RVE 0016: How in the Heck People Actually Earn an Income From Their Blog with David Risley

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This week on The RV Entrepreneur podcast I sat down with David Risley from BlogMarketingAcademy.com and RVFamilyTravel.com to talk about his wealth of knowledge as it pertains to building a profitable blog.

Building a profitable blog is hard. <— Let’s start there.

I’ve been blogging now (consistently) for two years and less than 1/8 of our income comes from this blog. The majority of our income comes from film/video clients we work with, sponsorships, and speaking. Would I love for my blog at HeathPadgett.com to be producing heaps of reoccurring revenue every month? Of course, but it takes time.

So, here’s the million dollar question… are you ready for it? Sure you are. How do you earn an income from your blog?

As with most subject matters, there’s no super simple answer.

But while talking with David on the podcast today he shared with me what every single successfully monetized blog creates for people: a potential transformation for it’s readers and community.

What’s a potential transformation?

A potential transformation is when a blogger helps his or her readers go from point a to point b in their lives, hobby, or business.

For example, a little over 15 years ago David started a blog in the early days of the internet geared towards tech geeks. His blog became super popular and he was able to turn it into a 6-figure/year business. After successfully monetizing that blog, David started another blog called BlogMarketingAcademy geared towards helping others monetize their blog like he had done.

David learned how to do something (build a profitable blog) and now he’s sharing that knowledge with others.

This = a transformation.

People come to David’s blog to learn how to build a profitable blog of their own. Since David’s already done that, he now has created informational products and courses to help people through that transformation of starting a profitable blog. As a result, he can charge a premium for his services because he’s helping others build a business.

This type of transformation is how a lot of people earn an income from their blog.

That being said, there are plenty of other ways to earn an income from a blog, but in today’s podcast David and I will be chatting about how to build a blog focused around this kind of transformation.

Other things we cover in this episode:

  • The first thing people need to do when starting a blog
  • How to create your “five pillars of content”
  • Where you can camp in New York City
  • Why it’s important to be super intentional about the potential transformation when first starting a blog

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

This episode was sponsored by COBB Grill America:

I’m pumped to partner up with COBB Grill this month to share the story of their awesome grills. We recently picked ours up and have been loving it! It’s the by far the nicest grill I’ve ever owned and it’s the perfect size for fitting in our under storage.

Below you can watch our inaugural meal on our COBB grill last week, it was epic. Did I mention that you can make a pizza on it? Oh, well you can make a pizza on it.

Click here to venture over to the COBB website and learn more about them.

If you find something you like, use the discount code HEATHPADGETT15 at check out to get 15% off.