Can I Help You?
Oct
If you have read My Goals Page, then you know that my goal for this blog is to build a large following of readers by offering great content, honestly helping my readers, and eventually replacing my day job income with the money I earn online. The key concept in all of this is helping people.
A good blog will not only offer entertainment and education, but will truly help its readers. I often find myself writing an article without thinking if it will be helpful and have to catch myself, reread it, and rewrite it. I’ve found that a lot of bloggers like to write without regard to who is reading it and that’s fine.
If blogging is just a hobby, then write anything you want, who cares? However, if you are planning on your blog becoming a profitable business, then you must think of the reader first.
I created this blog to help people like me who are stuck in the daily grind of life and want out. I also want to help people create an online business, build a passive income, and have more time to do as they choose.
I’m Not An Expert!
Your first question is probably “how can you help me with these things if you haven’t done them yourself”? That’s certainly a valid point, however I honestly feel like I can help people. I will get to why in a moment.There are thousands upon thousands of blogs and websites dedicated to teaching people how to make money online.
Learning how to earn $80k a year blogging from someone who has already done it obviously makes sense, but there is something to be said for learning from someone who is in the process of doing it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t learn from successful bloggers. My whole philosophy is that I can relate to my readers on a level that “already done it” bloggers might not be able to.
The point is that I struggle to relate to many of my readers because I can’t put myself in their shoes. I don’t think like a person who is new to fitness and take a lot of things I know for granted.
I find myself omitting information that I think is common knowledge but in reality, is not. Can you see my point now? Since I am relatively new to blogging, I am still trying to understand how everything works and I feel like this can work to my readers advantage.
Now, I’ve spent a lot of hours (in a short amount of time) teaching myself about WordPress, SEO, finding keywords, and some HTML, but it’s still all fresh in my head. Personally, I think this is what people want to see. I may be way off base, but I really believe it.
Just to be sure I wasn’t completely delusional, I contacted some highly successful bloggers and asked them their opinion of the concept of my blog.
I actually received significantly more responses that I thought I would and received some great insight. Several of these “A” list bloggers asked me how I can help my readers if I’m in the same boat as them.
Another suggested that I find another topic to write about (ouch). Thankfully it wasn’t because my writing sucked, it was just that he thought it will be very hard to monetize a blog when I’m not an ‘expert’ in my topic.
The good news is that I didn’t get completely blown out of the water. If I had, this site might be about celebrity sex tapes or silly bandz right now!
Fortunately, I did receive quite a few compliments and had some positive comments about what I’m trying to do here, which helped me confirm that I’m on the right path….
I would love to hear any and all comments, good or bad, in hopes of making this site better going forward.
Jo
Hi Steve
Really great to come across your blog. I like your personal story and down-to-earth approach. Sometimes the reality is that we just can’t up and leave our jobs because we hate them.
The A listers have been there and done that but I think there’s only so much advice you can follow. After awhile, I find myself becoming so confused about what I ‘should’ do that I become paralysed and don’t do anything. Many of them had to start somewhere and were not always experts in their field when they started out. Sometimes I think we just have to keep their advice in mind whilst forging ahead with our own unique style of doing things (because if we all did it the same, that would be boring).
It seems the new style of ‘lifestyle’ blogs –and I include myself – is to talk about how we’re doing it (making changes so we can live the life we want, whether its through blogging or just lifestyle changes) as we’re doing it. And yes, I think that helps people because if an ordinary, non-expert can do it, then why can’t every one of your readers? People know about following your passion and lifestyle design and blogging for money, but they want to see evidence of it actually working. And that’s where we come in!
All the best
Jo
Steve
Hi Jo,
Glad you found me! As much as I would loooove to quit, I can’t. Bills, kids, mortgage, are all preventing me from jumping ship.
Your second paragraph is spot on! Getting overwhelmed with all the info out there is a HUGE issue, especially for new bloggers. I have problems with this almost every day. There are so many great blogs and so many different ideas on how best to succeed. II think finding a mentor that you can resonate with is a great idea.
Personally, I really like Yaro Starak’s style of building a business but also love Pat Flynn’s approach as well. There are 3 or 4 other “A” listers that have awesome advice. It’s so hard to know who to listen to.
Being unique and not trying to copycat is also very important. You can adopt the methods of a proven system, like Yaro’s Blog MasterMind Program, but add your own personality and uniqueness to it.
I don’t consider myself an expert blogger, writer, or entrepreneur but what I AM an expert in is knowing that being stuck in a shitty job your whole life is a complete waste of time. Life’s too short for that.
I look forward to seeing you around.