I am an Emotional Intelligence Trainer, Empowermentalist and Multidimensional Awareness Coach by trade. My professional background is Sales and Coaching.
After relocating to the US (from Germany), I became sick before I even had health insurance. I had no technical knowledge whatsoever, but I knew for a few months I would have to work from home. And I knew I would make it work. And I did - by offering my coaching services virtual. And even psychic readings in the beginning which was not really a highlight of my career.
Later, when I felt the urge to help more people and needed a broader platform for my coaching business, it was time for a website.
I started out on a community with over 20k members, probably around 2000 active, that all had the same goal.
Did you know that most new websites and blogs never become profitable and fail? I was not aware of that until I saw it live. There were only very few people who could earn a living with their websites and blogs.
I was struggling too. In the first month, nobody seemed to visit my blog or dig what I was sharing. All of the negative voices made me insecure. All of the people I saw failing made insecure. And the huge amount of "get rich quick" "all you need is SEO" articles, tools, webinars, and videos made me lose so much time.
I had no idea was SEO, HTML etc are. My site looked ... well, it looked like there was quite some room for improvement. I am not a native speaker - my posts are far from perfect. That was probably my biggest insecurity.
Also, I was not on any social media site and had no list. I started at zero with an accent.
How would I be able to succeed with my blog when so many of those wonderful people with great content who often were on the internet for years failed? People with extensive technical knowledge. Native speakers. People with social following and lists. I followed a discussion on hubpages.com where experienced bloggers were discussing if it is possible to make a living with the blog. They all said "no".
But my blog started to make money and, more importantly, generate some valued readers. Many of the loyal wonderful people are still with me now. I love them. Without them there would be no me.
Some of the people on the site I mentioned earlier started to ask me how I "do" it when they learned that my blog started to make money. My motivation was to reach more people that I could serve with my Coaching service - money was not my main motivation.
My coaching business aside - In the first month, my blog made 0.2 cents. Thanks to Google Adsense that I deleted from my site. The second month ended with 2.889.96 $. The third month was more fun with over 4 K.
And that is the naked truth. I know that that is far, far away from the numbers most people who want to sell their internet- and marketing tools and programs tell you. Make 200k in a week with a one-page website and other false claims are all over the internet.
Around 88 % of the people who start new websites and blogs are never able to make a living from them.
Before I left the site, I posted a few articles on how the people can achieve more success with their sites and blogs. The reactions were very positive and I had like an "aha" moment when I tried to analyze what I did "do" differently.
I noticed that the two reasons people fail have nothing to do with technicality. The two reasons are: Mindset and Sales skills. With "sales" I do not refer to pushy messages. Or "guerilla" marketing. With "sales" I refer to some fundamental basics of every business. Like defining your customer. And the ability to generating trust and connection with your readers and clients.
Don´t get me wrong. Ranking on Google and knowing some basic technical things is essential. But a business does not fail or succeed because of the choice of a twitter automation tool.
I know very successful people with horrible websites. And many unsuccessful businesses with perfect SEO and whatnot.
On my journey through the jungle of useful and not useful advice, I learned that you can get easily lost in the sea of product recommendations and false claims.
I decided to post about what works to help you to focus on what matters and started this side-project. There is no newsletter, no commitment - I will add here whenever my time allows me and I have something to say.
You are very welcome to sign up for the newsletter for my Coaching Business, though, if you are interested in these topics. Aurorasa Coaching
There is not one product on the market that offers what an Entrepreneur really needs. The product I would have wished for does not exist.
I am in the process of creating a product that will help those 80 % to succeed.