This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
If you had to start over, what would you do differently? Interesting question. Personally, I would take better care of my health. Let's see, I would get LASIK. I would invest in Bitcoin at the right time, not at the time before it loses two thirds of its value.
Timing is everything. Oh, you know what? This is actually not quite what our listener is asking today. Little bit of a different question. Our listener here on Side Hustle School is asking, if you had to start over, how would you grow a blog?
Okay, that is a bit different than LASIK and Bitcoin. So let's look at it. Blogging can still be profitable and rewarding. We've had a lot of stories still, even in 2022, or perhaps beyond, most likely beyond, because it's been going on a long time and we've had stories of people doing very well. But of course, some things have changed over the years, right?
You know, I got started with my blog in 2008. Some of the tactics and strategies have indeed evolved. So how would I answer this question today? Keep listening, and you're gonna find out very soon. [Music]
Hello, Chris.
This is Chelsea from Denver, and I've been listening to the show for a couple of years. Thanks to several examples you've shared, I know that it's still possible to make money from blogs, but I'm wondering, what would you do if you were starting over now with the blog that you wanted to make money from? I assume that some of the advice and best tactics have changed in recent years. Also, is there anything you wouldn't do? Thanks, and I can't wait to hear from you.
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Well, first things first, I have every respect for someone who today in 2022, or maybe in the future, if you're listening to it later, wants to start a blog and just believes in the idea of writing posts, building a readership, doing all those things, I think it is still very relevant. The world is different, of course, but I think it's still very relevant, so I have every respect for that. And the good news is much is the same. Long, long ago, more than 10 years ago, I wrote a manifesto called 279 Days to Overnight Success. That's free on my blog if you wanna go and read it.
Kind of documents my case study and provides a model that people can use, and many people have used that model over the years. If you don't wanna read 80 pages, which is all about this topic, here is the short version. Set a schedule, publish often, build direct relationships with readers, do as much as you can to be helpful, issue a challenge and a mission. People wanna cheer for you, they want to know that you're for something, and then slowly introduce paid products. But focus first on those relationships, gonna take you far.
All that stuff is still relevant, what has changed? Probably the biggest thing is saturation and many people use social media in place of a blog or as readers, they use social media in place of reading blogs. So this has pros and cons. It's a lot easier for people to follow you on whatever social network, but then you're also at the mercy of big algorithms. And also those people aren't just following you, they're following lots of people.
So it's easy to get lost in the crowd. Also, there are lots of new technologies and services. In some ways, this makes things easier than it was years ago. In other ways, it's all the more overwhelming. So it just kinda depends on how you look at it.
But in short, you can still pursue blogging as a profitable endeavor, if you so choose. If I was starting over now, I would apply the same strategy, maybe update my tactics a little bit, but I wouldn't hesitate to proceed. So I wish you good luck. Listeners, I wish you good luck cheering you on over here. And if you have a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions.
New episode coming up tomorrow. My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From The Onward Project.
