A Six Month Blogging Journey

By | September 14, 2015

Build a successful business from anywhereI have managed to continue writing and updating this blog on a regular basis.  Sometimes, especially recently, not as much as I would like to have it updated.  This site is now 6 months old and I would like to share a few things with all of you about getting traffic, writing a blog, and helping others.

“You can get everything in this life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want”

Zig Zigler

my recommendationsIn my journey that I wrote about last month and am continuing this month, I tried to live by this principle.  The more people I can help find legitimate ways to make money online the better I will become at finding legitimate ways to earn money online.  This includes driving traffic and writing blogs.

I also believe that while doing this I have become a better writer and actually find myself being happier in my everyday life.  It is something I can feel good about.  Feeling good about what you are doing is an important part of life.  There is a story that I heard many years ago and was reminded of it, just yesterday.  Actually I am not so sure it is a story but maybe more of a proverb or parable, but at any rate, it goes something like this:

“A teacher asked a student, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”  The student thought for a moment and answered, “I want to be happy.”  The teacher chuckled and responded, “I am sorry you didn’t understand the question.”  The boy quickly replied back, “I am sorry you don’t understand life.”

Learn and earn

I think the point of the story is clear.  Life is about being happy.  What good is having a job that you hate, possessions you don’t use, money that doesn’t do anything but sit in the bank; if you are not happy?  The boy in the story is very bright.  My guess is this is not a real story but a story to teach a lesson in life.  Make sure that you are happy in what you do and who you are, then everything else is secondary.  It doesn’t matter much beyond that.

I have found writing this blog has been very rewarding.  I feel like I am helping people.  There is an enormous market out there online.  I have heard several figures, but the one that sticks in my mind most is 3 billion, yes billion with a “b”, users online.  Each one of those is a potential customer.  I figured if I could help even a small percent of those users, it would make me feel better.  I have been a victim of an online scam.  I lived and learned and decided to share my knowledge that builds everyday with you, my readers. Just like a marathon it is not quick but you will get there.

Blogging for money is a marathone

Progress


Okay now that I have told a little bit of a story let us get to the meat and potatoes of it all.  I figured over time I would write articles about what was happening to the website, how it was progressing, things I have learned and mistakes that I have made along the way.  Well we have reached the milestone of 6 months so I thought it would be a good time to reflect on that.

Let start with writing and see where we go from there. The first month I started the blog I went crazy I wrote almost an article a day.  That pace was dizzying, but I wanted to get as many decent articles up as I could.  I slowed down a lot the other months.  I managed writing about 2-4 articles a week since then.  This pace has allowed me to steadily increase my traffic over time.Happy email marketing customers

I think the smallest article I wrote was around 750 words and the longest was about 3500 words.  My thought is write as much as you feel is needed in an article.  The more you write the more Google understands what the article is about.  The more Google understands the higher the chances are that you will get ranked.  Ranking your website gets you traffic.

Most of my traffic is actually from search engines.  I mean 89% of all my traffic comes from search engines.  More than 90% of that is from Google.  So getting big brother google to like your stuff is important.  How do you do that you might ask?  Well it really is not that difficult.  Write like you are talking to your good friend about something.  Okay it is a bit of a one sided conversation because you are doing the talking, but I think you know what I mean.  If you do this people will read your articles, stay on your pages longer, visit more of your pages, and may even share your pages socially.  When this happens guess what?  Google ranks you higher.Increase Traffic

So as you can my sessions continued to increase over the past 3 months.  It is very cumulative.  The more you do the more the search engines look at your writing, the more people look at your articles and the higher the rankings go.  It is an upward spiral.

There may be dips and bumps along the way and it does take time, but keep at it.  In the end you will be happy you did.  Sometimes you just really don’t want to write.  Believe me, I understand this.  Maybe you just don’t have the time to write sometimes.  So then what do you do?

This past week is a perfect example I got caught up on a couple of side projects between my restaurant, teaching, and consulting that I did not write an article in more than a week.  I fell off of my normal schedule.  So what I did is I sat down and blocked out some time to do what I knew I needed to do.

I have set up a new schedule.  Just because I did not write anything on my website over the past week does not mean that I did not do anything on it.  I actually did work on it this week.  Most of the things I did were in the background, from chatting with people about the site and even doing research for future articles.Keep Your Content Safe

The point is you still need to keep at it and work a little bit every day on the site.  Unlock your success a little bit every day.  It takes time to gain authority on your site with Google and other search engines.  But as it grows so too will your ability to connect with your customers and help them.

 

Problems


Today’s society is the give it to me now society.  That is fine, but the reality is that we do need to work to build an online business.  The reason so many people fail at making money online is they give up too soon.  Let me put a little link here, this is not a sales link but a link about one of my friend’s story and how he has become very successful in doing exactly what I am talking about on this website.  It took him three years to go from $0 a month to $10,000 a month with his online business.  How did he do it?  Working a little bit each day made him a successful online businessman.

secure your data with a vpnDon’t let anyone tell you that you cannot do it.  You will have your neigh sayers and you will also have those people that support you.  You may even find times that you don’t want to do it anymore.  What if you could build a business like the one above in three years and make $10,000 a month.  Would it be worth all that effort in the beginning?  I think so.  The idea is to keep your eye on the prize.

While my overall experience to this time has been good.  I have also had my down times.  For example my wife gets mad at me when I spend some time every day on my computer working on the blog.  She thinks great you are making some money but it is not much.  She is slowly starting to believe as the site is growing.  She just doesn’t understand that it is cumulative in nature.  It takes time.  This is not an overnight, fly by night, or shady thing that I am trying to do.  I am building a legitimate business.

There are no other businesses that I can think of where you can spend less than $1000 a year to get started.  Most businesses you are going to spend much more than that in the first week let alone the first month or year.  I have run several businesses and even consult for businesses.  These are all things that have cost me tens of thousands of dollars to get up and running.  Then it takes about 2-3 years to break even.Sharing Content

These are the reasons that online businesses appeal to the masses.  The problem comes when you look at the time you spend in the beginning and not focus on the end result in 2, 5, or even 10 years down the line.  I am not talking about a get rich scheme.  I am talking about doing something you truly enjoy, making money from it, building a business, and being able to have time to be happy and do the things you really want to do.

My biggest problem has been, at times, finding the time and staying motivated.  What I do is actually incorporate it into my schedule every day to work on my sites.  To stay motivated I set little goals and have little victory celebrations, maybe a beer or a coffee, when I reach those little goals.  This gives me the little push I need to get out of the rut.

 

Become a Success


Don’t make an excuse on why you can’t do something.  Just do it.  I can guarantee you one thing and that is if you don’t try you won’t succeed.  Even failures are a success in becoming successful.  You learn from your mistakes. One last story about success for you today and it goes something like this:

“Thomas Edison was once told that he was a failure in creating his light bulb after 1000 times.  His response was,’ I am not a failure, I have found 1000 ways to not make a light bulb.’”

Edison

So go out there and make your own light bulb to light the world, you might find other things along the way and may have failures, but you can do it.  You can learn exactly how I did it through my top recommendation or see my other recommendations.

If you have any comments or questions please leave them below, I will be happy to respond to them.

2 thoughts on “A Six Month Blogging Journey

  1. Barry

    Hi Mark,

    Being happy is a point many people in my life miss. What I hear too many times is, ” I will have it made when______,I can’t wait until______________, We will have it made next________________, I will be happy_______________ What about right now and I mean this very minute. It may be all I have.

    I have been fortunate enough to have made it in life to 61 years old and I have learned to be in the moment. I have learned to be content in times of plenty and in times of lacking. I can’t wait to be happy, I choose to reflect on how lucky I am to have had the opportunities I have and the ones that I had and blown.

    It doesn’t matter how successful the world thinks I am or for that matter what they think at all. I, for me, choose to be happy because I have it made. I am warm in the winter cool in the summer. When I am hungry I eat what I want. I have a car, shoes, clothes, a place to live and a 16 year old daughter that says I am her hero. I am a very, very rich man. For that I am thankful. Best regards Mark nice post.

    Barry

    Reply
    1. Marc Pintar Post author

      Barry,
      First of all thank you for sharing your thoughts on my post.
      I agree you are a very rich man. It is what you do and what you can provide for yourself and loved ones. As long as the necessities are met it really doesnt matter.
      Take a look at life as a journey not a competition. Enjoy the journey and make the most of it.
      Marc

      Reply

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