In2013, my brother told me the concept of blogging and the tantalizing idea of earning money from Google AdSense.
He had friends who were making a decent income simply by copying and pasting content from popular sources.
My brother even tried it himself for a few months, but he eventually gave up due to the technical challenges involved.
The idea of making money by writing online intrigued me. However, I wasn’t fully convinced and decided to focus on my academics instead.
It wasn’t until 2016, during my third year of engineering college, that my interest was revived. I met Rahul, a fellow student who was already making $150 a month from blogging — a significant sum in India at the time.
What amazed me most was that Rahul wasn’t particularly has any related skills in any way, yet he was earning a substantial side income.
That day, I decided to start my own blogging journey.
So, that very evening, I went home, ate dinner, and dove into researching everything I could about blogging: what it was, how to start, how to do it for free, and, of course, how much money I could potentially earn.
After a few days of intensive research, I felt ready to take the plunge. I chose BlogSpot as my platform since it was free, popular, and a Google product.
I spent the next few days watching YouTube tutorials and learning the ins and outs of BlogSpot.
Setting up my blog took a bit longer than expected because I struggled to find the perfect theme, but eventually, I found a third-party template that fit the bill.
Finally, my blog was live!
Now, I was eager to start creating content, attracting visitors, and monetizing my site with AdSense.
In my excitement, I overlooked a crucial step: defining my niche. I didn’t even know how to write a proper blog post, conduct keyword research, or understand search engine rankings.
In my haste to make money, I haphazardly chose “Mechatronics & Robotics” as my niche, a topic loosely related to my mechanical engineering studies.
However, when I opened the BlogSpot post editor, my mind went blank.
I couldn’t even come up with a title. The initial excitement quickly faded. It took me almost a week to write my first 1,000-word post.
After churning out 12–15 low-quality articles over the next 40 days, I considered giving up. But somehow I managed to overcome my emotions — a valuable lesson I learned early on.
I realized that success isn’t solely determined by immediate results. It’s about perseverance and not letting emotions dictate your decisions.
My motivation was to money online through AdSense. But, still It took eight long months of consistent effort to make my first dollar.
Some of you may laugh, but those nine months taught me the invaluable skill — “Patience”.
Patience is a rare and powerful quality, especially in today’s fast-paced world. Without patience, we’re more likely to give up when faced with challenges.
Impatience can lead to rash decisions, missed opportunities, and unfulfilled potential. It’s about scratching the surface without ever delving deeper, never mastering a new skill because the initial hurdles seem too high.
So the next time you feel that impatient urge, take a moment to breathe and remember that good things take time.
During my early blogging years, I may not have made any money, but I gained invaluable skills like patience and emotional control — skills that no one can teach you.
These qualities helped me recollect myself and start again. This time, I was more confident, knowledgeable, and have some bad experiences that taught me good lessons.
To start again, I decided to shift my focus from “making money from AdSense” to “sharing my true expertise.”
At that time, my true expertise was the failure of my first blog. I had learned so many things that most people ignore initially. For example, I barely cared about “choosing a niche,” never did keyword research, and had no content planning.
So, this time I was aware of choosing a niche that talked about blogging.
Next, I chose WordPress as my blogging platform because it is flexible, beginner-friendly, and more scalable than BlogSpot (which has limited features).
I bought a new domain (http://beginnersblog.org) that suited my blog niche and then chose Hostinger, one of the cheapest hosting services for long-term subscriptions.
I bought a 4-year business plan for just $191. It might seem like a reasonable investment for beginners, but believe me, if you somehow survive 4 years, you could make 100 times that in just a year.
Blogging takes time; you have to think long-term. You have to plan years ahead to turn your $0 into a $2,000 or $20,000 per month blog. In 6 years of my blogging journey, I developed invaluable qualities and skills. A few of these qualities are…
Qualities…
- Patience
- Consistency
- Emotional Control
- Optimistic
- Never give up attitude
- Networking
- Critical-thinking
Skills…
- Content writing
- Marketing skills — like affiliate marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, paid advertising.
- Technical skills — like building a website from scratch, set up email marketing funnel, simple coding etc.
- Social Media Growth
- Lead Generation
Qualities helped me persevere in my blogging career, and skills helped me build something tangible, like my blog.
Fast-forward to today, I’ve published over 250 articles, grown my Pinterest to 13,000 followers, and my LinkedIn to 6,000. I also grew my Medium following from 0 to 1,400 before my account was unfortunately suspended.
Today, when I look back, I feel thankful for the decisions I made. It’s clear that your future is a reflection of your past. So don’t waste your time trying to fit into other people’s shoes. Have your own shoes so that you can define your own destiny.
Today is going to become your past. If you make a good decision today and start acting on it, after 1, 2, or 5 years, you’ll be proud of your decisions.
If you are still with me, I’m sure you have found my story intriguing. If so, let me ask you…are you going to make a good decision today?
Leave a comment, please.
PS:) As you know, I’m a blogger with over six years of experience. If you’ve ever dreamed of starting a blog but haven’t taken the leap, today is your chance to begin your blogging journey.
I invite you to join my email list, where I share everything I’ve learned about blogging. ( Subscribe & Get 25+ AI side hustles that make me an extra $4,821 a month!)
