5 years of trying to make a living blogging

[happiness2go]

Hi everyone,

So, my name is Tim. I am 26 years old and from Germany.

I've been (unsuccessfully) trying to make a living blogging for about 5 years. At the time, I discovered blogging and immediately fell in love with it. In the meantime, I got involved in different businesses, but somehow always 'returned' to blogging.

Yeah.. the passion thing. I know. I've read that thread in the Gold section.

My last 'venture' was that I moved to Iran at the time of the nuclear deal. I thought that I could establish a content marketing agency here for all the European businesses that were supposed to flood the Iranian market.

I basically came here on a student visa for an MA in Iranian Studies, learning Farsi and meanwhile trying to make that business happen.

Well, that didn't quite work out. I just wasn't ready for the difficulty of the task, I suppose.

So again, I am back to my blog.

Well, I am planning to move back to Germany for the first time in seven years. Meanwhile, I have somehow set my mind on what I am planning to do next in terms of trying to monetize my blog: a membership platform.

I'm running a small publication on Medium. It is not a huge thing but it has a small dedicated following. I would like to build from that and offer a paid membership on an external platform, but still figuring out the specifics of that.

I guess that was enough from my side.

Cheers,
Tim

 

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[Deleted50669]

So is your own blog connected at all to the Medium work, or are those separate efforts?

 

[happiness2go]

So is your own blog connected at all to the Medium work, or are those separate efforts?

I used to be blogging on my own owned blog then switched to Medium due to increased traffic.

Obviously, looking back, big mistake as you don't 'own' the site.

Medium recently changed its algorithm and my traffic per article is down to a third of what it used to be.

Now I'll slowly switch back to my own blog while only using Medium is a syndication tool.

 

[KeepGoin]

While reddit might be a cesspool these days, there is a specific subreddit that is full of value for blogging. It's r/juststart

The gist is, you need to be targeting buyer intent keywords in a niche that you have a chance to win at. That first part takes research, and the second part is actually figuring out how to rank.

Since you already have an established blog, work on setting up "money pages" to help your readers purchase products with informed decisions on things that will provide value in their lives. Any niche has these. If you have traffic you have money.

I'm still figuring things out on my own, but good luck.

 

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[happiness2go]

While reddit might be a cesspool these days, there is a specific subreddit that is full of value for blogging. It's r/juststart

The gist is, you need to be targeting buyer intent keywords in a niche that you have a chance to win at. That first part takes research, and the second part is actually figuring out how to rank.

Since you already have an established blog, work on setting up "money pages" to help your readers purchase products with informed decisions on things that will provide value in their lives. Any niche has these. If you have traffic you have money.

I'm still figuring things out on my own, but good luck.

Thanks!

Right now, my problem is more of a:

What market am I serving? What problem am I solving? What solution am I offering? - kind of problem.

I've got traffic (not huge traffic, but it's workable) and I've got readers. I am not planning to go into the route of affiliate marketing/advertising. I am planning to offer my own products. But I am still in the planning phase of where I am taking this.

I've got an ebook but now want to create other products in the mid-priced/high-priced tier. As I said earlier, probably a membership site.