Most people that want to build an online business just want to find something that actually works and are not interested in a specific way of doing things.
Fair game; I was like that a few gears ago.
To be honest, I couldn’t care less about blogging back then, I just wanted to make some money online.
fast forward 5 years and I have now grown to love blogging (it’s what I do all day) but the reason I went for it in the first place was because it really does work!
I tried freelancing at first and got very successful with Fiverr making $3,000 a month but it wasn’t the “passive” income I’ve always dreamed about.
While freelance online is a tremendous opportunity to get start doing business online, I wanted something else from it.
I’m going to be a bit shallow here and just say it; I wanted “easier money”.
Since freelancing does require you sit and do the work to get paid, you are not really having the “DotCom” lifestyle so many people crave (as John Chow puts it).
Needless to say, I then started blogging and no, this is not “easy money” either but it does allow you to make passive income, even while you sleep.
Following are 5 reasons I think (if you want to start an online business) blogging is the way to go.
5 Reasons Why Blogging Is The Best Way To Start An Online Business
Let’s take a look at the pros of blogging:
#1: Little To No Start Up Costs
Starting a blog is (at the maximum) about $15 for a domain name and $5 to $10 per monthly hosting (depending where you go).
I say “maximum” because there is no need to pay any more than that and you can also get started for free.
I mostly advise people not to start with a free blog but sometimes I do, and here’s why:
Anybody that is sure about their desires to blog, then it makes sense for them to go buy a domain name for $15 and get a hosting package for it.
On the other hand, I know people that (like I was) only wants to blog as a tool to start their business but they are not sure if they are “fit for it” yet.
If that’s the case for you, then go and start a free website (use SiteRubix) and get free hosting for it (available with Siterubix also).
This means that if you are “on the fence” about it, then starting a free blog will help you understand what you are getting yourself into exactly.
Blogging takes time, patience and effort to be successful at so be sure to give it sometime if it’s something that you would like to make money from.
Once you see you’re doing well and want to move away from the free site, all it takes is a few clicks and you can move all your content from your free site to your paid site (there is dedicated training to do just that).
Note: When I say “free site”, you will be getting a free WordPress blog with the full functionality that WordPress brings, HOWEVER since you did not buy a domain, it will have a Siterubix extension to it like so:
www.example.siterubix.com
While this is definitely ok to use, it may look a bit tacky once you start making money and you would want to move to something more serious (like your own branded domain).
#2: Mistakes Matter, But No So Much
Main my aim for this blog is to teach readers like yourself how to turn blogging into a full-time occupation without making the mistakes I’ve done in the past (that stalled my earnings).
I also understand, though, that you can’t make a complete newbie into an expert blogger without them making some mistakes of their own.
I did have mentors when I started but even then I did things that I would not advise you to do.
Lesson learned, move on now.
As a newbie, solo-blogger, and even if you do join my free mentorship program, you are bound to make some mistakes but let me run this by you:
If you make a mistake with an offline business that you probably spent $100,000s to get it started, then you’re in trouble!
Make a few mistakes in a row and you might be looking at bankruptcy.
However; with a blog, the same one you spent $15 to get online, your mistakes don’t have such huge consequences.
What if you wrote the wrong title? Write it again!
What if you picked the wrong theme? Install a new one!
What if you went to broad instead of niche-ing it down? Start niching it down!
What if I decided that I don’t want to blog about this subject anymore? Hit the delete button, spend another $15 and start over (if you wish).
As you can see, there aren’t many fatal mistakes you can do online unless you try some black-hat SEO techniques (which you don’t even have to worry about now) and your site gets banned or something.
Even other forms of making money online don’t have this luxury.
I see products on my other site where I review tools for online entrepreneurs, that advertise using “PPC marketing” to start your online business.
While yes I do agree that PPC (pay per click advertising) does have its rightful place in the online world, it can get expensive very quickly with little to no to results guaranteed.
Does that mean blogging is a “guaranteed” success?
That I can not say because as you will find out in this blog post, you will have all the necessary tools are there for you to make something happen, but it’s all up to you at the end of the way.
With the tools and free training, I’m about to offer you further down, you can create simple blogs that generate $10,000 a month.
However, if you prefer to look at products that just promise you riches and easy money, or you prefer just watching TV instead, then no, I can not guarantee you success with blogging even though I consider it the best way to start an online business.
#3: You Can Do It About What You Like
What other business in the world can you start that is about something that you genuinely like to do?
Think about it…
You can start a blog in any niche you can imagine and yes, if you want to make money from it, that is possible as well!
There’s a growing, hungry audience online out there looking for information that’s close to three billion people and million more being connected.
Trust me, whatever topic you want to blog about; somebody out there is looking for it.
Is the market over-saturated though?
Are there any room out there for the little guy even though a million plus blog posts are getting published online every day? Not to mention the high amount of content on social media by friends, family, and brands?
You bet ya!
A successful fellow WA-er that runs the blog and podcast “The Extra Paycheck Blog” just published this video explains how the market is actually not saturated at all.
If you are having doubts about that, I suggest you take a look at this video:
So no, don’t worry; there is still a piece of the pie left for you too and that pie is only getting bigger and bigger, are you prepared to take a bite, though?
When you start a blog, my first recommendation to you would be to niche it down as much as possible. If you do not know what “niching” down is, check out my post about how to get in the right niche.
By niching down, you will slicing away at a very specific piece of the pie but don’t worry, that tiny slice you carve out for yourself would be more than enough for you to run a successful online business on.
#4: It Makes You Push Yourself More Each Day
One thing that I am proud of myself for is for being able to stick by building my blog up to the numbers it is getting today.
You can see from this post “Proof That Success Takes Time” that I struggled for years before this blog you’re reading right now finally started performing well as I hoped it would.
It would’ve been so easy for me to let it go once I saw I was not getting anywhere and also since I already had another website making me money; but I stuck with it and I’m glad I did.
This has given me so much confidence in myself and I also plan to pass it on to my students that want to learn how to make this happen themselves.
Just keep pushing and grinding, I promise you from the bottom of my heart that IT WILL eventually happen.
As I transitioned from “blogger” to the now “online business owner”, I had to push myself constantly each and every day.
Nowadays, it’s not just “blogging” that I have to do, but I do a lot more other things that I did not imagine doing before:
SEO consulting
Keyword research for clients
Graphic design work for my businesses
Social media mangment
Website Developer
and more.
These things came as a by-product of focusing on learning how to take a simple blog and turning it into something I can live off.
I would’ve never imagined a few years ago that I will be selling “SEO services” to clients but I do now, and it’s all thanks to blogging.
#5: Blogging Is Building For The Future
Another reason why I’m now enjoying my blogging “career” if I may call it that, is that I know that what I am doing today, typing these words here on Evernote for you to read on my blog, will be rewarded back to me in the future.
Now when I first started, I hated this because I was so desperate for results, and as you’ve saw from a previous point, I didn;t get the results I was after for years to come!
*Sad Face*
But here I am today, grinding away still and knowing deep in my heart that my work is not for today, what I am building right now is work that will pay off later and it will keep paying off for as long as I want it to.
Now that’s a good feeling.
Sure, not all my posts will be successful, some may not get any readers ever, but overall, I know that another blog post published is another brick laid down on the “skyscraper” I would like to build.
If you want quick results, then blogging might not be for you but I would like to ask you to change your expectations when it comes to making money online.
I have many friends that I network and talk with on a daily basis with regards to online business and I have not yet found 1 single person that told me they managed to make it happen over night.
All of us have spent months and months sitting alone typing away at something that we are not sure anybody will ever read. While that is a bit sad to comprehend, let me remind you again that blogging is building for the future, and not today.
Closing Words + Free Training
Now I feel that this post has gone for longer than I hoped for and somehow it has turned into a full-on motivational post.
But that is ok.
I hope by this you will see how much I really enjoy blogging now (even though I didn’t set out to be a blogger in the past) and I hope I can also turn you on to this exciting journey and help you build a blog business for yourself.
As for the training that I promised you, I would like to invite you to join Wealthy Affiliate.
Its a free platform which you can start using right now and it will show you the exact step-by-step roadmap you need to build real, legitimate businesses online.
There are no over-hyped claims here or promises of easy riches and that’s why I love it.
In short; Wealthy Affiliate was my last hope at making something happen out of all this and I’m glad I joined as I finally realized what was necessary to achieve my online business goals.
If you’re serious about this, then go ahead and take a look at what Wealthy Affiliate can do for you.
Also, join my email newsletter. I’ve been publishing a lot of exclusive content to my readers that I think you will benefit from.
It will also give us the chance to vibe and chat about your business if you so desire.
See you on the inside and I hope this post was helpful to you.
Chris Lee