Thank you Simone!

Hi Jason – here’s a lot of conflicting advice on this subject. Everyone has their own opinion.

I would suggest signing up for Adsense and trying to sell a small $14 product using an email list right away if you would like. Then focus on building up the traffic.

Of course won’t make much money right away, but it will get you to making your first dollars, which is cool.

If you want to get blogging, start as fast as possible. As far as mentorship, I think Brandon Gaille (https://brandongaille.com/) has a really good course on the subject. I have purchased it and I think that’s who I would follow. I’ve learned a lot of good tweaks from him. I am not in anyway incentivized to suggest his course.

Personally, I would pick a blog URL that is broad enough to cover a broad range of topics in the future. But lock in on one specific topic to write about early on. As an example, I wish I would have started with a broader food focused URL so I could more naturally cover a wider range of food business topics.

Hi Michelle – Course and ads is what has worked the best for me. I’ve tried all sorts of stuff to and most don’t work out. I’ve never had much success with affiliate marketing either, although I do think I’m leaving money on the table by not being involved in Amazon Associates. This is an area I will develop more of a focus on in the future.

I’ve had decent success selling e-books with audio companion lessons in the $14 range that I include in my course sales numbers. Those aren’t going to make you a millionaire, but you might land on a concept that can generate you a couple hundred extra dollars for years to come.

Thanks Fiona. I checked out your blog and it certainly looks like you know what you’re doing! Keep up the great work as well.

The comment “A blog post published today may not deliver a traffic return for 6 months. Most people can’t handle a 6-month lag to wait for the results. They think they are doing something wrong and freeze up.” Made me think of the marshmallow experiment they have done on kids.

In that sense blogging is like investing as results will not happen overnight and it will take time.

Congrats on the last 5 years and I wish you a very successful next 5 years!

Fred

Excellent article and thanks for sharing such relevant and practical advice. Since I’m just starting out — launched my blog in March of this year, I’m wondering if there is a concrete answer as to when I should start realistically trying to monetize my site? Is it more of a time answer (2 years, etc.?) or metrics (followers, subscribers, web traffic, etc.)? What are the benchmarks I should be striving for?

Thanks!
Jason