Post by account_disabled on Jan 23, 2024 4:07:54 GMT
Today I was speaking with a blogger (I’ll call her Alice for the sake of this post) who was feeling a little overwhelmed with the idea of monetizing her blog. She expressed that as she looked at other blogs in her niche, everyone seemed to be doing such amazing things. She said she felt she’d never be able to compete. Other blogs in Alice’s niche were running online courses, selling out hundred people live events around the country, selling ads to fortune 500 companies, authoring best selling eBook and more. The thought of even beginning to monetize her blog in these ways was completely paralysing Alice! It is so easy to be overwhelmed to the point of paralysis when you look at what other bloggers are doing. I know this from personal experience! My advice to Alice was to keep in mind that all those other amazing blogs started in the same place that she was – without any income streams at all. Often it is easy to forget this and see a successful blog as always being what it is today. By way of illustration, I shared my own story When I started blogging, I did it as a hobby. I had no intention of it ever being more than that
and there were no examples of people directly monetizing blogs. Over the coming year and a half, my blog grew in popularity and the hobby became something of a passion and obsession. It also began to cost me money to run for hosting, domain, design etc. Phase 1 Blogging Income 6 I began to dabble in monetizing with the hope of simply covering my costs. My first experiments were with Google AdSense and the Country Email List Amazon Affiliate Program. The results weren’t spectacular but they were encouraging enough for me to keep trying. A few dollars began to trickily in but more importantly – I was learning a lot! Phase 2 Over the coming months I continued to experiment with AdSense and Amazon. I vastly improved how I was implementing the programs (better ad positioning, writing reviews for affiliate products). I also began to think about how to drive more traffic to my blog. I even started a second blog (and then more followed)! The results were that my income began to grow.
I began to see my blogging as a part-time job and even began to wonder if it could one day be full-time. Over the coming year I also began to also look at other forms of monetization. Blogging Income 6 During this time I started promoting affiliate programs with other online stores. I also did something that terrified me but which became a great income stream, I picked up the phone and began to sign up advertisers directly. This was a period where I had to bite the bullet and start to treat blogging not just as a hobby – but as a business. Again – these new income streams started small and were experiments. My first ad sale was for $20 for a month long ad. It didn’t bring me overnight riches but securing the ad taught me a lot and contributed to my overall income. It was around this time I realised that while none of my income streams were enough to sustain me alone, a blog could actually sustain multiple sources of small income that could.
and there were no examples of people directly monetizing blogs. Over the coming year and a half, my blog grew in popularity and the hobby became something of a passion and obsession. It also began to cost me money to run for hosting, domain, design etc. Phase 1 Blogging Income 6 I began to dabble in monetizing with the hope of simply covering my costs. My first experiments were with Google AdSense and the Country Email List Amazon Affiliate Program. The results weren’t spectacular but they were encouraging enough for me to keep trying. A few dollars began to trickily in but more importantly – I was learning a lot! Phase 2 Over the coming months I continued to experiment with AdSense and Amazon. I vastly improved how I was implementing the programs (better ad positioning, writing reviews for affiliate products). I also began to think about how to drive more traffic to my blog. I even started a second blog (and then more followed)! The results were that my income began to grow.
I began to see my blogging as a part-time job and even began to wonder if it could one day be full-time. Over the coming year I also began to also look at other forms of monetization. Blogging Income 6 During this time I started promoting affiliate programs with other online stores. I also did something that terrified me but which became a great income stream, I picked up the phone and began to sign up advertisers directly. This was a period where I had to bite the bullet and start to treat blogging not just as a hobby – but as a business. Again – these new income streams started small and were experiments. My first ad sale was for $20 for a month long ad. It didn’t bring me overnight riches but securing the ad taught me a lot and contributed to my overall income. It was around this time I realised that while none of my income streams were enough to sustain me alone, a blog could actually sustain multiple sources of small income that could.