This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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What's the secret to a high paying personal finance blog? Welcome to Side Hustle School, Chris Guillebeau here. Guess what? I might actually have the answer or I might have some input. If you've ever wondered how to turn financial savvy into a top ranking blog, whether it's a top ranking or just a profitable blog, let's do that.
Let's say that. Today we're breaking down the secrets to making this particular finance blog a go-to resource for debt burdened millennials. That is our listeners target audience. Always good to have an ideal customer in mind whenever you start a new project, especially a content project where you are sharing information that will hopefully help some people. Well, who are you going to help?
What's the language in which you need to speak to them? What's the best format? All these decisions that you make so that you can make the best possible connection and then hopefully connect that to some form of monetization. Let's talk about it. Emily from Boston has the unique blend of SEO experience and a genuine desire to assist millennials who are, let's see here, it says drowning in debt.
I think I wrote those words here on my screen, but maybe that's a little negative. Maybe let's just say they're struggling. They're not drowning in debt, they're just struggling and she wants to help them. So let's talk about the complexities or perhaps the simplicity of starting a finance blog that not only ranks well on Google, but also has a way to help Emily get paid, okay? I just want to keep that front and center.
I want her to do well and do good, do good and do well at the same time. What's the secret? Let's talk about it. I don't know if it's a big secret, but let's talk about the steps you need to take to make this project a success. Her question, my detailed answer coming right up.
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Hi, it's Emily calling from the Boston area. I got this mix of SEO savvy and a real passion for helping folks sort out their finances, especially my fellow millennials drowning in debt. I'm thinking of starting a blog, but if I'm starting from scratch, how do I get my pages to pop up first on Google? And how do I figure out which terms to target? I'm a little overwhelmed with understanding what to do first.
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All right, Emily. There are a lot of personal finance blogs out there, as you know, as well as platforms or channels on other platforms, however you like to say it, there are also YouTube channels, there are podcasts, there are other resources, TikTok, et cetera. But that doesn't mean there isn't room for somebody else. This is information a lot of people are seeking. I was recently in a room with a bunch of successful authors.
I don't want to say their names, but like if you think about personal finance people, like you probably know some of these people and three or four of them all had like really, really big followings. They were all saying mostly the same things. It's just they connect with people in a different way. So all that to say there's room for lots of folks in this industry. So let's talk about creating a successful finance blog though.
How do you do it? Well, I touched on the importance of knowing your ideal reader in this case, your ideal customer. In this case, it is a reader or a subscriber. If you're gonna make money from advertising, most likely advertising or sponsorship or affiliate commissions, all three of those are tried and true in the world of personal finance. Membership sites as well, another tried and true model in this industry.
You had a lot of options, but it's all gonna start with kind of cultivating that long-term relationship. So this very much is a relationship-based game. It's if you approach it from a short-term gain perspective, some people do that and they have short-term success. But if you're really trying to build something over time, then you are thinking about how can you create content that's really going to positively impact their lives and get them coming back for more. And so as you're doing that, you're also thinking about the business development side of things, or at least you're kind of looking towards that, building up an email list, make sure you have that from the very beginning, at least as early as possible, so that as opportunities come your way and as you develop, whether it is the membership site or one of those other models, you can start nurturing and nudging people into that.
If you're thinking more about advertising sponsorship, you might wanna sign up on some networks as you get more traffic to your website. Like all these things have to kind of work together at the same time, which is why it's not easy. I don't wanna say it's easy, but there is a proven path to it. So I love projects where it's like, it's not gonna be easy, but there's a proven path. That seems more accessible to me than like, nobody's ever done this thing before.
Will it work? Well, maybe there's a reason why nobody's ever done it before. And if something just seems easy, then I'm kind of skeptical of that too, because I'm like, well, why haven't more people done it? So this is why I love this industry, personal finance, some other industries too, but since we're talking about this, consistency in posting, that matters. Focusing on SEO matters, but mostly make great content, figure out who you're trying to serve and keep serving them over time.
They're gonna be there for you as well. At least that's the hope. Listeners, if you have a question, sideusselskill.com/questions. I'm so grateful to all of our listeners who've been around for a while, by the way. Let me just say thank you for being out there.
I never imagined I'd be making this podcast as long as I have. And it's because we have listeners who are still around. So thank you, much more to come. Let me know how I can do better. I want to continue to improve for you.
All right, that's enough about that, but much more is coming up, sideusselskill.com. New episode every day, always free. Listen wherever you want. My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
