There internet is filled with websites that have
Free This
Simple That
I've tried a lot of out there and let's just say… most are not what I needed (easy)
Back in college (1992-1996) at the University of Texas at Austin, All the rage was GeoCities.
So I got the bright idea to get online and put up photos, music, and updates on a “website”… at that time I had no clue what a BLOG was and why you would want one as a one person shop.
I learned the hard way.
I started to play with Dreamweaver and Frontpage Express
O M G
It was so bad and painful.
Being able to update, keep up, post, and interface with them was a pain in the butt.
Then came Blogger.com
Check out the Very first blog post I ever had on my blogger website
I can't even spell right… no joke. I wrote
“This is my firt blog. I'm trying to get with the tech savvy.”
That is so dang funny.. The first official blog post (after geocities, frontpage, dreamweaver fails…) and I butcher a post and show how bad I can't spell and type at the same time (that's gotta be a skill in some cultures… right?)
The idea I want to drive home is this.
In 2002 I was brand new to blogging. My very first blog post sucked. I don't know anyone else who had a worse blog post starting out.
But if you fast forward to 2015 I'm featured as one of the best bloggers on the net and even featured in this documentary as a million dollar blogger. (click image below to see my interview)
*my wife refused to get involved in the business until I made more money (wives… they know what they want), and so I just focused and retired her from accounting and myself from engineering in 2011 with blogging. (income disclaimer – results will vary – avg income results)
I can't say it was a complete waste of time using that old platforms but one thing I did learn… It's not built for people who are looking to make some money from home.
My old blogger blog is littered with adsense ads, and it's monetization strategy on blogger is NOT to be an affiliate…..
They want you to drive traffic so THEY can make money.
I didn't realize this but it made sense.
Servers and hosting costs money, but this blog platform is free… how do these free platforms make money?
Once I saw the inside and as a business owner I had to move on and learn how to really build a business without those restrictions.
But after having started from a simple blogger.com blog back 2001-2002 to mainly communicate to my family and friends I started to understand
There are REAL transactions being made online.. without a phone call or hotel gathers….
I saw you could write content, and you could potentially make some money online.
To me it was genius.
And that brought me to scouring the net on platforms that catered to someone like me
- looking to make money online
- no restrictions on what I want to promote and sell on my website
- hosting cost won't kill me if I get traffic to the website
- is there a community of people I can connect with and even meet in person?
- are they growing with the times (upgrades)
- can the system help mentor me to making money online?
That got me blogging on different platforms and that's when I found this blog system below.
- Built for Business Owners (even part time ones like I was in 2008)
- Created by affiliate marketers FOR affiliate marketers (this was a big one for me)
- A community of like minded business marketers looking to push the envelope (I love the community)
I found a place I can work with, and one I can refer my friends and business associates to.
I wanted to spend more time building my side internet business, not pulling my hair out on the techie stuff.
So this could be a blog about
- buying domains
- finding authority aged websites
- private blog networks
- leveraging Web 2.0 sites
- Tumblr or WordPress or Custom – Content Management System (CMS)
- hosting with cookie cutter servers or go wordpress manages or vps or dedicated
- themes
- plugins
- security
- support
- HTML
- CSS
- SSL
- etc
Just being real with you? 99% of the people looking to get online could care less about all that technical mumbo jumbo. They just want a platform that is easy to take care of and fun to use.
Eventually people learn as they go but to be “slapped silly” with technical words and methods.. it's a huge bummer.
That's why I always refer to the simple and look for systems that play into the hands of helping the
- start up business person
- the weekend warrior
- the first time entrepreneur
- the work at home mom
There is this one blog platform that is built my bloggers and affiliate marketers because they KNOW what's it's like.
It's about K.I.S.S
Keep It Simple Stupid
That's what my professor always said at UT…. don't over complicate, use systems that work and tweak as much as you can to get to your goals. Building from scratch isn't ideal (it's a waste of time)
Check out this video on the
#1 For Profit Blog Network On Planet Earth
Lawrence Tam
Helping people since 2007 get online and make some money. Living a happy and healthy lifestyle by playing online and Generating his first million in 2013 with 3 kids and doing most of it part time while working as a Mechanical Engineer. Go through his 10 videos on Marketing by clicking here.
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How funny! You experienced it the right way. By plugging in no matter what! It takes that exploratory mind to really figure out how to make it work. Thanks for sharing your experience as it inspires many to take actions to reach their success dream too!
Thank you for sharing a part your learning curve. It will help people to realize that you’ve walked a certain path before you became a leader standing on stages… And that this is accessible for others too, just by taking the first step and move on!
Great post sharing about your first experiences with blogging and how far you have come sense those first days online. It’s amazing what can happen for people with the right platform, and surrounding yourself with a team of dedicated people all striving for similar outcomes. Thanks for sharing Lawrence!
I sure wish Kalatu had been around when I started blogging. I set up a WordPress blog and had no clue what I was doing. I did not even know what a browser was when I came online. Funny I thought you were born knowing how to blog Lawrence so it is good to know we all start at the beginning. Thanks for sharing your story as it shows what is possible.
i’m not sure anyone could have done it “worse” than myself when starting out…. 😉
great post. That made me realize that we all have to start somewhere before realizing that it can be fast and easy. Just by creating content and managing the way you present your blog is obviously the key to attract people to read. I look forward to blog a lot more and just K.I.S.S
getting back to basics and learning and applying what is working in steps… KISS!!!
Thanks for the post on your experiences with blogging. It’s really inspiring to know that someone who can’t spell that well or do blog posts with more than one sentence now has a million dollar blogging business…we have hope!
what is funny.. i still can’t spell… but systems and spell check “protect me from me”
Where was this when I began blogging? Way useful info and tips!
it funny how badly I stumbled through it all
I have started so many blogs. Blogger be damned. It has wasted so much of my time on them!! Great tips!
hahahah. blogger… man… retro blogging
Just knowing you had the same type of struggles starting out, as a lot of us have had, brings an amazing amount of motivation. Thank you for all you do.
Not having “Techie knowledge” is now an easy hurdle to over come. If I hadn’t found Kalatu I would not be blogging today. Thank you for sharing the struggles you had starting out. It is very inspiring.
Even with a great system, we may have a blog that is not up to our standards, but that’s because we’re new to it, we may not know who we want to target and we may not quite believe that there’s anyone that would want to ready our articles. But your story here shows that if a person has a great platform, that is half the battle. The other 50% comes with persistence and consistency. Like you said, Lawrence, grammar and spelling can be checked by your computer! Great article!
Lawrence,
Thank you for sharing with us your past and giving all of us who are not there yet hope!
You are a great example to us all
Great way of showing how complicated it can be trying to do it all on your own. i remember “back in the day” when if I installed just ONE plugin that CRASHED my WHOLE BLOG. It was a nightmare…..I, too, took the long road learning curve. I’m so grateful for KALATU and it’s simple beginner style platform!
It is AMAZING seeing how easy a blog is today! This is great information and I’m going to share it with everyone I know!
I created my first blog on hosting that I paid for. It was something incredible but on the other side I also saw that most of the people (and I mean MOST) don’t really want to do this techie stuff and what I also learned is that they don’t have to in order to create profitable blog and with Kalatu it is really (and I mean REALLY) simple 🙂