[This is part of the Escaping the 9-5: My Road to ProBlogging series.]
I wrote a guest post over at WebDesignerDepot this morning specifically sharing some thoughts on how one can use their blog to get a design job (and earn income) and please feel free to head over there, read the post, and drop a comment or two with your candid thoughts.
As usual I want to spend a few moments here sharing some additional thoughts on how I’ve used my blog to create supplemental income as I built a blogging empire (ok, so it’s not an empire… it’s just a small profitable piece of land in the blogosphere).
You see, most people don’t become professional bloggers overnight – in fact, I can’t imagine anyone every being able to do this anyways unless you had a significantly large existing platform and decided to move into the blogging space full time all of a sudden (like an A-List celebrity).
Most people (like you and me) grow their blogs fairly organically and over time and slowly build it to a point of sustainable profitability while earning income in other ways and supplementing their blog’s income with other streams and financial channels.
Here’s what it looked like for me as I got closer and closer to becoming a problogger:
In the Beginning…
In the beginning there was the word… and it was published with no fanfare and no pageviews or visits of any kind (except my own). I started with a dream of working on my blog, developing content, and building community full-time, all day every day.
But, I know that it wouldn’t come easy and that the “jump” from big business and corporate would require a bit of faith, a lot of luck, and also working on other web projects, consulting, and other creative financial endeavors.
What I realized though was that my blog could serve as a significant vehicle of traffic for these contract jobs – and so I made sure that I had some contact info, some links to previous work, and used my blog to talk about my jobs, my clients, and my projects.
And it worked.
Just like in my blog post today over at WebDesignerDepot I marketed, used search engines and SEO strategies, and of course used my blog directly to cobble together a living that made sense (pun intended…?) and that was reasonable!
Now, of course, I don’t have to take on as many projects as my blogs provide some great income themselves.
It’s a slow process, a slow build, and you never know if you’re headed in the right direction but you take it one month at a time!
What about you? Where are you in the “process?” How are you using your blog to supplement your income?
[This is part of the Escaping the 9-5: My Road to ProBlogging series.]
Always interested in supplementing my income
of course.. for sure!
I’m really just in the starting stages right now and am not too terribly concerned about making an income from blogging at the moment. I have my eye on the long haul: building authority, honing my expertise, and eventually transitioning into seminars, public speaking, etc. That’s really where my passion lies and it keeps me motivated to keep going.
do you think you’ll eventually spend more time writing or speaking..?
Yes, absolutely!
I’m OK with building my platform via the blog now, and eventually transitioning into more speaking. I think a blog is helpful in building a little authority.
for sure! i think it can only help.
Fantastic post John. I couldn’t agree more that blogging takes time, and we definitely have to take it month at a time. I’m certain you took things one month (or even one day) at a time, and look how successful you are (I just read your post that you’re making $44,000 a year; awesome!).
I was blogging for a while about a year ago, but got a bit busy and more into the affiliate marketing/CPA scene. I just put a new theme up on my blog a few days ago, cleaned it up, and am going to adding at least once a day or so.
I’m also going to use my blog to gain some exposure for my new SEO/web marketing business. I hope to find some new clients who are looking to get their website up in the SERPs!
ben,
awesome! how’d the aff marketing/cpa scene go?
John,
It actually went great. I had some pretty high earning months! Of course nothing close to what you’re making or anything, haha! But yeah, I’ve learned a lot about monetization in the last year. I’ll be visiting here often; you seem to have a lot of knowledge to offer to your readers.
Ben
awesome ben! perhaps i can even learn something from you…!
I don’t have a blog yet (will soon).
That being said, I’m a ui designer and app developer. Do you think I can still run the blog attached to my website and make good money from the blog even if my main goal is to attract clients?
YES!
great blog buddy !i really liked loading of graavtar in comment box too!
thanks so much!
If one has an existing job, I think it’s a good idea to keep doing it till the blogging money starts to come in, especially for a newcomer. And even afterward, unless the blogging income is really substantial enough, keep supplementing your income with the regular job also.
true! that’s what I did.
I’ve been reading your posts for awhile and trying to incorporate the advice into my blog. I write humor pieces about college, life and parenting from a faith-based perspective. (Which is a nice was to say I write about the thousands of times I embarrass myself.)
The blog started seven months ago and has had 15K hits. So i think that’s good… although I’m looking forward to it growing in the future. My biggest question is when to try to monetize? I have it hosted on WordPress for free and I don’t want to shift it to another spot and spend the money before I know I can make that money back. Do you have a recommendation?
Thank you for all your insight, I have really, really appreciated it! (and apparently my readers have as well!)
have you read my thoughts on 250 unique visits per day?