The 5 Rules of Six-Figure Blogging

28 | Posted In Blogging by David

A lot of bloggers out there want to make money doing it, but the way it is being approached just isn’t going to work.

I’ve said it about 2 billion times by now (I’ve lost count), but a blog is not a business. It never will be.

Yet, I see a lot of bloggers that, when they sit down and work, all they focus on is writing that next blog post. Really? How’s THAT going to make a business for you?

So, I thought I’d sit down and create a simple list of problogging TRUTHS. Understand these – APPLY it – and you’ll be further ahead.

#1 – A Blog is Nothing But A Marketing Platform

That’s all it is. It is a communications platform with the sole purpose of attracting and communicating to people en mass. Where you SEND that attention after you’ve gained it is the important factor when it comes to the effectiveness of the platform.

If you look at all the departments which would make up a real business (accounting, personnel, production, quality control, etc.)… marketing is only one of them. It is an important department, but it is only one of many. And, along that same vein, you should think of your blog as only one cog in a much larger machine.

#2 – Your Product Isn’t A Blog Post.

When you sit down to work on your online business, if the first thing you think of is that you need to write some blog posts – then this rule is for you. :)

All businesses – in order to exist at all – must create a product which is exchangeable for money with the public. If you produce nothing which is exchangeable for money, you don’t have a business. You have a time-sucking hobby.

So, what do you MAKE?

In my business, I produce products designed to help my customers achieve certain things. THAT is my product, and my goal is to create as many customers as possible who are happy and have achieved the result they signed up for. My product isn’t traffic to this blog. It isn’t blog posts. It isn’t followers on social media. It isn’t comments.

If you don’t have a product yet, get started on that right now. Even if it is just a cheap ebook, you need something to sell. Even if your goal is to make money with ads, then THAT’S a product. Your product is eyeballs on an advertisers’s website, in that case. So, go PRODUCE it.

#3 – Action is Everything.

Reading blog posts all day doesn’t get anything done. Socializing on Facebook and Twitter isn’t the same as working. The only thing that gets things done is… GETTING THINGS DONE.

Real, concrete action that is directly aimed at at making the things that need to be made to further your business.

And, again, it should be repeated…. marketing is only one facet of a functional business. And, your blog is part of marketing. If you’re not taking action on other things, you’re not really moving forward.

#4 – Listening is More Important Than Talking

As bloggers, we tend to get into this mode of constantly talking and having other people listen. We all want an audience and, to some, fame seems to be important.

However, listening is actually more important. When you really LISTEN, then there will be no guesswork when it comes to what to write about, what kinds of products to create, what niche to go into, etc. You only struggle with those things if you’re not really LISTENING.

As I’ve said before, this is about two-way communication. It is about listening, acknowledging, and helping. When you do that, this business gets a lot easier.

#5 – Help People Achieve Happiness

All people are simply trying to achieve more happiness and better levels of living for themselves, while simultaneously working to avoid sources of pain. That basic human endeavor is the core of all successful products. When you really understand this and use your platform to further this basic drive, you’re going in the right direction.

If your blogging is just talking about yourself, you’re not necessarily helping anybody (but yourself) achieve happiness. You’re not necessarily helping them.

So, whatever you blog about, how can you help people? How can you go over and above and really help? You’ll attract them to your blog because of their interest in some topic. From there, they’ll only stick around if you connect with them and help. You need to have a value proposition in their lives.

..

There’s obviously a lot more specifics that go into six-figure blogging – and I’ve been talking about those specifics on this blog for the last 3 years, and in the many training products I’ve created.

But, in the end, these rules are pretty important if you’re gonna make it, don’t you think? :)

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  • http://www.theskooloflife.com Srinivas Rao

    David, 

    You bring some really important points here. Over the last few days Iv’e realized that I’ve spent a ton of time producing content that is on my blog or podcast for free. i’ve scratched my head in wonder about why I’ve struggled to monetize and it finally hit me that i’m not shipping on a regular enough of basis. I’m finally starting to leverage everything I’ve built, taking a page from your playbook, and repurposing some of my best stuff for products. WE spend tons of time writing content, yet if we just took a small chunk of that towards creating something to sell, we’d always be working on something that we could sell as opposed to endlessly publishing blog posts. 

  • http://www.stevescottsite.com Steve Scott

    David,

    I couldn’t help myself.  I found myself physically nodding YES! as I read this.  It is really important stuff. 

    I know there are many people out there who think blogging is the beginning, middle and end of making money in an online business …then wonder why they make so little and end up saying blogging is dead.

    It is if you do it all wrong.

    It is essential that anyone who wants to be successful blogging work on their own products, use marketing and use the blog as a launch pad…not a landing pad.

    A really essential paradigm shift for many people.

    -Steve

  • http://www.homestudiocorner.com Joe Gilder

    Hey Dave. Great stuff. I know the answer to most questions like this is “test it,” but I’d love your take on things. For the last year or so, I generally post 3 times a week. Last October I posted every day for 31 days. It was also my best month I’ve had as far as generating sales. (I launched two products that month, too.)

    Then I dialed it back to 3 posts a week. I noticed that my traffic during October increased dramatically, as did my income. So for July and August of this year, I experimented with posting 5 days a week…and August was my 2nd-best month ever. I also launched a new product and got paid for an affiliate product I promoted heavily the month before.

    I had kind of assumed that increased posts = increased traffic = increased sales…but that can’t be the only factor, since I launched new products both of those months. Last year I launched a product every month, but in October I launched two. Perhaps it’s in the launches and NOT in the post frequency and traffic, but I’d hate to dial it back to 2-3 times per week if it IS actually a big factor.

    Ryan Lee, for example, posts maybe twice a week, but he emails his list about every post. Do you think that’s potentially more beneficial? I wonder if a lot of my content is going unnoticed, because there’s something new every weekday. And I certainly don’t email about every post, because I’m emailing about webinars and product launches, etc.

    But I like the idea that Google sees me putting up new content every weekday….

    So…whadya think? “Test it” ?? :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Katja-Elsner/100001745710525 Katja Elsner

    Well said, David. Even if I consider myself a good writer, I don’t see my business only in blogging. In my niches it isn’t that easy to find a product. I think I will end up writing cheap ebooks. ;-)
    But more and more I really use my blogs as what it’s for  and squash my brain for some ideas. – It works… small steps, one by one.
    The fact, that I was nodding reading your post, tells me I’m better in listening now. 

    Katja

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_K5OU6JJVHQEPBZWI2OFSEGWJGU R

    My main challenge is creating my 1st product, and as you say untill then……I am not in any business

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    So, what’s holding you up on that?

  • http://dool.in Dave Doolin

    Srini, you have a boatload of material between Skool and podcast and I bet if you dug around in all your Disqus comments, you could find tons more. Cripes, all that writing from back when Lisis was active, there has got to be something really cool in there.

  • http://drawfantasyart.com Wayne Tully

    I’m starting to see some small successes along the way and they are to be celebrated and I like the idea to repeat and do more of what you’ve done before…a nice no flannel post this, a few people I know should read this…and they will when I share it!

  • http://aremorch.com Are Morch

    I totally agree with here Wayne. I follow Davids tips, and been part of his Blog Master Course. And one of the main thing I learned is to celebrate my successes. There will be more then enough roadblocks and adversities, so it is important to celebrate the small changes that move you in the right direction. 

    I now celebrate the smallest things that I add value to me on daily basis. Had one day where I felt a little stuck in my blogging progress, and David gave me simple but yet powerful advice that made my day. And I celebrated it. 

    Today I got journalist from USA Today on LinkedIn that write about my niche. That I did celebrate. 

    Small but powerful changes is what makes all the difference. 

    For sure looking forward to attend David session at Blog World Expo this year. 

    Cheers..

    Are Morch
    Hotel Advisor and Social Media Strategist 

  • http://aremorch.com Are Morch

    I totally agree with here Wayne. I follow Davids tips, and been part of his Blog Master Course. And one of the main thing I learned is to celebrate my successes. There will be more then enough roadblocks and adversities, so it is important to celebrate the small changes that move you in the right direction. 

    I now celebrate the smallest things that I add value to me on daily basis. Had one day where I felt a little stuck in my blogging progress, and David gave me simple but yet powerful advice that made my day. And I celebrated it. 

    Today I got journalist from USA Today on LinkedIn that write about my niche. That I did celebrate. 

    Small but powerful changes is what makes all the difference. 

    For sure looking forward to attend David session at Blog World Expo this year. 

    Cheers..

    Are Morch
    Hotel Advisor and Social Media Strategist 

  • http://askdavidsimmons.info/sell-money-internet/ David Simmons

    This is a very awesome post David!.. I really like the factors you pointed out in rule #2, If you don’t have a compelling offer.. what are you going to sell to make money with your time sucking blog hobby? This is similar to a post i created that was based on what to sell to make money…

  • http://sybersquad.com Christopher Knopick

    I’ve created a list of 8 goals that I have for the remainder of the year that are going to build trust and community, attract readers for the ads I have and lead into a paid ebook, webinar or e-course early next year. Build the business and not just the site. They are:
    - Goal #1 – Post at least 3 times per week rest of year (17 wks = 51 posts)
    - Goal #2 – Reach 100 Newsletter, 100 Facebook, 100 RSS subscribers
    - Goal #3 – Complete Landing Page and Opt-In form
    - Goal #4 – Reach 1000 Page Views in a month
    - Goal #5 – Reach 500 Visitors in a month
    - Goal #6 – Hold at least 1 free book contest
    - Goal #7 – Create Free E-Book (20 page minimum)
    - Goal #8 – Post at least 5 YouTube Videos (How-to or other)I may not wait until next year for the paid item, it depends on how things go. What do you think about my goals and does anyone else want to post any? If not here then leave a link where they are. I hope I’m not out of line.Great post Dave.

  • http://www.kasiphillips.com/ Kasi

    I Totally agree with you on having better intentions in creating a successful business. There are hurdles that can be overcome easily if a little more thought goes into it. Thanks for the insight

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Looking forward to saying “hey” to you again, Are. :-)

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Yeah, blogging easily turns into a big hamster wheel unless you realize and work toward what actually brings in the dough. :-)

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Well, not just intentions. It has to be intentions backed up by action.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Good stuff, Chris. I would see about reducing the timeframe on the things like email subscribers, etc.

    Work on creating high-converting opt-in forms on your blog, yes. But, also have squeeze pages and send people from social, videos, etc…. through that squeeze page and not to your blog. You want maximum efficiency.

    If you’re creating 3 pieces of great content per week, and actively being out there drawing people in (rather than just spending all your time on your own site)… I bet you can earn a lot more than 100 subscribers between now and the end of the year.

  • http://davidrisley.com David Risley

    Pretty much. :-)

    I have reduced my post frequency on this blog and I haven’t found it reduced traffic at all. From the human perspective, every day frequency can be like a firehose and they’re less likely to listen to you. In a lot of niches, its just not necessary to post ever day. In a news driven niche (like tech, for instance), it probably is. And we do, over on PCMech.

  • http://sybersquad.com Christopher Knopick

    Thanks for the advice.

  • http://www.kasiphillips.com/ Kasi

    Definitely. The right action is the key I like how your blog stands out
    from everyone else. I read the six figure blueprint… I think last year
    and that was the turning point for me. I am still looking for the right customization in terms of theme and creating a solid business online blogging. I remember one of your post spoke about mindset. It gave me more insight on a lot of things I was doing and trying to think through thoroughly.
    Becoming an entrepreneur is a task and a journey well traveled if your
    serious and committed. I have been that way for about 2 years straight
    learning, it’s great but sometimes the hamster wheel rattles a bit. : )

  • http://www.kasiphillips.com/ Kasi

    Definitely. The right action is the key I like how your blog stands out
    from everyone else. I read the six figure blueprint… I think last year
    and that was the turning point for me. I am still looking for the right customization in terms of theme and creating a solid business online blogging. I remember one of your post spoke about mindset. It gave me more insight on a lot of things I was doing and trying to think through thoroughly.
    Becoming an entrepreneur is a task and a journey well traveled if your
    serious and committed. I have been that way for about 2 years straight
    learning, it’s great but sometimes the hamster wheel rattles a bit. : )

  • Barrie|A-List Blog Marketing

    Fantastic article David. Bloggers so easily back-burner creating a product because they feel compelled to crank out the posts. You have to carve time out of your blogging day for product creation and promotion — that IS the meat and potatoes of an online business. We just posted on the same topic at A-List Blog Marketing!

  • http://www.business-marketing-internet.com Thierry Valker

    Very interesting

    “Help People Achieve Happiness” is the most important thing to content readers. And then create a product to sell to the community.

    Thanks for tips
     

  • Ryan Skinner

    Nice posts. A blog is a blog and a business is a business. if you mix them then you have something unless your posts are good and interesting. Its hard work to get traffic but you need something that your followers will read and want to keep reading!
    Keep up the posts. good stuff this is

  • http://mind-mysteries.blogspot.com Brain Power Blog

    You will also need to increase your Bain Power, to Improve your Blog.Don’t you. It’s no point using this forum for link building only

  • http://mind-mysteries.blogspot.com Popular Brain mapping blog

    A Brain Mapping Blog is making good money. But it doesnot seem to follow above points. why? Just Look at that Blog

  • http://blog-toearn.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-can-earn-you-lots-of-money.html Secrets to money making

    Hi , Srinivas You can easily increase your income from adsens. You  do not seem to follow essential points. Have a look at this blog and see how easy it is to earn heavily from blog

  • http://blog-toearn.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-can-earn-you-lots-of-money.html Blog

    See this money making secret blog.This will help you making atleast 100 dollars per month