How to grow wealthy with blogging 101: First things first
- How to grow wealthy with blogging 101: First things first
- How to grow wealthy with blogging 102: Laying foundation
- How to grow wealthy with blogging 103 – Building blocks
Last Updated on June 13, 2018 by Memorila
Many blogs have crept up for every facet of life. Few stand the test of time to become successful. Do you want to learn the needed secrets to grow a blog into a wealth generating one? Faruk Ahmed takes us down that blogging wealth lane
“Begin with the end in mind,” said Stephen R. Covey, said is one of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Blogging has come to stay in the schemes of affairs of people’s daily lives; from those trying to express their emotions and/or passions, those trying to teach a skill, to those willing to make a living from blogging. And most of these wishes have found answers in blogging.
I believe by reading this post, you also have a burning wish you want to answer. Whatever that wish is, you will have to hone it because it is needed in the murky blogosphere.
This article is the beginning of a ten-part series on how one can turn his/her passion into a wealth generating blog. I will treat the topic in segments; from the preliminaries, the how-tos, the highs and the lows, the successes and otherwise, the profits and the losses, to the digging-ins and digging-outs of blogging.
Stay back, relax, learn and earn!
Idea
If money is your primary and only goal of setting out on your blogging journey, you might get tired, thirsty, hungry and burnt out before reaching your economic Eldorado. And hence you might fall victim of fraudulent schemes.
Blogging shouldn’t solely be for the cash’s sake! To stay afloat in the blogosphere and reap rewards in the long run, the blogging experience should revolve round a passion – an idea. And that passion should solve a problem – a need.
Some of the questions you should be asking yourself are “What skill do you have you can teach?”, “Do you have stories swirling in your head you want to share with the world?”, “What experiences have you passed through, you feel people can pick leaves from?” or “Are you a movie freak who can analyse and review movies?”
Other questions could include “Do you like eating or know how to cook good foods whose recipes you can share?”, “Did you had an ailment which you got cured from and would want to share the healing processes with others?”
If YES is the answer to any of the above questions, then the luggage needed to begin your blogging journey on the right foot is under your kitty.
Desire
To be able to break through in the real world of brick-and-mortar business, one must have a burning desire to push a business idea to become reality. This desire is needed to overcome any hurdle that may come one’s way.
So also is the blogging world.
Whatever you may want to achieve, if you don’t have a burning desire, it will be difficult to get to the Promised Land.
What is desire then? According to Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich, “Desire is the starting point of all achievements”.
Desire is that burning wish you have to achieve something. It could be love, appreciation, fame or money.
Why should you blog?
Over 86 percent of bloggers blog for money! Yeah, blogging for money isn’t bad. And indeed bloggers are smiling to the banks (Case studies: Linda Ikeji of Lindaikejisblog and Chude Jideonwo of YNaija). But money shouldn’t be the primary objective of your blogging life.
You should blog because you have a burning desire to bring a needed solution to the world.
The flame for this desire should be burning. Blogging is not a one-off affair. It is a lifetime experience.
And the solution you are bringing to the world could be a brand new idea or an existing one redefined in your own unique taste.
How a blogging idea can live long
First and foremost, you should be able to ask yourself one vital question. “Can I still be writing about this passion of mine for the next five years?” If the answer to this question is also YES, then you have found the IDEA which you could turn into a goldmine.
And if this idea is backed up with the needed burning DESIRE, you will surely soar high.
What is the essence of blogging?
Another important point you have to put at the back of your mind is that blogging is all about WRITING. And writing you will do almost endlessly. Therefore you need to pick an IDEA that interests you much, which you can write about even when woken up from sleep.
And when you have this unique idea that people salivates for, you will stand out from the pack. Gradually, you can then build up your way to greatness.
Even though the journey will not be that smooth, your burning DESIRE will serve as your buffer zone knocking you back to shape whenever you feel like quitting. And if you can persevere, you would come to reap succulent fruits long before other people realise that the path you have trodden is strewn with gold dusts.
Getting started
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” so said Benjamin Franklin, one of America’s founding fathers, writer, scientist and inventor. Those words on a marble are applicable to all facets of life, blogging inclusive.
Since you have gotten a burning desire and the needed idea, it is high time you put those ideas on a paper. There is magic in one writing down his/her ideas. When ideas are scribbled down on a paper, it is as if one has blown life into them.
When ideas are written down, it is easier to give more shapes to them and put finishing touches onto them. And essentially, one could foresee the ideas materializing into reality in his own very eyes.
The beginning of the journey might look hazy, and hence, one’s vision of the future might be blurred. No matter any amount of vision you can muster, write it down. Sorting and arrangements can take place later on.
What to do
There are some things you must write about when planning.
Write down what you want to achieve (goals – idea, desire), when you want to do it (time-frame), how you want to achieve it (modalities) and what you will need to achieve these goals (tools).
Lastly, also write down what you will give back to the society once your dream is actualized (philanthropy – givers never lack).
Blogging ways
Multitudes of blogging tools abound today which end up confusing people on which one to use. From the free-hosted Blogger, the self-hosted Joomla, the middleman WordPress to a host of others like Drupal, one is inundated with arrays of tools every now and then.
But one tool has stood itself out for ease of use, flexibility, availability of free and premium templates and plugins, and worldwide usage. And this is WordPress.
Hosting
WordPress can be FREELY HOSTED on the developers’ site (i.e. wordpress.com) or SELF-HOSTED. For those trying to test the waters, with low budget or with very little to no technical background, the free hosted type should be given a shot. Else, the self-hosted will be the best.
Domain naming
First impression matters a lot. And when it comes to blogging, the name of the blog can be of advantage or disadvantage to a site. So, you have to be crafty and careful here.
There are few things you have to put in mind here. One of these is leveraging one’s name if he or she is a celebrity, expert, politician or a don. If your name carries weight, use it as your blog name. A typical example is LindaIkejisBlog.com or MichaelAfenfia.com/blog.
If you are not a celebrity, use something entirely different. The name can reflect the theme of the website and could also be unique to stand you out. Names like AfricanNewspage.net, Ogbongeblog.com, BellaNaija.com, Memorila.com, and so on are few examples.
I will go into details about hosting and domain naming in the second installment of How to grow wealthy with blogging.
Slow but steady…
While we were kids, I read a story of how the slow tortoise ran past the speedy hare in a race competition. This was how it took place…
Long ago, the hare challenged the tortoise to a racing competition knowing fully well that the tortoise is a slow runner. Reluctantly, the tortoise agreed. From the beginning, as the blazing hare ran with splitting speeds, the tortoise could only sight the clouds of dust the hare was leaving in its wake. After leaving the tortoise behind at a far distance and already sighting the finish line, the hare felt he should rest for a while and then finish the race before the tortoise crawled by.
One thing led to another and the hare dosed off. Meanwhile, the tortoise even though running at snail-paced speed, was able to catch up with the sleeping hare, crawled past it quietly and finished the race first.
When the hare woke up later on, it fired on but was surprised to see the tortoise at the finish line.
Moral: The slow but steady wins the race…
Even in the blogosphere, we have split-second bloggers who want to reap the rewards of their harvests right away. Some do succeed. But most of them burn up even before the food starts cooking. But those that stay longer to work hard and consistently on their desire and idea get to lick the sweet fruits of blogging.
For the fact that I don’t want also to be a hare, I rest my pen here!
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