It's been 5 years since I started blogging. Here's what I've learned.

From Online Marketer to Meditation and Spirituality Teacher

It's been 5 years since I first joined the community here at Wealthy Affiliate, and even longer since I've been working in online marketing. So, I thought I'd take a moment to share my perspective. I'm not a millionaire, but I've spent 5 years working part time and traveling the world...so that's success in my book! I've had the freedom to work on things that matter to me!

If I have one lesson to share it is this: You get what you give.

The quote in the image above is by Deepak Chopra, and I think it's spot on, whether you're talking about spirituality or business. When you focus your time on providing valuable content, with integrity, that time will repay itself a thousand fold. When you focus on writing for the sake of getting rankings or trying to earn money, one way or another, it comes back to bite you.

In the time since I've been working in online marketing, I've run dozens of different websites across a ton of different niches, both for myself and consulting for others. Every time I tried to do something because I thought it would be an "easy play" or a "good angle" at how to earn a little extra cash, something bad happened.

About 2 1/2 years ago, my #1 site had a major crash. A competitor comlained to The Big G that I had copyrighted content (which I didn't), and virtually overnight, I lost 90% of my traffic.

In the short term, I pieced my income back together the best I could, but in the long run the result ended up being extremely positive. I ended up shifting my focus away from affiliate work to focusing on developing my own teachings and trainings on spirituality and meditation. Now, I LOVE getting up to work on my (still nascent) business, and am indescribably joyful, every day.

Now, in many ways, I'm starting over (well...almost). A few months ago I decided to give up all of my affiliate sites to consolidate my focus on writing about How To Be More Spiritual in the Modern World. I share information about meditation, mindfulness, spirituality, and empowerment on what is now one of my only domains: thejoywithin.org.

Wherever you are in your journey, I encourage you to keep at it, and, more importantly, to build a business that does exactly what YOU want, not what you think you should do or could be an easy way to get started. Act with integrity, and everything else will line up automatically.

Wishing you an exciting and passionate 2019!