Hi Everyone!
Some months ago I wrote a post about team trucking and retiring within 10 years and received quite a few responses requesting that I write a blog or journal. At the time I point blank refused, saying that I was not in a position to be of any use to anyone.
However, I thought and thought about it and I decided to take the Mustachians' advice. As I have very occasional use of Wifi, a VP of my company agreed that if I sent articles to him with photos, he'd set up a blog for me and post everything.
Now, thanks to you wonderful people, I have my own blog -
www.teamtruckinglife.blogspot.comHowever, I have a major dilemma which I would LOVE some advice on and so I'm turning back to you to pick your brains.
My objective in my blog is to try changing the stereotype of trucking and the typical "trucker". Instead of being the hard, dirty life that people imagine it to be, I want to dispel that myth and give another point of view - that the lifestyle is what you make of it. This is not a Mustachian blog so to speak, although I do state that we are set to retire in a little over 9 years.
I'm trying to let people know that it is possible to use trucking (especially team trucking) to amass a lot of money...fast. Also, I want to get a whole new breed of people interested - people who simply want to do things like pay off their mortgage, build a tiny house, have financial freedom to some extent so they don't have to work for a few years so they can concentrate on that budding freelance career, writing, painting, yoga, couples who want to travel the world before settling down to start a family. For those people, they only need to team truck for a year or two (depending on their financial goal). Bite the bullet for that time and a whole world opens up that you never imagined. I'm trying to get people to think of trucking as a form of seasonal work and show them that you don't have to identify yourself as a "trucker" just because you happen to earn money driving a truck.
Now, here is the dilemma. I need this type of audience, the people who think outside the box of what society tells them to think, and this type of audience has no reason whatsoever to find my blog. My audience doesn't yet know that my blog is relevant, so whilst they may be there, they don't know it.
The second dilemma I have is that my trucking company is no different to other trucking companies. They have certain types of ways of advertising that are appealing to people already in the trucking industry and we've actually been informed as well that they don't feel that it's worth their while to reach outside of the industry because it hasn't proven to be lucrative. So, on one hand they say that they'd LOVE more team husband and wife truckers, even if for a year or two, but they are reluctant to pump any money into anything that is looking for the people that they want. They WANT this new breed of people but don't believe they can get them.
In fact, if you try googling my blog by typing "team trucking" I doubt you'll find it on the first 10 pages, if at all. I know that really, the best way is to own my own domain but because I don't have proper internet access, I'm reliant on the VP at the company to help me with this. However, he's in turn reliant upon the company to authorize funding, even if it's dirt cheap, they may not do it unless they see results. But it won't get an audience until people knows it exists! It's a catch-22!
So does anyone have any ideas on any avenues I can take to get this audience? If I can get an audience and if this audience shows an interest in the possibility of trucking as a way to earn money quickly because they've thought maybe the life isn't so bad after all, then my company will listen to me and the culture can begin to change.
Thanks so much for reading and I really look forward to any ideas you may have to help!
Karen
