Too many times I’ve seen people give up on blogging because no one ever came to their site. They set up shop, and due to the amazing stories of supposed wealth being made by bloggers, they were aghast to hear the chirping crickets every time they wrote a post.
While ebook after ebook, and msm (mainstream media) article after msm article, has let us know about the blogging millionaires, they’ve done a grave disservice by making blogging all about money making.
I get emails every week from someone who’s signed up at MyBlogLog asking me where they go to ‘receive their money’ or telling me that blogging for dollars is what they are all about. I’m here to tell you that most people who are blogging for dollars are making less than $100 per month, if that. If that is ‘real money’ to you, then go ahead and type your fingers to the bone and roll in the loose change, but if not, please don’t blog just to make money.
There are loads of great reasons to blog, including conversation, research, logging your life and sharing your story, but money shouldn’t be your ‘why’. Money can be fun, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t make money at blogging, but if that’s your reason for blogging, you are bound to be disappointed.
In addition, if you are blogging for conversation, don’t set up shop and just wait for people come a’callin. You are going to have to go out there and talk elsewhere, or you will never get any visitors. If you feel like you are talking to yourself, you probably are! Get out there on other people’s blogs and talk! Respond to other blog entries with a trackback! What makes your place more special than the other millions of blogs out there? Why do you think you can set it up and just lean back and count the visits?
Start thinking like a reader and behaving like a reader, in order to attract readers.
Ah, the “new” American Dream…
Robyn, I have found that some of my best posts (by my reader’s determination) are those that I spend in a conversation with myself. Writing an analysis that I can understand really gives others an inside view of what I was thinking about (it helps me too). Unfortunately, the inspiration is more difficult to maintain, but above all (even readers), my blog does just what it was intended to: gives me the opportunity to manage my thoughts on specific topics for later review.
Really, blogs (or web logs) were initially intended to be a journal and I subscribe to this ideal. If what I have to say is interesting to others, even better. But my blog is for me (sounds selfish, but it’s true).
Thanks again for the common sense approach to reality, I really enjoy it!
Excellent post, everyone can use a reminder to get back to basics.
But, seriously, do you know where I can get my money?
Amen to that – write your heart out and from your heart. Do it for yourself and others will come. Out of idle curiosity. Out of genuine interest. And perhaps because the honesty resonates with them. Set up a blog for money and people react in the same way they do to a pushy salesman in a department store – they back off.
My only problem with blogging is that one part of me tells I should write only when I have something to say and the other part tells if I keep silent for too long, there might be no one to listen to me after a while. I hate this feeling
Great post. At this point, still hearing the crickets on the blog as I set up my main site. Curious as to where you got the stat on typical blogger income.
Shane, not from any type of concrete research, but from experience. While blogging superstars are loud, the vast majority of people I come into contact with, whether through MyBlogLog or through the past several years of blogging, are making zilch.
Yes, there are some who are doing quite well, but they are few and far between. Now, when you consider blogging as not just a means to advertising or related income, but as a way to increase client sales, cut PR costs, etc. then blogging really begins to make financial sense.
I don’t blog for the money, but I do relatively well in blogging income, but more importantly, my blog is more like a resume and has resulted in most of my clients in the past 2 years and in some way, the job that I currently hold. My blog’s been good to me 😉
I agree. Same story with affiliate marketing. Somebody out there makes decent money, but to start a site simply to make the $$$ is destined for failure.
I hate clicking a blogs link that looks really juicy and got disappointed with contents teaching you how to make money by blogging! ahak! Irritating
I fear that I am talking to myself, but I’m ok with that. Onto the real question, what if I’m blogging for a friend that only wants to make money?
Robyn,
Great site. I’m rather new to blogging, but I have run across the empty blogs you’re talking about, while others stand out because they have a real message. I am passionate about the subject of my blog, but I feel it gets lost in the vast sea of professional bloggers. I do have to admit that making a few extra bucks wouldn’t hurt though. So I push on trying to learn all the tricks, so that I can get my message to the masses. It’s good to read tips from people like you who have been around and are doing it right, and making a nice profit as well. Thanks
I agree.
When I started blogging last year, I tried just adding people to link to by searching and found mainly dead pages and some rather dubious ones too.
By reading and commenting on the blogs of others, I also found other people who commented on the same blog I was looking at. Their comments led me to read their blog and vice-a-versa. From there it snowballed plus the added advantage of being “featured”.
Due to rumours about the fate of Yahoo 360, I’m trying to branch out a bit now on to other platforms.
As for making money, well that would be cool if it happens, but as you said, it would be wrong to blog for that purpose alone.
Yes I love this blog and I get to know about many things in the field of blogging on this blog. Thanks for the info we are getting here.
One of the viewpoint I am able to get from here is that “a blogger should not always think to earn money from blogging but should think like a reader and he/she should know how to attract readers.” If he thinks that he can create a blog and place some ads on that and someone will come on its own and read the blog and click the ad and he will end up making money, it is not always true, Nowadays, people hate visiting blogs or sites which only tell about how to make money on the net.
Thanks,
soni2006
lovely brain food of a post!
IMO, the branding you get out of a blog is worth 1000x more than any monetization you could get out of it.
The real players are the ones who go beyond the stupid $10k a month in adsense and have launched businesses off their blogs.
The problem is that most people go for the ‘how do i make money’ question before they use the search engines and find the answers out for themselves…
I like your blog. Its one of the best blogs online