Documenting the Thought Process

It is difficult to strike a balance between pursuing one’s personal interests and making money.

I often find myself sacrificing my original passions—such as documenting my daily life—in the pursuit of financial gain.

However, a mature and astute individual could simply run two separate blogs: one dedicated solely to generating income, and the other used merely as a casual journal. These two endeavors need not be mutually exclusive.

This morning, a thought occurred to me: as an ordinary person, how can I rapidly alter my destiny and transform my current way of life?

The most effective approach is to observe those around you—specifically, those who have managed to become wealthy or improve their circumstances quickly. How did they earn their “first pot of gold”? What is the nature of their business or career? Is it possible for you to study and replicate their specific path to success? The examples found in your immediate environment are the most authentic and tangible ones available to you. In contrast, much of what is found online is illusory; even the success stories of celebrities represent such a minuscule probability—perhaps one in ten thousand—that they are simply not a realistic blueprint for you to replicate.

When I look at those who have achieved overnight riches or accumulated substantial wealth, I rarely see individuals who followed the conventional path of diligent academic study followed by a standard corporate career. Such traditional paths are entirely predictable; you can see the “ceiling” from the very start and calculate your exact potential earnings. Furthermore, this path offers no room for unexpected windfalls, and it demands constant, uninterrupted effort—allowing for neither illness nor rest.

Instead, the success stories I observe typically stem from platforms like TikTok Live, YouTube videos, and text-and-image content on X (formerly Twitter), as well as from independent web developers or individuals who have spent years mastering blog SEO. Almost without exception, these success stories are rooted in the digital realm.

While it is true that many people in the physical world attempt to launch their own companies, they generally fall into one of two categories: either they come from wealthy families that can afford to bankroll multiple entrepreneurial attempts, or they are blissfully unaware of the pitfalls of starting a business—leading to immediate failure. The few who do manage to survive and thrive represent a tiny fraction—perhaps one in ten million—whose success is largely attributable to sheer luck and is, therefore, impossible to replicate.

In this modern era, the internet is the only arena that truly offers young people a genuine opportunity to get ahead. If you succeed, all the better; if you fail, the only cost is the time you invested—and the only capital required to get started is a single mobile phone.

Conceal Yourself

Everyone talks about how “information asymmetry” is a way to make money, but it also serves as a means of protection for you.

Take YouTube, for instance: I’ve seen countless examples on Reddit of small, successful channel creators who managed to earn a bit of income, only to have their channels suddenly—and inexplicably—reported by some random user.

YouTube typically ignores your appeals; once a report is filed, most channels end up getting banned. Even if you try to fight the decision, it’s often a waste of time, and you rarely recover your past losses.

The market is flooded with plugins and software tools capable of analyzing your channel’s traffic, data, and revenue. It is terrifyingly easy for others to calculate—with a fair degree of accuracy—exactly how much money your YouTube channel is generating. Because everything about your channel is transparent, you become vulnerable: others can report you, poach your content, or—worst of all—the algorithm might suddenly abandon you.

Websites, however, are a different story. The number of visitors you have, your user count, and your revenue figures remain—relatively speaking—a “black box.” (Note the emphasis on relatively.)

The average person has no idea how much traffic your website receives in a day. Even if there were a way for them to find out, unless they happen to be a direct competitor, few people would bother to go out of their way to check.

Nor will they know the extent of your earnings. Between Google Ads, affiliate commissions, paid memberships, and other revenue streams, users simply cannot see the underlying metrics—they don’t know how many times your affiliate links were clicked, how many product sales were closed, or the actual dollar amount of the commissions that landed in your account (including your specific commission rates—or even the fact that you earn commissions at all).

Until you start making serious money, you remain largely invisible—a “nobody.” Unless you cross paths with someone who holds a deep grudge against you, is incredibly bored, or is simply a malicious jerk looking to cause trouble, you are generally safe. You can earn enough to cover your living expenses—or perhaps even pocket a tidy little profit—without attracting unwanted attention.

Compound Growth

Everyone sings the praises of “compound interest,” but the high-yield opportunities—like those found in predatory lending schemes or exclusive financial markets—are rarely accessible to the average person like you.

What you can do is step away from the rigid, hourly-wage or fixed-salary structures of traditional factories and corporations. Experiment with every online money-making method you can find, and focus on activities where the marginal cost of production approaches zero.

For instance, creating short-form videos: filming your cat every day, showcasing the meals you cook, or delivering spoken-word commentary. The information and insights you share are essentially free to produce and flow naturally from your daily life.

Or consider blogging and website development: your ideas, your creativity, and your personal hobbies and interests are the raw materials. These endeavors require nothing more than an investment of your time—plus the negligible cost of electricity and an internet connection.

I won’t get into the business of “selling online courses” here; for now, let’s keep the focus on pursuing your own genuine hobbies and interests. If you manage to make a little money along the way, that’s fantastic; but even if you don’t earn a dime, you haven’t really lost anything.

Success

I would argue that success relies not solely on hard work, but also on luck; not merely on persistence, but also on direction.

This requires constant testing, analysis, reflection, optimization, and repetition.

How to Proceed

Enough with the platitudes—how do we actually get things done today?

As of now, video production presents some difficulties for me. Currently, I simply shoot casual short-form videos on the fly; however, they generate little traffic or revenue, and—more importantly—it’s not something I truly enjoy.

I actually prefer blogging. Typing is more convenient for me, and it places no specific demands on my physical environment.

First: Select a blogging framework and set it up. (I chose Astro, which I have already created and configured.)

Second: Publish it to the internet. This requires owning your own domain name. (I have already purchased a domain, deployed the site to Cloudflare Pages, and linked the domain.)

Third: Connect the site to webmaster tools such as Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. (This has already been completed.)

Fourth: Curate content that genuinely interests me. (I refuse to write solely for the sake of generating traffic; I am currently in the process of reflecting on and organizing the core content for this blog.)

My current focus lies in exploring the full potential of this blog—specifically, using it as a platform for testing and experimentation.

For instance, I plan to document topics related to the blog’s infrastructure: Cloudflare Pages, domain management, Astro, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Bing Webmaster Tools (including IndexNow and sitemaps), Umami Analytics, uptime monitoring, Markdown, HTML, and so on.

I also intend to explore various monetization strategies for the blog: Google AdSense, sponsorships and tips, affiliate commissions, paid VIP memberships, paid e-books, and other potential avenues.

I’m not particularly fond of SEO; I don’t want to be dictated to by search engines, though I will still make an effort to understand the basics to a reasonable extent.

Just today, an article that Google had previously indexed suddenly disappeared from the search results (it no longer appears when using the site: operator). I have no idea why this happened, but regardless, I’m making a note of it here for the record.