I’ve been writing online for the better part of a year now. On one hand, it’s been extremely encouraging. Getting traffic online is very possible, and the more you write the bigger your audience gets. That being said, the growing is slow. I don’t have any authority. I bought my domain name late, so I’m in a traffic slump. Rising Current is only two months old, coming up on three. If and when this website ranks on Google, I struggle to imagine it earning me more than $1,000/month. It could be as little as $100/month. Not a great living, even in a country as “poor” as mine. It would be easy to give up now. A lot of people would. Don’t put your eggs in one basket. Blogging isn’t a stable source of income. While these statements might technically be true, I’ve come to the conclusion that I haven’t grown this blog enough to make it easy to manage. You see, it’s easier for me to have confidence in a blog if the ad revenue alone is bringing me $2,000/month. That way, I don’t need to worry too much about creating a good product. I’ll be able to survive off of the advertising revenue, and everything else is just the cherry on top. I could try and create a product now and push my way to $2,000/month without writing more articles, but then I would be taking a bigger risk than if I just wrote more articles. You see, traffic almost always pays something. Until I’m pulling in north of 20,000 pageviews per month, I’ll almost certainly always make more money from writing more articles. This concept doesn’t only apply to blogs. It applies to all businesses. So, if you’re going to start one, I suggest you just take the risk and go for broke, because running a large business is far easier than attempting to manage a small one.
Large businesses have higher profit margins
Large businesses make much more money than small businesses. This is obvious, because it’s in the name. That being said, large businesses aren’t only making more money than small businesses overall, they’re making bigger products. When it comes to the world of physical products, large businesses can order more units. This means they get better pricing. The same thing applies to manufacturing. Bigger equipment means you’re more energy efficient; and you also use less by way of materials. Bigger businesses produce products that are cheaper than small businesses, and as such are able to make more money per sale. This also applies to consultancies and content businesses. The more you’re able to outsource, the more work you’re able to get done overall.
Large businesses have access to better pricing
This is slightly different from my point about profit margins. A lot of businesses, whether they’re manufacturers or companies that pay out commissions, have incentives for performance. Top performers pay less for stuff and get paid more for each sale. This is because success leads to the development of personal relationships. Good relationships mean good pricing.
Large businesses have human capital
This is the big one. It’s way easier to manage stuff when you have other people working for you. I don’t think I need to elaborate. This is my eventual goal with this blogging thing. There’s a lot of power in hiring people to write online for you. I’m surprised more people don’t leverage that power.
Large businesses can withstand more problems
This is true for two reasons. The first, is that large businesses are those that have an established customer base. If that customer base is enthusiastic about the business, they’re willing to put up with delays, malfunctions, and price hikes to a certain degree. The second reason large business can handle more issues is due to cash on hand. Unless the company is being run very badly, a large business will have more cash than a small business. Cash lets you pay your way out of problems.
You can become a large business via consistency and good service
As long as you’re producing stuff that’s in demand, you should be able to get customers. This is because even if people have a favorite- an incumbent (your biggest competitor)- you have a good shot at making sales whenever something happens. Your competitor might run out. The price might rise, the customer might want to try something new. After a certain amount of time, if you have a half decent product, you will have a following. From there, it’s all about scaling up.
Look for demand with the right mindset
A lot of people are bad at evaluating what’s in demand. This is sometimes because they’re following trends. A good example of this is with restaurants. People see others opening a bunch of restaurants and assume that running a restaurant is a great way to make money. It isn’t, and about 80% of restaurants fail despite people pouring thousands of dollars into them. This is terrible in a world in which pretty much anyone with a computer or cellphone can make a positive return by talking into a screen. When you’re looking for demand, don’t look at what new things people are starting. Look at what people are actually buying. For digital marketers, this means looking at how to get good, valuable traffic. This is done by using the right format or platform for creating content, and then executing. Figure out how much each platform pays per thousand views and attack the one which you think will earn you the most money. A lot of people give up far too early. This is because the math behind content creation is a bit difficult to do. It takes a long time to recuperate your investment, and it’s never totally clear how much money you’ll make. There are lots of variables, and content has the power to make money for a long time if done right. It’s good to try and figure out the value of an individual peice of content if you can. I think each article I write is worth about $30 right now. If I keep pressing onward, each article will be with $240. But I have to get the right ad networks and have enough traffic to test products in order to do that. This means building a bigger blog. Content is always in demand nowadays, so I’ll keep producing more until I have a large business.
Work hard and focus
This is honestly the best way to get ahead of 90–95% of people. Just focus on building a big business, brick by brick. Think in terms of years, not weeks or months. This is easy in today’s era. Content creation, paid ads, and email lists allow us to set highly quantifiable goals for our businesses. I know how much traffic I need and how much I need to make per 1,000 views in order to make this blog profitable, worthwhile, and lucrative. Generally speaking, however, I know that the more I write, the larger my final number gets. It’s easier to run a big blog than a small blog. That means I’ll just keep writing.
Starting a new business is always tricky. But it’s easier if you go all in. The more money your company makes, the more likely it is you’re here to stay. Work hard and don’t be afraid to push for stretch goals.
Thanks for paying attention.
