It seems like every blog you take a look at nowadays there's a income report hanging on a header at the top of the page.

The website is claiming to have grossed 5 figure numbers in the last month and 6 over the course of the last year.

Those are some impressive numbers to say the least…

Wouldn't you want to be someone that shares in this gold rush?

So what do you do?

You start a blog and try to figure things out on your own (I know I did). You read what they elite bloggers are putting out and think,

"well if I just listen to and practice what these elites are preaching, maybe I can get a piece of the pie…"

They tell you things that ultimately make sense:

• You are going to need to deliver rich and valuable content
• You are going to need to niche down the the smallest viable audience
• You are going to need to start and develop an email list
• You are going to need to use social media to promote your blog
• You are going to need to create and sell a product

These strategies seem reasonable so you do them — and you think they work.

I mean you think you are writing great content, but ultimately you are biased — it's your work.

You think you are doing everything you should be doing with social media promotion — only if that were the case, you'd be getting copious amounts of traffic.

So you're following all the advice that's being given to you but nothing seems to be happening… What gives?

Shit… you probably even go around purchasing different courses that offer you "deeper" knowledge that'll finally help you put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Of course, if you're like me and you've bought the courses, you know most (if not all) of the courses are the same — they just outline the points with a different style.

So what — the Elite Bloggers that are making money hand over fist are holding something back…

Just…what if?

I don't necessarily think they are intentionally do it. I do think that a lot of them believe that their content and courses can transcend various niches and help everyone out.

Perhaps they don't want to really admit why their blog is in the position it's in.

In asking these questions, I took it upon myself to take a look into Pandora's Box of Elite Blogging and see what I can uncover with this Gold Rush.

***Before we get into this, if you've never read any of my work, you might be wondering who I am and why I think I'm inclined to write something like this.

My name is Jon Brosio and I am on a mission, through my blog, to help 1 million people discover, design and create lives that blend their passion with their work. The way I believe this can be done is through creating blogs.

Though I'm nowhere near 6 figures or even 5 figures (at the time of writing this) revenue generation I have been able to make money blogging and continue to develop and learn in order to get there. Above all, I take what I learn and share it with the world to help my tribe with that goal.

So without further adieu, let’s take a look…

1. The best way to make money blogging is to teach others how to make money blogging.

We should probably get the most obvious one out of the way first.

If you haven't noticed this already — you need to take the blinders off. The Elite Bloggers get rich because they are in the business teaching other bloggers how to get rich. When you can offer and deliver on the promise that you will help other bloggers get rich — you in turn will reap riches (same goes for the niche of helping people make money).

This is just the name of the game.

Have you ever noticed, no matter what niche, that the Elite Bloggers often have courses that teach you how to expand your blog? I.e. the travel blogger, the mommy blogger, the food blogger, the leadership blogger, the marketing blogger and the fashion blogger all have courses in how to utilize affiliate marketing as well as courses in using social media.

Now I'm not saying that if you want to stick with another niche you cannot make money — far from it. However, if you want to get to the 6 figure numbers, you're going to have be to become a Blogging Godfather/mother.

I know that by this point in reading this, you see that I myself fall into this category. And you're right.

I'm not going to apologize for it. I also know that I am building my business on transparency and the truth, no matter how hard a pill at times it is to swallow.

However, you don't have to go this route… By all means, if you want to illustrate to the world how paleo changed your life and made you an overall better person — go for it!

If you want to teach people how they can declutter their houses and in turn declutter their lives and make money while doing it — go for it!

The sky really is the limit with blogging.

2. When starting off — forget publishing original content

"Good artists copy — great artists steal" — Pablo Picasso

When you're starting out with your blog, instead of trying to come up with the next best bit of content since sliced bread — take inventory of what is working within your niche, give it your own spin, and make it better!

I am not advocating for plagiarism — far from it in fact.

I am saying, the Elite Bloggers most likely started out like you and me. They started a WordPress site with little to no direction and went forth on their own accord.

The successful ones understood and saw patterns of things that are already working. With that, you can "scrapbook" different pieces from the blogosphere and rearrange it with your unique voice and spin.

Every blogger's most successful post is a rework of someone else's popular content…

You have two options here when starting out:

1. Just "wing it" and hope your content strikes gold (like what I did for the first few months starting out…)
2. Rewrite content that you know and can see is already successful in your niche

"But that content has already been written" you say.

Perhaps… but do you really think that your entire audience and tribe has really seen everything written on the World Wide Web (WWW)?

Probably not.

Virtually everything that I write now is carefully studied and crafted. I take a lot at every element of the article form the title, to how many shares it's gotten on social media platforms. I take the overarching themes and spin them with my own unique voice.

The Elite Bloggers think they are constantly publishing original content. However, they are really just putting their own voice into it. So in a way…it is original content.

That's all you need to do.

This article was born out of another blogger and his spilling of the beans of these secrets — with my own experience and spin as a way to take the article to the next level.

3. List articles and How-To's are how you build and generate traffic

I've gotten flack for writing about his before.

And I'm not saying this is the ONLY way to generate views with your work. However, as the saying goes,

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Your audience and tribe is looking for answers and solutions to their problems (unless you fall into the exception to the rule of building and fostering a tribe that really is there for your creative and vulnerable expression).

Now I'll be the first to admit it — lists often come off as cheap. Take for instance all of the bull you find on sites like Buzzfeed and their subsequent list posts (I found these REAL articles by simply searching "worst Buzzfeed listicles" on Google):

• 35 People Who Just Realized That Seth McFarlane Is Actually Hot
• 37 Things Conservatives Would Rather Do Than Watch Obama’s State Of The Union Speech
• 12 Reasons Why Sam The Cat With Eyebrows Should Be Your New Favorite Cat

This doesn't even crack the article but I would puke if I pasted them all.

But the positive thing about List articles is it offers up a clear and present promise to the reader if used with value — "I am going give you [number of ways] I can help you with your issue."

In a world with millions of articles and thousands of bloggers, you will become Elite if you can provide your value clearly and succinctly to the individuals looking for it.

The same goes for "How-To" posts — only when you deliver on the promises. How many times have you read a crap "How To Write The Ultimate Blog Post" article? Spoiler alert.. not this one!

4. You have to be an "Annoying Salesman" to make money in this game

This one is a tough pill to swallow — I know especially for me.

The whole mission of my blog is to help 1 million people discover, design and create lives that blend their passion with their careers and do it through blog creation…

I didn't start playing this game to become the salesman sending hundreds of sales emails, but at the end of the day, it's a necessary beast.

Why?

Because it's extremely hard to gain and then keep peoples' attention.

When a blogger (worth his or her salt) is partaking in a product launch, they are going to send at least 5 emails throughout their campaign. Not to mention 3 on the final day of the campaign.

They don't do it to annoy or pester you — they do it because it works. You might be thinking I'm wrong because it doesn't work on you [all the time], but the Law of Averages says otherwise.

A lot of bloggers are posting ridiculous numbers in their monthly earnings. Say you come across an Elite Blogger that is advertising earnings of $100,000 for the month.

At first glance this seems absolutely unattainable. However, with some basic arithmetic (and consideration of Kevin Kelly's "True Fan" theory) the Elite Blogger very well could have grossed those numbers by selling a $999 product to 100 people.

On their email list of 20,000 people that's only converting .5% of their list!

Even if you are hovering around a couple thousand people on your list (1500–3000) you're looking at a mere few percent conversion!

Fact of the matter is, you aren't going to make money casually sending out an email on the first or last day of the launch.

You're going to make money when you roll out and series of emails that illustrate the pains and offer solutions to your Tribe's pain points.

Sure, you'll annoy the hell out of some people (and perhaps get some unsubscribes). But you can either play the game or watch from the bleachers.

Plus — if you're providing value and getting your tribe from their current location to their desired state, you all win.

5. Those pesky income reports work

I've seen so many times bloggers asking why Elite Bloggers are using income reports on their site.

The short answer? It works.

The reason for income reports aren't just to boast and brag about how much money they are making, it's for marketing purposes.

An income report is essentially a badge of credibility. It is illustrating to the visitor of the blog,

"Hey — this is how good I am at playing this game. Let me show you how to play it just as well as I do."

6. Not all blogging niches are created equal

And some just plain and simple aren't worth your time…

However, if you were in the game of selling a blogging course to an audience, wouldn't it be advantageous to you, from a marketing perspective, to pitch this as a "cure all" and that it can plug and play with any blogging niche?

Of course this isn't always the case.

I feel, that as a blogger looking to make a lasting change in the marketplace, there are niches that are more advantageous to pursue for financial gain than others.

The "secret sauce" for finding what niche is worth pursuing is finding which niches are both popular and profitable.

One of the best examples here is a "Making money" blog niche. It is extremely popular (who doesn't want to make money) and profitable: one can sell courses, guidebooks, affiliate marketing etc.

A Christian education blog is probably popular — but harder to make money. The margins are going to be slimmer considering a lot of spirituality shouldn't come at a cost.

Furthermore, with your niche, how can you interweave it into other arenas? Think about a paleo blog for a moment (one of the most popular niches and industries out there right now). What will that blogger write about?

• Paleo food and recipes
• Different exercises
• Lifestyle changes including sleep and stretching (perhaps yoga too)
• Overall mental wellness as a result of food
• Different books to read on the subject

And within that audience, he or she is bound to find other people that are inspired to start a blog. The blog is successful because it illustrates a wide variety of topics.

Thus the cycle continues…

See how this is all coming together?

"The score takes care of itself"

It's one of my favorite sayings that a mentor once told me…

In other words, when you play the game right and play the game with all you got — the score takes care of itself.

In the game of blogging, we're all in the same boat. Perhaps we approach the game with different ideas and a different spin on things; but in the end, all of the rules are out in the open for us all to play.

If you choose to ignore the reality that's right in front of you and play the game from a different perspective — that's on you.

C'est la vie

How the Elite Bloggers are cashing in on this gold rush is right there out in the open. It's pretty obvious how they are making their fortune.

Unfortunately, there a lot of people who let their presuppositions get the better of them. They come into this game all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed thinking that they are going to have answers that no one sees. They think that they can take shortcuts all the way to the top.

But of course you see them around for perhaps a few weeks or couple of months and just like that — they're gone faster than TiVo.

As for me — I like to be upfront with all of this. I'm in this to cut through the veil that's being cast in front of you by some of the other whistle blowers out there.

Because I need you right now — nay, the world needs you.

We need your fresh ideas. We need your new take on things.

The economy is changing and the need for human creativity and innovation is going to come at a luxury.

Together, we'll be on the frontlines bringing that value to the masses.