How to start a profitable blog today..For FREE and the UGLY side no one will talk about.

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How to start a profitable blog today..For FREE and the UGLY side no one will talk about.

When I started researching “How to start a profitable blog” I soon realized that 99% of the posts I read were aimed at promoting and reviewing a hosting platform, like Blue host or Host gator. I have nothing against either of these sites – this is not a review.

What I soon realised was that none of these posts actually took you step by step through the pain barrier associated with learning a completely new language. What’s a Widget? How do you get the thingy to go were you want it on the post page of the live site? Why is my chosen media picture twice the size of a small elephant? How do I make it fit? What is HTML and don’t just tell me to add the HTML code to the whatever section of your page – what page are you talking about?    This post does contain my affiliate links for your ease of use.  Please see my full page for disclosure.

 

So – this was me approximately five or six weeks ago and, whilst my blog site still isn’t one of the prettiest ones I’ve seen, it is operational and now, I believe, fully functional. I have found the secret to getting the blog site built, up and running and functioning with very little stress involved and I will share that with you in a minute.

 

I want to be completely real here with you. Yesterday I sat at the bottom end of my garden and actually cried. All because I couldn’t figure out how to get the email opt in to work on my sign up page and I have been trying (on and off) for about three weeks now. I am almost 50 and a Mommy of two teenagers and I just felt like the technology was trying to thwart me at every move.

I couldn’t understand how to make my e book cover look like an actual book or change the HTML code on the page to show the e book.

These weren’t my only challenges! Believe me.

I originally started my site using Bluehost at ($4.95 monthly) with a domain purchased through GoDaddy ($26.23 for 2 years) and GoDaddy hosting, which duplicates Bluehost- Doh! ($93.28 for 1 year). Then – I realized that in order to make the Bluehost site work I needed to sign up for Jet pack ($5 monthly).

So here I am. I haven’t written a single word and I’ve spent $214.14 for one year. At this stage I know absolutely nothing about keyword content, researching content for SEO or submitting sitemaps to Google and about a million other things that I know now; thanks to one, very simple and completely free change that I made.

Like I said at the start – all of the posts I read were promoting one hosting site over another and here’s were my promotion comes in, except it’s not just a hosting site.

I signed up for Wealthy Affiliate in the vain hope that what I was reading online wasn’t yet another scam way of taking my money. What I learned? Everything they promised me for free I got for free. I paid $14.99 to purchase a different domain (I didn’t have a Dot Com originally and that can hurt your success rates) but I didn’t have to do that. It was my choice to change domain names to a Dot Com from a Dot Ca.

What is Wealthy Affiliate then? Sounds Hokey!

Lol – I thought so too but nothing ventured, nothing gained right. On day one they gave me two free sites, hosted on their platform, out live in the World, for free. So no $4.95 a month hosting fee? NOPE. No $5 a month additional pack to make the darn thing work? Nope.

On day one they gave me step by step instruction on choosing a Niche, choosing a theme for the site to look pretty, adding sidebars, headers, footers and pictures. As you work through the modules (which are ALL FREE) you gradually build your site from the ground up with helpful videos showing you exactly what to type on what page to make the thingy pop up in the right spot of the whatsit. I’m being serious. When I say I’m computer illiterate that’s not very far from the truth. I’m an Ex Accountant and my brain is wired differently. Whilst I can make an Excel spreadsheet tell me the time and make me a cup of tea, I couldn’t get a blog page to sit still and look pretty.

After three weeks of being with Wealthy Affiliate I had it cracked. The next module was monetisation (that’s not a misspelling, I’m English 🙂 )

In this module I learned how to become an affiliate with various agencies and how to add my affiliate links into posts in the vain hope that one day (Soon) people will start reading my posts and like what they see and trust what I’m telling them and buy what I’m selling them. No point sugar coating it – I want money. I’d also like to help if I can but I’m not so vain as to think that I spout words of wisdom that everyone will want to hear on a daily basis whilst offering nothing to help them. It just doesn’t work like that.

So that’s great right? I have a website. I have posts. I have pictures. I have affiliate links. No one is reading it…

Module three – Traffic!

It’s all about the traffic.

Google won’t rank you if people aren’t engaged on your site and actively reading and commenting. People won’t give you their email address for nothing (and neither should they!)

Do you know how to link your posts to Pinterest and promote them on Facebook? Module three takes you through exactly how to get from A to Z on building engagement and linking to Social Media. They show you how to shorten a code so you can tweet a post and have your circles on Google + know when you have posted a new item (WHAT??) I know – I was clueless too.

Then the day dawned (yesterday) when I hit a road block that no one could help me with (hence the weeping in the garden). You see – I’m signed up with an obscure site called Sendlane for my email automation (for a completely different reason that I won’t go into here). Not many people have experience with Sendlane. If you have Bluehost your steered towards Opt-In Monster.

On Wealthy affiliate people are choosing Aweber or Mailchimp and the community at Wealthy Affiliate add their own training to the core modules so you just type in your problem in the search bar and someone will have written a tutorial solution. You can even enter a “Classroom” and start a new thread about your particular problem and everyone will jump in to come up with a solution. It’s great! BUT – I have Sendlane 🙁

Again – this is not a review. Sendlane is just as good as any other email automation. I just don’t get it. I follow the steps and press the button and …Nada.

So what now? Well – I got as far as having the opt in Landing page looking how I wanted it to, complete with ebook / report cover. My BETA testers (thanks Mommy 🙂 ) tell me that they can sign up for more and that they get the “Confirm subscription”. They even get the Thank you for subscribing and then ..nothing.

I tried it myself and my email from me to me went straight into my Junk folder. NOT GOOD AT ALL. Hmm…

Executive Decisions.

I made an Executive decision. I took the day off and spent it in my garden picking Raspberries from my canes and weeding the beds around the Corn and the Onions. I planted some squash seeds to get started for Fall. I made a Fritatta with eggs from my chickens and potatoes and onions from my garden whilst my hubby baked us a fresh loaf of bread and then I went out for a nice glass of wine with my Hubby to relax and enjoy the sunshine. I’ve gone off topic here a little. What has this got to do with starting a blog from scratch?

Nothing but.. well, I have started a blog from scratch – May 2nd to be precise, which is just a little over two months ago (I did take two weeks off when my family visited for the UK). I have told you how I made it this far and that it could have cost me exactly nothing (or $14.99 by choice). I’ve told you there are pitfalls but nothing that can’t be solved. I’ve told you I have hit a road block with the technology but then I woke up this morning to bring this post to you with renewed vigor and the knowledge that Sendlane support will be able to help me even as the WA community ponder my problem and try to work a solution for me. Life is good. This too shall pass.

The purpose of this post is to show you that it can be done. It can be done on a virtually non-existent budget. It can be done by a complete beginner and it may frustrate you from time to time (I always want to be 100% honest even if it is embarrassing) but You too can start a profitable blog today. There are lots of options out there to get going. I have shared with you the one that worked for me and I can’t say enough good things about it. The choice is yours. Do you research. Don’t spend any money unless you think you have to and find what works for you. Write with passion about what you believe in and keep it real.

You will never find me posting things like “How I made One million dollars online in just three days” Unless, by some miracle I actually do manage to make $1,000,000 online in 3 days! (Probably involves buying a Lotto ticket through the internet portal right?). I won’t steer you towards the latest Gadget that you just have to have, to make your life complete because I don’t believe you need gadgets for that.

I do, however need my Garden, possibly a nice glass of wine and someone to share it with, especially when it is getting me down and I need you.

Let me know in the comments if this post resonates with you or if there is an area of building your blog that is getting you down and If I can help, I absolutely will.

 

XO

Anna