I learned many blogging lessons during my 10 year career.
Over 15,000 blogging hours, a few gems danced around in my blogging dome. But one scary, freeing lesson sits in the front of my mind. What was it?
Successful bloggers work for free for many years before money becomes consistent.
I feared working for free, for a long time. I thought like an employee: work for a set time and get paid for completing work in a set time. I had maintained this employee agreement for years as an inside sales rep, client enrollment rep, database analyst and security guard. Work. Get paid a salary.
But blogging taught me a sometimes painful, scary lesson: first, you work for free, for thousands of hours, to gain skills, exposure and credibility. THEN, and only THEN, do you make money consistently. Nobody knows when you make money. But money will be there. No one knows how many blogging hours you need to work for free before making your first cent, your first 100 bucks or your first 1000 bucks. But money will be there. No one knows how many blogging hours you need to work before you can become a full time, pro blogger. But again; if you commit 100% to blogging for years, blogging commits 100% to you, by allowing you to work from the comfort of your home, full time.
Why Scary?
Well….I vibed heavily from an energy of fear during a decent chunk of my blogging campaign…..so….after blogging-working for free for 4 months and not making a single penny, I feared I had wasted my time, I feared I would go broke and I feared feeling embarrassed, humiliated and ashamed that I could not pay my bills. All fears built up in my mind. I felt even worse.
But I finally learned the lesson: if you KEEP blogging for free, open more and more income streams, and ride out those uncomfortable moments of financial challenges (creditors calling, late bills, etc), you will eventually make consistent blogging money. How freeing. Blogging feels liberating to generous servants because kind pros who monetize freely simply make enough money consistently enough to become a pro blogger. Blogging professionally feels freeing because you work when you want to work, where you want to work, how you want to work.
Why Freeing?
Most bloggers – and humans – vibe mainly from a dominant energy of fear. Feeling fear and leaving fear behind feels liberating. How would you like to blog and live predominantly from a loving, relaxed, trusting, peaceful energy? Well, blog for free for thousands of hours and you will face, feel and release enough fears to cultivate that predominant trusting, relaxed energy.
Work for free to work for pay. Help people for free to become skilled. Help people for free to gain exposure. Help people for free to boost your credibility. Credible, skilled bloggers seen in many spots make money blogging consistently because folks buy their stuff, hire them and place ads on their blog, persistently. But most bloggers struggle and never go pro because most resist working for free, for any sustained period of time.
All legends in any niche work for free. Iconic author James Patterson gave out his novels for free for a long time before seeing his net worth reach $560 million dollars. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg worked for free for a long time, not monetizing Facebook, before seeing his net worth sprout to $82 billion dollars. Phil Knight of Nike fame worked an accountant job to pay his bills while his sneaker empire netted him 0 dollars in sales and profits. He made his first sales by selling shoes out of the back of an old, beat up car, at track meets. Now he is worth $35 billion dollars.
Most bloggers forget all iconic legends worked for free, just like bloggers do, well before making any money, let alone, big bucks. Put in the time now. Generously work for free. Fall in love with helping people. The money will be there down the road.
eBook
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