Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2011, and reflects the 2011 blogging landscape, in which blogs with more than 10,000 daily visits were seen as very profitable through advertising; it gives no figures on actual earnings.
Cyberspace is full of “junk”: spam websites, blogs about utter nonsense, even big online media outlets that all end up saying the same thing. There are blogs like the one you’re reading now, where ordinary, flesh-and-blood people give advice that sometimes clashes with what the professionals in the field say.
The thing is, throughout my life, the best advice I’ve received has come from ordinary people. I’ve met people whose stories could be made into films: real fighters, passionate about their businesses, and people who have racked up failures that, if published, would show exactly what you should never do in business or in life. And best of all, these stories come from people like you and me, not from a guru who is probably talking about something he has never been through.
If millions of people were glued to the TV when reality shows first appeared, it’s for the simple reason that we’re interested in ordinary people’s lives. Big Brother is a fairly unproductive social phenomenon, but someone who tells their life story in the form of a diary, as long as they lead an interesting life, or someone who talks about how they got through an illness, how they coped with a divorce or simply how they ruined their life, can be a source of inspiration or entertainment.
The business of websites and blogs is measured by one thing only: traffic. Once you get thousands or millions of visits to your website, the income comes by itself, and best of all, the person who least expects it can achieve success, even without looking for it.
Recently, several blogs have reached millions of visitors from all over the world. They’re written by young people awaiting their imminent death from cancer (not the ideal example).
A few months ago, I came across several blogs by young women who told how they had overcome anorexia, while others simply talked about how to hide it. Both kinds had more than 10,000 visits a day, a figure that would already be very profitable if they carried advertising.
Other blogs simply work as a diary, recounting the writer’s day-to-day life (isn’t that what a TV series is based on?). Some are more gripping than others, and of course some become better known than others. As an example of an ordinary blog that tells a story in diary form, there’s Diario de una luchadora (“Diary of a fighter”), a blog I came across by chance on Twitter.
Some people may find it silly and others may find it interesting, just like any other website on a particular subject.
What I’m trying to say, and basically suggest, is that your life, even if you’re not a politician, could end up being interesting to millions of people.
Remember that today, thanks to the internet, it’s easier than ever to tell your story to the world, whether it’s a story of outrage or of happiness; both sell. If you like writing and have something to tell, you can turn your life and your hobby into a way of making money without spending a single euro.
Topics that could be interesting:
- A failed marriage
- Overcoming an illness
- The diary of an interesting life
- How you managed to be happy in life
- How you got rich, or the steps you’re taking to get rich
- A successful love life
- Seduction tips
- Beauty tricks that have worked for you
- And so on…
Promote your blog on social media, and if it’s interesting, word will gradually spread.
Further reading
Featured image: geehairimages, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
