It’s been about 16 months since I started this blog. Prior to that, I blogged for a few months on wordpress.com in an attempt to increase exposure to my VA site. Then I heard you can make money blogging. Of course, I wanted to get in on that. I liked blogging. I like money. Why not? I wanted to change hosting companies for my VA site at that time, so I went ahead and set up this site also.
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You may be asking, “Why didn’t you give this update at one year?” Well, because it was only at that one year anniversary that I really started making a good amount of money. Being a responsible blogger, I wanted to make sure that income was sustainable before sharing my experience. It wasn’t a fluke. The last four months have been very good to me. I made big changes during December and January that I like to think led to that success.
1. Get Traffic – I’ve been working my butt off to promote this blog. That surge I showed you hasn’t slowed down. It’s still climbing. I don’t spend all day on it though. I publish. I post that link in a handful of places. I comment on a handful of blogs. I’m done for the day. Look at where you are getting traffic and ramp up your efforts.
2. Know Your Keywords – Keyword research does not take endless hours of painstaking searching. I usually don’t spend more than a few minutes. However if you are looking at the wrong numbers or the wrong intent, you have just wasted your valuable time. Learn what you are looking at.
3. If Content is King, SEO is the Queen – Don’t listen to the fear mongering (or maybe you think it’s a blessing) telling you SEO is dead, SEO doesn’t work anymore, etc. That’s really bad advice. You can either embrace SEO, or you can spend all day every day promoting your daily post because that will be its lifespan. The vast majority of the money this blog makes is not made on the day a post is published. One of the biggest converting products for me now is coming from something I put up a year ago. Do you think I’m still promoting that post? Heck no! The search engines are. Let them do the work.
4. Network. Network. Network. – I have told you before that I don’t do everything according to the Keyword Academy method. One of those things I don’t do is spend a lot of time article marketing. I still get backlinks though! I make friends with other bloggers. Those bloggers usually link to me at some point if I’m doing a good job over here. And those aren’t just links, they actually come with traffic. You need traffic to convert.
5. Pay Attention – I have WP-Stats installed on my blogs. Anytime I log in my stats are served up in my dashboard. I can see where I am getting traffic from that day. Go leave these people a comment if you can. Give them some free pub. They will keep it up. I can also see what search terms are being sent my way. Go see where you are ranking. If it is a money post, get yourself up there further. Write more posts on that topic.
6. You Don’t Always Know What People Want – This is something that has been slapping me in the face lately, and it is hard to accept. I don’t always know what people want. The things I think will go like gangbusters often don’t. The things I mention in passing thinking no one cares, often go like hotcakes. Don’t miss out on an opportunity because you think no one is interested. You may be wrong.
7. When in Doubt, Link It Anyway – Since we don’t know everything, we need to make sure products are linked up regardless. If you don’t, you are likely leaving money on the table for someone else to grab. It’s nearly impossible to be signed up for every affiliate program on earth. Get help. I wrote a post about installing VigLink on my blogs a few weeks ago. It is not only earning me money already, it’s also searching out programs I didn’t even know existed. That’s a win-win situation and a huge time saver.
The big lesson here: Don’t blog blind if you are wanting to earn. Can you make money blogging? Absolutely! I’m earning at a fairly good clip here recently. My newer blogs are earning much more quickly without the learning curve I have had to go through with this blog. But, I pay close attention to what’s going on now. I know where the traffic is coming from. I know where the money is coming from. I make necessary changes as I go. I don’t give up. Blogging does not need to consume your entire life, but it needs to be an important of it to be successful. Open your eyes and your ears. Your blog is probably screaming what it needs at you now.
About Angie
It is a constant learning process and it is important to own what we don’t know.
Using stats to understand what people are finding us for has been very enlightening. Frustrating at times, but enlightening.
Bailey recently posted ..Key to the Treasure
Twitter: thewahwife
says:
Thankfully, I finally got control of my search terms for the most part. I was a little horrified in my early days of the type of search traffic I was getting with my blog having this name. Trust me, it was not the kind I wanted. Nasty people!
I agree Bailey, it is a constant learning process! A lot of people have been asking me how to start a blog lately. It is hard to explain that it is all a learning process. Something every successful blogger has had to do was experiment, research and spend hours chatting with fellow bloggers and reading articles about blogging. My world has been blogging for a while and I know I still have a ton-load to learn. I have never studied SEO or even searched keywords. Maybe that is something I need to work on. But I do not want to take the fun out of blogging, so I have to learn a balance.
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I am still in the learning process but I find enjoyment in trying different things to figure out what will work. My blog is only a few months old so I am still trying to build traffic. Hopefully, the earning will come in the future. I am always searching trying to find what to do and not do.
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Thank you so much for publishing this. I’ve been dabbling with affiliate programs on my other blog, but I’m still trying to get everything going and focus on my new blog. It really is a learning process! I’m glad to see so many bloggers actually making money, so I know it can be done.
Shannon recently posted ..Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Balls – A Love Story
Thanks so much for this well-balanced post about making money blogging. I’ve been thinking about this stuff as of late, so it was very timely for me. It’s similar in some ways to having a garden. You plant the seeds each day and soon, it will grow. I was tired there for a while reading all kinds of stuff about quickly making money blogging. So many learning systems and stuff out there on this topic. I like your approach since it’s realistic and down-to-earth. It’s more about slow and steady, which is the best way, at least in my humble opinion
Thanks for writing this.
Lisa recently posted ..Punk Folk Music
Twitter: ChrystalMahan
says:
Mine has been screaming at me for well over 5 years now! Too bad I didn’t listen sooner! I know there is a lot to do to my blog. I have a list that I seem to add to every day. I admit, I don’t know much about my stats and don’t really check them. I try to do SEO/keyword stuff, but again, for me, right now it is more of a time issue. I know I need to, but right now I am just doing good to get content up! I just keep telling myself “once I am done with school, once I am done with school” and since I really didn’t start monetizing my blog until this year, I think I am doing ok.
Congrats Angie! You have been such an inspiration (not to mention, extremely helpful with all of my questions!)
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I have always found your advice to be very down-to-earth and I appreciate that, and you give practical & helpful tips. It’s encouraging to know that you are beginning to make a profit from what you are doing with your blog.
I will check out some of your suggestions!
Thanks!
Jeanine
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Thanks for all the great info. I had not thought of my blog as a money-maker and am now beginning to understand SEO and keywords. Finding the keywords people actually search for has been the biggest challenge for me. I think I nearly go it!
I love your comment about content being king and SEO being queen. I’m trying to marry those two in while blogging about a business service versus blogging for ad money. We’ll see how fruitful this union is
Terese recently posted ..Transcription- Did I Hear That Correctly
Great advice! I am making money blogging, but not like you. I need to promote, promote, promote!
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What a wonderful post, thank you! I started my blog back in December and I do plan on making a living on it one day, once I have grown my traffic to a comfortable point. So far, it’s going great, and I am definitely going to pay better attention to my traffic to amp up on where I am receiving the most results.
I’m with Chrystal, I don’t check my stats all that often as I just do not have the time. I need about 36 hours in my day to get through everything that I should be.
This post definitely helps me know where I should be looking. now, to be able to do this so much quicker!
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Twitter: thewahwife
says:
We will cover some easy stats tomorrow, Sharon.
Good post Angie! I hope I can report the same increase in sales and traffic this time next year!
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