Garry, I wouldn’t scrap the ebook just yet. You can still write it and sell it, those that really want to know will purchase it and let you know what they think. Those that don’t buy it either don’t have the money or just aren’t really into it. I say keep up a bit of faith, I love your helping articles, sorry I don’t post as often as I use to do but I’ll be starting soon. Who knows maybe it’s just because for the past two months everyone’s been on vacation and had sugar high brains.

Garry its all relative my man its all relative.
I wish I could say I had 300 readers reading my blog, I had 6 visitors yesterday. My poker blog at its peak was only getting 40 visitors a day, but I didn’t care I still kept writing.
I continue to write on http://www.carydarling.com and this morning have put together outlines for 4 more posts / articles not just in hoping that someone will come by and eventually read, but I also write these things to force myself into learning whatever topic is I’m tackling.
I was the moderator for a poker discussion group here in Las Vegas, we met each Wednesday at Binion Casino, we have over 120 members worldwide.
One of the things I tried to instill in the group is that the best way to learn something is to teach it. So every week, I tried to get someone to teach the rest of the group something they knew about poker.
My point? Don’t give up, this research you do is just as valuable to yourself as it is to others.
Also, I don’t really see the reason for 2-3 posts a day. You might be approaching burnout.
Slow it down a bit, and take a breath. What’s the sense in making all this money if you can’t enjoy it a bit

Garry, in my humble opinion you are looking at this the wrong way. I subscribe to your feed because I value your content. I am giving you my most valuable commodity - my time - when I read your posts. some I read, some I don’t. I didn’t read the WalMart one for example because it did not interest me. Most box store affiliate programs blow.

Your blog may not be making you dollars, but it is making a reputation for you that will make your future efforts easier to accomplish.

With that said, your e-book is here on your blog already. 101 New Ways to Make Money Online. Of course, you need to elaborate on the details so there is new content, but if so many people take your stuff and head for the hills, why not ask them to leave $49.95 behind for you?

Now, if you total up the time you spend on your e-book, it will probably be a losing venture as well - if measured in dollars.

But through selling the e-book you are building relationships and building your list. Once you have a list of people who trust and like your products, reselling to that list in e future is MUCH more profitable than selling to them the first time.

Again, in my opinion, your posting frequency is too high. I did read your post a while back about not worrying so much about when you post as compared to what you post. Even so, every morning when I check my email, there are 6 new feeds from your blog to read. I may read 2 of them if the titles look good. I don’t even see the comments unless I click through for some reason.

Content is king because it takes time and effort and it can not be automated. You have a ton of content, and if you don’t want to leverage it you need to find a JV partner who wants to make money online and have that person package your stuff for you.

My advice, slow your post frequency to save time and find a JV partner who has the time to sort through your blog and find all of the HUGE jems. They can flesh them out, add specific tips and strategies, and then make an ebook for you.

You asked for opinions, that’s just mine.

Garry, I have to agree with some of the things that Thor points out: you’re posting way too frequently for people to take in. I would surmise that you’re also headed for burnout at that pace as well and we don’t want that to happen.

Bear in mind that you’ve had two major changes occur recently:

1) your blog’s theme, which of all the changes you’ve made to your blog this year has been the most significant to date.

2) your blog’s content (regarding all the non-money making tips). Granted, you’ve recently changed your strategy on this one, so that will help soon.

I’d like to talk to you more about it, but I haven’t seen you on G-chat in almost two weeks.

(Oh and maybe you already have plans for this, but assuming you’ve done away with the monthly subscriptions for the MBL avatars to show at the top of your pages, maybe there’s a way you cancel all those on your end?)

Pretty much agree with everything Thor said. I stay subscribed to your feed because you have good content. It’s probably not a method of making money online that I’ll attempt anytime soon, but it’s awesome to hear about it working for you and how you make it happen.

Gary,

Like above - the ‘big three’ posts that you just spent all that time on are hitting us right after Christmas… I am in an office where there are usually 11 people and we are down to 3 … and our vendors are closed, so what I am saying is that no one is working and everyone is home enjoying the vacation time. If I were home, I would be spending time with family, not responding to this post

Pros: I do like your posts, even though I won’t use them all. I like the Walmart RSS feed idea - I don’t like the loans post - the pickydomains post inspired me to search for a new domain, that I probably will sit on and not create…like I tend to do.

Cons: Too frequent posting, like was also mentioned above… those posts could have been spread over a week, almost two! You would be able to spread that 6+ hours, have posts until mid-next-week and put the other time towards filling your other sites, you may be more happy (with where you spend your time)

Final Note: I also rarely hit the website - as I use a reader. Sometimes my comments “Hey Gary, that is a neat idea!” - really doesn’t add much to your community. So, I don’t post short cheesy comments (and that is on any blog)…

Oh yeah… I don’t buy E-Books and I barely skim the E-Books that I see for free…. but that is just me.

Good Luck!
Tom

Ok hon, now it’s my turn. Should you quit this blog? No!!!! Honey, just because people don’t leave comments all the time doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate what you’re doing.

Garry, you’re a teacher. Think back to when you were in school. I’m sure many of your teachers felt like giving up because their students didn’t get everything they were trying to explain, but they hung in there. You provide a valuable service, whether you believe that or not. I’ve learned a lot of things about this business from you that I could never have figured out on my own.

The fact that your traffic numbers are going up on a regular basis should tell you that you’re doing something right. Several of your posts talk about the importance of traffic and this blog is living proof that what you’ve been telling us really works. Don’t give up on that.

Reading through all the previous comments on this post alone should tell you that the information you provide is making a difference for many of us out here. We really do appreciate all your hard work, even if we don’t always tell you so.

Hi Garry,

I’ll try to be as much frank as i can.

Overworking
In my opinion you’re a vulcano, you work so many hours and sleep so few hours, you found the right route to make money online and the wheel for you got spinning very fast, which added even more enthusiasm to you and leads to the fact that you work even more hours.
I’ve the impression that you’re burning out. Seriuosly. I may not be very good in explaining my thoughts in english, or you may be still angry with me for my past error, but i found your reaction to my comment last day exagerated, you even challenged my in a blogging contest !
I wasn’t trying to fight or challenge you (I know for sure there wouldn’t be competition) I was only confused and I wasn’t getting the whole picture of what you want to do with GCDC. I think that such a reaction doesn’t stimulate other readers to leave a comment.
Another detail confirms my opinion, in that comment you wrote that you we’re up straight 36 hours…
I too noted that you were any more on Gtalk in the last 3-4 weeks.
I know that for the “Best Deals” blogs Christmas is one of this “golden days” and that this is how you get the food on your table, but i think you should slow down a little bit.

Your pace
You’re definitevly over a regular blogger, your pace in blogging and starting new online projects is stellar, but remember that your readers are normal humans: some may read you for your writing style, some may want to earn only some extra bucks from their blogs and some may want to make a living from blogging, but I srtongly believe that the category which seriously are trying to live from blogging is a minority. So, Garry, you have to keep in mind that a person who doesn’t blog as a full time job isn’t able to stay ahead with reading at the pace of your posts (and then of corse even not to implement all that suggestions that you provide). If at the end you add also that if your reader isn’t already a professional blogger and that he have also to learn a lot of things about blogging by the way, well… I hope you got the picture.

Comments
Blogging at such a high pace will for sure do good for your ranking in the search engines, but IMHO will also “scare” a lot of your readers.
Unfortunely I’ve no answer to this question, but you should ask first yourself and only secondly your readers WHY they’re not leaving comments (and not if you should quit this blog, as long as the traffic you get is already a clear feedback that people LIKE WHAT YOU ARE DOING !).
Another point to think about is: if I think on the persons which have left a comment since I read your blog regularly, I would say that they were more or less about only a dozen, these which do it regularly about a half dozen (me included). I also noticed that in the Mybloglog bar there are often the same faces, so the questions that naturally pop up in my mind are:
- how many people are regular readers ? These which are not regular readers tend to leave less comments
- What about your writing style ? Do you write in a way that incentives comments and interaction ? I personally haven’t put particular attention on it, and also being a regular commenter doesn’t help me to answer you this question.
- (this point is the toughest for me to explain in english, i’ll try my best) Which is the way you stand in your comunity and how you interact whith it ? I’ve noticed that you have on GCDC and also on the BloggersMessageBoard a very strong connection, understanding, feeling and interaction with some people, it happens also that this are all your partners. There isn’t nothing bad about that, but you have to know that in the eyes of a newby this is a strong established group, it might scare somebody to join such a group which seems “private”. I’m not saying that some of your friends has refused somebody, but immagine to be on a party and you, Cristine, Eliza, Brannon and David are laughing in a corner, chatting and making insider jokes about Dynopages. A shy newcomer might not have the courage to approach this group.
Last but not least, don’t forget that not everybody is a commenter, don’t forget that not everybody is kind and says “Thank you” when he gets a good suggestion.

Closing
At the end I want to say that I’ll be sad if you’ll decide to close GCDC. Actually it’s the only blog that i read regularly and daily. I’m learning a lot (hey I mean REALLY a lot !) from you.
My final suggestion is to not take a fast decision. The best thing you could do is to take 10 days off. Seriously. Prepare 10 posts (not more) that get published one a day for the next 10 days (or even don’t write them at all). Your feed readers wan’t unsubscribe in the meantime (most of them are anyway in vacation, like you should), the traffic from Google will come anyway im the meantime and Big G will not cancel you from their databases. You’ll lose nothing !
But you’ll gain very valuable things:
- rest (you really need it now)
- calm to think about the above suggestions in a relaxed way,
- clarity
- certainty to make the right decision.

I hope you follow my suggestion and I’ll be happy to read your blog (so I can comment on it LOL) in the next year !

ciao
alexander

Gary,

As someone who reads your blog using Google Reader on my Blackberry, I’m one of the readers guilty of not leaving comments. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy your blog. It is, in fact, one of my favorite blogs.

Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) recently said that he would be shutting down his blog. Why? Because too many people were reading off RSS and not coming to the blog and, since he wasn’t making any money, and in fact was annoying potential Dilbert readers with his opinions (his words, not mine–I love his opinions), he figured, why bother.

But, his blog continued but with one major difference: I’ve noticed that in my Google Reader, all his posts are only about a few sentences long and to read the rest, I have to click through to his site.

Can you do the same? Once people are on your site, they are far more likely to leave comments.

Also, as Thor mentioned above, you can cut down on frequency of posts and still be successful. In fact, even more successful.

And, write that e-book. I’d pay for it. Your blog is your brand. One that is growing stronger over time. Who knows what it’ll lead to? Books, consulting, etc.

Thanks for all the great content you’ve produced. Looking forward to more in the future.

Kamal

I love reading your articles Garry. I have only found 4 bloggers who actually teach how to make money online. You were the first that I found. I really appreciate your articles even if I don’t always leave comments.

Hey Fred,
I know only Garry who REALLY teaches ALL he knows and does to make money online. Pass me the blogs of the other 3 guys, I’m curious about what they do.

ciao
alex

I enjoy your articles even thoough I don’t ccomment everytime I read them. I even have some of them starred for later reference in my google reader

Keep up the gtreat work and don’t lose faith.

G-Man

Maybe your stuff is SO good that people read it, then run off to try your techniques as soon as possible?

I subscribe to your feed and read most of your posts, but i’m not a big commenter.. I enjoy your posts, and I think you write some good stuff.. The only suggestion i would make would be to make less posts per day.. sometimes i can’t read them all..

Keep up the good work.

Hi Garry,

Sounds like you are getting a little burnt out. Back in early 2006 when you were doing Blog the Internet, you were just out there having fun. I know your situation is different than 95% of your readers. You do this full time. In reading the comments above, most of us read your site from our real jobs.

It sounds like your other blogs are doing well monetarily. Maybe go back to what worked on this site before when you just posted when you were inspired and didn’t focus on the monetization and stuff.

A couple of other things:

1) Your posts have kind of switched to “teaching mode”, which isn’t really the same as “discussion mode.” Instead of asking readers opinions on stuff, you are explaining stuff to them, which doesn’t really incite any comments.

2) I think you are placing to much value on comments. Blogging is all about conversations, so I can understand enjoying comments to your posts, but it shouldn’t determine the value of the post. What I feel are some of my best posts don’t actually get many comments, while a 30 second post will sometimes get 20+ comments.

3) There are two reasons I don’t comment often here. The first reason is because I have a system where I leave comments on my “Top Commentators”. I don’t know if it is a good method, but it is the method I use and it has worked well. That way the people that take the time to comment on my site get the same in return. The other reason is because it is very rare that you respond to my comments. I’ve even asked questions a few times and threw them in my Co.mments account to track and they never got a response. You shouldn’t feel obligated to respond to every comment, but it does encourage returning comments.

With all of that said, I do still read your site almost every day via my feed reader and soak up the content that way. Now that I’m running close to 15 blogs, I don’t really have time to comment very often, but I’ll see what I can do going forward.

I don’t have time to comment on your blog. I’m too busy trying to figure out whether I should scrap mine.

When I read this in my reader, I had lots to say - but it’s all been said in the comments above. I definitely agree with the posting frequency things - maybe slow down on this blog and spend the extra time on your other enterprises.

Anyway, don’t give it up - because your site is the real deal…

Gary, I would simply like to say thank for all the great content you’ve provided. I skim quite a few different blogs in google reader daily (more than 25). Of them all I would say your frequency of posting is about in the middle. I actually read all of your posts and I like the frequency. If you really want to be overwhelmed try Lifehacker or BoingBoing. I read only 1 of about every 30 or 40 posts on those sites. However that being said there are other blogs that only post once a day or once every other day and I enjoy them just as much. Point being that it’s not the frequency it’s the content that keeps us coming back. So do what’s best for you, if you need more sleep get it, nobody is going to bail on you as long as the quality is high.
Out of all the blogs I keep up with I can honestly say this is only the 3rd time I’ve ever commented on any blog. The only reason I’m doing so is to just add one more voice to the many who dont want to see you quit blogging because we enjoy what your doing, each in our own way. I’m just not a commenter and that’s the way it is. That doesn’t mean I would never buy an ebook from you however, if you ever offered one. You just never know where your customers are going to come from or where your blog will take you. There are just so many ways to make money on line that I just like to keep my finger on the pulse of the many different directions possible. Right now I mainly sell physical products, however I’m sure I’ll be exploring other paths in the near future and when it comes to affiliate marketing your is one of the first names that comes to mind to look to. See what your blog has done for you. You just dont know how many people are out there in the shadows that know your name and face due to your great content and would be happy to spend some bucks with you when your offering what they need and the time is right for them. Blogging is really relationship marketing and sometimes you just have to be the one to put the work into a relationship until the time is finally right for the other person too. Like others have mentioned the fact that your number of visitors continues to grow shows that there are alot of people who at least have enough interest in you and your message to stick around and keep listening and that’s all any blogger can really ask for.

Garry,

First of all, I have to say that I really appreciate all the help that you’ve given your readers over the past months and particularly for myself, I can honestly say that reading and chatting with you has totally changed my view of 1) blogging and 2) making money - I’d previously dismissed the possibility out of hand and have always pursued real-life business opportunities as the only means of generating income, but you’ve really inspired me personally!

Most of my spare time is now spent researching and blogging in one way or another with the aim of making money online - I’m not as far along as I’d have like to have been at this point - I really missed out on the Christmas opportunity, but I’ve had other issues going on in my life that got in the way, however I’m certainly pushing ahead and trying to utilise much of what you’re teaching to use through your blog.

I’ve always enjoyed reading your blog and hope to be able to continue to do so in the future, I would make the following observations:

1. I’m glad you’ve got “your cake and eating it” in terms of separation here on GCDC, I’m sure that will help your readership who are here for making money online articles.

2. I would say that one of your greatest strengths may also be somewhat of a weakness on GCDC - I’m referring to posting frequency. I only wish that I could create such substantial blog posts so quickly and consistently, however perhaps if you spread them out and posted just one per day, I’m sure your readers would be less likely to skim read then and then that may provoke more comments?

3. On the subject of the e-book, I’m not sure why you don’t want to continue with that, but I’d be happy to buy it as it stands now - I know the quality and validity of your work! I definitely think you should continue if at all possible, just so that you get some reward back for the time you put into GCDC, even if to finish you use your existing posts - I for one was pleased to hear you were writing one since it was going to be a way that I could re-pay your efforts.

4. This is my #1 favourite feed, even though I check feeds in Google Reader, for this one, I always come to your site to read it, hope this has been of some use Garry!

Hi Garry,

From what I’ve seen, around 3% of a site’s total number of visitors will leave a comment. That doesn’t mean the remaining quiet 97% do not appreciate your work.

I’ve been returning to your blog (I don’t use RSS feed readers that much nowadays) to see if you’ve launched your ebook. Can’t wait to read it!

(I wonder how your Feedburner stats compare with your daily unique site visitor stats.)

All the best,
Manuel

Garry,

I understand where you are coming from, but comments from readers don’t determine your value with your blog. So many people are too busy to comment, but still read your blog. I have worked somewhat hard on my new blog to see my RSS stay the same or get lower. I don’t think my niche (golf) is very savvy to blogging or subscribing to RSS, however I am still posting, even though I have many days with NO comments. I think all of us bloggers who have a clue question if we should continue or not, and we will continue to do that ongoingly. You have very aggressively told people to stay focused and work on what makes them money. Maybe that might be what you need to do I feel ya bro!

I feel that a good tip to increase the number of comments is to show your face on a regular basis.

i know you have your picture at the top. If you look at Mark from 45n5 or John Chow or Shawn Collins you se their faces all the time. In videos an pictures included in the blogpost. You can also use a more conversational tone to get more into a dialog with your readers. Make you more available.

I read your blog through 45n5/moneylinks all the time. I think it is great and i enjoy what i learn here.

Hi Garry and hi to your readers,

I have just arrived at GarryConn.com for the first time, teleporting in via Google Reader, whence I had joined your RSS feed tonight, via someone else’s referencing you in their RSS feed.

I am just starting out on a journey of attempting to grow towards a full-time income from part-time blogging. First person I met who’s doing this successfully is Yaro Starak. His example inspired me to start BlogAndGrow.com.

Since then, I am finding more and more people who are, like Yaro, the real deal in terms of sharing and teaching truly valuable knowledge. At first glance, it appears you are cut from the same noble cloth.

I would most strongly encourage you to continue! From what I can tell, an RSS readership in the 400s is really great and shows you are definitely making a difference for hundreds of people.

It’s my opinion that generally only 1 in 20 people who will do anything definite about their desires to succeed with something; so consider that you have at least 20 people on your feed who are actively putting your teachings into practice.

I imagine they will be sharing with their friends how they learned about whatever information of yours they are acting upon. That will naturally attract more people.

From what I can tell, you are already developing a solid reputation in what I like to call the “Blogging for Fun and Profit” niche, so please Mr Conn, don’t stop!

PS: Those commenters who caution against over-frequent posting and potential burn-out are offering sound advice. It’s advice I should heed as well, earn my livelihood first and teach second.

happy regards to all,

Bradley C Hughes