how much money can you make blogging?

[Jamieharrop]

You should only do blogging if you are in it for the long haul or you just like to blog. Other than that you shouldn't go into it.

That should apply to all businesses, in my opinion. If you're not passionate about the industry you're in, chances are good you won't achieve the goals you set out.

If you can't say to yourself, "If I was making no money from this, I would still do it" then I'm not sure you're in the right industry.

[Cognition]

I wouldn't say you're working for free, exstatic. The whole point of that first six months (or however long you want to give yourself) is about building relationships with other bloggers, building a solid base of readers and preparing for the time when you monetize the blog. Without that preparation, you might not make any money at all. Although you don't earn money straight away from the first six months, you'll reap the rewards later. You earn money... it just doesn't appear in your bank account straight away.

As for how much you can make after the preparation period, that all depends on you. If you want to earn $100 a month, then set that as a goal and word towards it. With a good plan and good blogging skills, I'm sure you'll get there.

Correcto mundo.

You know, there seems to be several people on this forum that are only looking at the potential monetary benefits of blogging. If you're blogging only to make money, I can assure you that you will fail, and miserably.

Whatever topic you're blogging about should come from the joy of writing about that particular subject. Your interest or 'passion' in the subject will be the motivation for continuing to blog, even while you don't make money.

For example, the blog I am launching in Jan. 2008 is about spiritual development, much like how Steve Pavlina's blog is about personal development. Three years ago, I met a man [who is now my very good friend] who had given years [now 20+] to the study of spiritual development as a minister and speaker. He personally tutored me for three years on range of subtopics that have lead to such an ‘enlightment’ within my life. This last summer, I began to research blogging, after being introduced to John Chow, Darren Rowse, and Nate Whitehill, and I thought that creating a blog+podcast would be a great way for me to help my friend broadcast such enriching, edifying information to the masses.

I sent my friend a six page letter describing the 'new' trend of blogging and podcasting and how it would be a great way to communicate the information I had been tutored on and benefited from personally, spiritually, and financially. He thought it was a great idea. So now, we've been developing the content for the blog, and I've been doing much more homework on blogging and podcasting and keeping up with updates in the technology and developing a highly effective strategy, and we'll launch the blog after the New Year.

What's amazing is that we'll have about three months of daily posts and podcasts lined up when we launch [already pre-scheduled to post daily], so I can focus heavily on traffic building other promotion methods as part of the overall marketing strategy. I've also identified that there is a great niche for the subject we're pursuing.

The aim of the upcoming blog is to be a resource of information for all people we tutor locally, information for the international audience [Internet], and a way to earn money because this is his main profession.

My special thanks goes to Cameron, who referred me to John Chow. If you hadn't, I wouldn't have known and/or be interested in blogging like now!

[Cognition]

In fact, after we launch the blog, I am going to share the 10 page strategy that I developed specifically for this blog, so that it may help some other bloggers out who are just getting their feet wet.

[jasaunders]

The backlog of content that you are going to post daily is a good idea and helpful for any of you that blog. A lot of times, I get in a blogging zone and write a a couple blog posts at once, but I don't want them to appear at the same time, so I delay the posts by 12 or 24 hours or a day to give people time to get the feeds and read the most current post. You can do this in wordpress by just editing the timestamp.

[2gould]

I think you missed my point.. from what I can tell blogging doesn't make great business sense.. giving away my services for free for 6 months, in the hope that when I put some monetization on there I 'might' make some money.

I do run a blog - Get Rich Slick, and I am making about $10-15 a week from it, but thats for about 10mins work every few days - if that, so that return is plausible. I'm sure if I put more time and effort into it I could earn a little bit more, but nothing I could retire on.

I just think that the amount of time an effort some of you put into blogs for such tiny returns doesn't make any sense, if you focused your time and ideas into markets that weren't so flooded, you guys could easily make 10x the amount you are right now.

What you also should look at, is these people that are making money online, aren't using their blogs as their primary income.. they are making money from about another 5-10 different sources.

I just believe nowadays blogging is almost a false economy for people who are looking for an easy way to get rich... blogging is just a modern day paper round, lots of work, little pay.

I do agree that blogging is great for networking however.. which can have its own value put on it.

Gottcha. Sorry, I guess I did misunderstand your point. I do agree with your statement that blogging is not the way to get rich quick. In fact, I don't really know any good way to "get rich quick". I guess if I did, I would be rich...
Enjoy.

[akula]

ok, so lots of you are blogging.. how much are you making each month.. is it worth it?

how funny is it that a free content management system contributes to more than 1 person a second to drop everything and decide that they want to be a writer - even though they've never been interested in writing, never studied writing, don't have any plans on improving their writing, and have no interest in writing professionally

errr...i'm probably a nut case for thinking this, but perhaps if people want to earn a living as a writer, it just might make sense to apply for a job as a writer!? i know...what a far out revolutionary idea..

[Jamieharrop]

how funny is it that a free content management system contributes to more than 1 person a second to drop everything and decide that they want to be a writer - even though they've never been interested in writing, never studied writing, don't have any plans on improving their writing, and have no interest in writing professionally

errr...i'm probably a nut case for thinking this, but perhaps if people want to earn a living as a writer, it just might make sense to apply for a job as a writer!? i know...what a far out revolutionary idea..

Simple question... why? If the software is there, why not use it? Why go elsewhere? Is it such a bad thing that people want to write a blog, just because the software is freely avaliable? It sounded like you have a problem with this, and I'm confused as to why. Or maybe I just took your post for something it wasn't intended to be. If that's the case, I apologise.

[Cognition]

I

I just think that the amount of time an effort some of you put into blogs for such tiny returns doesn't make any sense, if you focused your time and ideas into markets that weren't so flooded, you guys could easily make 10x the amount you are right now.

I agree. The 'making money online' and 'make money blogging' aspects of the blogosphere are obviously oversaturated.

If you really want make a significant income by blogging, you really need to find out how you can help people. Once you find out how you can help people, then attracting the masses won't be so hard.

You see, people don't want money. They want the feeling of having money. They want the feeling behind what money can buy them, like expensive cars. People don't want new cars, but the feeling that it gives them.

"You can have anything you want, as long as you help enough people get what they want."

Making signifcant money online by the means of blogging can be had, if you find what people are looking for.

I'm starting another thread in the General Internet section about this very topic.

[Cognition]

errr...i'm probably a nut case for thinking this, but perhaps if people want to earn a living as a writer, it just might make sense to apply for a job as a writer!? i know...what a far out revolutionary idea..

You're not a nut case for thinking this.

I think that since the majority of people reading this thread are entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs, the idea of blogging is appealing, especially if you consider the potential behind combining entrepreneurship and writing.

These type of people are not only seeking monetary benefits, but the 'prestige' of having their own name/image promoted, and not as a "Joe Blow of the Terrell Tribune" or similar.

[akula]

Simple question... why? If the software is there, why not use it?

yah, it's kind of like when I get crunked, go to a charity fund raiser and blurt out a completely inappropriate comparison of federal politicians with midget porn starts. hey, if the idea's there, why not say it!?

[BusinessAdviser]

Simple question... why? If the software is there, why not use it? Why go elsewhere? Is it such a bad thing that people want to write a blog, just because the software is freely avaliable? It sounded like you have a problem with this, and I'm confused as to why. Or maybe I just took your post for something it wasn't intended to be. If that's the case, I apologise.

Akula makes a much better point. He wasn't saying that it's a bad idea to use the software, rather he was saying that it's ridiculous that people who have no real interest in blogging immediately see the software as a door to make money, claiming some greater interest in writing.

If you can make money blogging, good for you. I think it's a waste of time to try my hand at it when I have no interest in it. I'd rather find something I enjoy doing and make money at that.

[Jamieharrop]

Akula makes a much better point. He wasn't saying that it's a bad idea to use the software, rather he was saying that it's ridiculous that people who have no real interest in blogging immediately see the software as a door to make money, claiming some greater interest in writing.

If you can make money blogging, good for you. I think it's a waste of time to try my hand at it when I have no interest in it. I'd rather find something I enjoy doing and make money at that.

Amen! That's what we've been saying all throughout this thread. If you don't enjoy it, there's not much point in doing it. That's the same with every other business. It's not individual to blogging.

[Jamieharrop]

Here's an interesting quote from John Chow (he wrote a guest post on JohnCow.com):

The blog’s income now goes to various charities and a family trust.

The decision to monetize the blog came about because I wanted to prove that money can be made by blogging. The original goal of the case study was to create full time income with part time blogging. I’m sure you’ll agree that I blew that goal away.

I went into blogging the same way I went into my first website – for fun. I blog for fun. I don’t blog for money. Yes, the blog makes a lot of money, but from a time investment standpoint, John Chow dot Com is one of my least profitable ventures. If you’re going to blog, then doing for the fun of it and not for the money it can make you. If my blog made nothing today, I would still be updating it. I really think this attitude is a big reason for the success of the site. That, and people love to see what I ate for dinner.

John Cow dot Com » Blog Archive » Big Blog Beginnings - John cHow

[jasaunders]

I think John Chow saying "The decision to monetize the blog came about because I wanted to prove that money can be made by blogging." is absolute bullshit.

It came about either because 1) he wanted to make money, even if the intention was to donate it to charity; or 2) because he wanted the power that would come from proving to people he was successful and making money.

I'm a firm believer in McClelland's achievement motivation theory. The theory of needs specifies three things people seek: achievement, power and/or affiliation. To say, I did something just because. Or I did something just to prove it can be done is utter bullshit. You can say he did it for his need of achievement, but I don't think that's the case, I think it's his need for power. The title of his blog backs this.

[jasaunders]

yah, it's kind of like when I get crunked, go to a charity fund raiser and blurt out a completely inappropriate comparison of federal politicians with midget porn starts. hey, if the idea's there, why not say it!?

LOL, sounds like my night last night. Except I wasn't the one blurting things out.