Freelance Blog Strategy: My Failure Story of Losing My Personality by Specializing, and What Comes Next
I have been writing a blog ever since I started considering quitting my job to become a freelancer.
I have received job offers through my blog and won prize money for my blog posts.
There were times when I felt the tangible impact of my content leading to work.
I started on Hatena Blog in 2019 and later migrated to WordPress.
I continued by gradually changing its form, from a miscellaneous blog to a specialized one.
However, in 2025, I decided to stop blogging for a while.
In fact, I have closed the three blogs I was operating.
Why did I stop when things were going well?
One reason is that times have changed, and it has become tougher to compete with personal blogs.
However, an even bigger factor was the feeling that my personality had disappeared after I split them into specialized blogs.
I will write honestly about my past blog strategy, my failure story, and the reasons why I am planning to start a new blog again.
I started a miscellaneous blog with an eye toward quitting my job
Even when I was a company employee, I worked as a freelance web writer on the side.
When I started seriously considering quitting my job, I thought, 'If I'm going to be a freelancer, I should have multiple pillars of income,' so I decided to try monetizing a blog as well.
When it comes to blog monetization, starting with WordPress is common.
However, renting a server and doing the initial setup felt like a hassle.
Also, I felt it would be difficult to maintain motivation because there is a long period at the beginning when no one reads your posts.
For those reasons, I decided to start with 'Hatena Blog + a custom domain'.
In the end, this choice was the right one.
Because Hatena Blog has a culture of interaction within the platform, it was an environment where people would read my posts, so I was able to continue happily.
However, at the time, I had almost no knowledge of blog monetization and didn't even know the concept of a 'miscellaneous blog'.
The blog name at the time was 'Web Writer ERI's Diary'.
I wrote about whatever themes I could, not just about being a web writer, but also about changing jobs, Mercari, reviews of books I read, and stock investments.
Honestly, the revenue wasn't much.
Occasionally, an article would go viral and exceed 10,000 yen at once, but usually, it was around a few hundred yen.
Even so, I had about 800 blog subscribers, received a decent amount of reaction to my posts, and was able to continue happily.
Gaining work and prize money with a Real Estate x Writer blog
I had actually intended for the blog name 'Web Writer ERI's Diary' to be a temporary title all along.
I didn't like it very much, but it was a hassle to change, so I just left it as it was.
One day, I decided to change the blog name on a whim to 'The Path of a Real Estate x Writer'.
This unexpectedly became a turning point.
Perhaps because the intersection of real estate and writing resonated with people, I started receiving more requests for writing work.
I believe it was beneficial that I moved from being a 'person who writes anything' to having a clear position as a 'writer specializing in real estate'.
Furthermore, when I moved categories outside of real estate and writing, such as Mercari and stock investment, to a separate domain to declutter the blog, writing requests increased even more.
It was completely different from when it was a miscellaneous blog.
I felt that the blog had completely transformed into a 'tool for acquiring work'.
That is not all.
I also had the experience of my blog being recognized externally, such as winning prize money twice in ASP article contests and receiving 3rd place in the overall category at the A8 Media of the Year 2021.
From that time on, I also started receiving requests as a writing instructor, and the scope of my work expanded with the blog as the starting point.
But I had a strong desire to succeed not only in acquiring work but also in monetizing the blog itself...
The next thing I thought of was further specializing the blog.
When I split it into niche blogs, my personality disappeared
In 2023, wanting to grow the blog further, I steered in the direction of 'making it more specialized'.
I moved articles related to writing and blogging to a separate domain, 'Web Writer's Consultation Room'.
For real estate, I decided to split it within the original domain into 'Detached House Investment' and 'Rental Combined Housing', operating each independently.
'It's stronger if you specialize'
It was a decision that followed that theory.
But the results did not go well.
Neither PV nor revenue grew as I had hoped.
On the contrary, my strength of 'real estate x writer' became even harder to convey.
Because my previous blog covered both real estate and writing, people thought, 'I want to ask this person'.
However, by splitting the blog, that synergy fell apart, and each blog became like just another 'information site found somewhere'.
I myself also became unsure of what to write and gradually began to lose my way.
Furthermore, around this time, I began to feel the limitations of being a real estate writer.
As years passed since I became a freelancer, I moved away from the real estate field.
Information that used to come naturally when I was in the field now had to be actively sought out.
Before I knew it, the articles I was writing were only about legal revisions and system explanations.
I have also summarized my worries during this period in 'The Reason Why I, a Web Writer, Am Aiming to Become an Administrative Scrivener'.
I want to continue working as a freelancer.
But is it okay to stay like this?
After much deliberation, I decided to change direction.
Quitting blogging for note. But the reason I'm starting a blog again.
What lay beyond this change of direction was obtaining an administrative scrivener qualification and specializing in freelance support.
At the same time, I decided to move my platform from a blog to note.
I chose note for the same reason I started Hatena Blog. Rather than starting from scratch with WordPress, it is easier to continue in an environment where it is easier to get people to read by leveraging the power of a platform.
Another major factor was the change in content creation in the AI era.
General explanatory articles are highly likely to be increasingly replaced by AI from here on out.
That is why I want to write about things that only I can write.
note was the perfect place to share my actual experiences and my own thoughts.
On the other hand, I also plan to launch a separate blog as a website for my administrative scrivener office.
This will specialize in freelance support and serve as a place to disseminate information for attracting clients and building trust.
note for writing deeply about experiences and thoughts.
A blog for disseminating information focused on expertise and practical work.
By separating their roles, I chose a form where neither would end up half-baked.
It has been 7 years since I started blogging.
I have wandered and I have shut things down.
Yet, in the end, I am writing a blog again.
This time, it is not about "writing anything" or "specializing in scattered topics".
I am writing a blog with an understanding of my own strengths and roles.
For now, I will just give it a try.
If I continue and feel it is not right, I can just rebuild it again.
That is my answer for now.
Thank you very much for reading until the end.
I will continue to update my note magazine "Work Records of a Freelancer Living in a Rural Area" with my daily life working as a freelancer in a rural area, how I get work, how I work, and how I build my career from here on.
I would be happy if you could like and follow me!
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