Can't figure out what to focus on
I'm all over the place and need some guidance/grounding. I released a book in November and was pretty focused for a few months on marketing it. Unfortunately I was sort of learning on the job so the marketing efforts didn't give as much ROI as I would have liked. So I am trying to invest more time in it but I also don't really know what else to do.
Which brings me to my second point. I've been trying to make my blog more focused on the same type of content as my book to help drive more traffic but I am playing catch up because I didn't write any new posts for a couple of months. I also have to update my keywords on a whole bunch of posts, and do other maintenance stuff I am behind on.
Then there's also a whole bunch of other random stuff like: making a game in Pico-8 that I wrote an awesome story for but game jam team abandoned, submitting another game I made to some directories so it doesn't fade into oblivion, growing/engaging my Twitter following, etc.
Am I just crazy? I know some of the problem is impatience, like if I don't see something bearing fruit I am scared to fully commit and pick up other things so that I can believe at least one of them will bear fruit.
It just feels like making content is something I can actually do and control while marketing feels like I'm just guessing and spinning my wheels. But I fear that I'm not doing any of these things with enough focus and its just all going to fall apart on me.
Focusing is difficult but crucial. I struggle with it constantly. It's hard to say no to things. It feels like you're doing something wrong when you're saying no to good ideas and letting them wither and die, but that's what you have to do if you want to give the great ideas time to bloom.
I like that you identified that making content is something you can do. But don't count yourself out: you can do marketing, too! In fact, marketing and making content are identical so long as you're making the right content in the right places.
A good place to start is with whatever has the quickest, shortest feedback loop. What's the smallest thing you can do over and over again? Those feedback loops allow you to learn and improve quickly, and also give you those occasional dopamine hits.
For example, you mentioned Twitter. I'm not sure there's a better place to rapidly iterate through the write-publish-learn-repeat loop, while marketing simultaneously. You even get built-in score tracking via follower counts, likes, retweets, and Twitter analytics.
Plus it's one of the most efficient places to get work done. You don't have to build or maintain anything on Twitter. No SEO or keywords to manage, no blogging software to tweak, no templates to mess around with, nothing. Just tweet. 100% writing and marketing, 0% overhead.
And when I look at your particular audience, Twitter only seems even more attractive:
Being a successful online educator/author usually requires building an audience. The best way to build an audience is to simply be helpful (for free) on the Internet, then tell people where to go to subscribe. Twitter is perfect for that. Look at Wes Bos, Steve Schoger, Adam Wathan, Ali Spittel, etc. Massive followings built from nothing in short time frames, because they're helping and inspiring people.
Another example is Ben Halpern. Before he created DEV, he spent years running @ThePracticalDev on Twitter and growing it to hundreds of thousands of followers. (It's not as good anymore, as he's shifted his focus. But if possible, it's worth going back to see how he used to use the account. We talked about it a bit in our podcast episode.)
Of course it's easier said than done. It'll require practice to find your voice and experiment with different methods of engaging people, and most of your tweets will be duds. You still have to stick with it, just like anything else, and that requires focus. But I'd recommend it as a great place for you to focus in particular.
As for the other stuff, the games, etc., those might be the ideal things to cut loose. It's been said you should run toward things, not away from them. It sounds like you may be considering the game stuff just because you already put in the work, and you're running away from having to live with the sunk costs. I'd say just forget about it. Let bygones be bygones. Only come back to them when you're ready to focus 100%.
Finally, blogging is tough. I know a lot of great writers with blogs that never went anywhere despite years of consistency. I don't know many people who put that much effort into Twitter without being rewarded. In part, this is because Twitter makes it easy to capture an audience (via the "follow" mechanism) and thus grow over time, whereas people tend to read blog posts as a one-off activity and then never come back.
There are ways to mitigate this, ofc. For example, by having a mailing list. In my opinion, a good mailing list is far superior to a good blog. Just like a Twitter account, it can grow over time, and the marketing is built in. Most blogs should just be a means to an end to a mailing list. But I digress, I could write an entire book about that.
I'd suggest keeping your blog, but prioritize Twitter. You'll put out content much faster on Twitter and it also doubles as marketing, since that's where the people are. It's a perfect testing ground to see which ideas resonate with people, and that can inform what you spend time blogging about.
Wow, thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed feedback! Totally agree with you about the mailing list, that is something on my ToDo list to offer a freebie so people will sign up more. Haven't had much luck with people signing up just by reading my posts. Maybe my "sign up" form is not convincing enough haha.
Your line of reasoning about Twitter makes a lot of sense. I was treating it as sort of a passive thing so far but maybe I need to refocus my efforts more on Twitter and less on agonizing over other ways to build an audience. There is def a lot more content I could tweet, especially in terms of advice. Thanks again!!!
Can't imagine writing better tactical advice than @csallen's comment, so will instead offer thoughts on the "mental struggle" side.
You've taught yourself to become a SWE in a world that glorifies degrees, written a book that helps normal people feel confident taking on that journey, dabble with pico8 stuff, participate in game jams, write to a blog - I know it's silly to state these things, but you're already a great role model to anyone who wants to get in on the tech wave.
When I became depressed with marketing that felt like a black box and micro-optimization, I decided those efforts weren't a good fit for my work style. Instead I started a meetup group ($10/mo; passed fifty members in a few weeks by itself) which let me throw user testing sessions with people who opted into my weird ideas. I'm not suggesting you start a group, but instead consider that there are different ways which (1) offer more control and (2) might better fit your work style to alleviate the mental pressure.
You've taken control of the world when you wrote your book. What advice would you give a friend wanting to take control and get ten strangers around MD to pay for their book?
Hey @vdizzle thanks for your comments! I hadn't thought about the meetup group possibility, that sounds promising! I really appreciate the vote of confidence, I do tend to lack in the self esteem arena so it's always nice to hear. I think the marketing aspect is the most frustrating when you start to see gains but then suddenly everything drops and you get no sales for weeks. That's kinda where I'm at right now, but I need to remind myself not all hope is lost.
Don't be so hard on yourself and pick what you want to do and love: do you like blogging? Do that. Do you like creating a game? Do that. The first reason to whatever you choose should be because you are passionate about it.
Crossing the chasm
Are there intermidate metrics you can set to look at? So you can feel progress..
Yeah I could try to aim for a certain number of sales every month/week/etc. Right now to be reasonable it should probably be nothing higher than 1 sale per week (consistently). Even though there was a period where I was having a sale every 3 days or so.