Short answer: it’s possible. There are a lot of things you can do, to reach a level where your blog brings in a full-time income. But, there are a few important things that really matter, which I’ll go over.
Start
I have worked with multiple clients, that dream of leaving teaching one day. They want to stay at home with their children, they want to travel, and some just need extra money to get by. Those are all worthy reasons to quit and blog full-time.
But the most important thing to do when starting out it, start. I have one client who is just fixated on logos and graphic design. I keep asking her to just finish setting up her site, and get her first blog post posted. But she still hasn’t. There are others our there that keep talking about starting a blog, but never even get one setup.
For me, it was super easy. I knew I wanted to start a blog to make extra income, but didn’t want to pay for a hosting site, because it was so expensive. That’s when I started to Google free blog websites, and created my first one at WordPress.com. It was totally free to start and it only cost $18 for a year for the domain name.
So don’t let a limited budget get in your way. You can start a blog in less than 20 minutes, and have a .com address for $18. So for those that are still thinking about, just start it already.
Be Helpful
Another barrier that most new bloggers hit, is that they don’t know what write about, or what website domain they should use. Here is my biggest piece of advice; create a website they will truly help people with problems you are personally facing or have been through. The goal is to be as super helpful with your blog. I know this is going to be hard to hear, but no one cares about your daily journal. And even if they did, you would be attracting the wrong crowd, if you know what I mean.
But seriously, you need to setup your blog to where it helps someone out there. And your posts need to be as in depth and detailed as possible. Google is not going to send your blog traffic about how you enjoyed a picnic over the weekend. Google will send you traffic if you can solve my 2012 Honda Odyssey’s starting problem pretty quickly and thoroughly.
Your main foundation of your blog should be to help people with a specific problem, or don’t expect much traffic.
Build Communication
Allow comments on your posts, and offer a free newsletter to stay in touch with your audience. I wouldn’t worry about this part until you start gaining traffic to your site. But when you do, I would create a free account with MailChimp, and setup a link to your free newsletter on your posts that are gaining traffic.
I allowed comments on my posts. Then over time visitors started commenting specific questions they had. Then from there I built a Google Form to collect email addresses to keep in touch. Then from there, I was able to see what my audience really needed to help them. Then created my first product, and sold it as soon as I launched.
Communication is key to any relationship.
Once you get to this stage, it will be that much easier to offer your audience something valuable, and that will lead to an income. Then from there you can scale, and replace your teaching income. But all of this begins when you just start.
Please feel free to leave any questions you may have in the comments below.
Cheers!
-E
Emilio Gargano 