What motivates me?

What motivates me?

Money for starters. I do this for a living so I need to make money.

But if you look at Fat Stacks, for example, it’s not all about money.

I run Fat Stacks poorly.

I don’t really optimize my content for search. I don’t write behemoth blog posts targeting lucrative keywords. I don’t do outreach or link building.

I just write emails and publish them as blog posts.

I email daily; at least for now.

While emailing daily is good for business, I’m not sure the time put in warrants it. My time would probably be better spent elsewhere financially speaking.

But I enjoy writing emails, so I do it.

When I need a breather from the more mundane, I write an email or finish one of many drafts.

While I’m motivated by money, I’m also motivated to put out good info.

It’s the same with my niche sites.

I talk a lot about getting traffic which is a round-about way of talking about making more money.

And that’s definitely important but I also strive to publish good sites.

Not one site I own is perfect.

But a few are quite good.

For instance, my biggest niche site (not Fat Stacks) gets searched in Google by site name thousands of times per month for many different topics. That means people want to come back. Not only is that great for business, but it’s a darn nice vanity metric as well.

I also hired a writer to solely write and publish interesting articles. They don’t target keywords. They are meant to be interesting (and they are). It’s an effort to elevate the site with some thoughtful and funny commentary. I highly doubt those articles’ revenue covers the cost.

A few other sites I own have some promise to be quite good.

I like the fact that I own some good sites.

I appreciate that many Fat Stacks readers have told me some of my tips have helped them and that my courses are good.

But Jon, let’s be realistic… it really is about the money, right?

When push comes to shove, to a certain point, it is about the money.

When you’re struggling to get some lift-off with good money rolling the door, it’s hard to think of little else other than the money.

It is a business after all.

But at some point, there is more to publishing than just money.

I want to publish good info that helps people.

I know I can’t please all the people all the time.

But if I can help some people some of the time, that’s a big benefit of this line of work.

Think about the profound impact you can have on someone’s life by publishing content.

Content entertains, informs, persuades, humors, educates, and inspires.

I believe we don’t acknowledge this as much as we should.

At the same time, I don’t want to inflate the importance of what we do. We aren’t neurosurgeons.

I know for a fact that Fat Stacks has helped some folks increase their traffic and revenue. That’s a big impact.

I know my niche sites have informed and inspired people. They’ve emailed and called me to tell me.

I’ve even received handwritten letters from niche site visitors thanking me for such and such article. I’m not kidding.

Is it about the money?

Yes, of course, but not entirely.

I’d rather make $100,000 per year doing what I do than make $300,000 per year working for someone else.

I have a desire to publish good content that helps, inspires, informs, or entertains.

If some of my content does that for some people, it’s a job well done.

In a nutshell, when it comes to running my business I’m motivated by achievement, creativity, competency, autonomy (a big one for me), success, and money.

Outside of business, I value family, community, and friendships. Those values shape what I do outside of work.

At this point, you’re probably thinking “gag me with a spoon” Jon. Could you be more aggrandizing?

Haha, not really.

I’m not really all that rosy. There are many values that don’t matter to me.

Values that don’t resonate with me are curiosity, adventure, determination, fame, knowledge, popularity, responsibility, service, or wisdom.

Now I come across as a shallow guy.

I’m neither saint nor shallow. Just a regular guy who knows what he likes.

A big motivator for me

Looking back, autonomy has been a key driver for me. I like being able to do my own thing. This line of work offers that.

I recognized early on this business offered autonomy and so I got into it. In other words, I got into it to make enough money to live on so I could do my own thing.

The stories I find fascinating are bloggers who started a blog with no thought of money. They just blogged about their interest. Traffic grew but they had no clue a high traffic blog could make so much money. One day they learn that such sites can be lucrative.

It must be like winning the lottery to realize overnight that your “fun blog” can earn so much money.

Those are fun stories.

My story is definitely not that.

See, I told you I’m no saint but then you knew that already.