How to Earn a Full-Time Income from Blogging

Read Rob Cubbon’s Success Story. You can share your success story with us by applying for guest blogging.

“Oh no – not this again!” We’ve all read countless articles about how you can earn your fortune just by writing a few blog articles and we all know that it’s not true… well, not exactly…

It would be great if we could all start a blog, post a few affiliate links and run ads so that we can immediately retire to the Seychelles to sit and watch the money coming in. Making money this way requires discipline, determination and hard work.

But, while you’re creating your audience, writing great content and building your list there’s a great way to make money from your blog. Offer your services!

Everyone is an expert

Whatever it is that you do, blog about it. Whatever it is that you want to do, blog about it. You could be a designer, writer, editor, developer, or maybe you have a job where your talent isn’t being fully exploited. The basic act of blogging in your niche will bring interest to you. And the people that are searching Google for what you do may be interested in hiring you.

Everyday of my life I am thankful that I started a self-hosted WordPress.org blog in 2006. I couldn’t even begin to explain how bad my professional life was at the time! I was on a string of poorly paid freelance operator roles – sleepwalking from one nondescript office block to another, getting paid hourly to do whatever I was told to do.

When I started blogging, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had hardly learned how to make text bold on a blog when I wrote, what I thought, were quite good articles about Adobe InDesign (a piece of software used in publishing). Nobody was reading these articles… well, a handful of people a day.

But one day, just weeks after starting my blog, I got a call from someone at Accenture asking me to create a PDF for them. I didn’t know it at the time but Accenture was a global consulting and outsourcing company that employed over 200,000 people worldwide. This was late 2006, I still work for them today and they have paid me $10,000′s in fees in the last few years. This all came about through one blog post about InDesign because I didn’t know what else to write about!

Beginner’s luck

OK, maybe that was a fluke? A one-off? Well, not being a complete idiot, I decided to continue blogging, posting one article every week, writing about what I do.

I have since been paid by over 200 clients worldwide for web design, print design, SEO and internet marketing services. Some of these companies are very small and only require a little task completing. However, Accenture hasn’t been my only big client. I’ve also worked for MasterCard and Boosey & Hawkes (music publishers).

From Cubical to Company Director

And it hasn’t been the lowly operational work that I was used to, it was high-end design and marketing tasks that have really stretched me. There have been times that I’ve thought some of the work was beyond me. But whenever that happens it’s important not to give up and try your hardest because you will only get well-paying work by pushing yourself. If you have your own website, people will naturally think you are capable and will therefore offer you higher-quality and better-paying work.

How have I been able to learn all the skills necessary to do all this? Blogging teaches you to adapt. I’d never really done much website design before 2006 but I found I was able to get much more web work than print work through the blog so I concentrated on that. Blogging doesn’t only earn you a full-time income, it also shows you where the money is as the visitor statistics and feedback gives you an idea of what’s popular and what’s needed.

If you would like to find out more about how to do this yourself please download my free eBook on How to Market Yourself Online where I explain everything.

Thank you for reading my story.