BLOGGERS DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY
Running a blog although it is something I love to do, can be exhausting and discouraging at times. The majority of this comes from a lack of good time management and mixed messages we receive from those pushing blogging as a business. If you are a blogger and you are wondering how to make this blogging thing work for you. I want to give you some advice that I believe can actually help you.
Things You May Question As A New Blogger
Below is a list of questions and answers that I have compiled after two years of blogging. Blogging is not easy and can be very time consuming to say the least. It can however benefit you in many ways for me writing is therapeutic and is a great stress reliever. For many blogging does become a way to make money but don’t expect that right away and if money is the only reason you are starting you will end up discouraged quickly.
Am I Doing Things Right?
Probably not. The entire journey of blogging starts with making mistakes and learning from them. I certainly have made a lot of them along the way. Look back at some of the first posts put out by your favorite bloggers. I can guarantee that they are less than impressive. This is because we do not know what we are doing when we start. We all start somewhere just like we do with our finances and we all learn from our mistakes in both our finances and in blogging. Keep in mind that success almost always requires us to make mistakes and learn from them.
Can I Make Money Running A Blog?
Absolutely. Not everyone will though. Do not buy into the lies all around you about blogging. Blogging can be a great money-making business but it very often is not. Sometimes you can blog for a long time and never make money and never reach the growth that you try daily.
How Can I Grow My Blog The Right Way As A New Blogger?
Blogging growth can happen in a lot of ways for a blogger trying to build a money-making blog. Here are the best tips I have for new bloggers who are serious about building a money-making blog.
Guest post for others
Build relationships with other bloggers
Write quality long (1,000 – 4,000 word) articles. To be completely honest this is something I am still not so good at after 2 years of blogging.
Just keep producing quality content every week that provides value to your readers and answers questions well that people might be searching for on the internet.
You have to be patient with yourself and realize that although so many bloggers claim to make money quickly and easily this is not the case. If someone suggests that blogging is easy and suggests that a lot of time is not required I would stop listening immediately. I want you to know that from my own experience this is not the case and I hate when others mislead people to make money and push their products.
Two Years Of Building My Blog Saving Joyfully
February 8th, 2020 I celebrated 2 years of blogging. That realization is both Amazing and also discouraging for me. Why? Because I still often feel like I do not know what I am doing with this blogging thing. I get discouraged often when I feel like I have not seen the results that I have worked so hard for up until today. I have made some money blogging but this money has not come easily or quickly. It has taken the time and a whole lot of work and has been enough to help me keep the blog running and begin the growth process for my website.
Why I Began My Blog Saving Joyfully?
I started the blog looking for some joy in my own life in a discouraging work environment. One where I never felt that anything I could do was ever good enough and where I never felt I could succeed. My job had quite simply stolen my joy and I went home each night feeling defeated. It was one of those situations in life where no matter how much of yourself you poured into this job it never mattered and was never noticed. In this rough patch in my own life, I found myself often reminding myself that joy can be found in every circumstance in life if you just look hard enough. This is why I began SavingJoyfully and here is another post I wrote on the creation of my blog.
Why I Share My Experience With Building My Blog
I was sitting here thinking about exactly how I am feeling and I realized this is not unlike how we often feel when dealing with debt. Quite simply my goals with blogging and the development of a new website are not unlike my experience with paying off debt. Both are difficult and yet I know both are possible with time and consistency. In our financial lives people constantly push get rich quick schemes and we often find ourselves feeling like we are doing something wrong.
What Does Paying Down Debt Require?
Time and a lot of it
Hard work & Dedication
Changing bad behaviors that have brought us to this place
Commitment to paying off debt
Constantly focusing on your financial goals
Looking for creative ways to stretch your budget
Working a job or two we may not love to pay our bills
Small actionable daily steps towards a future free of debt
What Does Running A Successful Blog Require?
Hard work & Dedication
Setting aside a lot of free time to manage your blog
Commitment to content creation
Constantly focusing on your goals with your blog
Looking for creative ways to network and grow your blog
Working a job we may not love to pay our bills while building our blog
Small actionable daily steps towards a future that sometimes seems out of reach
People Tell You Blogging Will Make You Money Quickly
Most of these people are making money off of people just like you. They write articles and sharing these great products and courses that will help you. Those are the reason they make so much money. Everyone wants to believe there is an easy way out in weight loss, building wealth, paying off debt, and even in blogging, but there is not. Nothing in life will provide the success and results that you are looking for like HARD WORK will.
The reality of the blogging industry is that it is built on making money off of us bloggers. There are so many money making blogs built just by making money selling this dream of building a money-making website to all of us. Please stop buying into this and realize that the reality of hard work, dedication, and networking with others is the real way to build a website that gets the success that you are looking for today.
What Does It Take To Make Money With A Blog?
Hard work & Dedication
Managing your blog as a business
Lots of page views are not something that happens overnight
People who trust you enough to value your opinion on something you share with them to be willing to purchase an affiliate product from you.
TRUST! You must have readers and people who visit your website that trust you and your opinion. To successfully build trust what does this require? It requires building relationships and being honest with others. Trust is not built overnight and it is not built by pushing every product or companies products. You will see me advertise some on my website and you will see me use affiliate links or share articles and experiences with companies. One thing you can know for sure though is that I will only share companies that I know and trust or products that I love. The reason that I do this is because my reputation and you trust in what I share is more valuable to me than making a quick dollar.
You need to reach out to companies that you are interested in working with or find affiliate networks that you are willing to work with on your website. I still caution you to be extremely selective about who you work with and to know the product and try it before promoting it. I proceed this way every time with each product I promote so I can honestly say I use this product myself and would recommend it to others.
New Bloggers DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY
So many people are out there selling products that are unimportant and will not bring you the money or results that they claim. Do not buy into these scams. I have seen and heard a lot of them in two years of blogging and my suggestion is if you can find free advice and tips to start your blog these are the most legitimate and honest. People who sell products are salesmen and women who make a living off of blogs and bloggers like you and me every day. I believe there are some courses worth taking and some products worth paying for but I do not believe they are important for a new blogger starting. I encourage you to use the free resources I list here and work hard every day to build your site the right way. This is what will benefit you most in the long run and over time you will begin to understand more and more about blogging and what is worth the money to invest in.
Podcasts And YouTube Channels For Bloggers That I Recommend
The above YouTube channel –Income School - Income School – The guys at Income school have a lot of great content that they provide for free on their YouTube channel to help you understand how blogging works. I have never purchased any of their courses but I have learned a lot from the free content that they offer on their YouTube channel. They are honest about blogging and the fact that it takes time and very hard work as well as long articles addressing things that others might be searching for answers on.
Podcast & Blog – Problogger – problogger.com has been a favorite since I started my blog. He has consistently provided quality free content on his website and podcast for people starting a blog. If you are looking for some encouragement and motivation you can find it by listening to his podcast.
No purchase necessary to get great value
The bloggers, YouTube Channel, and Podcast I have just listed all sell courses and products. I have found though that you do not have to purchase them to gain wisdom from their experience. They provide that free of charge and if you trust what they have provided free of charge you might want to pay for some extras. This is the right way to build trust and sell a product by becoming someone that adds value and build trust before you push a product. This is why I recommend them and feel that what they do is valuable. They do it the right way and they share their mistakes and their successes’ to help you learn from their personal journey and experiences.
What Can You Do When You Start To Feel Discouraged?
Focus on how far you have come in your situation and how much you have learned along your journey. That knowledge that you have gained along the way can never be taken away and that is called Growth. Growth is a very important aspect in understanding and building a blog, blogging, and developing a website require a lot of knowledge which comes with time.
Reach out to another blogger who you trust and ask questions. Start with someone you have built a relationship with and if possible someone who has been blogging for a while. This can benefit you in multiple ways. You could find that you now have some support and someone to bounce ideas off of, you could find someone to collaborate with on an upcoming project or you could just find that you gain knowledge on something you did not previously understand before and take another step forward in learning about blogging.
Look for blogging mentors. I have a few blogging mentors that do not realize they are my mentors. These bloggers have bigger blogs where they share about making money blogging. They sell products around blogging but they do so along with providing good advice for bloggers and do not mislead you on the truth about how hard blogging can be. What they tell you is their own story and they teach you every week with their podcasts how to build a moneymaking blog. I feel confident recommending them because they have helped me on many occasions and they have done it for free.
Yesterday on Twitter I asked this question and shared my advice for other bloggers after two years of blogging. I also shared my advice for bloggers after my first 2 years.
My Advice After 2 Years Of Blogging
1) Pick a topic you know & enjoy
2) Don’t expect immediate results
3) Blogging requires hard work and consistency
4) Find blogger friends & build relationships
Advice From Other Bloggers That I Feel Is Worth Mentioning
Al Bell shared “All great points and facets of the blogging journey. For me, keeping your head up with the intent to grow. Lol. Easier said than done.” thewaterwholeonline.com
The blogger from Blooming Prejippie stated “This all sounds right. Also, the philosophy we have had to embrace is “Done is the new perfect.” In an effort to keep posts coming in a timely fashion, we have to get things done quickly and ship it (even when we know it’s got flaws).” www.bloomingprejippie.com
Steve Adcock advised “Blogging is a grind – especially if you want to build your blog into a big-traffick’ed site. And, this is also why not everyone should start their blogs…contrary to popular belief! :)” Steve blogs at steveadcock.us but also built from the ground up and sold thinksaveretire.com
Forrest from Dontworkanotherday.com states “Blogging takes TIME. You can’t expect overnight success. Quality content is critical to success.” dontworkanotherday.com
Michelle advises that the blogger should “Pace yourself and take breaks!” www.blessingsbyme.com
The Dividend Diplomats suggest “Always focus on producing high-quality content…no matter what.” www.dividenddiplomats.com
I love what the White Coat Investor shared he states “Blogging isn’t a business. If you want to“make money blogging” figure out what the business is.” www.whitecoatinvestor.com
Ana H suggests“Totally agree with your four points! I’d also say getting something out(that’s maybe not perfect) is better than nothing out (because you’re afraid it’s not perfect.) Still working on that for myself!” This is great advice for those who are perfectionists. It is hard to get an article out ever if you wait for it to be perfect, in doing this you may end up delaying your blog's growth as a result.
I also loved what Themoneymix.com shared“There are no shortcuts to replace putting in the work. Anyone suggesting otherwise is merely trying to separate you from your cash.”So true when you look at all the bloggers who sell blogging courses and make money off of blogs that never succeed. They know that they are selling a dream to many that will never reach success. They do not advise of the important factors that long hours and hard work are crucial to the success of a website making money and becoming financially successful. If they did many people would not but their products because they are not looking to work this hard and they do not have an actionable goal that will result in this type of success that is ultimately needed in blogging success.
Meer of Minder states “It takes time – stay humble & open to (polite) criticism – be consistent – don’t quit your day job (yet).” www.meerofmynder.com
Bucks and Cents shared “You know it’s funny…I started blogging because a boss told me no on a 16-page raise request I wrote up. Last Jan I was trying to learn about H 2/3 and yesterday I just finished a 4100-word post draft on rentals! I’ve made no money but so proud of myself.” https://bucksandcents.com/
Who Are The Bloggers Mentioned Above?
Some of these bloggers have already built successful money-making websites. All of these bloggers work hard and have the knowledge to share that we are wise to listen to today. Don’t get discouraged blogging and don’t believe that you are just one product purchase away from success. Keep these success quotes in mind today as my closing thoughts. Success in blogging like anything else in life requires much more from you than many are willing to admit.
Some Quotes To Inspire You While Building A Blog
“Success is not final; failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston S. Churchill
“The road to success and the road to failure are almost the same.”
– Colin R. Davis
“I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“If you look closely, most overnight successes took a long time.”
– Steve Jobs
Don’t Give Up If You Love Blogging
Blogging is tough and can become very stressful if you allow it to. If your goal with a blog is to build a successful money-making website, I believe these things are important to keep in mind. After two years of blogging, I will tell you the competition is tough and the work involved never ends. If it is your passion though and you are committed I believe success in building a money-making blog is attainable. Please keep in mind though that it will not happen overnight or without pouring your heart and soul into everything you do.