The First Steps to Financial Freedom

Living a life of financial freedom that allows you to be capable of following your dreams and living the life that you have long desired is right in front of you. You have researched ways to make your dreams come true and read multiple lists that contain ideas for earning the income that will allow you to travel full time, buy that new car, purchase a house or maybe be your own boss. But what now? How do you take these ideas and convert them into money and become financially independent? 

Steps to become Financially Independent

Like you are doing, I read countless websites and  watched multiple videos in an effort to do my research. I systematically crossed off ideas that had no interest to me and likewise eliminated the options that seemed to be low reward for a high amount of work. I wanted to focus first on things that while they would take work, at least offered a better chance of success! Trying the lower yield options are not off the table for me, I plan on checking out some of those other options, but down the line as I decide that the time is right to diversify.   I can then try some of those other ways. For right now, I am going to focus on those things that I can more easily implement that offer a higher chance of success.

​You may be starting from absolute scratch and if so, that is perfectly fine! In fact, it is perfect! You will be able to take the time to set up your blog, YouTube, freelance work, whatever plan you decide to implement and do it the correct way right from the start! Do the research. Do it the right way from the beginning. In my case, I have had a weight loss blog since 2006. It started as a personal online journal and grew into my hobby. I didn’t set it up as a way to make money. I didn’t optimize it for consumers and I did absolutely no work to drive traffic to my site. This website gained its readers and followers by total accident! I missed a golden opportunity.

In the first 13 years of the life of that blog, I never tried to take it to a more professional level. To be more specific, I never tried to monetize my efforts. After more than 13 years of consistently posting,  I broke down and did it.  I purchased a domain name and decided to join AdSense. I knew that blogs were a way that people were making money and I wanted a piece of the pie! Allowing the ads was easy and painless. I was ready to see the money roll in! Right? Unfortunately that was not the case. The payout for AdSense is in $100 increments. After one year, I still had not made it to my first one hundred dollars. What was I doing wrong? Discouraged, I gave up. I left the ads on my website, there was no thought to them and they just ran in the background, I had given permission and they ran without any thought from me. I figured that eventually I would make it to that pay out threshold and I would enjoy a wee ‘gift’ of $100 every once in a while.

In 2019, I started a YouTube channel as a hobby and as a way to chronicle my life, my weight loss efforts and my attempts to get and be fit. I love creating my videos. I spent some time working to build a fan base. What did I do? I spent countless hours watching similar channels and making thoughtful comments. I worked to create good content. I endeavored to build my talent in filming and editing my videos. I wanted my channel to grow organically with little or no effort on my part. Of course I had hoped and dreamed of my channel reaching the magic number that is predetermined by YOuTube that would allow my channel to be monetized thereby allowing me to start earning money off of my channel. But I was doing this channel for fun and I didn’t put inany further effort to grow the channel. Even without the extra work needed to push myself further I managed to garner almost 500 subscribers in the first year. It was still only half of what I needed for Monetization of my channel. I didn’t push myself and my channel. I didn’t take the time to learn how to promote my channel. I missed another  opportunity and I grew frustrated and allowed it to remain my hobby.

Plan for a financially free life

The dream for financial freedom and that desire to travel full time didn’t die. I had gotten disappointed in the fact that building a blogging business was not going to happen naturally and I had given up on everything other than passively trying to earn money.  I did the same thing with my YouTube channel. Growing a channel was hard and I was happy with my hobby, and I didn’t try to build the channel. But, had I given up prematurely? What could I do to make my blog/website get more traffic? How could I promote my YouTube channel in order to get more views and subscribers.? Because let’s face it, more traffic means more clicks on those ads!

That is where this experiment begins. What would happen if I worked to revamp my website and my YouTube channel? What would happen if I really dove into SEO and reworked my site? I kept coming back to these ideas as a way to bring myself to financial freedom and as a way to travel the world as I wanted to. I knew that I was definitely doing something wrong. I wanted to do it right. I wanted to go back and fix what I started incorrectly. (Which is where someone just starting out is in a better position, you can start correctly and fly early versus have to fix mistakes!)

I work full time. I knew it will be difficult to find time. I knew that this wouldn't be exactly easy. But I became convinced that in order for this to succeed, that I had to make a commitment to spending time  each weekday and as much as I can during the weekends. A minimum of 5 hours a week to learn all I can and then to go back, adjust, change and put new methods into place that will drive more traffic to my sites didn't sound like too much. Due to the fact that I already have these two outlets in place and already have some basic idea of where I am, I should be able to almost immediately see the results of increased traffic. But the same is true for someone starting out. The analytics are there for new blogs and YouTube channels also. Just like I will be watching closely while I make the changes, you also will need to watch and tailor your efforts to what works!

​Becoming financially independent is not going to be an easy path for the average person. There may be moments of frustration and lingering feelings of being overwhelmed. That is completely normal. But, don’t let those completely natural emotions and feelings derail you from your goals. Identify where you need work and correct the problems. Your dreams, goals and ambitions are right in front of you! Devise your plan and hold yourself to that plan. Spend the time and then reap the rewards of living the financial life of which you dream.

Check out the article starting on the road to financial freedom an article giving  10 tips for online income.