Did You Know What You Know As A Blogger Can Earn You 50K a Month?
Posted on November 30, 2007 - Filed Under Interviews
In an earlier post, I mentioned that a lot of bloggers do not realize how valuable what they know about blogging is, because they are mixing around with a community of bloggers who are experts in their craft. Today, a chat with a friend from the financial planning industry made me realize how lucrative selling knowledge about Internet Marketing is. He had recently attended a 2-day Internet Marketing course for which he paid $2,800 for. That is USD1,932 per pax for a class of 25 for a course that is run every month. He did some quick calculation and concluded that the person running the course would still earn $50,000 after deducting overheads for conference room booking, advertising, and staff employed to carry out the logistics for the event. That is USD34,495 per month. Any blogger can quit their job and go pro with that kind of money coming in if they have no problem speaking in front of a roomful of people, teaching them stuff they are passionate about. I asked my friend why he did not check with me before signing up for the course, and he confessed that he was not aware I was so “deeply involved” in Internet Marketing, down to SEO tactics and selling eBooks as a source of income. This emphasizes the importance of marketing yourself offline, not just online. I was surprised that he did not mention affiliate marketing and asked to take a look at his course materials to see what was covered in the course.
From his description, I am sure that the course attendees would be able to find the same information free of charge on the Internet, from blogs like yours and mine, John Chow’s, Skellie’s, Shoemoney’s, Aaron Wall or SEOMOZ, etc. In fact, I am sure they might have been better off paying USD325 for Six Figure Blogging, a course run by Andy Wibbels and Darren Rowse of problogger. Apparently in this course, part of the practice lessons was getting students to sign up a dummy account in Google Adwords and activating it to see how it works. A couple of weeks down the road, my friend received a notification that he owed Google $3 odd, and realized that people had been clicking on the dummy ad he created in Google Adwords that had an empty link. He quickly went into his Google Adword account, and suspended it. When he received his credit card bill that month, he was charged $13 by Google, and after an email exchange with them, was informed that he had to pay an extra $10 for setting up the dummy account. Feedback was promptly given to the local course organizer for adjustment of future lessons.
I am sure that if John Chow had run the course, he could easily get a lecture room full of over 200 attendees from all over the world. Or any of the A-list bloggers for that matter. And it would be worth every cent of the course fee. If all the information is available free of charge on the Internet, why would people pay that kind of money to attend the course?
- Ignorance. They do not know that it is available online for free.
- Lack of Exposure. A lot of business people do not have a clear concept of what Internet Marketing is, what they need to know, and where to find the information. In fact, many of them do not know half as much about what’s happening in the online world as you and I.
- Lack of Time. Many people and companies who are looking to extend their marketing activities to the Internet do not have the time to research, compile and implement Internet Marketing strategies gleaned off blogs. Reading and researching is extremely time consuming, especially for an amateur to online marketing. People will pay good money to have all the essential Internet Marketing information packaged and handed to them on a silver platter where they can then pass to their IT and / or marketing department for implementation. And it is cheaper than hiring a consultant.
- Learning Style. Bloggers are people who learn by reading and doing. Not everyone is wired up to learn that way. Shoemoney for one admits that audio books work better for him than “text” books. A majority of people learn best through face to face classroom style. This allows for the greatest degree of interaction with the speaker, and brings them closer to the authority of the subject. That is why people will fly down from all over the world to hear a well known speaker though he could have published the same in a book.
- Networking Opportunity. Of course, there is also the agenda of networking with the speakers or fellow attendees for potential business relationships.
Convinced? Ready to quit your job to earn money running courses on Internet Marketing and blogging?
My friend - let’s call him Mr A - who started his own business as a financial planner also shared with me some tips if you are thinking of quitting your regular job to become a full time blogger, or to start your own business.
Ride On An Economic Upturn. It is important that you choose a time when the economy is doing well, and both companies and individuals have extra cash flow to invest. Mr A quit his job just before 9-11, which was promptly followed by the SARS epidemic. The latter did not affect Western countries much, but in Asia was a major health and economic liability. Singapore went into recession, as with many parts of the world, and he had a tough time getting accounts. It took him 2 years to break even with the previous salary he was getting as an engineer in a reputed IT firm.
Follow Your Convictions. This will help you to stay on course and make decisions that will lead you to success. Mr A was very much favored by his ex-boss in his previous life as an engineer. His ex-boss took every opportunity to groom him, despite his knowledge of Mr A’s intention to start his own business. When Mr A eventually tended his resignation, he arranged for him to meet with the head of the engineering division who offered to place Mr A in other departments just to keep him in the company. However, Mr A had been convicted through a personal financial crisis he overcame that he wanted to help people understand how important the prudent use of money, funds and investments is for debt free living.
He started his financial planning career with a company that sold only their own financial products, out of sheer lack of knowledge of the industry. He later realized that he often had to bend his client’s needs around the limitations of products offered by the company, rather than being able to tailor a financial solution that met with their needs. He became disillusioned after 1 year on the job and struggled with his conscience. Does this sound familiar to you? You started a blog that you thought would offer invaluable advice to people in your niche market and that traffic would just stream in only because of the great content you have on your site. You soon realize that that is not true, and sometimes even resort to writing articles that are popular (think posts written for Digg) rather than because it was something on your heart that you think could truly benefit your audience?
Mr A was lucky enough to have a good ending. He learned from a colleague that there were independent financial houses that did not tie themselves to products from a particular company, and where agents were free to offer clients the entire range of products available in the market to tailor solutions that met with their specific needs. He immediately insisted on an interview with the largest independent financial house, promptly gave up all his accrued and recurring earnings from his previous company and took a 50% cut in commission for all financial products sold. He had to work doubly hard to earn what did previously, but today Mr A is extremely successful. He is happy, guilt free, is highly motivated, and experiences job satisfaction on a daily basis. His earnings have also superceded what he used to earn as an engineer and the investments he has made on behalf of his clients have resulted in double digit percent growth. Because he followed his convictions, it led him to make a series of decisions that pointed him in the right direction for personal, financial and professional success.
Do you have a conviction on how you can help others through blogging? Are you confident that you will be able to make a living from blogging alone?
Invest in Your Passion. Financial planning was something that Mr A had always been interested in, though his major was in engineering. It was his passion that tilted the tipping point in his decision to make a career switch, and passion also kept him in the industry when times were bad. It motivates him to constantly seek new and alternative products that would best suit his customers. His passion consistently gives him the motivation to improve his knowledge about the products and industry, which led him to become an expert at what he does and to excel in it.
To pose you that same question that Darren asked, if you had a million dollars would you blog differently, or at all? Are you constantly planning for the next “viral” post that will blow your readers away, earn you tons of subscribers and give readers great value? Or do you begrudge the time that blogging takes you away from the tele, a hobby or sleep?
Set a Success Deadline. Every self employed person will hit the 3rd month milestone of self doubt and ask themselves if they have made a wrong decision. After 9-11 and only a small number of accounts gained, Mr A had been struggling to adjust to the sudden freedom that self-employment brings. With no accountability for daily tasks and discipline, meagre earnings and a lot of negative remarks from friends on his decision, Mr A seriously considered quitting the business. However, because he had given himself a 1 year deadline for success, he stuck to that deadline and stayed in his job as a financial consultant.
Setting goals and a deadline for your date of success prevents you from making impulsive decisions whether times are good or bad. This is not to say that adjustments aren’t necessary along the way, but it is best to stick with the timelines you have given yourself. It also helps you track your progress and “success milestones” along the way. It develops patience and reminds you that if it takes you a thousand steps to climb a mountain, its still a thousand steps no matter how fast you run or climb. You may reach there faster, but it will still take time and the same amount of work.
Persistence. This word speaks volumes by itself and requires no elaboration.
Do you have what it takes to be successful as a full time blogger? Are there other factors that are important to being self employed? I would like to hear from you if you are considering becoming a full time blogger or already are one.
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5 Responses to “Did You Know What You Know As A Blogger Can Earn You 50K a Month?”
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wow. i really think you should start your own lecturing circuit. You write really indepth articles. that’s 7 years of experience for ya. Lectures- I would never pay for stuff like that but i know a lot of people would. People like to be told what to do. People are lost when they have to figure it out by themselves. By attending these functions, it gives them a set of orders to follow. god forbid they have to go and find the info for free by themselves. i have a few questions for you. what other internet businesses do you run? Do you have time for other projects?
Hi bloggernoob, thanks for dropping by!
I was considering giving local Internet Marketers a run for their money. I don’t know maybe I still will but like you, I am extremely selective about paid lectures unless I’m convinced that it can teach me something I can’t learn anywhere else. As such I am not sure if running paid lectures would be something that’s right for my own convictions
I like the points you listed in your comments on why people attend these conferences too. Everyone loves a shortcut - me included - and sometimes we do prefer taking one and miss out on the joy of discovery.
My passion has been helping companies and corporations promote their sites using the whole spectrum of online and offline advertising. These types of marketing are very strategic, and helping corporations from different industries promote their brand via their unique setup and audience types has been very challenging and very rewarding professionally. This makes up the bulk of my 7 years of internet marketing experience.
It is only of late that I have seriously started to market myself through blogging, and for the moment am keeping internet ventures at bay due to the above work. At the moment, I still have a bit of time to play with and am planning to invest that in promoting my blog via press releases and some ideas I want to work into my newsletter. If you have a business proposal for me however, do contact me via email.
Hi Ivy,
I just found your blog tonight, and already I’m very impressed with your writing.
I’ve heard many stories similar to your friend’s. It sometimes amazes me the prices that people are willing to pay for information … whether it’s “good” or not.
I subscribed to your feed … I’m looking forward to learning from you.
Thanks in advance
Hi Todd, Thank you very much for your kind comments!
Unfortunately we live in a busy world, and people will pay for shortcuts even when its not been tried and tested.
I look forward to your comments as well! I always believe that learning is a 2-way process
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