The following is a great post by MyMoneyDesign.com who is building up his own blogging business.
Earlier this year Business Insider ran a story that described the 10 ways that rich people think differently. For the record, they defined “being rich” as having an annual income of $160,000 or greater and a liquid net worth of $3.2 million or greater. Though there are lot of good habits that can help people become wealthy, one of the more common ones is the fact that a lot of them were business owners who started their own businesses.
Being the owner of a business is significantly better than being an employee. In one situation you trade your labor for a wage. But in the other you get compensated for having a property that others need.
Being an owner is scalable. There is no limit to the number of money making assets you can have. But being an employee is not. No matter what your wage is, you’ll always be constrained by the limitation that there are only 168 hours in a week.
Even though you may think you don’t have any grand business ideas or great inventions that anyone will ever want, I’ve got news for you: If you own a blog, you’ve probably got more of a chance at joining the financial free than you think. Here’s why.
A Blog and a Business Are Not the Same Thing:
First off, let it be well known: “A blog alone is not a business.”
Anyone who has ever registered a URL, posted a few articles on it every week, and expected to collect thousands of dollars in revenue every month has probably never been so disappointed. In reality they probably make next nothing and wonder “why?”
That’s a very common mistake that a lot of bloggers make in the beginning (myself included). They confuse simply having a website with owning an actual legitimate business. But the two are not the same.
A business is something that exists to generate revenue. It offers the customers something they find of value, and in return the customers compensate the owner for whatever it is they will receive.
On the contrary, most blogs that don’t generate any revenue are just a mixed collection of random topics and thoughts. There is often no strategy to the content, promotion, or placement of the advertisements.
If you’re struggling to make any money with your blog, take a good look at your site and ask yourself a serious question: What exactly am I offering?
- Do I write about anything useful that would keep readers coming back?
- Do I talk about useful services or products that would lead to any kinds of conversions?
- Do I have enough traffic that advertisers would even want to entertain an affiliate relationship with me?
- Is my website setup in a way that people could find my content naturally through Google?
- Is there even an ultimate goal or monetization strategy to me running my blog?
It’s these types of reflections that could make the reverse of what we said above possible: You can start a business through your blog. But first you’ll have to treat it like one. Here’s how:
How a Blog Can Help You Become Wealthy:
There’s a huge difference between simply writing a blog and treating it like a business. In one instance you’re hoping to make money. In the other you’re doing things and testing new methods that you know will help you grow.
Rather than just writing a bunch of random articles, you need to create your content with a specific purpose or a goal in mind. You should use your blog as conduit for ideas, services, and products (either your own or from other people). It gives you the opportunity to be an entrepreneur and create something new. You have the chance to make money where none existed before and go far beyond what your labor wage.
The trick to it all is being conscious of these strategies. For the first year of my blogging career I made almost nothing. But then over the next two years I was able to start applying this philosophy and starting seeing some real income growth – over $30,000 to be exact! And the best part is – I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of where this income generation could go.
So what are some of the things you could be doing that will help turn your blog into a real business?
Thinking about the monetization strategy ahead of time. When I started my guitar website, I knew ahead of time that I wanted to monetize it with Amazon rather than Google because the prospect for revenue would be much greater. I organized the theme and all my content around making it as easy as possible for my readers to click through to very specific products. There was a strategy before the first piece of content was ever written.
Whether you have a site now or plan to start a new one, you can still do the same thing. Write down a brief list of exactly how you plan to make money with your website. Is it with:
- Google Adsense,
- Amazon,
- other affiliate programs,
- your email list,
- services,
- private advertising?
Now ask yourself what you’re doing to help make each of those things happen. All of your content and actions should always be moving in a direction that helps these business goals. Doing things that are neutral or counter-productive are a waste of time.
Make every post matter. One of the biggest changes I’ve made over the years is to focus less on quantity and more on quality. My ultimate goal is to get every post I write to rank in the Google Top 10 results so that it can be found naturally and organically by common Internet users from now until eternity. Why? Because regardless of what monetization strategy you choose, I’m sure it will always need one very important input – traffic!
Though most Internet marketers would have you believe this is a very complex process, it’s actually more about following some very basic SEO rules and producing good content to support. Basic stuff like picking low competition target keywords and using authority links can make a pretty big difference.
What do I want people do once they read my site? Suppose you were able to get 100,000 people visit your website every month. Visitors alone don’t make you rich. It’s what they do that counts.
What actual actions would you want those people to do when they got there?
- Click on the ads?
- Buy your products?
- Sign up for your email list?
- Hire you for whatever service you want to offer?
Now ask yourself: Is your website setup in a way that the visitor will do this? This is called a “call-to-action”, and as part of that monetization strategy we talked about above you need to think about the placement of things and whether or not they are setup in a way that will help you achieve your goals.
Suppose for a second that your goal was to have people click on your ads. Take a look at any big-name website that you respect and compare what they’re doing to what you’re doing. For example: Notice how Financial Samurai has 3 ads before you ever even read the post.
That’s not a coincidence – that’s just good strategy!
Writing about what your audience really wants. One of the biggest mistakes I see other blogs make is that they write articles that are “me, me, me”. Me-me-me is okay if all you want to do is write a blog. But it’s not okay if you want it to run like a business.
Think of every time you go to the Internet. It’s usually because you’re looking for something – an answer, a how-to, even entertainment. If you land on a website that doesn’t do that, then you pass it on. Now look at your site and really ask yourself: Am I answering someone else’s question? Am I giving a great how-to? Is my post even entertaining? Again, compare yourself to a blog you really respect and take notice of the differences.
Paying attention to what’s already ranking well. Maybe you think your article is awesome. But how do you really know if it’s going to stack up to what Google (and more importantly its users) think is great? There is a really easy way – type your question into Google and browse through the Top 10 results. If those top 10 results are better or more resourceful than what you’re about to publish, then you may want to re-evaluate your content. Chances are it’s going to have a hard time breaking the top 10 if what you’re about to publish isn’t even as good as what’s already out there.
Diversifying. No one ever said you have to stick to one blog. If you want to write about multiple topics, consider creating more than one website. From a user perspective and SEO approach, this will a whole better because the visitors will find the targeted information they’re looking for rather than having to browse through a mix-match of content stuffed onto one site. Plus much like a diversified investment portfolio, this will give you a unique chance to make money from more than one source.
You’ve Got a Unique Opportunity:
Owning a business means having a strategy. It means thinking ahead and moving towards a direction. There’s testing and trying new things when the last thing you did doesn’t work (or is no longer working). Without all of that, all you’ve got is a blog.
I find it truly remarkable that week after week I can check my Adsense account and see activity for webpages that I created years ago. Now every day while I’m at work or sleeping, people all over the world are typing search terms into Google and being redirected to my websites. They read the content I’ve created and possibly click on one of the ads surrounding it. And why do I get this special financial privilege? Because I’m the owner. Because I recognized that there was a legitimate opportunity that was too good to pass up.
The good news to all of this is that the barriers to entry are still incredibly low. Google and SEO are always changing. Websites are always going down while new ones go up. But one thing remains constant – advertising. As long as billions of people search the Internet every single day and click on ads, the Internet will always need good content to support it. And with that there will always be an opportunity to make money.
Using your blog as a business is about as much of a mediocracy as you’re ever going to find. When a regular guy like me can write a post about investing and have it out-rank a professional article that appeared in Forbes, that’s a power you’d never find anywhere but on through the Internet.
Regardless of whether you’re a seasoned blogger or just entertaining the idea, I highly encourage you to check out my +7,500 word how to start a blog tutorial post. You’ll find everything in there from getting started to advanced techniques such as keyword research and link building. I tried very hard to pack everything in!
Honestly if you look to your blog and ask yourself “how can I turn this into a business”, I think you’ll be surprised with what you can do. Building websites is one of the most risk free, low-expense, high-return ventures that you could possibly get yourself into. And more importantly – it’s a lot of fun too. But it’s up to you how far you want to take it. So don’t just own a blog. Create a real business that puts you on the path to wealth.
STARTING A MONEY MAKING BLOG
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, learn how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes like this one.
Leverage the 3+ billion internet users and build your brand online. There are professional bloggers now who make way more than bankers, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs while having much more fun, much more freedom, and doing less work. Get started. You never know where the journey will take you!
Updated for 2017 and beyond.
I love the point about searching the topic in Google that you are about to publish. If my article doesn’t at all compare to the top 10 articles, then I might want to head back to the drawing board. Great point! I am going to think about that every time I post an article now.
It’s a hard thing to do at first because it means doing additional research after you find the keyword but before you actually write the post. However it does make sense and it can actually help you round out the content of your post (or at least give you an idea of how you can make your post better).
Yeah, that is very true, but if I can attract 50 new readers each week with each article instead of zero, then it’s definitely worth it! I’m currently writing a piece about how to invest within your 401k. There is nothing else out there that’s like what I am writing. Can’t wait to post it!
It is amazing to realize so many people make a good amount of money from blogging. I don’t think the general public has any idea!
I agree. Blogging has been the one and only thing I’ve ever participated in where people make ridiculous amounts of money on the side and its completely legitimate. If anyone else ever told you there was a possibility to make $1,000 or more every month using your computer, you’d probably write them off as a complete scam.
Though I do think the barriers to entry are so low that anyone from the general public could participate, I do think the weak get weeded out quickly when they figure out that making money actually takes a lot of hard work.
Excellent article. I’m going to have to rethink my strategy now… or at least take a good look at it. Even though I didn’t start my blog in order to make money, I still want to make some money from it and treating it like a business is the first step I have to take.
I think every blogger at some point reads the income reports of other bloggers and at least thinks about how they could be making some cash on the side too. It’s somewhat addicting once you get started. If you at least try a few of the things we’ve laid out in this post, I’m sure you’ll see quite a bit of difference over time. It’s all about formulating your strategy and then making sure that everything you do is helping you move closer to that goal.
Having a plan on both a site and post level can make a huge difference. I’ve been cleaning up Couple Money’s layout based on heat map results. I want to help others find the content they need and changing the navigation has increased on the time they spend on the site.
Which plugin do you use for the heatmap on your site? Crazy Egg?
That’s a terrific idea to re-structure your layout and navigation from a new user perspective. I’m sure the users can appreciate that. I’ve visited some websites that are just plain awkward to find your way around and see the other posts. It’s very frustrating and just makes me want to leave them.
I have a lot of things I hope to work on with my blog in the coming months. I’m in a bit of a transition mode right now looking for a new job, so my time spent on blogging has dipped. But I plan to make a comeback and definitely want to make more strategic and business minded changes to my site. Lots of good food for thought in this post. Thanks!
I can identify with your transition. I’m currently looking for a new opportunity as well, and so I haven’t quite had as much time as like to for working on my online business. Thankfully when you focus on more passive forms of making money, you don’t need as much time as you’d otherwise need.
For the first two years I didn’t treat Financial Samurai like a business. I wrote 100% for the fun of it. Since 2012 after I left my job, I was “forced” to think more business minded, so I spent a lot of time finding the best affiliate products for my site and weaving them naturally into my content.
I will always write for the love of writing first. There are plenty of articles that will never make me money, such as “The Cause Of Conflict: Money, Entitlement, And Poor Etiquette.” But I don’t care b/c I’m fascinated about the topic.
That said, I will focus at least once a week on a more “commercial” article that can generate revenue. I figure if I do this long enough, the portfolio of commercial articles will grow without being intrusive to someday make a decent chunk of change.
I’m guessing by saying “forced” you mean “financially forced.” How did you change your mindset from writing for fun to writing more for profit? What was the trigger? I’m finding that a big challenge after writing for the fun of it for over two years. I’m learning the “how-to” of running a blog as a business but emotionally buying into that model and switching my mindset is proving challenging. Can the two coexist – writing for fun and money – or is it really one or the other? I’d love to hear MMD’s comments on this as well as it seems like he went through a similar transformation. Thanks.
Sure. By leaving my job, I had a big income hole to fill. I felt 2012 was the right time to be more commercial without losing my site’s personality. I’ve find that so long as you find great products that are free and/or very useful, your community will really appreciate what you’ve done.
It’s taken two years, but my online operating profits are finally at my last year’s day job income level. It’s hard to see it go up further, but maybe if I continue to write, it might just continue.
@ Financial Samurai – What’s ironic (in a good way) is that I’m willing to bet that for those first two years you wrote, those posts are probably some of the strongest ones on your site today that attract the most visitors. So while even though the current writing strategy may be a little different or perhaps even more commercial, there still is some merit and value that those posts have (or writing for fun has) that indirectly contributes to the authority of your site.
@Brian – See my response to Financial Samurai. I think don’t think that running a blog as a business or for fun necessarily has to be two separate things. I can understand the hesitation because any time we through the word Business in there it feels artificial. But it seems to me that all the best bloggers have found a way to make them one in the same. They write about topics they want to, but they do so in a way that still keeps everything we talked about in this post in mind. And by doing so they lay the foundation for making money by building up the thing that will help them the most – traffic. Smart Passive Income is the first example that comes to mind. There you have a blogger who enthusiastically talks about different kinds of business models and strategies, and does it in a way that gets the audience just as excited and keeps them coming back. As a result he manages to pull in +$40K per month in Blue Host commissions because people see him as an authority and want to try to emulate what he has done by starting their own website ambitions. I’m sure that that’s not a coincidence.
One thing I found that really helped this transition was to experiment with a second or third website (in my case starting niche websites). Though I picked a topics I’m interested in, I viewed the projects themselves as more business or SEO challenges over something to get attached to (like My Money Design). If they fail, fine. If no one likes them, then fine. But with my primary blog I don’t think I could be as apathetic or willing to ever experiment as much as I have with the niche sites.
This is a great idea:
“Seeing what’s ranking well by typing a topic in the search”. I’d like to add that it’s important to target “how you are going to create revenue”. There are many other opportunities such as freelance writing, services such as blog and social media management. Thanks for the ideas.
I completely agree. There are so many different ways that your website could work in your favor when it comes to creating an income. The important thing is to start off with at least a few in mind. For the last two websites I started, before I even bought the URL I sat down with a notebook and forced myself to answer the question “how will they make any money”? I had to “sell it” to myself that I actually had a plan or a path that would give me my return on investment back.
Thank you for this!! I just started a PF blog a few weeks ago and have been thinking about ways to monetize since before I even began. I’ll be honest – while I LOVE writing and LOVE personal finance (I majored in finance in college, after all), I absolutely intend on eventually making it into my full-time income. I’m hoping since this has been the plan since the get-go, I’ll be able to achieve success with this! Thank you for the inspiration and ideas!!
Good luck to you on this new project! As long as part of the agenda and part of the plan is focused on how and where the money will come from, then it will happen. It will just be a matter of testing out different things and seeing what works until you get there.
Technology and the internet has provided so many opportunities for business. Your approach to writing or blogging will affect the outcome. If you want to have a business, it is all in the approach vs. just a platform for writing.Your article is making me rethink my goals. Thanks!
I love this article…what resonated with me was especially that people who are considered “rich” have a different mindset. They set their own agenda which subsequently ALLOWS them to scale their own business. Once I found the world-wide internet and made my first sale from a virtual book by a guy in Australia on building chicken coops, personally I was hooked. That was 6 years ago and I learned tons, but the greatest lesson of all is to provide VALUE. If you give a darn about helping others learn a skill, they will beg you for more information and then you can share it. Love this biz and glad to find this blog recommended to me by Kim Roach (a traffic whiz). Thanks for sharing! Kristie
[…] If I were smart and had the guts to do it, I would be updating my site constantly, I would be sending out tweets, I’d be searching for speaking engagements, and I would be reaching out to the local media to get them to feature my site for one of their stories. There are so many ways that I could be marketing this site to the general public, but I often find myself just putting my head down and continuing to write. It’s not a bad thing – my content is excellent because of it – but simply writing will not bring thousands of dollars my way. If I want to earn a business income, then I’d better figure out how to market and treat my blog like a business. […]