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The Almost Bullet-Proof Way To Make Money With Your Blog

February 26, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

We overcomplicate the process of making money with our blogs. Some people say create advertisements. Other people say write books. Others say create training courses. Sponsored content, offer a service, and the list goes on.

Don’t you wish it was easy to make money with your blog? I’m sure we all do. Some people make six figures with their blogs while others want to learn how.

The actual process is surprisingly simple, and this process is as close to bullet-proof as bullet-proof gets. I know it’s a big promise. You may have been putting years of your time and effort into your blog without getting significant results yet.

But to make a big promise, it only makes sense that I back it up.

Find Something That Works

Look around and find the methods that some bloggers use to make six figures every year. Case studies with methods that work are easy to find. These case studies allow bloggers to further establish their authority.

So you find a bunch of methods that work. First off, if someone makes six figures with ads on his/her blog, then do not rely on that for your blog. Ads do not work unless you are one of the big players, and even then, the ads are not worth it.

Maybe you come across blog posts about successfully freelancing, writing books, creating training courses, or something to that effect that has brought in six figures for some people.

Chances are you have an idea of what already works. You know the email list is king and that what you decide to promote to that email list will make the money.

But with a bunch of options, you will either thrive or barely survive.

Focus On One Option And Ride With It

If you chase two rabbits, then they will both escape from you. We understand this to be true, and in this statement lies the secret to making money with your blog.

Instead of trying every money-making tactic known to mankind, hone in on one of the options. Don’t use social media ads, write books, write paid articles, and create training courses all at the same time. Choose one of them and ride with it.

The reason I became successful on social media was because a few years ago, I abandoned every social network except Twitter. That allowed me to focus all of my time towards Twitter and eventually master it.

However, it took me a long time to transition that way of thinking to making money with my blog. I was trying a bunch of different methods that were bringing in mediocre results.

Then I dropped everything and went all-in with Udemy.

I learned more about marketing in a few months than I had learned in a few years. The reason is that once you master one method for making money, then all of the other methods become easier.

For most money-making methods, it’s all just the same approach but with different types of work involved (i.e. an author must write books while an instructor on Udemy uploads videos, but the approaches are very similar).

Then, as you build multiple platforms, you can use them to make each of your new products more successful.

Expand After Mastery

When I went all-in with Udemy, I had to give up self-publishing. At the time, it was a challenging decision. It was more challenging than giving up on my most successful blog before this one.

I loved writing books and enjoyed holding my paperbacks (I’d be shocked to find an author who doesn’t enjoy that feeling), but I needed to learn more about making money.

So I gave it up and went all-in with Udemy.

But now that I have mastered Udemy, I am giving self-publishing a second go. I learned a lot about self-publishing by mastering Udemy since most money-making methods take the same approach. I also have a significantly larger audience to promote my books to.

I only began writing books again once I mastered Udemy. If I wrote books and created training courses at the same time, the mastery would have been more difficult.

It is better to master one skill at a time, and then once you master that skill, move on to the next skill.

Don’t Overwhelm Yourself

Every single time I fail or find my business stagnating, it’s because I overwhelm myself. For a long time, I looked over it, and you may overlook it too. Let me know if this sounds familiar:

I am putting in so much work in so many areas. I feel tired but I am still going to put in all of the work. If I spread out my work, I am bound to get lucky somewhere.

I overwhelmed myself by trying to master every social network and by trying to make money through any method imaginable.

For a short period of time, I even took online surveys and clicked on ads to make money. The money I made from those two activities was negligible.

So just because you make more money by doing something doesn’t mean it is always worth it.

The success happens when you can look at your massive list of things to do and break that list down. I was able to break my list down to a few activities once I decided to outsource most of my business.

In my opinion, every business owner should outsource at least one part of their business. The simple reason: time is money.

If you have extra time in your day, then you have extra time to figure out how you will make money with your blog. You have extra time to take action and therefore learn at a faster pace.

By taking action, you will learn from your mistakes faster. By learning from your mistakes faster and knowing what to avoid, you also become successful faster.

One of the most common ways I overwhelmed myself was thinking about my future. Do I hit this goal and do I get it at the right time? What results am I going to get from my work?

These are silly questions to ask ourselves because we don’t know for certain what will happen. The only way we discover what happens is by making it happen.

In Conclusion

Making money is simply figuring out one thing that works and then riding with it. Even if that one thing ends up going bust, you will learn more from that one experience than by trying to do 10 things at once.

If you are looking for a specific recommendation from me, right now Udemy, self-publishing, and affiliate marketing are working well for me.

Just because something works for me doesn’t mean it will work for everyone, but you have those options.

Sure enough, you’ll have more options, but if you only choose one option, then you will start making money with your blog.

How do you make money from your blog? Which tip was your favorite? Have any stories for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Leverage Pareto’s Principle For Your Business

February 24, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Pareto’s Principle is one of the most famous principles in business. Some entrepreneurs live by it.

You’ve heard it before, but maybe you haven’t heard of it referred to as Pareto’s Principle. Here’s what Pareto’s Principle is:

80% of your results come from 20% of your work.

That sounds much familiar. The concept is true, and if you look deep enough, you will discover what that 20% is for your business.

The work that leads to most of your results.

Most people stop there. They acknowledge Pareto’s Principle and acclaim that 20% of their work brings forth 80% of the results.

The people who stop at the acknowledgement only see one side of the coin. To every coin, there are two sides.

To Pareto’s Principle, there are two statements.

The first statement is the one that we know well. 80% of our results come from 20% of our work. The second statement?

20% of our results come from 80% of our work.

That’s a lot of work that only leads to one-fifth of your results. That particular small slice of work that you do leads to everything else.

The other side of the coin doesn’t get much attention because it is the disgusting side of the coin. Most of the work you do leads to little or no results.

Can you still work with that in your mind? Most of the work leads to little or no results.

80/20 Done The Right Way

This blog post isn’t meant to discourage anyone. It is designed to change the way we work.

The successful entrepreneurs understand the principle and look at both sides of the coin. They focus most of their time on the 20% of the work that leads to 80% of the results.

As for the 80% of the work that leads to only 20% of the results? That gets outsourced or eliminated.

Why do something when you know it won’t produce much results? The biggest mistake I see people make is they will look at every possible opportunity without honing in on one opportunity to maximize results.

If someone doesn’t produce much results, and you don’t overwhelmingly enjoy that work, then stop.

If it’s something that you still have to do but know it doesn’t bring in the results you are looking for, then outsource that work.

Since 80% of your work produces 20% of your results, you should look to outsource 80% of your business.

Then you can focus all of your time on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results.

Even if something seems vital for your business’ survival, try to outsource it. Scheduling tweets is essential for my business since that’s how I get most of my blog traffic.

Outsourcing that one task allows me to save hours of my time each week. Outsourcing my blog post pictures allows me to save even more time.

Opportunity Cost

For every minute you spend doing something, you can’t spend that same minute doing anything else. That’s the basic concept behind an opportunity cost.

If you procrastinate for one minute, you cannot be productive and get stuff done during that same minute.

If you find yourself not focusing on the 20% of your work that leads to 80% of your results, then you are missing out on opportunities.

I will provide you with an example involving money just to highlight the importance of looking at Pareto’s Principle differently.

Let’s say an entrepreneur works for five hours a day and makes an average of $100 per day.

With Pareto’s Principle in play, one hour brings in $80 while the other four hours only result in an extra $20.

Let’s say the four hours that bring in $20 get outsourced and the same entrepreneur works for five hours each day.

Now those five hours get directed towards the work that brings forth the best results.

Instead of making $100 per day, that same entrepreneur is making $400 per day ($80 x 5 = 400)

Sure, outsourcing costs comes into play, but it won’t cost $300 per day at that rate.

Overall, a profit is made because the entrepreneur was able to focus more time on the work that brought forth the most results.

If you focus more of your time on what works, then don’t be shocked if you get better results.

Expansion

You’ve figured out Pareto’s Principle and focus most of your time on the work that yields most of your results.

But let’s say you have multiple passions and want to start multiple businesses. Maybe you want to write books or create training courses. Maybe, like me, you want to become a singer.

You can suddenly find that extra time to pursue more adventures by outsourcing most of your work. Inevitably, you will temporarily disrupt your groove.

If you can focus all of your time on the work that leads to the most results, you will have to introduce more work that doesn’t (in the beginning) bring in much results.

Then you discover what works in the new adventure you are taking and outsource everything else that doesn’t yield as much results.

The quicker you master something and the better you master your time, the easier it will be for you to master anything else that you want to master.

Twitter was the first social network I mastered. I only mastered Twitter because I gave up on every other social network.

Now I am on several social networks and have thousands of followers on most of the platforms.

Master one thing and then expand from there.

In Conclusion

There is a lot to learn from Pareto’s Principle. The two key lessons are that most of your work leads to little or no results while some of your work leads to most of your results.

You need to focus more of your time on that some of your work that leads to most of your results.

Success is not just a matter of hustling. It’s a matter of hustling in the right direction. You can have a work ethic, but if you get lost and go on the wrong trail, then it will take a lot longer for you to reach the finish line (while some people never reach it).

Hustling in the right direction means focusing most of your time on the work that brings forth most of your results. The busy work that stands in your way, although it may be important, needs to get outsourced.

What are your thoughts about Pareto’s Principle? Do you have any other advice for leveraging it for our businesses? How do you save time? Sound off in the comments section below.

3 Things That Successful Bloggers Do

February 22, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

If you want to become one of the best bloggers, you have to look at what the best bloggers are currently doing.

In most cases, the best bloggers do a few things differently. Everyone puts in some level of work, but the quantity and quality of the work are slightly different.

Those differences often make all of the difference.

To become a successful blogger, these are the three things that you must start doing. Implementing these methods will potential change your entire strategy and move your blog in a better direction.

#1: Write Valuable Content

This is the most obvious tip here that seems to receive a lot of discussion. There is no reason to take time explaining its importance.

Writing valuable content comes down to your knowledge, writing experience, and your audience.

The more you know about your niche, the more you can write about.

The more experience you have with writing, the more value you can provide in a shorter amount of time.

Understanding your targeted audience lets you know what content specifically applies to them. Then you know what type of content you have to write.

Writing valuable content is an art that you get better at with practice. You can see that with my blog posts and with many other bloggers’ blogs.

My first blog posts were terrible in comparison to the blog posts that I write now. I recently looked back at the first blog posts of some of the bloggers who I have come to admire.

Same thing. Their first blog posts weren’t terrible, but they were terrible in comparison to what they produce now.

#2: Outsource Most Of The Work

The only two things that will never get outsourced for my blog are writing the blog posts and interacting with people who comment.

Everything else is fair game.

I can’t remember the last time I created a picture for one of my blog posts or scheduled tweets for my blog posts.

That work took up too much of my time. So I outsourced that workload.

Now I have more time to write content and look into ways to expand my reach and revenue. 80% of your results come from 20% of the work.

Outsourcing allows you to focus more on that 20% that brings forth 80% of the results.

The most successful bloggers are not doing all of the work.

They have a team around them that makes the work easier. Some of the successful bloggers will systematize the entire process of writing their own blog posts.

Either have a contributor write the content or hire a ghostwriter. The editor makes changes to the content and then someone comes through with the pictures.

You have to begin assembling your team of people to help you out. That way, you can focus more of your efforts on the work that yields most of your results.

Time is a blogger’s most valuable resource. The more of it you have, the more content you can write. The more marketing you can do. The more products you can create.

#3: Spend More Time Promoting Than Writing

You can write content all you want, but if no one visits your blog, then no one will know about your content.

Part of successful blogging requires your content getting seen by as many people as possible. The traffic your blog gets can translate into subscribers and sales.

The mindset for getting more traffic is to spend more time marketing your blog posts than actually writing them.

You can spend 30 minutes each day writing your blog posts, but then you should be spending an hour marketing your blog posts every day.

Connect with influencers, get podcast interviews, promote your blog through social media, grow your email list, and so on.

If that’s too much work for you, then outsource the work. Your team is there to make your blogging workload as light as possible so you can focus your time on what matters the most for your blog’s success.

In Conclusion

Successful blogging requires a different view of blogging. Successful bloggers don’t just put in a lot of work. They put in a lot of smart work.

Successful bloggers put their time towards the work that leads to the best results, and they are on the endless pursuit to outsource as much of the workload as possible.

Right now, I have 10 freelancers who take some of the workload off my shoulders. It’s a start, but I’ll be getting more. Someday, I imagine having hundreds of freelancers who help me in various areas of my business.

You need that team around you and a thirst for more knowledge. The more you learn about your niche, the more value you can provide.

In the same way, the more you learn about blogging successfully, the more likely your blog will become successful too.

What are your thoughts about these three things that successful bloggers do? Do you believe something should be added to the list? What are your blogging tips for us? Sound off in the comments section below.

5 Tactics To Leverage Marketing Within Your Videos

February 19, 2016 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

video marketing — Video is huge and you won’t want to miss out

Video was and still is huge. After years of consistently getting praised as one of the best ways to share your message, countless people have created their own YouTube channels and training courses.

Maybe you’ve heard a lot about the power of videos. Maybe you create video after video or are itching to get started.

The best videos are the captivating ones with subtle marketing added in. You have to market yourself and some of the products that you offer within your videos. However, you don’t want to be annoying.

The challenge is how. Here are five ways to subtly leverage marketing within your videos.

#1: Promote Your Platforms Within Your Videos

Your platforms are where you have an audience—social networks, your blog, and others.

You can subtly promote these platforms at the beginning of these videos with a footer. In the footer (the bottom of the video), you can include text (displaying your username) and pictures of social media icons.

YouTube Social Media Promotion

At the end of your videos, you can go into deeper detail about where else your viewers can find you on the web.

And don’t forget to talk about your landing page at the end of your videos. The money is in your email list.

#2: Promote Your Products Within Your Videos

Some of your videos may present you with the opportunity to promote your products. You may be talking about a topic related to your product.

At that point, you have the opportunity to mention your product, and better yet, give your viewers a discount. The discount will boost your sales and result in more exposure for your product.

You can also create a video entirely dedicated to your product. You can promote your product for the entire video or create a massive tutorial with “ads” of your own product at certain points in the video.

Since they are your “ads,” you must make sure you properly transition to product promotion.

I created a lengthy tutorial about writing more content. It is a 45+ minute video with a lot of free and useful content. At certain points of the video though, I promote the writing course that I created with Jerry Banfield.

Write Like Crazy Video Tutorial

I promote the writing course several times throughout the video. Jerry Banfield, the person who I created the course with, has created free tutorials that exceed two hours for some of his other courses.

When you promote a product within the video, don’t forget that discount. If you do not want to include a discount, then offer a free bonus.

You can introduce the free bonus by saying something like this: “Product A is worth $50, but if you buy it with this link, then I’ll give you Bonus B for free.”

#3: Promote Your Other Videos Within Videos

The most brilliant concept that explains going viral on social media is Brendon Burchard’s Circular Viralocity. I did not take his course about it, but I did write a summary of what I think happens in a portion of the course.

The concept behind Circular Viralocity is that you use your social networks to promote each other so the people in your audience go from one of your social media accounts to the other social media accounts that you have.

It’s like tweeting a link to your YouTube video and then having a link to your Facebook Page within the description of your YouTube video.

Keep that chain going for as long as possible, get enough people within that chain, and you’ve got Circular Viralocity. That’s how it works in a nutshell.

Now let’s apply this to videos (because the most successful YouTubers do this ALL OF THE TIME).

You have finished watching a video. The YouTuber takes the time to say where else you can find him/her on the web.

The next part is the most important part. For the last 5-10 seconds of the video, a few related videos created by the same YouTuber will show up. These videos show up before YouTube gets a chance to show you its selection of related videos.

YouTube Video Previews

One of the videos interests you and you click on the video. You watch that video to the end and see a new selection of related videos before YouTube’s selections show up.

You click on one of those videos and the cycle continues.

When you use this strategy, you can get the same viewers to watch several of your videos in one go.

Most YouTubers who use this strategy only provide 3-6 related YouTube videos for their viewers to choose from. Why not offer more? The answer lies in the famous jam study conducted by Professor Sheena Iyengar.

Maybe you’ve heard a version of the story. She goes to the grocery store and offers samples of jam and analyzes the conversion rates.

To some shoppers, she offered 24 different flavors of jam. Many people tasted the samples and Iyengar got a 3% conversion rate (number of people who bought at lease one box of jam).

To the other shoppers, she only offered six different flavors of jam. Shoppers tried fewer samples, but more of them made purchases. For this part of the experiment, Iyengar saw a 30% conversion rate for the sales of her boxes of jam.

The less we offer, the better the conversion rate will be. My recommendation is to just include 3-4 related YouTube videos at the end of all of your YouTube videos.

If you offer your viewers too many options, you will overwhelm them.

#4: Create Anticipation For Your Upcoming Videos Or Products

One way to become successful is by analyzing the most successful people in the world. I’m talking about the people and brands who dominate our every day conversations.

Remember, to be the best, you have to learn from the best.

I am a big fan of the 1989 album and often watch the Shake It Off YouTube video. After some looking around, I came across one of the outtake videos for the Shake It Off video.

At the end of each of those videos, there is a teaser that builds anticipation for the next video.

Luckily for me, the videos were all up by the time I watched the outtakes, so my anticipation was quickly satisfied. I still have to wait over a year for Star Wars Episode VIII

Star Wars VIII Video — Just come out already!

Sure enough, I watched them all. The first outtake I saw was captivating, and each one built upon the next.

At the end of your videos, you can create anticipation for your next video. Let your viewers know what the next video will be about, and better yet, when you plan on publishing that video.

As each teaser builds more anticipation, you will start to build a following based on that anticipation for new and better videos.

#5: Turn A String Of Videos Into A Product

All of the tips up to this point had a strong focus on marketing within your videos. However, what exactly are you marketing?

Yes, the platform you have built for yourself and your other videos.

But you are also marketing your products.

To market more products, you have to create more products. And one way you can create more products is by turning a string of videos into a product.

I do that all of the time on Udemy. I currently have over 20 training courses that are all a series of videos and PDFs wrapped together into a single product.

Udemy Profile

Why not make money with the videos that you create?

In Conclusion

Video will continue to be one of the best ways to spread your message and make revenue with your expertise. Video has lived up to the hype that it has received for several years.

The way we utilize video will continue to evolve. Our methods of communication will become more sophisticated.

Periscope gives us the option to do live videos. Blab gives us the opportunity to talk with people in a live interview (basically, Periscope with multiple people in the same live video).

What won’t change is the impact video has had on the marketplace. If you don’t create videos, then now is the time for you to start.

What are your thoughts about creating videos? How do you leverage marketing within your videos? Which of these tips was your favorite? Sound off in the comments section below.

The 4 Core Beliefs Of All Highly Productive People

February 17, 2016 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

What makes productive people so productive? It’s not that they get extra time to play with. In the end, we all have 24 hours in one day. Productive people don’t stop the clock. They push through it.

Productive people push through the clock by acquiring a strong mindset that sets them up for success. Your mindset makes or breaks you. If your mindset is breaking you, then you must do everything in your power to shift that mindset.

The mindset is critical. One fact about productive people is that they all share common beliefs that guide their productivity. These are the core beliefs, the beliefs that are required for productivity.

#1: Dreaming Big Is Better Than Dreaming Small

Every week, I give myself a new series of goals. I mark my progress by using tallies and checkmarks. This is the concept of the weekly scorecard.

I have kept all of my scorecards since March 2014. While it’s cool to see the stack of scorecards I have kept over the years, I also get to learn from my past scorecards.

I learn from my past scorecards to see what I can do to boost my productivity. I recently looked back at all of my scorecards to celebrate the beginning of 2016.

The shocking news: I almost NEVER accomplished everything I said I would accomplish on a single scorecard.

I usually accomplish about 70% of what I say I will accomplish on the scorecard.

Does that make me unproductive? No! I’ve written so many blog posts about productivity that I can’t possibly say I’m unproductive 🙂

But beyond that reasoning, I set a very high standard for myself with my scorecards.

In one week, I was able to write six blog posts that were just as lengthy as this one. But I didn’t accomplish my goal of writing 10 blog posts that week.

I wanted to create four training courses in one week. I only created two training courses.

Would you feel productive if you could write six 1,000+ word blog posts and create two training courses in the same week (each course was about an hour of video content that had to be planned out)?

I didn’t. I felt like I didn’t accomplish everything that I set out to do. The fact that I only scheduled five blog posts instead of the 10 I wanted to schedule that week didn’t make me feel any better.

College applications got a big percentage of my time during that week, but even then, I wasn’t as productive as I wanted to be.

I did other things as well during that week for my business, but that’s not important.

What is important is that I set the bar so high that sometimes I don’t accomplish everything that I say I will.

If I came into the week with the goal of writing three blog posts, scheduling a blog post, and creating only one training course, then I would have gotten a perfect score on my scorecard.

I would prefer the scorecard in which I only accomplished 70% of my goals, but I was giving myself goals such as writing 10 blog posts, scheduling 10 blog posts, and creating four training courses.

Small goals produce small results. Big goals allow you to get big results.

#2: Being Busy Does Not Mean You Are Productive

This is a big one. Being busy does not mean being productive. Let that sink in.

For a long time, I was somewhat productive, but I was very busy. I was busy studying for the SAT, scheduling tweets, and growing my social media audience.

I was productive when I was writing my blog posts, sending email blasts, interacting with my audience, and completing videos.

The busywork was necessary. I needed to study for the SAT or else I wouldn’t get a good score. Scheduling tweets and growing my social media audience are two important parts of my business.

But then I crafted my ideal day.

I asked myself if I could outsource every part of my business, what would I still want to do.

Not much of the work I did made the list. Only writing content, doing videos, and interacting with my audience. That meant everything else should get outsourced.

I took my final SAT a few months ago and outsourced social media growth and scheduling the social media posts.

Now I am outsourcing more parts of my business so every day becomes the ideal day. Anything that does not fit within my ideal day is busywork that takes me away from what I really want to do.

Deep. Let’s move onto the next core belief.

#3: The Vision Must Be Accompanied By A Series Of Micro-Visions

I have so many visions that I could write a book listing my visions. Just like everyone else, I have the grand vision.

To some people, that grand vision can be found in the New Year’s resolutions. To other people, it’s the vision they have for themselves many years down the road.

I have one of those types of visions, and all productive people have that type of vision. However, productive people also have micro-visions.

Don’t stop at New Year’s resolutions. Ask yourself how you will get closer to accomplishing your New Year’s resolutions, quarter by quarter.

For my vision for the year, I will always break the work into four quarters. I calculate what type of work must be accomplished each quarter.

Since all goals start out as hypothetical (they may happen, but they haven’t happened yet), I only go deep into how I will accomplish my first quarter goals.

I plan it all out, week by week. Weekly scorecards reinforce my goals for the quarter. I always give myself less time than I have so I know I will accomplish what I set out to do.

All of these visions that lead up to the grand vision are what I like to call micro-visions. All of the micro-visions lead up to the grand vision.

Micro-visions have closer deadlines which gives you less time to do certain work. Having less time will encourage you to take more action.

Sometimes, I will even assign myself four day scorecards just so I have a shorter timeframe to get everything done. The shorter timeframe makes me hustle harder, and as a result, be more productive.

#4: There Is No Stopping

Productive people never stop. They do take small breaks to restore their productivity, but they never stop.

Every day presents a new achievement. Whether that achievement is as small as writing a blog post or as large as accomplishing the goal you’ve been wanting to accomplish for an entire year, productive people achieve something new every day.

The importance of not stopping is the fact that to not stop means putting in the work every single day. Putting in the work every single day turns that work into an effortless habit.

I used to struggle to write these types of blog posts. Now the ideas and content flow easily into the document that I type them in.

The most productive people turn productivity into a habit by working on it every day. If productivity could not become a habit, then no one would be productive.

The moment you turn productivity into a habit is the moment you will become super productive. You just need to be productive for 66 days straight, and then it becomes a habit.

Then you are productive by nature because that’s the type of person who you have become. So no stopping.

Daymond John would describe this as the need to keep swimming. In the acronym S.H.A.R.K., the “K” stands for “Keep Swimming.” You must continue putting in the work to get even better results.

The moment a shark in the ocean stops swimming, it dies. Don’t stop swimming.

In Conclusion

Productivity is not a gift granted to a few lucky people. It isn’t something you are born with. For a long time, I was very unproductive. I had to learn productivity and continue honing my skill in that area every day.

It’s something I continue doing to this day. I still read books and articles all about productivity because I want to be one of the most productive people in the world.

These core beliefs are where the magic happens. Once you turn these core beliefs into your lifestyle, you will see a big boost in your productivity. The only way to keep the increased productivity is by working on it every day.

Which of these core beliefs do you believe is the most important? Did any of them challenge the way you think of working? What are your tips for boosting productivity? Sound off in the comments section below.

4 Ways To Make Money With Your Content

February 15, 2016 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

monetized content — Making money isn’t hard if you know how.

Writing is a lot of fun. You get to convey your thoughts on paper or in an online document. Then you share those thoughts with the world.

There are plenty of things to write about, but for some writers, writing becomes a passion. They want to write for the rest of their lives.

It is possible to write for the rest of your life, but why not also make money from it. Ditch that 9-to-5 job and do what you love instead.

Making money with your content is a process. Not only do you have to write the content, but you have to publish that content on the right places and promote that content.

In all challenging journeys, it is always beneficial to give yourself a basic roadmap. The basic roadmap just gives you an idea of where you have to go. Then it gets modified later based on your progress.

When creating your roadmap, consider these four methods of making money from your writing.

#1: Write Books

It’s far easier than ever to publish your own book. Before the internet, you had to pursue a publisher and make a deal. Now all you have to do is self-publish your own books (I self-publish my books with KDP and CreateSpace).

The only thing about writing books is that in the beginning, you won’t get many sales. That’s true about any product, but I had to let you know.

Unless you already have a large email list, chances are you won’t get many sales in the beginning. But in some ways, that’s good.

Not receiving many sales will motivate you to make more sales. You may decide to write multiple books (great idea) and see that one book start to take off.

The other books will eventually get consistent sales.

If you want to pursue the life of a self-published author, you’ll need to publish as many books as you can for lower prices (think $2.99 for the Kindle book). That’s the advantage self-published authors have over the authors who got a deal from a publisher.

#2: Write Blog Posts And Monetize Your Blog

If you are looking for the best way to improve your writing, then look no further than blogging. If you write blog posts every day, you will become very comfortable with writing content.

I wrote about 1,000 blog posts across all of my blogs before I wrote my first book. The more content you write, the more comfortable you become with writing.

So that’s all great. Blogging improves your writing. Now, show me the money!

The fact of the matter is that the content alone won’t make you money. You need to have your blog optimized for monetization. There are a wide variety of ways to make money with a blog:

Create products and promote those products. This is my go-to for making money with a blog. I promote my products each time people subscribe through my landing pages and promote direct product links at other locations on my blog. If you don’t have a product, you can offer consultation sessions as you create that product.

Affiliate links. Only promote affiliate products on your blog that are relevant to your audience’s interests. I wouldn’t promote an Amazon affiliate link to a LEGO product here because that wouldn’t go well with my audience.

Advertisements. These are overrated and I don’t like them. You should be getting over 10,000 visitors per month before you even consider ads. However, you can make more money by giving your products the same space that the ads would have received.

Those are the three main ways to make money with a blog. But there is one thing a blog gives you that can’t be overlooked.

Credibility.

Having your own blog filled with rich content will establish you as an expert within your niche. And if you’ve been writing enough blog posts, it will become effortless for you to write that rich content.

#3: Become A Ghostwriter

If you want to make money with your content without having any type of platform, then ghostwriting is a great option.

All you do is set up an account on UpWork and let people know you are a ghostwriter. Then, apply to people’s jobs where they ask for a ghostwriter.

The only challenge with UpWork in the beginning (and ghostwriting in general) is building credibility.

There are ghostwriters who (even if you are better than them) have more credibility than you. They’ve been hired more often and have more five star reviews.

In the beginning, you may have to charge a lower price for your services than you want just to attract clients. You can then scale up as you get more jobs and reviews.

However, that beginning will be tough. My best advice is to apply to as many ghostwriting jobs as possible (as long as you can do them) so you get enough credibility to raise your price per hour.

#4: Contribute Your Content To Other Websites

We have all heard of guest blogging. You can put your content in front of a larger audience. However, some websites that ask you for your content will pay you to write for them.

Some of these websites will pay you as much as $100 per article.

While this isn’t a way for you to make a living, you can definitely make thousands of dollars from your writing. Just make sure you can write content that these websites want.

I haven’t explored this opportunity much because most of these types of blogs are outside of my niche. For the curious writer, here is a list of these types of blogs and how much you make for each piece of your content.

I prefer to get paid by putting some of my content on places like HubPages and Zujava. I don’t write for them as often as I once did, but I’ll occasionally publish a new article on one of the two.

In Conclusion

All writers deserve the opportunity to make money from their content. After putting in all of that work, we should see some type of reward that creates positive reinforcement.

The best way to make money with your writing is to build a platform (your social media audience, your blog audience, and your email list).

The platform gives you an audience that you can always communicate with and occasionally promote products to.

Regardless of which opportunity you choose to make money with writing, there will always be more involved than simply writing the content.

Which of these methods of making money as a writer do you like the most? Are you writing to make money or just for fun? Sound off in the comments section below.