Introduction
Blogging for profit – A cautionary tale
There was a man called Mr. Hare. He went on the internet one day and found a website promising that he could make $100,000 in one day if he bought the products on the website for just $45.49.
“That’s amazing!” Mr. Hare thought to himself. ”I can make $100,000 in one day just by following these simple instructions. I’m going to be freakin rich!”
He rushed over to find his credit card details and bought the shiny-looking product as quick as he could. He spent the next few hours reading over all the information, bright-eyed as he tried to take it all in.
Next door lived a man called Mr. Tortoise. He had learnt over the course of his life that nothing of value comes that easy. He chuckled to himself whenever he saw an offer for a crazy new system that would guarantee you to be soaking in a giant money bath within days of buying the product.
Mr. Tortoise was a peaceful man. He understood that things take time. He spent a week researching something before he committed any money to it. He spent an hour a day working on his blog. He didn’t spend that long on it, but he did it every day.
Mr. Hare walked into Mr. Tortoise at the grocery store.
“Hey, I found this amazing new product called ‘Make-A-Million-In-A-Day’ by Generic Hype. It’s going to make me completely loaded with cash!”
“Really? That sounds great,” Mr. Tortoise replied as he smiled on the inside.
“Yeah, I’m going to buy a yacht and a car and a house and probably a llama or something.”
“That sounds really great,” said Mr. Tortoise.
“Yeah, I’ve always wanted some kind of exotic pet, and now with all this money I’ll be making I might as well buy a llama.”
“Yeah I think a llama would be an interesting choice.”
A few months later Mr. Tortoise ran into Mr. Hare again.
Mr. Hare looked a little down. He tried to avoid Mr. Tortoise, but at the check-out line they bumped into each other.
“How’s things?” asked Mr. Tortoise, trying to make conversation with the grumpy man.
“Not too great, the ‘Make-A-Million-In-A-Day’ thing didn’t work out too well. How about you?”
“Well, my blog is starting to pick up, we’ve got some regular subscribers and soon I’ll be putting some adverts up to see make a little revenue,” replied Mr.Tortoise as he unloaded his shopping.
“Oh, that sounds like fun. It was nice talking to you, but I’ve got to get home quick. I’ve just found this even better product called ‘Billionaire-While-You-Sleep’ and it’s going to make me rich, I know it!” exclaimed Mr. Hare as his eyes lit up again. He bounced on home just as excited as before.
“Goodbye then,” said Mr. Tortoise as he chuckled and paid for his food.
What can we learn from this amazing story?
There are a number of things that relate to blogging on the internet and even life in general.
First up- wealth comes from creating something of value. You have to make something that other people will want. If you create something that only you value and nobody else does- that isn’t going to make you any more wealthy. This explains why your family photo albums don’t sell for the millions of dollars that you may think they’re worth. This is why home movies tend to be pretty boring.
While you should have fun blogging, if you’re not creating something of value to other people- you may be wasting your time. There are plenty of blogs with personal confessions on them- and that’s fine if you just want to blog because it’s cheaper than hiring a therapist- but don’t expect to make a lot of money without considering the needs of other people.
In the case of blogging there are two things you can offer of value- information and entertainment. If you’re doing it right, you should incorporate both of them, but that’s really the essence of blogging. You write about things to inform your readers, and to entertain them to fill their lives with a bit of joy.
You should understand that things of value take effort and time. To begin with you may find the process a little hard.
How do I find new information? How do I keep writing it up in a style that my readers will love? How do I find out how to make my blog as profitable as it can be? There’s a saying- ‘No Pain, No Gain’ and I think it has a lot of truth.
The frustration you may encounter is actually your brain learning how to deal with new concepts. You will have a lot of questions once you commit to blogging, and it may seem overwhelming trying to find the answers to all of them. But rest assured, if you put in the work, things get easier. You’ll learn how to find new information easily. You’ll get used to writing up posts in a style that your readers will love. You’ll grow to understand what you need to do to make some money off your blog.
Then there will be new questions- what do I do with this money? Do I invest it in advertising the blog? Do I give it to charity? Do I buy some audio equipment? And so the journey continues…
The important thing is to manage your expectations. The internet is not free money. It may be the best and easiest way to make money, but you still have to work for it. Making money will take some time.
You are unlikely to have anything resembling a regular income for the first few months, no matter how committed you are. The problem with the ‘Make-A-Million’ products that come in big shiny boxes is that although they may have valid information, they raise their customers expectations too high.
Although this means they sell more products, their customers lose motivation faster because they look at the big shiny box saying ‘You will make $300,000 within the first week’ and then they look at what is actually happening, and they get depressed. Well, I don’t want you to get sad, so I’m telling you how it is. This may not mean this ebook will sell like hot-cakes immediately, but it means that you will get more value out of it, because I’m not playing with your expectations to open up your wallet. It isn’t uncommon to have no significant income within the first 6 months even if you are totally committed to your blog.
There are reasons beyond your control which I’ll address later, but the good news is that after 6 months, there is very little reason why you can’t have a sustainable nice pocket of income from the blog your love so much.
Summary:
- To make money, you have to offer something of value
- Blogging offers information and entertainment
- Creating something of value takes time and effort
- Make sure to manage your expectation so you don’t get grumpy
