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image: tax credits

Want to make money from home? Want to know how to create a blog and make money blogging, while you are off doing something else? Of course you do!  Do you want to create a blog and see money flowing into your Paypal account, all on its own? Of course you do!  Well listen up friends – you CAN do it. Yes, YOU can. Huh? 

No, this is not one of those Get Rich Quick sales pitches/scams.  But I’m telling you, friends, that it IS possible to create a blog that brings in money, all on its own – it really is.  It is not a dream – well it might be a dream, but it is not an Impossible Dream.  But be warned.  It takes real work at the beginning.  But, if you don’t give up early, and keep building up traffic, and writing high value, well targeted content, your blog will eventually become strong enough to stand up on its own – to start to run itself, all on its own.

This article today is really a follow up to my previous article, How Often Must I Post New Articles to Please Google?  Check the dates of my recent articles.  I really stopped writing regular Content for this blog in about September 2013. That is when I made a snap decision to become a full time student. Since then, I have been answering Comments here, and fixing glitches, but I have not been here to do anything else to this blog since October last year (I had two articles up my sleeve which I published in October).  In my previous article I said I was not sure what would happen if I did not touch this blog for several months. Well, now I can tell you.

What About The Money?  That is What You All Want to Know!

Before I tell you how much money in passive income this blog made since October 2013, I’ll remind you that this blog started from nothing in January 2012 – zilch.  At that time I knew nothing about anything: I had never used WordPress, and knew nothing whatsoever about blogging.

Also, when I went off to full time study in September 2013, just as I was about to start to tackle Affiliate Marketing, when I found myself a full time student – with no time for anything blog-related. In other words, I had not seriously started to concentrate on the money-making side of blogging before letting this blog run on its own for a few months.  Well…what happened?

I knew that I had received some email notifications about a few commissions I had earned, but I hadn’t really checked to see what they added up to.  I thought it would probably be peanuts. So I checked my Paypal Account and …..drum roll please, James….$789 since October without me doing anything!  And plus a check from Google, and one from Hostgator, so this blog earned about $1,200 in 3 months, with no extra help from me. 

OK you lot!  I know it is not a fortune by some people’s expectations, but this happened all on its own, and just from what I had done by publishing high value content over the previous 2 years.  I was pretty impressed.  And of course I didn’t spend anything on the blog either, so it was all money in the bank. Imagine what I will make when I get back to regular posting on this blog, and really start to throw targeted affiliate marketing into the mix. 

What About the Traffic Numbers?

Well the traffic did go down a bit during October, but only slightly, and then it plateaued out and has remained steady. Why? I reckon that is because I have written well-researched, high content and high value articles on this blog. I have written many ‘How To’ articles that I wrote while I was learning how to do the stuff myself.  This older content is still relevant, and enough people still want to know how to do the Blogging tasks that I have already written about – so I keep getting traffic.

People are always wanting someone to clearly explain to them, how to do all those mind-baffling jobs that are necessary in building a strong blog – and with luck, they will come to me to find out how to do them.  And that means on-going traffic for me.

That is what I do myself: when I don’t know how to do something – I do a Google search, and find out how to do it, then I do it, and then tell people how I did it.  It’s not difficult, but it takes time, work, and commitment.  If you are prepared to do the same in whatever Niche you choose for your blog, you can do it too.

What About My Rankings?

This is the most amazing thing of all!  Before taking my break, I used to check every day on my Dashboard to see if my Google Rank had gone up….or…down (Aaaah).  I was really pleased when I went from Google Rank zero to 1.  Then it went from Google Rank 1 to Rank 2.  (Google ranks websites from 0 to 10, but only sites like Wikipedia and Youtube are Ranked 9). 

I used to wonder what I had to do to get a Google Rank of 3.  But I was always out of luck.  I was stuck stubbornly on 2 for months.  However, when I looked at my Stats at Christmas, I saw that this blog was Google Rank 4!!!  Yes 4!  How did that happen?  I’m not complaining though!  Good old Google (I know I’ve said some harsh things about you in the past, Google, but I’m sorry, all right??? Am I forgiven?)

My Alexa Ranking has gone up – which means down – equals not good.  But it’s still not bad, and Alexa Rank doesn’t seem to matter.  It’s encouraging when Alexa stats go in the right direction but it doesn’t mean much in the real world.

What About Subscribers to My Email List? 

My List continues to grow by leaps and bounds, thanks mainly to my S2Member Plugin which brings me in about 100 New Subscribers a week. It also does this all on its own.  If you want to build a big Email Subscriber List, just install the S2Member Pro Plugin and let it rip! 

Here is an article that tells you how to set up S2Member Pro plugin to build a list, and integrate your blog with Mailchimp.  You can also use it to install Paypal options and Paypal buttons if you are in the business of selling stuff from your blog.  S2Member Pro also integrates with other Auto-responders too, but my article on the S2Member Plugin only covers Setting up S2Member, and integrating it with MailChimp, because MailChimp can be free for lists up to 2000 subscribers – but the different auto-responders go through the same basic setup.   S2Member Pro will bring you lots of new Subscribers even if you have no freebie products to give away.

You Can Make Money Blogging: and How Much You Make Depends on You.

Well? What are you waiting for? If you are just starting out, start by checking out my early posts from 2012 that cover the first things you need to do to set up a blog.  Then you can progress through my articles up to current articles covering more advanced topics. 

I have written ‘How To’ articles about every new thing I have done on this blog, and each article explains exactly how it was done. So the posts that Beginner Bloggers need about How to Create a Blog, start with my early posts (early 2012).  The more advanced topics come later.  In fact these days, I go back and check out my own articles as references when I forget how to do something. 

Or, if you have started blogging and got disheartened along the way, read this article today, and it will help to keep you going – make the dream a reality friends – you can do it, I promise you – but you do have to do it, not just dream about doing it.  Next year I plan to make more money than I did last year!   

Remember my Motto?  Start Small, Plan Well – Think BIG!  It still applies!