I frequently receive emails and calls from people who want to make the leap into online marketing. They have grandiose dreams of blogging their way to fortunes. They have hopes and dreams of finding riches through internet marketing.
As I read these emails or speak to these people, my mind pictures the young hopeful actress staring at the Hollywood sign or the hopeful gambler walking into a Vegas casino. They are eager, hopeful, and a bit unprepared.
How Do You Start a Blog and Make Money?
In some ways it is easy. Just sign up for a free WordPress.com account and start writing. In others ways, it can be daunting. The ability to find suitable subject matter, discover your inner voice, and simply find the time to sit down and write is more challenging than many may expect.
I believe the success rate depends a lot on the individual, their personality, and their ability to plan and execute. You don’t stumble into successful blogging.
Making real money through blogging requires dedication. It is something you work at, a skill you craft, and a process that takes planning and execution.
A Lesson From Katie
This weekend I met a woman named Katie. When I inquired about her work and personal life, Katie told me she was a blogger. I assumed Katie had a personal blog about knitting, cooking, or some other topic women blog about.
When I returned to my hotel room, I looked up Katie’s blog and I started to investigate it and her overall online presence. Katie didn’t just have a blog, she had a brand and a marketing machine. Katie was a marketing machine.
Katie launched a health blog and she talks about everyday wellness topics. Her blog is very successful. Katie’s Facebook page has over a hundred thousands likes and any single blog post is shared or liked on Facebook thousands of times. Her mailing list is huge and she has daily traffic volumes that big brands can only dream about.
You might ask yourself how Katie did it. How did a regular mom turn writing into a successful business? Katie just did it. She didn’t make excuses and she didn’t allow life to distract her. Katie took life into her own hands.
Justifying Our Lack of Success
Before you start comparing yourself to Katie, let me stop you. Don’t start thinking about how busy your life is and how many distractions you have each day. Clear your mind and let me tell you a little more about Katie.
Katie is married and she has five small children. Katie also home schools her children. If you are a parent, you know that five small children take a lot of time, love, and nurturing. This is especially true if you were a good parent. And by all respects, Katie appeared to be a very good parent.
But Katie did it. She created a blog and she found success and she had a business that was profitable. She was generating money through her blog and I’m betting a lot of it. She did all of it without compromising her home life or her family.
I couldn’t help but ask Katie how she did it. I’ve been blogging for a very long time and I still couldn’t help being in awe of Katie. She was an anomaly in a sea of wannabe bloggers.
After I complimented her on her amazing achievements, I asked how often she publishes fresh content on her blog. She quickly stated that she posts a new blog post three times a week. And they’re good blogs of substance and length, not some piece of thin content she scraped from another website. I was dumbfounded. I know the level of commitment and time it takes to write three solid blog posts each week.
Katie said she has a stand up desk and she holds her baby in a sling and bounces her to sleep while she types along on her computer. She does this all while the older children are doing their schoolwork. She didn’t sacrifice her children’s health, education, or emotional wellbeing for writing, she just found a way to fit it all in. From what I could tell, humble Katie did so with grace.
Life is About Choices
Each day we make conscious and unconscious decisions about what we will or will not do. Some decisions are positive and they propel us forward. Some decisions are really excuses that masquerade as decisions. These excuses thrust us into a backwards motion and keep us from achieving our goals and finding the success we crave. They sabotage our life and hijack our dreams.
Over the years I’ve found entrepreneurs fall within one of two buckets. The type A, overachievers are in a constant pursuit of their goals and they actively work to achieve them. The other group finds themselves distracted, they overcommitted themselves, and they rarely reach their objectives. Each have a pattern that is repeated time and time again.
I’m not sure why an individual falls into one of these buckets, but they do and I see it everywhere.
Changing Your Pattern is Changing Your Destiny
Regardless of your origins, you carve your path in life and you are in control of your destiny. You decide to be Katie and find your inner strength, focus, and discipline or you decide to make excuses. You decide whether or not you will be a success or a failure. You decide to embrace opportunities that arise or you get scared and you run from them.
I’d like to say I was always a Katie. I wasn’t. I was an underachiever in grade school and I only made it through college due to looming student loan payments. I left college with a business degree and a massive amount of debt. I didn’t have a job lined up and I most certainly didn’t have a plan.
Then one day, something changed. I found a temp job through a staffing agency and I had my first opportunity in the business world. I excelled. I didn’t just do the job they asked, I was a sponge who learned everything I could. I embraced the technology around me, the business culture, and when the CFO made an effort to mentor me I listened. I worked 60 and 70-hour weeks to get things done. I was promoted and I given more and more responsibility.
It was a magical moment where I learned I was in control of my destiny. I learned I could not only set goals, I could achieve them. This was an epiphany to me. I knew I could not only support myself, I could be CEO mommy if I wanted. And eventually I did. Or my I became my own version of CEO mommy.
Just Do It
Whether you are an individual who wants to start blogging for affiliate revenue or a business owner who wants to fill your sales funnel with internet based leads – just do it.
I mean really do it.
Don’t just jump in – set objectives, goals, and make a plan. Then execute the plan each and every day.
You’ll go from avoiding writing to seeing opportunities for content all around you. You’ll be excited for a three-hour plane ride that affords you time to write and create. You’ll discover blogging really works and it can bring in real revenue.
You will discover that you are in control of your destiny and you can change your future.
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