Stop Feeling Bad About Low Views On Your Articles
Writing is an art form that takes time to master, don’t feel bad if you don’t achieve immediate success
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Many of us writers often fall into the trap of thinking about how much time we spend blogging, writing, and freelancing. This kind of thinking inevitably ends up with us arriving at a $X amount per hour, and sometimes, that number can be discouraging.
Is it worth my time when I’m making below minimum wage with this?
Why did I spend all that time blogging this week when I could’ve made more money on that other project?
I fall into this same rabbit hole line of thinking myself sometimes, but there’s an easy way to climb out of it.
Things take time
When any of us start a new hobby to make money (or not), we can get easily frustrated after diving into it headfirst. That’s because the results don’t often come right away.
We as humans are trained to chase that dopamine rush that comes from a quick win. When we don’t get it, we sometimes give up.
But developing a new hobby, such as writing, takes time to excel at.
I challenge you to name a single artist that became famous with their first painting.
A single comedian that became famous on his first standup appearance.
A single sculptor that was hired to carve a museum statue with no portfolio.
These people don’t exist, because all of these art forms take years to become proficient in.
Looking at your writing in a different way
Whenever I look at that dopamine pumping stats page on Medium and don’t see the results I’m hoping for, I start falling back into that rabbit hole of self-doubt.
It’s a passing feeling though.
That’s because I force myself to think about each article and story that I write not as a one-and-done thing, but rather as a long term asset.
If you wrote a piece that only received a couple of views instead of the hundreds you were hoping for, don’t feel bad about yourself.
Why?
Because you learned something.
You learned about a new subject, a new thought, a new practice. You added something to the repertoire of your knowledge, even if it was only a tiny bit.
You also gave your craft more practice time.
If we follow that old mantra of ‘practice makes perfect’ then you took another step along that path to perfection! Feel proud of yourself for trudging along and look forward to the next step.
Imagine yourself one year from now, with 1,000 additional hours of writing under your belt. Do you think that you won’t be a better writer in that scenario? Of course, you’d improve by then!
That’s then the perfect time to revisit that piece that only had a few views. Unlist it, review it, rework it, and add the experience that you’ve gained to it.
Practice, improve, write more.
If you do these things consistently for a year, I guarantee the next time you post that piece you won’t only have 3 views.
