I don't pretend to be a successful blogger or trader…yet.  In fact, I am a little frustrated with both at the moment.  But I am NOT giving up.

There is one common thread that I have noticed that connects blogs that crash and burn.

However, there are a lot of trading blogs that I have seen go under.  Some of them were really good blogs by great professional traders. It was really a shame because these traders had so much to teach.

The first one that comes to mind is Ryan O'Keefe.  Now, I respect his decision to give up blogging and work on other projects.  That is his right and we can't say shit about it.

But in my opinion, it was a shame that we lost such a wealth of information.  Just like with most blogs, there were periods where he wouldn't post for a long time.  I honestly believe that this is due to this one reason and one reason only.

Does this sound familiar?

The start is always the same.  You get super excited to start a blog because it is fun and it will give you a chance to interact with people in the trading community.  You get to express your opinions and engage in some witty repartee.

You choose a great theme for your website, pick a catchy domain name and download all the free plugins.  You set up accounts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Then you start blogging.  If you are an amateur trader like me, then you start talking about your goals and why you want to be a trader.  Click here to see my very first post…so predictable.  If you are a pro or semi-pro, then you will probably start with a few posts on trading psychology or a couple of your last trades.

It is a whole new world!  Things go great for about 3-6 months.

You are blogging, you are trading, it's all good. You come up with some great ideas and content for the blog.

Then reality sets in

How many hours are you spending on blogging and social media?  How much are you getting paid for this time?

Jack crap.

So is it worth it?  Probably not.

You stop posting that often.

You stop responding to social media inquiries.

Your blog fails.

Crash and burn Maverick.

How to avoid blogger burnout

So lets take a step back and see where we went wrong.

Just like anything else in life, blogging has to be worth the time you are investing.  Would you go to a job and work for free?  Would you be trading if there wasn't a potential payoff in terms of income and time freedom?

Of course not.

Why should blogging be any different?

Yo blog has to make money!

That is the answer to creating a fail-proof blog.  Make sure that you are building an income producing asset.  Strive to have your blog make money on its own.

The fact that you are creating an asset will provide a somewhat passive income stream into the future is very motivating.  At least you know that you can get paid for your time, energy and creativity.

I personally make more money than I pay for the blog.  I don't make enough to live on yet, but I am heading in the right direction.

How do you do this?

The great thing is that there are so many ways to do this.

• Start an Email List – No seriously, do it right now!  If you want to make money from your blog, you need a list.  Provide great information in your emails and you will build up a loyal following.  Then when you promote a product, people will be more likely to buy because you have built up a relationship.  I use and recommend Aweber.
• Trading Courses – If you are a professional trader or have a system that works, you can create a course to sell to people.
• Become an Affiliate – Is there a trading course or other trading related product you believe in?  Promote it occasionally to your readers and get a commission if someone buys through your link.  A good place to start is Amazon.com.  You can get paid a commission for almost everything Amazon sells.
• Google Adsense – I'm sure you have heard of Adsense.  If you haven't, it is a super easy way to add ads to your blog and you get paid every time someone clicks on the links.  The payouts can be as much as a few dollars per click.  It won't make you rich, but it can help pay for your basic costs.
• In-Text Ads – I think that this is a better way to go.  It is not as in-your-face as Adsense and you can still create an income stream from it.  Again won't make you rich, but it can add up. Click here for more information.
• Sponsored Tweets – If you build up a big Twitter following, then you might be able to get paid by sending them occasional ad Tweets.
• Donations – Ask readers to buy you a coffee if you were able to help them.  Can easily be set up through PayPal.

Don't apologize for making money

Another thing that I see a lot on blogs is that some bloggers are very sensitive about receiving money from their readers.  Let's put it this way:

Do you feel guilty every time you make a profitable trade?

If you do, then trading probably isn't for you. But for most people the answer is no.  You put in the time, the research, devised a plan and clicked your mouse to take the trade.  Why should blogging be any different?

Promote quality products and services that you use personally and people will gladly pay money and thank you for recommending it.

Well, I hope that this post was helpful if you have a trading blog or just started one.  If you want some help starting a trading blog click here for a free tutorial on how to get started.

A case study

A great example of this is Tim Sykes of timothysykes.com.  Tim has a penny stock strategy that works well.  In fact, it is the only stock strategy that I personally trade.

Tim started out trading in his dorm room in college and managed to turn about $12,000 into $1.6 million.  From there, he started a hedge fund.  That didn't go so well because he had trouble with redemptions and penny stocks are not a scalable trading strategy.  You really can have too much money when trading penny stocks.

From there, he decided to get into blogging and teaching and he has never looked back.  This is just hearsay, but from what I heard recently, he makes about $10k a month trading and about $100k a month from his websites.

Not too shabby.

You can do it!

Thanks for reading and let's go make some money!