In my recent post on Five Reasons Why People Can’t Make Money Online, I got an interesting comment from SEO for Marketing.
Great post. But the time also matters. When you started blogging it was not that many who were blogging and you aslo picked the good niche which is never ending niche “how to make money online”
I actually get this type comment a lot. People say it was easier when I started because there was no competition and the field of bloggers was less crowded. Here’s the truth. It’s easier to start a money making blog today than when I started. Here’s why.
When I started blogging, there wasn’t anywhere near the support materials and information. WordPress was still just a simple blogging software and not a full Content Management System (CMS) that can do anything. The blogging community was still very new. There was no such things as WordCamps or Developer Days. You couldn’t say “there’s a plugin for that” because there weren’t many plugins. Also limited was the way you can monetize a blog. Back then, the only choice was Google AdSense or sell your own advertising.
Today, WordPress is the most popular blogging platform in the world. It’s far more than just blogging software. You can use WordPress to set up squeeze pages, membership sites, photo galleries, etc. There are millions of plugins and themes to give your blog the look and function of a professional website costing thousands of dollars. There are tons of revenue options. You are no longer limited to AdSense. You also have access to quality information, like Blogging with John Chow and IM John Chow, that I didn’t have when I started.
John Chow dot Com Version 1
One of the mistakes new readers make when they visit this blog is they assume the blog has always been like this. The truth is, it started from zero, just like every other blog. The first version was on a free WordPress theme.
As you can see, I didn’t even have a logo yet. The theme was call Misty Look. The only change I made to it was to switch out the header image for a Corvette Z06. Anyone of you can have that same setup right now for free. However, people look at my blog now, and see that Unique Blog Designs charged $7,500 for the current design, and think, “Oh man, it looks so professional. I’ll never be able to duplicate this.” Then they would use that as an excuse not to start.
Before There Was WordPress
Before the blog, I got the same excuse from people saying that I had an advantage because I started making money online in 1998. Well, back then there was no Google and you have to create everything yourself. This was my first website.
The site was made using MS Frontpage. Every page had to be created. There was no such thing as a Content Management System. My first CMS cost me $3,000 to code and it’s not even 1/100 of what WordPress can do today, that you can get for FREE!
You Just Have To Start
Your blog is a living thing. It will grow and evolve over time. My blog looks nothing like it did when it first started, and yours will be the same way. You can’t get to Point B without first starting at Point A. The process is a journey, and there really is no shortcut.
I can not thrust success on you. That’s akin to being a lottery winner. Most end up where they started from after a few years because they never took that journey to success. So, start your journey to blogging success today. Don’t be intimidated by blogs showing 200,000+ active followers. Realized that they all started from zero, and they look nothing like they look now.
Remember, you have a way better chance of making money online today than when I began my journey. We all start from zero. The key is to just start.