I love it when I hear someone wants to start a blog. It means they have found a topic they enjoy writing about and they have a message they want to share with the world. You could jump right in and put out a ton of amazing posts with great thoughts, information, tips and how-to’s. But after a few months, you may experience what is referred to as “blogger burnout.” You might experience this because after all of the hard work you’ve put into your blog, you start to wonder why you’re not making any money yet. I want to help you avoid this. The goal is to start your blog, hit the ground running and turn your ideas into a profitable venture.
It today’s video, I’m talking about what you MUST DO before you start a blog.
Take Action Today! Come up with your revenue plan.
Decide whether you want to offer your own physical products, services, or digital products OR if you want to monetize your blog through advertising and selling other people’s products and services. If you want to sell physical products, then you can do so by making a product to sell, designing it and having it manufactured, or finding other people’s products to sell on your blog, buying them at wholesale and selling them at retail. You can offer services associated with you blog about. For example, if you’re a food blogger, you could offer menu planning services or cooking classes. Or, you could come up with a digital product like a cookbook that can be downloaded or an online video course on how-to cook.
Other ways to monetize your blog when it comes to “selling other people’s stuff” is to sign up with various advertising networks, affiliate programs and companies that will offer sponsored post opportunities. An advertising network will serve up display ads on your blog and pay you either per impression or per click. An affiliate program is where you can either have a display ad on your site or you can talk about a product in your blog and if one of your readers buys that product or service from the link on your blog, you make a percentage of the sale. There are also blogging networks out there that will pay you to write a post about a business. This is called a sponsored post. Display advertising, affiliate programs and sponsored posts are one of the many ways bloggers get paid.
Sponsorships are another way to monetize your blog. You can determine the types of businesses that would be a great fit for your topic, make a list, and then don’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call them to see if they’d be interested! I monetized TheNavyMom.com in the first 60 days of starting my blog through sponsorships. I picked up the phone, sent out a few emails and secured a few sponsors.
Make your plan. Start creating great content, share it with the world, and you can be profitable in no time.
If you need help coming up with ways to monetize, be sure to download The Ultimate List of PCS Proof Businesses. There’s over 50+ ideas in there on how you can make money being you. It’s easier than ever to develop a company that will move with you to any duty station.
But seriously, if you’re reading this post, it means you’ve thought about starting a blog. Stop thinking, start doing.
You have something special to get out there, do it. Let me know if I can help.
You’ve got this,
