Confession: Only my sister reads my blog.
Please tell me I’m not alone!
Also, is anyone else actually making money blogging out there? Because that’s the reason I started blogging. Honest. I wish I could say it was just for the sheer fun of it, but that would be a lie. In fact, I’ve wanted to make money from my blog for a long time, but it took years- and many different blogs- for me to figure out the missing piece of the puzzle. The answer to the question: Why isn’t my blog making any money?
Before Wondernote was born and before I began writing about the ins & outs of Graphic Design, I was just a Lifestyle Blogger.
Are you a Lifestyle Blogger? And more importantly- have you successfully made money with your lifestyle blog?
Maybe months– or years– have gone by, and you’re scratching your head, wondering when your hard blogging work will finally pay off. Why don’t you have any post views or email subscribers? Heck, just a comment would be nice! After all, you’ve sunk a lot of time and resources into this thing, but for crying out loud.. How do you actually make money with a lifestyle blog?!
I like to call this phenomenon (in which lifestyle blogs don’t make money) Lifestyle Blog Limbo.
Lifestyle Blog Limbo happens when we know we want to write a blog, specifically a money-earning blog, but we can’t choose only one thing to write about. Heck, we didn’t ask to be this knowledgeable about every. single. thing. It’s just the way God made us!
Maybe you blog about all these topics & more:
- Easy family dinner recipes
- Relationship advice
- Your Fitness Routine
- Healthy Eating Ideas
- Target Deals
- Couponing
- Raising Children
- Outfit Ideas
- Makeup Looks
- Vacation & Travel
- How you & your Spouse paid off 50K of debt
- The best restaurants in your hometown
WHY ISN’T YOUR LIFESTYLE BLOG MAKING MONEY?
Why Your Lifestyle Blog Isn’t Making Money, Reason #1: You’re Just Not That Interesting.
I apologize in advance, because I’m about to say something not very nice about you. Ready? Your life just isn’t that interesting. And if you want to be successful as a Lifestyle Blogger, you’ll have to convince your readers that your daily life is more interesting than the reality TV show they’re binge watching instead of reading your blog. In actual reality, noone (besides your mom) is hanging on the edge of their seat to find out what healthy meal you fed your family tonight. They don’t care that you went 10 miles out of your way to photograph fancy latte art “for the ‘gram.” They don’t care that you purchased eighty five pairs of shoes at the Nordstrom sale. But wait! Don’t get mad. There’s a solution. Next, I’ll tell you what IS intriguing about you..Why Your Lifestyle Blog Isn’t Making Money, Reason #2: Your Content is Too Broad.
Now that we have that out of the way and you know that your lifestyle blog isn’t interesting, let me explain why. Lifestyle is too broad a topic. What does the term Lifestyle mean to potential readers, anyway? What does it tell readers about you and your blog? Nothing specifically, and that’s the problem. Now. Referring back to the list of topics you blog about, here’s a topic from your list that is both specific AND interesting: the fact that you paid off $50,000 of debt in only 2 years while your husband worked and you stayed at home raising your baby. In blogging, we refer to specific topics as your niche. A niche blog topic appeals to a small, specialized section of the population, and finding your niche is the golden ticket to blogging success. Identify your niche. Live and breathe your niche. Because niches pay!Why Your Lifestyle Blog Isn’t Making Money, Reason #3: You Don’t Know Who You’re Writing To/For.
You now know that you need a niche if you want to increase your odds of earning money from your blog. But you also need to know who you’re writing to! Your niche and your target audience are directly correlated. Most paid blog courses will encourage you to spend time creating an Avatar. An avatar is a representative of your target audience, and knowing your avatar can help you understand what information your audience wants from you. Here’s some info you’ll want to know about your Avatar:- Gender
- Age
- Location
- Relationship Status
- Education
- Income
- Interests
- Hobbies
- Where they hang out
- What they spend their money on
- Etc.
Why Your Lifestyle Blog Isn’t Making Money, Reason #4: You Don’t Have Enough/New Content.
You know your niche. You know your avatar. Now how do you hold their attention? Keep them coming back for more? Convince them to Subscribe to your Email List? Cue content creation. You need to post new, quality content regularly. Let’s imagine that Suzie Q lands on your blog article titled How I Paid Off $50K Debt in 2 Years, Part 1. Since the process behind paying off your debt was too much to write in one post, you’ve broken it down into 3 parts. Suzie is also 50K in the hole with student loans, and she’s desperate to learn your strategy. She devours Part 1, and she likes what you have to say. Now she’s looking for a link to Part 2… except you haven’t written Part 2 yet. After clicking around for awhile, Suzie realizes you posted Part 1 three months ago, and frankly, she can’t wait around forever. She clicks off, and just like that– she’s gone, probably forever. She went next door to your competitor’s blog. It gave her the answers & even more smart financial tips that Suzie wasn’t searching for but finds helpful. She liked it so much she even subscribed to their email list! A smart strategy is to write 10-20 solid articles before you ever launch your blog. And don’t leave any loose ends. if you have a Part 1, make sure you have a Part 2.Why Your Lifestyle Blog Isn’t Making Money, Reason #5: You Don’t Treat Your Blog as a Business.
Maybe you’ve done all the footwork. You’ve picked your niche, you know your audience, you even have a decent following. You’ve made a little bit of money, received some free products, but you’re nowhere near to replacing the income of your 9-5 job. How do you take your blog to the next level and start earning real money? Treat it like a business! All businesses have this in common: they engage in commerce. aka: They make money through the sale of goods or services. So what goods or services does your blog offer? How can you package your content and expertise into a product? Consider creating a paid course, subscription, or e-book, which involve little risk and little investment. And in the meantime, keep thinking and acting like a business owner:- Show up every day.
- Put in the hours.
- Be proud of what you do.
- Share it with the world.
- Invest in furthering your knowledge and education.
- Know your competition.
- Learn from mistakes.
- Implement a marketing strategy.
- Outsource when you can.
- Focus on efficiency.
- Focus on growth.
- Develop a product to sell.
- Etc, etc, etc.
- How long have you been blogging?
- Do you have a niche, or are you a lifestyle blogger?
- Have you seen any earnings from your blog yet?
- Still not sure what you should blog about? Read my post –> How to Decide What to Blog About!
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