By:David Risley

www.davidrisley.comwww.blogmastersclub.com

Content Copyright 2010-2012 PC Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Today, I want to talk about something very important. See, I know that many of you are not strangers to any of this “make money blogging” stuff. You probably read a lot of different blogs about the subject, perhaps even including my own.

The thing is, the more you keep reading, and reading, and reading... the more everything starts to look the same. You get overwhelmed. And before long, you almost feel like you’re going cross-eyed, reading all these various tips, tactics and strategies on how to make money online.

We, as a market, are a cynical bunch. In fact, I’m willing to bet that some of you might be thinking right now, “David, you’re obviously just getting ready to launch something, so none of this matters. This is just more of the same”. It is easy to be cynical. There is a lot of noise happening out there, and the thing is, our community tends to get tunnel vision on itself.

We get up in the morning, open up our RSS readers, and we read other people’s blogs. Then we check out email, sometimes seeing multiple emails all about the same

Where Are We, Really?

product launch. At the same time, we’re getting barraged by Twitter and Facebook. Throw a little Youtube into the mix, too (can’t forget that). Oh, and on top of that, you’ve got a lot of this stuff having to do with how to make money, but it seems like this big circular thing because they’re obviously trying to make money by selling people how to make money.....

Where are we, really?

We’re overwhelmed. And that often leads to cynicism. But, let me propose something to you... and, just do me a favor and open up your mind a little bit...

Our habits are getting in the way of our own success. This tunnel vision that we have in this community often just ends up getting in the way of actually making things happen.

We read those blogs and watch those videos because there is a goal to make money. We want to live that life of independence. We know, instinctively, that it CAN be done because other people are doing it. So, you search, and you search.... trying to find the answer.

And this brings you into the world of “make money” blogs... and since they are blogs, they hold to a publishing schedule and they keep putting out fresh content. All of these blogs are vying for your attention. And, well.... as I’ve always told my own readers.... you can’t eat and talk at the same time. See, we spend so much time consuming and searching, that it feeds the sense of overwhelm and

...the more you keep reading,

and reading, and reading... the

more everything starts to look the

same.

ultimately nothing happens.

Oh, and while it is all feeding into that sense of overwhelm, something else is happening....

It is feeding that internal sense of doubt. Because all these people are sharing their own strategies on how to pull off the ultimate goal, and when you’re reading it all, it pulls YOU in multiple directions. So, things seem really complicated and, naturally, you wonder if you can really do it. It is a natural feeling, even though it is often simply the result of that overwhelm.

Here’s another thing that’s happening....

When this tunnel vision is going on and you’re reading all these blogs about blogging, it is easy to jump to a conclusion. And that conclusion is that success will come by doing what they do. So, you see some people make these really fancy products. We’ve seen people in the internet marketing community make some really fancy videos lately. You see blogs out there that end up posting so often that it feels like a firehose.

And, we sit there and our jaws hit the ground. How can we possibly keep up with that? It seems like so much work. You think you can’t possibly compete with them. They must have big budgets and they can hire people to do the work. And you sit there in your house and feel this immense sense of hopelessness.

The result of all of this?

Our habits are getting in the

way of our own success.

Well, as I like to call it, it turns into the blogger hamster wheel. You read and read and read, write and write and write, comment comment comment, tweet tweet tweet... and at the end of the day, you’re just doing it again.

There is the vague hope that it’ll all pay off in the end... that someday you’ll get recognized and things will start happening. But, as time goes on, it starts to feel like a huge rat race and an unwinnable one at that. It starts to feel like you need lady luck on your side to find success as a blogger. And....

Well, that SUCKS.

Especially when you consider just how unnecessary it all is.

There is another way.

Today, I want to challenge your mindset a little bit. I’m going to ask you to disagree with any of these preconceived conclusions you might have reached before today. I ask you to be willing to accept some new ideas.

Because the usual approach isn’t working.

Today, I want to address some of the common myths about making money blogging. And, at the end, I have a little exercise for you to do which I think you’ll get a lot of value out of. So, here we go...

And, we sit there and our jaws hit the

ground. How can we

possibly keep up with that?

So, when you read the Blueprint, I pull no punches. And one of the things I make quite clear is that selling your own product on your blog is ultimately the best way to make money with it. The problem is, people often assume that it takes FOREVER to make something to sell. And when you’re staring at your daily schedule and your family life demands, you think to yourself, “This just isn’t realistic”.

Well, let me tell you the story of my very first product.

It was an e-book. What I did was this.... I took most of the stuff I had in my own blog’s archives, compiled it

together into an e-book and gave it a table of contents. Now, this was in the technology

market, so it made sense to put some useful software in there. I obviously wasn’t a programmer. So, what I did was found some quality open source software.... stuff where the license allowed me to bundle it, and that now went along with the e-book. Lastly, because

CD-ROMs were a lot more popular at the time, and people were connecting to the Internet via

dial-up, I decided to put this whole package on

Myth #1: Products Are Way Too Much Work To Make

CD. So, I designed a quick auto-start menu for the CD-ROM using a piece of software I had on my computer. I burned the entire thing to a blank disc right there on my computer, printed my own label, stamped it on and - WHALAH - I had my own product. And, dare I say, it actually looked pretty official, too.

Now, obviously, all these years later, my business has evolved and I don’t do products like that anymore. But, everybody starts somewhere and I was in the exact same position then that so many others are in today.

I wanted to make money with my blog, ads weren’t doing it for me, and I needed a Plan B.

It worked, too, because I started making sales.

So, let me ask you this.... have you written some great stuff on your blog already? Could you take that existing work and re-package it? Sure, you can modify some things, but it gives you one hell of a head start.

And, you don’t even need to sit there and make your own CDs anymore like I did. Today, you have automated services like Kunaki which can do it for less than a couple bucks per disc, so you just build that into the cost of your product and you’re good to go.

It is so much easier today than it was when I started.

...let me tell you the story of my

very first product.

As your business evolves, your products will improve. But, it is important to realize that you have to start somewhere. It is all about those baby steps. The key to a great product is whether it offers good value to your customer and solves their problems, not whether the product is really big and took you a lot of time.

So, I want to you take that assumption and just rip it to shreds. Products don’t have to take a while to create, and often some of the best products are small. Realize, too, that it is really easy to make a product which is so big that it actually hinders your customer from consuming it. While you’re stressing about this false need to make the product humongous, you might actually be hurting yourself. And, in all likelihood you would be.

The logistics of creating a product is something I’ll teach you later, but trust me, it isn’t nearly as big a deal as people make it out to be. Especially today with so many awesome tools at our disposal.

So, myth #1?

I wanted to make money with my blog, ads werenʼt doing it for me, and I needed a Plan B.

This is the myth that, in my view, most lends itself to the blogger hamster wheel. Quite frankly, it is this assumption which makes blogging look like such a crappy business model to the untrained person. Why? Because you’d be doing a lot of work for no return.

And, yes, that’d be pretty stupid. Nobody likes to work and get nothing for it.

Plus, if you cave into this myth of writing every day, then all you end up doing is turning yourself into your own worse boss. You end up running out of things to say, and posting feels like a job and it won’t be fun anymore.

Blog posting can become worse than being a crack addict. You need your next hit or your traffic disappears, or so you would think. The funny thing is... I haven’t seen that in my experience.

Now, first, let me get a couple of things out of the way here. First, it is true that search engines generally like blogs which are updated more regularly. This is what leads

Myth #2: You Have To Write Every Day

many people to think you need to post super often, and it seems to be backed up by many of the top blogs who post multiple times per day. But, that is because of the second fact....

It really just depends on your niche. See, if you’re in a news-style niche, then you might need to post everyday. This is why you see some of the big sites like Huffington Post posting quite often.

However, if you’ve read my Blueprint, you know that those kinds of blogs are actually the hardest to monetize with my preferred model. Because you’re a commodity. With those kinds of blogs, you almost HAVE to post super often, all while at the same time being in a niche where it is harder to make money because of all the larger blogs already there.

See, the business model I’m going to teach you depends more on being an authority with your niche, as well as on building a strong relationship with your audience. Your readers will know, like and trust you... and that is a completely different kind of dynamic than what you typically see on any kind of high-volume news blog.

Not only that, you won’t have to post as often and, quite frankly, you won’t even need as big of an audience. In fact, you can make far more money with only a fraction of the audience of one of these firehose-style news blogs if you follow my approach.

I currently average 3 posts per week on my blog. My tech blog is at a higher volume, but that is a different kind of blog in a very different

Blog posting can become worse than being a crack addict.

market. Chances are, your niche would be perfectly fine at a lower post volume - maybe even as little as one per week.

The key is to offer real value... and to make the post truly worthy of being shared and talked about.

Lastly, you need to be consistent with your pattern. Regularity is more important than frequency, so if it is once per week, just make sure you keep doing it once per week.

So, no, you don’t have to write every day... because our focus is on the relationship with our audience, not on being yet another firehose of information into their already overwhelmed head.

Relationship always trumps volume.

So, myth #2?

The key is to offer real value...

It is unfortunate when people place artificial rules upon themselves without ever really thinking it through, and personally, I think that the idea that you have to sell out to monetize falls into that category.

See, the notion of selling out means that you somehow sacrifice your morals and values in order to achieve success. With that being the case, how would it being selling out to make money unless making money itself was an affront to your personal value system?

Do you believe it is unethical to make money? If you do, then you’re probably better off to simply close this document right now and we’ll part ways as friends.

On the flip side, if you think that it is OK to make a living from your hard work, then we have to jump to the heart of why one makes this knee-jerk reaction that making money online is the same as selling out.

Myth #3 - Donʼt You Have To Sell Out In Order To Make Money Blogging?

Remember, I said in the Blueprint that you have to treat your blogging like a real business in order to make a business income from it. And as we know, businesses sell things. If you just sit back for a moment and think about some of the businesses you deal with on a regular basis, are they selling out? Would your local plumber be selling out if he had a blog while also performing plumbing services? Would a personal trainer be selling out if he or she blogged about fitness, but also sold a fitness program on the side and offered personal training services? Would a stay-at-home mom be selling out if she happened to be really good at home organization, so she decided to blog about home-related matters and then create a simple video course for her readers?

I could go on and on here, but in all cases, these people are simply offering a value-added service or product to their blogging, or in some cases, adding blogging to a product or service they already have. It isn’t selling out unless the very business you’re in is against your sense of ethics, and we hope that’s not the case.

Lastly, I think some jump to this conclusion because of a fear of marketing. After all, in order to sell something on your site, you’re going to have to market it, right? And, for many, marketing has a dirty connotation to it and you don’t want to be one of THOSE people, right?

I don’t blame you.

...when you have a product that

will truly help the people you

serve, it would be a disservice not to market it

to them.

Nobody, including me, wants to be a snake-oil salesman. However, when you have a product that will truly help the people you serve, it would be a disservice not to market it to them. Secondly, and this is a BIG one... when you do all this stuff right, nothing you do will come off as sleazy. You’ll be bringing a relevant product to a market who knows, likes and trusts you.

Even if somebody decides ultimately not to buy from you, they’re not going to look down on you for it. I’m not teaching people the yellow-highlighter crap and the flashy red headlines... this is about building a bond with your readers and truly helping them.

And the game completely changes when you do it that way.

So, myth #3

...this is about building a bond with

your readers and truly

helping them.

Right now, you’re probably expecting me to say this isn’t true. And, I’m not going to let you down. :-)

Its all about what you consider to be a lot.

There are certain expenses that you’ll need to take on in order to get off the ground. You’re going to need a web host, and a decent one that should last you for awhile will probably run you about $10/month. You’re not going to need a big, fancy hosting account until your business is already taking off, but by that time, you won’t have any problem with it because you’ll see the results.

On that hosting account, you’re going to need to set up your blog. Well, Wordpress is free and there are a lot of awesome free themes, too. That said, if you want to take it up a notch with a premium theme, it can run you anywhere from $20 to around $100. Almost all the plug-ins you might need are free as well, and while there are some paid ones which are better, you don’t need them in order to get started.

You’re also going to need an email list host, and I recommend Aweber. They have a one dollar trial, and after that it starts at $19/month.

So, with that, we’re looking at about $29/month, plus some small setup costs for the blog itself. Aside from that, some sweat equity to get it off the ground. Obviously, you can speed things up if you’re willing to invest more, however none of that is a requirement as long as you’re willing to take action.

Myth #4 - It costs a lot of money.

So, let me be up front about this...

What you’re now looking at is perhaps the best business model on the face of the planet.

I’m not kidding you.

Any entrepreneur in the offline world would be giddy with excitement at the prospect of being able to start a business with costs this low. In the “real world”, you can sink many thousands of dollars into starting a business, and it is a big gamble. In the online world, the costs are small, you’re infinitely more flexible so you can learn and grow along the way, and the return on investment is astronomical.

So, yes, it will cost you a little bit of money to get going, and I want to make sure everybody understands that. If you’re just barely scraping by or you’re not sure where your next meal is going to come from, then this might not be the right approach for you. It is tempting to cut corners and use free hosting or a free email list service, but I strongly recommend against it. I’ve seen that backfire on people many, many times and I know from experience that it is far better to set up correctly at the get-go.

But, does this require a lot of money? Absolutely not.

So, this myth is

Any entrepreneur in the offline world would be giddy with excitement at the prospect of being able to start a business with costs this

low.

I want to tell you something... I believe in you.

In fact, I might believe in you more than you believe in yourself.

See, I think there is always a way to succeed in this business for everybody. There are some things that can stop somebody from making it... things like a crumby attitude, outright laziness, a sense of entitlement, etc.

If you bring the right attitude and the right motivation to the table, then I am not one who believes that you don’t have something to offer.

Chances are that you know something that others would like to know. Your life experience could mean that you have knowledge that others don’t. Perhaps you have a strong interest in something, which would motivate you to research it and become an expert. Realize that you only need to know more than your target market to be helpful to them.

Myth #5 - I Donʼt Really Know Anything Valuable To People, so Iʼm Lost.

There are so many potential ways to go about this, and that’s one of the awesome things about an online business. Perhaps you could partner with somebody who is an expert on a particular topic. Perhaps you work on a publisher model, where you do interviews with others and create content that way.

See, once again, it is about thinking like a business owner rather than a blogger, and perhaps one constraint is the assumption that you personally need to be the one doing all the writing. Guess what, you don’t necessarily have to do the writing or the product creation.

This is a very fluid business model, which means there are many, many ways to go about it and, for that reason, you do NOT need to limit yourself by your own personal sense of expertise.

You don’t need to be a guru to start in this business, but as you grow as a blogger, all of a sudden you’ll find others assigning you “guru” status.

And one day, you’ll look back on this myth, and you’ll understand why I declare it to be a complete and total...

...it is about thinking like a

business owner rather than a

blogger...

Making money as a blogger seems to be a pretty misunderstood thing. There are a lot of mistaken assumptions about it, and as I said earlier, I think much of it is rooted in that deep sense of overwhelm and tunnel vision that so many suffer from. After all, when you’re being pulled in multiple directions at the same time, it is easy to not only get overwhelmed, but get frustrated.

I think something needs to change. I think a mindset shift is in order, and the chief one is this: Don’t be a blogger, be a business owner with a blog.

Where so many people go wrong is that they think like a blogger. They quickly get onto the blogger hamster wheel, then when they want to start making money, they start reading a bunch of “make money online” blogs. This just makes them more and more overwhelmed and ultimately - nothing happens.

Are you ready to disagree with that status quo?

The first step is to visualize yourself with the success that you want. Now, I’m not going to get all new-age with you and tell you you can just dream your way to the top - you can’t. You have to take action, too....

But this simple exercise is actually more powerful than you might think. Because, by actually mentally or spiritually creating your ideal outcome, you are actually CREATING that reality for yourself. And,

A Simple, But Powerful Little Mental Exercise...

mind always comes over matter. Our job, together, will be to make the physical world align and match up with the ideal outcome you’re going to create with me right now.

I want you to use the power of your imagination. Imagination is a very powerful thing. Just read and follow along. You can even repeat it with your eyes closed afterward.

I want you to place yourself in bed at the beginning of what is going to be your ideal day. You awake.... you take a look at the clock and smile... because you know that you didn’t have to wake up to the sound of an alarm clock while so many of your friends do.

Imagine the scene around you. Get the picture of your bedroom, your home, the feeling of your bed, the noises in the room.

You get out of bed and you do whatever it is you like to do in the morning. Perhaps you go exercise. Perhaps you hit the coffee maker and enjoy a breakfast blend. You know you’re going to do some work today, but you don’t mind. Because you ENJOY this work. It doesn’t even feel like work.

When you’re ready, and not until then, you mozy over to your home office and crank up the computer. You sip the cup of coffee down on your desk. You take a look at your email... and you smile. Because you made a some product sales overnight while you slept. Looks like some of them were automatic renewals to a membership site you’ve created. That’s awesome!

You get a little chuckle to yourself... because you remember the days when you thought this day would be impossible.

You remember thinking to yourself how the ultimate dream would be to make money while you were sleeping. It just sounded too good to be true, but now you had done it. Those were the days, weren’t they?

You sit there in your desk chair. Visualize the day ahead. Take a sip of your coffee.

You’re going to enjoy this day. Because you set the rules now.

…

…

…

That exercise is valuable, and I encourage you to repeat it on a routine basis. The mind is a very powerful thing, and the more you create that ideal scene for yourself, the more real it becomes. And the more you personally ACT upon that ideal scene.

I’ve been talking about making money blogging, but really, in the end, it is about a lifestyle. That lifestyle can be whatever you want it to be. For me, it is about doing something I enjoy. It is about being able to spend time with my kids. I’m not one of those guys who is going to sit here and say I work 4 hours per week.... nah, I work more than that. The thing is, I enjoy it and it doesn’t FEEL like work.

My mission, and my mark on this world, is to help other people do the same. I believe that online business is perhaps the ideal way to do it. And many others will attest to the same thing.

I hope this has been helpful to you.

--- THE END ---

I hope you have enjoyed this report as much as I enjoyed making it. It took me some time to put together, of course, and I was happy to give it to you.

If you could, I’d appreciate it if you could return the favor by “paying me” with a quick tweet or Facebook share to your friends. It just helps me spread the word and, yes, build my audience.

So, here’s how you can do it.

The URL to the page with the report is:http://www.davidrisley.com/myths/

And here is something you could say on Twitter or Facebook:Just finished this report, Blogger Myths That Keep Them Broke. A different outlook, that’s for sure. :-) http://www.davidrisley.com/myths/

Obviously, you can say whatever the heck you want. That’s just a suggestion. :-)

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Again, I appreciate it. And thanks in advance.

A Small Favor?