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Home » The Famous Blog » A Journal Log of My First $1000 Earnings

A Journal Log of My First $1000 Earnings

January 26, 2012 - Last Modified: March 29, 2014 by Liane 1,305

My First $1000 Earnings

Don’t raise that eyebrow yet! I’m no online marketer and I promise you that you won’t end up clicking (or even seeing) a link that will lead you to an opt-in newsletter or six levels of overhyped sales funnels. No seriously. This is just me telling  you how I got my first $1000. For real.

On Hitting the $1000 Mark

If you asked me years ago on my opinion about making $1000, I would’ve walked out of the conversation because I believe it’s just too good to be true. So if you feel that way right now, don’t worry. I get where you’re coming from because I’ve been there… and for a really long time actually.

Don’t get me wrong though. I tried my best in the MMO niche. From affiliate marketing to selling blog adspace, I’ve tried them all. But long story short, it just didn’t seem to work. I was getting nowhere and the first $1000 seems to be as elusive as ever.

Until my perspective changed.

My Story

I used to be a full-fledged blogger for around 2-3 years (and some people like Hesham still remember me from back then) until I sold my blog about a year-and-a-half ago. Why did I sell it? Because I couldn’t find the time and motivation. Was it the best decision that I made so far? H*ll yes!

Before you even start thinking of selling your blog, I’m just going to clarify that it’s not my point. It’s just part of my story.

Anyway… after selling my blog, I had no idea what to do. I mean, I sold it to get more time, but in the end, I was clueless on how to make the time ‘useful’ so to speak. So for a few months, picture me going on with my daily life with zero idea or means of how to reach my $1000 goal.

This is where my $1000 log journal begins, and hopefully it will inspire you to reach the mark as well.

November 2010:

I’ve been blogless for about 2-3 months now and I don’t have any means of making money online. But I’m still very dedicated to the goal. I realized that if I were to succeed, I needed to do something that I have never tried before because a lot of things that I have read or heard have turned out to be worthless fluff. At the end of the day, it’s important to segregate all the fluff from the real lessons.

make money online

I began to brainstorm for ideas. What do I want? Earn a lot. How? By doing something that I utterly enjoy and is profitable. Remember the Batman movie where The Joker says “If you’re good at something, you shouldn’t do it for free”? Well, that’s my motto.

December 2010:

This month, it hit me. I want to create a graphic design business because #1, I love graphic designing and #2, it’s profitable. I am very sure of these two things. However, I had to think realistically for it to work. Graphic designing is a very saturated market and it’s very hard to break into the business. I figured that I have to construct a feasible business plan.

Thanks to the lessons I remembered from great marketing guys, I realized that niche targeting is the key (and it’s also something you learn through blogging!). So since I was a blogger back then (and still am to some extent) I figured that maybe I could target my graphic design business to the blogosphere. Right then and there, I knew it was the right direction.

Since I have a very small amount of capital, I did the work on my own. I built the website, scouted for the team, and did the initial designs. Within a few weeks, I was ready to launch.

January 2011:

I launched the Blog Design Team. I’ll be very honest when I say that I have no idea if it’ll be profitable or not. What I know is that I have a unique service that I could capitalize on. So I did just that.

Launching is a hard thing. Especially if you have zero advertising funds (yes as in zero!).

My only chance was to be creative and resourceful. So how did I initially promote it with no money to shell out? Contacting people. It’s always about finding the right people! Emails are free but it’s invaluable to any business. I built a portfolio from scratch and even worked for free at first just to start the word of mouth buzz. And it worked!

February to March 2011:

I got initial clients within a few days. Money rolled in (and I almost couldn’t believe it!). The trick is to get positive feedback and keep wow-ing people with the quality of the work that I (and my team) provide.

At this point though, I was hungry for more. So I sought a much bigger challenge: to get into a top blog and make BDT’s name more recognizable. It requires effort and a lot of time (which I now have) but I managed to pull off  a quality post and had it published at Problogger (dream come true! And I never even managed this back when I had a decent blog).

After getting a lot of publicity from that single post, more clients rolled in. It was the “ta-da!” moment of my online career.

March to Present (January 2012):

Truth be told, I reached my $1000 even when I was just half-way through year 2011. In fact, for the whole year I have earned roughly around $2500 in net profits including all my freelance work. I know it’s not a big number for some, but it’s a HUGE improvement from the zero profit that I was sitting on a few months back.

Up to this day, I continue with my business and I never looked back again to that day when I sold my blog. This year I hope to grow my profit exponentially!

Conclusion (My No B.S. Lessons):

If you were to suddenly forget all MMO stuff that you’ve learned for free or for a fee, then just remember my great epiphany. If you want to make a lot of money online you only need to know what you can do and if people would be willing to pay you for it.

My $1000 Formula = You + Profitable Business

I may be a good blogger but I’ve acknowledged that I’m not that good at making money out of it. Therefore, if I choose to be a blogger, I do so because I just love the act itself. People used to keep saying the cliche that if you love doing something, then money comes after it. But as far as my reality check is concerned, that’s not the whole truth. Yes money comes after passion, but the passion should be something that you know how to monetize in the first place.

There are things you love doing that won’t get money. Whether or not you want to keep doing this is up to you (because what’s money without happiness right?). But if you’re adamant about pursuing a track that’s both fulfilling and profitable, then you have to dig further… as the golden rule says- take action!

And that’s the decision that led me to my first $1000. Comments? Insights? Share your own experiences!

Image © Mike Kiev – Fotolia.com

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Filed Under: Business, Online Business

About Liane

Follow @BlogDesignTeam

I created the Blog Design Team. It's the blogosphere's premium design service destination if you haven't heard ;) I currently specialize in helping amazing people kickstart with a wicked logo.

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{ 43 Responses }

  1. Samuel says:
    Congrats man. Getting to that point in the beginning can make or break you. Once you have figured out a plan or strategy to get there, things will start rolling. That post on Problogger is a very good one and you got excellent feedback from it.
  2. Bishwajeet says:
    Reaching the first 1000$ is the toughest part,but once you cross that it's easy to get another 1k USD
  3. Mark says:
    This is a very inspirational, yet a very true story. many people go directly to blogging when they want to start making money online. However, i advise everyone to start a service based business, and then move to blogging as it requires a lot of resources (if it's not money, it's definitely time). Thanks M Mark
    • Liane says:
      Good to hear that you agree Mark! Thanks!
  4. sai krishna says:
    wow ! really very inspiring story and detailed explanation Liane .. your "Blog Designing Team " website is looking very nice and all the best for future :)
    • Liane says:
      Thanks Sai! I try to keep it on top shape everyday! :D
  5. Wong Chendong aka The Bad Blogger says:
    I think you still remember me, and I still remember you wrote a review of my blog years back when you are still blogging, and today while reading through some post here, I saw a familiar name, and to my surprise it was you and I got to say congrats to your success :)
    • Liane says:
      Yes of course I remember you Mr. The Bad Blogger! Hahaha. Long time actually. It's great we're still both around the net. Goodluck to your blog as well :D
  6. Hannah M says:
    While I still have some projects, I have found that my freelancing work has paid off far beyond my imagination. Like you mentioned, when you do great work, it seems like everyone and their brother knows. If fact, my freelance projects have become so big, I need an assistant to help me with programming!
  7. Dennis says:
    Congratulations Liane. I know the feeling.. I had my first $1000 month last month... Difference between us though is you're selling your own service/product.. That's my next move.. Your blog is killer too.. and that's a good thing by the way.. Question... When you sold your blog, were you getting a lot of a traffic or making a certain amount of money? I'm actually thinking about selling one of my blogs.... Thanks Dennis
    • Liane says:
      Thanks Dennis! About your question, well if you want a good price then it's necessary for it to be making a certain amount of traffic and money. But regardless, you can still sell your blog at any rate given that it has its own domain name and hosting. It's just a matter of figuring out the right price for the right buyer :)
  8. Caleb says:
    Great line from the Joker. Sounds like the other lesson to be learned here is to get your content on other popular sites that act as an endorsement of sort like you did with Problogger ;)
    • Liane says:
      Thanks! It's always been my fave movie quote ;)
  9. TJ McDowell says:
    Liane, I tried the Make Money Blogging thing too, and it didn't go too far for me. Then I started concentrating on using blogging to build my existing business instead, and it's done wonders. I've managed to get on the radar of some pretty amazing people by writing about different products. I think you're headed about the same direction as we are. Using your blogging sense to help you stand out from the crowd.
    • Liane says:
      Yes we're definitely on the same direction right there :) Makes me realize how much this message should spread across thousands of other struggling bloggers. Best of luck!
  10. Michael says:
    This is the most inspiring story I've ever read. Yes, blogging in itself cannot make you money. It's not about passion, it's about profitable passion where people are willing to pay for services. If you've a passion for clapping, how would you make money from it? Lol! You finally reached your $1000... that's so amazing. I'm glad I've set clear goals for my business this year 2012 and I hope to reach $5,000 per month. BTW: One of my goals for 2012 was to earn $2,000 per month. I didn't realize this goal until September when I earned more than that from few freelance projects. Don't give up Liane, graphic designs is in high demand and I would like to work with you. Are you by any chance looking for skilled graphic designer? I'm available
    • Liane says:
      Thanks Michael! Wow that's pretty amazing on your part too! About your question, sadly I don't have any opening right now for another graphic designer BUT if you're pretty good ad designing Wordpress theme then you might be interested in this (http://blogdesignteam.com/announcement/were-looking-for-the-best-wordpress-theme-designers/). Will launch it soon!
  11. DiTesco says:
    Hi Liane. good to see that you have found your "sweet niche" and that it is doing well. I do remember way back that you had a good thing going with your blog and the "design" was the one that caught more my attention, considering it was on blogger. Correct me if I am wrong but I think that I am not making confusion. Anyway, regardless, I find your story quite impressive and very inspiring. Hopefully, people who are reading this will find it the same as I did :) Keep up the good work
    • Liane says:
      Yup I started out as blogger but eventually (well everyone does haha) made the switch to Wordpress. And I've been learning tons more of wp and design tricks ever since :) Thanks DiTesco! You're blog's going strong too so congrats as well to that!
  12. Deep says:
    Hey Liane thanks for the article is a great source of inspiration for newbie bloggers. Congratulations for your first 1000$ bucks.
  13. Devesh says:
    Hey Liane, that break you took being blogless finally paid off. Congratulations for your 1000$ I believe there be lots more soon.
    • Liane says:
      Yeah really looking forward to up-scaling everything :) Gonna work harder. Thanks Devesh!
  14. Jane says:
    Yes, you are right. simply having passion is not enough. If you are really serious you will dig deep into it. sometimes, it is required to learn from mistakes as well. consistency over a period of time will yield result.
  15. Tushar says:
    You really adopted a very good and planned strategy to your business and it is getting results. Keep on going
  16. Supriyadi Pro says:
    What is it true that the way you convey?
    • Liane says:
      What do you mean Supriyadi? :)
  17. Jamie Northrup says:
    Thanks Liane for sharing your journey to $1000 (or $2500), it just shows that if you work hard you can make it work, don't stop and you'll just keep growing.
    • Liane says:
      Well that's the rule-- to never ever stop growing :D
  18. gary says:
    Hi Liane - nice post. I have had a blog running for a while now and am just starting to look at the option of making some money from it so all the tips I can absorb really help. cheers Gary
    • Liane says:
      It's all about finding a monetization strategy that works Gary. Different niches needs different approaches. Perhaps it's time you asses your plan, do some focusing for example. Goodluck!
  19. Abhi Balani says:
    Hey, Liane! It was really a great experience. I enjoyed reading the whole article. Learning from other's experiences is very good thing. We can ignore mistakes which others did. Thank you very much for sharing. Right now I am reading you post at ProBlogger.
    • Liane says:
      Hope you enjoy my Problogger post Abhi ;)
      • Abhi Balani says:
        Of course, I did. Shouldn't I? LOL I'd be so grateful if you'd read the post linked below and, if you enjoyed it, leave a comment to let me know!
        • Liane says:
          Reading it right know! haha
          • Abhi Balani says:
            Thank you for that. :-)
  20. Andrew says:
    Liane Nice story and well done to you. We all take 'twists and turns', make mistakes until we finally find what we are really good at, take action and go for it. I've been running my on-line business for 6 years now. I started off making far too many mistakes and entering niches that were just not successful. But as I say above...it takes mistakes (and failures) to eventually find what you are good at. For the first 3 years of running my business I also worked full-time but then I took the big step and left the 9-5. For the past 3 years...it's been full-time all the way and I have loved every minute. When do you think you'll be earning $1k a month? Andrew
    • Liane says:
      Well that's my new goal Andrew! Up to this point I'm not sure when but I've already drawn up some plans to scale-up my design business. Hopefully within a year I could reach that mark. I'll let you know ;)
  21. Liz says:
    Wow! So inspiring! I am also earning online but I am not taking down how much I've earned up to this point. Nor the dates when I earned them. Haha. I'm fine with it but I guess I have to track it down now and start highlighting them on my next post. :)
    • Liane says:
      You do that Liz :) It'll make you more aware of your web business! But actually it's really not about tracking, it's more of both having tangible goals and making them happen at the same time :) Goodluck!
  22. abhiz says:
    Great post, truly an inspiration for newbies
    • Liane says:
      That's what I'm hoping! Thanks!
  23. Dave Lucas says:
    Nice of you to share your story, Liane! The graphics on your old blog, which isn't part of this story, were eye-catchers. You were wise to tap into your sense for design! Continued success to you!
    • Liane says:
      Gee thanks Dave! Yeah I pretty much had my design baby-steps from my previous blog. I think that was really my training ground back then. Just lucky to have figured out that I could turn that into something more serious :)

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