#NerdsUnite: Ask That Nerdy Chick (how to generate a profit from your blog)
It is my goal for 2012 to take a lot of my weird and wonky experiences as a lifecaster and help nerdy peeps out by providing a frank (not shirley) and honest answer to some weird and potentially random questions you may have about life.
Here is an email I got the other day ...
This is great, and something I get asked all the time ... to take your blog "to the next level" is a journey down the rabbit hole. NO ONE HANDS YOU THINGS IN LIFE. Period end of sentence. We are all EXTREMELY insular beings, so for you to take ANYTHING to the next level, you have to realize 1) that you are worth it and 2) that you CAN do it.
I went to a very extreme level in launching this brand but I am also an extreme person - so it worked for me. For you to take it to another level you have to be WILLING to take said risk, and be FEARLESS enough to walk down whatever path it takes you down. I literally gave up everything for this site. Not only material possessions but I didn't speak to family or friends for over 6 months since everyone was convinced I just went off the deep end. That disconnect however gave me the confidence to KEEP AFTER what I was doing and never ever give up; if I was going to die in the street in some ditch because someone got sketchy while I was couch surfing you KNOOOWWW I would have at least made sure to jump on Ustream and livestream the entire thing and be the first person to actually livestream a death. Whatever it was going to take to launch this brand I was willing to do it; this website is my life's work. I live and I will die for this website. Period end of sentence.
If you're simply looking for something to generate enough income to pay your rent every month, great - you can set up a site, hire or do your own SEO, partner with a few affiliates and hope that your SEO traffic will generate enough clicks to keep you afloat.
I personally didn't see that for this brand. I thought affiliate partnering was bullshit - I'm a storyteller. I wanted to create a way for me to be able to talk about things I'm genuinely passionate about in a manner in which I wanted to. I have a background in sales, so I didn't want it to be commission based - I never ever wanted to accept a dollar from a single reader, I instead wanted to go bigger and get it straight from the corporate sponsor. To get said sponsor, it took me a year to measure my influence and THHHEENNNN I could leverage that into a paid sponsorship which has since kept me afloat. (read more here about how I get sponsorships)
To take ANYTHING to the next level, you genuinely just have to let go. The universe will show you all the steps that you need to take - but it's your job to leap before you look.
Next doable action:
Start by addressing your fears. Number one on my list was skydiving. Once I conquered that fear by getting it corporate sponsored the next step was then revealed to me, and so on and so on. It's all extremely intuitive. You have to find where your bliss is and step INTO that channel. Fear is a blocker of that intuition. Address your fears, first. Always. Always. Always.
Best of luck, and keep me posted!!
Got a question? Drop me an email! JenFriel at TalkNerdyToMeLover dot com
ORRRRR you can message me on Facebook and if it's within 140 characters on the twitter!
Best of luck out there nerds!!
xoxo <3 @JenFriel
