Now that the whole Gushcloud and Xiaxue thing has died down, I'd like to share some knowledge and insights on what's it like to be a blogger in Singapore.

Yes, I own a blog. I'm doing the whole "quit my job to follow a dream" thing. I go a different path by building my own email list and write about personal development. I don't do advertorials or chase pageviews solely. I sell my own books and do some affiliate marketing. I also do not personally know any of the local bloggers here.

So here's the other side of blogging. It's not what you think, at least not what other bloggers will admit to.

1) Working from home isn't as glamorous as it is made out to be

When people say full-time blogger, they think working from home and being your own boss. But it's not all unicorn and rainbows.

Why? Because it's entirely up to you to motivate yourself, and that's harder than one might think. Add to that, if you don't have the stability of a consistent income, it can be extremely worrying and hard to function everyday as you won't know when the money will come.

Sure, I get to wake up anytime I like. I sleep up to eight hours a day and nobody is the boss of me. But again, it's tough. There's a drawback to it all. "Being your own boss" only sounds great when you've succeeded. If not, you're only kidding yourself. It gets lonely then.

So the idea of "lifestyle design" and doing your own thing at home is a matter of pros and cons. There'll always be a trade off.

2) People mostly assume you're idle all the time

I've no idea how many times I've been told, "You busy? But you stay home and do nothing ." I remember being rudely awakened by a friend who called me at around 10AM in the morning asking for a favor. I replied that I was busy that day and she started shouting over the phone about I was unemployed, lazing at home and therefore should help her.

No. I'm not like that. There's a difference between idling and being unemployed. I write up up to 2,000 words a day as practice and am constantly sourcing for places to publish my work at. I also make it a point to read (real books, not random news articles) everyday.

But hey, these are just noises. People who don't want to put in the effort to get to know what you're about will always make assumptions about you.

It can be a little annoying, but in a way though, you can't really blame them. Most people here are fixed in their way of thinking. To see something or someone act differently is an attack on their way of life and, dare I say it, calling them out on their insecurity of not daring to ever do what they love.

That is why the people who assume I'm lazing at home eating Doritos and playing video games only are the same people who lament to me how much they hate their jobs, that is, if they're not too tired after work.

3) There is writing and then there is effective writing

Speaking of writing words, which of the above do you think you're constantly reading?

The answer is the latter. That is why clickbait headlines, scandals, controversy and "boh liao" articles work. That is why you click on them even though you think these bloggers are horrible writers or have bad English.

It's honestly not about "good" writing. Writing is an art, which is subjective. Somewhere out there are people who hate Harry Potter and they'd call J.K. Rowling a bad writer.

It's about effective writing that gets heard and some of it becomes popular. So before you crap on somebody's language, unless it's completely unreadable, think about why you're constantly reading it in the first place.

4) And then sometimes, it's not about writing at all

This is a post on my blog where I posted a video of me breakdancing. I hope you're WOWED.

But man oh man... who am I to compete with the other bloggers here?

I'm asking you. Yes you, the guy who's always at some girl's blog here just so you can keep looking at her selfies and wonder if she'd go out with you. Or you, the girl who visits blogs for... I don't know, whatever?

Call it branding, marketing or whatever. We all go to blogs for different reasons outside of writing. And bloggers will do what works to get you to click.

5) Blogging is not easy

When I started out, I had this naive mentality of "build it and they'd come", thinking that the Internet will make everything easy for me. I was all like, "If I share my article on Facebook, I'm sure at least a hundred out of my thousand plus friends would do the same for me."

It doesn't work that way. Not a single bit. You can't randomly set up a page, write some shit and then expect traffic will flow.

Even if you manage to go viral, like I did here, you need to push yourself to replicate the same results again, which is hard. Going viral once doesn't mean you become world-famous overnight. Nobody really remembers you after a few days.

It requires planning, passion and settling in on a niche, and these only make up for the foundation for the long road ahead of hard work to consistently shell out content and market your blog.

That is why being your own boss and working from home on your own aren't all that great. With that said, working on anything without the security of a stable income can be hell.

6) It takes real courage to share your life out there

Because you'd tend to be afraid of what others may say about you and you think that you'd be exposed to the comments on social media no matter what.

I won't go into a tirade about how the Internet is filled with haters and trolls and how you should always ignore them. We all know that. So look at it this way:

Think about the times you read an article that made you go WTF, so much so you left a comment expressing your (unfounded) disgust and anger.

Think about the bitching, controversy, drama and gossip surrounding a blogger. You tell yourself what a loser he or she is.

Now, think about the little times you felt "paiseh" to do something. Just a small little thing. Also, think about the guilt and embarrassment you felt when you screwed up. To make it worse, somebody decided to call you out on social media for it. Remember how bad that made you feel?

Now, if one little mistake makes you feel that bad, what makes you think you're ready to put yourself out there to spread your message?

Are you with me? Are you thinking at all? Or are you still ironically on the blog you hate? And yes. You're indeed helping them by giving them the traffic. You're literally funding them.

I'm not trying to take sides or anything. I went through the same thing myself as I've been on the wrong side of the press before. I had to think about what really entailed getting out of my comfort zone and before I decide to open my mouth, especially if I had nothing of value to contribute.

Doing what you love and sending forth your message is awesome man, but it also takes a lot of courage and self-reflection.

You aren't allowed to be "paiseh" at all.

Alden Tan is a writer who graduated from NUS and is now doing the whole “quit my job to follow a dream” thing as he blogs about honest and real stories. Check out his free book, 12 Things Happy People Don’t Give a F**k About.

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