Is monetizing content worth it?

There was at time when I didn’t care about social media or blog post views. It’s not for lack of interest or that I was arrogant. It had more to do with having fun that gaining follower counts.

I had a real life outside the online world. I still do but, it’s diminished to a large extent because of the pandemic. Turning to the online world was just something to keep me busy; still a form of entertainment.

And then I started to see what people could do with the Internet. People earned money and built complete businesses from the use of social media and blogging platforms. It seemed very interesting and lucrative but, until last year I still didn’t think it was for me.

I’ve become somewhat popular on social media and I have a semi-successful blog as well but, the thought of monetizing this didn’t occur to me until I saw the kind of content people were actually monetizing.

I realized that there were a great many people out there who made money online. Much of the content people were monetizing were weak. Don’t get me wrong. The work people put in is anything but weak. I think people work hard putting out content online. But, not all of it is very educational. Much of it is pure entertainment. Some of it is sensational. And a very small portion of it is actually educational.

When you look at the educational content, what you will notice is that the people actually putting out this content don’t have a lot of depth. Some do. I probably shouldn’t generalize. But, in the field of finance, there are few and far between.

I completely understand the reason. Finance is a demanding profession. Anyone who’s working full time, can never have enough time to put out content that is worthwhile unless it’s part of their job. So there are probably a lot of financial experts writing online but, few who have actually had a very successful career.

Covid changed a lot of that. Many of the people were laid off or just can’t go back to work. Some have much more time on their hands because they have more flexible working hours or are working from home. So there’s been a rise of people who are actually contributing a lot more now.

Having said that, there’s still a big leap to make from being a finance professional to becoming a writer. Some people are great at one or the other but, rarely both. So herein lies an opportunity. If you can break down concepts, in a fun and easy way to understand, you probably have some hope of getting somewhere.

I thought I’d try to take the opportunity to do just that. It’s not easy and there’s a lot of work involved. And sometimes it’s truly irksome when you see people posting content that make little or no sense, but they become popular because they seem sensational.

There are days when I feel that things are not going as planned, at all. It really makes me want to quit and give up. But, then I think about holding on a little while longer and trying to see if it’s going to be worth it. I want to believe that I can be one of those quality people who can make a difference.