If you’re struggling with your blog and need some inspiration, then I wrote this post for YOU.
I want to share my story with you about how I went from 15 failed businesses to a successful blogger.
And by success, I mean having the freedom to live life on my terms!
Oh and seriously I’m not joking about the 15 failed businesses!
And just so you know, success for me is having the FREEDOM to being able to work from home and earn a FULL-TIME living which is where I’m at now.
Freedom is priceless.
And yes I’ve definitely got plans to take my blogging to the next level. It will come in time.
But I am also happy with where I am right now.
Things haven’t always been that way though. It hasn’t been smooth sailing that’s for sure.
If you’re not where you want to be right now with your blog, and you are in need of some inspiration then this post could help you out.
So to get this story started I want to take you back to a time where I was a struggling entrepreneur trying to make any money online.
And believe me, I was struggling.
I Had Over 15 Failed Businesses
That’s right.
Over 15 failed businesses both offline and online.
Here’s just some of them:
- Mobile fun casinos
- Fitness boot camps
- Selling supplements on eBay
- Selling T-Shirts On T-Spring
- Selling Warranties
- Dropshipping
- Selling Stop Smoking Products
- Selling Cars
- Copywriting business <—- Da f*!k was I thinking. I had no idea about copy 🤷♂️
- Plus lots of other things!
I had a little success in some businesses but it would never last long.
One of the main reasons I struggled with most businesses (mainly the offline ones) is because I hated selling to people.
Whether it was selling my ideas, products or services I just couldn’t sell face to face or over the phone, and that always created a problem in my businesses.
Thankfully that problem got solved.
I came across the online world and I realized working online was what I wanted to do.
I just need to work out how to make money.
It always looks so easy when other people are selling their products. I mean how hard can it be?
Well hard enough for me to spend the best part of 9 years dabbling on all sorts of online business ideas.
I had some success with eCommerce doing dropshipping but I decided it wasn’t what I wanted to do.
I Really Wanted To Create Blogs.
It’s something I’ve always been interested in because it’s passive, i.e no running ads or fulfilling orders etc.
The problem was I had started many blogs but never really understood how to get traffic.
And without traffic, I couldn’t make money.
Damn!
One time I even spent TWO YEARS building a blog called Online Super Ninja that had over 100 posts that barely got any traffic.
When I say hardly any traffic I mean it.
The most I got in a month was like 3’000 visits. And a chunk of that traffic came from a post I boosted on Facebook.
Terrible I know!
Here’s an old archive screenshot of that website.
I even had 3 people from the Philippines working for me.
- One as a full-time VA
- One doing full-time SEO
- One part-time on graphics
Even with their help, I couldn’t get this site off the ground.
To be honest, looking back I can see I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
Truth is,
I Wish I Had Investing In Learning More
It’s funny because I spent all that time on that blog, and I don’t think I even bought one course on SEO or anything to do with blogging.
If I had learned from some experts I probably would have learned what do right, rather than guess my way through.
The closest to SEO training I had was a course called Google Snipper that I bought a few years before which showed how to set up niche sites and make money with affiliate marketing.
I never made any money with that course and by the time I started Online Super Ninja the course was outdated.
So anyway, to cut a long story short.
I had to throw in the towel on that blog after 2 years and 111 posts as I was about to run out of money. Meaning I couldn’t afford to pay my staff anymore.
That was one of the lowest points for me.
And to make things worse I felt terrible because my fiancé was supporting the family.
I felt like a failure to her as a partner but I also to myself as an entrepreneur.
Honestly, I was so close to just giving up on my dream of making money online.
All I wanted was to be able to earn enough money to be able to work from home, pay my way and be in control of my own life with no boss to answer to.
My life could of went a few directions at that point.
Luckily it went the right way because…
By Chance, Something Amazing Happened…
I got involved in a local mastermind group for online marketers that happened to have two members who were successful bloggers.
I told them about the blog I had just spent two years on.
After a quick inspection, they knew STRAIGHT AWAY what I had been doing wrong.
They told me I had been targeting the WRONG keywords when writing my content.
Hmm oh dear.
I had been writing content for keywords that were way too broad AND way too competitive. This meant I had no chance of being shown on the Google search engine.
I was literally trying to rank for keywords like make money online or online marketing tips.
I thought if I paid someone to do SEO then I would eventually rank for those keywords.
It seems pretty silly now but I didn’t know how unrealistic that was.
Anyway, they then told me…
I Needed To Find LOW COMPETITION Keywords That I Could Actually Rank For.
They told me…
“If you do this right, your blog posts will actually show up on Google. This is because there won’t be any super established powerhouse blogs already ranking for the keywords you are targeting”
That made sense.
Something they also showed me was how to structure articles THE RIGHT WAY so Google LOVED them and wanted to show them.
Before that, I honestly didn’t understand how to use headings on my posts.
I know it’s crazy right?
Something they also said was…
“You should learn PINTEREST as it will kick start your blog’s initial traffic while you wait for Google to rank your articles”
I honestly thought Pinterest was for crafts and recipes.
How wrong I was.
It has now gone on to be one of my BEST sources of traffic.
The last thing they said was…
“if you can reach 25k monthly sessions then you can apply to a premium ad network such as Mediavine which would then make you passive income from putting premium rate ads on your site!”
That seemed that a super-easy way to monetize a blog.
Creating email lists and funnels and all that stuff seemed too complicated for me at the time.
I found out that premium ad networks pay wayyy more than regular google Adsense ads.
Up 10-25x more!!!
At That Moment I Knew What I Had To Do.
The path to MAKING MONEY became a lot clearer.
Getting traffic to my site QUICKLY without wasting years doing the wrong things like I was doing before seem really doable.
👉Related Post: Lessons From Spending 2 Years On A Failed Blog
Being with those guys in the mastermind helped me as I could see first hand what was WORKING for them.
So that day I set a plan to start a new blog (in a niche I actually enjoyed) and hit the 25,000 monthly sessions threshold so I could apply to Mediavine and make passive income by putting premium ads on my site.
So, I started by writing content EVERY DAY.
I then started using Pinterest to promote that content.
It took me a month or so to learn the ropes. But it was so worth it.
Then I started to also focus on writing SEO content for Google.
Quick tip: If you can write an SEO friendly article that is ALSO Pinterest sharable then that’s double good!
Within a quick amount of time, I started to gain some traction.
Much more than with my Online Super Ninja blog.
But let me just cut to the best bit…
I Reached 25k Monthly Sessions In Just 4 Months!
Yep!
I was able to hit the 25k monthly session threshold and apply to Mediavine and I got accepted in just 4 months!
Just a few months later my monthly sessions doubled to 50k!
Finally, my blog started making money!
In the first month that I monetized my blog I earned $531.23 from the ads I put on my site.
Plus another $677.99 that month by simply linking to an affiliate offer.
That revenue has continued to grow since.
I also now have a few blogs that give me a few sources of income which is now over $3k a month.
I just did my first income report in which I’ve hit $3253.74 in income, obviously, there are expenses but it’s still a massive achievement considering I spent years without making a penny online.
If you want to read that income report you can here: Income Report November 2019
So that’s my journey from 15 failed businesses to finally making money as a blogger.
There’s obviously more to this story but that’s the simplified short version.
Just remember, plenty of people have struggled to make money with their blogs, and eventually, they made a success of it.
YOU can do the same!
If you want to learn more key strategies that allowed me to take my blog from just a FEW HUNDRED visitors to 25’000 monthly visitors in just FOUR months then join the Freedom Though Blogging Facebook group here.
Anyway, that’s it for this post, feel free to share your story in the comments.
Thanks and speak soon.
