Don’t let the title fool you. This isn’t a book about being a shady internet scammer. This isn’t a book about swindling people out of their money. No, this book is about making money online, in particular through the medium of blogging. Matt Forney is a longtime writer of the manosphere/masculine self-development community. He writes at Matt Forney.com about politics and has podcast that generally has a focus on politics.
If you are starting out in the world on online business or want to know if it is right for you than this book will be well worth your investment. Confessions of an Online Hustler delves into Matt’s own journey starting with his site In Mala Fide and goes step by step in the process of starting your own blog. He covers monetization strategies, how to get more traffic, and dealing with haters among other things. Confessions covers a wide variety of topics, each one Matt has has personal experience in. There is no untested advice in this book.
Why Not to Blog
Might seem a bit odd but in the first chapter Matt delves into the reasons that it is a bad idea to start blogging. Most of these reasons not to start blogging focus on someone who is only focused on themselves and what their blog can do for them. For example the first reason Matt lists is “I’ll Make Lots of Money”. Matt throws a bucket of cold water on this assumption with a hard dose of reality. Matt talks about how after having Google AdSense on his blog for a year he made 214.42 from them. Not exactly anything to write home about. Matt calculates this to being around 0.13 per hour he put into his blog.
Now Matt doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say that it is possible to make money from a blog. Many people make it their day job. He just cautions to have realistic expectations and don’t expect to be rolling in dough anytime soon. Matt also covers the errors of people who say “I love to write” and therefore will love to blog as well as the “I want to be famous” crowd. Blogging is a business. It is hard work if you want it to be anything other than a time and money sink. Matt doesn’t shy away from this but let’s you know it from the beginning.
Setup Basics
Matt covers the basics of setting up a blog and getting it running. He devotes an entire chapter to finding a web-host alone. He covers the basics of WordPress and talks about the important distinction between WordPress.org and WordPress.com. Namely that one is a free service but you have less control over your blog while the other is a paid service but gives you control over your blog. Sort of like the difference between living in a friend’s room where he can kick you out at any time if you offend him to having a room of your own that you can do whatever you want with.
He covers the basic setup of WordPress and how to pick a theme that matches with the style of your blog. He also highlights the importance of having a theme that looks good on a mobile device as well. He then discusses the widgets that you should install on your WordPress site. He covers all of the basics that you will need to have a professional looking site up and running in the least amount of time as possible. If you have wondered about the process of setting up a blog this section will clear up any questions that you may have.
Getting Readers
The next part of the book covers one of the most important aspects of blogging, and that is getting more readers to your site. If you build it they will come does not apply to blogging or really any business for that matter. To get readers you must be proactive and know what you are doing. You cannot just hope that the right people will wander onto your site. You must lead them there and then give them a reason to stay and come back. Matt gives you some tools to accomplish this.
One of the first ways Matt says to gain readers is that just like in a regular business you have to meet people
“In the real world in order to get a job, you need to put yourself out there…You fill out applications, shake hands and bullshit like a pro. You don’t just sit on your couch and hoping that someone knocks on the door and shoves a sack of hundreds in your hand: you go to them and try to convince them that you’re the best damn person for the job. The same goes with blogging”
Thing do not change in the online world. You must be proactive and you must network. No one will know who you are if you just sit back and hope for the best. You must go after readers as well as leaders and prove to them that your site has value for them and that your site can help solve their problems and improve their lives. That is the only way that you will acquire readers.
Summary
It doesn’t matter if you are new to the world of online business or have been around for awhile. You will learn a lot from checking out Confessions of an Online Hustler. It is one of the absolute best books out there on becoming a blogger and making money from it while also being realistic of the work that it takes. What I covered here is just a highlight of all that the book has to offer.
I am glad that I came across this book so early in my blogging career as there were many things that I would have been doing wrong. It is much easier to learn from someone who has already been there and taken to bumps and bruises so that you don’t have to.
Pick up a copy of Confessions of an Online Hustler by Matt Forney here.
Sounds like a great book I’ll definitely give it a shot when I am done with “The Way of Men” by Jack Donovan.
Also a great book. Yeah it’s definitely worth checking out.