Generating Income Through Blogging

I have read somewhere, that everyone should begin with 3 sources of income;

1) Active income

Income yang diperoleh secara tetap setiap bulan, menuntut komitmen kerja yang berterusan dalam waktu yang tetap setiap hari, minggu dan bulan. Biasanya income yang diperoleh secara makan gaji.

2) Passive income

Income yang diperoleh dengan kerja yang one-off. Sekali je kita kena bersusah payah, dan kemudian the income will be generated everymonth tanpa kita perlu bekerja pun.

Eg: Beli rumah dan sewakan dengan harga sewa melebihi bayaran bulanan pada bank, beli kereta dan sewakan. Tapi other expenses tetap ada, maintenance rumah, maintenance kereta, etc.

3) Side income

Kerja yang lebih kepada hobi untuk menambah pendapatan dan tidak memerlukan komitmen pada waktu kerja dan tidak terikat dengan apa apa peraturan oleh pihak lain.

Eg.: Online business, doing something crafty, jadi model tudung, and any other hobbies that generate money.

Later when the amount of passive and side incomes beat the active income, then we can quit the job yang makan gaji tu and focus on passive and side income--and these two incomes will turn into our active income.

So far, I think I managed to have all three of them alhamdulillah.

Active income - kerja tetap aku setiap bulan.

Passive income - rumah sewa di Shah Alam, now consider to add another one, still under discussion with my property agent.

Side income - BLOGGING.

And that is exactly my plan; one fine day when the passive and side incomes exceeded the active income, I will consider to quit my steady job inshaaAllah. For the time being, masih belum lagi. Masih jauh lagi. Blogging is the source of income that I love the most, but it generates the least profits compared to my other two incomes. Masih tiga angka setiap bulan, belum empat angka lagi, apatah lagi lima angka. Memang ada tau blogger yang generates income up to RM10k sebulan. Aku memang jauh lagilah, maklumlah, blogger picisan. Tapi aku tetap bersyukur, in fact kalau dapat RM50-RM100 sebulan pun aku tetap bersyukur juga. Untung bersih kan? Takde cukai takde GST tak payah tolak duit minyak, toll dan sebagainya. Siapa nak bagi? Ada orang baca blog kita pun dah cukup best dah rasa.

Blogging is fun, it is actually my passion. Walaupun sekarang most people dah lebih kepada Instagram dan Facebook, blog is still a social medium that really close to my heart. Dari kecil aku memang suka menulis. I think everyone should blog. What is better than doing something you love and earn money out of it?

I don't actually love my steady job, but I'm doing the best I can while I'm at it. I take my job seriously, I do what I can to accomplish the targets set by my higher management, because I was pay for it. Macam mana tak minat pun dengan kerja, aku nak gaji aku diberkati. Berapa banyak pun sumber pendapatan memang takkan ada makna kalau tak berkat. Tanpa keberkatan, kita tetap akan rasa yang ianya tidak mencukupi. No matter what, I keep my professional development continuous and it's safe to say that my KPI is quite outstanding alhamdulillah. Because regardless of my lack of interest in my job (siapa je yang suka makan gaji sebenarnya?), I do take my job seriously.

Andddd, I didn't blog during office hours. What I usually do is, I draft the blog post at night after everyone is sleeping, and I scheduled the entry to be posted automatically at around 11am to 12pm on the next day. You know why? Because that is the time where the traffic is at the highest, massive, pengunjung paling tinggi. We can call it as my strategy. Lebih tinggi traffic (pengunjung blog), lebih banyak advertisement yang akan masuk, and that's how bloggers generate income. Kalau tak sempat nak buat at night, aku akan taip during lunch time using my own smartphone and post it straightaway. 

Blogging is fun, but if you do it the right way, you can earn some pocket money while still having fun. Be sincere, you can write just about anything and it doesn't have to be informative all the time, sebab aku suka je baca blog yang fun dan tak berapa informative sangat, kalau blogger tu pandai mengolah ayat.

Some blogging tips for beginners;

1. Guna ejaan penuh dan betul, jangan guna shortform atau bahasa pasar. No one likes to read shortforms and bahasa pasar. Bila ejaan penuh, blog kita akan lebih mudah dijumpai dalam Google search engine.

Contoh: "Cara buat kek coklat" adalah lebih mudah dijumpai berbanding "Care buwat kek cklat".

2. Guna font yang simple; jangan guna font yang terlalu romantik atau tulisan kartun untuk nampak cantik, annoying nak baca. Kita bukan nak blog yang bertulisan fancy, kita nak blog yang mudah dibaca. Paling senang, guna default font, normal size je.

3. Background biar cerah, dan tulisan mesti warna gelap. It looks easy in the eyes compare to background gelap tulisan cerah. 

4. Gambar biar besar dan terang. Everyone is having a smartphone nowadays, so boleh edit bagi terang  dan jelas dulu before attached in the blog. Tak perlu edit gempak gempak pun, aku pun biasanya edit brightness je, tak kuasalah nak edit benda lain. Gambar biar terang, ianya membuatkan blog itu lebih menarik untuk dibaca.

5. Be yourselves, jangan cuba jadi orang lain. Guna ayat sendiri, olah ayat sebaiknya biar orang yang baca tu rasa macam mendengar kita bercerita. Avoid tiru ayat orang, tiru entry orang. No one likes a copycat. A blogger who keeps his/her own identity akan mendatangkan followers yang lebih loyal dan tegar. Biar followers tak ramai, tapi setia. Cewah. Kita tak nak one-off followers yang singgah sekali then tak singgah singgah lagi dah, kita mahu followers tegar. Siapa follower tegar Kak Una sini, angkat tangan! Haha. Love you.

6. Nama blog dan blog link biar mudah dan senang diingati. Kalau boleh, letak nama sendiri.

7. Letak satu je medium iklan. Kalau dah letak Nuffnang, jangan letak Google Ads etc dah, and it's vice versa. Jangan tamak. Selain nampak serabut, it will reduce your income as well because the advertisers have to compete with each other.

8. Reply the comments that you received. It will encourage people to come again to see if you responded to their comments. Because I am that kind of person, bila aku komen pada blog orang, biasanya aku akan datang semula untuk tengok if there's any feedback on my comment. Replying comments is something I'm also trying my best to do. I do (really do) appreciate all the comments, but sometimes my life is too hectic I forgot to reply, my apologies. I'll improve on that :)

9. Blogging more often, at least once or twice a week. Bila kita jarang update, we will be losing our followers. If you noticed, this is something I try to do recently. I actually intended to document my life journey for my kids to see someday, that's my true intention. And it's also my motivation to push myself to write something, sebab kadang kadang kita bukan ada masa sangat and bila ada free time kita dah takde mood pula nak menulis. Ala Vivy Yusof lagilah busy, boleh je update blog everyday. Kan?

That's all for now, from me the blogger picisan. Ini adalah based on apa yang aku rasa, dan apa yang aku minat untuk tengok pada blog orang lain. Lain orang lain citarasa kan, everyone should blog actually. Easy money. Tapi jangan kejar duit sangat sampai mengabaikan kualiti blog, takut lama lama orang muak nak baca.