how much money can you make blogging?

[exstatic]

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

[Jamieharrop]

I find it to be worth it without the income, exstatic. The friendships that are formed and the skills you build while you blog are worth far more than the actual income, in my opinion. But that's just me. If it's the income that motivates you, then that's perfectly fine.

[strategy]

It depends on the niche's and target markets. I've got a lot of friends here in the UK and they make thousands weekly from their blogs. My blog makes around £100 a month at the moment but my friends are going to apply some SEO and have let me in on a couple of their secrets.

[Cognition]

I will be blogging primarily to aid others in personal and spiritual development. But, I also recognize the opportunity to monetize the blog [once it launches] and create income from it.

My reasoning is that if I am taking significant effort and time to aid in the personal and spiritual development of other people, then at least I should be compensated for my services to 'them'.

The primary focus is to develop great content while optimizing for monetization.

[Jamieharrop]

Originally Posted by TheCDAllenGroup

My reasoning is that if I am taking significant effort and time to aid in the personal and spiritual development of other people, then at least I should be compensated for my service to 'them'.

That's where some peoples opinion differs. Personally, I tend to think the same way as you. I'll be monetizing my blog soon (having built a solid reader base over the past few months without monetization). Some people, however, like to think that the friendships they build and the recognition as a blogger they receive is the compensation that you speak of. We all think differently, that's for sure.

To answer the original posters question, it depends on so many factors. The best advice I got when I started blogging was not to monetize the blog straight away. Whether I trusted that advice or not at the time it was given, I listened to it and it is now six months down the road, I'm only just about to start monetizing my blog and I'm glad I listened to that advice.

Blogging really isn't as easy as many people think. It takes a huge amount of dedication, time and effort. You'll often find yourself using an hour each morning reading through your RSS feeds and commenting on other blogs, or taking two hours to research a subject you're about to write about. You have to be prepared to commit a lot of your time and not quit at your first hurdle.

There's a well known wall in the blogosphere. It's often described in a similar manner to the 'wall' that marathon runners hit. They get to a point where they feel they can't carry on and if they can't get past the wall then they will drop. But if they get past the wall, they will carry on and be able to go forever. It's a general agreement that most bloggers hit this wall around the three month stage. I did, and I left my blog inactive for a month. I spent a week at a conference in Chicago and meeting customers and didn't have time to blog, then I just couldn't bring it upon myself to write on the blog when I returned home. I had hit the wall and quit. Fortunately, I was one of the few who managed to get back up and as it happens my blog now enjoys a lot more success than it did before I hit the wall.

I guess I just want to make it clear that blogging isn't an easy way to make money. There are far easier ways to make money. If I didn't enjoy blogging so much, I wouldn't be doing it, because it is incredibly hard!

[jasaunders]

I am making $0. Revenue has been steady with 0% growth month over month. I am expecting 0% growth in year over year revenue as well.

By the way, my blog is in my signature.

[Cognition]

Originally Posted by Jamieharrop

I'll be monetizing my blog soon (having built a solid reader base over the past few months without monetization).

To answer the original posters question, it depends on so many factors. The best advice I got when I started blogging was not to monetize the blog straight away. Whether I trusted that advice or not at the time it was given, I listened to it and it is now six months down the road, I'm only just about to start monetizing my blog and I'm glad I listened to that advice.

Monetizing initially or after a trial period of traffic building [targeted] has been a decision that I've been rather split on.

Some 'experts' say that monetizing from the start is favorable, others say to wait. I personally may wait after a trial period of 90 days [3 months] until I launch an integrated system of monetization on the blog and in my podcasts, probably along with custom design theme. It would also be good because I could launch my proposed message board at the same time.

I haven't made up my mind yet, but I'm leaning more to your experience, Jamie.

[Jamieharrop]

Here's the clincher...

After three months of traffic to your blog with zero monetizing, you will have some solid figures that you can analyse to determine what you should be advertising and where you should be placing adverts. You'll have a good indication of your visitors surfing habits such as what times of day they visit and what pages are most popular etc.

You'll also be able to give solid figures to your advertisers. You will have built PageRank. You'll have some good visitor numbers. You might know some demographics about your visitors, such as their age range and occupation. All these are very valuable figures for advertisers, as I'm sure you know.

If you start with the monetization straight away, you won't have these figures. The advertising will be much more hap-hazard and the results won't be great for you or your advertisers.

At least that's how I look at it.

[Cognition]

Originally Posted by Jamieharrop

Here's the clincher...

After three months of traffic to your blog with zero monetizing, you will have some solid figures that you can analyse to determine what you should be advertising and where you should be placing adverts. You'll have a good indication of your visitors surfing habits such as what times of day they visit and what pages are most popular etc.

You'll also be able to give solid figures to your advertisers. You will have built PageRank. You'll have some good visitor numbers. You might know some demographics about your visitors, such as their age range and occupation. All these are very valuable figures for advertisers, as I'm sure you know.

If you start with the monetization straight away, you won't have these figures. The advertising will be much more hap-hazard and the results won't be great for you or your advertisers.

At least that's how I look at it.

I agree with all of that - it's all true.

I think I've made a decision [and yet another modification in my strategy]. I will NOT be monetizing from the start, but after a trial period of traffic building and compiling the demographics of my readers and the statistics of my site.

I also won't be doing any CPC advertising. The payouts are too low and the design isn't aesthetically-pleasing as I desire on my blog. I may use it [AdSense] for the adjacent message board when I disable the ability to comment on blog posts.

Thanks Jamie for helping me make up my mind!

[exstatic]

So, your saying, I should work for free for 6 months, then I will be able to make $100 a month?

[Jamieharrop]

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.

[2gould]

Originally Posted by exstatic

So, your saying, I should work for free for 6 months, then I will be able to make $100 a month?

Exstatic:
Get Rickkid's blogging e-book - it is short, easy to read and would definitely help you out. Plus he is giving it away free to YE members. There is a thread that tells you how. Good luck

Charley

[exstatic]

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.

[Jamieharrop]

Originally Posted by exstatic

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.

I agree with everything you just said, exstatic. And that's why there isn't a single successful blogger who blogs just for the money. If blogging were just a way to make money for these people, they wouldn't do it because as you say, there are far easier ways to make money.

However, blogging is enjoyable and is a great way to build contacts that aid in other areas of business. The very fact that blogging isn't a get rich quick scheme or is easy is what I've been trying to get across in this thread, to some extent.

FWIW, there are plenty of people who make enough to live from (plus a heck of a lot more). These people only make up a small percentage of the blogosphere, but there are plenty of them. John Chow, Shoemoney ad ProBlogger are three bloggers that immediately come to mind. That's not to say they rely on their blogs for their income. I know for a fact that the $20k John makes from his blog each month is just side money on top of his other businesses. But if he wanted to, he could quite easily live off his blog... until he runs out of ideas or the Internet goes boom.

[leggomygreggo]

i think that alot of the time blogging is about the massive amount of money you will be making. Some people just have a passion for writing and hope that they can make a little money off it.
But i also think that if you have a truly unique and interesting blog you can make some serious bucks. Blogging would be like any other business. When you start a business you don't expect to immediately make tons of money. You start out slow and with time and dedication you can make serious money.
I think you can pull in WAY over $100 a month if you have alot of traffic to your site. 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.