I want to become a blogger but I don’t have a PC. What would be your reaction if you hear a reason like this? Obviously you would just ...
I want to become a blogger but I don’t have a PC. What would be your reaction if you hear a reason like this?
Obviously you would just stare at that person who said this. It just happened to me and that young boy got me out of my imaginary world where everything is not much bad. He was from a small town of Punjab province of Pakistan where having PC is still a luxury. I am not talking about the old days of 90s. It happened to me this year.
I am talking here about whole Pakistan and not about a few big cities. We very enthusiastically read a post about top bloggers of Pakistan. They are from a few big cities of Pakistan. What about rest of this beautiful country.
That’s why on social media many bloggers badly want to shift to a big city to become a successful blogger. Wherever they may be they can’t become successful if these reasons are not addressed.
I admit most of these reasons are out of control of bloggers. But we can at least stand together to create as much smooth field for blogging industry as possible.
Right now let’s have a look on these typically local reasons why most of Pakistani bloggers fail or quit at the early stage of their struggle.
1. Power breakdown
Summer season extends up to October starting from March here. So in eight months we experience frequent power breakdowns of 4 to 8 hours daily both scheduled and unscheduled. Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to end in near future.
Every one can’t afford to buy a generator or high quality backup system to get uninterrupted power supply. So it’s a big challenge for a blogger to perform equally well in summer season as his competitors in rest of the world do. So his lagging behind is obvious.
2. Internet still a luxury
Internet is not a utility in Pakistan like electricity and gas. A speedy internet connection costs nearly 20 to 30 dollars per month. It’s an amount sufficient to serve four days food needs of a family of four. So can a person afford to pay 8th part of his food needs to get a speedy internet connection?
Low quality internet is cheap but a blogger has to work 18 hours instead of 12 just to keep pace with his competitors who have fast internet. So it becomes a reason of failure because a newbie blogger achieves less in more time.
3. High quality IT products are costly
Our local IT products market is largely of used products. Those having hardware knowledge can work with such products easily. But those who are not much techie can’t manage them properly.
To buy a new product they have to pay higher price. For example a new laptop’s price is minimum $350. It’s an average income of a lower class family. How a student of small town can buy a new laptop to work fast and become a successful blogger.
4. No PayPal
What you would feel if you can earn but can’t receive your earning. This is the problem of bloggers of all those countries where PayPal is not open.
You are right that by following a few tricks one can get a PayPal account but what is the use of a facility you don’t know how long it will be with you. Partially confirmed PayPal account is a risky venture and hats off to those who still have such facility.
So after knowing they can’t receive their earnings most of the bloggers lose their heart and instead of playing any over-smart trick prefer to quit.
5. No family support
Can a family of sane members would be happy to know that their son or daughter has 50 per cent chances of success if he/she works for one year round the clock as a blogger.
They would obviously advise you to learn web development instead and start earning $45 for each contract of designing a five-page website.
6. No local demand
How many Americans make a purchase decision after reading a blog post? We all know it’s about 70 per cent. How many Pakistanis do this? Shhhhhhhhhhh... Never tell this secret to anyone. Else the entire blogging community would shift to our country. Lolz.
7. Language barrier
You can’t put your dreams accurately into a piece of content created in a non-native language. Why? It’s because you see dreams in your native language. While a translation of highest quality robs the originality of content to some extents.
So being a non-native English speaker is one of the biggest hurdles to achieve huge success by creating globally appealing contents.
So many Pakistan bloggers fail to create readers engagement like a native English speaker could do. If a king (content) is not of high quality, how his kingdom (blog) can grow.
8. Cultural barrier
How would be response of a resident of Quetta (one of the provincial capitals of Pakistan) if you try to convince him that the most tasty grilled food is Sajji (desi style grilled chicken or mutton leg). He would just laugh at you because Sajji is the special dish of his city since centuries.
Same happens to those Pakistani bloggers who try to convince foreign buyers how to make their Valentine unforgettable by buying their recommended products. Those who have been following a culture since centuries would not be impressed with a sermon on it given by a stranger.
9. No or a few drop shippers
You can sell everything on your blog to people around you if you have a drop shipper. This is the company or service that picks a product from a manufacturer or seller and delivers it to your buyer and charges you its fee.
There are a few drop shippers in Pakistan such as TCS and they are also limited to a few products. So you can’t sell any product made in Pakistan to the one who lives in Pakistan. As a result bloggers remain deprived of this opportunity to earn and keep trying to sell foreign products to foreigners from here.
10. Confined to IT sector
How many are pro bloggers in Pakistan. Almost all of them are from IT sector or they learnt any technical skill of IT while blogging. That is why blogging is confined to IT sector only.
Do you know anyone with no IT background has a top blog? Usually those who have no IT background eventually quit blogging by assuming it is the field of IT experts only.
So these are the ten typically local reasons why Pakistan bloggers mostly fail. They either quit or just become another blogger.
I would love to hear your thoughts as I know this blog’s audience is very vibrant.
Guest post submitted by Mi Muba, who is a great friend. He has been blogging for the last five years. You can join him on Facebook to learn money blogging.
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