Autopilot blogging suggests some automated crawl and paste “bot” which creates content for you while you do nothing. While you can automate building out a blog post by getting in guest writers, I didn’t do that myself. You can also throw up content which has been shared on article writing sites such as EzineArticles.com.
There’s also software which lets you “spin” articles and re-hash them. However, as Google gets better at spotting these kinds of “spun” articles, they become worth less and less over time. I never wanted this kind of stuff on my website. I wanted to learn how to blog and for my blogs to eventually work for me, because I did the hard work already!
Autopilot Blogging – Blogging Should Be Fun
Blogging is hard work. It takes a long time for Google to reward you for blogging and give you some placement in the search rankings. When this happens, it can be glorious.
It’s still a work in progress for me, as it is for everyone I believe. When you stop creating content, Google notices. Your content slowly slides down the search rankings and eventually you disappear!
I’ve experienced this happen many times. It’s far easier to give up at this point rather than look at it as a learning exercise.
One site I built was around the mushroom harvesting niche! I knew nothing about mushrooms or harvesting them when I came up with this idea for a niche website. But I was keen to make money from a blog somehow and I had found a keyword which I thought was easy to rank a site for, and had enough search traffic to make it worth my while. See create free website earn money for more on this strategy.
When Blogging Works
Autopilot blogging works best after you’ve spent months and years creating content and sharing it to your audience. Google knows who puts in the work and who doesn’t. So I personally don’t recommend outsourcing your writing content. If you don’t want to write, why use blogging as a platform? There’s plenty of other strategies available to earn money online.
Ideally blog around your passions not to make money. Focusing on the money first is like putting the card before the horse. Let me explain. I used to focus on how great it would be making money online. My blogging reflected this and I made no money. When I turned my attention to the aspects of online business/self development which I truly loved, the money came. The reason I believe is because working on something you love is easy. Working entirely for the monetary gain is hard work and unsustainable.
Autopilot Blogging – Ikigai
I’ve mentioned Ikigai in my post on the best micro niche for blogging. It means “reason for being” and can be summed up as the intersection of your passions, interests and vocation – how you make money.
Going back to my blog on mushroom harvesting for a second; I failed with it because I had no interest in mushroom harvesting. I put the cart before the horse and focused on making money.
I built the site but it was terribly labour intensive. I couldn’t sustain my interest past 6 months or so of blogging. Each post I wrote had to be thoroughly researched since I didn’t know the subject. Eventually I fell off the rankings and another more passionate blogger took first place.
It was hard to let that site go but I had to drop it eventually. It taught me a valuable lesson: blogging shouldn’t be such hard work. I realised I should choose topics which I loved to write about. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to sustain my interest for long enough.
Monetising A Blog
Once a blog has plenty of content and visitors on it, you should be able to monetise it with Google Adsense or affiliate products. I use affiliate products because Adsense didn’t really take off for me. I didn’t get enough traffic for Adsense when I started out and my bigger successes came from selling other people’s products (affiliate marketing).
To monetise a blog, offer a giveaway product on your site and collect your subscribers email. Then follow up with a series of email messages offering value and promoting products which may be of value to your subscribers.
As your audience grows over time, you should see more and more people opting into your email list, on autopilot. To get to this stage takes time. At first you may not see any opt ins. Only about 1-3% of your visitors will opt in and it will also depend on how targeted your audience is and how well you have optimised your opt-in offer. See how to increase opt in rate on your e-commerce website.
When Your Blog Makes Money
When your blog starts making money it’s a wonderful experience. This doesn’t happen straight away. At least it didn’t for me. My sales were always very sporadic and it took time for my blog to generate any money. I went through times where I nearly gave up too. But a blog is always there to come back to if you keep at it. Rest; don’t give up!
If you keep at it for long enough, and find a good product which suits your writing style and subject matter, Google will eventually reward you and give you a ranking. Don’t wait for this to happen though. Get busy sharing your content and creating new content. It can take years for Google to rank your content, so don’t hold your breath!
But when you see someone opting it to your email list, and purchasing a product, it all become clear why you kept at it for so long. Blog income is 100% profit! At least once you’ve considered your hosting and your domain purchase etc.; a blog is a pretty cheap way to advertise.
Blogging Versus Paid Marketing
Blogging is definitely a long term marketing strategy. If you have the money, I’d suggest using paid marketing as well or instead if you don’t want to use a blog. With paid marketing you can set it up and leave it running. Paid marketing is better if you don’t have time, but have income. Blogging is better if you enjoy it and you have the time to do it.
With paid marketing you can get instant traffic. However, you’ll probably fail a number of times with it too. A marketing mindset though knows that money spent on marketing is never waster so long as you track all your adverts. Once you learn which strategies work and which don’t, you can focus you budget more effectively.
Blogging is similar only with time rather than money. You can spend a lot of time blogging and much of you content might come to nothing. But over time you’ll find what you enjoy writing about and how to promote your content for the best outcome.
The paid marketer burns through cash learning a strategy to scale up. A blogger spends time crafting content which they can leverage to generate leads and sales. The strategy you choose will determine how long it takes to make money with affiliate marketing.
Autopilot Blogging – What It Should Mean
Autopilot blogging might refer to automating content generation on a blog. However, I don’t recommend using automation or even paying a writer to create a blog for you. If you’re not into blogging, find another strategy to make money online.
Blogging is a long term strategy and if you spend money and time on it that you don’t enjoy, it will often be reflected in your content. “Autopilot blogging” for me means finding subjects which I’m passionate about and can write about easily and frequently. That way, it doesn’t seem like hard work and is fun to do. When blogging is fun, you don’t want to stop. You’re more likely to succeed because you simply enjoy the process and aren’t chasing the end result.