Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

In 2007 I decided my blog was due for a new look, but it was not just about a cosmetic face-lift. I wanted to improve usability, clarity and most importantly, highlight a very important aspect of my business - the Blog Profits Blueprint/Blog Tips newsletter email opt-in.

Blog Designer: Mick Real

I’ve worked with a good designer friend now for over a year - Mick Real - who contributed to the look and feel for Blog Mastermind, the cover for the Blog Profits Blueprint and now, the complete redesign of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com.

Mick and I worked many months, putting together a layout, tweaking it and then implementing it over the top of the WordPress platform. There’s a lot to this new blog design and it was quite a monumental effort for both of us to get it right, but I’m pleased with the outcome and we have plans for enhancements in the future too. It’s great to have a designer who is enthusiastic about blogging and I have to pass on a big thanks to Mick, he’s been a devoted designer throughout the process.

The Importance of the Email List

I’ve already hinted many times in previous blog posts and email newsletters about what having an email list has done for my business. A blog is good, but for all but a few of the very top bloggers, most people will never enjoy significant conversion by marketing purely through blogging, they just never build a large enough following of readers.

Email marketing is more forgiving when you have fewer subscribers and is a very effective direct marketing communication tool. When an email list is combined with a blog as an entry point, it makes for a powerful one-two punch and the basis for an entire Internet business.

I don’t think every blog needs an email list, but I think every blog could benefit from one. Most bloggers struggle with one content commitment - writing regularly to a blog - so to include an email list as an additional outlet that requires content, can be difficult. I would argue that an email list requires a lot less “fresh” content than a blog and is more specific in topic, so can easily be set up and then let to operate effectively without constant attention (unlike a blog), but I digress, that’s a topic for another blog post.

Most bloggers are content to focus on generating income from advertising and don’t think beyond that, so an email list doesn’t factor into the model they are pursuing. I’m trying to change that - and at several points through Blog Mastermind I emphasize the power of email marketing - but for now I’ll probably sit as one of the few bloggers who leverage the blog and the list in a symbiotic relationship.

For me, I’m already convinced about email marketing, so I knew my new blog design had to highlight my email newsletter and better present the Blog Profits Blueprint as the incentive for joining. My last few blog + email list combined promotions have brought in at minimum $5,000, one breaking $10,000 and another closing in on $20,000. I could never have dreamed of doing this with just my blog. I know what a good email list can do and I want to continue to build on the great foundation I have laid so far.

The Opt-in Form

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Back in August 2005 I wrote a three part series of blog posts about how I have made money online. This was one of my first pillar article series and forms one of the foundation content pillars that this blog was built on (my business timeline and typical day in my life articles were other foundation pieces I wrote in 2005, during this blog’s early days). These article types are concepts that are crucial to a blog’s growth during the first few months and are part of the methodology I teach in Blog Traffic School (and yes, the course is still coming, the mentoring program will be released first though).

I thought it was about time I updated my how I make money online series since I now make a significant proportion of my income from blogging. I was asked in my last post were I revealed that I made $6549.52 from blogging in March to break down specifically how I did it, so in this post I will explain the particulars for you.

How I Make Money Blogging - Video Explanation

I’ve explained how I monetize this blog in a 23 minute screencast video. It’s a 60MB video or 10MB audio only download, so I recommend this only for my broadband readers. If you have problems with the video I suggest you wait for it to download completely rather than watch it streaming.

Click the graphic below to open the video in a new window.

[ Click here for a smaller version of the video ]

If you like the video and want to see more screencast presentations like this, stay tuned for my blog mentoring program as I will be using screencasts throughout the program.

March 2007 Income Breakdown

I maintain a monthly income spreadsheet, which lists revenues generated from my blogs and websites. Here is a snapshot from March, minus some private data that is not appropriate for release to the public.

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This is a topic I’ve wanted to chime in on for a long time now. Many bloggers, some well known, others not so well know, have been talking money. In particular how much can you earn from blogging.

Combining all my income sources outside of my business, the total for March 2007 comes to $6549.52 - and most of that comes from this blog you are reading now. Note that is a gross profit figure, there are people who work with me that I pay and other related expenses, but about 90% of that is pure profit.

I wish I could tell you I spend that money on fun things - and some of it will go to leisure activities and living expenses - but much of it goes right back into my online ventures to pay for outsourcing and growing web assets that produce income. I am in business afterall and you can’t spend your profits frivolously if you want to be in business for the long haul.

Blogging Part Time For A Full Time Income

The reason I disclose my income for last month is because I want to show you that it is possible to blog part time and earn a full time income. If you read my blog regularly you know that while my posts are often lengthy and of high quality, I’m far from the most prolific blogger online.

I aim for a new post around once per day and I rarely publish multiple articles a day, certainly not full sized articles. In fact I frequently go a day or two without posting new content. This is a deliberate choice I make because I want to spend my time doing many different things, some work related (business building), some health related (exercise) and some for fun (seeing friends, family, eating out, etc). I really enjoy blogging, but my main goal is to live with the freedom to blog only when I want to, not because I have to earn a certain amount of money or I’ve placed pressures on myself to meet certain quotas.

You have to do something of course - I wouldn’t expect you to keep reading my blog if I didn’t provide regular value to you - but you can blog and earn good money without being a slave to the blogging career. You set realistic expectations and then match your activities to meet those expectations and hopefully, like I have managed to do, you can create a pretty fantastic lifestyle built around blogging.

How Hard Do You Want To Work?

I have noticed that most bloggers who report four figure or more incomes from blogging are very active, posting many articles each day and need to maintain the pace to keep earning.

Some professional bloggers might rely on delivering a certain number of pageviews each month to keep the AdSense or other contextual income coming, or perhaps take on every single paid review that comes their way. There’s nothing wrong with that, and many of these bloggers earn more money than I do from blogging, but I do not advocate or wish to replicate the level of work required to sustain that monetization strategy. The pay might be good, but the labor, in my mind, is too high a price to pay in hours taken from your life, which you could spend in other ways.

I aim for balance, financial stability and time freedom, and blogging is the vehicle at the moment I use to help meet those goals. I believe you can do the same, if you follow certain patterns, work diligently but not excessively, and stay focused.

If you know me and/or have read this blog for a while, you know that I promote methods of building passive income and passion driven businesses. In the case of blogging, my series on blogging business models outlined models that use blogs to derive income that don’t rely on one person for the income stream - this is the formula for building passive income from blogging.

I’m working on the passive blog business model myself right now with a couple of other blogs, but for the moment at this blog, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, it’s a showcase of my writing and teachings, not something I plan to outsource since it would no longer be my blog. That may one day change if I decide I no longer want to write to this blog, but for the moment it’s all Yaro, with the occasional guest article now and then.

The passion model, means you blog because you enjoy it, you get paid well for doing it, but you are not a slave, and preferably, you are using passive income streams to monetize your blog, so when you do stop blogging the money doesn’t dry up completely. That’s exactly what I do now at this blog. I love blogging because I enjoy communicating and helping others. To make money from it, and good money, grants me the holy grail of doing something I love and getting paid well for it.

Now, I want to teach you how to do the same.

Learn How You Can Replicate My Blog Money Making Model

I’m launching a blog mentoring program where I teach exactly what I did and currently do to make the money I make from blogging. It’s a program specifically for beginner bloggers, starting right from the basics, and it will commence this month, April 2007.

If this sort of program interests you and you are ready to dedicate yourself towards building a full time income from blogging, then please join my early notification email list so you know the exact day the program goes live.

Here is the sign-up form:

Yaro Starak
Blog Mentor

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At the start of March I bought a bunch of new products, including Product Launch Formula from Jeff Walker ($997), the Dot Com Secrets Free CD from Russell Brunson ($7.95 for shipping) and paid half of the $997 fee to attend the World Internet Summit in Melbourne. On top of that I subscribe to Perry Marshall’s Renaissance club and Rich Schefren’s private business systems coaching program.

I think I spent at least half of the money I made from blogging in February in the first week of March, but I consider it money well spent.

Top Bloggers Are Thought Leaders

If you read many of the top blogs written by one specific individual you will notice that they know a lot about a certain topic. They usually have spent a significant amount of time working and experiencing the things they write about. Consequentially they can blog with the authority that only comes from experience.

On top of experience, many bloggers tap into the industry they write about, reading other blogs, following industry leaders and buying books, magazines and information products. They realize the necessity to stay up to date with current events so they don’t get left behind. The is especially important if you want to be a consultant or establish authority in your field.

Good Ideas Are Not Enough

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As an entrepreneur and a blogger I’ve been afforded a unique outlook on the whole blogging as a business discussion. Bloggers look at blogging as something they do for fun, for creative expression, for meeting people, for making money directly from advertising and affiliate promotions or indirectly by promoting a business. Most bloggers are either not blogging for money or are self employed content publishers. While there is nothing wrong with that, and I’ve been living the self employment life myself for a long time, it’s not my end goal.

Because of my entrepreneur mindset I always look at things from a strategic business point of view, not an employee mindset. This attitude has led me to study business strategy and systems and implement what I learn both in my business and in my blogging. I doubt there are many other bloggers out there who think and act as I do in this regard, which is why I enjoy writing about blogging as a business model so much - it’s not territory many people cover since they just don’t think about it.

Today I have a topic for you that clearly is from the entrepreneur mindset and if your goal is to use blogs for business, possibly as your business (the blogging business model), as a lead generator for your business, or as a cashflow source for bootstrapping your business, you will definitely find the ideas below of interest.

How To Leverage The Talent Of Others To Help Grow Your Blog

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