How my blog helped me quit my job
Since the dawn of COVID-19, we've been spending virtually every waking second indoors. Despite this, it's actually given us all a taste of true freedom - in some sort of twisted, ironic way.
We no longer have to spend our time travelling to work, sitting in work or going to other boring work-related nonsense. We've all had the taste of what it's like to work from home and I would wager a fair portion of us like it.
Luckily for me, I've had the pleasure of working from home for the past 2 years. This article will explore how my blog helped me quit my job and how maybe creating one can help you to quit yours too (if that's the dream...).
Anyway, enough waffle, let's do it.
When and where did the blog start?
I think my blog started around April 2017, which means at the time of writing, I've been in the game for 3 years. It's a bit mad that I still have things to natter on about come to think of it...
And where? It was actually on a train down to the Midlands where my girlfriend told me she had started her own blog called The Adopted Scouser. We're overly competitive and I like to try and beat her at just about everything, so I thought I'd give this a whirl. Whether or not I have done the whole blog thing better than her is still questionable though. Go over to her site and make your own mind up. Oh, and if you think our sites look similar, that's because I copied her design too lol.
When did I realise you can make money from blogging?
It was when Canali reached out to me and said they'd pay me the grand sum of £200 to write an article about them. This was at a crucial point as it turns out, because I was having serious doubts about whether or not my blog was even going anywhere. Traffic at the time was less than 300 visitors per month and I lacked any real love for the graft.
This collab really gave me motivation and gave my blogging zest a real kick up the jacksy. Fast forward to now and I'm getting 500 views per day (not mind blowing but not bad), have done well over 50 collaborations and genuinely had my life changed by this little corner of the internet that I am lucky enough to call my own.
When did I use my blog to help me quit my job?
April 2018, 12 months after starting the blog, I realised there was something in it.
I wasn't quite sure what that was yet but I knew it was there.
At the time, I worked in tourist information. There were just too many idiots in the general public coming up to me and asking stupid questions. If anyone ever tries to tell you the customer is right, I hereby give you permission to spit in their face and tell them what a stupid assumption that is.
The customer is always wrong.
And after one customer (I say customer, it was someone else that worked there - and I did accidentally ask his wife whether she was his mum) in particular ground my gears, I handed my resignation letter in and set off on my journey to become the internet's most phenomenal and respected source of all knowledge ever.
Can you make a good living from blogging alone?
The unfortunate answer for about 90% of bloggers is going to be a big fat no.
That's just how the cookie crumbles.
I would have been back in my 9-5 long ago if I had stuck with just my blog instead of diversifying out to other bits and bobs. In fact, it was because I stuck to trying to make my blog my sole source of income for so long, that I wasted about £15,000 in savings.
That's a lot of money to wager on some words that you write on the internet.
Don't get me wrong, if you become the next Ali Gordon or Alfie Deyes then yeah, you can make a good living, but I get a kick out of crushing dreams so the chances are - you're not gonna make it.
I mean, if the world's greatest wordsmith (aka, me) can't make a full time living out of this gig, then there's NO WAY you can - you nitwitted imbecile.
I kid, I kid - but just think about it logically for a bit.
How can you use a blog to help you quit your job?
So after crushing your dreams and telling you blogging probably won't make you exorbitant sums of cash every month, I'm about to make it up to you. I'm going to give you 4 ways that a blog can help you quit your job. These aren't rocket science but they might just be life changing...
1. Collaborate
This is the one I had my sights on since day 1. I remember how amazing it felt when I landed my very first collab with beard oil brand Thatchface. I thought I'd made it.
The truth is, most collabs don't pay in the initial stages, but by building up a good base of previous work, you can show brands what they're getting when they work with you.
Then it's up to you to set your rate and get pitching. Before I started my business, I'd be pitching to dozens of brands per week, sometimes I'd do outreach to over a hundred in a day.
Make a huge list of brands you want to work with, get their emails (if you find it hard to find, they're usually hidden away in their privacy policy or terms of service) and start firing them badboys off like your life depends on it.
2. Monetise the blog
Good one Sam. How do you make money from your blog? Monetise it. Groundbreaking.
Let me explain.
There are ways you can make money from just doing simple things on your blog. Now, not all of these are considered to be high-horse worthy, but they're just ideas if you want to eek out as much money as you can.
Paid links in existing articles
Paid guest posts
Amazon affiliate links
Banner ads
Just make sure you declare all of these clearly where you can. Some people make megabucks off the above, but I would suggest not relying on any of them.
I've tried 'em all and they're okay but there's a reason I don't do them anymore...
3. Develop your skills
This has been THE biggest one for me and I think it will be for you too.
Literally everything that I charge my clients for now, I have self-taught. Do you realise how effective just setting up this blog has been at throwing me in at the deep end and forcing me to learn?
Writing
SEO
Email marketing
Social Media management
Web design
Google PPC
Facebook/Insta Ads
Everything on that list, I had no clue about back in 2017. I wanted to be a well-to-do psychology researcher at some swanky lab. Rewind a little before that and I wanted to be a sports coach, further back...architect, further back...footballer, further back...a dinosaur.
As you can see, having my own digital marketing agency never even entered my noggin until about 2 and a half years after getting The Man Blueprint fired up.
And why can't you do this too? There's so many applicable soft skills and life skills that starting up and monetising a blog will teach you.
4. Teach others
This follows on nicely from the above.If you're good at something, never do it for free.
Well, most of the time.
When you've been at the blogging game for long enough, you will have built up a huge wealth of experience that you can pass on to others in a tiny percentage of the time.
Start a course, build a business that offers training - hell, start conferences where you teach people how to do something. Although to establish a morsel of authority, it's probably best that you spend at least a year or two dishing out swathes of value-ridden content.
That's what I am currently in the process of doing. I have stupid amounts of know-how in building a serious income from nothing and I want to teach others how to do it 10x as quick as me.
It'll take a long time to put it all together but keep those eyes peeled. I've also done my time in the free-content game so don't chastise me lol.
Anyway, this isn't the time to hard sell...
Take a skill you've mastered from your blog (getting collabs, building email lists, growing Instagram accounts - whatever it may be) and teach people how to do it quicker and better than you for a price.
Set for life.
Hopefully this has helped at least a few people realise that there is abundant opportunity out there when it comes to quitting your job and pursuing a dream.
And hopefully it has managed expectations of those who believe that starting a blog is the magic bullet for superstardom and riches. It's a long, hard process but one that is worth the graft if you've got the stones to stick it out.
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