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Creating Great Content? Benjamin Franklin Method

bigboy

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Hi guys! I want to learn how to write better, so that I can create great content for a website. I read that Benjamin Franklin taught himself to write better by taking notes of news articles and rewriting them in his own words. He additionally turned stories into poems and back. For the next few weeks, I am going to be challenging myself to do the same, so my writing improves. Are there other resources or methods that you would recommend to get better at writing ASAP?

My idea for a business is generating a website/blog and then getting traffic to my website by marketing with social media (Twitter, FB) and using SEO. With enough traffic, I can make some passive income through ad revenue, but more importantly I want to attract people who enjoy my content and eventually publish a book (my ultimate product).

Any advice would be appreciated.
 
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jesseissorude

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For the next few weeks, I am going to be challenging myself to do the same, so my writing improves.
Benjamin Franklin did this for YEARS and was writing 5-8 articles for The Pennsylvania Gazette and other publications daily.
It'll be a lot of hard work for a long time to improve your writing. But Franklin's method sounds like a great one.
Just trying to keep your expectations in check. You won't become a great writer in just a few weeks of practice.

Also, regarding the business idea in general...
I hate to rain on your parade, but I think you have a lot of assumptions you need to examine before you jump headfirst.

Building traffic:
I'd start with the problem you are trying to solve. You can definitely get traffic to a blog, but it's going to be a long slog for the first year. I've worked with a few, and--while I'm no expert in blogging--from what I understand the traffic will be extremely low for the first 8 months-1yr, then you'll slowly see it start to trickle in. Expect to blog for years before you get a sizeable following (seriously)... and that's assuming you actually are solving a problem and providing value to the reader. It'd better be a great topic. Since the growth is so slow, you get very little initial feedback on if your content is good or how you can tweak it. That feedback in a business is critical, and a blog won't provide it as easily.

Assumption: I can write and if I'm consistent, the traffic will come.

To test it: Find a blogger that's made it, and find out what the early days of the blog looked like. How the hell did they get traffic in the first place?


Ads:
For income from ads, you'll need 100k+ visitors per month to get any decent checks. Also consider that you are basically at the ad platform's mercy. If google changes how their ads work or removes your account, :: poof:: there goes your income.
Plus, ads have the downside that--when they work properly--they get traffic to leave your site.

Assumption: Ads will make me passive income

To test it: Reach out to someone with a site that runs ads. Ask them about their experience. Alternatively, find out if someone has a guide on Adsense and what traffic levels roughly correspond to what income.

Book:
I like that a lot more. Plenty of bloggers have repackaged their content as a book to monetize their following. That said, you mention that it was your "ultimate product," but a book deal might make you $56k (pulling this out of my butt) but definitely won't let you retire. Most bloggers use their book as a lead generator (write a book, have CTAs in the book to hire you for speaking gigs, sign up for consulting, etc)

Assumption: A book is my ultimate exit and will make me lots of money.

To test it: Find an author you can reach out to and see if they'd tell you how much the make on a book.


Blogs can be done, but you'll need to find your niche and laser-target your content to it.

Hope that helps! TEST YOUR ASSUMPTIONS! Just traffic = $$ won't work. Check out these blogs that are profitable, but all have extremely different business models:

Check out blogs like:
No Meat Athlete - Plant-Based Diet for Fitness | Vegan Recipes & Nutrition | Vegan Fitness & Running (His niche is vegetarians/vegans who are also athletes. He came out with a cookbook that was featured in Men's Fitness, but that was only a year ago and he's been blogging for over a decade).
Free Resources Archives - working with dog (She works with entrepreneurs... but only ones that work in the pets industry. She makes money with webinars, not from ads. Ads would drive people away from her site. She does have a book though.)
https://zenhabits.net/ (He wrote for years before having a big enough following to put out a book. Once his book was out, he kept writing more, and now sells courses, speaking engagements, promotion to his list, etc. He definitely still has to keep writing and hustling to continue earning, despite having a book out.)
Million Mile Secrets (They built a huge following with a pretty compelling husband-and-wife traveling the world story and blogging from the road. The blog was more of a side part of the passion they were living... travel hacking. They now make money with credit-card affiliate offers. Credit card companies will let them know what the monthly promotion is, and they'll write articles about travel-hacking to get eyeballs through SEO, then link out of the article using an affiliate link to the CC signup form.)
 
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