One of my biggest goals in entrepreneurship was to create a business that paid me while I slept. For this reason, I ended up hiring a team of 8 amazing employees from the Philippines to help run my first side hustle for me.

And it was glorious.

While all the solopreneurs in my industry were spending 8 to 16 hours a day looking at their Facebook ads, I was swimming with whale sharks.

While everyone else was complaining about product research, I was jumping off of waterfalls in Cebu.

Unlike these people that came into ecommerce for the money, I knew earlier on that I was in it for the freedom.

That is why when I started to diversify and think of other ways to make money online, I knew that my new side hustle had to have the ability to make more money while devoting less effort  into it as more time passed.

This is how I stumbled into blogging. And now it pays me pretty damn well.

Thinking about starting a blog?

If so, then these 6 lessons will help guide you in the right path.

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Newbie Entrepreneur? Learn The Simple Tactic I Used To Make an Extra $1K Per Day While Traveling the World

1. Don’t Be Afraid to Bleed

In my first successful business, I had the ability to just hide behind my laptop and make money. No one knew how I did it. I would literally just turn on my laptop, create some ads, talk to my team, and BAM dollar bills would fly out my screen.

But blogging is different.

Blogging is me sharing my intimate details with the world. And more importantly, it’s me sharing my hardships, my lessons, and my stories with you.

And when I do so, it gives me valuable insights in my own way of thinking and helps me reflect while giving you a chance to learn from my journey.

So yes I have to bleed,

I have to show to the world my struggles, my fears, my desires…

Why?

Because that is how I learn and that is how I grow to the next level.

This blog is like my manly little diary.

And the more I bleed into it and the more I share my experiences, the more I get paid.

Because even though I am not the best person in the world at making money online, I am still further along the journey than some people.

And to those people, my insights can be valuable.

This is how the economy works. You get paid for the value you bring to the marketplace. And if these insights that I have found helpful can help someone else. Then money would generally be attracted to me because of the value I provide.

When you start your blog, you cannot be afraid to bleed.

You have to share your fears, your struggles, and the key lessons that you learned.

Because it are those lessons that will help the people that follow you.

And if people can relate to you, then they would be willing to buy anything from you or anything that you recommend.

Don’t worry about your lack of results.

All you need is a story, a purpose in life, and consistency and you can reap the benefits while learning more about yourself in the process.

2. The First 6 Months Are the Worst

The first 6 months in ANY business is the worst. You don’t make any money. You experience most of your challenges. And you almost talk yourself out of it multiple times.

Even though no one looked at my blog, I knew damn well that it would take me at least 6 months to a year before I saw any traction.

And when I say that no one was reading my blog.

I mean it.

The only people that were really reading it was my mom and my dad.

So why didn’t I quit?

Because I knew it was possible.

When you see normal average people making more than you, then you know that you can do it as well.

When you realize that these people you idolize took 6 months to even a year before starting to get even just a little bit of results, then you know that you just have to pay your dues.

In those 6 months, I knew I wasn’t going to make a penny.

But what I did know was that I was paying my dues.

I was building the foundation for something that could last a lifetime.

I was building an empire that could survive a Facebook Apocalypse.

And I was building something that I could be proud of and share to the world.

I was building a legacy.

So if you are even thinking about getting into blogging.

YOU HAVE TO BE SERIOUS.

This is not a get rich quick business, this is an asset that you have to slowly build before you get any type of traffic or results.

But as you create more and more content that actually helps people, there will be a snowball effect that compounds to the point where YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO WORK because you paid your dues.

All the content now exists and is working for you while you sleep.

Think about it like college.

Invest 4 years to maybe one day get a $60K/year salary.

But in this case..

This $60K/year salary could be 100% passive because of the evergreen content that you create.

3. Content Really Is King

I didn’t believe this when I first started.

I thought that paid ads was king and creating content was stupid. Why would I think that? Because I went zero to $1.5 million in 12 months with paid advertising.

But here is the thing with paid advertising..

You do not own it.

Even though right now everything is working well with Google Ads and Facebook Ads, what happens in the future if those ad platforms no longer work?

Then you are out of a business.

What you need to do is build up your personal brand. Littereally 50% of your time should be focusing on building your personal brand while you are building up your initial cash flow business.

Because whatever happens.. People will end up following you no matter what.

Do you think Gary Vaynerchuk cares if Instagram dies?

Hell no.

He has built up his personal brand so well and for so long, that he will always have a business because his income is tied to his name.

It doesn’t matter if social media is no longer existent in the future.

People follow people.

And if you can find a way to provide value to a bunch of people. Then you will always have income coming in.

How you do this is by providing content that not only is EPIC. But actionable as well.

Take a look at these blog posts right here:

• How to make money on instagram
• Top 3 ways to make $300/day
• 7 Online business ideas that pay you in your sleep

What do these posts have in common?

Not only are they epic as f*ck but right after the blog or video is done, YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO to get results.

As Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”

Engrain that mindset and burn it into your soul, and do that for a year.

And it would be almost IMPOSSIBLE to not make money

4. The Power of Compounding is REAL

If I were to give you $1 million or a penny that doubled every single day for the next 30 days..

Which one would you pick?

Got it?

What most amateur “get rich quick” entrepreneurs would do is they would take the $1 million up front.

But what the fail to realize, with a little bit a patience, the penny after 30 days would compound into $5.36 million.

I think about each piece of content that I put out like the penny in this example.

This blogged sucked when it only had 2 or 3 pieces of content.

In fact, they are so bad,I have over 50 blog posts unpublished because they are that hideous.

But as I got better at finding my voice, the blog pieces started compounding. Slowly and surely, the income of this blog started growing..

And it will only keep on growing as I focus on serving more and more people.

If you are starting your blog and you feel overwhelmed on the fact that you have to create a bunch of content,

Understand this is a marathon not a sprint.

This is a 4 year plan not a 4 hour plan.

And for those of you that have the courage and the consistency to keep on sharing your journey, you will be able to live a life that most people could only dream of.

A life where you control your traffic, you control your products, and you control your own community.

A life that will be chiseled into time and last forever.

And the more you work now, the less you will have to work in the future because of all the content that you have already created.

That is because each blog post you create has the ability to increase your earning potential by a certain multiple.

5. Truly Passive Income is Possible

The thing about making money online is that the less moving parts you have, the more passive the income can be.

For example with drop shipping, the income potential is great. And for those that need money fast, it is one of the best ways to get started online.

The only down side about trying to make it as passive as possible and seriously make it a hands off money  making machine is that there are so many moving parts.

Customer service, product returns, product research, competitors stealing your products, a team of 8 employees..

The entire journey has been super fun building but a challenge for sure.

While it takes 8 people to manage my niche ecom stores. All it takes is one to manage this blog.

I have an editor read over my words so it makes somewhat of sense but other than that mikevestil.com is written by yours truly.

But where the power lies in blogging, each piece of content that I create becomes an employee of mine that will exist forever.

Using content as employees are the best because they don’t complain, they don’t need to get paid, they don’t do anything else other than selling your shit.

Your content becomes your slave that happily works for you 24/7/365.

So even though you may have 1 or 2 “content slaves” in your blog when you first start, imagine how big your empire will be if you stay consistent in pumping out content?

I made it a goal to pump out at least 2 pieces of content every single week.

I probably spend 1 hour writing a blog post , 30 minutes to turn it into a YouTube video, multiply by 2 and that is only 3 hours a week I truly devote to the actual “me working” side of this blog.

But each time I trade 3 of my hours for a week’s worth of content, I create something that is SEPARATE from my time.

And the more you can find ways to leave your foot prints on this world in the form of a blog, the more likely of a chance you will have a business that will out last you as well.

6. Blogging is Undervalued

Why is Warren Buffett a billionaire?

He has the ability to find undervalued stock and sell them for what the stock is really worth.

It is the same thing with blogging. Blogging right now is SEVERELY UNDERVALUED.

Therein lies the opportunity.

Everyone right now is screaming, “quick build your Instagram account, or “quick build your Facebook fan pages”

But no one is talking about the fact that YOU DO NOT OWN these accounts.

And if you leave 100% of your income to Facebook, Google, or Instagram, you are going to be one sad puppy when something changes.

Blogging is different because at the end of the day, YOU OWN IT.

And nobody can take it away from you.

And the select few entrepreneurs that make the decision to invest their time and effort in creating one will reap the most benefits 3 to 5 years down the line.

The crazy thing is, it’s also the cheapest side hustle to start.

My costs were simply a $12 domain name and $4/month for web hosting.

But there are ways to cut this cost down even more.

For example with Bluehost, they give you a free domain when you get started.

Think you have what it takes to build a side hustle with blogging?

If so, here is how you build and grow it.

I’ll even right down the exact steps:

1. Get your free domain name with bluehost
2. Sign up for their cheapest plan
3. Unclick all the unnecessary upsells they try selling you
4. Log into your blogging back office
5. Create your about me, start here, and resources pages
6. Commit to pumping out 2-3 pieces of EPIC, ACTIONABLE content a week
7. Your first 50 pieces are going to suck, what’s important is finding your voice.
8. Do that for a year before even thinking about quitting
9. FedEx me a burrito to show your gratitude once you start earning some passive income

And if you still need help follow the in depth guide on how to start a blog and make money here

QUESTION: What is one lesson you wish you knew a year ago that you know now? Comment below!

Hope this helps,

Your fellow freedom fighter,

Mike V.

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