Blogging About Your Life and Making Money

So you’re interested in blogging and wondering if blogging about your life is a good idea.

However, you’re probably thinking that you’d like to do this as more than just a hobby.

Let’s be honest, I don’t know if the question is can you blog about your life?

The real question is can you blog about your life and make money?

That’s what we are going to answer in this post but before we do that we have to understand why people spend money.

Why Do People Spend Money?

You’re probably thinking this has nothing to do with you wanting to blog but it does if you want to make money.

You don’t know me but you have to trust me.

That’s a silly statement to make.

Instead, it would be better if I gave you a reason for why you should trust me.

For example, you could read through the library here to get a feel for what I teach and to better understand my philosophy about blogging.

Or I could post some random screenshots of the analytics that people are seeing after they take our courses.

I’ve also made a lot of money through blogging. Over $1,000,000 in the past 3 years.

So what I’m going to tell you in this post is how I would approach talking about my life in blogging if I wanted to make a lot of money.

Got it?

Anyways, people spend money because they like to have problems solved.

To be more specific, people only spend money when it brings about improvement.

It might not always seem like a problem but it is. It could be really small or it could be extremely big.

You buy a Snickers because you’re either hungry or you want to get rid of that craving. Both of those are problems you want to solve.

If you see the world as every transaction happens because someone is trying to solve a problem it will change how you view business in general.

So what does this have to do with blogging?

The Entertainment Blog

Well, blogging about your life is kind of like being on a reality TV show. However, with reality TV you get entertainment.

There is a problem being solved there as well. Maybe it’s boredom so you need to watch something.

To get people to read your blog they have to believe that you’re going to solve a problem for them.

But a blog about my life isn’t meant to solve a problem.

And that’s the problem.

Think of how many distractions people have to deal with daily. So many brands are throwing things in their face.

So many people are trying to get their attention.

On top of that, they have problems on their mind.

Now here you come telling them to come read your blog where you talk about yourself.

Have you ever met a friend and you were so excited to share something with them but all they did was talk about themselves?

Actually, every interaction you have with them is them talking about themselves.

It sucks.

That can be you and your blog.

So does this mean it can’t work for you?

Do you have to give up your dream of being a world-famous blogger who loves to talk about themselves?

No.

However, you might have to change your approach.

What’s In It For Them?

It’s simple.

If you’re trying to get someone’s attention they are going to want to know what’s in it for them.

Why should they bother giving you any attention?

If you can solve a problem, then you’ll get their attention and I think that’s the approach you need to take about blogging about your life.

Instead of sitting down and talking about what you did today, you need to think about what obstacles you overcame.

Today almost sucked. My boss was being a dick but then I decided to have a chat with him and explain how I see things and it seems like he has a better understanding my world.

Okay, that’s great.

You can go into detail about what led you to think that this was the right approach and what you actually said to your boss. The more detail you can give the better because there is someone out there that has the same problem.

They want to know how they can get their boss to stop being a dick to them.

If that seems simple then that’s what it is about.

When you watch certain shows or movies you know if something is going to be good or bad depending on how well you can relate to the characters.

Talking about your life can make you more relatable to your audience which gives you a leg up on other bloggers, but that doesn’t mean people will want to come back to you over and over again unless you are doing something for them.

And that doing something has to be solving problems.

If you can do that then you’re onto something.

Travel Blogs

Travel blogging is just one example where it seems to make sense to blog about your life.

If you spend your time traveling and blogging about it then you’re actually showing the world how it is to travel.

Through this lens, many people will begin to follow you because they aspire to do the things that you do.

This is the same reason why so many people are drawn to parenting blogs. They think that because they are a parent they have a lot to share and that people would be interested in.

Good Blogging IS About Your Life

Here’s the secret that not many people want to tell you.

Good blogging is about your life because good blogging involves YOU.

You have a choice when it comes to your blog.

1. You can write wikipedia entries
2. You can write engaging blog posts that pull people in and never make them want to leave

If you’ve read this far then chances are you want your blog to be #2 and that’s good. Those are the successful blogs.

If you want to make a post engaging then it can only help you if you write about you for a small bit. It doesn’t have to be a lot.

Some posts might include more tidbits about your life than others.

The point is though if you can show people that it’s a human that is actually talking to them then they will be more engaged.

People want YOU in the content that you create, but they also want the content to help them.

When you can find that balance then you’ll be on your way to building a successful blog about you and making money with it.

How to Blog About Your Life

So how do you actually blog about your life and make money?

You should actually be strategic about it to give yourself the best chance.

Don’t worry, I’m going to show you the strategy that you should follow.

1. Choose Your Niche

This might seem like a silly first step because you’re thinking that your niche is YOU.

That’s not a niche though.

Most people consider a niche to be a topic.

For example, we (the Odd Noodle crew) have a worldbuilding blog so I could say it’s in the writing niche.

However, a niche is deeper than that.

A niche is more about the audience than the topic.

So when thinking about the niche for your blog you need to think about WHO would get value out of reading it.

“Everyone” is not the correct answer.

2. Do Some Research

This always seems to be the part that everyone skips.

I’m not sure why considering it’s the second most important part of this whole process (if you aren’t sure what #1 is then just look above).

So what kind of research do you need to do?

Competitive Research

This is the easiest type of research to do.

Simply go on Pinterest or Google and search for blogs that talk about the things that you want to talk about.

You might think that it’s impossible to do so when your blog is about you, but you have to remember that your blog isn’t really about you.

You’ve just decided to insert a healthy amount of you into the blog (please don’t say that sentence out of context).

Take note of the blogs that you find and try to get a feel for if they are popular or not. See if they are making money as well.

How do you do these things?

The simplest way is to just ask the blogger.

Explain to them what you want to do and let them know you would love any insight that they could provide. Most bloggers will be happy to oblige.

Keyword Research

This one is a little more challenging if you don’t know what you’re doing but no worries because I got your back.

Basically what you’re looking for are the keywords that you feel comfortable targeting. You’ll look for the keywords that people are actually searching for and that will give you a better idea of whether or not your niche makes sense to you.

Pinterest/YouTube Research

This is the fun research that can send you down the rabbit hole.

What do you do here?

Easy. You go on these platforms and see what kind of content performs well.

On YouTube, it’s easy since you can look at the views that a video gets and the subscriber count.

YouTube is amazing because there are SO many personal channels that really are just showcasing a day in the life of someone.

(Sidenote: If you really want to blog about yourself without the worry about topics and helping people then I’d consider vlogging about yourself in combination with having a blog. If that sounds like too much work then I’d just start vlogging since having a video about your life is much more engaging than a blog.)

On Pinterest, it’s a little more difficult.

First, it’s important to understand that not every niche works well on Pinterest so don’t let Pinterest be the final decision maker here.

What I like to do is hunt down how many repins (saves) pins in my niche are getting so I can see if Pinterest is both a viable promotion strategy and if people really are interested in the topics that I want to write about.

The easiest way to do this is to go to Pinterest logged out and look at keywords.

How to Make Money Blogging About Your Life

One of the great things about blogging is that there are so many ways that you can make money.

Ads and Sponsorships

When it comes to blogging about yourself the obvious way to make money is through ads and sponsored posts.

Unfortunately, the amount of money that you can make doing this is going to be determined by how many people you can get to your site.

Affiliate Marketing

This is a great way to make money blogging about yourself because if people SEE and KNOW that you use a certain product to achieve a specific result then they will be more likely to purchase it.

Digital Products

This is my favorite way of making money online. It’s really how I’m able to consistently make over $300,000 a year.

But I didn’t start off so great. However, everything we teach revolves around creating a blog and then having a digital product to sell.

Getting Started

If you feel comfortable with your idea then it’s time to get started!

But what do you do?

The best thing you can do is grab the Odd Noodle Playbook to see how blogging fits in with building an online business.