An idea for a blog - How Not to Make Money

Why would a significant number of people CARE about your failures? People read 'get rich' sites because they want to make money. One of the quickest ways to fail as a 'newbie' in my view is to start a blog about 'watch me learn to make money'.


Amazing how many new marketers think that's a good idea. Visitors want to read about success - not failure. MMO folks are all about 'what's in it for me' and a blog filled with 'don't' is a negative message that might be hard to spin.



But - if you are a skilled writer and can make the blog attractive to your audience, the title would be easy to remember.

I agree with the previous comment. People care about what's in it for them. And all of the niches and business models you failed in, other people have made money in.

If you're set on blogging, I would find a niche you are passionate about AND make sure you have a good unique selling proposition (something that makes you different).

If you're set on the MMO niche, you could write great articles about what you would have done differently in each of the business models you failed in. That could be interesting.

Just my two cents. Not trying to be a downer.

Yeah, this only works if ultimately you show people how you turned things around. Of course, finding an audience in that incredibly competitive space is the real challenge.

Why would people waste time in knowing how NOT to make money?
When they could spend that same time in knowing -
How they can make money.

Well, I agree with the others, to an extent. If you just make it all about failure you'll probably just make people sad, and discouraged. And that's not the best way to keep them coming back for more.

But, I'll take the contrarian view on this one... If you have some free time and nothing else to do... I say give it a try. (as long as you're not trying to actually make a bunch of money from the "get-go")

There's a chance you can make it work, but the only recommendation I have for you is to make the posts funny (or at least fun) and maybe throw in a moral to the story at the end of each post?

Sumthin' like...
-----------
"Let me tell you about the time I failed at email marketing... I had my autoresponder all set to go, I purchased a list of email addresses, and I even wrote a bunch of emails for my sequence.
Yes folks, I was ready for the big time. The only thing that held me back was I didn't have the guts to hit the send button due to my fear of failure (so that might have been what kept my response rates down to zero?)"

The moral of this story... If you want to start email marketing you can't be afraid to hit the send button.
--------------

If you become the relatable, "lovable loser" who's blooming into the wise sage, you might gain a following

It's kinda like the reason I love the old school classic Blues music. Aside from the soul grabbing riffs, it's because the sad stories let me know I'm not the only one who's had it tough in this lifetime.


So to bring it all back around to the chorus... if you have some free time and nothing else to do... I say give it a try. Who knows, it just might work. And a year from now you can come back here and tell us all about how successful you've become.



Personally, I hope you at least give it a try before you decide it won't work.
And yes, I do practice what I preach. I just started building a small copywriters community in my spare time (because what the world really needs is another one of those, right? )
But, I registered the domain for 2 years, and if I can't monetize it by then... I'll let it go, and try something else...


I'll finish this little rant with a quote from Mark Twain... "Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."


Good luck with whichever way you decide to go.

All the best,
SAR

It seems to me that everything is much simpler. Just do not need to give special attention to seo advancement. Create a blog and everything ... and no one will visit it. If I am not mistaken on the blogs earned through advertising?

People like reading success stories. Not failure. I don't think it's going to be a good idea.

I think that this is a great idea. When someone is starting out trying to make a blog that makes money, so much time is wasted making mistakes, or just doing things that seem to work on paper but just don't work in the real world.

A website that outlines what not to do is a wonderful idea and can save so many people a lot of time. The nature of man is to learn from his mistakes. Why not learn from the mistakes of others as well and save precious time?

Others replying here with negative comments are focused on the big prize and want to hear about your journey to success. The focus here is what not to do. The path that each of us takes may be DIFFERENT; therefore, focusing on your actual success is not the way to go. One reason is that there are many who discuss their success stories and try to lead people on the same path, but the mistakes that you have made can be a great resource of information for those beginning their journey.
Since success stories have been done over and over, looking at this from another point of view can give you access to those who see the world through pessimistic glasses. When you do what's been done, you are in competition with everyone else. When you do what has not been done, you are guaranteed to be ranked in the top 10.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
― Thomas A. Edison

Like most here you would probably need to swing shift the failue into a path of success within the blog, here is what went wrong and here is how to fix it.

But before that even happens, lets strip it back further and look at the why ?

Why would you want to do this, what is its purpose? are you looking to make money from it / its part of your business plan / assets, or you may be bored and just thought it would be fun ? based on a passing brain flutter?

We have one life and just wasting it it on things that are not part of of an overall direction and purpose in life, seem to, before long fall by the wayside and become just more wasted time in a bucket full of lost opportunity.

Exploring that question, I would be asking first.

"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same."
- Colin R. Davis

Everyone who is commenting negatively about this idea of talking about failures is missing the boat about the importance of what this information presents to the readers. Just because you feel that everyone wants a get rich quick site and not a site about failures does not mean that the whole world wants that.

The world we live in today was built on failures, more so than success, because it takes the understanding of failures to be successful. That is why this point of view and the information it provides is so important.

"The road to success and the road to failure are almost exactly the same."
- Colin R. Davis

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
― Thomas A. Edison

Failures are important and make a great topic for a website! Maybe not what you are expecting if you are looking for a get rich quick site, but a great topic for those who are looking for that sort of thing. Trust me, there are people who look for that sort of thing.

huh why would i really read about how not to make money?

I've seen that idea used on youtube by "course sellers" just search for "my biggest drop shipping mistakes"

It can be few posts but not the entire blog
I encourage you to try writing these few posts , people will be curious to read about things that make them fail (they know that if they reverse them, they get success)

At least this is my humble opinion , if you try it on Pinterest, you can get a sense of how it reacts with visitors

Again, you can never know until you try it

Go with one post and see the impact but make sure to create an epic post (ultimate guide)

I love the idea of reading about your failures because not a lot (if any) online entrepreneurs are talking about their failures. But failure is a part of life, it makes you learn and grow stronger. From my experience, the only way to succeed is by failing again and again. I've failed so many times but it was the only way to learn and go up.

Of course by sharing your failures with your future readers it would be nice to bring solutions too.

Btw count me in when your blog goes live.

I think you can make it work if you can make it funny. Like how "bad" food blogs can actually help you to become a better cook. Humor makes the experience easier to relate to. So if you can make funny and still impact valuable information, I think it you're on to something here.

I don't think anyone would be really interested in that. Maybe a few, but is that worth it? If it's an experience where you have turned your life around then maybe it's something that people might relate to as they might also be on the struggling stage.

I could imagine a "Category" called "Failed Ventures" with posts about your experiences and the pitfalls to avoid.

The problem might be, however, that many other people would have succeeded with just a few tweaks or methods. Will your experiences really help someone or are you just wanting to vent? You only mention two things you have tried but I can tell you that there are thousands upon thousands of people that HAVE had success with affiliate marketing or web design services.

So what does a person do after a blog about failed ventures fails?

Reading that title, immediately I'd expect some sort of comedic parody site.

'Not what to do's' are known to be comical.

If you've got that in you to execute it effectively, it could work, otherwise people are looking for roads leading North.

Keep a look out here for the guy wearing a cartoon crown.

It's staggering how many of these commenters don't get it.

First, people are MORE interested in 'problems' than they are solutions. Go look at the news for goodness sake to know this is true.

Problems have, and will always, get more attention than solutions.

In a cluttered environment where EVERYONE is banging on about success, and how to get it, even though most people struggle, it makes perfect sense that you take a different approach.

This doesn't mean your blog is going to be a hit, or a home run, it just means you have a starter to work on.

Get the attention first with differentiation, and then find a way to make it work to yours, and your readers advantage.

No idea that goes against the common norm, can be a bad idea.

There are no one-sided coins.

The fact you are hearing MOST people say it's a bad idea, is enough to look into it more.

And look, you don't need EVERYONE to think it's a good idea, you just need enough people.


Best of luck.

A blog on how not to make money?
Sounds negative. You are putting it wrong.

Here's how YOU should be MAKING Money.
And you go on talking about The Don'ts. How about that?

OP, since your topic isn't all that detail specific, I suggest you start a Youtube Channel instead

Blogging successfully has evolved quite a bit in recent years

It's not as accommodating as before