Blogging to make money? Think hard.

 

Working on blogging to make money?

You are a content creator. I respect that. I know how much hard work goes into creating and publishing content. To avoid the mistakes of other unsuccessful (average) bloggers, you should know why many blogs fail.

Bloggers fail for several reasons, including faulty blogging practices, incorrect estimations, and weak organization.

Do not fall for schemes that promise quick riches. Blogging is not the kind of work that will make you rich quick.
Beware of those intense artists who brag about envious income reports, pictures of fancy cars, luxurious houses, and high-end offices. The courses or training you buy from any of them will be a waste of money and time. You need to know the truth about blogging.

• Number one – it takes hard work and perseverance.
• Number two – it takes strategy and patience.

I am going to talk about its complexities and the difficulties. Not to discourage you, but to sober you up. To give you an idea of how much work goes into a blog post that is downplayed by those selling the courses.
Blogging to make money can be extremely rewarding, and the rewards are worth the effort if you are willing to put in the time and effort.

My lessons.

I want to share my story, explaining why I wanted to build Blogely and what made me so passionate about it.

For the past few years, I have been trying to get people to the homepage of my SaaS site. Unfortunately, I learned one crucial thing the hard way: no traffic means no leads and no sales. Since that realization, I have decided to create a lot of content on my site. I liked the option of hiring writers the best because I did not have time. Running a small startup business is challenging. So I decided to enlist the help of a freelancer for content writing.

I went on Upwork and Fiverr. Looking for the right combination of cost and quality, I landed a few jobs. Over time, I hired several freelancers.

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Did hiring a freelancer solved the issue?

At one point, I had a team writing two articles a day for six months. So 14 articles a week.

My goal was to make money blogging and for that, I needed to create as much content as possible on the site and as quickly as possible. A marketing guru told me that and paid a lot of money for that lousy advice.

So I hired a freelance team, and they got to work. They sure did what I asked. Six months later, you’d think I’d gained a lot of traffic to my website. It did not. The content was thin, poorly written, dull, and passionless –  it consequently offered no value to readers.

That was a brutal lesson for me.

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Research no matter what.

I decided to change things up and write blog post articles myself. I spent two whole weeks “writing” my first article. I started with the title of the article and finding competitive focus keywords. The first surprise – it took me over an hour of stimulating brain activity, even though I used special paid tools.​

I set about researching topics and dug into the competition – I gathered material, I created an outline that changed and reshaped several times during the process. I saved notes, links, images, and snippets for reference. The research process took many hours of my time.

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An organization’s traps.

Not only that, but I noticed something strange – no matter how organized you are, you still have to search for the correct folder or Google document with the recently saved snippets.

There are plenty of things that go into blog writing.  Finding things like notes, files, images, links, snippets, saved docs seems like the most prominent issue above all.

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Writing and editing.

Then I started writing. Creating the first draft took me a few more hours. After “sleeping” on it, I realized it needed serious editing. (Hmm, a day earlier, I thought I was a genius…).

I revised my work and saved several versions (just in case I wanted to retrieve or reuse some of my clever wording). It took me another day.

As I learned from my other SEO teachers (Udemy courses are sometimes quite useful) – SEO optimization of blog posts is a must today. I was ready for this tricky and intimidating SEO procedure. I felt like a surgeon – wash my hands, put on my gloves and begin the operation. Luckily, I had a handy checklist (which I had from the same Udemy course). Still, it took another hour. 🥺

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Checking for issues.

Then I figured it was time to check for plagiarism, just in case. I wrote it all myself (and rewrote some parts, I admit), but… You can agree with me that we do not write it in a vacuum, and there’s a chance that some phrases may accidentally end up in your piece.

I scanned it. I had to correct some parts, and that took me another half hour.

Phew. 😥

I finished the article in Google doc. Now it seems like the end of the story, but hold on there.

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Formatting and publishing uphill battle.

Publishing, the most ignored part of the blogging process. How often do I hear – “just” publish the article on WordPress. That’s right.

I thought I would be done in 5 minutes, “just” copying and publishing to WordPress. I was shocked when I finished the article about two hours later, which was supposed to be a COMPLETED, OPTIMIZED, and ENHANCED with images post.

I had to go to WordPress, and it’s slow and clunky. It takes time – open, copy, paste, and then the loop begins – correct, format, align, save draft, review, submit, repeat. Repeat many times until you get it right.

That is, of course, if you are interested. After spending days preparing a single article, it would be wrong to plunk it down carelessly.

I did care. So, it took me a hell of a lot more time than I had initially intended.

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Inefficiency shock.

Of course, I got better at it over time. But the fact of how inefficient the process was – that was a shocking discovery for me. 

I was using multiple apps. I had to learn and do a lot of things. To make money online is sure not an easy thing.

Suppose we are talking about the complexity of WordPress here. That alone will be another story. Content creation has become complex, demanding, and time-consuming. It requires the use of multiple tools and elaborate processes, emphasizing the creation of original content that is a primary driver of organic traffic. The tools currently on the market are inefficient, inadequate, and disjointed.

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The system is the key.

This is why I’ve built Blogely.

Blogely is a premium SaaS platform that provides a full suite of content development tools for online businesses and content creators. Blogely solves the problem with the complexity of holistic content creation processes and content ownership transition. It provides users with an all-in-one platform for end-to-end content production.

That’s why I have committed to creating a system. It’s like solving a puzzle (my favorite niche).

I decided to create a place where any blogger can have all the tools at their fingertips at any time, without leaving the work in progress. Jumping back and forth between apps is not productive.

​​I just wanted to find things easily, link my material to the content I write and store it all in one special place – “ASSETS.” I do not want to spend time searching for things and have everything side by side in one efficient view.

One-click drag and drop your saved (and linked) images, documents, notes.

I wanted to be independent of CMS plugins and the general complexity of WordPress. You know the fact that about 75% of all blogs are written on WordPress. That’s weird, but there’s an explanation for it. WordPress has a monopoly because it allows you to own your blog.

The ability to revise quickly is priceless.

Do you know what I think is the most valuable part of having your blog content in Blogely? It’s the ability of quick revision.

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It’s hidden and rarely discussed part of blogging. You need to make improvements and updates to your blog. Google likes that. You gain value when you revise your older posts and add more information or bring them up to date.

Editing and revising an existing article is a breeze. Pull it up, make updates, and republish it to your site. Republishing to your WordPress blog literally takes 4-5 seconds. No new article is created – it updates content in the existing post ID. This all happens without you having to go to WordPress. It’s all in your Blogely account.

If you have imported your entire site using the “blog sync” functionality – your synced articles are already linked to your post IDs, and you do not even have to think about it.

So, what is the ultimate goal?

We all want financial freedom and strive to make our online business a success. If you have decided to grow your blog – then you are in for a long run.

So, you want to start blogging to make money?

It’s like a running marathon – it’s a long, tedious and exhausting process. No matter what anyone says. It’s a commitment with the long-term goal of generating traffic. It does not happen overnight. And not in three months. Be prepared to work hard for at least a year. Eventually, it will pay off.

Article by article – one at a time. Trust me, that’s what it takes. It’s hard work, and there’s no easy way around it.

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Even if you use artificial intelligence (AI – GPT3) – that’s all well and good. But it provides you with snippets of content, but you are the logical brain behind it. You are the designer of the article… Which is not just a piece of “cold” content. It’s much more… You have to put your soul into it to bring it to life. You are like an engineer building bridges and constructing the logical chain.

The blog is your airfield.

Suppose I compare it to flying a fighter plane. In that case, you have to be a trained pilot who prepares thoroughly before each flight. You must be a person who makes logical decisions during the flight by reading signals from the aircraft’s dashboard. The person who takes command and does all the work during the flight by maneuvering the aircraft through any weather condition to a soft landing. And also … the person who reviews the mistakes made to ensure they are accounted for in the future. That’s a guarantee for your long aviation career.

That’s what makes for a successful flight. (My happy memories of the past 🤔😝).

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So, you need to be the pilot of your blog. Your blog is the airfield. Every article is your flight. If you make each flight successful, it will determine your long-term survival.

Treat your blog site the way a pilot treats the sky – with respect. Do not think someone else (hired help, AI) can do all the work for you and make you an astronaut. If you find freelancers who have good skills – you are still the pilot in command. You need to set the topic, establish the outline, and keep your eye on the ball during the writing process.

Put your foot down and pour your heart and soul into it. And eventually, with time, you will get results.

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