How Starting a Blog Website Changed My Life

Everyone who has ever had a desire to start a side-hustle for extra income has come across starting a blog website as one of the alternatives.

Some people mow lawns on the weekend, others might make themselves available as virtual office assistants or consultants for a little extra cash.

While these are legitimate ways to make some extra money and require minimal investment to get started, they are limited in their capacity to grow their income levels beyond the number of hours you put into them each week.

There is a genuine possibility that blogging could replace your full-time take-home pay. More than a handful of bloggers have gone on to become multimillionaires through their blogs.

Blogging possesses the unique aspect in that the hours you put into it are incredibly flexible. You can put some time in on the weekends, or punch out an article when inspiration hits in the middle of the night.

Once the money starts rolling in, a blog which has been set up right will continue to make money; even while you’re sipping cocktails in the sunshine on tropical Caribbean shores for the next couple of weeks.

No doubt, blogging is life-changing for many people, myself included, but it has had an effect on my life which goes beyond the flexible hours and the extra money.

I don’t know about you, but I never enjoyed being told what to do, when to do it, and even when to be hungry in any of my day jobs.

You can start when you want, finish when you need to, and get back into right after the school run and the kids have done their homework.

You will be busy, but it’s an incredibly flexible kind of busy that has provided more freedom than I would have ever thought possible.

I was never able to land a day job that I truly enjoyed. After the first couple of months at a new job, it always managed to turn into a grind fest where I couldn’t wait for the day to be over.

Not surprisingly, I was always discouraged about having to get up the next day, only to deal with the same rubbish all over again while pretending that I liked it.

Blogging is different. I can sit down at the computer for hours and not notice how much the time has flown.

I never get bored, I get to try out new ideas and be as creative as I want, and I am always busy with stuff I want to do.

Watching the clock has taken on a different meaning in my blogging life.

Now it’s a battle against the minute and hour hands to get as much done as I can before it’s time to prepare dinner, rather than agonizing over how long it is to home time.

Blogging can command all of my attention; it’s addictive, and I have to be mindful about making sure I leave the desk to spend some time in the real world.

Yes, even full-time bloggers need to pay attention to work-life balance.

When I first started a blog website, the last piece of writing I did was way back when I was still a pimply faced student (more years than I care to recall).

I don’t yet consider myself to be where I want to be in my writing skills, but I am always improving.

There’s so much more to blogging than firing up wordpress and posting a few articles.

Then I had to get into the nuts and bolts of wordpress to create a site that was unique and reflected my personality.

I’ve had to learn graphics programs for creating unique images, and FTP for getting them online, SEO (search engine optimization), and social media marketing.

Then there’s keyword research for article ideas and to make sure my time is spent creating articles that my audience wants to read.

It’s all highly technical stuff that can stop a starting blog website dead in its tracks, but you shouldn’t let a few technical details stand in your way.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find yourself wondering what you were so afraid of and may even find yourself having fun — I did.

In the brick-and-mortar world, the way to a higher income is usually through promotion.

A higher paycheck also regularly equates to more hours in a job you don’t like, and then there is the extra stress that is piled on top of you.

Now that my starting blog website has matured, all I need to increase my revenue are new income streams.

Blogging developed my writing skills to the point that I could go out and earn money writing for others, which has been a great little earner while my blog developed some steam.

The commission may be small for each transaction, but a few hundred sales each month can pay the power bill, with money left over for a meal at a fancy restaurant.

When you have multiple advertisements all creating income from the traffic coming to your blog, you have what is called passive income.

All I need to do is ensure that I continue to produce helpful, engaging content my audience wants to read. The more content I create, the more traffic my blog gets, and the more income I receive.

Most importantly, blogging has put me in control of my life. I have more options in life now.

I have a flexible schedule, I have the choice to work wherever I want, whenever I want, in whatever I am wearing at the time, and I never have to miss personal appointments because of work commitments.

If you’ve been looking for a way to bring in a little extra income I urge you to try blogging. You don’t necessarily have to quit your job but even creating one or more extra income streams will enhance your lifestyle.

Work hard at blogging, be consistent at it, and you will soon see how much it can change your life for the better, just like it did mine.

Related posts:

This week I share the where, why and how much of getting a UNIX shell account. I go through the benefits of having a managed UNIX Shell account at a host like Panix, the World or the Well.

No human is immune to these outcomes from our collective actions, as no one can deny that they need food, air, and water to survive and thrive. Thus, we are all implicated in the necessity to…

How pedagogical gamification provides insight into a fundamental mind-set shift that educators and learners must embrace to thrive in the digital age. The fundamental question we should be asking…