Completely 100% Free Advice on How to Make Money Blogging

Bored with your job? Want to get out someday?

If you've ever wanted to quit your 9-5 job and make money by blogging, or you blog now, and want to, someday, use blogging to make money; or if you want to blog and use it as a vehicle to promote your work (and make money by your work), whether that work be book writing; business consulting; selling your art or paintings; getting people to know your music or films; or just to spread the word about you and promote yourself and what you do, then today's blog is for you.


Today I am going to tell you exactly how to make money blogging and how to start to get out of your regular job. There are no costs, books to buy, courses to study or gimmicks or catches at all. This is the simplest, and most direct, way to make money blogging. If you follow these short tips, then, within 2 ~ 3 years, you can start cutting down your regular job hours and start shifting over to the job you dream of doing and all because of dedication to blogging. All because of a desire to do with your life as you want.


And it's all 100% completely free.

Today's blog is especially for people who have a "regular" job yet they have a dream someday to escape that job and the rat race and to make enough money to do what they want with their life. Today's blog could also be for people who want to make a good amount of money by using blogging so that they can live well.

With blogging, as a vehicle to promote or market yourself or your work, that is possible. I, myself, do not do this as 100% of my income, yet; not even 50% of my income. But my teachers do. For myself, after study and effort (mostly effort), I can now see where this is possible very soon for me and am slowly climbing that mountain to where I can see from the top on exactly how to do that. 


I have very good teachers showing me how to do this - two of them are very famous people and, with their help, I am giving you this information.

If you do any sort of Social Media or Internet surfing (and, if you didn't, you wouldn't be here) then you've seen tons of messages and notes about how you can make money blogging. It's true. You can make money blogging. You can't make a lot of money blogging and using banner click-through advertising (unless you are FARK). 

Of course, the most widely used and understood way of making money blogging is by having click through banners on your blog. But I don't really want to talk about that at all. I don't think that is a good way to make money blogging. I mean, if Google asks you if they can use your blog to advertise then you know they are the ones making the money. 

But I will say that, in the last year, I been asked twice directly from companies in the USA and the UK to place banner ads on my site but have politely declined. Why? It was only for $150 a year (about ¥11,000 yen) and it looked like it might be a hassle. Also, why in the world would anyone pay $150 to Japan when the bank transfer fees are $70 dollars a transaction? I wouldn't. That made me figure that those folks, while meaning well, didn't really have any idea what they were talking about. 

One of my friends is a blogger well known all over the world and, while not telling me a dollar amount, he told me that the click through ads were nice but they only pay for dinner a few nights a month. You might think, "Wow! Free dinners a few night's a month?" But when you realize that my friend's blog gets 1.2 million hits per day, you realize that banner click-through advertising is not all its cracked up to be.  

He, by the way, makes well over a quarter million dollars a year as a financial advisor. Do you know how he gets his clients? You guessed it, people read his blog and then ask him for advice. That's how he makes money blogging. It is an advertising tool for his services. 

This is the way to use a blog that I want to talk about.

I have been asked to give advice five times in the last year too. That's where the money is. Even though I haven't made large amounts like $10,000 (USD) a month directly by blogging I can say that I have made over $1000 a month indirectly by blogging. I did this because, through blogging, I have been hired as an advisor (like my friend above) to companies who have jumped into the Social Media realm in order to market their products. In fact, as I mentioned above, I have been asked five times in the last year. I took four of those jobs and two of those were in the last month. 

Even though I averaged over $1000 a month in the last two years by use of blogging, one month - a year ago or so - I made $5000.


Like I said, you can do this too. 

There are three things that you must do in order to set yourself up for a situation whereby you can start to consider using blogging to make money. They are:


1) Consistent daily blogging
2) A focused topic
3) Interesting writing


That's it. Just those three. Now let me briefly talk about each one.


1) Consistent daily blogging: Yes. This is hard. But you must do it. You must make daily updating a habit just like brushing your teeth; you can't sleep until you do it. And not just any trash. Good, consistent, interesting writing (I'll talk about the interesting part below). Why constant writing and updating your blog is important is because you must understand how the Google search engine works. The (new 2010) Google search engine is called Caffeine. The old search engine gave priority to blogs and web sites that have many links. Caffeine does not. Caffeine gives priority to consistent and regular updating. Please read the link about Caffeine. But here's an example to show you that I do know what I am talking about. This blog is called "Modern Marketing Japan." That's not a generic title at all. But "Modern Marketing" is an extremely generic title. Do a Google search for "Modern Marketing" and you should see this blog listed in the Top 3 ~ 10 or so of 22,400,000 results for the entire world (the results change constantly with Google Caffeine). That's proof of the power of consistent blogging.


2) A focused topic: As far as the Internet is concerned, we are talking about Long Tail Marketing. Focus on your topic. In the Internet world it is better to be a big fish in a small pond. Read about the Long Tail here in A Primer on the Long Tail and Is the Long Tail all Junk? also read why the Long Tail is beneficial for you even against the Internet giants as it is, for example, damaging Google's own business by reading: Why Google Worries About its Own Future. 


Now, my blog is supposed to be about Japan; media; and marketing and sometimes it gets all over the place, but trust that I do always try to think of a Japan, media or marketing angle for everything I write.


3) Interesting writing: This is the hard one. All I can say are a few things. First, write with your own voice. Stop trying to write like you're Hemingway or writing a business prospective. You're not. If someone wants to read Hemingway, they'll buy the book. If they want to read a business prospective, they won't be 
looking at your blog. People read these things because they want real. They want to hear what real people think. Readers of blogs don't want bloviated nonsense. If they want that, they'll go to CNN's site.

Now, here's a hint on how to write with your own voice and to help yourself have good topics all the time. It's not 100% but it will definitely help you. It helps me immensely. How many times a day do you think about something and then think, "Wow! That's a great idea for a good blog post!" Only to, a few hours later or the next day, not remember what that good idea was? I used to do that all the time. But I've stopped recently. Now, I almost never forget good ideas (good ideas, remember, are money in your pocket!). How do I not forget? I use a notebook. I've written about the benefits of always using and keeping a dollar notebook in the back of my pocket in Pocket Notebooks: The Secret of Millionaires and People Won't Listen! I always have my notebook. So when I have a good idea - about anything - I write it down. It helps me greatly especially when I am stuck for an idea on what to write about. 

As with everything in life, practice makes perfect. If you think that you are going to just start writing one day and become a good writer than you are dreaming. Keep doing it consistently and you'll get better and better as you go.

Like I said, focus on what you are doing; do it consistently; do it well. If you keep doing these three things, for a period of 2 ~ 3 years, then you can start to use blogging to make money.

I know. I've done it. Anyone can. You can too.

NOTE: Please look over my May and June 2010 blog postings. There you will find many articles that will help you to do your blogging smarter and better and tips on how to make money. You might as well read those so that you can learn in a few minutes what it took me a few years to find out on my own. Good Luck.

Also read: Ways to make money from your blog for a pretty generic answer to the question.

This blog is dedicated to my friends Andrew, Peter, Ryu and Jimbo. It might seem tough guys. I know. Been there, done that. But never lose sight of why you do this in the first place. There is a reward down the road.