely nothing, why would strangers?

Still Here

Still, I want this blog to be bigger than 200 subscribers, you know? That number is a drop in the bucket compared to where I want this to go. I imagine someone across the country stumbling on a post and feeling seen. I want to build a community around stories that matter. I imagine writing something that sticks.

So, I’ll keep writing and publishing. The blog’s still new, and there’s plenty I still have to figure out. Like how to get people to actually find it without having to start bribing them with tacos. But I’m learning. I’m trying to stay consistent. Hopefully this doesn’t go the way of the food truck or the house flips. Not just another side hustle that fades out. At the very least, I’ll have a clean looking blog and a few solid posts to show for it. 😊

If you’ve ever felt this way, drop a comment or share your own story. I’d love to hear some of your side hustles stories. The ones that hit and the ones that didn’t quite hit the mark.