The following post is by Peter Clemens from Peter is the founder of Iwillchangeyourlife.com.
I still vividly remember being dazzled by the idea of making $1,000 a day from blogging. That was a little over 9 months ago, and the particular article I refer to is Steve Pavlina’s How to Make Money From Your Blog.
While I am nowhere near the figure just mentioned and cannot yet “take the plunge” by quitting my day job, I have traveled an interesting road in the last 9 months since founding my blog Iwillchangeyourlife.com. This path has brought me to a point where I am set to earn a very healthy income as an editor of a popular self improvement blog, PickTheBrain.com (11,000+ subscribers and Technorati Top 1000). What fascinates me, and which I think any blogger can learn from, is that my path to making money from blogging has been far from obvious.
The following is my story, told within what are my 5 best pieces of advice for anyone looking to follow a similar path.
Focus on Creating Quality Content
In my first few days of blogging I went crazy with Adsense and Amazon affiliate links. It wasn’t long, however, before I was in for what Darren recently called a “reality check“. I scrapped the advertising and instead decided to focus on creating great content. In the end, I didn’t revisit Adsense and Amazon (or indeed any other forms of advertising) until I had been blogging for 6 months. Now I am not saying that a new blogger should wait this long to monetize their site, but I strongly suggest you focus as much attention as possible (particularly in the early stages) on creating great content.
Network With Other Bloggers
I’m sure every new blogger at some point has the thought: “I just wrote a fantastic article, now what?” I asked myself this question many a time before finally I took the plunge and started emailing fellow bloggers in my particular niche. This made all the difference. As I began to build relationships with people online, the comments after my posts quickly grew and I started to have some major successes with the social media (eg front page of Digg and numerous articles that have gone viral on Stumble Upon). This obviously caught the attention of John Wesley (founder of PickTheBrain.com) as he approached me to write a guest post for his site.
Always Offer Your Best Material For Guest Posts
So how did I make the jump from an initial guest post to staff writer to eventually being asked to become editor? There are many reasons, but I strongly believe one of the main ones was because I always submitted my best work to John. I occasionally read guest posts on other sites where I know, from being familiar with that author’s writing, that it is well short of their best. So my advice is always offer your best material for guest posts, because you never know where it will take you.
Share the Vision
Being offered a staff writing for a blog is one thing. Being trusted to become an editor is obviously a much larger proposition. I believe there are many reasons why John has shown this trust in me, but one I would like to highlight is the importance of sharing a common vision. John and I created two very different self improvement blogs, but I demonstrated to John through my writing style, my formatting and our private conversations that I truly understood his vision for PickTheBrain.com.
Grab Opportunities When They Come Your Way
When I was first offered a weekly spot as a staff writer for PickTheBrain.com, and again when I was offered the role of editor, I initially could not imagine how I would be able to cope with the extra commitment. Working full-time, being a father, and maintaining my own blog initially seemed to leave little room for anything else. Thankfully I pushed this fear aside and quickly accepted the invitations. I believe that if you want something bad enough you find a way to do it. Two examples of what I did were to start posting less on my own blog and to invite other bloggers to write guest posts for me. So grab opportunities when they come your way, because they might not come around again anytime soon.
Peter is the founder of Iwillchangeyourlife.com (subscribe), and newly appointed editor of PickTheBrain.com (subscribe).
