Some days, I genuinely believe ChannlerG is going to work.
Other days?
I’m just laying bricks.
That’s kind of where I’m at right now.
I’ve been doing this long enough that I thought I’d have a little more to show for all the work I’ve put into it. Not that I necessarily deserve some massive audience or a website making thousands of dollars every month.
I don’t.
But when you’ve spent this much time writing, streaming, making videos, learning SEO, creating graphics, fixing old posts, researching products, and trying to figure out what Google wants from you…
You hope to see something.
And right now, some days, it’s hard to see it.
So I Keep Laying Bricks
My process has gotten almost stupidly routine at this point.
- I finish a blog
- Publish it
- Make the featured image in Canva
- Put that image into the article
- Make another version for Facebook
- Post it with the link
- Go into Google Search Console
- Request indexing
Then?
I start working on the next one.
I don’t really celebrate publishing anymore.
I don’t sit there admiring what I wrote.
It’s just…
- Done
- Next
I guess that’s what grinding looks like sometimes.
And lately I’ve been trying to change the way I think about it.
“Every blog post is a brick.”
One article isn’t going to build ChannlerG.
Ten didn’t.
Apparently 100 weren’t going to do it either.
But that doesn’t mean those posts were wasted.
“You can’t stare at one brick and wonder why you don’t have a house yet.”
That’s why I started Building This Community One Stream at a Time.
Not Every Brick Has to Be a Hit
I’ve written plenty of articles that haven’t gained traction.
Some barely get seen at all.
I don’t regret writing them.
What I want to understand is WHY.
- Why did one article start getting impressions while another didn’t?
- Why did Google crawl one almost immediately while another sat there?
- Why does one topic seem to connect while another goes nowhere?
That’s information.
Even a post that fails can tell me something about what I should build next.
That’s a big difference in how I’m approaching ChannlerG now.
I’m not just throwing random articles onto a website anymore.
I’m building sections.
- Webcams lead to more webcam articles
- Microphones lead to USB vs. XLR, which leads to an actual review of the microphone I bought.
- IEMs lead to reviews after I finally start using them myself.
- Desks lead to standing desks, L-shaped desks, and everything else that goes into building a setup.
One brick connects to another.
For the first time, I can truly see some of the walls forming.
That Doesn’t Mean I Never Check the Numbers
Oh, I check.
I don’t believe in “just create and never look at the numbers.”
How am I supposed to know what’s working if I don’t look?
If something is wrong with the website,
I want to know.
If Google isn’t indexing something,
I want to know.
If one type of article suddenly starts getting impressions,
I definitely want to know.
The goal isn’t to blindly trust the process forever.
It’s to:
- Do the work
- Watch what happens
- Learn from it
- Adjust
That’s something I’ve had to learn throughout this entire process.
I talked about a lot of the same frustration in Why I Keep Showing Up (Even When Growth Seems Slow).
I’m still showing up.
I’m just trying to get smarter about what I’m building while I do it.
The Website Will Probably Never Feel Finished
That’s another thing I’ve realized.
I don’t think there’s going to be a day where I open ChannlerG and think:
“Yep. Done.”
- There’s always another article
- Another cluster
- Another old post that could be better
- Another affiliate opportunity
- Another way to monetize
Right now, figuring out AdSense and creating better affiliate partnerships feels like the next battle.
After that?
There will be another one.
And another.
That’s probably just what building something looks like.
When I wrote One Year of ChannlerG: What I Got Wrong & Why I’m Still Here, I was already starting to realize that this wasn’t going to happen on the timeline I originally imagined.
I’m understanding that even more now.
Believing Is Actually the Exhausting Part
Writing the articles isn’t what gets me.
I can do that.
Making the graphics isn’t what gets me.
I can do that too.
It’s continuing to believe that all of this will eventually turn into something when I don’t have much evidence yet.
That’s the tiring part.
- I’m doing the work
- I’m trusting the process
- I just have days where I have a really hard time believing in it
And maybe I don’t need to.
Maybe that’s the whole point of the brick idea.
I don’t have to wake up every morning convinced this website is going to become some massive success.
I just have to lay today’s brick.
Then tomorrow I’ll lay another one.
Because I’m Not Actually Building a Blog
The end goal isn’t to have the world’s largest collection of gaming articles.
I want ChannlerG to make money.
There. I said it.
- I want it to help support my family.
- I want the freedom to create more.
- I want to be able to travel and keep working.
- I want to make money doing something I genuinely love.
That’s what I’m building.
The blogs are just the bricks.
Some might eventually rank on Google.
Some might make an affiliate sale.
Some might strengthen another article.
Some might introduce someone to ChannlerG for the first time.
And some might sit there with six impressions and make me wonder what the hell I did wrong.
They still become:
- Part of the site.
- Part of the experiment.
- Part of figuring this thing out.
That’s why even on the days on The Days I Don’t Feel Like Creating, I keep coming back.
I’ll Know Eventually
Maybe this works.
Maybe it doesn’t work exactly the way I imagine it will.
I’m not naive enough anymore to believe that working hard automatically guarantees the outcome I want.
But I do know one thing.
If ChannlerG eventually becomes what I’m trying to build, I think I’ll look back at these days and be extremely grateful and proud that I stuck with it.
- The days when hardly anyone was reading.
- The days when the affiliate dashboard wasn’t moving.
- The days when I questioned whether I was wasting my time.
- The days when I published anyway.
Because eventually you stop looking at the individual bricks.
You look up.
And there’s a house standing in front of you.
So today?
I’ll lay another one.