Does the following scenario sound familiar to you? You have tried virtually all you could to convince yourself that your blog is on the right path, but you still have a feeling that something just isn’t right.
Some “fake experts” say that your blog might just pick up if you keep on posting lots of articles. Then all your worries will be over. But the more you try to convince yourself this advice is true, the more the actual truth stares you in the face.
My Story
That’s exactly how I felt about my own blog some time ago, so much that I almost sold it. In fact, I hesitated so long to renew my hosting that my host deleted my blog from the server—I was lucky to have kept a backup.
Deep down in my mind, I could feel that something about my blog was wrong. All I wanted to do was walk away and never come back to blogging again because I had started to see it as a scam.
I wondered why others were making money from blogging when I was not. I had done everything I was supposed to do. Or were people like Pat Flynn, Matthew Woodward, and Neil Patel faking those income reports?
This wasn’t the first time I’ve had such discouraging feelings. But this time, they were so intense that I just wanted to end it all at once. I had started so many blogs and none worked, so what was the problem?
It’s not as though I wasn’t making any money from my blog. At least, I’d been making $2-5 per month via AdSense, coupled with a few hundred bucks from the occasional sponsored post. But was that enough to pay the bills?
Finally, I figured out there was something fundamentally wrong with my strategy. I decided to find the answer and solve my problem. So I purchased one of Jon Morrow’s awesome courses, Serious Bloggers Only.
The moment I paid for this course, everything changed for me. I started to see the truth about blogging.
The Truth About Building a 6-Figure Per Year Blog
I’m assuming that you want more from your blog than for it to be a small hobby. Perhaps you desire to make a side income from it while also keeping your day job, or you want to use it to completely support your family. Maybe you just want to educate people on something about which you’re passionate.
The fact is, you’re serious about your blog. You’re willing and ready to spend the time and money necessary to make it successful as soon as possible.
But why haven’t you arrived at your desired destination?
The problem is not you.
You must believe me when I tell you that you’re very smart and talented. The problem is what you’ve learned about blogging and what you’ve been doing all these years. If you really want to make money blogging, then you have to change what you’re doing right now. Period.
I want you to know that blogging is not all about installing WordPress and publishing articles. It’s not just about rushing to share those posts on your social media profiles so others will see them. There is more to building a popular blog than that.
I’ve come to realize that, just like with every other business in the world, there are also stages to building a popular blog. If you don’t follow them, it’s only God who can save you.
However, most of us started out backwards. That is why no matter how hard we try, it never works out. We are only chasing shadows.
Most People Start at the Wrong Stage
In one of his webinars that I attended some time ago, Jon Morrow used the graphic below to illustrate the 5 stages of building a six-figure blog:
These are the same steps he used to build a list of 13,000 subscribers in just 60 days. As you can see from the screenshot above, the 5 stages are:
- Comprehension
- Connections
- Conversion
- Content
- Clients
The problem is that you have likely started at the 4th stage (Content) like most other people do, myself included.
When you first start blogging, writing blog post upon blog post on your own site is just a total waste of time and will get you nowhere. It is like shouting at the top of your voice in an empty room.
In the beginning, you should focus on writing for other blogs in your niche. Look for bloggers who are already popular and successful. They are the people who will tell others about you. From there, you can take a portion of their readers back to your own blog and email list.
In one of her posts, Carol Trice from Make a Living Writing states something interesting in regards to blogging:
So I’ll advise that you stop publishing all those articles on your own blog. Focus instead on building a good and sizable audience first through guest blogging.
Note: I only scratched the surface on the Stages of Building a Six Figure Per Year Blog. However, I’m currently writing a free report that will walk you through the whole process. Click on the link in my author bio to show me you’re interested to learn about it, and I will send it directly to your inbox once it’s ready.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re selling ebooks or online courses, offering services, consulting, or even building Amazon affiliate sites. The point is that if you start blogging the wrong way, you will certainly fail. That’s the brutal truth.
I know people have told you something contrary to this principle before, but that was actually why you have not been making any significant impact.
Even if you’ve already started your own blog, there are still ways you can change your habits. I’m not saying you should delete your blog and start all over again. You should only do that when you don’t even trust your niche.
You Need a Blogging Strategy
The other mistake you might be making is that you don’t have a good blogging strategy.
Remember, no successful blog on the internet became that way by accident. Those blogs became popular because they followed a consistent schedule, and that’s what you must do. Blogging is not easy. If it were, everyone would be doing it. That is why those who jump into blogging without being ready for it usually jump out same way.
Like Social Media Examiner rightly said, people who “wing it” when they blog are only setting themselves up for failure. So if you don’t have a plan, don’t blog. You will not succeed.
For example, you need to know everything you can about your target audience:
- Are they male or female?
- Where do most of them live?
- What are their pain points?
Knowing the answers to these questions will enable you to serve your readers well.
You also need to know when to publish content on your blog and what type of blog posts you should be publishing each time. You should not just wake up, write something, and then hit the “publish” button.
Don’t just hope and pray the post will go viral and land you some paying clients. Each blog post you write must have an end goal before you even write it.
You should plan to use the blog post for a purpose, such as getting quality backlinks, building your email list, landing some paying clients, or getting more social shares/mentions. The bottom line is that the post must be able to achieve something for you. If not, it will be a waste of time.
Conclusion
You must develop the right mindset in order to succeed at blogging. Be serious about it now. If you do it well, it will take you to places you never thought possible.
Research carried out by Content Plus claims that “37% of marketers say blogs are the most valuable type of content marketing.”
It might also interest you to know that “On average, companies that blog receive 434% more indexed pages,” according to Hubspot.
Therefore, stop blogging the wrong way. Stop following trends, and start building a lasting and sustainable blogging business.
It’s not as hard as you might think. All you need to do right now is map out your own blogging schedule and then stick to it no matter what. Don’t let anything distract you.
Make a list of the blogs you will guest post on. Then sooner or later, your own site will also be among the most popular blogs on the internet.