You Can Survive
- Tue Oct 2, 2007
- By Susan
- Filed under: Blogging, Make Money
- 29 Comments
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Lately, I’ve been coming across a number of blogs shutting down for a variety of reasons. I found these reasons to be the most common:
- Didn’t have enough time
- Discouraged with results
- Pursuing other ventures
- Lost the spirit
I won’t deny it, I’ve personally experienced each of these at one time. It usually takes a quick kick in the butt or an awesome day to inspire my spirit to keep at it.
Most bloggers are not like me. I’m extremely fortunate to be doing this full time - it’s my job and what I’m trying to grow into a living. Last year when I had my daughter Avery, I was planning to go back to work after my maternity leave. I did…but when I returned, I found that my priorities had changed. I had a hard time coping with the idea of not being there for my daughter for her first steps and first words… My job would require me to get home around 7pm and I would have to put her into bed without any quality mommy-daughter time. That wasn’t the relationship I wanted and I didn’t realize that till I had her.
I returned to work for 2 months and then decided to explore other opportunities of generating income from home around late May. Luckily, I could choose to leave my in-office career because of my husband’s income but it helps greatly that he is a very supportive husband.
Currently I run 5 blogs and I’m working on #6, #7 and #8. Understanding that most bloggers don’t have the same amount of time to run multiple blogs, I’ve listed some pointers to assist any busy blogger.
- Find Your Niche - Jot down industries or topics that interest you and will help you achieve your specific goals. Is your goal to make money, to share a laugh, to freelance, get your voice heard, meet friends, blow off steam, write an online journal, or network? Certain markets pay more per keyword on average, so if you are looking to make money within a niche choosing the write market is important.
- Research Keywords - The last 5 years would have been a great time to focus on the mortgage industry and ways to refinance or upgrade your home. Mortgage companies were throwing out cash to get those leads. How do I know? I personally bought and managed lead flow/budgeting for top companies. Typically I paid on average $37-60 per lead from affiliate companies…per click, it’s really competitive…and can be about $15 per click with Adsense depending on keyword of course. Although this market isn’t as strong anymore. Due to the housing market, foreclosures are becoming hot and I would expect demand for this keyword to grow if the bad news keeps coming in. Phoenix, AZ just experienced a 50% drop in housing prices…if this trend hits other regions it’s gonna get nasty. Check out of a list of easy to use keyword tools here.
- Choosing a Domain Name - Choosing the right domain name is important because it’ll represent the focus of your blog and help pull your listing in search results for the appropriate keywords. Even though .com extensions rule the internet, don’t lose the perfect domain name because the .com extension is taken. Also, hypens are actually okay to use! Search engines love them. When and if you choose what you feel to be the right keyword fit for you, always sleep on it! I can’t tell you the number of times where I felt that I had a great idea, rushed to buy the domain and woke up the next morning not too thrilled with the choice.
You can make money online. Anyone one can…it’s a matter of how much. I’m not a dot mogul, not near it. I wouldn’t use this site as a particularly high money maker. In truth, one of my other sites makes more than this one and I’m looking to branch out my ideas into more websites to further cover my interests. Why? Well, I personally don’t like to put all my eggs into one basket and writing on a blog topic like “make money online” already has enough aggressive competition, like the heavy hitters ShoeMoney, Problogger or John Chow. I’m not trying to compete with them. How can I? Or why should I? Thousands of fellow bloggers are reading the same content and many of them are jumping on the bandwagon by duplicating their path.
More importantly then ever, it’s great to read multiple blogs with many points of view without forgetting about your personal interests and things you love to do. Many people who find success do it because they followed something they loved.
Personally, blogging is fun to me. I get to read, research, write, read comments, surf the internet and network with great people.
As I enter my 5th month blogging, I’m making close to $10 a day and I’m hoping to grow that with more blogs and traffic. How can I run more blogs? Well, not all blogs need to be updated daily. There are only 2 blogs that I update quite frequently. As I go through this process of growing my network of websites, I hope to continually update on their progress. I’m not hoping to launch Susan Suarez dot come to high levels of John Chow popularity but instead retain this as a personal online journal to document my sites progress and share affiliate programs, traffic, ideas and anything else I come across with all of you.
I’m doing this full-time, so if you have any questions - feel free to contact me. Thanks again for reading, as always… :)
7:52 am on October 2nd, 2007
:D That made me smile. Why? Because you’re following your dreams and doing what you wanted to do based on your own decision.
I just wish I had more time :( My brother and I have a lot of great ideas that we want to pursue, but being separated and away at school makes it kind of hard.
10:31 am on October 2nd, 2007
Thanks Gregg. You guys were having a good run on those other ideas - how are they doing? :)
11:52 am on October 2nd, 2007
I was surprised when Cash for Comments closed it’s doors. That made me a sad panda :(
1:03 pm on October 2nd, 2007
The 3 month lifespan really sucks! Cashforcomments is going to devote his time on his movie blog.
4:21 pm on October 2nd, 2007
Hey Susan, I’m glad that you have listened to your heart and stay home with your little one. So many monthers ignore it and eventually don’t even feel that way about seeing their children grow, it is really sad! But I’m happy for you and your family that you are a dedicated mom first and I’m learning from you all the time about blogging, first at your green website!
I am having fun blogging and don’t have as much time these days to blog, but I’m going to stick it out! Because it is certainly fun to grow with others and to learn from others too. Keep up the good work and I know you will reach your goals.
4:45 pm on October 2nd, 2007
You can earn money writing paid reviews. You can make 50$ dollars a day.
9:38 pm on October 2nd, 2007
Jorge - Yep, it looks like Prija got too busy with Blogging The Movie
David - haha…yeah, after you get over the hump I think it gets better
GnomeyNewt - It sure is hard being a mom! Thanks for much for continually checking out the green site in addition to this one!
Munaeem - That’s awesome for you! :) Which particular service do you use?
6:31 am on October 3rd, 2007
Susan - Great tips. And it is good that you’re doing what you enjoy, and passing on what you’ve learned to others.
I think you are right about profiting on “foreclosures” with a website or blog. Maybe I will try something similar over here in the uk - different words so different market.
9:49 am on October 3rd, 2007
Really good tips + ideas there! Thanks for sharing. wish you a good luck on blogging world.
9:57 am on October 3rd, 2007
Catherine - Thank you. My bets is that foreclosures are going to peak late next year :)
Eshark - Thanks so much! :)
11:47 am on October 3rd, 2007
Great post, 1 day when I’m rich I’ll be letting the mom stay home while I work to do what your doing “spending quality time raising the kids” I love your mentality and your plan is sturdy. My blog is just simply for fun and to share what I found interested :P In Barbados there aren’t much bloggers at all. I only have adsense and I get a little money because I haven’t been paying it much attention, soon I’ll look to make more money. Love the post and your blog as I always say :)
1:25 pm on October 3rd, 2007
Zmoney - Thank you :) It’s definitely hard work spending “quality time with the kids”. I definitely praise any mom who can do it full time. I think I would go crazy, personally…I need adult stimulation and need to be “working” on some type of project and I’m not much of a cook, seamstress, or anything considered under a “homemakers” arena. Luckily I’m given a few days break for grandma to watch my little one while I concentrate on my projects. It’s definitely a lot better than going to a full time job where my time is managed by someone else. :)
5:06 pm on October 3rd, 2007
Just received the book Susan. Thanks!
5:43 pm on October 3rd, 2007
I might need your help with creating some php pages for the affiliate programs.
5:47 pm on October 3rd, 2007
Hi Susan,
I enjoyed your article…and identified with it alot. When I first started out I knew nothing about computers or the internet. In my case, I had just adopted my first son.
I too wanted to stay home so I didn’t miss a thing! I was really torn tho as I was so used to working all the time. So when I found out you could make money online, I was excited thinking that I could have a way to help my household income and be home with my son.
However, It took me a long time to finally learn how to make money! I failed alot…but now that I get it, I sure enjoy it!
I just started my blog…but I am doing it a bit different. Mine is a combination of private blog and forum…I sure am having fun!
I think that is one of the keys, find what you are passionate about and base a business around that passion. That way it never really feels like work;)
Thanks for the enjoyable read!
Veronica Routtu
“Success Begins When You Take the First Step”
6:06 pm on October 3rd, 2007
I started blogging a relatively long time ago [about a year], but found this to be quiet boring at the beginning because the reason I entered blogging was to make money [as most contemporary bloggers do]. So, without making a dollar/day, I forgot about blogging, but kept paying about $9/month for hosting. A couple of days ago I started a blog on what I simply like doing - computer hardware/software tips and tricks. And I’m not doing this for money anymore. We’ll see how that goes and how many weeks this will last.
8:22 pm on October 3rd, 2007
Jorge - Great! :)
BloggingTheMovie - It’s not too hard, did you check out how to do it? Most of it ends up being cut and paste once you have the ‘template’ :)
Veronica - I’m glad we both have found something we like to do. I’ve spent a lot of time on my projects and I love it :)
Bill - It’s all about focusing on what you like to do. I think that’s why most bloggers quit after only a few months!
10:54 pm on October 3rd, 2007
Susan,
In regards to your question in reply to my first comment…Our idea(s) actually performed very well for the first 1 and a half months. I’ll be making a post within the next few days about our earnings! :D
11:52 pm on October 3rd, 2007
MAKING MONEY ONLINE is not for anyone! In my opinion - everyone is just at certain things, so find something you’re good at, instead of copying everyone and try to make money blogging (which many won’t make it).
Wow I can’t believe you have 6 blogs…I bet you can do so much more if you only manage one ;) (in my opinion).
7:41 am on October 4th, 2007
Gregg - That’s awesome, I can’t wait to read about it!
Warrior - Very true. There is a mad rush to make money online. Instead of focusing on personal interests, there is flood of people wanting to do affiliate marketing. Oddly, many of those people may have initially wanted to design something else, but got caught up in the excitement of talking about money made online when researching about monetizing a site.
It gets redundant to see that BlogRush is being promoted on John Chow’s site and hundreds of other blogs within the same week. The area is a bit over-saturated.
Regarding having 6 blogs, there’s a reason why:
1) I’m a lover of multi-tasking
2) I don’t like having all my eggs in one basket (just like any financial investment)
3) I have many interests
4) Domain name real estate is becoming even more scarce because of the rise of people interested in creating websites (almost parallel to the housing boom we’ve been experiencing until late)
5) I know quite a few individuals who make quite a lot of money running 5 or even as much as 100 sites/blogs. Again, it’s not recommended for everyone, as you stated….
In the near future, the hope is to resell some of the sites and outsource much of the work to build into bigger sites. Luckily, paired with myself who has an odd combination of having a biology degree, online marketing background, being a new mother and having a husband who is an IT professional…the possibilities can be endless.
Thanks for stopping by Warrior,
Susan
6:00 pm on October 5th, 2007
I was thinking, maybe you should activate a plugin to number the comments? I think it’d be a good idea; it would let the readers focus on/reply to a certain comment specifically, rather than the post in general.
6:17 pm on October 5th, 2007
[...] be laughing, but for a guy like me it’s a pretty big accomplishment. As I’ve stated on Susan’s blog, I’ve tried to blog a couple of times before, and the most subscriptions I could get was [...]
8:27 pm on October 5th, 2007
This is a great post Susan. It really struck a note with me. I often find myself submerged with other projects but somehow I continue on with my blog.
8:46 pm on October 5th, 2007
Bill - Great idea that I haven’t gotten around to doing. I should implement right away, thanks!! :)
Justin - Thank you! :)
9:26 am on October 6th, 2007
Just wanted to mention that Susan, you’re the most responsive writer I’ve ever seen. Other bloggers/writers just post an article and let the readers comment to each other, instead of focusing on the writer’s point of view, and what the author was trying to express. Great job, Susan. You actually bring your 2 cents [or a whole dollar] to blogging.
6:42 pm on October 6th, 2007
Thanks Bill :)
8:13 pm on October 8th, 2007
[...] You can survive [Susan Suarez] [...]
4:12 pm on October 11th, 2007
I agree with Bill…you do a good job of interacting compared to some of the bloggers out there…
That really helps give it the personal touch I think and lets your members know that you are interested in them and their feedback.
Veronica
6:50 pm on October 11th, 2007
Thank you Veronica, I surely do try. :)