The average blogger only has two concerns.
The first is obscurity. She is a total stranger in a vast world loaded with people — unknown, inconspicuous, and insignificant. Odd, considering there are so many people online.
But it’s a simple law: We all start at the bottom.
One recent study discovered that the average British blogger had only 285 subscribers, received 18 comments a day, and earned about $120 a month.
That’s the reward for someone who’d been blogging for two years and eight months. Yes, those surveyed also worked full-time jobs.
In an informal poll, the traffic to an average blog was around 60 to 120 views a day.
Frustrating stats for anyone trying to get attention. The pain is enough to make a shy bald buddhist reflect and plan … a packet of rainbow dust for the first person to finish the lyrics.
The obscurity antidote
This is why author and Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow campaigned so heavily about giving his books away for free.
This is why Leo Babauta uncopyrighted all of his articles.
And this is the foundation of content marketing.
The principle is simple: Build an audience through free content.
Very few bloggers, however, make the transition from obscurity to non-obscurity, because it also takes an unhealthy dose of hard work, perseverance, discipline, patience, improvement, and personality.
Rand Fishkin thinks the magic number is about two years before a blog takes off. He draws that conclusion from Moz and his wife’s popular Everywhereist blog. But as we saw in the survey above, that’s not always the case.
My own experience happens to parallel Fishkin’s conclusion. So does Brian Clark’s to a degree, although his “pre take-off” might not look like yours or mine.
And ever since, people have been hustling to lower that timeline with epic content, a daily posting schedule, and aggressive distribution methods.
The second blogger concern
Once your blog starts getting traffic, a substantial number of subscribers, and attention from industry rock stars, you may say to yourself, “I could do this. I could really do this. I could earn a living off my website.”
But here’s your new problem.
Life.
You have the demands of family and friends and, most importantly, the demands of your job. A job you must have if you want to pay the rent, keep shoes on your kids’ feet, or just enjoy life like a normal person.
You might not have a bad job — it’s just boring, mindless, and routine. Or your boss could be a psychopath. Layoffs may be in the air. Whatever the reason, you are ready to move on and make a living on your own terms.
But every post you write is a four-hour affair. You also have comments to address, social media networks to grow, guest posts to write, and so on.
No joke: Blogging is a full-time job. But, for most, without the paycheck.
So once you’ve gotten traction, your next obstacle is sustainability.
You want to keep going and, because of your circumstances, you need to keep going. And the only way to do that is to earn a living from your blog.
Affiliate marketing and advertising are conventional options, but they’re limited.
What you need to do is build an audience — and then you need to create something your audience wants to buy.
I’ve already named a few successful bloggers who’ve followed this model. Here are several more: Jeff Goins, Sonia Simone, Chris Brogan, Ramit Sethi, Ann Handley, Lee Odden, Maria Popova, Darren Rowse, and The Bloggess.
Do you want to be the next successful blogger?
And that frames the problem: If you could just somehow replace your income from your job with an income from your blog, then you’d be set. Then you could keep on doing what you love for people who love what you do.
So, would you like to do that? But you’re just not sure where to start?
Fortunately, you are in luck.
Here’s your chance to move beyond disposable “marketing” and embrace the perpetual power that comes from an audience asset.
It’s our two-week New Rainmaker training course.
In other words, this is the training you need if you want to learn how to earn a living from your blog to continue to do what you love.
And did I mention it’s free for a limited time? You can get started today.
Once you register, you’ll begin a powerful step-by-step training course that pulls back the curtain on an online marketing strategy that exceeds your expectations.
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