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3 Reasons Blogging is Better For Lightworkers Than Posting on Facebook

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One of the more common reasons that people say that they don’t want to start a Blog is because they say they don’t have the time.

We all have busy schedules and lives, and I totally understand the time commitment required to blog on a regular basis.

However, I often find that the very people who say that they don’t have time to Blog, are constantly posting and sharing pictures, videos, and writing multiple-paragraph posts on Facebook.

This is especially true for Lightworkers – people who have a desire to positively impact our planet.

Most Lightworkers I meet have a message inside them, and they desire to share that message with as many people as possible to impact their lives in a positive way.

A Blog is an awesome outlet for that with many benefits.

Most Lightworkers who don’t have a Blog though, will often put in a lot of time posting positive things on Facebook and sharing them with people.

They feel that deep desire to share and help people, and they try to use Facebook as a platform for that.

Here’s why that is NOT a good idea, and why starting a Blog is MUCH better.

#1 – Blog Posts Can Grab Attention Better

The truth is that when someone posts a paragraph or multiple-paragraphs of text on Facebook as their status update, trying to share a positive message with people, most people will simply ignore and scroll right past that status update.

People on Facebook are more and more becoming conditioned to just keep scrolling and scrolling and to quickly look at pictures, or perhaps a video that grabs their attention, but any amount of text beyond a few words usually gets ignored.

If you take your message and convert it into a Blog post (just like this one), and you share that blog post on Facebook, there is a much higher chance that someone on Facebook will actually read it because you can write a headline which grabs someone’s attention and include a picture as well.

Once someone reads the headline and sees the picture you posted with your Blog post, if they are interested in reading it, they will click through to you Blog and read the actual article ON your Blog where they are much less likely to get distracted by Facebook.

This means that the hard work you put into sharing your positive message is much more likely to be seen by your Facebook friends, simply by taking the content you were already going to be creating for Facebook and making a Blog post out of it.

#2 – Facebook Posts Have a VERY Short Lifespan

When you write a post on Facebook, not only is a very tiny percentage of your audience actually exposed to it, but also that message has a VERY short lifespan.

A Facebook message is usually posted, and shows up in some of your friend’s timelines, and sometimes just a few minutes later it disappears forever.

Of course people can go to your Facebook profile page and scroll through your posts to try to find an older post you posted, but very few people actually do that.

The majority of people on Facebook can barely keep up with their own Facebook wall, so they’ll usually never bother trying to dig through your posts to see if they find something interesting.

The truth is that once you post something on Facebook, it has a very short and limited lifespan, and then that message is gone.

Contrast that with writing a Blog post.

Once you write and publish a Blog post, which only takes a few extra minutes as compared to posting the same content on Facebook, that Blog post can live on the Internet forever!

For example, this Blog post and the hundreds of posts I’ve written on this Blog are indexed into the Google search engine and can potentially be found by people at any time, any day, anywhere in the world.

I have people visiting my Blog and reading Blog posts that I had written months or years ago.

Every Blog post that I write has the potential to positively influence someone at any time, anywhere in the world.

In fact, since there are a lot of Internet archives sites which store public date from the Internet, it’s entirely possible that people might still be reading my Blog posts hundreds of years from now.

Imagine writing a positive Blog posts and having your great, great, great, great grandchildren reading it a few hundred years from now.

How cool would it be if YOU could read stuff that was written a few hundred years ago by one of your ancestors?

That’s entirely possible with Blogging today, but I really doubt anything you write on Facebook will survive that long since it’s hard to even find something that was posted on Facebook a few days ago!

#3 – Blog Post are Indexed by Google and Searchable Beyond Your Friends List

When you write a Blog post, Google will index your Blog post and it’s possible for people all around the planet to find your content.

So if you share something positive, it’s possible for ANYONE on the planet to benefit from that message.

When you post a post on Facebook, only a small group of people are exposed that message for a short period of time and then it disappears.

As a Lightworker, any time and energy you put into sharing a positive message in a Blog post can help an exponentially higher number of people than posting the same message on Facebook.

As an example, here’s a map of the world showing which countries in the world have had people visit my Blog.

Any country in blue has had some visitors to my Blog.  As you can see, besides a few countries I’ve had visitors from almost every country on the planet!

And this is just since the beginning of this year.

Your content simply won’t get that kind of exposure from your Facebook post updates unless you have a massive Fan page setup with tens of thousands of followers.

 

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There are just a few of the reasons why Blogging is so much better than posting to your Facebook wall.

I’m not saying that every Facebook update post is worthy of a Blog post, but from what I’ve seen from people who are Lightworkers, a LOT of the stuff that they write on their wall could easily be turned into a Blog post with just a little bit more effort and produce a LOT more benefit for the world AND to the person writing the content.

If you’d like to get started as a Blogger using the ultra-easy and highly-effective blogging platform – Kalatu – click here to get started.

Be Present Where Your Target Market Is

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I often hear people talk about two pillars of building a successful blog being consistency and value.

Meaning, the advice to bloggers most often is to create valuable content and to do it on a consistent basis – ideally daily.

Although those two pillars of blogging are important, there is another aspect to blogging that a lot of people ignore – being present where your target market is.

Let me give you an example.

A few days ago I bought a new car.

I still have my old car which has a blown transmission / differential.

The going rate for a car like mine in working condition is about $3,000 – $6,000.

Now, since my transmission is blow I’ve been wanting to get rid of it for much cheaper, like around $500 – $1000 or so.

I talked to few different friends I know who I thought might be interested in the car and was willing to sell it to them for ultra cheap – like $500.

After a few days of talking with different people, I still had nobody interested in buying the car.

I KNOW the car is worth more than $500 but I just want to get rid of it, and that is why I was willing to sell it for that cheap to one of my friends.

Nobody wanted it though.

I had something of value, but I was presenting that value to people who weren’t interested in it – and got nowhere.

So this evening I decided to put the car up for sale on Craig’s list, as I know that is where the target market for buying a car like this hangs out always searching for good deals on cars.

So I posted an ad out for the car for $900 and within about 6 or 7 minutes of posting the ad, my cell phone blew up with text messages and phone calls.

Now I have someone coming tomorrow morning to pickup the car.

I had to pull the ad down as I was inundated with calls and text messages.

That is the power of taking something of value and making it visible to the right target market.

Blogging works the same way.  You can write the most valuable blog post, but if you don’t learn how to properly market your blog posts to your target market, and make them visible and available to people who are looking for that specific type of content, then your blog will remain invisible.

Here’s another example of this principle at work.

My other blog – TabletopGamer.com – has a Facebook fan page where I started posting my blog posts after I re-launched the blog a few months ago.

After re-launching the site, I started creating new content (blog posts and videos) which provide value to that audience.

However, for the past two months my Facebook fan page looked like this:

 

Completely flat lined!

The challenge being that nobody was even seeing my posts.

Even though I had about 700-800 followers on my Fan page, because the page was stagnant for the past few years, Facebook wasn’t showing any of my posts or content to any of them.

I would spend time writing a blog post or creating a video and then I’d post it on my fan page, but Facebook wouldn’t show it to anyone.

So last week I launched a small paid campaign to start showing my content to people on Facebook who are specifically interested in tabletop gaming.

The result?

Almost 1,300 new fan page likes in less than a week and a MASSIVE boost in my user engagement on the page.

A lot of times I’ll be chatting with bloggers who are struggling to get their blogs going and they almost always tend to assume that if they’re not getting traffic, not getting comments or likes or other forms of engagement on their blogs or facebook fan pages, it must mean that their content is not good.

They always question if their blog posts are good enough, or if their videos are good enough.

What most bloggers don’t pay attention to or realize is whether or not their blog posts are actually being SEEN by their target market.

Because if your target market is not even seeing your blog posts, then there’s no way for them to engage with it – RIGHT?!

This is why it’s so important to learn how to properly market and position your blog and it’s content to the RIGHT target market.

You have to learn how to be present where your target audience is hanging out.

When I was trying to sell my car to the wrong target audience, I couldn’t get ANY interest.

The minute I positioned it in front of the right target audience, I almost had to shut down my phone as I was getting inundated with texts and phone calls.

It’s the SAME CAR… the SAME VALUE… the only difference was that I made it available to the right target market.

THAT is what most bloggers who struggle are missing.

They don’t know how to properly market their blogs.

This is why I recommend joining my team with Empower Network, so that you can get access to the tools and training you’ll need to make sure your blog is actually SEEN by your target audience.

Free Car From Blogging – Goal Manifested!

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In January of this year I wrote a blog post where I set a goal to manifest a “free” car from my blog income.

When I set that goal in January, my blogging income at that point in time was at approximately negative $300, meaning my expenses to run my blog were costing me $300 more than I was making from my blog.

However, even though my then current reality was showing me one thing, I believed that I could get my blogging income to the point where I could make enough profit per month from my blog to be able to pay for a monthly payment on a brand new car.

A couple of days ago I realized that goal and I picked up my brand new car, which I’ll be paying for from my blogging income.

Before I continue, I want to offer a disclaimer.  My results are not typical.  In fact, most bloggers who try to make money blogging don’t make any money at all.

Making money in any type of business, online or offline required hard work and persistence as well as access to proper training and mentoring.

That’s why I recommend joining my team with Empower Network to get access to proper training and mentoring.

If you’d like, see our income disclosure by clicking here.

Now that we got the legal stuff out of the way, here are some pictures of my new car!

 

I decided to go for the brand new 2016 Honda HR-V compact SUV.  It offered pretty much every feature I was looking for in a car and a great price!

One of the cool things about the HR-V is what Honda calls “Magic Seats”.

The back seats in the car actually fold up, to open up a space on the floor in the back which is perfect for transporting tall items (think flat screen TV, or a plant), but for my purposes it makes it perfect for my dogs!

I will no longer need to worry about having the dogs sitting up on the back seats and getting them dirty. 🙂

Also with the dogs sitting lower, it’s safer for them, and they won’t be blocking my view in the back.

 

 

Here’s Zoe enjoying herself in the new car.  I can’t wait to start shooting some more “Driving with Paul” videos, and taking the dogs along for the ride! 🙂

 

The car is also fully loaded with pretty much every feature, bell and whistle I could ever ask for.

Full navigation system, touch-screen, amazing audio system, back-up cameras, side-mirror camera, heated seats, sunroof, bluetooth integration, push-button start, all-wheel drive, heated seats, keyless entry, and a LOT more.

I’ve had the car now for a few days and had a chance to drive it around a bit and although I’m still learning how a lot of the features work, so far I absolutely love it!

If you could get a new car paid for from blogging about your passions, what kind of car would you get?

Time For a New Car

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At the beginning of this year I wrote a blog post titled “Free Car From Blogging“, where I described my plans to use my Blog to help me generate enough income to cover the monthly cost of a car payment so that I could essentially get a new car for “free”.

Of course it’s not really “free”, but I just mean that if I could get my blog income to cover my car payment (or more), it would be like getting a free car from blogging.

One of the reasons I wanted to do that is because I really don’t like having a monthly car payment each month.

I don’t know why, but I have never really liked having a monthly car payment.

I have no problem having a monthly mortgage, or a monthly cell phone payment or any number of other monthly payments, but for some reason I’ve always avoided having a monthly car payment.

It’s probably some sort of limiting belief or engram I picked up growing up or something.

In fact over the last 10 years, my wife and I have driven two Mazda 3’s, both of which I paid for in cash so that I wouldn’t have a car payment. 🙂

Both of those cars actually serves us very well, and for the most part we had nothing but a great experience with them over the last 10 years or so.

A few months back, my wife’s Mazda 3 started to have some mechanical issues and we decided that instead of dumping money into trying to fix a car that was starting to break down, we ended up getting a new car for her.

I wrote a short blog post and shot a quick video showing the new car she got a few months ago.  You can check it out by clicking here if you’d like.

After she got her new car I started thinking about what kind of car I would want to upgrade to once I got my blogging income to the point where it would pay for a car payment.

I actually got my blogging income past that point months ago, but I wasn’t 100% sure yet whether I wanted to commit to getting something new or of I should just keep driving my old car for now.

Then, a few months ago I decided to invest in getting a personal trainer to help me get in better shape.

My personal trainer actually comes to my house once a week and trains with me for an hour making sure I’m doing all my workouts properly, with proper form etc.

Of course, this type of 1-on-1 training at home costs money, so THAT has been where I’ve been investing a portion of my blogging income in.

In essence, instead of investing into upgrading my car, I started investing in upgrading my body / fitness / strength level.

At the same time I have been keeping an eye on the car market, looking around to see if there were any cars coming out that I liked and that would fit into my lifestyle.

A few days ago, however, something happened which is now going to accelerate me getting a new car.

I was driving my Mazda 3 and all of a sudden I started hearing a really loud clunking noise when turning and driving around a corner in a parking lot.

I drove the car a little bit more, to see what was going on and the clunking persisted.

When I would drive straight, it was fine, just when I was turning it would make a noise, so I started thinking that perhaps one of my CV joints broke or something.

I managed to drive it home, and then over to my brother’s house for us to take a look at it.

My older brother is basically a self-taught mechanic, so I brought it over to his place for us to take a look.

We parked it over-night, and then yesterday we took the CV joint out but then discovered that it actually wasn’t the CV joint, but rather my transmission / differential.

What that basically means is that the car is pretty much useless now,as the cost to fix a transmission / differential on that car would cost more than the entire car is worth, so there’s really no point in me fixing it.

So what does this mean?

Well, what it means is that I manifested a situation which has lit a fire under my butt forcing me to stop procrastinating and to start looking for a new car.

It’s kind of interesting that I just wrote a blog article not too long ago where I talked about one of my friends wanting a new car and manifesting a similar situations as well.

I’m a little bit sad to see the car I’ve had for over 10 years finally packing it in, but I’m also excited about the new car I’ll be getting soon.

I’m still looking at different options as to which car I want to get, but I’ll keep you guys posted with new developments on this front.

What is exciting though is that with my blog helping me to generate some extra income each month, my car payment will be more than covered, so I’m excited about that.

If you’d like to learn how to start a blog and what it takes to make money blogging, check out this video here.

 

Blog Income Report – July 2015

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It’s time again for another Blog Income Report.

This one is for July 2015.

This month’s report is going to be a bit different from previous ones because this month I launched a second Blog that I’m going to be building out.

Unlike this blog, which is more or less my personal blog where I blog about all kinds of different topics, my second blog is a highly focused niche blog in the tabletop gaming niche.

What I’ve decided to do is to continue blogging on a daily basis, but now my blog posts are going to be spread out over the two different blogs.

I’m trying this out in response to watching my open rates and traffic stats and seeing a trend that perhaps publishing one blog post every single day, 7 days a week, is a bit too much for my readership to consume every single day.

So by splitting my content up across two blogs, I think my readership on each blog will find it easier to keep up with my updates.

Here’s a combined listing of blog posts I’ve written this month on my FreeYouNow.com blog and my TabletopGamer.com blog:

FreeYouNow.com Blog Content Report – July 2015

Here is a recap of all the blog posts I wrote this month:

That adds up to 19 blog posts written for this FreeYouNow.com blog.

TabletopGamer.com Blog Content Report – July 2015

Now here’s a listing of blog posts from my TabletopGamer.com blog:

That adds up to 13 blog posts written for my niche blog.

That’s a total of 32 blog posts this month between the two blogs, which is a bit more than one blog post per day average between the two blogs. 🙂

Blog Traffic Report – July 2015

For my traffic reports I’ve decided to really simply things and just report overall traffic to my Blogs on a monthly basis.

Here’s the traffic reports for my two blogs:

FreeYouNow.com Traffic Jan 2015 – July 2015

My traffic from Jan – July 2015 totaled 22,080 Sessions from 15,936 users, which is an average of 3,154 Sessions per month.

I had a total of 1,994 Sessions in July, which is about 37% less Sessions than my average, which is to be expected since I’ve written about 40% less blog posts this month compared to the previous months.

TabletopGamer.com Traffic Jan 2015 – July 2015

My traffic from Jan –  July 2015 totaled 1,144 Sessions from 867 users, which is an average of 163 Sessions per month.

As you can see I did have some traffic to this old Blog in January and February, and that was mostly from traffic to really old blog posts I wrote way back in 2011.  Then in March / April / May of this year I moved all my content from that Blog to my FreeYouNow.com blog, but then decided to run TabletopGamer.com as a separate blog again at the end of June which is why you see the stats pick up again in June / July.

In July I had 522 Sessions, which is about 320% more traffic compared to the 163 session average, but it’s a bit hard to compare things to an average, since in March/April / May the stats were not counted.

In either case, my combined Sessions from the two blogs in July was 2,516 sessions.

Blog Income Report – July 2015

Okay, so let’s get to the actual blog income report part of this post.

Before I start talking numbers though, just a quick income disclaimer.  My results are not typical, not guaranteed in any way, and you should check out my income disclaimer if that sort of thing floats your boat.

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, here are my stats:

Total Gross Income – $2,996.95

Total Expenses – $706.94

Net Income: $2,290.01

Alright, now that we’ve gotten the stats and numbers out of the way, let’s dive into what’s actually been happening in more detail.

Affiliate Income

My affiliate income dropped for this month as I put a lot of my focus into getting TabletopGamer.com re-launched and setup.

I’ve also been building a team website for my Empower Network team to help my team members make more money blogging faster which has been occupying more of my time.

In the short term this has resulted in me personally producing a bit less in sales this past month, but I know that in the long term this will work in my favor as I get more of my team members making more money with their blogs.

The reason why it works that way is because the way the compensation structure works in Empower Network is that the more money I help my team mates make with their blogs, the more money I make as well.  It’s a win/win type of situation.

If you’d like to learn more about Empower Network and how I make money with it, click on this link here to learn more.

Mentoring / Consulting Income

Not much has changed with my consulting income this month.

I’m continuing on with the contracts I’ve got in place, but I haven’t decided whether or not I want to take on any more consulting clients in the future as I want to primarily focus my time and energy on growing my Empower Network team and my TabletopGamer.com niche blog.

Expenses

I was able to cut down on some of my expenses this month, saving myself around $240 as compared to last month.

This was nice because even though my gross income dropped by around $330, with my expenses dropping by $240 or so, my NET income only dropped by around $110.

My Blogging Goals for July

Here were some of my main goals for June:

  • Re-Launch My TabletopGamer.com Blog – Check!
  • Continue bloggin daily across the my two Blogs – Check!
  • Keep my diet & fitness plan on track – Check!
  • Complete the first 6 lessons for my Empower Network Team site – Check!
  • Re-Launch the TabletopGamer YouTube Channel and Start Publishing Videos – Check!

Summary

To summarize, I’ve been making some changes to my blogging plan this past month or so, re-launching my TabletopGamer.com Blog, and getting my Empower Network team training portal setup with more content.

Both of these things are long term projects which will help to fuel the growth of my business in the future.

My net income dropped slightly this month, but the drop in income is negligible as compared to the value I’ll be creating in the market place with my new blog setup, and the membership site I’m building, so I know this will pay off in the long run.

If you’d like to join my Empower Network team and get mentored by me on how to make money by blogging, click here to learn more.