If you don’t want to read it, you can watch this video.
The first thing you have to do before you start blogging is to figure out who your audience is. Who are you writing for? This is very, very, very important.
I have a blog I am writing for essentially nobody but me. I’m putting up old blog posts for people who do not want to watch the video. There are some people out there who are readers.
If you’re just starting, you have to find an avatar, or audience. You have to figure out who, when and where. Let’s say you’re starting a blog abut skateboarding. Who’s your audience? Is it guys? Is it girls? Where does your audience hang out? This is stuff you need to know.
Let’s say you like skateboards and you think they’re kind of cool. So, you decide to write about them. This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to run out of content because you’re not deeply invested in the world of skateboarding. Problem #2 is you’re going to get tired of it and you won’t be consistent because you don’t really give a damn about them.
This is one of the problems people run into when they are trying to find a good niche or topic. Even if it’s moderately successful, it’s going to get old. You’re not going to want to do it.
That’s why you should create a blog based on things you like to do. That is hands down 90% of it. You have to figure out a way to talk to your audience that works for them and doesn’t alienate them.
For example, if someone comes into your skateboarding blog and they are just a casual skateboarder, they will see this is hardcore skateboarding information talking about the wheels, the trucks and tricks. Everywhere you turn, it is about hardcore skateboarding.
You’re going to alienate people who are only casually interested. You are only going to draw hardcore people, which is amazing. That’s who you want. These hardcore skateboarders will spend money on wheels, boards, gear, t-shirts and tricks.
That’s how you set up a blog that makes money.
Now let’s talk about how to get the money. This is what everyone wants to get to. You have to have a plan. Before you even start writing the blog, you’ve got to figure out how you are going to make money from it. Are you going to sell merchandise? Are you going to sell promoted posts? Are you going to sell gear? You have to ask yourself, how am I going to monetize this. You have to figure this out first.
Many people will disagree with me. They say, just go ahead and write it and you should make money. That generally does not work.
When I started this YouTube channel, which was predicated on my Urban Pack Rat blog, I knew who my target audience was. It was white males, 18 to 35 who liked to go out and buy junk and flip it. That was my target audience. That’s who I wrote for. That’s who I created the channel for.
For three years, that’s all the channel was about. It was about Craigslist, garage sales, eBay and Amazon. I made $1.5 million just from the sale of my book, Making Money A to Z with Self- Storage Unit Auctions. I still make money to this day with the book. It’s not near as much as it once was, but it’s passive income from Amazon.
You’ve got to hammer down the audience. You’ve got to hammer down the monetization policy. You’ve got to knock that out.
If you decide to write a blog and start writing one without any idea about how you’re going to make money from it, that’s what will happen. You won’t make any money from it. Then, you’ll become burned out and tired.
What I did is I started writing a blog. Then what I did was say, there is a book coming. I started advertising my book immediately. I started advertising my book before I wrote the first page.
It’s going to take weeks or months for enough people to have interest in your buying your products. If you want to do a course or anything, you need to start marketing it before you even make it to allow people to catch up and allow anticipation to build.
Everything that I do, I start marketing before I do it.
Before you begin, you have to make a decision about who you are selling to and who you are not selling to.
For example, I am selling Hustle Camp for $1350. At the end of the month, it is probably going to go up. There aren’t a lot of people that can buy that. But, here’s the thing. If I get 30 people to buy it this month, that’s $40K.
This is how I’m doing it. I am literally giving away all the Craigslist books and stuff. Even though the book is free, there are people still buying it because of the awesome value I provide on the channel.
What’s going to happen is the lion share of the people who get the free stuff are going to be appreciative. That buys me goodwill which is a currency. Then a smaller group of people from there are going to go ahead and buy Hustle Camp. I only need 30 to 40 sales to have a successful month.
That’s the game that I am playing. I’m giving away low margin stuff and bringing people in on selling through value. I reinforce the idea that Hustle Camp will save them so much money. Even though you spend $1350 right now, once you start your business and you’re making $2K to $3K a month, in a year, you’re up $20K. Based on these results, it is economical to buy Hustle Camp.
Once again, I know that message will only resonate with a certain group of people. Most of the folks are not going to get it and that’s cool.
You can essentially plant the seeds today for customers next year. So, I’m getting sales today. I’m getting sales in the future and I’m creating good will.
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