This post is part of the Lessons Learned From My First Year of Blogging Series.
Making money blogging is not as easy as throwing up a blog with some text on it.
You have to put in the time to research your topic. You need to have a plan in place.
This is something I’ve discovered while creating money-making websites around my topics that I am on fire about.
Sometimes you have to approach a topic from a different angle, and sometimes you have to pick a completely different topic to write about if you want to earn money.
What I Really Think About Blogging
WordPress is a great platform to build a money-making website with, but the problem I have with it is not with the platform, but with the fact that most people jump in without doing any preparation or research.
Now, I’m not saying you can’t build a great blog without knowing what you’re doing. A lot of people have done it, and you can always fix most of your mistakes afterward.
In fact, I’m doing this with Wake Up Cloud. I started off eager and motivated, but I completely ignored what I knew in terms of SEO, structure, and making money.
I was still able to get 1,012 subscribers in 101 days, so neglecting a few things will not deliver a death sentence to your online business.
3 Things I Would Do Differently If I Started Again
On one hand, I don’t regret anything I’ve done, but if I have to choose a few elements which could have given me faster growth, then a few things come to mind.
And the funny thing is, the three points below are something that you hear over and over again. It’s very basic, fundamental advice, but still most people do not follow it (myself included).
It just goes to show you that if you stick to the fundamentals, have patience, share something of value, and work hard, you will get to the jar of cookies.
1. Keyword Research
I’m just now getting serious about keyword research for this blog, which is funny, because I use keyword research extensively on almost everything else I do.
I’ve found that using the right keywords, linking back to your site with proper anchor text, and structuring your blog or website properly makes a huge difference.
There are many blogs out there that could probably double or triple traffic over time if they utilized search engine optimization properly.
2. Focus
I’ve gotten off track many times during this past year, and it has overwhelmed and frustrated me like nothing else.
I have learned to leverage and focus on what works. I’ve been pondering many different ideas, most of which haven’t happened.
What it all came down to for me was to focus on the fundamentals: make connections, write great content that people want to share, and get the word out there.
I was talking to Pat Flynn the other day about a problem I had gotten stuck on, and it reminded me of the simple fact that overwhelm usually comes from the fact that you think you have to do something just because you see someone else doing it.
For example, if I see someone using email marketing in a certain way, I usually feel compelled to incorporate that into what I do, which can easily lead me off track.
There are so many different ways to do things. It’s easy to get confused and lose your bearings.
If you look at a blog like Copyblogger; they started in 2006, and they did nothing but provide valuable, high-quality content on their area of expertise for several years.
Only in recent years have they started rolling out products, email courses, and a podcast, and they started doing that because they listened to their audience, and they gave them what they wanted. It also didn’t hurt that Brian got more writers and other people on-board to help.
So by no means do you have to be in a rush to create anything.
3. Content
I would have produced more high-quality content that educated, inspired, or entertained.
I also would’ve used keyword research more to figure out what the general problems of the market were and written post about those.
It never hurts to optimize your blog or website for the search engines, because they can bring you thousands of daily visitors in the long-run (sometimes more).
It’s something that is very easy to put off, but it can slow down your growth.
What Worked Best in Terms of Making Money
With all that said, I’m sure you’re eager to know what strategies worked best for me in 2010 for making money with a blog.
And I would have to say hands down that it was creating my own products.
After this blog had been around for just under 6 months, I started observing where people had questions, and what my readers were interested in.
The first product was my article marketing guide, which still sells with very little promotion, and I still keep getting raving emails from happy customers.
Maybe I should promote it more? I really should.
My second product, Passionate Living, also came about because I saw my readers running into the same problems over and over again.
I had a framework in mind for it, but I wanted to make sure I had my finger on the pulse, so I emailed my subscribers and asked.
The end result was something that was custom-tailored to my audience, and it has to this date sold very well.
Wrap
With all that said, I did do some very good affiliate promotions towards the end of the year, so I’m sure you could make a lot of money promoting other people’s stuff depending on what market you are in.
But I personally don’t find a lot of great products to promote, so it’s not something I want to rely on. I’d rather give you what I have from my own personal experience instead of ship you off to someone else.
And I only promote products that I can personally vouch for, so again, my filters are very strict.
What I really learned during the past year was that I will make mistakes, and the journey won’t be perfect, but what’s more important than all of that is to keep moving forward.
Image by Andrew
{ 9 comments }
Very insightful post Henri.
What’s helped best for me was changing from an employee mindset to an entrepreneurial mindset. I’ve never owned a business until recently so I’m still making the transition. Creating value is one thing, but DELIVERING that value takes a whole other approach.
I was also impatient in terms of monetizing, and it took my focus off what I really needed to be doing first. Building traffic.
Know how you are going to monetize, but focus on content, building links and exposure, and traffic in the beginning.
You’re right on the ball, Sean!
Hey Henri!
Thanks for sharing this insightful post! I find your points and experiences extremely helpful as I’m in the process of (ultimately) wanting to turn my blog into a sustainable source of income. In the meanwhile, I’m in the process of garnering an audience. Will you have any tips or advice for that?
Thanks a lot!
Hey Dominic,
Did you check out my post on how to increase traffic to your website?
If that doesn’t scratch your itch, let me know what specifically you need help with and I’ll see what I can do.
Requests are always welcome!
Henri, I have made some money online, but not through my blog. Most of it is through the services I offer in addition to blogging – web design, consulting, marketing design… This has really challenged me. I have to admit, there’s a part of me that’s scared to throw myself out there in terms of adspace. You have done this in a way that doesn’t scream “SELLOUT.” I hope I can do the same. Thanks for the encouragement today, man.
Do you mean adspace in terms of my own products in my sidebar here?
I wouldn’t worry about being a “sellout” since it’s usually something we assign to ourselves. Sure, sometimes people will have a problem with your success, just keep moving forward.
Thanks Henri, I’m digging this series.
I have pretty much ignored SEO on my blog, and I know it’s probably costing me traffic. The reason is that I don’t really have an identifiable niche and so I don’t know what terms I should be trying to rank for.
Over time my site has grown I’ve come to rank highly for certain terms by accident, but they don’t always have much to do with my topic. For example, I rank #2 for “connecting with people” but that’s not really what I’m going for.
Is SEO always about going after certain search terms, or are there more general ways to optimize that I’ve been ignoring?
Hey David,
It’s never too late to start optimizing. I usually think about SEO like learning the language of the people using search engines. You may want to write an article about “7 ways to kill fear”, but the average searcher is looking for “how to overcome fear.”
SEO is about going after certain search terms, on both a broad scale (think fear, courage, life), and a smaller, more specific, more long-tail scale (how to cook rice on a stove).
It took me over a year to figure out what Wake Up Cloud was about, so I know where you are at. I wouldn’t stress over SEO, but if you’re writing something about say happiness, you may want to look up any keywords that come up on that and around it.
Tough to explain without specifics, but I hope you understand, and if not, feel free to shoot me an email anytime.
Right on Henri, thanks
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