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With the recent rise in popularity of blog posts and social media, many people are wondering if blogging can be a full-time job. There are a few reasons why blogging may not be the best option for some people to make money as a part-time or full-time job.
Today we will discuss what it takes to create a successful blog and whether or not blogging is right for you along with can blogging be a full time job?
Becoming a full time blogger is a viable career path if you are willing to put in the time and effort to jump start it. Most bloggers will begin with a full time job while building their blog part time, as the blog grows you reach a point where blogging makes more than the day job and they transition.
For many who have researched blogging the idea that you could write online and get paid for that writing seems quite daft. The things is that it is incredibly difficult for many to make it due to the timeline and that you can put in years before being paid.
Your first issue will be that you need is the ability and time for writing, which many people don’t have these days with work or family commitments! Blogging can be done on your own schedule but it does require some discipline in order not get distracted by other things.
Why Blogs Are An Excellent Option for a Full Time Income
Blogs are perfect as a full time job due to the flexible schedule and because you can work from home. Blogs also provide you the chance to explore your passions, which can then grow into a business for serious bloggers!
Blogging is considered as an acceptable career path by many people now, due in large part to the pandemic. The ability to bring in some consistent income when you lose your permanent employment can save you.
Why Blogging Isn’t An Excellent Option for Full Time Income
Blogs can be a poor choice for full time employment if you need money fast, this is due to the fact that it can take time for blogs to make any money, many times at least a year or longer.
Blogs also don’t allow you the chance of climbing up in an organization, and there is no guarantee your blog will bring a consistent stream income either!
Additionally, many view blogging as “passive” but this simply isn’t the truth as blogging requires consistent work and effort to grow through writing and engaging with your visitors.
How Do Blogs Build or Gain Traffic?
Blog traffic is built through content creation and additionally with focused promotion, which means you need to first focus on writing high quality, engaging content that will attract visitors and be worth it for someone else to link to it.
Additionally blog traffic can be boosted through both organic and paid promotion efforts like PPC (pay per click) advertising, Pinterest, YouTube, or search engine optimizations done directly on your content to rank higher.
Many will approach this with a mix of the above as Google ranking has been known to take months or longer for any new site this has been from 6-12 months if you don’t get external links.
How Do Blogs Make Money?
There are many ways you can make an income from a blog, but the most popular ways are affiliate marketing and blogging as a freelancer.
Affiliate marketing is where you write content and create links to other people or companies products where you get a portion of the sales depending on your pre-agreed to contract.
Blogging as a freelancer is when you are writing for someone elses’ blog, basically being paid per word or post completed on a topic. Many times this will be as a ghostwriter where the content is listed as written by the blog owner instead.
Additionally, many bloggers will create their own information based product(s) focused on an idea they have within their niche in order to sell it to visitors and to keep all of the income rather than just a portion through an affiliate link.
There are more monetization options available with the most common after these being course based, membership based, and other similar ways to add even more value to any visitor who should come to your site.
How To Become Successful
There are a range of things which will determine your success or failure in blogging, you can’t just hope to be successful. You need some form of plan, ideally one which you know will work for your niche and audience so that it’s not a shot in the dark.
You don’t want to have an idea without any depth behind why this is going to succeed where others haven’t before with similar ideas.
Focus on Building With Love & Enjoyment
Find a topic to blog on that you truly love or enjoy as this will give your blog a level of passion and enjoyment which is hard to find in the blogging world as well as keep you engaged creating content longer.
Blogging shouldn’t be something you do because it’s an easy way make money, or just another thing on top if everything else that needs doing around home, it is best when it comes from somewhere deeper inside yourself.
Just because a niche makes bigger commission won’t mean that it is the best niche for you to blog about. Many times this leads to creation and death of a blog you never really put effort into and could lead to burnout.
Josh
If your heart isn’t in what’s coming out of those fingertips, then nothing will really change as a result with how well (or not so much) this whole blogging thing works!
Acknowledging Blogging is Hard Work
Blogging is not easy and simple work, if you choose to be successful you will need to work hard for it. It’s just simply not a money printer, anytime you see videos of people with money guns are sure signs to run from their bad advice.
Be careful to look at people online who want to sell you a way to “get rich quickly” in blogging, or honestly any other business. These people are only in this to con you and to make your money theirs, they have no care to ensure you have any chance at success.
Josh
You have to be consistent in writing, researching, and publishing. You have to be constantly learning and honing your skills in order for the blog posts that you write will stand out from other bloggers who are writing about similar topics
You need a plan, strategy or game plan if blogging is going full time because it takes more than just an impulse decision!
##5c) This is NOT a Blog About You (AKA Stop Making it Personal)
This may be one of the hardest things for a new blogger to understand, but your blog is not about you and what you want to write as this is the key way to fast track the end of your blog.
Instead it is a platform to share your thoughts, ideas and perspective on things that matter for your visitors who are reading it while aligning these topics to search terms people use in Google.
If you choose to write about you and what you think people are interested in you will find that you have near no search traffic and will be another of a long line of dead websites online, declare blogging as “impossible” to make money from, and quit.
Instead make your focus to align to search needs of your visitors and write content that will answer these questions and, when possible, add more value through answering what their next question would be or link to a product to solve their pain.
Mindset For Success: You Prefer Competition
Earlier this year I tried to target a niche that had nearly zero blogs in it, I thought that was going to be a sure sign for success, boy howdy was I wrong. Instead it just got no traffic other than what YouTube videos pushed over to it, this was a sure sign of failure to evaluate for competition.
Instead there was no blogs because there was NO TRAFFIC, and when you check niches you should be looking for competition and not always for a empty niche.
Competition is a sure sign that there is traffic and that people like to read independent blogs for information, whether to learn more about a topic or to possibly influence their purchasing decisions.
This is why I lean so hard on a Traffic Estimation Study prior to building out a blog to see what other blogs exist and to use estimation tools like ads to get a understanding of the monthly traffic that exists.
This doesn’t mean that no blogs means that the niche isn’t worth it, it just means that it is a possible crack and you should spend even more time understanding if it is valuable to write in prior to expending the effort in a losing battle.
Blogging IS a Business
Many bloggers don’t approach their blog as a real, functional business, instead they have what they call a “hobby blog” that they do for fun. I would say that you should instead learn to call this a business and that you also enjoy it as a hobby in addition.
I’ve read many posts by bloggers who say, “my goal is to make this my full-time job.” In reality it doesn’t work out like this. While most people think about just writing a blog an online business owner will need to go far beyond just blogging.
You need to learn to manage your costs, understanding outgoing versus incoming expenses and what you need to reach your break-even point, where you are neither losing nor incurring more expense.
You also need to be strategic with your content generation and marketing, paying careful attention to not just what you want but also that which is of interest for your visitors in addition.
It’s all a balancing act between giving something away, like content, versus getting paid and learning how to price appropriately.
As a blogger you should have, or be able to, set goals for your blog. You might want to set goals for how much money you’d like to make from your blog each month, like $1,000 per month or 1 million page views by the end of this year.
Additional goals could be aligned to other metrics like how many bloggers you would like to connect with and/or collaborate with, such as connecting with 10 other bloggers this upcoming year.
Learn Promotion and How to Network
To grow into a strong blog with returning readers you will need to have a focus on building up site promotion and networking in your niche or topic. This is how you become more “known” for what you do and build your readership.
Blog promotion can be hard work and sometimes not glorious, but the rewards are worth it when done correctly. Some of the most common methods to promote are listed below:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) should always be a focus as this drives consistent, free, traffic.
- Email Marketing should be a heavy focus on your site to capture contact details so you can remarket later with sales or course releases.
- Social media promotion of blog posts or special offers for products/services offered by businesses with meaningfully related.
- Reaching out to other blogs within your niche to collaborate and share content with other bloggers.
- Performing outreach to find podcasts, interviews, and guest posts when you are able to offer something in return just don’t force linking as this is more to build your name in the industry.
If you are starting from scratch, the best way a beginner blogger can promote their blog is to focus on answering questions on Quora, FB groups while also providing a link for more detailed information, and on social media like Pinterest and Twitter without being too annoying or spammy.
Figure Out Your Monetization Methods
There are a long list of ways to monetizing your content, the most common way is to use affiliate links. The less common ways are to sell your own info products, physical products, courses, memberships, and then you can add on things like sponsored posts or promoting other people’s services.
Things that can be used for monetization include things like the following:
- Display Advertising (Ezoic, and many other options)
- Affiliate Marketing (Amazon, Avantlink, ShareASale, CJ, and so many more)
- Sponsored Posts
- Selling Info(Digital) and/or Physical Products
- Freelance Work (Providing Service for Faster Cash)
- Coaching (Niche Related Options Aplenty)
Now that you have an idea for what content is going into your blog post you can now figure out how much it will cost per month if this was a business venture to stay afloat and build monetization to this figure.
I love using display advertising for my sites as it is passive and happens as long as you have traffic, whereas with affiliate products you are always needing to manage to ensure product lines don’t close or become sold out.
Income Variability Is Inevitable
Over the lifetime of your blog you will come to learn there is a feast and famine time for many websites, it’s near unavoidable, and it always will be something to prepare for ahead of time.
The best way to prepare for this is by focusing on fundamentals like saving as much of your blog income each month when you are doing well so that if times get tough then there’ll still be money available.
For those who haven’t had to manage budgets or are just starting I would HIGHLY suggest reading and following the Profit First mentality as this will keep you viable when other businesses fail in times of spending famine.
Amazing Levels of Patience
Building a blog is not going to get you to retirement tomorrow, in fact it may be a year or two or five! You need to look at blogging as a long term commitment of your time and energy.
It will take each person a different length of time than others, the important thing to focus on and keep in mind is that it’s not about what you can accomplish today or this month.
Due to this time commitment I would recommend you start your blog TODAY, I have a full free post on building your affiliate blog or you can dive into courses by Income School or Matt Giovanisci if you need more guidance.
Josh
Building a blog takes perseverance and above all patience! Most successful bloggers I have met are still working on their blogs every day, even after being around for years and while they are making money from them already.
Unfortunately, this just doesn’t work like flipping burgers, where once someone has mastered how-to flip a burger you can simply move onto greener pastures without flipping burgers anymore.
Being A Blogger is Fun
Choosing to become a blogger is fun, exciting, rewarding, and challenging so you shouldn’t hide from it and you should enjoy learning. Not many businesses you could choose to start are incredibly low cost, require no previous knowledge, and allow for you to work where you want.
Incredibly Inexpensive to Start
As to business costs to begin, a blog is potentially one of the cheapest start-ups you could choose. Technically, the minimum requirements to become a blogger is a computer or other method to access to the internet, a Basic Shared Hosting package with WordPress, and the time to start writing content.
So while there are many other more expensive businesses that require thousands or more up front for equipment with no guarantee this isn’t necessarily true when becoming an online business owner.
Requires No Previous Knowledge (Learn on the Go)
One of the benefits to blogging is you don’t need to be an expert in any of the parts to be successful overall, with hosting you get support to ensure you get your website up and running and then you can dive into learning your niche.
Some of the best content is aimed at beginners so you can start from the ground up, and it’s a great way to get your feet wet in blogging. Writing to people who are interested in a topic like yourself will help you be on common ground with them and you will speak in ways they will understand!
Freedom to Work Anywhere and Anytime
The best thing about being a blogger is that you can work anywhere and anytime, and it’s a really great feeling to know that you’re in charge of your own business.
You can set up anywhere, as long as you are able to relax and think the scenery is up to you! Since I live in Texas a lot of the time I love to work outside and sit by the pool letting the feet cool while enjoying all that nature has to give me in Vitamin D on the deck.
Why I Personally Love Blogging
I like to think of it as a way to let loose all the thoughts my ADHD brain launches all day at me, it is a way to let things that bounce around free from consuming my mental energies and may help others which is amazing!
The other reason I appreciate and love blogging is that I can build up a site and income while working full time and not have to start when in a stressful time without employment as blogging isn’t a way to fast income, nor passive income.
When blogging is described as “passive” income I cringe as there is NOTHING about blogging that is passive, in the end you are still paid for your work efforts, just unlike employment is isn’t an exact tradeoff of work hours for income.
This means that you can continue to be paid for hours of work you put in days, weeks, and years ago. It is this part that leads people to call it “passive income” but this is truly a misnomer and not true as your site without work will slowly decline.
How Many Hours Do I Work on my Blogs Each Week?
On average I think I put in nearly two or three hours per day across my blogs, while this may seem like it is a huge commitment, it is, but I don’t watch television and have swapped out that time for constructive working time.
This is how I continue to work on building content across a platform worth of niche websites, I like to have a large variety of sites to ensure I stay safe from a Google Algorithm update which could always instantly drop a site.
I have added tools in recent times to help me use this time even more wisely than I did before as I now use Frase.io to build outlines based on the competition, and for many of the niche sites I have started to supplement with Conversion.ai to add more content faster.
With these newer tools I believe I can continue to publish 1-2 blog posts daily without outsourcing content, when adding in the outsourcing this could mean moving to 15+ posts per week, or 780 unique posts per year!
Can You Make Money While Blogging While Working at a Full-Time Job?
I have been learning and growing in building blogs over nearly the last two years, I have worked full time this entire time while finding out how I can make this process work for me and build up income.
There is nothing stopping you from gaining a supplementary income in addition to your full-time job as this is how MANY bloggers will work for years, it cuts down on stress and allows you better time to write high quality content.
So with my last income report I was at roughly $1000 in income from my websites alone without my normal job, this money I use currently to reinvest into my sites with content, savings, and to pay myself an income as I am learning to follow the Profit First methodology.
Final Thoughts on Full Time Blogging
I honestly believe in todays world that everyone should be blogging to supplement their incomes over time, the thing is that there is no immediate validation of your work which leads many to quit long before the best part comes.
Don’t get me wrong I have made bad sites in the last two years but it is the ability to persevere that leads people to success, there are always people who are happier to work for someone else than to work FOR themselves.
My end all goal is to get myself freedom from the daily 9-5 grind before I would have by the typical employment scheme, I have seen too many people let go before they can retire to save the company money and I refuse to let that be me too.
If you are over 18 reading this then you can be your own boss faster if you begin today starting building your first niche site, learning to write for search engines while directly answering questions for visitors. Check out my long post on building a site, if you need hand holding to learn then jump into Project 24 today.
