I am so glad that I read “How to Blog for Profit”, by Ruth Soukup, when I did. I am not trying to make my blog something big until I retire from the Marines, however, there are things I can be doing now that will set me up for later success. This is a powerful book for blogs, but it is just as powerful for anyone who wants to start a business. The idea that most people don’t realize is that people don’t want to buy your product. They want to buy a product from you. Trying to open a store, whether brick and mortar or online, without an audience is insane. The reason we do not see that is because the brands that we know have been around for so long. Think of the Playstation 5. It sold out quickly because the PlayStation brand has been around for close to 25 years. My blog has been around closer to 25 days. Building a community is the number one thing you can do for your future success in today’s world. We all think that there is not enough room for us to join the fray, but there is unlimited space for us. You can line up 10 different people to sell the same exact product, and people are going to buy from each different person. We want to identify with who is selling us a product. Most of the YouTubers I listen to are young and single. They have great ideas and are successful, but where are all the married couples with kids? Where are all the father/son businesses? That is why I jumped in. To represent to us middle class, middle-life persons who need someone on their side. Someone who will not settle for retiring at age 65. There is a better way. As you can tell, this book got me pumped up. It is a business manuscript more than it is a book about blogging. With that, let’s get into my 5 takeaways.
1) Build an audience before you launch a product. This is what most people do not comprehend. No one wants to buy your product. They want to buy something from you. As soon as we build an audience and solve their needs, we will be hugely successful.
2) Help your audience solve their problems. Listen to your audience. If you hear the same thing 3 times, create a product to help solve this problem. It can be a step-by-step guide or a blog post. However, the important part is that you identify it and try to assist them.
3) Email is the most important method of building an audience and in turn your wealth. I would have never guessed how important email is. It is the most important metric of your success in the online world. No one can take away your email audience (like on Facebook or YouTube) and email has a higher purchase rate than any other media, by a large margin.
4) Do not worry about advertising, social media numbers, and growing your blog traffic. These metrics sound nice, like 100,000 monthly visitors. But if you are only earning $0.03 from each visitor, that is not a lot of money. If you had fewer visitors and were earning $1.00 from each, your return would be a lot higher. More isn’t necessarily better.
5) You are building a business and your blog is only a PART of your overall strategy. Your blog is only a part of your over media influence. The end goal is to sell a product. You have to listen to your audience and solve the problem that they are having. From there you create something that they will like and they will happily pay for it. But you need to know sales, marketing, etc… As while as blogging. The blog is a big deal. The business is the real deal.
Blogging can be as big or small as you would like. However, the principle is the same. Build an audience, produce great content, and create products that solve your audience’s problems. I enjoyed this book from start to finish, as I finished it in two days. I feel that I have a better grasp on what I need to do to set myself up for success in the future and maybe I make a run to get the blog off the ground early, this way I can retire early. The good part is I have options. This is a must-read for everyone. Everyone needs multiple streams of income, not only drawing a paycheck. Start a blog today!
This link is to a physical product. The link above is to the digital book. Sorry. I get no credit for digital product links.
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Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
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