Blogging for Profits Series Part 1: The Foundation

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Blogging is one of the most lucrative internet venture you can ever get into. Not only it is lucrative but it is one of the fastest way that you can start earning money online. With a consistent effort in blogging, you can see results financially in as little as 90 days! (Disclaimer: Results may vary.)

If those words made your heart beat fast and you got excited and you know for a fact that this is the online money-making way you want to pursue…first, you must establish the foundation and learn the basics. As the famous saying goes, “Knowledge is power.”  Fortunately, there is no shortcut to success. I said “fortunately” because it is through the process of trying to achieve something that we develop our characters. When we work hard to reach our goals, the success is sweeter and we put more value into it.

What I really love about blogging is that…you can be 15 and be in Europe and make money! Or be 50 in the United States and make money! There is no age, race, culture, or geographic barrier to blogging! It’s literally without limits! Best of all, you earn a living by sharing your knowledge to other people and just by merely expressing yourself! That, my friends, is the wonderful world of blogging!

The Foundation

1. Discover Your Passion

In blogging or in any business for that matter, it is important that you build it around doing something that you love. If you haven’t known yet, blogging requires that you provide quality content and value to your readers. It isn’t too hard to do this if you’re very knowledgeable and very passionate about the subject. Don’t think though that you have to be an instant expert when you start blogging. It’s not all about that but it’s about being able to research as well about the subject that you care about.

If you love traveling, you can start a blog about travel. This can be your niche. You can write about places that you’ve been to, places that you want to visit, things to do in a certain tourist city, what one can buy from that city as a souvenir, and so on and so forth. The topic is endless!

CASE STUDY: I would like to take the story of Alborz Fallah of CarAdvice.com.au as an example as told in an interview conducted by Yaro Starak, one of the biggest bloggers out there. Alborz started three blogs at the same time, not for the money, but as a hobby. One was a review about cars, the other was about Microsoft Vista when it first came out, and another one was about Brisbane Guide. Alborz is a huge fan of cars. He loves cars. Guess which one took off? The cars blog. He found himself writing a post everyday in that blog while the other two, he spent perhaps once or twice a month. Now CarAdvice.com.au has grown to be the 6th biggest site in Australia for car reviews and earning no less than $30,000/month.

Tips for Finding Your Niche (Discovering Your Passion)

If you haven’t discovered your passion yet, don’t be discouraged. Not everybody was born knowing what they’d like to do or what they’d like to be. Although there are some people who have discovered theirs and pursued it at an early stage of their lives.
And just because you don’t know yet what you’re good at doesn’t mean you don’t have it. Don’t be lead into believing that you’re not gifted!

For a day or two or three or even a week, what I want you to do is take some time each day to observe yourself and ask yourself these questions:

1. What have people told me in the past that I’m good at?
2. What is it that I think I’m good at?
3. What have I done for people that they appreciated and loved? For example: You baked a cake or brownies or made cupcakes and people loved it!
4. What is it that I get so excited about and I can talk about it for hours and hours?
5. What is it that I’m most willing to put my efforts into?

I would also suggest asking trusted friends and family members whom you know will truly be honest with you. This is a part of your discovery process. You need to find out what you’re good at, not only so that you can have it for yourself, but so you can share it with other people. After all, you will be blogging to share and have others benefit from your knowledge. Please keep in mind that although other people’s opinions aren’t the final authority or shouldn’t determine what you believe you’re good at, it’s at least good to hear other people’s input about you. Be sure to ask only those whom you trust.

Knowing your passion sets the tone for your blog and gives you a better vision of where you want to be.

2.  Set the Right Frame of Mind

You may ask…what does my mindset have anything to do with blogging? At the beginning of this blog post, I mentioned that blogging is the fastest way to make money online. Notice though that I didn’t say that it’s the easiest.

No legitimate internet money-making venture is ever easy. In fact, no business is easy, period. If you want to do blogging to make an income, that means, you have to consider it as a business and in any start-up business, hard work is usually involved for the first months or even the first year or so. Hard work coupled with determination, patience, persistence and consistency is your formula for blogging success.

See, what drives failures and success are often times psychological factors. Those who have achieved great success in blogging have conditioned their minds to do the following:

Mindset #1: I am blogging first to give then I will receive.
Mindset #2: I am willing and ready to work hard.
Mindset #3: I will not be afraid to take risks
Mindset #4: I will not be afraid of failure.
Mindset #5: I am determined to make this work.
Mindset #6: I may encounter set-backs but I will persist.
Mindset #7: I will be consistent in my efforts.
Mindset #8: When success comes, I will still continue my efforts and still give to other people.

I also suggest reading my post about the 7 Powerful Characteristics of Internet Entrepreneur.

When constructing a building, the first step is to establish the foundation. The building will never last a day or stand a disaster if the foundation is not strong. This is the same in your new blogging adventure! I know it’s exciting and you’re probably so eager to jump into getting into action right away. But my suggestion is to just take at least a week to prepare yourself psychologically and emotionally. Do not rush.

Alright folks! This is just the beginning of my series on Blogging for Profits. Stay tuned in the next few days as I provide you with a step by step guide to making it in the blogging world!

Additional Recommended Reading:

Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash In On Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk

Do you have any questions? Is there anything that is not clear to you on The Foundation? Are you a pro blogger and have additional tips for our readers? Please feel free to post them below!