Last week I drove down to Seattle to pick-up a new toy.
It’s something I’ve been waiting for, for over 5 months.
It’s the new Fender Squier electric guitar controller for Rockband 3.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this guitar, it’s a real Fender electric guitar that plugs into an amplifier, but it is also a Rockband 3 game controller.
It is the first of it’s kind. You can now learn how to play electric guitar while playing a video game. How cool is that?
Now, what’s even more exciting about this new toy is that it is paid for entirely with earnings from my blogs.
When I decided I wanted to get this guitar a few months ago, I decided to sell one of the small blogs I had setup in the past and the proceeds from that sale paid for the guitar, the amp and the MIDI controller for my PS3 to work with Rockband 3.
Essentially, I got it for “free”.
Blogging For Money as a Hobby
Even though it is entirely possible to do so, you don’t have to look at Blogging as a replacement for your job income.
Blogging can also be used to supplement your income, or just as a really cool and fun way to pay for your toys and hobbies in life.
Just from my single AdSense banner ad I have on my site I make enough money to buy myself a new toy every month or so.
And it really isn’t that hard to do!
Especially today in 2011 with all the cool social media tools available and with so much more money being spent online in product and service purchases and with online advertising.
I honestly don’t understand why everyone isn’t running a Blog.
I see so many people wasting hours and hours of their time on Facebook posting updates, pictures, stories, comments and all kinds of content and not making a dime off of that content.
And the whole time they wonder how that Facebook dude makes billions…
… uhhh… he’s making billions OFF YOUR CONTENT!
Stop Facebooking and start Blogging.
Get Free Stuff as a Blogger
There are many different ways to get free stuff as a Blogger.
Personally I think the best strategy is to employ all of these tactics, just depending on the situation. I use all of these:
(1) Free Stuff for Review
One of the first ways to get free stuff as a Blogger is to ask for it, in exchange for a review. Companies love Blogger reviews and if you can build up a small targeted audience related to the item you will be reviewing, companies will often send you free stuff for review.
Digital product such as software, eBooks, graphics, templates, videos, audio books etc. are the easiest to get for free as they don’t have a hard cost associated with distributing them for review. However, if your Blog looks professional and you know how to ask properly you can get all kinds of free stuff for review.
(2) Free Stuff by Winning Contests
Another way in which I have gotten a lot of free stuff is by entering into contests. Some of these contests involved nothing more than me spreading the word about the contest and entering into a draw.
(3) Free Stuff from Blog Earnings
As you build up your Blog income, you can use the earnings from your Blog to buy yourself new toys. What’s even cooler is that you can then write blog posts about those items and get even more traffic to your site, and make more money for future purchases.
Success breeds more success.
(4) Free Stuff from Selling Blogs
Although this is a little bit more of an advanced strategy, once you learn how to build profitable Blogs you can learn to sell them on sites like Flippa.com for 5-20x their monthly earnings. That means that if you can build a site that makes $1,000/month, you might be able to sell it for $5 – $20k. Imagine the cool toys you could buy with that.
Even if you can get a site to make just $50/m you might be able to sell it for enough money to buy yourself some nice toys.
Just Because You Blog Doesn’t Mean You’ll Make Money
One thing to keep in mind is that just because you start a Blog doesn’t mean it’s going to make you any money.
In fact, almost all Bloggers that start Blogs today will fail to make any money with them at all.
Most Bloggers will waste even more time trying to make money Blogging than they do on Facebook helping that Facebook guy to get even richer, and never make a penny themselves.
Why is that?
Well, the best way I can explain it is like this…
Have you ever been to a dentist?
Most of us have.
Well, let’s say your spouse had a cavity that needed to be drilled and filled.
Since you’ve been to the dentist yourself, and maybe even had a cavity drilled and filled, does that make you a dentist?
Would you strap your spouse to a recliner, grab your Dremel and start drilling away?
No, of course not… you’re not a dentist. You have no training. You have no idea what you’re doing.
(If you are a dentist and you’re reading this post, just pretend I’m talking about brain surgery or something.)
Well, it’s the same thing with Blogging.
ANYONE can learn how to be a Blogger, BUT you have to find a good teacher and take some kind of course.
I learned from teachers who all made 6-figure incomes Blogging. I didn’t just try to figure it out on my own.
I bought courses and I paid my dues.
No different than going to dentist school.
If you want to learn how to make money as a Blogger – even as a hobby, you need to find a good teacher and a course and start learning and applying what you learn.
Find someone who’s teaching style you resonate with and start learning!
What kind of free stuff have you