I often list blogging as one of the best ways to make passive income, and I genuinely mean it. However, I’ll tell you a little secret: Blogging is tough!
You have to imagine the internet as a world much larger than our physical Earth. Even on Earth, it is tough for people to notice one another.
Therefore, visitors find it difficult to notice your blog on the internet. It takes a lot of writing and consistent work to drive traffic to your blog—most people give up long before they find success.
JOMO vs. FOMO
The types of blogs. I will divide blogging into two kinds: commodity blogs and content blogs. You build commodity blogs around exciting questions and valuable searches.
For example, you can start a commodity blog answering high-ticket questions surrounding RV life. There is a massive market of folks who want to retire to an RV.
A commodity blog thrives on affiliate links and “sponsored” posts. As you write about RV Life, you can give recommendations and reviews on equipment while directing traffic to your links.
A content blog is about a journey, mission, or purpose—it’s about you. You write your blog posts first, then worry about search engine optimization (SEO) keywords later.
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It is much more challenging to drive traffic to your site because you don’t focus on capturing a high-ticket keyword. However, you’ll build a much bigger audience over time.
Commodity Blog vs. Content Blog. The goal of a commodity blog is to make money by adding value via references. I don’t mean this in a greedy way.
In the above RV example, you may want to gather as many RV resources under one website as possible. This may include purchasing, selling, maintenance, luxury items, and best campsites.
A content blog is a more personal journey, for example, Our Plan to Retire to an RV on Dividends. Your posts will track your dividends, budgets, travels, and new gadgets.
Retention is the key. When you start a commodity blog, you want to drive traffic solely via an internet search. Most people will only visit your site once, get the information and leave.
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Building traffic to a content blog takes much longer, but you’ll get far more repeat customers. And they will be much more valuable to you in the long term.
You may only have 5,000 fans of your “RV on Dividends” blog, but they’ll have more Superfans. You’ll have an audience who wants to travel the same journey as you.
These fans will buy T-Shirts, merchandise, printables, and online courses. Even better, they will spread the word about your site via word of mouth.
Which path will you take? Don’t worry; you can take both blogging tracks. I took the content blog approach with Military Family Investing.
Business in the Metaverse
However, I can still answer high-ticket commodity questions I can rank for in search. I can search for top inquiries related to closed-end funds and answer these via blog posts.
These questions will help my audience and my quest for knowledge. Once someone arrives via search, they will see that I have a unique content blog. They may choose to stay to read a couple more articles.
It’s hard to retain a visitor from search. I read somewhere that 70% of your visitors will never return to your site. It’s even hard to get them to click to a second page.
That’s why blogging is so challenging: conveying your personality via words. People get your voice, mannerisms, smile, and gestures on YouTube. People quickly fall in love with your content and then travel through your backlog of content.
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Blogging can have a similar effect, but it is much rarer. The difference is that YouTube controls an algorithm that puts your content in front of viewers.
Once the algorithm clicks, you win; however, you must follow that path. If I create 100 videos on Pokemon battles, I must do another 100 videos on Pokemon videos. I can’t go on a tangent of playing Call of Duty for ten videos.
Blogging has much more freedom, and you can rank for anything under the sun. It is better to stick to the same general niche (health, wealth, relationships), but you’ll be able to dive deeper and expand over time.
Some blogging tips. I am nowhere near a large blog, but my views from searches are snowballing. I have been writing for two years and have 1,000+ articles.
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I envision myself making $10,000/month from my blog in ten years. Now is the time to grind out as many posts as possible. I also create books to distribute my blog posts via different outlets. Here are some tips when starting a blog.
- Prepare for no man’s land. When you release a post, no one in the world will care. Prepare yourself for this truth. After two years, I get 2-4 visitors daily from search. This is amazing because I remember getting 2-4 visitors a month.
- Why will someone return to your blog? You have to give someone a great reason to return to your blog. You (and I) are not that great of a writer or content creator. We need to EARN people’s time. I publish free books and release them as PDFs and via Kindle Unlimited.
- Write every day. If you are a content blogger, write every single day. Even if it is a small post, writing should be your lifeblood. Your audience will grow if you commit to yourself first. You’ll have a content production schedule if you are a commodity blogger.
- Don’t outsource if you are a content blogger. If you are a content blogger, don’t outsource to freelancers or ghostwriters. Your audience is coming to your blog to read your voice, not someone else’s. Commodity bloggers, do as you wish.
- Stay for the long run. Look towards the future. Don’t blog with the intent to make money in the first 2-4 years. Commodity bloggers can earn money quickly, especially if they know SEO techniques. Content bloggers, prepare for a slow grind. But once you find your voice, keep pumping out content.
Conclusion. The first step in your blogging journey is choosing between commodity and content. They each have their benefits and disadvantages.
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You’ll get that wave of search traffic with a commodity blog and make money from their outbound clicks. However, monetizing them as “your” audience will be tough.
Content Blogs take much longer to gain traffic, but they build a rabid legion of fans over time. It only takes a small number of fans to support your lifestyle.
If you go into blogging with a five-year plan to make good money, you’ll be successful. If you want to build a traffic & keyword-centric blog and sell it to a big exit, commodity blogs will be your route.
Whichever route you take, the journey will be arduous. You’ll have to endure looking at zero visitors to your site for at least 3-6 months. If this scares you, you probably want to become a freelance writer for someone else’s site.
It is a dream come true if you can withstand the initial loneliness of blogging. You wake up, write what you want, and wait six months for someone to read it. What could be better? Good Luck!
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