How to start a blog and make money?
We have a serious problem though – blog’s count as online business and every year 9 people serious about starting one fall flat on their faces.
They have the best intentions one could ever have: service to others with a little bit of money coming in from it.
These unsung heroes of the world are the ones who produce our content for us.
We make a google search, we click on their posts that took them hours to produce for us, and we make our lives better with their insight and tireless research.
The problem is: a huge monster named normal and mediocre comes to swallow 9 of those heroes up, never to be found again. They look the same as everyone else, and their mistake was trying to follow and copy the other heroes who came before them.
So now, their blog is on page 25 of google, and literally nobody will ever see it.
Even in a thousand years, when anthropologists try to figure out what civilization was like in the 21st century, they’ll be buried so deep that nobody will be able to dig them up.
The purpose we have today is not to start a blog. Our purpose is to have you start your blog, and be so unique that there’s nobody online quite like you.
That way, everyone who loves your uniqueness can follow, share, and read your genius without you being swallowed up by a million pages on google, or ending up “just another” guru on social media.
How To Start A Blog and Make Money
Find your Blogging Super Power
I cringe a little when I say it, but you’re wondering how to start a blog and make money…so we’ll get into it.
I first heard this idea from a very (very very) successful freelancer named Mike Shreeve.
Your super power (zone of brilliance) is how you will outshine the billions of other blogs out there who are all saying the same thing.
See, you’re not inventing information, and although you might be a seriously bright person, it’s really not good strategy to just assume everyone else cares.
What’s going to set you apart from the rest of the other bloggers out there, is that you will be different somehow.
Your difference is your unique spin, your “why you should you shouldn’t skip over me”. It’s your ability to save others (those you cater to) from the troubles they have.
Your superpower is directly linked to the personality types of the people reading your work. There is a person out there getting [blank whatever] advice from some person, because that’s what they need. However, they might prefer to get it from you.
- Maybe they like your personality
- You seem more genuine
- They prefer your writing style
You will need to understand this if you ever plan on figuring out how to start a blog and make money.
So how do you find your superpower?
List all of your skills.
Your degree, your work experience, hobbies you’re really good at. Try making four lists: all the jobs you’ve ever done. What others say you’re good at. What you know a lot about. I guess that’s three. Make three lists 🙂
If you don’t think you have any super powers, try listing a few things that you are willing to become proficient at/good enough that you can advise others on how to proceed.
If you want to blog about finance >>>
- make sure you read a few books (by experts)
- get subscribed to the best financial youtube channels
- and take a few free/paid courses on finance.
You might not think that is good enough, but if you research something and constantly learn about it, you already know more than 98% of the population.
List a bunch of problems that people who read blogs have, and want solved?
What problems are you going to solve on your finance blogs? How will the education you provide get people the results they crave?
Blogging is more about practical knowledge, rather than theoretical knowledge. Use a site like www.answerthepublic.com to research your topic, and see all the queries that come up.
Those queries are individuals with finance problems that are ruining their lives. You are the Avenger that comes to their rescue.
Give yourself several options.
Make several combinations of lists 1 (all your skills) and list 2 (everyone’s problems). Combine then in different ways and explore your options. Maybe cross of one’s you definitely are not interested in, and go from there.
See your blog in Fast Forward
It will make your life easier is you start with the end in mind. Here are a few things I want to think about before you start your blog.
What kind of blog is it, and what will it look like?
Not all blogs are the same. For example, there are authoritative blogs on psychology, and then there are cute blogs that teach mother’s DIY projects. There are blogs about celebrity gossip, and blogs about society transformation (news).
Do you plan on monetizing it? How?
This isn’t just for curiosity either, it’s mostly to make things easier for you (and spare you some headache).
Do you know how many products your likely to sell on a recipe blog? None. Why? Because people searching for free recipes on the internet don’t buy things.
Do you know how likely you are to sell a course on a blog where you help people get out of debt? None, because they have money problems already.
This goes to show you, that you will need a bit of common sense and insight when monetizing your blog.
- How will you monetize?
- Ads? Courses?
- Affiliate Marketing?
- Sponsorships?
Figure out which method of monetization is best for your blog, and decide if you’re ok with that before you start!
What is the lifetime of a blog like this?
Every blog has a lifetime, which means every blog has a time when it’s really not seeing any more growth. There will come a time when the results that your blog offers…
…well, everybody who wanted them has got them. It’s different for every blog, but there will come a time when everyone who wanted your advice on the best way to start yoga for beginners has done so.
The lifetime for your blog could be indefinite, meaning that you could find clever ways for its relevance to last forever, or it might max out at a certain amount of money. You’ll have to do some niche research and figure this out.
Who is your competition?
Who is your main competition. Don’t wanna see it as a competition? Well that’s how google sees it, and it’s gonna affect your business. Figure out who’s got a similar blog to the one you’re planning on started.
- Find out what they write about
- What topics and keywords get them the most traffic?
- Are you cool with writing about the same thing?
- See how they do their business and decide if it’s appetizing to you
Starting a blog and making money affects your livelihood. A little competition isn’t a bad thing.
How can you avoid pigeon holing yourself?
This one is simple, and it goes hand-in-hand with the “lifetime” of your blog that we spoke of in the previous section. Make sure you don’t design your blog such that you run out of topics to write about.
Not tooting my own horn, but this was obvious to me in the very beginning of my blog. I could see that there would be a difficult time ahead, where I would be battling to find new content to write while trying not to force things.
My blog is a resource where people (who are like me in the past) can take back control of their lives. I was in a job I wasn’t satisfied in, my life was shrinking before my eyes, and a change was needed.
In order to get everything squared away, I found what I was passionate about, defined the purpose of my life, took massive action steps, and had to plough through some serious mindset issues.
These have become the topics of my blog. So I basically can write forever, as you can probably see: Direction, Action, and mindset. That’s almost everything.
But what if I chose to write about what to do when your job is no longer fulfilling. That’s it? When there’s nothing more to say about that, I’m finished.
Extend your sphere of influence to as many relatable topics as possible, without being inauthentic.
If you’re blog is about finance, instead of only being a how to get out of debt blog, allow yourself to write about that, plus a whole range of related topics:
- How to live the life you want after debt
- How not to get back into debt (proper money practices)
- How to teach your kids to stay away from debt
Start your blog (finally!)
Starting a blog is easy. It’s actually the easiest part of this whole process. So easy that I’m not even gonna explain it to you here.
Go here to this post, where I explain to you step-by-step how to start your blog in less than 10 minutes. I promise that’s not an exaggeration either.
- No technical stuff
- Push like…5 or 6 buttons
- Enter some information
- Blog set up = easy wordpress blog started
Write Posts Frequently and Consistently
How frequently?
How consistently?
As frequently and as consistently as you can maintain. It looks better to google (the search engine driving traffic to your site) if you maintain a schedule, so it can send robots to your site on a schedule and rank you.
If you can keep a set schedule, it’s better to post 8x per month, than to post everyday for the first 6 months, and then never for the rest of the year.
Plus, everyone who reads your posts will start to crave your posts based on that schedule. It’s a good thing. 🙂
Develop a Beginner Friendly SEO Strategy (simple!)
Find smaller keywords that you can rank for, that are low competition. Going for the high traffic keywords right away is a waste of time. Your blog doesn’t have the domain authority to see any traffic from them.
Once you get to avoid 100 posts, then start going after the keywords with 100k views per month.
For now, stick to keywords that are 1000 and below.
This is how to start a blog and make money – the smart way.
Monetize your Blog the Best Ways
Ways to monetize your blog include: ads, sponsorships, courses, your own services, and affiliate marketing.
1. Ads pay you based on how much traffic you get per month.
2. Sponsorships are companies that pay you to produce content for them
3. Courses are packaged knowledge like “How to Start your Blog in 10 minutes” for $9. Courses come in all price ranges and always offer a tangible result to the purchaser, like knowing how to start a successful freelancing business in 90 days. (a course I bought for $999 a few years back. Really good too.)
4. You could offer your own services, like helping others sort out their problems or helping them set goals.
5. Affiliate marketing is when you find other’s products, and sell them because they’re good enough to get your audience the results they desire.
Steal FREE Traffic from Pinterest!
Google is hard in the beginning. I’m not even gonna lie to you. Relying solely on google traffic is going to bleed you dry for months before you rack up enough brownie points for google to even consider putting you on the front page.
You will get there, but it’s like a fire breathing dragon. I’m not sure what I mean by that, other than messing around trying to rank as a new blog is like having hot acid poured on you ever post.
However, there is a magic formula that still works, and that’s pinterest.
Now, let’s be clear, pinterest is not a walk in the park, but it is an option for new bloggers to get their work seen on a more equal playing field than google SEO.
You create pins that drive traffic to your blog, and the results can be amazing. The best thing is that the traffic is based more on the quality of your work than the amount of followers you have.
Followers and authority do count, but Pinterest can be a life saver in the beginning and is recommended by HUGE blogging names like Melyssa Griffin and CreateandGo.
Learn the “Magic Money Machine Technique”
Ever seen a youtube ad where someone is trying to get you to “click the link above or below this video, I’ll send you to a free training.”?
I’m not someone who thinks those people are bogus at all. Some of them might be, but when it comes to scams, it’s our job to be critical thinkers, and aware enough to figure that out.
Generally speaking, I’m positive about paid courses. They’ve done so much for me in my life, mostly because I love learning and I love doing things myself.
..but what are those ads anyway? Well it’s called the Magic Money Machine.
How to Start a Blog and Make Money
What those people are doing is:
- Targeting ads to people who have interested. Hopefully those interests mean you desire to take that interest to the next level. “You searched how to start a blog, so I’ve got the answer for you. Here it is.”
- You go to my free training, where I explain more about it
- Then I offer you a chance to take your desire for a money making blog further, but purchasing my course that shows you exactly how…
Or, I offer you something for free to get you started. Something easy, like a free sample at the grocery store, to see if you like it and want to buy the bigger thing later.
You got the free thing, and now I’ve got your email. What I do now is start sending you a bunch of stuff that will further your education on the topic. It really is about helping you, business online doesn’t work unless you help people.
So I give you a bunch of free advice. There ARE people out there who want to take that free advice further though. They want real results. Well, it took me 2 years to figure blogging out, so if you want my insider advice, you’re gonna pay for it. 🙂
I give them an opportunity to get the results they want (in this case, a money making blog from zero to a 100 REAL DAMN QUICK) and they’re happy.
Money well spent.
To do this properly, you will eventually need an automated system where:
- You give something AMAZING away for free, that your niche person wants. I could give you a list of the “100 best affiliate products to sell on 25 different kinds of blogs.”
- A system for collecting email address. Which means you will need an autoresponder.
- You will need to set up a welcome sequence within that auto responder
- You will want to email your list regularly, and sell to them when appropriate.
- Learn to identify who’s ready to get REAL results, and who just want the free help (both are your damsel in distress, so cherish both groups)
- Refine and expand your process to more people, more sales, and more money.
How To Start Now
Get the Passion Blogger Life Vest, a free guide I created to help you set up your blog in 10 minutes. Seriously.
How to Start a Blog and Make Money! (below)
