Hey guys what's up welcome back to my Channel now this is the second YouTube Video in a row that I'm doing in a sit Down chit chat type of style this isn't My typical YouTube video so if you are New here don't worry this isn't what I Do all the time but it is something that I do like to do just so I can sit down And talk with you guys on a real level And share some real advice I love Sharing a lot of tips and jumping around And having fun creating my videos but Sometimes I feel like we just need to Have a heart-to-heart and talk about Some things so one of the questions I Get asked a lot and probably one of the Questions I get asked the most is how Can I take my beginner blog and Transform it into a full-time business How can I work for myself full-time and It always breaks my heart when I hear People say I know I have enough work to Do it full-time and I'm really Struggling to balance my full-time job And my blog being my side hustle and I Just want to do it full-time fine the Problem is they don't have the money They don't have the income to back them Up and that is the key to creating a Successful business within your blog is Having the money to back you up you Cannot work full-time by yourself if you Do not have the money to back you up and Trust me I made this mistake and that's
Why I'm going to preach it time and time Again because guys when I first went Into working full-time by myself I had a Client that was paying me pretty good Money I was making about the same amount That I was making when I was working my Full time job with my first client but That client ended up leaving me after a Month and I was left there struggling Because my other income streams didn't Have enough money flown in to support me So if you think that you can just jump Full-time by yourself and the more work You put into your blog and the more time You dedicate to it the money is going to Come it comes at different times for Every single person and it may take a While for you to actually make good Money so I would never ever advise that Someone jump into it too soon because You might end up having to go get Another part-time job or go back to work Just like I did so I just want to like Be real with you guys today and talk About some things that I think you need To do to start treating your blog like a Business that you can rub it to be ready Once you are at the point where you feel Like you can move full time by yourself And the very first thing we have to talk About is money this should be it no Surprise at all guys if you want to be a Successful blogger if you want to work Full time by yourself
You need The money to back you up to support you Because it's not like your bills are Ever gonna go away it sound like you can Live with your parents forever you need To make sure that you have your own Income flowing in so you can afford your Lifestyles that you can't afford the Things that you need just to survive so Let's talk a little bit about money you Want to become a full-time blogger you Really need to figure out where your Money is going to be coming from and how Much money you need to make so if you Are at the point where you're thinking About moving out of your parents house And you realize that you have to pay Rent you have to pay electric you have To pay like your phone bill and all of That stuff you need to create a list of All of your bills all of your expenses For the month and figure out what is the Minimum amount that you have to make to Cover that then you want to figure out How you are going to make money and this Comes back to your income streams what Income streams do you already have with Your blog and want income streams can You create so it might be ads affiliate Marketing it might be sponsored post Maybe you got a paid product out there Maybe you sell your services there are a Lot of different income streams that you Can create with your blog so what are
The income streams that you already have And what income streams can you create In the future then once you know where Your money is coming from with those Income streams and how much money you Need to make you can kind of break it Down by group by income stream and Figure out ok I need to make at least $300 every single month with affiliate Marketing and those little goals will Help to hold you accountable and it Gives you something to work towards so Once you kind of have that action plan You've got that money plan then you can Create the steps on how you are actually Going to make that money so let's say You want to make money by landing Sponsored posts and by working with Brands well how are you going to do that It's not just going to happen overnight You need to actually start reaching out To companies you need to start buying Products using them and testing them Talking about them on social media for Free before you get to the point where They will actually pay for you to talk About them so you need to build up your Audience obviously first and foremost if You want to become a successful blogger You need to build up your audience but You also need to make sure that you were Building those relationships so that you Can make that money and the exact same Thing goes with affiliate marketing you
Want to make more money with affiliate Marketing you need to apply to affiliate Programs you need Including those links on your website And you need to start mentioning those Companies on social media tag them get Their attention so that hopefully they End up promoting you and you make more Affiliate sales in the future so you Need to create a set money plan for Yourself and an action plan as to how You are going to start making that money Then because we are all on the topic of Money I feel like we need to talk about Accounting a little bit and I did shoot Another YouTube video that talks about The business side of blogging where I Bring up taxes and all of that fun stuff But times is our real thing and you Really do need to pay your taxes as a Blogger and if you don't you could end Up screwing yourself in the future and I Do not want that for you guys so you Need to make sure that you are managing Your money properly my first year in Business with my blog I wasn't working Full time but my first year I was still Making money and I did not keep that Good of Records guys yes I cooked my Receipts I kept my invoices and I kept My expense emails that I got from Companies but it wasn't enough it really Wasn't enough and I learned after that First year that I needed to a better
Keep track of my finances and where my Money was going as well as where my Money was coming from when it was coming In so I got QuickBooks so if you can Afford an accountant I would highly Recommend that you get an accountant me Personally I love using QuickBooks it's A great way for me to track my expenses And my income and then Alex helps me out With my accounting because he is Actually an accountant and a finance guy So you definitely need to make sure that You have got your finances under up and I would highly recommend QuickBooks I Will include a link down below if you Guys want to learn a little bit more About QuickBooks and then you really Need to think about some of the other Legal stuff so I would say getting an Accountant is pretty it's pretty serious You know it's pretty serious but you Need to think about the legal stuff so That you can cover your butt so do you Have copyright on your website do you Have got a terms and conditions page do You have a privacy policy these are all Things that you need up on your website And they include really important Information if you do not have that guys And then you try to transform your blog Into a business and let's say you start Making $100,000 a year and you do not Have those legal things in place you Could really end up messing with the
Future of your blog because you're not Covering your butt on the basis of just Disclosing ads or disclosing affiliate Links or disclosing like your sponsored Posts and how they work you need to make Sure that That stuff is laid out on your websites That your audience knows exactly what They're getting into now I have to say a Lot of people will not actually look at Your terms and conditions or your Privacy policy but it is there for a Reason So you definitely make sure that you Have those in place on your website but Along with that you also want to make Sure that whenever you include an Affiliate link guys that you have a Disclaimer in place so if you are Including a affiliate link on your blog Post your disclaimer needs to be above That affiliate link before it's even Mentioned you need to have a disclaimer On that page saying that that page Includes affiliate links if you include Affiliate links in your description bar On your YouTube videos you need to have A disclaimer down there in your Description bar and I make it an Automatic setting so that whenever I Upload a new video that snippet is Automatically added to my description Bar I don't have to add it every single Time that way I am protected no matter
What and then some other things that you Might not think about would be to create A contract template so if you are Thinking about working with brands in The future they may ask you to send them A contract most of the time they are Going to have a contract themselves but If you are signing on clients and you Are doing services for them you need to Have a contract in place guys it is Going to cover your but in case someone Doesn't want to pay you or if someone's Gonna argue that you didn't complete the Services that you said you would Complete having a contract is so so Important so one thing you can do you Can just go to Google look up a contract Template and kind of modify it yourself Make it apply to you and the services That you provide and completely Customize it brand it the way you want To brand it and save it as your contract Template that is what I do with all of The contracts that I send to my clients I have a general template that I Modified and I adjust but one thing I do Want to tell you guys is that for every One of my services I do have a different Contract it makes my life a whole lot Easier if I have a specific contract for Writing Pinterest manage my clients Compared two of my general consultant Client so I already have that already Laid out for me so whenever I sign on
One of those new clients I can just kind Of fill in the blanks and it saves me a Lot a lot of time and then the last Template that I think you guys should Create is an invoice template so if you Are going to be billing companies or You're billing your clients again if for Certain services you need to make sure That you have got an invoice already set Up for you that you can just fill out Really easily And send it to them as fast as possible So I used QuickBooks as well as PayPal For my invoicing and I have got a custom Template that includes my name my Business name my address my contact Information the services that I'm going To provide for them my logo as well as Their stuff a little thank-you snippet On there like thank you for your Business I look forward to working with You and that stuff can all be modified Depending on the client that I am Signing on but I definitely recommend Having an invoice template and if you Use PayPal it is free to create an Invoice template with PayPal but what I Will say is that they do take a Percentage or they do charge you a Little bit of a fee for every single Invoice you receive through PayPal but If you are serious and I am talking like So so serious about growing your blog And you feel like right now it's just
Not growing and you're just not making Steps to get to that full-time position That you want to take on with your blog I would say that you need to reserve at Least two hours every single week to Work on big picture products I try to Take a whole entire day to work on Bigger things things that are gonna push My blog forward so whether that's Different marketing strategies whether That is creating a new product or maybe Just reaching out to companies and People that I want to work with I Reserve time to do that because I know If I'm spending every single week just Taking Instagram photos I'm watching Blog posts and launching YouTube videos My blog actually isn't going to grow and I'm not really going to be making that Much money off of those strategies for a Long long time yes the more content you Create the better you're going to reach More people are gonna have a more Opportunity for growth in the future the More affiliate links you include on your Website the better you've got a more Opportunity for people to click on them And make more money in the future but Those are really long-term strategies And I love having those long-term Strategies in place but if you want to Achieve your goals you have to go after Them you have to work for them and you Have to do things that you haven't been
Doing in the past that's going to push You and your blog forward so I would Highly recommend you take at least two Hours a week guys two hours is not that Much time that is just like two hours of Whatever TV show you love on Netflix so Please preserve the time to work on Those things because otherwise your blog Isn't gonna grow and you're gonna keep Coming back and you're gonna tell me Life's at my blog growing why can't I Work for myself and your You're never going to be ready to take That big leap so that is it for this YouTube video I hope you guys liked it And found it helpful I honestly like Doing these more so sit-down chitchat Serious talk about some other things Here on my youtube channel so I really Hope you guys liked it if you did please Give a thumbs up and make sure that you Subscribe to my channel and I'll see you Guys back here in another video really Soon bad guys [Music]