We’re in the midst of a gold rush right now and anybody can dig for riches if they want to. Millions of people have found freedom from the 9 to 5 by creating an online business based around themselves. The whole world now possesses smart phones with more computing power than the spaceship that landed astronauts on the moon. This has enabled business owners, entrepreneurs, and bloggers to promote themselves in a way that was never before imaged.

Most people look down on blogging because they don’t think it’s a real business. I can understand where they’re coming from. But I’m here to tell you that blogging is one of the most amazing forms of online business out there.  As a person that runs a blog, I can assure you that this business doesn’t feel like a job at all. I simply talk about what I want to talk about.  I speak with passion and honesty, and if someone likes it then so be it.

Anybody that has a hobby or has something they’re passionate about can become the authority on the subject matter and educate the entire world. If your material is good enough and your site is monetized, you can become a modern day success story. It’s hard to believe but millions of people around the world are doing it right now.

I have a buddy who owns his own blog and he always told me that I should writing. I never would’ve thought that I would be creator of my own blog.  But after having done it, I can honestly say that the only regret I have is not starting sooner.

So my buddy set me up to be able to write by hosting off of his website domain. After having done that for six months I finally felt like I knew enough to start my own website. The initial set up cost for me to do this was less than $80 through Bluehost. Within two months my website had made 100% return on investment. Very few businesses are able to this!

Each one of your blog post becomes a form of passive income. Every single article acts as an employee who works to make you money for a long time without your constant presence. So, if you put in the work today, you can reap the rewards for a long time to come.

Everybody in this world  has their face glued to their phones and is addicted to content. Almost everyone has a Facebook page or a website they subscribe to. You might not think of yourself is a great writer or an award-winning author, but  everyone has something they feel deeply passionate about.

I’m sure theres a particular subject matter you know a great deal about. So why not offer that knowledge to the world and benefit from it?

Blogging as an online business

Every subject matter on the planet has a community of people that are ready to consume any information about that topic. So if you are an authority on that subject, you should be creating content for people to consume it.  Then, you get rewarded if your content is good enough.

However, many people read about the success of other bloggers and assume that they’re going to become an overnight success and be able to quit there 9-5 soul sucking job within the first year. More often than not though, this is usually not the case.

You see, people constantly talk about all the success they had and how they were able to quit their day jobs with their blog. But rarely do you hear people talk about the struggle that it took to acquire their base of readership and that it took two or three years before they really were able to break the bank. Any honest blogger will tell you that it takes a solid year of writing before you really start to see traffic pick up organically.

There are several bloggers out there that have been candid about what it took for them to get to the point where they could live off of their website earnings. Sometimes it  2 or 3 years for this to happen. The best way to view blogging is another source of income. Look at it as a part-time job that takes up little time. But if you stick with it, success will come!

Massive blog success isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s more of a steady pace that comes with continuous effort. You stick with it for the long-haul, be honest, provide top notch content to your readers, and you will eventually see success .

Eat your own cooking

Blogging is an amazing way to conduct an online business because it is focused around yourself as an individual. I’m not gonna say that it’s completely easy but the actual steps to become successful at blogging are pretty simple. You write about your life and your experiences. But make sure you’re eating your own cooking. What I mean by that is don’t tell people they need to buy a product if you’ve never taken it.

Don’t promote a protein powder and tell all of your readers that it make them gain thousands of pounds of muscle when in all actuality you never took it. Your readers will end up buying the powder and realize it’s crap and doesn’t do anything except give them diarrhea. The next thing you know, you’ve gained a reputation as being a liar. If you’re promoting a specific lifestyle that , make sure that you actually live that life yourself because people have a way of seeing through bullshit.

Just talk about something that helped you out. Tell people about your experience with the product and how it helped you out and what kind of results you get. The best way to get traffic to your blog and get people reading is by providing information that benefits them.

And don’t copy other people! You will always find more success by focusing on creativity and originality rather than worrying about copying other people. The Internet is full of websites and whoever has the best content will always get them biggest readership.

If your transparent with your readers, they’ll always be happy to come back for more.

How to monetize your Blog or Website

There’s a lot of different ways to turn your site into an online business. The easiest way is to become an affiliate marketing. If you don’t know what affiliate marketing is on make it really easy for you. If I talk about a product and I’ll provide a link to that item. Ff you click and buy it, then I get a percentage of the sale. There’s a little bit more to it than just that. But affiliate marketing is how I was able to make the 100% return on investment that I mentioned earlier. Click Here if you want to see my full guide on how to become a successful affiliate marketer.

Another great way is to write an e-book. Say for example you have a niche website about 1980s Nintendo games. Once people identify you as an authority on that subject matter, you can gain a following through email subscriptions. Then, you can release something like an  “Essential 1980s Nintendo Game Guide” as a downloadable electronic book. The best part about this is you don’t actually need a publisher or a physical book to do it. Without overhead cost or a middleman, all the earnings come directly to you.

A lot of people make money through an online course or offering a specific service to their readers. If you go to Grant Cardone’s website you’ll see that he offers tons of free content and information to people but he’s always promotes Cardone University which is an online marketing class that helps entrepreneurs and businesses gain massive success. Maybe you have a fitness blog and you know a lot of information about different styles of training and nutrition. You could develop an online training course that you can sell your clients the way that Todd Lee MD does.

An online business versus a brick and mortar store

There are so many start up cost to get a real brick-and-mortar store up and running. You have to rent or purchase the location and buy the products that you’re selling. Then you have to pay all the overhead involved. You either have to be physically present or be willing to pay for the employees to run it for you. Then you have you have the headache of paying for the zoning fees, various business licenses, property tax, and utilities to keep the place up and running.

With an online business there is very little start up cost for you to get up and running. You pay for your domain name, get your web hosting through Bluehost, then put forth the initial effort to put your site together.

If you’re selling products, you don’t even have to purchase the inventory because nowadays you can do drop shipping instead. You can even outsource getting the product to your customer. This completely eliminates your physical presence in the day-to-day operations of your online business

There so much commerce online because the whole world is becoming more and more automated through these amazing processes. You can either run from it or embrace it.

But you will never find success if you never get started.