As you may be aware I’ve decided that I’m going to get a bit more serious about learning how to earn more money from the internet. I’ve decided to get more serious about this whole blogging slash creating your own website, as well as finding little ways that are (hopefully) not very time or energy consuming.
As a first step, last night I took it upon myself to find information about simply how to (properly) start up a blog.
Among other things, I discovered that there are essentially six keys to starting up a website or a blog that has the potential to earn one some extra income.
1. Get it started
2. Create relevant, interesting, informative and useful content
3. Create a professional and unique looking blog/site
4. Bring in traffic
5. Monetize it
6. Improve SEO
Really, the amount of information and advice about making your own blog or website out there is, quite frankly, overwhelming. Besides being littered with advice and tips and ideas, the internet is being flooded DAILY with new updates and developments, new ideas, new strategies. It made my head spin. After consolidating my notes, I realized that really it boils down to the above six points, more or less in the order they’ve been written. You can’t add content if you haven’t created the site. It’s more important to have worthwhile content than it is to have a slick looking site. Make it look good, though, before you bring people in. Don’t try making money off it until you’ve actually got an audience. Once you’ve found ways to monetize your site, get it found off of search engines.
There was one article in particular I read, though, that struck me. I’d been thinking about it all night and it was the first thing on my mind when I woke up today. I wanted to write about it, because I thought it touched on some particularly relevant points, especially in regards to dreams. I’ll put a link to it here:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/04/21/8-reasons-why-you-wont-make-money-from-your-blog/?utm_source=sidebar
The title itself is deflating. I read through it, and I feel that all her points are valid and relevant. And yet, it seems so defeatist. Take a read through the comments; you’ll see what I mean.
However, look at it again, from another angle: Her whole blog is quite encouraging about blogging itself. Advice on how to start a blog and what to write about, among other things, is written in the side panel. So why write an article about why you’re not going to make money off your blog?
As I thought about it, I came up with an example that cleared my head: a friend of mine, who does not come from big media, is not controversial, and is not trying to sell a book, is making $1500-$5000 a month with his blogs. Granted, his income is considerably unstable, but now that he is in between jobs, he is supporting himself with his earnings. Yes, it took a lot of time and effort. Yes, it did not bring him in any significant income for well over a year. But he made it. But that’s when it struck me: Yes, his websites and blogs are successful, but it was a gradual process and it is not the sole source of income (he still has a regular job).
That was my “ah ha!” moment. Penelope Trunk’s article is not about how utterly and totally futile blogging is. It’s about the absurdity of assuming you are going to get rich by blogging.
I’ve been into self-help for a long time, and one of the first things I took the time to learn about was goal setting. If my life coach is to be believed, I’m pretty much an expert when it comes to creating and setting up goals as well as motivating myself towards them. One of the absolute biggest but also, unfortunately, most common mistakes when making goals is making them unrealistic. Setting up a goal that your unconscious is going to reject is a surefire way towards failure.
Dreaming big is great. But assuming you must become a millionaire when you are currently barely making ends meet is going to crush your spirits. The reality is that every huge dream is actually just a long series of small goals bundled into one package. So make your big dream more fathomable by breaking it down. You are at point A now (strapped for cash). You want to be at point Z (a millionaire). Forget point Z for now, you’ll get there when you’re at point Y. What is point B? “Well, let’s see,” you tell yourself. “I’d like to be sure I can pay the bills every month.” Ok, that’s good; it’s realistic, it’s clear, it’s measurable and very achievable. Figure out how much we need exactly to do that, and let’s get there. Once you get to point B, then you consider point C. One baby step at a time.
And that’s when it hit me that Penelope Trunk is not a naysayer; she’s a realistic goal setter. Read the comments section where she talks about how much successful people are not high-risk takers. They’re actually risk averse. It’s true. Most think that to be successful you have to put it all on the line at some point, risk it all. This is not true. Highly successful people are not high-risk takers; they take small risks at high frequency, more often than everyone else. But she’s right; they hedge their bets.
How does this relate to blogging? I think she is essentially saying “By all means, blog away. But don’t expect to get rich off of it, especially if you haven’t even started yet. It takes a long time and a lot of things to happen along the way before you should even consider making any money off it.” In other words, starting a blog is point A. Getting rich off it is point Z. Put point Z to the side and focus on point B for now. Maybe, if you get lucky and you perservere, you’ll eventually reach point Y. But to start a blog (point A) in order to get rich (point Z) is a recipe for failure.
As a first step, last night I took it upon myself to find information about simply how to (properly) start up a blog.
Among other things, I discovered that there are essentially six keys to starting up a website or a blog that has the potential to earn one some extra income.
1. Get it started
2. Create relevant, interesting, informative and useful content
3. Create a professional and unique looking blog/site
4. Bring in traffic
5. Monetize it
6. Improve SEO
Really, the amount of information and advice about making your own blog or website out there is, quite frankly, overwhelming. Besides being littered with advice and tips and ideas, the internet is being flooded DAILY with new updates and developments, new ideas, new strategies. It made my head spin. After consolidating my notes, I realized that really it boils down to the above six points, more or less in the order they’ve been written. You can’t add content if you haven’t created the site. It’s more important to have worthwhile content than it is to have a slick looking site. Make it look good, though, before you bring people in. Don’t try making money off it until you’ve actually got an audience. Once you’ve found ways to monetize your site, get it found off of search engines.
There was one article in particular I read, though, that struck me. I’d been thinking about it all night and it was the first thing on my mind when I woke up today. I wanted to write about it, because I thought it touched on some particularly relevant points, especially in regards to dreams. I’ll put a link to it here:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/04/21/8-reasons-why-you-wont-make-money-from-your-blog/?utm_source=sidebar
The title itself is deflating. I read through it, and I feel that all her points are valid and relevant. And yet, it seems so defeatist. Take a read through the comments; you’ll see what I mean.
However, look at it again, from another angle: Her whole blog is quite encouraging about blogging itself. Advice on how to start a blog and what to write about, among other things, is written in the side panel. So why write an article about why you’re not going to make money off your blog?
As I thought about it, I came up with an example that cleared my head: a friend of mine, who does not come from big media, is not controversial, and is not trying to sell a book, is making $1500-$5000 a month with his blogs. Granted, his income is considerably unstable, but now that he is in between jobs, he is supporting himself with his earnings. Yes, it took a lot of time and effort. Yes, it did not bring him in any significant income for well over a year. But he made it. But that’s when it struck me: Yes, his websites and blogs are successful, but it was a gradual process and it is not the sole source of income (he still has a regular job).
That was my “ah ha!” moment. Penelope Trunk’s article is not about how utterly and totally futile blogging is. It’s about the absurdity of assuming you are going to get rich by blogging.
I’ve been into self-help for a long time, and one of the first things I took the time to learn about was goal setting. If my life coach is to be believed, I’m pretty much an expert when it comes to creating and setting up goals as well as motivating myself towards them. One of the absolute biggest but also, unfortunately, most common mistakes when making goals is making them unrealistic. Setting up a goal that your unconscious is going to reject is a surefire way towards failure.
Dreaming big is great. But assuming you must become a millionaire when you are currently barely making ends meet is going to crush your spirits. The reality is that every huge dream is actually just a long series of small goals bundled into one package. So make your big dream more fathomable by breaking it down. You are at point A now (strapped for cash). You want to be at point Z (a millionaire). Forget point Z for now, you’ll get there when you’re at point Y. What is point B? “Well, let’s see,” you tell yourself. “I’d like to be sure I can pay the bills every month.” Ok, that’s good; it’s realistic, it’s clear, it’s measurable and very achievable. Figure out how much we need exactly to do that, and let’s get there. Once you get to point B, then you consider point C. One baby step at a time.
And that’s when it hit me that Penelope Trunk is not a naysayer; she’s a realistic goal setter. Read the comments section where she talks about how much successful people are not high-risk takers. They’re actually risk averse. It’s true. Most think that to be successful you have to put it all on the line at some point, risk it all. This is not true. Highly successful people are not high-risk takers; they take small risks at high frequency, more often than everyone else. But she’s right; they hedge their bets.
How does this relate to blogging? I think she is essentially saying “By all means, blog away. But don’t expect to get rich off of it, especially if you haven’t even started yet. It takes a long time and a lot of things to happen along the way before you should even consider making any money off it.” In other words, starting a blog is point A. Getting rich off it is point Z. Put point Z to the side and focus on point B for now. Maybe, if you get lucky and you perservere, you’ll eventually reach point Y. But to start a blog (point A) in order to get rich (point Z) is a recipe for failure.
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