Writing for Your Wealth

A few years ago, when I started trying to make money online, I was suffering from repetitive stress injuries, back pain, migraines, and other health issues that made it hard to spend more than an hour a day sitting at the computer. I was racking up credit card debt on visits to doctors who couldn’t identify the roots of my problems, but were happy to prescribe plenty of expensive pills that didn’t help.

I had gotten out of the army and returned to school, so I didn’t have any medical benefits. All I knew was that by the time I finished my degree, I needed to figure out a way to make a living, and with all those problems, the typical 9-5 desk job didn’t sound likely. I needed something I could do part-time that would be far more profitable than the average computer job. That’s what ultimately led me to blogging.

I’m not a big name blogger (and don’t particularly want to be), but I’ve managed to turn a part time pursuit into a full-time income. This whole blog is about sharing what I’ve learned (and what I’m continuing to learn), but I thought Darren Rowse’s “Killer Title” group writing project would be a good excuse to boil down some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned over the last few years.

So, without further ado, here are nine of my top “Success Secrets”:

9. Create a blog funnel to find your jewel

Every now and then when I’m browsing the blogosphere, I’ll see bloggers recommending people create one blog and stick with it until it is large and profitable. They should learn everything and be successful before they start any other sites.

If I’d followed that route, I’d probably be lucky to make $100 a month today. My first site–a history site–wasn’t exactly a big money maker. I signed up for the Amazon affiliate program, and after writing (er, speaking–I was using voice recognition software to write back then) thirty or forty articles for it, it made me a whopping 93 cents.

Inspired (amazingly) by that success, I got serious and spent time reading and lurking in webmaster forums. I learned more about what kinds of sites make money (and I learned that Adsense was a lot easier for me to make money with than Amazon!), and I started some other sites.

In fact, that first year, I ended up starting eight or ten sites.

The people who recommend sticking with one blog until it’s a success probably would have shaken their heads knowingly, certain I’d never make anything.

But here’s what I learned:

No matter how much you research, no matter how scientific your approach to analyzing a niche, no matter how much you think you love the topic you’ve picked, you can’t predict for certain which sites will take off.

Sometimes a chance link from a big name site will get you noticed and start a ball rolling. Sometimes the site that didn’t score well with keyword analysis tools will become so popular that it won’t matter that advertisers aren’t paying a fortune for clicks. Sometimes your interest will fizzle in a topic you thought you loved. Sometimes you’ll run out of things to write about.

In my opinion, there are too many “sometimes” to stake all your hopes for success on one site, at least in the beginning.

That doesn’t mean you have to start ten, but you may want to start three, four, or even five. Chances are you won’t end up keeping them all, and that’s okay.

Think of it like a funnel. Start a few sites, see which ones have potential, and then gradually weed out the ones that don’t excite you and aren’t making enough money to be worth the effort. Focus on the winners. Once you find a winner that may be the only site you need.

8. You don’t have to get everything right to win

Until I started this blog last month, I completely ignored social media. (Now I only almost completely ignore it). I’ve never “dugg” anything, and when my sites have been “Stumbled,” it wasn’t on account of anything I did.

This doesn’t mean I don’t think social media can’t be a great way to build up a site–it just means I’ve stayed away from it because of its potential as a time sink. (Because I’ve wanted to keep my work part-time all along, I’ve been pretty careful about techniques that can be time consuming.)

I’m sure I’m missing out on some potential traffic and profits, but I do enough things right overall that I’m able to make a nice living.

And that’s the point: you don’t have to get it all right or do everything the pros tell you in order to become successful with your sites and maybe even turn blogging into a full-time income stream.

On the other hand, if you try to follow every tactic recommended, you’ll probably feel overwhelmed. You also may find yourself frustrated when some take a lot of energy and don’t deliver much in the way of results.

If you just learn the basics of SEO and pick a few time-tested promotion techniques, you’ll probably end up doing better than the folks who try every new thing that comes down the pipe. There’s definitely such a thing as being spread too thin, which leads me to my next topic…

7. The 80/20 Rule applies to blogging for profit too

Pareto’s 80/20 Rule gets mentioned a lot in finance. According to Wikipedia, it originally referred to wealth distribution in Italy. A native economist, Vilfredo Pareto, noticed that 20% of the population had 80% of the wealth. He also noted that 20% of the pea plants in his garden produced 80% of the peas.

Others have found the rule applies in many areas of life, and 20% of their efforts account for 80% of their results.

The rule isn’t an exact science, and the ratio is often skewed even further (90/10, 99/1, etc.), but it may be something that can help you with your websites.

If you take a look at your advertising/affiliate reports, you’ll probably find that certain pages convert a lot more often (and make a lot more money) than others. And it’s worth studying your traffic logs too. if you’ve worked to get ten links to your site from different sources, you may find that one or two bring in the majority of the traffic.

By looking at your stats, you can figure out which topics are the most profitable and which traffic generation methods are the most lucrative. Focusing on those areas more (and the others less) can go a long ways toward increasing your bottom line and making you more efficient with your time.

6. Plain and simple sites are all it takes

I’ve only had two blogs professionally designed, and one is a site for short stories (not for profit). For the most part, I’ve stuck with free templates that are simple in the extreme.

Simple sites just do so well for me.

I think it’s because blogs are busy by nature. You’ve got menus full of links, pictures, widgets, polls, and lots of other things to distract from the article (and the ads). If you’re hoping to make money with something like Adsense or affiliate programs–things that require people to notice the links and click them–a very simple page without the eye candy can perform better.

Your sites don’t have to be ugly, but if getting clicks or a newsletter signup is the ultimate goal, think before you stick widgets all over the page. Also make sure that whatever action you want the visitor to take is readily apparent (not buried beneath the fold or under a bunch of other flashy stuff).

Don’t be afraid to keep the layout simple.

5. Substance is crucial for long-term success

I’m always surprised by the people who bother creating spammy sites, or start blogs that just republish feeds from other blogs. There’s absolutely no reason why someone would bookmark that site or subscribe to the feed. There’s no reason someone would recommend that kind of site to a friend.

You can get some search engine traffic through article marketing, or publishing and pinging frequently, or even buying links, but in the end you really need some human beings to like your site (and link to it and share it with others) for it to grow to any level of lasting success.

Write valuable, original content. More than that, try to write content that isn’t already available out there. It’s hard–there are a lot of bloggers out there these days!–but try to be a thought leader instead of a follower.

4. “Purple Cow” posts get links naturally

A lot of people (including myself!) advocate publishing quality content, but it’s entirely possible to write good information that’s not at all remarkable. A purple cow, as term-coiner Seth Godin notes, is remarkable. If you saw one, you’d talk about it. Chances are you’d blog about it too.

Bloggers are always looking for new things to write about–especially the bloggers who are committed to creating content every day, so they’re just hoping they’ll stumble across those quirky cows. Then they can write about them, and in that writing it’s natural for them to include a link back to the original story.

That story can be yours.

You don’t have to make every article remarkable (it’s hard to do that all the time), but every now and then try to find a story that will interest your readers and will catch the attention of other bloggers.

Back in the day, my home and garden blog first started getting notable traffic after a link from Gizmodo. I don’t remember what funky home gadget I’d written about, but it’s a forgone conclusion they weren’t linking to my article on septic tanks.

Remarkable stories get links. (And when you get a link from one of the big boys, you often get links from other sites who watch the big boys and will cover the same story for their audience.)

3. Pick topics that are fun or fulfilling but don’t bother if there’s no profit potential

I definitely have an idealistic streak and would like to say that you can make it simply by following your passions, but the world is full of bankrupt people who thought their passion alone would lead them to success.

I do feel it’s important to get gratification (and hopefully enjoyment) out of the work you do, but don’t just assume that your greatest passion will translate into a profitable blog or products.

I generally recommend you make a list of five or ten things you are interested in and could see writing about for years to come. You probably have lots of interests, and chances are one of them can make you money. Do some niche research and take the most likely candidates and drop them into the top of that funnel I mentioned. Eventually you’ll figure out which of your interests can pay off for you.

2. Blogging Success Formula = 10% talent and 90% sticking with it

Every now and then a blog will be “discovered” and become a big hit in its first year, but the vast majority simply grow into popularity over time. It is over time that links are built, RSS readers are gained, newsletter subscribers trickle in, and blogs turn into a source of full-time income.

As I mentioned in an earlier post on “How to Be a Black Belt Blogger,” a big part of succeeding at making money online is sticking with it.

A lot of people give up and abandon blogs just short of reaching their potential.

And for those who are early in the stages and looking for inspiration, I’ll let you know that I found it a lot harder to go from 0 to $10 a day than from $10 to $100 a day.

The beginning is hard, but if you stick with it, the payoff is worth it.

1. Freedom is the end goal

When I got started writing content for the web, I was desperate to make money. I needed to get out of debt, and I needed to figure out how to make a living around my health issues. Back then the magic number for me was $100/day. I had it posted next to my computer as a goal.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing–in fact being that focused probably helped–but if I’d been able to work 12 hours a day toward that goal I might just have done it.

That’s fine if you want to trade one job for another, but if you want to gain freedom as well as money, then make that a consideration when you’re planning the style of blog that works for you.

I write huge posts for this blog (because I have a lot to say!), but for my main money-making blog, I usually only spend a half hour a day writing posts. Those posts are short and to the point, highlighting new products or ideas for the home. That style has worked for me and kept me from getting bored with the site or bogged down at the notion of writing long articles every day.

Find what style of blogging works for you. And from the very beginning, keep your ultimate lifestyle in mind. Work toward that goal just as much as you work toward monetary ones.

We think we want money and all the things it can buy, but what really makes us happy is having a dream and the freedom to pursue it.