How I Make Over Six Figures Every Year from Blogging
Eighteen years ago I started making money online and it’s been quite a journey since then. I’ve had my hands in everything from creating banner ads, pushing web hosting, creating sites to drive sales to Amazon, building out my own content sites, email marketing, affiliate marketing and of course blogging. You will notice it’s quite a list… but don’t forget, I did say 18 years!
To be successful in business, especially on the internet, is knowing how to adapt and change your business model with the world around you. All of the methods I mentioned above have changed a lot over the years, by being able to adapt your business to these changes you can continually tweak and improve your business with the times. Offline and retail businesses are failing miserably if they haven’t adapted to the world of internet marketing yet… and still some of them will sit on the sidelines and continue to lose money until they are completely bankrupt.
Of all of the methods I mentioned above, blogging has been on of the most fun and successful for me. However, finding success in the world of blogging is not easy… nothing in life worth doing is! It takes less than a few minutes to setup a blog of your own, but to build it into something amazing it will take a massive amount of time, effort and dedication. Money also helps…
Most people will start a blog and think they can throw content together and then traffic and money will start flowing through their sites. This is the worst thing you can think of… and it will never happen. Over 100,000 new sites are going live everyday… why would anyone want to visit your site over the others? This is what you need to find out and will ultimately determine the longterm growth and success of your blog.
How I Make Over Six Figures Every Year from Blogging
My full page article can be found in the most recent article of FeedFront magazine. While it’s not a blue print for success, it does outline the basics of what every successful blogger needs. I’ve listed each of them below and also went into detail on how I use each to earn over six figures a year from blogging.
Be the Authority
It doesn’t matter what you are good at, as long as you are awesome at something. My calling was to start a blog in affiliate and online marketing, since this is what I’m good at. You will also want to choose a topic for your blog that interests you and that you will be able to leverage and write for over a long period of time. It’s also a good idea to start a blog that will have advertisers that want to buy placement on your site, or that you can create a product or service through.
In my case I get emails on a daily basis from advertisers that want to get exposure for their products and services on my site. Since I’ve built up my brand and authority, I can charge a high premium that other affiliate marketing blogs can not.
Be Everywhere
Imagine what it would cost you to buy a full month of newspaper advertisements or a billboard… this is all wasted money and it’s usually very expensive. On top of that you will also have limited reach, and there is also no guarantee it will even work for you. This is how the retail business is still being run.
Through the use of a blog and social media you can grow your brand and gain authority with little to no cost. Create something amazing, provide awesome advice, guest blog on various other sites and leave valuable comments and you will see a steady progression of your authority and your ability to be everywhere on the internet for an extremely low cost. This is without a doubt one of the best ways to grow your reach online.
I’m all over the place. I will answer interview requests whenever they come in, I guest blog on a bunch of sites, I’m active on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest and I’m always sharing content and commenting on top blogs across the internet.
Leverage Your Blog
I mentioned earlier that a lot of advertisers want to get exposure on my sites. If I’m not doing direct paid placement deals with them, there are usually other ways that we can work together. This can be another from a referral program or exchanging traffic and reviews on their sites. The important thing to know is that people want to work with you because of the blog that you have in place. Your blog isn’t only important for the people who are ready it, but also for leveraging yourself and your brand as well.
As a result of my blog I’ve been able to appear on Fox News, ABC News, speak around the world at difference conferences, launch a real book of my own, win some awesome prizes and meet amazing people from all around the world. On top of everything else, I’ve even been able to launch my own side brand through the blog which has grown immensely in just a few years.
Show Me the Money
The success of your blog and brand is contagious. Once you have a readership and brand following, people will read what you have to say and they will share it with their friends as well. The better the content, the more people will share it. All of this eventually leads to more exposure for your blog and brand, which increases your authority and your ability to charge a higher premium for advertising and gain the attention of Fortune 500 brands.
Anyone can start a blog, but it takes a massive amount of time and effort to turn it into something amazing. Earning $100,000 a year from a blog is definitely possible and some of you will likely accomplish this in the coming new year. Don’t look at the big picture, but instead focus on the core content and goal of your blog. Don’t be afraid to try something different, and also don’t try to replicate someone else’s success.
Creating a legitimate and profitable blog does not happen over night. Start small and try to earn $10 a day, then scale this to $1,000 a month in earnings and you will eventually hit your goal of six figures per year.
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Hi Zac,
Hearing from the boss and mentor is a great recipe to take into the new year. I have been a fan of your contents and i've been following your constant updates ever since I stepped my feet on blogging.
I quite know that it will take some amounts of time and more effort to achieve what you describe above; but I will not give up.
My new blog is just about 3 months old, and its doing pretty well in terms of Alexa ranking, my aim is to decrease the rank and improve on more content publishing.
Thank you Zac for being a blessing to the community.
Do have a happy new year celebration.
My recent post 7 Great habits of highly successful bloggers-25 case studies
Great work Zac. I have been reading your blog since around 2007 and you have been a great inspiration and teacher to me. Happy New Year, best wishes and lots of fortune in 2014
Hi Zac!
Happy 2014! It's amazing to know that you are making a living online in such a short amount of time. You're a role model for a lot of bloggers out there and I'm so glad I got a chance to get to know you.
Let's try to hook up and do a Google Hang Out in 2014 so we can talk more about your success.
Thanks for the encouragement and all you do.
Chat soon!
My recent post The Naked Truth About Your Podcasting Stats and Why You Should Host Your Show on Libsyn
Hey Zac,
Very inspiring post, It's always best to start with small goals as small goals can be achieved in less time and keeps encourage you to move on more big goals. Anyone can be start his/her blog but it's the authority and trust that makes it stand out in the crowd, as you mentioned it requires time and relentless effort initially and I think that's why lots of blog shut down within few months.
My recent post Interactive Bees online media planning services
Awesome post Zac! It is very helpful to build a solid and trusted business brand first, and the money will come afterwards.
It still boils down to emphasizing consistent and valuable content for visitors to the blog. If the readers find the content valuable, it would be easily shared, and the blogger would be easily rewarded.
I am sure many newbies are going to bookmark this piece as a dependable reminder or reference manual. 🙂
In kingged.com, this post was bookmarked for Internet marketers and bloggers, I have also left the above comment where this post was found.
Sunday – kingged.com contributor
https://kingged.com/how-i-make-over-six-figures-ev…
I would love to make six figures blogging…perhaps if I keep going for another 5-10 years…I've been doing it for a while now, and I made just over $2,000 last year. But hey…that's better than $0!
My recent post How To Get What You Want: Setting SMART Goals
Hi,
I really love this post. I do agree with 6 figures you give. The information in this article is really unique and useful for me. After reading this article, I think I have some ideas for myself. I do follow your articles recently. Thanks for sharing this post. Hope to read more interesting information from you. Great job!
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Great post, Zac! I know that I've been working for a while on my blog, but not quite 18 years. 😀 One day I'll get there though, and I love reading posts like this because it helps to keep me motivated.
My recent post How To Get What You Want: Setting SMART Goals
Good tips for bloggers Zac. Just be persistent with your blog and offer good solid advice and services and watch your blog start to bloom.
My recent post 2014 Web Traffic Secrets List Exposed Marketer Spills The Beans And Reveals It ALL In Stunning Detail
Whao, what a great article.. am highly inspired
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Really nice tips Zac,
Specially Authority and Be Everywhere are the two things which I'm missing on blogging filed. Will consider these suggestion from now onward.
My recent post Email Marketing Solution for All Bloggers
Hi Zac,
Great post mate! Very inspiring… I'll be reading more of your blog in the comings weeks so thanks for all of the great info
My recent post Boost Your Rankings By Diversifying Your Back Link Profile With UAW
In my humble opinion, anyone can start a blog, that’s true. However, only a handful of them can make it big. Why? Because besides the deep IM know-how, you need to know how to write superb and attractive articles. And not many people know how to write like this. Like Zac or JohnChow, for example:)