I am convinced that many of you have asked yourself the question is it worth keeping blogging?
Three years ago I asked myself this question as well and answered positively: “yes, I want to run my blog”, and a year later I said: “yes, I want to have my podcast.”
It was not an easy decision back then, and it was filled with a lot of doubts and fears.
What frightened me the most and what did I not want to experience the most in the future?
What was I supposed to write about? Who was I supposed to write to? How to answer? And the most difficult thing is how to ask readers and listeners what they want to read and listen to?
At first, they all have the same doubts. In the beginning, that is, when they have not yet started.
And here I will tell you the first secret.
“You just have to start.”
It is worth it and it is necessary because as you follow this path, you begin to reap the fruits of your work. Fruits of a different nature, such as satisfaction, recognition, authority, knowledge, experiences, and finally there will appear some specifics, i.e. money.
Does blogging require a lot of work?
Beginnings are always difficult.
We ask ourselves what to write about and it probably takes the most time.
Then we ask ourselves how to write. When our first text is written, after reading the content, we find that it is hopeless.
And that’s the truth, if someone was not born with the gift of writing, he has to learn a lot.
It’s best to learn by writing your texts.
However, there is nothing to be discouraged about.
Nowadays, the Internet comes to the rescue with a range of tools that will help you write, edit and enrich your posts with various media.
Well, today you can even find artificial intelligence-assisted programs that will propose the blog title themselves, write blog content and subtitles, optimized for SEO, and what’s more, even promote this blog on the Internet.
You can go this way. I do not recommend such a method, but it does not hurt to try these tools, but just try them.
Blogger’s second secret.
Nothing in practice will attract the reader more than a real, authentic text written by us, “from the heart” and embellished with our comments.
If it were otherwise, there would not be so much knowledge in the field of copywriting or storytelling, and content creators, the best ones, would not earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Remember something you know about yourself. Readers will quickly distinguish between authentic and automatically created text.
Okay, now it’s time for some answers.
How to create content for blogging?
Whether it’s for a blog, podcast, or newspaper article, creating content takes a lot of work. Work, or rather study, because every time we start to discover something new, we realize that we don’t know everything about a subject.
I mean the content, the content we are working on, and getting to know the workshop of Internet creators.
It’s about choosing your favorite tools from a huge range of tools to create an effective and visible post for readers.
For this you need to understand and learn how our competition works and, probably, what is the most difficult, learn to write. Writing to interest, intrigue, and engage the reader.
For me, it takes from one to two weeks to write a text of around 2,500 words. Why so long? Please note that I am focusing on specialized content.
The process of blogging an article.
The process is more a less as follows :
- Preparation of the concept of the content, thinking about the thesis of the text. Sometimes the idea is born for weeks. Some writing schools teach how to create a content thesis while writing, but we still need to know what we want to convey to the reader.
- Collecting materials, often confirming their value in several sources
- Writing a text, often in several versions.
- Preparation of keywords.
- Editing the text. This is the most difficult stage, but also the most interesting. We see how the final product is born.
- Creating an entry on the website (I use WordPress )
- Creating tags, and correcting the content for SEO. I use the Yoast plugin to help me prepare my post systematically.
- Publishing the content, but then more …
- Preparation of social media campaigns ( LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook / Meta, Pinterest), who likes what.
- Preparing an email for a group of regular readers (mail list) – is the most important element from the perspective of image building. And finally…
- Reply to content comments that typically appear in the first days after posting.
As you can see, it is not a “milk porridge”, it requires a lot of work.
The less time we have for these tasks, because, for example, we work or take care of the house at the same time, the more time it takes to create content that satisfies us.
How to improve your writing?
Some bloggers create content in one-two days, but they are people who have mastered the technique of proverbial perfection. I am not one of them and I do not have such ambition.
I have another idea for that, which I will share later on on “scaling”.
However, I would like to help you if it interests you and share some training that has helped me on this path and that will certainly help you.
Darek Puzyrkiewicz is a great place to learn (in Polish).
It was quite a long introduction, but in my opinion, it perfectly shows what are the “costs” of creating an image and an Internet character. A lot of work.
Now let’s move on to what is most interesting. Let’s collect crumbs of information that will show what is the profit from blogging or a podcast.
Do I need to be recognizable to start blogging?
No, no, no. Not in the beginning. Everything will come with time.
I know from experience that it is exactly the opposite.
If you’re starting to create your website, and I assume most people do it because they want to share their passion, you’ll see something amazing sooner than later.
As you work on blogging, your authority will rise and grow. I mean readers, comments, and perhaps citations over time. Other sites will start linking their content to yours.
How will you know when your authority grows?
This can be measured on the Internet.
I will share my metrics with you:
- New customers – If you have a mailing list, you will start counting new subscribers for subscriptions to new articles.
- Comments – Easily differentiate regular readers from new ones. Content commenting support tools will help you systematize such data. Here, by the way, you can verify that regular readers are interested in the new article.
- Positive opinions and reactions – that’s what every blogger loves. When I first saw an entry praising what I do and how I do it, instead of a comment, I felt great joy and power in myself. See for yourself how pleasant it is.
- Google positioning – you can connect the Google Kit (I use the Google Site Kit) to the website. It is a mine of knowledge about what customers read, how long they read, and what Google is positioning because with keywords with our content we hit the top of the answer in the search for readers.
- Contracts – that is, MONEY. I write about this later. I started to measure the success of my blogging and podcast, and the number of contracts I signed for consulting services.
- Purchased training, articles, e-books, etc. – this is another element, the most important in the pyramid of building passive earnings on a blog. About this later as one of the scaling elements.
These are just a few pieces of data that proved to me, and now it shows you that blogging allows you to build a reputation and position in your niche.
There are, of course, several conditions that must be met.
- The first is authenticity. In times of increasing digital competition, distinctive authenticity is immensely valuable.
- The second is honesty and openness.
- The third is regularity, with which many artists (including me) have a problem.
What to write a blog about to be read?
This is an important question that scares many people. Unnecessarily, because the answer is trivial.
I have a simple answer.
In the beginning, it is worth writing about what you are passionate about, about what you are sincerely interested in.
Why at the beginning? Because after your first successes, you will see that a blog, or rather blogs, can be created on various topics.
The smaller the niche you attack, the smaller the economies of scale. Over time, you will feel hungry for development in other areas, based on the proven model of reaching audiences.
For example, I specialize in mobile networks. It is very specialist knowledge and although everyone uses a mobile phone, there are few recipients of this subject.
However, I started with this area, because it is my passion and I feel good about it. I am easy to navigate in terms of knowledge, I have a large number of friends, and I know many companies.
However, I have a plan to create another blog, one that will reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of recipients. It will cover more general topics. But silence about it, it is my sweet secret.
Why create more blogs?
To create a business that will allow you to earn passive income. Experience and workshops from the current blog are easy to scale to another area.
I can already see the questions in your head.
“But I don’t know what to write about.”
Do you know why you are so afraid? Because you very likely haven’t tried it.
You have not sat down at the computer or notebook and you have not written down your thoughts that you think are interesting.
And it doesn’t take any effort to make a text wonderful and the greatest in the world. I have already mentioned, that what matters is what you write honestly.
And remember! The simpler and more direct the better.
What to do if we don’t know something about it? Do you write?
After you start writing the first, second text, you come to the wall and find:
” Where are you stupid pushing, you are not a guru !? “
I give you my word that you will think so and, what’s worse, throw the notebook into a corner and forget it.
And I can help you with that because I went this way myself and I dealt with it.
Another blogger’s secret.
Even if you don’t know everything, some people know even less than you do or want to see what you think about a topic. “
Boom! YES! YES!
And this is brilliant and very important information. This is the key to the door that says “no more doubts.”
After all, when writing about something, you do not have to write to experts, and it is probably not even worth it.
Will be writing to someone who needs your opinions or even some basic knowledge.
This stage will be followed by another stage which I liked.
Knowledge is a king.
You will start looking for more knowledge. This is a natural result of the willingness to broaden knowledge and share new information and DISCOVERIES with readers.
Yes, with discoveries, because deepening our knowledge allows us to discover new issues and make us aware of certain phenomena. We have deeper thoughts.
Due to my very technical niche, I delve into thousands of pages of telecommunications standards.
Recently, for a project for a client, I read thousands of pages of standards, analyzed dozens of websites of various organizations, and learned hundreds of opinions about the project.
And guess what?
After 3 months, I became a person who in this area can combine my client’s current technologies with 5G technology.
How did I measure it? Conversations with other experts.
Besides, I showed the client that there is a combination of his product with 5G in future standards. For the client, it is a kind of “treasure”.
I write it down in the notebook as another profit, an advantage of blogging. Willingness and ability to expand knowledge.
Oh, and I would forget. Such research allowed me to prepare (so far in my head) a few new topics for articles.
See? Here is a hint of the previous doubts. Reading and writing generate new ideas for articles.
Can blogging broaden your horizons?
Oh yes.
Since I started learning what to write about, how to write, how to create websites, and how to position them, I have expanded my knowledge to new areas.
- Writing knowledge. – I read a few books (links on the website), listened to hours of YouTube lectures, browsed many copywriters ‘ websites, and bought and passed a few online pieces of training (paid – because the investment in training pays off very quickly).
- Positioning of websites – after the first failures with the lack of readers, I started to drill down on this topic. This knowledge is like a wild river full of fish that must be tracked and caught regularly.
- Paid Ads Ads – at some point I wanted to buy an ad promoting my article. It ended with a few (paid) training, learning about a dozen or more tools, and finally … I found clients who needed my help – here too MONEY came.
- And a few other related ones.
Of course, not everyone approaches the topic in this way.
When we want to eat bread, we don’t build a bakery.
I do, however, and I think that sooner or later every blog creator notices that the Internet, or rather eCommerce, gives many opportunities to expand their knowledge and scope of activity.
In my opinion, this is another profit. We are growing. Our value increases.
What is worth inspiring when blogging?
This is another area that broadens our knowledge and horizons.
When we start writing, sooner or later we come across some characters, influencers who are kind of gurus.
For example, I came across Mirek Burnejko, who is fascinated by building companies in the Internet domain, training, and many other topics.
In the beginning, I approached Mirek at a distance. I thought he was just bragging.
Today I am starting to cooperate with him in some way and I am very much inspired by his ideas and the knowledge he shares.
Not only Mirek is a person I am inspired by. The list of such people grows with the time of searching for materials and learning.
Inspiration (unless of course, you are just coping) is another answer to the question of what to write about.
After reading an article, you can write your post with some thoughts.
You can also link to the inspirational article in your article. The author may repay the same in the future, and this is very valuable (genuine linkbacks).
Is blogging the only way to reach out to others?
Of course not.
There are many channels for reaching the audience.
- Instagram – graphics, carousels, rolls – mainly multimedia content, scrolling quickly
- TikTok – video channel, currently (2022) the best-growing channel,
- LinkedIn – is a great business channel. Here you can come into being with “serious” channels. Stupid crap and bullshit are not welcome.
- Facebook – own channel or blogging page or even application.
- Email List – Collection of a list of loyal listeners, readers, and regular email communication. One of the most important channels for the creator of digital products.
- Clubhouse? – gone with the wind. It promised to be interesting, but its form, open conversations in a wide group, burned out within a few months. I liked this channel very much because you could learn a lot of interesting things in an hour. The authors and commentators were happy to share.
Of the above channels, only LinkedIn and Facebook with their page are for blogging, where you can reach with a specific article.
The remaining channels are used to reach existing and new audiences.
This does not mean that they are bad channels. On the contrary. If you want to promote yourself without sharing your knowledge, you can set up a channel on TikTok and, for example, just like the famous Khabane lame comment on other channels.
You can show yourself, you can even earn money, but… it is not the same as sharing knowledge, conducting training, or creating a business based on selling products.
I do not depreciate these channels, on the contrary, I use them myself. Similar to other creators, I use them to promote my products, i.e. articles and consulting services.
How to make money on blogging?
Do you know how I make money on my channel?
I focused on building my authority. Have I been successful?
Yes, I did.
These are a few quotes from messages from my great audience.
“You are an opinion maker.”
Another example:
Hi Andrzej, I recently saw your speech in Elastic. I admit that I liked it, hmm … I don’t know how to describe it? You have evolved from a director to someone with purpose, inspiration, and a hobby! “
Marcin
This is wonderful news for someone who is building their “new world” in the media.
These are treasures that can be hugged to the heart and used as a motivation for further action.
Believe me, it took a lot of effort, but it paid off.
Marcin wrote that this is my hobby. It is rather a passion that drives me on all the time.
You are probably asking yourselves a question right now.
“Well, but how is fame, glory, opinion related to earning?”
The answer is simple.
Authority = money.
In my case, it translates into consulting contracts.
From the beginning of 2020, I participated in six contacts, earning on them per month as much as in the best earnings times in a good company, including an annual bonus.
I had to refuse a few contracts due to lack of time. I will write about it later because it allowed me to draw a very important conclusion when running my own business.
Recently, a friend asked me, how do you find contracts?
With this question, he made me realize something that did not reach me at first. Contracts “found me”. People start recommending me, they start talking about me.
These are recognition effects.
This is a reputation-building effect.
Can you only earn money on contract by blogging?
Of course not.
Working on consulting contracts is a great way to earn, develop, gain knowledge, and contacts, and stay up to date with the industry.
But what to do if, there will be two attractive contracts and we are alone?
If we’re lucky they are in different time zones, then you can somehow reconcile it. I had such a case in 2021, but I paid for it with a 14-18 hour working day, 7 days a week.
Was that what I meant?
Is that what you mean?
Not.
Therefore, it is very important to think about how to scale your own business, your blogging. The day has the same number of hours for each of us.
The answer is as old as business. I am talking about scaling.
How to scale blogging and business profits?
I have read a lot about ways to scale your business, scale your own company.
Finding a way to earn more money, solving more “THE SAME TIME” issues.
Exactly.
Each of us has the same amount of time, and some will earn PLN 5,000 for a month and others PLN 5,000,000.
Why? Because they understood that they can scale their knowledge, that is, multiply the good that we produce, deliver and sell.
How can I scale my blogging earnings?
There are several ways in which creators monetize their knowledge.
Newsletter
Creating a paid newsletter – for a fixed monthly or annual fee, we regularly provide the recipient with some information. In addition to news, you can share tips or comment on events in your industry.
How much can you earn?
If we value our product at PLN 240 a year (PLN 20 per month, which is as much as one lunch) and we get 100 readers, we will earn PLN 24,000. Now, let’s scale it up to 250 readers using channels like Email, Instagram, and TikTok. We will earn two and a half times more, PLN 60,000.
Not bad right? Check it out.
We create the same newsletter regardless of whether we have 1 or 250 clients. It is the same effort. What’s the difference in revenues? Huge. This is perhaps the simplest definition of scaling.
Of course, we have to take the time to get these 250 readers, but we have to do it once (well, almost once).
Well, we can still enlarge the recipient base and earn even more.
Training
Training can be carried out in various ways. Meeting in a room, where we will gather 10-20 listeners, we can also be online training, where we will be watched by, for example, 50 people.
Both pieces of training require the same amount of time from us to conduct the training itself. Of course, the cost and effort to prepare for such training are different.
It is easy to notice, however, that from the point of view of the teacher, it is better to train 50 people at one time than 20 (In the times of COVID is no longer a priority).
Now for the best part about training. If we do the same training, but as a recording in the form of many offline modules, to watch on a streaming platform, how many people can see the same training?
Exactly, in theory, an infinite number of people.
We can scale a single effort to create a training many times.
I will give you an example of one of the masters of training sales in this form.
Maciej Anisierowicz was able to sell the ” Legacy Fighter” training (training in the IT industry) in advance for PLN 2,080,307.61. And attention, the training is not cheap, because it costs PLN 1230!
All in all, he sold everything for PLN 3,981,887.
And there are also better sellers …
Do you feel this amazing scaling effect?
Of course, Maciej is not someone who starts. He has sold a lot of training with his crew and has a brand on the market.
And what prevents you from acquiring such skills and scaling the profits from your knowledge?
I will tell you what is standing in the way.
You alone and only you.
Ok, we’re going on.
Affiliations
Affiliations, i.e. earning money by selling products of other creators. If we advertise someone’s products, and thanks to our texts, someone clicks on the link with the product (we get our authorization link from the owner), we get a commission for the completed sale. Let it be 5%.
For example, let’s sell 10 Maciej training, which the client buys for PLN 1230. We will earn PLN 615 on this. Not bad right?
“Nothing special”? There it is because we didn’t have to create a product. If we realize that creating a description encouraging to buy is a one-time effort, we again find the features of scaling earnings on blogging.
Some geeks earn tens of thousands of dollars a month from affiliations. They only devote themselves to such an activity. They sign contacts and write, write, write and then advertise, advertise and advertise.
You can? You can.
In my opinion, it is more interesting than going to the production line to work every day, but not everyone thinks so, that’s why not everyone earns that much 😉
Scaling your business
Scaling up consulting services. Exactly, and how to scale the consulting services I offer today?
The solution to this is … to create a company and hire experts.
When we build a team, first we can take part in more contracts, but that’s not the most important thing.
In a team cooperation situation, we can take part in much more demanding projects. In projects that earn a lot more.
We set up our company.
Of course, running a business is a greater responsibility. We become an employer, we are responsible for people and their development.
But when the team works together and earns money, who knows, it might be possible to lead to one more scaling effect.
Maybe someone will see the value in you and buy a company for even more money?
This is the dream of many of my industry colleagues.
And some even set up a few companies and some sell …
I guess I drifted away from the blogging topic, right?
Oh yes, no. It is exactly as I am writing.
Let us go back to the beginning for a moment.
Is it worth making money blogging or on a podcast?
I already know you do. I am satisfied with what I have achieved and can achieve even more.
It’s time to scale …
I hope that I also convinced you to write something and show it off and maybe earn some money.
But did I persuade you? 😉
