few blog post back I talked about Blogging for Money – The Basics. I list three basic things you need to make a blog successful: Time, Work, and Knowledge.
I have discusses Time already in Blogging for Money – Time, now it is time to discuss work. Most people would think work would be a simple subject in blogging. Work is just writing blog posts everyday. Right? Wrong!
It takes a lot of work to create, design, tweak, write, promote, and learn the art of blogging. If you think throwing a blog up and make one post a day is going to make you rich and famous you are dreaming and need to wake up. Blogging is work, it might not be the same kind of work as slaving away in a retail store or doing the same job day in and day out on a production line in manufacturing, but it really is WORK.
A blog is created in stages. First you need a domain name. Sounds easy, but you could try twenty different domain names and all of them are taken already. You also need a domain name that hopefully gives a clue as to what the blog is going to be about.
Second you need web hosting. Sounds easy again, but not shopping around will cost you a lot of money or you could also end up with a web host that really isn’t suited for blogging. Lets face it, if the web host doesn’t offer blogging software and custom packages aimed at bloggers, can they really be a good choice?
I use:
Yeah, call it what you will, but yeah this blog survives on ads. Actually I do use them and recommend them. Not because I make money referring people but because I have tried many others over the years and right now they work well for blogging. Since they offer domain registration, hosting, and WordPress installed and updated with hosting, you really can’t beat it. Plus it is super easy to setup and cancel stuff online without having to talk to a person who will do everything they can to keep you paying for someone you don’t want. Ok, now I will get off my soapbox.
Once you get WordPress installed, you need a design theme, free or pay for one. Then you have to tweak it to look like you want. Once you get to that point you need to fluff it so you have the categories, links, ads, and header all setup the way you want. Yeah, only four sentences for something that can take a couple of weeks. Fluffing your first blog isn’t easy. You still have to decide on plugins, and all kinds of details.
Once you get the basic setup done, yes that was all just for the basic setup of the blog, you can then start posting. Thinking of posting as your lifeline, think of it as an evil, whichever you want just remember if you don’t post once to your blog everyday “God will kill a kitten”. I mean it too.
Yeah! You have it setup in the basic way. Now you can build links, tweak the setup, find new topics to discuss, and throw a lot more details in the mix. Posting one blog post a day isn’t going to cut it. You have to promote, tweak, and blow your own horn to get traffic, useless you are already rich and can afford to buy all the traffic you want. If that is the case why are you here wasting your time blogging for money???
Now on top of all this you still have a regular job you have to go to 40 hours a week or more. You know the place, “That God forsaken hell hole” you normally call it every morning as you crawl out of bed. You also having a loving family watching you go insane while you work and work on blogging, they also want attention from you.
Are you convince that blogging is real work yet? People often look at the money and that is all they see, but blogging is work. Once you do get the basics done on your new blog, you have to repeat a lot of things daily and weekly to create a blog worth coming to by people.
I have often told people what a normal day is like for me, most don’t believe it because they still work a 40 hour job at a dead end company waiting to die at work. If you think this still isn’t work then you need to follow my daily schedule for a few months.
A normal day for me goes like this:
- Force myself out of bed and to the computer.
- Spend one hour or so creating works of fiction.
- Shower. Eat. Clean house.
- Answer email.
- Check website stats (I have over 35 websites at the moment).
- Answer more email.
- Read RSS feeds to which I subscribe, currently over 300.
- Return all my phone calls.
- Fill all the orders for my retail business which came in over the last 24 hours.
- Go to post office.
- Think about lunch.
- Tweak products, prices, coupons, sales, and such for retail business. Also add any new products.
- Check advertising campaigns for retail business. Tweak.
- Answer any email that has come in since morning.
- Work on building links to blogs.
- Work on tweaking blogs, adjusting ads, thinking about posts.
- Write posts for blogs.
- Answer any comments on blogs.
- Forget about dinner and crash because it is 2am already.
That is pretty much my daily list and has been for a while now. Before I was blogging I use to spend a lot more time writing and editing.
Don’t let anyone fool you, blogging is work. It is damn hard work. If you want to make a living blogging it is even harder work.
How do you get through all this work? The best way I have found is to prioritize you blogging and the rest of your life. When it comes to blogging, do what you need to do everyday first.
- First thing you need to do is write posts. Post everyday to your blog.
- Second answer any comments that people post.
- Third check stats and tweak blog design.
- Fourth work on promoting your blog.
- Fifth learn all you can about blogging and how other people are doing it.
You goal is to always get everything done, but always do what you need to do everyday first so if you have to slack off on something it won’t hurt you as bad later.
Now if the work doesn’t kill you, maybe just maybe in a year or so, you will be making enough money from your blog to quit your day job. Then you will really have time to get deep into blogging.
You are probably wondering that it sounds like I hate blogging. I actually love writing and blogging, but you needed to hear the truth. Most people will see blogging as hard, very hard work, but I don’t. I don’t see it as work at all because I love writing. I’m doing what I love which is writing and to me that isn’t work.
If you can work your ass off blogging for six months, make posts daily, go with out sleep, stress over stats, work long hours without making a dime the first in six months then you will make it as a blogger.
Similar Posts: