Months before I graduated college I was offered a job working at a great startup company in Washington, DC.

My starting salary was gonna be a little over $50,000.

It was in a terrific area of the city. The team seemed young, hungry, and motivated.

But, to everyone’s surprise, I turned down that job.

I had made up my mind that I wanted to build my own company after college. This was my one shot.

I was going to do whatever it took and work however many hours I needed in order to be successful.

I moved to NYC with one month’s rent to my name and started grinding away.

Two years later, all the hard work paid off. I earned $50k that year directly from my blog.

I had made it. I was living the laptop lifestyle. I could go and travel any time I wanted. I could work however much or little I wanted. I was my own boss.

Now… I know there are some bloggers out there earning millions of dollar per year with their blog. I’m not one of those (at least, not yet).

I can’t show you how to get rich, but I can show you exactly how to earn a healthy income doing work that you love.

1. View The Blog as A “Lead Magnet”

A blog isn’t a business.

A blog is simply a collection of FREE content on a particular subject.

If you produce high quality blog posts, then this free content will attract regular visitors to your website.

Once a visitor is on your website, that’s where the fun begins!

A funny thing happens when someone around the world reads your content. They get to know you a little bit better.

When you help them with some aspect of their business or life, they’re far more likely to trust you, and as a result, do business with you.

Fundamentally, a blog is a lead magnet. You’re using to create a bunch of leads that you can sell products or services to down the road.

A simple WordPress plugin like OptinMonster is going to help you capture the email address of these leads and convert them into customers.

You can also sell other people’s products and services to this audience by way of sponsored posts, affiliate marketing, and advertisements.

2. Create Multiple Income Streams

When you work for an employer, you have ONE income stream. Your paycheck.

As a blogger, you’re going to need to build up multiple income streams if you want to earn a healthy amount from blogging.

This could include:

• Coaching and consulting
• Services
• Advertisements
• Sponsorships
• Ebooks
• Online courses
• Physical products
• Affiliate marketing

If you’re using the blog to teach about a particular subject, then I’d recommend starting out with coaching and services.

After that, you can invest some time in creating an online course. You’ll then be making money in your sleep!

3. Build Your Email List with Landing Pages

The size and quality of your email list is directly going to affect how much money you can make from your blog.

You’ll be using this email list to drive traffic to new articles, products, and convert website visitors into customers.

The absolute best way to generate an email list of highly targeted individuals is to set up a landing page and give away a free book, checklist, or other type of lead magnet. You can use Leadpages to do this.

Leadpages makes it super easy to get a list going of hot leads that are interested in learning more about your topic.

Remember, you should view the blog as a lead magnet. You’re using the free content to build up a list of leads that you can sell products to at a later date.

I know that doesn’t sound sexy, but we’re talking business right now. We can discuss writing style, beautiful design, and writing about topics that you LOVE another time.

Of course, there are many ways that you can build up your email list quickly.

4. Produce Content Regularly On a Schedule

The traffic that I get to my blog typically correlates with the amount of regular quality content that I’m putting out there into the universe.

When I stop writing, my blog traffic goes down.

In the early stages, I’d recommend publishing 3 high quality blog posts per week. This is going to accelerate the rate at which the blog grows.

As you start writing more and more, you’ll also become better as a blogger. You’ll learn how to write SEO optimized posts so that you’ll get traffic from search engines like Google.

Naturally, it’s hard to stick to a schedule.

If you pre-schedule your blog posts to go out one or two weeks ahead of time, you’ll take a bit uncertainty out of the equation. You also won’t be as rushed to get out new content every week.

5. Invest in a Trusted Host and Professional Blog Design

When I first started blogging, I was using WordPress.com and a subdomain. My domain was thethoughthole.wordpress.com. This was a mistake!

The most important step towards turning your blog into a business is to register YOUR OWN domain name and host your own blog.

When you host your own blog, you’ll be able to install plugins and premium themes to extend the functionality of your website.

I personally use this hosting company to host my blog. They have great customer support and an easy way to install WordPress on your site. You can learn more about them below.

After you set up your WordPress blog, you’re going to want to look into getting yourself a professional-looking theme.

No joke, the theme that you choose will make the difference between people thinking you’re an amateur or a professional. A well designed blog will also allow you to charge higher prices for your products.

Below, I’ll link to a marketplace with a lot of different premium WordPress themes that you can choose from. Make sure that the theme is up to date with the current version of WordPress.

After you pick out a premium theme, you’re ready to rock and roll!

It will be time to start producing content and promoting it to get your name out there.

6. The Harder You Work, The Luckier You Get

You have to treat the blog like a 9-5 job. You gotta show up every single day and write.

Don’t spend lots of time worrying about your stats or checking your email. Just write, write, write. Then promote your writing.

In your free time, you should be learning about key topics related to your niche and online marketing as a whole. These include:

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
• Content Marketing
• PPC (Pay Per Click)
• Copywriting
• Social media marketing
• PR
• Storytelling
• Buyer psychology

I’d begin to take note of the various blogs that you come across that you like. You can see which plugins their using or even which them they’re using.

The harder that you work at this journey, the more likely you’re going to see results fast. You never know which article is going to blow up. Before you know it, you could be getting thousands of website visitors every day.

If you have any questions, take a sec to leave a comment below or sign up for the newsletter!