The Blogging Myths: You Can Only Make Money Talking About Making Money
We are in the middle of a series entitled: The Blogging Myths – 5 Deceptions New Bloggers Face.
The more I dive deeper into this series, the more convinced I am that these myths can be believed by every level of blogger.
Even if you have been blogging for a year or more, you need to shatter these myths to get to the next level. Myths deceive us. We buy them as reality only to find out later our view was completely wrong. Don’t let that happen to you. I wish I would of shattered these myths when first starting.
If you haven’t read the first two myths, then I’d encourage you to start there.
- Myth #1: “I have to beat the competition and go at this thing all alone if I am going to build anything worthwhile.” (click here to read)
- Myth #2: “I’ll just Google my problems. It’s cheaper to just figure it out myself.” (click here to read)
You can also learn about these two myths (and our solutions) in the latest podcast episode below.
Myth #3: “Making money with a blog is a myth. You can only make money talking about making money.”
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The above statement reminds me of a video I once saw of someone making fun of infomercials. In the video, a cheesy salesman was holding up a book saying: “Buy my $40 book entitled: How to sell a $40 book.”
It certainly does appear on the surface that the only bloggers making money are the ones teaching how to make money blogging. However, when you consider a few other facts, you will find that this is not the case.
The truth is there are many bloggers making money that just are not public about it. Since they’re not teaching about it, you don’t hear from them.
About a year ago, the Google Adsense Team came to my city and held a one day event. I was in the room with about 50 other people. As the day went on, I had a chance to hear their stories and learn more about their sites. Sitting right around me were people of all ages earning income in many different niches.
I had no idea these people (local to me) were making a living online. I walked away that day convinced there must by hundreds of thousands of people (if not more) quietly making a living online. They just intentional choose to not be in the public about it.
Our Own Blogging Journeys
I love how Blogging Your Passion came together in the early stages. Bob had built a full-time income with a Christian personal finance blog. I had built my own online business through a career coaching and personal development blog. We built blogs around our passions way before we started talking about it online.
My Limited Mindset
When I first started building my career coaching blog, I had zero ways to earn money from it. I had no clue what I was doing. My original plan was for me to build a platform (locally) as the “go to” Executive Recruiter when someone needed to hire an executive level position for their company.
Once traffic grew a bit, I decided to try monetizing my blog. I only knew of two options at the time and both were “trading time for dollars.” I could do career coaching and I could do resume makeovers. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great source of side income.
I still had no clue that there were several ways I could monetize my passion. I just simply lacked ideas. When you lack ideas (or know how), you look at successful people and think:
- They just got lucky and were in the right place at the right time.
- It is different today and those methods don’t work any more.
- There are too many blogs today, they’re only successful because their timing was good.
“When we lack ideas, we buy our excuses as reality. Excuses are just lies you tell yourself.” Tweet this
When it comes down to it, the lucky were just hustling. They were preparing every single day privately until opportunity showed up. The sad truth is that when opportunity arrives, it’s too late to prepare.
“Luck is a word people who are lazy use to describe people who are hustling.” – John Acuff, Start
Answer: Find blogging mentors that can open your eyes to new ideas
Once I began to invite blogging mentors in my life, I discovered there were many ways to earn income blogging. In fact, my career coaching blog has evolved from 2 ways to over 12+ ways today.
So, you basically have a choice today. There are only two paths to take. Here are your options:
- Continue down a path ridden with excuses, justifications, and rationalizations that feed a limited mindset (this only leads to isolation).
- Invite mentors in your life, learn from them, and let them open your world to new ideas and possibilities.
