How Long Does it Take to Make a Living Blogging?

One of the most common questions answered.

Tim Rettig
Sep 6, 2018 · 5 min read

It took me 5 years before I made my first $1 blogging. So perhaps I am not the person most qualified to answer this question. But then again, how it went for me is probably not that uncommon.

Other bloggers are often in a similar situation. While they make some money blogging, it’s nowhere near enough to maintain their lifestyle. And that’s the case even if they spend many hours every single day on their blogs.

But then, there’s also other people.

People who are making a six-figure income within a year.

While these people do exist, they are certainly not the norm. They are the one’s who are getting it right. The one’s who are capable of turning their blogs into real businesses.

So, let’s look at what they are doing differently from most of us, who are struggling with making our blogs profitable.


1. They are not purely in the “passion” game.

Often, the promise of blogging is that you can turn your passion to profit by blogging about it and sharing it with an audience. And sure, it is possible to attract an audience in pretty much any niche.

And yet, passion is often difficult to monetize. Even a large audience doesn’t guarantee that you can make money.

The only way to be sure that you can monetize is if you:

  • Have a clearly defined target audience

So, let’s just say that your passion is to help people learn how to communicate across cultures. Now, unless people are facing a real problem here and are willing to pay for a solution to that problem, you won’t be able to make money from this.

People won’t pay you just out of interest or curiosity.

However, international businesses are losing money every single year because their expatriates are struggling to integrate into the local work environments, which they are assigned to.

These businesses might actually be willing to pay you for a solution to that problem.

Whereas you used to write a random collection of articles with the goal of helping people communicate across cultures, now you are addressing a real audience — HR people who are in charge of looking for a solution to that problem.

So, here’s the point:

Even if the general topic is something that you are “passionate” about, then you’ll have to make slight adjustments and constrain yourself in a way that your blog really addresses the needs of your target audience.


2. They understand their target audience.

One of the main problems that many bloggers are facing is a lack of communication with their target audience. They simply produce content in the hope of figuring out what people respond to.

Successful bloggers, on the other hand, are doing everything in their power to get a better understanding of their target audience. They join FB groups, hold surveys, go to live events, talk with their readers via Skype.

They do everything they can to get in touch with their customers, understand their needs and adjust their business accordingly.

Unfortunately, most bloggers are not getting that right.

They are simply doing what they themselves feel like doing. Publishing the kind of content that they themselves like writing. Doing what they themselves think is in the best interest of their customers.

They “think” that they understand their audience.

But they don’t.

In reality, these bloggers are simply making assumptions about who their target customers are, what problems they are facing, and what they are really looking for.

This is never enough as a foundation to build a business upon.


3. They make clear decisions around who they are and who they are not.

Many blogs are all over the place. While they have some sort of general topic, which they are writing about, it is not really clear how they are setting themselves apart from the competition.

Successful bloggers don’t make that mistake.

They have extreme clarity what their blog is and what it is not.

Let’s take Fluent in 3 Months as an example. While the name of the blog implies that you can get fluent in 3 months in any language, that’s not exactly what the blog is all about.

The blog mainly addresses people who want to be able to speak different languages and get a basic conversation flow going.

It addresses the kind of people who are disappointed with the results of language learning that you get in schools or language courses and aims at people who simply want to be able to have everyday conversations in that language.

So, the blog is heavily focused on the speaking side of language learning, while placing less emphasis on reading and writing.

Why is this important?

Because it clearly sets the blog apart in terms of its readership.

People who want to attend university in another country, for example, might not be interested in reading this blog as they primarily have to learn academic language skills in regards to reading and writing.

Readers of Fluent in 3 Months, on the other hand, are more likely to go for an exchange semester or another form of short-stay program in another country, trying to be able to have conversations with locals as soon as possible.


Conclusion:

In my experience, the main difference between successful and unsuccessful bloggers lies in how “me-focused” they are. Unsuccessful bloggers focus on their own interests and their passion, whereas successful bloggers focus on their audience and what they can do for their audience.

I am not trying to say that passion doesn’t matter.

Of course you will write better content if you enjoy the topic that you are writing about. But that’s simply not enough.

If you want to be successful as a blogger, then you will have to gain some real focus on what your target customers need. You will have to understand their needs and then give it to them.

Often, this means making sacrifices in regards to what you are doing and what you are not doing. It means that you will have to leave out certain things that you yourself enjoy, because that’s not what your audience needs.

Focus less on yourself.

And more on your audience.

Gain some real understanding of who these people are, what they want and what problems they are facing. And then focus all of your attention on a solution to those problems, while ignoring everything else.

If you don’t do this, then you will probably be lost in a state where you don’t manage to make your blog profitable for quite a long time.


Call to action:

I’ve put together a free step-by-step guide on how to build a profitable business around your blog. You can get the guide by clicking here.

The Blogging Business

Helping each other to make our blogs profitable.

Tim Rettig

Written by

Author of Struggling Forward: Embrace the Struggle. Achieve Your Dreams https://amzn.to/2JKYFso / Subscribe: http://bit.ly/2DCejTX / Email: rettigtim@gmail.com

The Blogging Business

Helping each other to make our blogs profitable.

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