How to use blogging as an income source

In this article, we discuss one of the most common questions in various member forums:  how can I use blogging (or vlogging) as an income source?.

This reminds us of parents who ask, “what is the scope for X degree?” What they mean is, “will my child get a nice fat salary if she pursues this degree?” Putting the monetary end before the means is a common mistake in many things we do.

We want guarantees that something will work and look for a good user experience or optimised ways to start something in the name of tips or tricks. In our ten years of running this website and observing other writers and video creators, all “strategies” can be summed as: Are you offering something useful to the reader/viewer or not? To explain, we list some steps to becoming a successful content creator

How to be a successful content creator

1. Never think about fame or money first. Yes, you should focus on the growth of your website, your YouTube channel, your brand or your business but do not equate everything that you do with money/fame.
2. Ask, why do you wish to create content? What is it that you are going to do differently? No, “I am going to help spread financial literacy and help people correct their money mistakes” is not an answer (if you want to get on the personal finance content creation bandwagon). The more specific you are, the more focused you will be making it easier to stand out.
3. If you cannot answer this question satisfactorily, there is no point in thinking about income generation! Of course, not everyone will be an expert when they start out and need not be. However, a clear mission statement is crucial. In fact, going from zero to non-zero in any field is a journey that is content worthy. So you can use your content portal to upskill yourself and help others in the process.
4. What is the content that you would like to see as a viewer or reader? What are the questions you have struggled to answer for your needs? These are the questions that drive successful content creators. The “treat others as you want to be treated” mantra applies here too!
5. Successful content creators satisfy user needs. So ask, “what skills would I like to showcase and how can use these skills to answer user needs?” As mentioned above, your own search to learn something new is something that users will appreciate.
6. Information or insights that you think a group of users will benefit from even if they are not actively looking for it will work too!
7. Then comes the hard part: Working consistently without expectation
8. Online visibility takes a long time! Typically years. For example, the machines at Google need to be told repeatedly what your website or channel is about and what kind of content you create and for whom. Most content creators get frustrated before this happens and quit.
9. Yes, it is much harder today to get started and gain traffic than it was 10 years ago or even five years ago, but there were no shortcuts then and there are no shortcuts today.
10. Just like investing a good bit of luck play a role too. Each content creator’s journey is unique and it is harmful to compare our progress with others.
11. So do not think about fame or money. Start a blog/vlog and create content consistently. There is a lot to learn on the way.
12. It will take time for you to identify information gaps that can be plugged with your content. This is why consistent content creation is key. The more you try to help your readers, the more they will let you know what they want. That is when the resonance happens!
13.  The right time to start monetizing is when your readers/viewers write to you saying, “I will buy whatever you are selling.”

If you are ready to start your content creation journey, we have a video course based on our experience building freefincal.com into a market leader in the personal finance space (according to SEMRUSH a popular SEO and marketing tool) serving more than three million readers a year (5.6 million-plus page views).

The course can help you convert your skills to income; write a mission statement; generate content ideas; fashion these ideas in a useful way; create a community based on competence and trust; set up a website the right way from scratch with minimal cost and choose a monetization strategy that is right for you: Increase your income by getting people to pay for your skills!