How Blogging Changed My Life (And Will Change Yours Too)

Welcome back to another article over here at Make Money Bro. Today is going to be a bit different, it is going to be my own personal story about how blogging has changed my life. Blogging isn’t an instant win, and it certainly isn’t easy, but with stories like mine you can hopefully see the potential blogging has if you put in the hard graft.

I want to warn you first, this isn’t going to be a flashy article with glitzy photos or infographics! This is simply a (hopefully inspirational) story of how I got started in blogging and how it changed my life!! Wall of text incoming!!

Where Did My Story Start?

When I was a young teenager, I first got the taste for being an entrepreneur and making money. Even at such a tender age I would like to read business related newsletters. I can remember reading one called ‘The Guild of Wealth’, that was all about helping normal people get started in business. I think food trucks were big at the time 🙂

Even though things like this were a tad scammy, they certainly got me interested in the idea of making money independently. However, for some reason, after going to college and getting a job in HR (human resources to you), it took rather a long time to fan the flames of my entrepreneurial spirit again.

This finally happened when I was around 30. I had a decent career in business at the time, but my career seemed stuck and I was getting bored. I know it’s a cliche, but this is something that clearly happens to a lot to people and happened to me too. I embarked on a search for how to branch out on my own and bypass my dead end career. I mean, I couldn’t just change careers at that point, I was 30!

The first thing that I got onto was affiliate marketing, and would spend many hours a day watching videos on the subject. I tried setting up small websites and getting traffic to them in various ways. These websites were tightly focused around some affiliate products. This wasn’t a massive success, but did help me make my first few dollars online. And once you’ve got the taste for it, there’s no looking back!

Then I moved onto making money from print on demand (selling t-shirts basically). I hit some problems here, tried a few paid advertising campaigns, but quickly got cold feet. The same thing for paid traffic campaigns with attached funnels. I found I always got scared when a campaign was loosing money and wouldn’t have the patience to get to the root of the problem. All I could see was dollars slipping through my fingers and would panic. Clearly paid traffic campaigns weren’t for me either.

So When Did Blogging Change My Life?

I am kicking myself that it took me so long to get to this. For some reason, I had the idea stuck in my head that you can’t make money from blogs. But finally, I started catching on to people making money from this very thing. The most successful I had been so far was making those small affiliate related websites, and quickly worked out that making content sites was something I enjoyed. But this time I would go big or go home!

My First Blog Was Born!

Unfortunately, this first blog was pretty much a total disaster. I did literally everything wrong. At first, I created content which was targeted at a very competitive market. The niche I had selected was a broad one too! I had some initial small wins, but quickly this first site leveled off and didn’t get the lift off I had hoped for.

To my credit, I didn’t give up. I started a second site, which was more tightly focused around a specific kitchen appliance. Whilst running the first site, I had been immersing myself in blog building related podcasts and YouTube videos in any free time I had. I can remember on the ride to work, always having a podcast on the go to inspire me.

This lead to me learning about keyword research and some other nuances of growing a blog and making it successful. Gradually, I began to piece together a strategy that worked for me. And guess what? It worked. I was able to grow that second site and make it a success. To this day, the site is making money and providing a backbone to my online business portfolio.

Having one successful site breeds confidence, it’s like a snowball effect. And I had a strategy in place that was working. I launched several more sites over the next few years and was able to grow those too. My day job was no longer needed, and I had managed to hatch a business of my own.

Why I Love Blogging

Having a blogging business gives you amazing freedom. I no longer have to do that annoying commute into work or waste my time dealing with the office politics that exists anytime you force humans to work together!! Am I a millionaire? Do I have Ferraris? No! But I earn a good living from a business that I own and run. You can’t imagine how liberating this is!!

I now have a portfolio of sites that provide the backbone of my business. I have since gone back and tried my hand at running paid traffic campaigns and even trying out dropshipping (mainly as addons to my existing blogs). But my passion and drive is always focused on blogging. It’s such a satisfying feeling to put something out there in the world that can have such a positive effect on people and yet earn you money!!

I am no digital nomad or anything, but I can live where I want and work to my own schedule. My quality of life has gone through the roof!

What Advice Do I Have After All That?

You may be sitting at home thinking ‘good for you’ and all that, but how can I do the same. First of all, it ain’t easy. If you expect to put a blog up and make thousands in a few months, go find another business to try out (paid traffic and funnels probably!). But if you do want to follow my steps into the world of blogging, what advice do I have?

Be Persistent

As you can see from my journey above, it isn’t easy to be a success in blogging. My first real attempt at a blog was a failure and caused serious doubt in my mind. But I pushed on and found success. You need to do the same. It is so easy when you feel that your blog is stagnating to simply throw in the towel and give up. Don’t be this guy. Push on when everyone else around you is failing!

Be Focused

I know you have probably heard many times from other online business gurus the whole ‘shiny object syndrome’ thing. Well, I am going to say it again, because it’s totally true. It took me years longer to find success in online business due to the fact that I heard of other business models from the podcasts I listened to and thought they would be my ‘golden ticket’. If I had stayed focused on one thing, I would have learned the ropes faster, in my opinion. So choose your poison and stick with it!! No more flitting around from one business model to another!

Be Realistic

I said this a few times already, but I will say it again. Be realistic about the likely success you can have with blogging. It’s not easy, and there are very few easy wins along the way. For my first few sites, I literally wrote all the content myself. I stayed up late after office hours to write those blog posts faster. This is how you can find success in this business, but grinding it out at the start.

You Don’t Need Courses

I am not going to say that courses are useless, because if you seek out a quality course it can certainly get you on the right track. But my story is proof that it is possible to find your own way using podcasts and YouTube videos to piece together your own strategy. Although I would recommend sticking to just a few sources to make sure you don’t end up in a big muddle!

All there is left to do is wish you good luck on your journey. Anything is possible when you put your mind to it, just think of that. In those dark moments picture in your mind saying bye to that annoying boss and your motivation will soon return 🙂