I was eating lunch at the busiest hamburger restaurant on the island and I was having a chat with the owner of the restaurant.
He's an American running a restaurant in a foreign country. I don't plan to start a restaurant business in a foreign land, but I do love learning about all businesses in the world and I never pass up an opportunity to speak to another entrepreneur.
After I asked him several questions about the restaurant business, he became very interested to know more about the blog business. He asked how I got in the business so I gave him a very quick rundown about how and why I started a blog.
I wanted to travel the world and make money while doing it. I didn't want to be tied down to any geographical area, I wanted money to come in to my bank no matter where I was in the world. Eventually I accomplished it, but not without work.
When I started I had nothing more than one piece of knowledge: You can make money from a blog. I didn't know HOW and I didn't really care how. I knew it was possible and that was all I needed to know to get started. Eventually I learned exactly how to make money from a blog and my income skyrocketed.
The owner of the burger restaurant became very curious and asked me how I learned to make money from a blog. He said “so you just read a bunch of articles about it?” and I said…
“No, I only ever read two articles about how to make money from a blog. Once you know how, you know how. Any extra reading is just wasting time.
I could read a thousand books about running a restaurant but compared to a man who actually runs a restaurant I wouldn't know anything. The real knowledge comes from experience and that is the only place it ever comes.
The more you read, the less you are ever going to accomplish. Once you understand that a) it can be done and b) exactly how it is done then it is time to stop reading and start doing.
I read those 2 outstanding articles, I learned how blogs actually make money, and then I got after it and made it happen.”
In the process of building B&D;, I learned the truth about why some blogs succeed and some fail. A blog is more than just a “blog”. A good blog is expression of your soul. A book can be just a book or it can be so much more. The same is true for blogs.
If you think about it as more than just a blog you begin to see the great possibilities that a blog can provide for you. A regular blog is nothing, it is lifeless, just a thing existing on the internet in black and white.
But when you think of a blog as more, you can give it true life, you can give it full color. You can give it life and in return, it can give you new life.
8 Reasons You Should Start a Blog in 2018
1) A blog can give you a rebirth
A blog is not about writing or anything like that, a blog is about transformation of your soul. To strive to achieve a soul of gold for all to see.
A blog will let you transform.
Yes, a blog is not a lifeless piece of media, it is a representation of your soul. This is why so many fail as bloggers because they simply fail as humans.
Building a blog will teach you how to build anything. It's about planting seeds.
In all of human history, we have been chasing one goal: transformation. We all want to be something better, something more. Only a few of us achieve it.
It is the greatest goal of all humans to achieve transformation. Some people call this enlightenment, sainthood and many other names but they all mean the exact same thing: going from nothing to something, from fiction to reality.
It is about transformation of your human soul to a divine soul and a blog can help you to achieve this transformation.
2) A blog will help you to become immortal
Immortality is real but not in the way you might think: Your body isn't going to live forever, but what you leave behind can live forever.
Everything we know of the past we know because it was written down. You see, it is words that will live forever after you are gone. People can read your words a thousand years after you have passed and in their minds you will be alive.
Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu, Shakespeare, Nietzche, Dante, Jesus and many others will never die precisely because we have words by them or about them that we can read at any time. Their bodies are dead but their ideas are immortal.
With a blog, you can make your ideas immortal.
3) A blog will let you meet like minded friends
In our average daily life it can be very hard to meet people who share the same views and goals. Many people can go all of their life without actually meeting like-minded friends.
With the great power of the blog you can transmit your ideas to the entire world and everybody who shares the same views as you or is inspired by you can reach out to you.
I can go to any country in the world and a B&D; reader will reach out to me and offer assistance or companionship. Any country in the world. South Africa, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, South Korea.
I have friends and followers in every country of the world and it is precisely because I spread my ideas for free on this very blog.
The people who resonate with my ideas can find me, no longer are they forced to simply interact with people on their block or in their city, the whole world opens up to you when you open up to the whole world. The blog is how you open up to the whole world.
4) A blog opens your mind and makes you wiser
You will have to start paying more attention to people and circumstance to have something to write about. It is precisely this attention you pay that makes you wiser than other people.
Where they do not even bother to look, you will notice many things that will make you so much more observant and intelligent than you used to be.
5) A blog can give you the freedom you desire
I have news for you: most people in the world don't want freedom. They are happy enough to be slaves to their jobs.
Only 2 people out of every 100 have a burning need for freedom and for those people the blog is the greatest adventure to get them their freedom. I can only assume that you are one of those 2 out of every 98 people who actually burn for freedom.
With a professional blog, you can have the freedom to live life at your own pace.
Whether you like to work fast or slow, it's up to you. Some people hate being held up by slow people and some people don't like to go so fast.
I've been both. I used to do everything at super-sonic speed, slow people were the biggest annoyance in my life. I keep a slightly slower pace today because I'm not concerned with getting posts out, I am more concerned with doing the absolute best job I can do and I don't care how long it takes.
6) A blog can make your dreams become a reality
The choice you have as a professional blog artist is that you can do anything you wish. You can travel the world or stay in your home.
Many people love to release the cares they once had and go travel the world. Other people just want the time to do nothing, like Peter from Office Space.
With a blog as a business, this choice is yours to make.
I have made both of these choices. Sometimes I love to go travel the world with a suitcase and no other possessions, sometimes I just like to be a hermit and do nothing but stay in a mountain town a thousand miles from nowhere, sometimes I love to live downtown in the middle of the big city.
What is something you have always wanted to do but thought it would be impossible?
Want to climb Mt. Everest? Bungee jump in Borneo? Go to Carnival in Rio De Janeiro? See the ruins of Angkor Wat? Visit the Taj Mahal? Publish a book? Meet famous people to interview? Play poker in Monaco?
Now what is stopping you from doing these things? My guess: time and money. It's easy to guess, dreams always require the same two things: free time and money.
Time and money become a slave to you rather than you being a slave to time and money.
When you have a source of daily income you are free to do all of the things you always wanted to do but never had the time or money to do.
7) You can make daily income from a blog
I could spend all of my money in my bank accounts today and I would be fine tomorrow. Do you know why? Because with a blog I make money every single day.
Yes, every single day money comes in. I do not have to worry about money, even if I go broke today, tomorrow I will be fine.
This is the power of the blog: daily income. Every single time I make a book sale I get the money immediately.
I not only get paid every day, I get paid about 50 times a day. Imagine getting paid 50 times per day. Imagine the worries and stress that will go away when you have money coming in even when you're sleeping.
Forget about trying to budget your bi-weekly paychecks, get paid every day and eliminate the worry of money.
I have not worried about paying bills in years, I know the money will be there. (This didn't happen overnight, it happened from me planting seeds of success years ago and reaping those seeds today.)
8) A good blog can make you a LOT of money
Not only can a blog give you daily income, a great blog can make you a fortune.
With a blog you write your own paycheck.
I never dreamed in a million years I would make a million dollars just from a blog, but I did.
And let me tell you something, a million dollars is nothing. When your blog is fully in harmony with your soul, a real tidal wave of money comes rushing in.
Imagine making fifty thousand dollars per month. What kind of freedom would that buy you? How great would you feel never worrying about bills again?
Would it be worth two or three years of hard work to eventually be able to make 50k or more per month?
How Does a Blog Make Money?
The way that a blog makes money is very simple. For a very simple description please read The No Bullshit Guide to Making Money Online. That article will show you in very simple terms the exact way a blog makes money.
In this section, I would like to describe the type of person that makes money from a blog.
There is only one type of person who can make money from a blog: anyone who actually wants to do the work.
Anybody who is willing to do the work can make money from a blog.
I'm sorry to say but 98 out of every 100 will make nothing because all they deserve to make is nothing.
Your blog will pay you in direct relation to the quality of work you do.
People who actually want it will put in the work to get it. It is the great work that makes you money, nothing else. Love of money will not build a great blog for you.
People with a love of money and no great love for work will only ever make money by tricking people. These people are easy to spot: their content is weak.
The way to make money with a clean conscience is to create great content.
If you build a blog with the sole goal of making money you will fail in the long-run.
If you build a blog with the goals I have outlined above, you have a great chance of success. With success of these goals which are higher than money, you will be rewarded by money.
Money is the reward of a job well done, money should not be the end goal. Doing your job well should be your #1 goal.
I would prefer to never make a penny than to compromise and put out bad content. If I had to choose between making 20 million dollars per year writing a bad blog or doing B&D; for free, I would choose to do B&D; for free.
Do your work for something more than money, and do it well, and you will be rewarded.
Here are 3 common fears that many people have about starting a blog as a business…
“It takes too long to make money from a blog.”
A year is a year.
You can spend a year working or you can spend a year doing nothing.
The person who works will make money eventually, the person who complains about time will never make a dime.
To make money from a blog, impatience has to go away.
“But there's so much competition.”
There really is not any competition. I can think of fewer than 10 great blogs (if I'm being honest I can barely think of 3).
So many people start blogs and then quit nearly immediately. These people are not competition. So many people start blogs but they give their blogs no life and no color.
How does somebody who does no great work at all be in competition with you? If you do great work then they cannot be in competition with you. That would be like a major league baseball player being in competition with a 4 year old little league player.
The competition isn't real competition, we just pretend it is for fun.
“I still don't understand how blogs make money.”
You will never understand anything until you actually start working on it. You will never understand how blogging actually makes money until you start doing the work for yourself.
How can you expect to know something before you've done it? You won't understand how wall street traders actually make money until you start trading yourself. You won't understand how blacksmithing works until you go to work for a blacksmith and actually do the work.
If you understood how to do something before doing it then universities would not exist. You could just say “I don't need to go to medical school, I already know exactly how to be a doctor of medicine.”
Experience teaches you, words do not.
To learn how to make money from a blog there is only one true way: start a blog, do great work, on the way you will learn to get paid.
Along the way, you will learn many other lessons including this: Building a blog has nothing to do with blogging and everything to do with your own transformation.
You can start a blog by following these instructions.
Until next time.
Your man,
-Victor Pride
Another unbelievable piece.
My first 100 articles sucked. Then they gradually got better and more people started showing up and random good things started to happen. Oh and the money went from a little drip once in a while to a constant trickle.
But, like you said, the transformation is the fun part.
Through blogging I gained skills to write, think critically, communicate clearly and present an argument which gave me confidence and success in many aspects of my life.
Thank you for what you do Mr. Pride.
Thanks Hozzy.
Carnival in Brazil? If yes tell me.
I´m brazilian too. How did you find this site ?
they call Karma.
But, I know Victor’s blog since 2012/2013.
To me this man is a Saint.
Cool. I know Victor´s Blog since 2015, by the brazilian manosphere. But actually I only read Victor´s blog and others americans blogs about personal devolopment.
Poxa, vamos falar pt aqui kkk.
Brasil tem manosfera? Quais sites sao?
Eu acompanho aqui porque o Victor é sempre direto.
A “manosfera” brasileira era basicamente Alita, Pobretão, e os forums do Bufalo e Mundo Realista.
Alita era mais focado em analisar o sofrimento amoroso do homem, tinha uma pegada mais na psicologia e desenvolvimento emocional, porém ele escreveu suas ideias apenas no formato de livros. Atualmente ele tem um blog, que se não me engano se chama ” Amor Dissidente”, porém há um tempo desativado.
Bufalo e Mundo Realista eram dois forums que seguiam as ideias de Alita e discutiam temas variados, desde relacionamentos até tendências sociais, etc.
Pobretão era um blog que existiu até 2016 que tratava de finanças pessoais, especialmente sobre meios de se atingir a IF e economizar dinheiro. Assim como Bufalo e Mundo Realista, o blog do pobretão reunia muita gente e sempre rolava muitos debates por lá. Porém depois que surgiu rumores que tinham descoberto a identidade do dono do blog, ele preferiu fechar o blog, pois como o site tinha uma linguagem muito politicamente incorreta para os padrões brasileiros, ele fechou o blog para não dar problemas para ele.
Hoje não sei como está a Manosfera brasileira, porque prefiro ler só os sites americanos para melhorar meu inglês e também porque são bem mais ricos em conteúdo.
Tendi meu caro. Acho que lembro desse Alita aí.
Acredito eu que por agora deu um secada maneira. Ninguém quer se expor (porque todo mundo tem ainda uma vida no mundo real, digamos assim).
Eu tambem só leio pros lados americanos.
Enfim, clica aí no meu site e vai lá no final na parte de contatos e me manda um mesangem pra gente continuar a resenha.
//// my man Victor, sorry for the portuguese. But we are brazilian and it’s so rare to find a like-minded. Hope you don’t mind. ///
Hi Vic,
Been a huge fan of B&D for quite some time. This year I read NWR and finally decided to take the leap and quit school. I was only in for a year but I was on a path to nowhere. I am working on a health and mindset blog, Higher Mind Body. You will hear about it.
Thanks for the fire!
-Carson
My man!
Victor,
A great post my friend! I have to agree that blogging is a great way to not just only make money but to expose ideas and opinons out into the world. Blogging is a great way for anyone to voice and show themselves and hence even dare say to become immortal.
Bloging for me has been a way to voice my opinons, ideas as well as others ideas and opinons. Now a days it seems blogging may be the only way to voice your ideas in a world full of political correctness and stupidity. I have met many great people in this blo as well as in others.
In the beginning i would suffer headaches from all of the ideas bouncing around in my head. Ideas and opinons I have picked up from observing, reading and watching others intereact. These ideas in the beignining were keeping up at night and making me cynical. It was not until I started blogging that I was able to extract those Demons out of my head and into digital form.
The more I did it the better I felt and after a time I was able to sleep and find other like minded people like myself who thought the same as me. It felt good knowing that I was not alone in this quest to find enlightenment.
There was a time that I blog quite a bit and i learned how to build blogs when it became the thing on the Internet back in the day. I started with Google Blogger and moved to WordPress then back to Blogger. During that time I learned more about SEO, Writing, Networking with other more popular bloggers. It takes time and effort but it does keep you busy. I dont wory too much about time as the time passes things get better and you become a better person more enlightened and a much better sleeper.
I can never stay away from blogging I stopped blogging once but here I am back and approaching another route another road. where will it lead me I have no idea!
So like Victor proposes its time for you to start a blog let us hear what you have to say!
My man.
Great post Victor
If possible, I wanna you write a article about the 5BX ( five basic exercises). It is a trainning plan developed by the Canadian Air Force to your soldiers and the general people with the porpuse of to get strenght and muscles. I follow this plan and I have getting any gains in strenght and muscles mass.
The Metamorphosis has been the single greatest article I’ve ever read.
It’s so great that I’ve printed it out. Every time I need a shot of endurance I pull out the papers and savor each line.
My eyes will go crazy this year. Thanks for lighting the way.
Absolutely dead-on with every point.
Many don’t realize that great works come from putting yourself out there, to exposing the deep recesses of your mind.
I am not one to do a lot of talking, so writing definitely helps me to communicate and model my mind.
2018 is the year of the dog in the Chinese zodiac, a good reminder for me to work like a dog to get to where I want. Let’s all work like dogs this year, and until there’s no more work to be done.
- Justin N.
Hi.
I’m sensing throughout your writing, and I feel how I’m consistently reading your work, your vulnerability is becoming more visible— difference is that your writing shows it in a form of invulnerability, which then implies to build solid understanding.
I seriously know that a slow learner is great to build a solid understanding in a world of falsified knowledge. And yet, Justin Nicikowski reminds of this: if being a dog will be worth to build a solid financial and emotional life for myself this year, then it’ll be worth getting through hell in order to reach heaven.
Thanks!
“I could read a thousand books about running a restaurant but compared to a man who actually runs a restaurant I wouldn’t know anything. The real knowledge comes from experience and that is the only place it ever comes.”
Yes… *EXPERIENCE* is the fruit of *APPLIED KNOWLEDGE* done. Truth.
“Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu, Shakespeare, Nietzche, Dante, Jesus and many others will never die precisely because we have words by them or about them that we can read at any time. Their bodies are dead but their ideas are immortal.”
*NOT* 100% true. False: all the others are *DEAD* there is One Who is Immortal. You know Who it is: starts with a *J* ends with an *s* in the list my friend. :)
“Now what is stopping you from doing these things? My guess: time and money. It’s easy to guess, dreams always require the same two things: free time and money.”
Actually Mr. Pride there’s more serious “answers” to that question than meets the eye on first thought:
For instance, in life as you know many people have *RESPONSIBILITIES* and *DUTIES* to fulfill in life than will *RIGHTLY RESTRICT* many of the “personal dreams, goals and ambitions” people have because they are *RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHER PEOPLE*.
For example, I’m a “single young man” myself (as I suspect you to be a single man yourself) but I’m responsible for my family’s welfare concerning my life.
To the men who are husbands, fathers and men of certain important societal responsibilities and duties not all can just “up ‘n go” being a digital nomad even if they were successful because *THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR OTHER PEOPLE OTHER THAN JUST THEMSELVES*.
Should a healthy, young man who’s the only person to care for his disabled, sickly sister just “up ‘n leave” and go about selfishly living his own life knowing his sister will not be cared for as much by anyone else than he himself? Want if his poor sickly sister because of health conditions can’t really just “travel along” with him? What’s he to do?
The answer is simple but HARD TRUTH*: *STAY* to take care of his sister and help her along in life as best he can at the *CORE*. She may or may not gain more independence but the *MORAL PRINCIPAL* is that the brother sacrifices his self-gain for that of another human-being, his disabled “sister” nonetheless who can’t even care for herself.
A lot of what you say will resonate in the “enthusiasm and excitement” of the moment upon reading but everyone knows deep down when *REALITY* smacks them in the face that those with *BURDENS* i.e. *MEN WITH BURDENS* like taking care of a family or household can’t all just “up ‘n go” and live as you do.
Please understand I’m not talking down or against your message of a “free-forming lifestyle” as I’m actually someone this post speaks to: I’m saying *THIS LIFESTYLE IS NOT FOR EVERYONE WITH CONCRETE RESPONSIBILITIES, DUTIES, BURDENS THEY MUST UPHELD IN MORAL CONSCIOUS TO THEMSELVES AND SOCIETY*.
You (as far as I or anyone knows) or I am not “married husbands” or “fathers” of children so we don’t truly have that degree of *BURDEN* or *RESPONSIBILITY* to be *ACCOUNTABLE* to so we can “live life more freely” as single men: this is not the case for many men; even if they have the blessing to become as successful as a blogger as yourself or better… they still have those *RESPONSIBILITIES* and *BURDENS* to *OTHER PEOPLE* in their lives to be *ACCOUNTABLE* to.
Other than that, another great read. Always love stopping by here to hear what you’re talking about.
For me I’ll never be “satisfied” with you until you do “one thing” and until that day I’ll always be a “thought” to you for what you know in your heart to be true.
I’m always open if you want to actually talk; but I’ll never intrude or “force myself” on others to get them to “see the Light”.
You’ll never be as good as you can be until you do so. Amen.
~ Bro. Jed
You have a great blog, always fresh and interesting content, Definitely keeps me coming back for more. Happy New Year 2018!!!
Nice post!
Let’s all he fired up for 2018!
Cheers,
D
This is great, thanks Victor.
I’m just over 3 weeks into building my blog (inspired by Bold and Determined) and I’m loving every minute of it. I have so many ideas I can’t keep up.
One unexpected benefit I found is that it is relaxing. Sitting down, writing, ordering my thoughts, editing; has an almost meditative quality. It’s creating more accountability for me. It’s helping me understand the topics I write about better. You’re completely right, it’s all about that transformation.
And that freedom you mention is something I crave. Just the prospect of it sets my mind on fire.
Looking forwards to the next post!
Hey Vic, Great Post.
I was wondering at what point do you start generating money from your blog? Is it after you generate a certain amount of traffic? or is there other factors?
1.5 years.
It’s simple: That restaurant owner could start a blog that promotes his restaurant. Then he could start another blog about how to start and run an expat restaurant in Asia.
victor pride i have been following up your blog from i was 18 years old (2013) im currently 22 i have finally started to really understand and implement a faction of what i have learned from. i made a very BOLD move recently and quit my job as a security guard and bought a laptop and a domain name im now working on a blog myself. so far i know it will take time for me to start earning a income from it but i know when i finally start to it’s going to be 10x better than any job in my country. Victor i am grateful for the inspiration you have given me and i really appreciate you and your blog.
What’s UP! I bought the BADNET hosting package last year. And got everything set up. I had to step away from things for a while, due to some required soul searching and having some friends and family, I needed to devote some time to.
And… Now, I’m back in the saddle, as it were. And, I have to thank Victor for his contribution to me getting on this path. I’ve always had the urge to write, but, just never put my other preoccupations down long enough to pick it up. After having reevaluated things, for a while, I have it, firmly, in grasp.
As it stands, I have my blog, the jumpoff.co, that I’m firing back up. In addition to that, I’ve started back into photography and just recently taken on the role as a manager to a well known musician, on top of all that. Things are picking up.
Victor…. hat’s off, my friend. Thank you, for everything you do.
Best Regards- M. Spire
Victor’s words are so damn True. You feel his words and the spirit that flows from them.
You know he is telling you the truth each time you read his blog.
Discovering his blog since 2011 is one of the best things that happened to me and even inspired me to start my own blog.
Thanks Victor,
Keep doing your great work. Keep spilling the truth. The truth is everything!
Hi, great post Victor. I started a blog in mid 2017. :)
Great article Vic. Let me know when you are in Chiang Mai again as I’d like to do a Youtube video with you.
I’ve been reading your blog for 3 years now and it’s really inspiring. My youtube channel is Vanzweelism.
Cheers
Hey Victor,
I really want to open my own blog. I’m not a native English speaker and I afraid that it is an obstacle which can not be ignored. I’m from Israel and am speaking Hebrew. I think starting a blog in Hebrew is not a good idea because it has a skimpy audience.
Go for it Gal, it’s a great idea. Nine million people around the world speak Hebrew and the vast majority are probably like everyone else and looking for a good site with good information. You could definitely get yourself a piece of that pie - Good luck
Can you post on 8 or something reasons you should start a business in 2018
Awesome one as always Vic
definitely I’ve changed a lot after creating my own blog, I’ve seen many things inside me that needed to pop put to be realized.. thanks to your motivational words and books..
have good vibes
Thanks for this, Victor - filled me with optimism!
Such an inspirational post as I am somewhere on this blog writing journey myself. But perhaps I shouldn’t have read this post if I’m understanding it correctly haha. Seriously though I am really enjoying the process of creating a blog, and during less motivated days reading an article like this reminds me of why I started in the first place.
I definitely agree that a blog will help you notice things that you may have not noticed without one. It requires you to do research on topics to become an expert in your respective field, which you are becoming. Keep up the good work Victor!
Brilliant article. Every point you have made is why i started my blog Elite Psyche. Similar to yours a personal development blog.
Really inspiring stuff and an even better read.
I am now on my way to start a sucessfull blog. I read your blog primarly for the bodybuilding and discipline advice, but now you convinced me in starting my own Internet business. Thanks, Victor.