6 months ago I never thought I’d be writing this post. But, it actually happened. Yesterday I spoke with Johnny B. Truant (who is awesome), about how he made his first 100 dollars online and thought I’d write a post about how I made my first 700 dollars online. In January of 2010 I went from making absolutely nothing to 700 dollars in one month as a byproduct of this blog. It’s not huge, but it’s a milestone.
Many interesting and unexpected things have happened as a result of this blog. If you stick it out those kinds of things will probably happen to you too. The interview series which I ran here for a few months has spun out into a new joint venture called BlogcastFM. You can’t always predict what any of your ideas can do even if they are really simple, so just do them and worry about the results later. A few weeks back I wrote a post at under30CEO titled “How to monetize your blog without selling advertising, affiliate products or any other products.” A more appropriate title was probably ”How to use your blog as a platform for revenue.
Some guidelines:
It takes time, but it doesn’t have to. It’s taken me a while to get to this point but it didn’t have to. There are people who make a ton more money and do it much faster. It all comes down to planning for it which takes me to my next point.
Marketing Plans Actually Work. You don’t need anything fancy as you’ll see from my Q1 marketing plan. It’s not anything complicated, but it’s an outline and something to aim for. Will everything happen exactly as planned if you do that? No. But it gives you a direction to go in. Putting that plan together was what allowed me to figure out that craigslist could lead me to some cash if I posted a freelance ad.
It’s going to be really hard with advertising. I’ve never made much with advertising. I have some text links on the side and they make my blog look kind of weird, but it’s 25 bucks every month for nothing. But there’s no way I could make 700 bucks from ads even with a ton of traffic. Besides, Larry and Sergei already have enough money to last a few generations.
Write Down Your Goals: This kind of goes along with a marketing plan. But, since this is a personal development blog, I always incorporate many personal development concepts into accomplishing my goals for my blog. I’m a big believer in goals, autosuggestion, commitment, and consistency.
Use your Blog as a Platform. Once you start to realize your blog even with a few hundred readers is a great platform to test ideas, there’s no limits to what you can do. The interview series was nothing more than an idea I tested and it turned into a project of its own. Let’s say you have an idea to do something with video. Just do it. Who cares if it fails? You’ll gain feedback and you’ll gain new insights which might lead you to your next idea.
You don’t need a shitload of traffic. I honestly don’t have boatloads of traffic. There are days when even less than 100 people visit my site. But it doesn’t matter because I’ve found a form of generating income that doesn’t depend on traffic. Freelance work can’t possibly be the only thing that doesn’t depend on traffic. I’d love to get more ideas from you guys about other revenue generation methods that don’t count on traffic.
The Income Streams
Built a blog for a client($200.00): Through a simple ad on craigslist, I got hired to build a very simple Wordpress blog for a client. You may not realize it, but if you’ve run your blog for about 3 or 4 months you already have a skill set that you can cash in on. There are so many new blogs launched every day and plenty of people who are willing to pay you for this.
Social Media Consultant($500.00): This is also a part time gig that I landed through craigslist. It’s a recurring revenue stream. The client is called Bio Ionic Haircare. What I do for them? I maintain their Facebook fan page, run their promotions and contests and give them ideas for how to grow their fan base. Basically, I get paid 500 bucks to do for them what I do for my blog.
There is however one major flaw in the way I’m generating revenue. It doesn’t scale and it isn’t very well suited for lifestyle design. The income is not passive so it doesn’t set up my life so I can get paid while I hang out at the beach and surf. So, my next goal is to do more work on identifying passive income streams.
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
I love reading these personal success stories. I’m almost tempted to start building blogs for people, but I don’t really need to, so I won’t, but it’s definitely a viable option for a huge heap of people out there. Once you’ve learned to do it once, you can repeat it and make a living.
I like your new design too. Cleaner, simpler and more efficient. I’m off to listen to the latest Blog Cast FM interview.
Henri @ Wake Up Cloud´s last blog ..Is THIS Really the Secret to Happiness?
This is great news and I wish you much more $$$ in the future, but as you mentioned, the income isn’t passive. It’s great to sell your knowledge with Wordpress and maintaining a Facebook fanpage, etc, but I think something both you and I have with our blogs is to be able to go out and have fun while still collecting a monthly cheque in the mail. I congratulate you and you gave me a good idea with this post. Cheers,
Robby.
Congrats Srini! Great to see that you and Kelly both are making progress with monetizing your efforts. I went to a conference yesterday and got some great interest so I hope to do the same very soon. Love the new look of the header too by the way
@Henri: Thanks dude. It took me a few hours of messing around with thesis, but it was well worth it. I still have a few minor things that need to be cleaned up which I’ll work on today. As far as building blogs, it’s a good way to get some initial cash coming through the door. This month has been a dramatic shift for me since I was unemployed for 8 months.
@Robby G: I’m glad to be able to inspire ideas. I’d love it if you write a post about a new idea. It’s amazing how many different revenue options you have when you start to really get strategic about it. My goal of $5000 a month doesn’t seem to be as much of a stretch as I originally thought.
@Jenny: Thanks. I look forward to hearing about your efforts as well. It’s amazing how just a few months of work will pay off.
That’s awesome, and one nice side effect of building blogs for people is that they will naturally spread the word, and so with time you’ll get more and more business.
@Oscar: Thanks. It’s a milestone for me. I didn’t even think about the fact that more people will eventually spread the word, but that’s a great point. Each person you do work for expands your network.
Hey Srinirao. Congratulations on making the $700. It shows that if we put in the work and effort into blogging or whatever else it is that we do, eventually we will come across opportunities that pay off for the work we have done. Thanks for this and good job man. You deserve it.
Hulbert´s last blog ..My Brother Got Pulled Over by the Police – Part I Interview
@Hulbert:Thanks for your support. Without the people who read this blog and comment regularly like yourself, it wouldn’t be where it is today. I feel really fortunate to have gotten this far and it’s upped my motivation level quite a bit.
Great way to gain revenue from your blog. You need to post an example of the CraigList ad you use. I gained a few gigs myself by the knowledge I know about blogging, creating wordpress blogs, and logos. Its great extra income, I set the money I earned from my gigs aside so I’ll have funding for an idea that generates passive income.
Tony Ruiz´s last blog ..The Story of Bradford & Reed with Andrew Warner
Very inspiring post on how not to rely on traffic and ads to monetize blogs. Though I know blogs can be a showcase of one’s personal skills and talents, I’ve never really look at it seriously. Thanks!
The Conscious Life´s last blog ..Full Moon Visualization: A Guided Relaxation to Overcome Anxiety
@Tony: I”ll be glad to post the ad up on my blog in a future post. Good plan on saving that money for a passive income investment.
@TheConsciousLife: I think my favorite thing about reading other people’s blogs is that I get to see their skills showcased.
Congratulations Srini. This is inspiring!
to think that you have not relied much on advertising (as a lot of other bloggers had) to gain your revenue. I might adopt (with some modifications, of course) your Q1 marketing plan. I love it. 
Even though you haven’t created that passive income you have used your entrepreneurial skills pretty well I think. There are thousands of people that would have never thought of using those techniques to create some income. I also have been using craigslist and I’ve landed a few gigs just like you working pretty nice but it’s also been taking time from my blog so I have decided to focus more again on my blog this coming month. keep it up man I like seeing how you are growing.
Wilson Usman´s last blog ..A Personal Guide to the Islands of Cartagena
Well, that’s a good start. I think we have to be open to different possibilities and prepared to be flexible as you were. There are a few new models out there and doubtless many more that will be created in the future (maybe some by us:)
Keep plugging away. Once you’ve done a few more jobs you can raise your rates:)
@Mighty: I’d love to see somebody adopt my marketing plan and modify because then I”ll have another resource to learn from
. It’s likely my plan has some flaws in it and if you do your own version of it you might find things I didn’t pickup on.
@Wilson: I would say you’re on the right track. Maybe I won’t get to passive income streams in the short term. But the fact that I’m doing something I enjoy and able to generate income from it is awesome.
@Annabel: I agree that flexibility is key. I wasn’t sure which methods for monetization would work best for me. I definitely plan on raising my rates after a few more jobs. Thanks for the encouragement.
Scalability is the tough one. That’s what I’m in it for. Working for a wage or salary just doesn’t cut it, and freelancing is too close to that for my preference. But it’s what I’m doing right now to get going.
Dave Doolin´s last blog ..How a 9 Day Denial of Service Attack Affected Blog Traffic
Interesting post there. I like how you used Craig’s List to make some quick cash (and if the FB one lasts, you’ve got recurring monthly income for a few hours of work every day, if that).
That’s impressive, but a bit too close to a definition of a “job” for me. Nice to realize there are always options though.
Moon Hussain´s last blog ..My Massive Passive Income Brain Dump: What Do You Think?
@Dave: I’m kind in the same boat. It’s a great way to generate some income to keep things going and to “pay the bills.” I actually don’t mind doing the freelance work because it still lends itself to a fairly flexible lifestyle.
@Moon: Yeah it is def along those lines. But, it’s still cash coming in as a byproduct of the work I’m doing here. I figure if it continues at that rate, it’s not a bad thing.
That’s really fantastic that you’ve seen so much success already.
The thing to take away from this post is that there are TONS of opportunities out there that are going unfulfilled. You stepped up and landed a few of these which paid off quite nicely.
Congrats!
Murlu´s last blog ..Become A Guest Blogging Superhero
Srinirao – Great milestone mate!
You’ll be surprised at how much advertisement $ you can make once you get enough traffic. Let’s say you get $50/month per text link. 20 text links = $1,000/month for “doing nothing” and you can just focus on writing content. Then add a product you want to sell, and your services, and you could easily make $2,000++++ from your site!
Best of luck!
Sam
Financial Samurai´s last blog ..Pretend You Have Arrived So You Can Become