The dream of full-time blogging certainly is an appealing one. There is a lot of conflicting information on the Internet as to whether or not someone can achieve that goal. I am firmly in the camp of those who think it can be done, if only because I have done it myself.
I believe that where the vast majority of the doubters go wrong is that they think that being a full-time blogger is just about writing. Well if you’re going to build this into a business, you definitely have to be a little more creative than that! It will be very hard for you to earn a full time living from any online properties if you think that all it takes is to write.
Diversification is the name of the game, and it’s the only way to make sure that you have a business that derives its income from a variety of sources.
The first order of business (literally) is to try and build an audience. You become a trusted voice for the members of that audience. This will allow you to establish a relationship with those people. Once that is done, the marketing opportunities will literally present themselves. Another nice perk of this method is that it is independent of the search engines and whatever direction they choose to take with their algorithms.
What can you do when you have a sizable audience? Well, for starters, you can review and recommend products and services to them. Because you have taken the time to establish a relationship in the first place, your conversions will be higher.
Other people will notice the size of your audience and approach you for joint ventures, meaning that they offer that you share their products with your audience in exchange for a cut of the sales proceeds.
If you have the chops for it, you can write and self-publish books and sell them. Amazon has made this really easy and potentially very lucrative.
You can further diversify in your area of expertise. If you’ve been able to develop your own social media presence, you can offer your services as a social media consultant to other business owners who might need the help! You could do this in person, or via webinars. Do you see where I’m going with this?
Whenever people say you can’t make money online, I’m willing to bet that it’s because they have blinders on. If they took the time to realize all the possibilities, I’m pretty sure they would think otherwise.