The Truth about Growing Your Blog Biz

Last month I did my first reader survey in two years! Over 165 of you took a few minutes from your busy, busy days to fill it out (thank you peeps). I eagerly checked and re-checked Survey Monkey to see what I could learn. As the number of respondents grew, I started noticing a troubling trend.

First, it started like this. Over 61% of bloggers who took my survey spent 10 hours a week or less on their blogs. Over 36% had no more than FIVE hours to spare. By itself, these stats aren’t a big deal other than showing the limited time most of my readers have.

When I asked what the biggest struggle was as a blogger, by far the most common answer was NO TIME. I also asked why you didn’t take Blog Clarity courses. The overwhelming responses were: no time or “I limit my blog-related expenses.” Again, by itself this information makes sense.

But here’s the kicker. Over 85% of survey respondents said that making money is important to them…

Wait. Wait. Wait.

Most Blog Clarity readers had limited time and they also limited blog-related spending… yet they still said that they wanted to make money off their blogs.

It’s time for some tough love, my friends!

If you have neither time nor money for your blog? Then you’re going to have to manage your expectations about making money from your blog.

YES you can make some money and YES you can grow, but the process will creep along for ages.

So let me say this: If you want to make money from your blog, treat your blog like a business. How? Invest in your business: with time, with money, or with both.

Yep, it’s so important I made it tweetable:

That being said, let me say that I totally get it (and that I have some tips so keep reading).

I get it because I work 24 hours a week at Burt’s Bees. I have for nearly 4 years. Plus I have two elementary-aged kids and a “hobby job” of teaching group fitness. I sooooo GET being time starved.

I’ve also held off on SOME blog-related purchases because I didn’t want yet another monthly subscription fee. BUT, given my lack of time, I make up for it by paying for many tools that make my life easier.

If you ARE serious about making money from your blog, then you’ll need to find some time or spend some money (money tree, anyone?).

I’ve got some tips for you no matter which direction you go:

“I’ll find more time to spend, but can’t spend more money.”

Educate yourself with lots of research: Not having the money to invest in courses or paid ebooks doesn’t mean you can’t learn. It just means you’ll have to piece together info from many different places and connects the dots on your own. Use Evernote or OneNote to create folders of what you want to learn so the articles are in one spot.

Rack up fonts and design elements with Creative Market’s free weekly goodies: Every week Creative Market offers six free goodies, everything from fonts to blog themes. Sign up for an email to get a weekly email letting you know each week’s free goodies. It’s a great place to get high quality designy stuff fo’ free!

Focus on what really matters: Spending two hours trying to figure out how to change your font doesn’t matter in the long run if you’re trying to make money. If what you’re working on doesn’t directly grow your traffic, income, or opportunity potential, limit the time you spend on it. Just because you can’t afford to hire someone to do something for you, doesn’t mean it’s worth doing yourself.

I actually did a broadcast on Periscope about this recently which gets to the meat of focusing:

“I’ll find more money to spend, but no more time.”

Invest in a tool or course that saves you time: With limited funds you can’t afford multiple tools, so pick the one that helps you reach a main goal. Growing your email list important? Invest in ConvertKit. Want to drive mega traffic to your site from Pinterest? Try the Pinning Perfect course (when it re-launches) or use Tailwind to schedule pins and repins. Need to get your content in order? Go for the Content Brew course or use CoSchedule to organize your content calendar and share on social.

Invest in people that save you time: Hire a virtual assistant to help with some recurring blog or social media tasks. Or go onto Upwork and find someone to help you with a one-time project. Having extra hands on deck can do wonders for your productivity.

Bring on contributors: Grow your traffic by hiring a contributor or two (or three). Not only will you gain more content on your blog, they’ll be promoting your site to their audiences as well.

These next ones don’t cost a thing, but help you find a little more time…

Stop Netflix binging every day: I love me some Netflix, but I know better than to do serious concentrating when I’m plopped in from of the couch. Use some of that time to get stuff done.

Go the bed early, get up early: Although this is one of the hardest habits for me to keep, I work at lightning pace in the morning when my head’s reset from the day before.

Don’t waste extra time on things that don’t matter: Just like I said earlier! Time is money so need wasting two hours on something when you could hire someone who could do it in 15 minutes.

Where do you land?

If you want to make money blogging, these tips should help you find time or know how to spend your money wisely. Where are you going to focus?

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