Why I Wish I’d Paid for Blogging Help

I definitely started trying to make money from my blog the hard way.

(And why we’re on the topic, check out: why it shouldn’t be called “blogging.”)

I’m a born DIYer, raised by DIYers, and probably have a superhero complex – e.g. I can save/help everyone else, but I personally need no saving or help because I can do everything on my own and successfully.   Eventually.

Don’t Need No Help From Nobody

If you have lots of grit like me, you’ll nod along with my thoughts way back then: “Why on earth would I pay someone to tell me what I can find for free all over the internet?   What lazy person doesn’t just go out and gather up all the information and apply it to their own life?”

(It turns out, there is such a thing as “travel blogger personality.” So maybe we all think like this?)

Well I’m here to tell you that I spent hundreds of hours binge-ing on never-ending amounts of information, implementing ideas with no overall game plan, and learning about systems or software that I never ended up using.   After all that, my only certain accomplishments were exhaustion and frustration.

But I Really Don’t Wanna Spend My Hard-Earned Money

It took months of fruitless work and years (years!) of resistance before I finally broke down and bought my first “how to” tutorial from a “blogger” who was making money from his travel site ¹I’m not linking to him, because I wasn’t thrilled with the product, and I definitely don’t have much respect for the guy – one of the top travel bloggers in the world..   Although disappointed that my departure from my tight-fisted, self-reliant ways didn’t yield custom-fit results,  I have to admit the couple of golden nuggets buried among 80 otherwise useless pages of PDF were worth the $50.

Why?

I spent hundreds of hours trying to DIY my way into blogging success.   Imagine what you can do with hundreds of hours.   Think of your favorite hobby or your best friend.   If you get to engage maybe a few weeknights or a couple weekends a month, it would take you a year to invest a couple hundred hours.   If I’d worked those hours at minimum wage, I’d have had at least a few thousand dollars to show for my efforts.

A few thousand dollars.

I essentially spent thousands of dollars of my time getting nowhere.   How-to-blogging tutorials cost a small fraction of what you’ll otherwise spend in wasted time trying to learn solo.   By turning my nose up at them, I almost lost my sanity.   And the kicker is, I eventually spent the money anyway!

I can at least rest easy knowing this is a common trajectory for new bloggers:

• I can do it myself!
• Boy this is a lot of information.
• Gosh, everyone says different stuff.   What’s right for me?
• Let’s try this idea.   Hmm… is it working?
• Maybe I should try this other idea.
• Oh, this is hard.   What does that acronym even mean?

After a long, hard, slog, the next common thought is, “Wow.   That was so hard.   I think I can save other people from my misery by writing up what I learned and charging a small fee for the time it took me to learn all this and create this tutorial.”

Should I Save Others From This Torture?

I thought about it.   I love helping people learn from my mistakes.   But then I realized lots of other perfectly capable people have already packaged this knowledge.   Why not just find the person who has done the best job, and help save newbies that way?

Jessie on a Journey’s “Ditch the Daily Grind” is a great balance of affordability and comprehensiveness.   There are lots of other good blogging tutorials out there, but there are also lots of mediocre ones from people following some internet guru’s advice to push sales regardless of the quality of their products.

Jessie is a legit success who updates her course regularly to remain relevant and share new lessons she’s learned.   It’s just been updated in 2018, so I’m going to stick with pointing you in her direction.   If you’re ready, sign up here.

Happy Blogging!  ♣

Related:
How to Start a Blog that Makes Money
Blogging Is No Easier Than Being a Stripper
How Much Money I Make Blogging
How Does a Website Make Money?
Do You Have a Travel Blogger Personality?

Note: after I started passing on newbies to Jessie, it dawned on me to see if she had an affiliate program?   Could I actually be compensated for all the time I spent researching courses to help my readers?   Turns out (thankfully!) that there is a way for me to accomplish the latter while also keeping the laptop charged up and food in the fridge.   So if you go with Jessie’s course, she’s going to thank me for my hard work and time by sharing with me part of the fee you give her for all her hard work and time on the course.   The price to you is the same whether she knows I sent you or you find her course another way.   Of course, like everyone, I always appreciate being compensated for my work.   But I also respect your free-will.   Do whatever makes you happy!