Does Blogging for Money Work or Not? 6 Noob Mistakes
A Newsweek article by the “fake Steve Jobs” [Daniel Lyons] blogger basically denounced blogging for money or in other words depicted problogging as a myth. Well, not really, it said
you can’t make “huge amounts money” or “grow rich” by blogging.
I’m a professional blogger by now. It means I earn most of my money by blogging. My path to become a professional blogger was rather unique.
Is professional blogging a myth?
I tried to become a professional blogger since at least 2005 it shows it’s possible. Also along the way I learned what works and what not.
Some bloggers grew and sold blogs for tens of thousands or even millions in mean time. It’s not common but it’s possible.
The author of the Newsweek article tried to earn money blogging as if blogs were the same as main stream media. Blogging is different than journalism and requires a different business model.
There are many different business models out there that work, the old media copycat business model does not work apparently. I want to outline why. Also I will tell you what works instead.
The typical blogging mistakes
The Newsweek author was blogging for huge non targeted traffic and monetization by Adsense: It was not enough, just pocket money. He made these 6 common blogging mistakes:
- Blogging for just one blog
- Blogging all by himself
- Blogging for huge traffic.
- Blogging for non targeted traffic.
- Blog Monetization by Adsense.
- Nothing to sell/offer
He could have done better by changing one or a few things.
Blogging for just one blog
Eraning enough for a living by blogging for just one blog is hard. This is a fact. You need a few blogs. Even the original Problogger had at least three of them. The one blog must be very popular.
Blogging all by yourself
Most successful professional bloggers work in teams. Either they are paid writers on group blogs by companies that pay them and/or other people blog for them either for free or for low pay.
Blogging for huge traffic
Monetization of huge traffic works best by CPM (cost per mille/ thousands page views) ads. Huge untargeted traffic means people flock to a site take a short look and leave to never come back.
They especially don’t click ads. With CPM ads they don’t have to. Just the act of opening a web page and viewing the ad completes the required action to get paid.
Most bloggers won’t have such huge traffic though. Most people will have to aim lower. Thousands of visitors are already many for bloggers.
Blogging for non targeted traffic
Nowadays the mass market does not work whether it’s in music, art or writing. It’s all about the niche.
You have to find a niche, a following of people who really care for the subject and for you as an author, the so called 1000 true fans.
Adsense
Apart from the people who’d subscribe to your blog you need to write for Google, that is for search traffic.
In case you want to use metaphors as headlines it won’t work. You have to name things. You have to use keywords and boring headlines.
In the best case you write about products, mention their names and people searching for them find your blog and buy them through your blog. For this purpose Adsense is not the best option.
When your blog is really crappy or spammy or simply low quality Adsense might work, but for real blogs it does not.
The only way it might work is when people coming via Google search do NOT find what they seek and they click the ads hoping to find it there instead.
Nothing to sell/offer
Once you have your 1000 true fans you have to offer something of value to exactly these people. Such an offer may be for example
- consulting
- a digital product like an ebook
- a membership forum
or anything else that might be of use to them. These things might vary. It depends on your niche. You could sell videos in the health niche for instance.
This is not the whole story, just a short overview of the typical 6 noob mistakes when it comes to blogging for money. Stop acting as if blogging is TV, radio or print.
I am doing a experiment on the topics involved in your post and I must say its a long slog to a decent dollar. I have about made about $7 after 1 month but I find my biggest problem is traffic. I have 3 blogs plus some squidoos etc. Anyway the question I wanted to ask you is…
Do you beileve that content is king? or do you tend to post with quantity?
Thanks
G
I have to agree with you in regards to that Newsweek post. What he failed to realize is that blogging for dollars is nothing more than an exercise in futility IF you don’t understand how to market.
Graham: Earning money with blogging does not start from day one. Without content you won’t get far, but content is not enough. I’m no monarchist so I do not support the “content is king” mantra. For me “content is president” as I explained here:
http://seo2.0.onreact.com/7-seo-20-lessons-seo-for-humans-instead-of-spiders-is-not-about-google-and-content-is-king
Leo: Right. You can be the best blogger in the world but without proper marketing you won’t earn a buck.
Making money from blogging always seems to me to require so much work for so little payback initially. Is it something that builds slowly, and requires a lot of work, but then reaches a “critical mass and then requires little maintenance?
Not sure about the maintenance, but it might work like that.
This is a great list for those of us just getting started, and trying to find a way to monetize our blogs! I am working with Adsense and I dont think it is a great long-term strategy. My biggest issue is that the design of my blog doesn’t allow for adspace. So I may need a redesign.
Thanks for offering the great bits of insight.
Great insight. I run a blog myself, and I often find out that bloggers and blogs in general are still underestimated and misunderstood even in today’s world. The points you illustrated in your article somehow reflects those which I have also experienced in my own career as a pro blogger. Cheers!
Agent SEO: Great start, I like your blog. Stumbled it.
Mawe: Yeah, most people still can’t believe that I earn a living by blogging. I used to say that I’m a SEO, now I say I’m a blogger.
Formerly people either didn’t know what SEO is or suspected I was a criminal while now they know blogs but can’t imagine that they make money.
I don’t know about blogging for a living, but I’ve been blogging for a few years now and made a few thousand at it, but I don’t think I could make a living at it unless I blogged maybe 5-10 posts/day consistently for a couple years. Then I might make maybe $150/day, especially in my area — affiliate marketing.
well I have two blogs and both are making very good money and is what I do full time and will make six figures this year doing it. I do have a product, an ebook that sells very well so that helps but even if I didnt it wouldnt be a problem monetizing any ole blog. There are just too many ways to make money with blogs and a list!
Scott: Yeah, that sounds realistic. 4, 5 blogs with 1, 2 posts each day. It’s what one person can still manage and what makes some money if you do it right (see above).
There are certainly easier ways to make money but for all those who love to write it’s far better than hoping for a job in a dying newspaper industry or writing one year on a book and then trying to sell it to a publishing house.
daniel: Sounds good, tell us your secret. It sounds like you do some consulting. Or are these really direct earnings?
Pretty much right on from my experiences. I particularly find that lots of new bloggers go with untargeted content (they blog on whatever they feel like at the moment), hoping to get big traffic (but they get a little unfocused traffic instead) followed by praying the AdSense gods send them lots of money. This just doesn’t work!
Most of my money has been from consulting and speaking — one of my blogs is inthe area I consult on, and yes, this can work very well.
@Harry: Exactly. You have to have a decent following for this kind of thing to make any waves. For example, ProBlogger has a tremendous following and can make a living just blogging. Same goes for people like Shoemoney and John Chow.
I agree, adsense is really horrible, the best monetization method for a blog is to sell advertising and banner spots. If you have a good amount of traffic you will earn some good money.
I am right there where the mistake happen. I have just one blog. Thank God I saw this and will make a few more.
Always good to revisit posts i read in the past to check them out again. What i took from this is the need to have more blogs going, and how these can really help to drive traffic.
Thanks for the nice tips, I was only using only one blog, I would rather follow your suggestions next time.
Comments on blogging help me to understand that there are some crazy stuff that people talk about. This way of communicating is new for me it all seems a bit naive and impersonal. Maybe its about time we started to say something more interesting about values how about making money the ,Normal way by working for it. Respond Dape
I wouldn’t agree with you on number 1:”Blogging for just one blog”. John Chow makes more than $40,000 from his one and only blog johnchow.com every month, and $40,000 can easily help you enjoy a nice living!
I have been struggling to make money blogging. I think it is better to concentrate on one quality blog first and try an make it profitable rather then trying to maintain a bunch of crappy blogs!
You need 4, 5 high quality blogs to make money blogging. That’s the best way. Just one blog is not enough. Unless you’re in the Technorati Top 100 or something.
You need at least 10 blogs with useful original content. The best way to get this content is to search freelance writers in your particular niche and pay per blog they will update weekly watch the traffic flow.
Isn’t it all about having a unique message? I heard an interview with Seth Godin today and he was saying he’d rather be the only search result on Google for his keyword, instead of trying to be in the top 3 against 500 million other guys.
Thanks for the nice tips, I have just one blog and will make a few more
I gave up On the Idea of Blogging for money Blog for readers and the money will come rolling in
@AbdulRehman: Agreed, but John Chow seems to be out of this world. It is hard for us to see another “John Chow” coming out from the blogosphere in the coming time span.
Couldn’t agree more about just blogging for one blog. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out, that the more you do, the more you make. Spreading the word through blogs can be a very lucrative endeavor, as long as you don’t spread yourself too thin.
Well I have to admit that presently, I do make those mistake, especially for the #1, very true..
Blogging is profitable with all the knowledge you can obtain with it it’s worth blogging.
I really wish I would have started with blogs. I started with a couple of static sites and have really been having a tough time of getting keywords to rank (with quite a few backlinks to them).
Put up a blog with some good PLR so I could get a couple of backlinks to my site and the blog with no backlinks gets more traffic. I am so happy I found this article. Now it is time to change my tactics.
Your explanation makes sense. Currently I am still able to do everything by myself, but for the future I think some must share with others.