Editor’s Note: I first heard of Michael Dolen when he pitched me for a guest post on this blog. Something about Micheal’s mail was different from the many others I receive. As we exchanged emails back and forth, I found out that Michael has a very interesting story of going from debt to a successful self-created career in blogging. I asked him if he would mind sharing his story with the readers, and he said his story was just another story of a blogger–nothing special about it. But here’s the thing – even though your life seems “regular” to you, it can be a huge source of inspiration and learning to others. Boy, am I glad I talked Michael into writing down his story – it is so jam packed with nuggets of information based on real experience! I hope you learn from it as much as I did. (Note: If you have a story to share, feel free to contact us, so we can feature you in one of our future stories).
Handing it over to Michael now…
In today’s economy it’s hard to be optimistic about anything, especially when you are just starting out in your career (or you are still in school and haven’t even started yet). With high unemployment and the outrageous cost of going to college, is there any light at the end of the tunnel? The answer may surprise you and that “light” may come from where you least expect it… blogging.
To prove to you anyone can be successful with blogging if they put their mind to it, here’s where I was coming from when I began:
- I had no college degree. In fact, I had recently dropped out of college.
- I was in my early 20’s with no formal education, no stable source of income, and no financial support from family. Furthermore, I actually had a negative net worth due to massive medical bills resulting from a car accident I was in at age eighteen. In a nutshell, my prospects didn’t look too bright!
- My knowledge of web development was limited. I can’t code/program for the life of me and my Photoshop skills were virtually non-existent.
Fast forward to the present and I’m doing quite well for myself thanks to blogging. Here’s some valuable things I learned along the way that I would like to share with you:
(1) Choose a niche that you love and can be easily monetized
I founded CreditCardForum.com in 2008, and yes, credit cards are something I am truly fanatical about as strange as that may sound. You see, those medical bills I mentioned were actually floated using 0% balance transfers (and without those credit card deals I would have been screwed). Secondly, I am a bit OCD when it comes to rewards – I just love finding ways to game the system and come out ahead by squeezing every point and mile possible from purchases.
So for me, the credit card niche was perfect… it was a topic I honestly enjoyed plus it’s something I could easily monetize. I think you should use the same litmus test when choosing what you want to blog about. But don’t just be a sellout and pick something lucrative if you don’t actually enjoy it. I say this for two reasons:
(b) If you don’t enjoy what you’re blogging about, operating the site is going to be 10x harder. When you enjoy something it doesn’t seem like work and in turn, you will probably get a lot more done.
(2) Be willing to work on your blog every single day
To build a successful blog there are no shortcuts (and if there are some, please let me know!). Ultimately, what it boils down to is persistence. You need to be prepared to sweat away at it for months and years to come. And that’s why it’s so important to be working in a niche that you enjoy, otherwise the climb up the mountain will seem like torture.
For example with CreditCardForum, as mentioned I started it in 2008 and I would say it took a good two years before it finally took off and started making what I would consider to be real money (an income I could live on).
(3) Be prepared for the ups and downs (and use the latter to your advantage)
Talk about discouraging… It’s spring of 2008 and despite being totally broke, I found the best small business credit card deal that offered 0% on purchases and used it to buy the CreditCardForum domain. And we all know what happened just a few months later during the fall of 2008… the credit markets crashed!
So there I was, stuck with a business idea in the least attractive niche there could be! All the banks had ceased their affiliate marketing of credit cards so if you had a site like mine, making money off of it was next to impossible!
Despite this, I kept chugging along, blogging and writing articles on the site every chance I got. I knew things would turn around eventually and this was a great opportunity to build up the site, while everyone else in the space sat on the sidelines. And sure enough, starting in 2010, credit cards began coming back and all my hard work during the recession is paying off.
(4) Auto-pilot is never an option
So let’s say you start a blog and three years later, you’re buzzing along and it’s gravy. Don’t misinterpret this as an opportunity to start slacking off. Let me give you an example of why…
Before I started CreditCardForum, there was another blog in the niche that was the #1 authority. It had been around a few years and I respected the site and author so much. In fact, it was actually inspiration for me to start my own site.
Well the owner of that other site started to slack off big time. I noticed he was outsourcing much of his writing, and in turn, the quality suffered greatly. It got so bad that a few weeks ago, I actually was alerted by a reader of my blog that one of the articles I had written about how to apply for a credit card without a SSN had actually been duplicated on this other guy’s site! Each sentence was simply reworded, without even changing the order of sentences! It was truly unbelievable and so shocking, I emailed him and requested that it be taken down promptly (which he did do).
Not to toot my own horn, but today my site blows his out of the water in terms of traffic and I’m guessing I probably earn more too. I’m not saying this to brag but rather to demonstrate how quickly the tides can change if you start slacking off. Once you “make it” in blogging, don’t let what happened to this guy happen to you. Stay vigilant and focused on maintaining quality.
(5) Build multiple streams of income
Eventually you want to get to the point where you can build multiple steams of internet income. However I don’t always recommend this, because if it means your main blog will be neglected or deteriorate (like the example in #4) then your best bet is to stick 100% of your time and resources going into that single site.
During 2009 when the recession was at its ugliest, as mentioned I remained dedicated to my credit card site but also spent a minority of my time building some other, smaller blogs in different niches. This ended up working out nicely because even though most of my income today is from credit cards, those smaller blogs I created are still bringing in money every month. If the economy takes a turn for the worse again and credit card deals dry up, those alternate streams of income should help hold me through.
Conclusion
No matter how hopeless things look now or how little experience you have, it is possible to pave your own way through blogging. Now I’m not claiming you will succeed overnight or that you will ever reach the level of a fulltime income, but I am confident that if anyone really dedicates themselves to it, they can make extra money every month through a blog.
Editor’s Note:
To me, Michael’s story rang a bell because this guy doesn’t just talk the talk, he also walks the walk. So many will tell you to keep working, to never rest on your laurels, to keep putting out great content, to keep building back links, and so on…. which is fine. But when you receive a guest post pitch from a guy who has much more traffic than you, it makes you stop and think. And pay particular attention to what he has to say.
Also, instead of just sending me a form letter asking for a guest post, he engaged me in a conversation. Which made me, the host blogger, a lot more open to what he had to say. When I suggested that he share his story instead of a guest post, despite his earlier reservations, he agreed. And sent me this article which is close to 1300 words. Now, it would have been so much easier to spew out a 500 word article, but that’s not what someone who is really after success does, right?
What about you? What are you takes? Share in the comments section below. And feel free to contact me with your own story.
Very inspiring story. I am fairly new to blogging just my blog is just one year old. My blog is hosted in Google’s blogspot.com My native country is the Philippines. Now why did i started blogging, to be honest i just want to earn an extra amount of money to add to my current day job income and home business. But as i blog along, The reality hit me that it will really take time to earn a couple of money from blogging, especially if the blogger is relatively new and does not own the domain of the blog. As you can see from the archive of my blog after the first few months my blog output dissipated i have no blog post for the month of February and May. This was the critical period in my blogging life because as new blogger i need to find the drive, love and inspiration to go on or i need to forget it altogether. For almost half a year i was struggling internally about my blogging. Do i love what i do or i just do it for the sake of doing it. Plus it cost in terms of time and money to blog here in the Philippines due to the fact i done own a internet connection.
But what really turn it all around for me was hey first of all i love computer and technology and since graduation from college in 1995 my first job was instructor at a local technical school here and ever since that time i have only one job til 2008 and that job was a computer teacher. Since i accumulated all those knowledge and i want to share them to the ordinary people. As you can see from July 2011 up to November 2011 my article posting have been up compare to the first half of the year. I only need 5 post to reach my first 100 post in my blog.
I have really learn a lot that blogging will really take time and continuous work from day 1 just like any other work or endeavor. But the main difference is if there is love in what i do then i will continue to blog for as long as i can. All i need to do is keep working hard at it at a balance face and love, love and love what i do.
Reynaldo Catapia recently posted..BEWARE OF REGISTRY CLEANER FOLKLORE
Thanks for a great post.
It is a very exciting story.
I am from Denmark and are self newcomer in this online industry. I hope it’s something I will one day be able to live on.
Welcome Klaus. I am from the US and just found the online marketing/blogging venture last year in 2011. It has been a long process learning all this new stuff, from html to seo, but if you stick with it, and use some of the tips in this great post, you will eventually make it. I now make $65 each day as passive income, and the sky is the limit.
terry recently posted..Making Money with Credit Cards
Auto-pilot is every bloggers dream, but you’re right when you say it’s not possible. We need to constantly stay alert because competition is only growing and SEO is advancing and changing every day. If you’re out of the game for a few months you might not recognize the field when you get back.
Claire recently posted..Mold vs Mildew
Great post thanks for sharing interesting article..I like #3. be prepared for the ups and down,since in blog you can’t predict that your blog is successful..Just be positive and try to trust yourself..thanks
thanks for sharing us an interesting story, Sam.
I was always dream of one day, i will have a fulltime income from my website without lifting a finger, i just have to stay in bed and wait for the money flow into my pocket. But Micheal’s story has really waken me up from that dream, there’s no royal road to the success, and internet maketting requires as a lot of hard work as other jobs, with writting new and worthy content for your blog, building links,… if you stop, you will be beaten by other competitors the next morning you wake up.
I will come here often for more stories like this.
I can never have enough of these stories! I made so many mistakes Michael warns from but somehow still turned it around, although I realize I could do better. The problem is that not many people have passion for something profitable like credit cards, leave the knowledge alone. This is where it gets tough, right in the beginning. I got a lot of traffic fast, tons of FB likes and Tweets but it was hard to make money from all these people. I finally widened the topic and wrote a lot of articles on some profitable keywords and it became much better. I still struggle, but I AM leaving my job to spend more time on my website. Thanks for sharing!
your story inspired me more than the others. I am a struggling blogger. I hope get over it. I know one thing, that, i mostly learn by mistakes. story likes this make me more careful.
Thanks
John.
john recently posted..Relationship breakup advice – How to breakup with someone ?
Where people go wrong is , to choose a niche that they don’t like/ don’t know, just coz the ads may be high paying ones. Then it is just a flop show.
Working on your blog every day is the key, in my opinion. Sure, you wouldn’t do that if you weren’t passionate about the topic, but working on it isn’t just writing post after post. No matter how fascinating you find a subject, you’ll run out of things to write at some stage (until you’re inspired again).
Constant promotion of one’s blog/website is super important and something I find I spend most of my time doing on all of my sites. It’s even like that in my offline business. Promotion and advertising all the way.
Thank you so much for sharing Michael’s story that really inspires me not to give up in blogging whatever happens. The lessons you’ve shared will be my guide for succeeding in terms of blogging. I will also make sure to learn from the mistakes I have had.
I believe items #1 and #4 are key. If you are passionate, you will want to pour your heart into the work. This will show in the work output. However, there is no “autopilot”. It amazes me on sites that sell website businesses that taught how the business/blog is “on autopilot, no work required”. Nothing in the real world is like that. Who wants to visit a site that never changes…. no one.
It’s a great set of recommendations for both the offense and the defense of becoming a full time blogger.
Chris recently posted..Hope Scholarship Application
These are really good advice for bloggers. When saw among your tips “Be willing to work on your blog every single day”…that’s what made me want to read more.
An awesome story. I love these kind of success stories.
I think while auto-pilot is a dream and is near impossible to make happen. It can happen, being on the top of your niche provides you with contacts and partnership opportunities that can help get great content and traffic to your site.
Arfan recently posted..Compassion in Dying reveal 29, 400 people want to make a Living Will today
I believe that making yourself ready to any ups and downs is not only for blogging, but also for all online activities. As we all know, we are having a problem with how to handle our emotions when things our getting tougher.
Beth recently posted..Free College Grants For Minorities
Michael’s story is very inspiring and down-to-earth. He showed that there’s no shortcut to the road to success…it takes hard work, patience and determination. Thanks for sharing your story…it is an inspiration and encouragement to me.
Thanks for these tips Michael. I am still new in blogging and I really want to learn how to blog successfully.
I truly enjoyed reading this and wondering how Michael’s story would end. Thanks for taking the time to share it with us. By the way; you and me both Jane Johnson.
It is a very exciting story. im new in this bussines and i have learn that hard work is the key to succes
I want to start my own blog and earn money through Google AdSense. I think this is easy way to earn money just by posting blog and increase more users on that blog. I will start my first blog in any free blog creation site as Blogspot, Weebly or WordPress. I will also buy personal domain for blog creation. Any way, At this time I have not any successful story. Thanks for your information for full-time blogger.
Brain recently posted..Email Templates3
Blogging is a fun and productive activity. To people who wants to be successful in blogging, devotion and commitment is very important.
Hard work, passion for what you do and faith in yourself.
These three points are common to all the success stories I’ve read.
GoodTrader recently posted..Health of Stock Market for week 18 of 2012
What a great story! I think that you have to find something and be passionate about it and that’s when they money will come. Blogging is something you have to do everyday in order to build a following and have fresh content. That can be tough but it comes with its rewards. Thanks for the great article!
Ella Turgeon recently posted..Drawing the 9-Headed Figure Prep
I think one of the biggest things that leads to success with a blog is being able to do something on it every day. With that in mind, it needs to relate to a topic that you can focus on for a little while daily without it getting horrible… for Michael, it was credit cards. For another, it might be baseball. For another, insurance. It just depends. But SO many blogs wither and die because the passion is simply not there.
Jerry
So inspiring. Doing something you love for a living really is what draws people to becoming a full-time blogger.
As I said your blog is inspirational but the truth is you must have been inspired to be able to create consistent content and to do something every day on your blog. as you said it’s simply keeping ongoing and being willing to work on it every single day. good for you.
Hi I suppose it comes down to motivation and dedication. If you want to succeed at something badly enough there is a good chance that you can achieve your goal. I started a blog as fun but now want it to be as good as I can make it and this I intend to do . Trying to motivate myself now.
Great post thanks lee
Lee recently posted..Pet Insurance For Rabbits in the UK
Hi since my last comment I decided to set up another blog and see which one actually made my first bit of money it happened sooner than I thought. It was only pennies but it is a start.
Thanks great inspiration lee
Lee recently posted..Tummy Control Underwear
One should be prepared to face the ups and downs in the life. That is same for blogging, one must not get relaxed get any point of time. If you are on a blog, then put all your efforts to it.
Rajkumar Jonnala recently posted..How SSL Certificate is Differ from Code Signing Certificate?