9 First Step Goals for Blogging

Words from Darren Rowse on ProBlogger.net:

Many bloggers start blogs these days with the dream of millions of readers and making large amounts of money.

While it is possible to build blogs that are widely read and profitable and there’s nothing wrong with dreaming big – the reality is that it takes time and a lot of work to build these kinds of blogs.

And he went on and suggested a list of 9 first step goals to people who want to get into the blogging venture with a big dream of making money from it.

1. Publish 10 Posts
2. Getting your first comment from someone you don’t know
3. Get your first link from another blog
4. Build your readership up to more than 20 readers a day
5. Hit a level of 20 RSS subscribers
6. Getting your blog indexed in Google
7. Get your blog earning $1 a week (update: only if making money from your blog is one of your goals – it’s not for everyone
8. First guest post on another blog
9. Having someone (not you or your mum) tweet about your blog

I seemed to have accomplished most of them, except the guest post on another blog, but Darren is very right that it’s just a beginning to get my feet on the right track. There is a very long way to go.

Yes, blogging is my new venture on making more money, and I am doing it with a dream that would make me completely off the regular job one day, or at least gets me retire earlier. With that big dream in mind that is still in “day” stage, I am totally prepared doing that in a long term. A very long journey is laid out right ahead of me.

9 First Step Goals for New Bloggers [ProBlogger.net]

What’s the secret behind the JohnChow.com

Ever since I knew there is a guy living locally in Vancouver making $40,000 every month blogging, I have been wondering how he made it. I have been following his blog quite closely and have been reading a lot of his posts since. However, I just couldn’t get the picture clear how he made it. Simply looking at his blog, other than tons of blog posts in wide topics, there are numbers of ads nicely organized there too. But there is just no way he can make that much money only from these ads, even though from his advertise page the income from these ads are awesomely decent. So what’s the secret behind the scene?

Yesterday, he posted a video of his presentation from the latest Vancouver business meetup. During this one hour video, he laid out what his business model is in very detail and claimed that:

The video contain information that I have never written about before – it revealed my blog business model. As you can read from the reviews, the information was extremely well received and everyone thought it was well worth the price of admission. And you’re going to get it for free!

He’s not lying. I watched out the video in full and am so glad I did. I urge you do the same too. You will find one hour you spend on watching this video is very worth it.

Before laying out the details of his business model, he claimed very clearly that business model of adopting Google Adsense doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because 1) it requires so much traffic that most of the blog are not going to have; and 2) the rate has gone down so much for the past a few years. And then he went on and revealed what the secret is on his blog. Simply put:

• Capture the lead
• Build the relationship
• Put them through the sales funnel
• Workout the cost per lead
• Add pay per click

And details, you will have to watch his video to find out.

How I Make $40,000 a Month From a Blog [JonhChow dot Com]