Hello Reader,
Do you know why blogging is hard?
Because you don’t exist yet.
That’s right. You, Reader, are not even real.
Not yet, anyway.
Blogging: A Long, Winding Road
As of January 20, 2022, FlubBlog.com has received exactly two clicks from Google Search.
(hold your applause, please)
Another one of my sites has 35 articles but only a whopping 11 search clicks.
I’ve been working on another site off and on for four months now – and I haven’t even launched it yet. It sells a pretty complicated digital info product, and I’m not quite happy yet.
My #1 project, which has 76 long-form articles, is 9 months old and gets about 4,000 views a month. Makes about $200 a month between Ezoic ads and Amazon affiliate marketing. Barely clears the cost of production.
Yeah, this is hard.
Blogging: Dream or Nightmare?
Today, let’s address the elephant in the room.
Blogging is hard.
In my head, I know the game plan. I knew it when I started.
For the first 12 months, expect crickets. No real traffic. Focus strictly on on-page SEO and writing super high-quality content other people couldn’t easily rip off. Build my email list. Stay under the radar.
For the first two years, expect no income. Not a dime. Any profit I made, I would immediately reinvest into the business: better software, content writers, Pinterest manager, etc.
It’s all about that exponential growth, baby. A race to 100 articles. Charm and woo Google, and she’ll hop in bed with you eventually.
Ignore all the shortcuts. Write for the Reader, not just for Google. Don’t pin 40 pictures a day. Don’t write daily Instagram posts. Don’t proselytize for Amazon. Don’t waste half your time writing guest posts, peddling for backlinks.
Build that foundation. Build something algorithm update-proof. Just lay bricks. And more bricks. And more bricks.
Remember: If you build it (well), they will come. And most importantly, they will stay.
And to be honest … it’s working.
Every single one of my sites is showing positive organic growth, well ahead of average for info blogging sites with almost zero backlink outreach or social media presence.
I’m expecting “hockey stick” exponential growth around the 16 month mark. Once my traffic jumps up, I’ll double down on the affiliate marketing sales, and I’ll start a social media outreach program.
And then, I’ll focus on my next site. Repeat. And then the next one. Repeat.
And then, I’ll come after FLUB with a vengeance, because I know my swipe files, my strategies, my success, will have monetary value. I’m going to crack and code, and tell you how I did it.
So I’m sticking with my plan.
But geez … blogging is still hard.
Blogging: The Daily Grind
Because after I work an 8- to 9-hr day job, I come home, I sit down at the computer, and I work more.
I research SEO, page builders, affiliate marketing strategies, and publishing software while “watching” a movie. I wake up early Saturday, sit down, and start typing before the fog clears my brain.
There’s not much applause or back-slapping for a beginning blogger.
Blogging: A Better Passive Income Stream?
A few weeks ago, the grind started to get the better of me.
“I’m a mechanical engineer, entrepreneur and writer,” I griped. “Why am I fiddling around nights and weekends for a measly $200 a month?”
I’ve been told several times in my life I should become a patent lawyer. Seems to be up my technical alley. So I hopped on Indeed.com.
“There’s a patent attorney position in Virginia for … sheesh, $176,000 a year!”
So, why am I pursuing a semi-passive income stream as a blogger rather than obtaining my J.D. and going to work for Big Law for big bucks?
See, I’m not pursuing a blogging income stream because I’m desperate to escape a morass of middle-aged mediocrity.
I’m definitely not a 9-5 wage slave stuck in a $13.50/hr job. I make decent money, and I have a fair amount of job flexibility.
It’s because, like you, I want some real freedom.
Not freedom to escape work, but rather to work when I want.
If I want to take a 4-day mini vacation and go climb Mt. Rainier, then by golly, I’m going to Mt. Rainier.
The chance to see my far-away family more than twice a year.
Because the only thing worth buying is time.
One reason I started FLUB is because I wanted to write the blog I had tried to find.
There are too many how-to-make-money-online gurus. And many won’t tell you about the “secret sauce” they used to skyrocket to success: How they started blogging in 2009 when the web was thirsty, how they paid $15,000 to content writers in the first six months, how they raked in hundred$ of thousand$ from Amazon before the April 2020 Armageddon, how they only made money telling other people how to make money.
The people I’ve learned the most from were the honest ones. The ones who said, “Yeah, blogging is really hard and thankless … until it’s not.”
I ran an Ironman 70.3 earlier this year. So when I say blogging is like a marathon … you know that I mean it.
So, dear Reader … well, you don’t exist yet.
But you will.
You will.
* * *
Hello, and thanks for being at Flub, where I talk about the netherworld of blogging.
If you’re wondering how this ^ guy is now making five figures a month (yup, that’s my goal), then here’s the secret:
[insert future affiliate link/e-course signup here].
See you then!
