Let’s Make Lots of Money Blogging!
December 3, 2008 by BloggerNewbie
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“Let’s Make Lots of Money Blogging!”
I had a great idea! Not a new idea, but a great idea. My Blog was 6 months old on December 1, 2008! Yeah, Happy Anniversary to me…
I have put countless hours in blogging. From my design to writing to marketing and promoting. I love my blog, I like the look and feel. I am proud of my accomplishments thus far. I have learned more in 6 months blogging then I think I did the entire time in college! Maybe not.
I am in it for the long haul because first and foremost, I enjoy blogging. I adore writing. The social aspect of blogging is time consuming but the best part. I have made several acquaintances, a considerable number of peers and some really great friends. I admit, I started blogging and found blogging as I was searching for ways to make money online. I am not afraid of work. I have the 5 P’s of a successful blogger.
I am well aware that making money from blogging is long term goal. I realize that. Is long term a relative term? Like anything else – Its all relative!
I thought after 6 months, I would be making..
Instead, I am making..
Having said that, I decided it was time to review the plan here! What’s going on, what am I doing wrong or not doing? I decided to take a look at the A listers..
I was trying to find something that the “big guys” or “gals” as the case may be have in common? What is it that makes them successful? My observation was that they all had the “usual” – passion, creativity, ambitious, longevity, etc. I have all that. Well not the longevity. But that comes with time, literally. So do I just keep doing what I’m doing and let time take care of itself?
Another conclusion I came to all by myself was that there must be more to making money blogging then by just creating a blog, writing good content, then throwing up a few adsense ads. I don’t even see the familiar adsense ads on some of these blogs! What are they doing? Writing e-books, offering e-courses? I was going to investigate further by going straight to the source.
My plan was to put together a short list of questions (maybe 5) and ask 5 or 10 of the top bloggers to share their wealth of knowledge and experience in an email interview type format.
I started my draft post, wrote a couple questions, got distracted and started visiting my RSS reader.
Darren Rowse of Problogger wrote a post regarding the very same topic! Can you really make money blogging? He must be reading my mind. It is a great post and you really need to read it and get your reality check. I still have my questions about making money blogging though. I am going to formulate my email interview and will post what information and feedback I receive.
Do you have any questions you would like answered from the A list of blogging? Do you have any secrets about how you make money?
Toodles – Blog Happy!
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“A billion here and a billion there,
and pretty soon you’re talking real money…”
- Everett Dirksen
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Hi Dee:
I hear ya loud and clear. I’m still trying to figure out how to monetize without my site looking like one big banner ad.
Affiliate marketing comes to mind (Did you see ProBlogger’s open letter to amazon? He makes $2000 – 3000 every MONTH!) I recently went to commission junction and there’s lots of opportunity there.
I say to continue what you are doing to drive traffic and the ad rev should start building.
Congrats on your 6 month anniversary – you’ve already outlasted 75% of other bloggers!
George
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Hi there…
Like you, I blog because I enjoy it. But, like you, I’d love to make money online at the same time! At the moment I make a couple cents here and there (pitiful!)
Problogger is a great place to start. Darren’s recent post (that you linked to) is also a great post to read. I’ve bought problogger the book too which I recommend. But honestly, I think the biggest thing you need is consistent high level traffic. Having said that, I’m certainly no expert, and certainly don’t make much online at the moment!
I’d also be interested to hear of any other great strategies. I DON’T want to resort to trick links / clicks that some sites do, I also don’t want to be pestering people with bulk emails etc.
Ross´s last blog post..So you’ve heard it all before? Part 3: Destiny
Oh, and congrats on 6 Months! Well done!
Ross´s last blog post..So you’ve heard it all before? Part 3: Destiny
George – The more I think about it the more I think the money is in being diversified. You also write freelance and are working on other ventures. I think that is the key. I didn’t read the post you are referring to but I don’t think I have ever seen an Amazon or Adsense ad (until just very recently – Adsense) on Problogger? I also think that having more than one blog makes a difference. Thanks for the good wishes.
Ross – I bought the problogger book in the very beginning, knowing a little more now than I did then I should go back and read it again to see if things connect better.
I also think high volume traffic is one of the answers as well as some of my thoughts in my response to George.
I don’t want my readers to have to wade through all the ads to find the content and I’m not going to do that. I have seen some blogs and OMG! How do they do it? I don’t like big flashes, little flashes are nice but calm down. AND I detest popups so I refuse to go down those few avenues!
Hopefully, we will get some answers with the interview questions. I will keep you posted..
Thank you for the well wishes!
First of all – Happy Belated Anniversary!!
I completely hear what you’re saying Dee! Reading about all of the money that the blogging “experts” are making is tough to swallow when your checks aren’t even 1/100 of theirs. Stick with your routine, you’ve got a diverse crowd and variety to your topics. I think that 6 months is a really pivotal point. You’re still on your way up the hill
I’m with you though; pop-up ads are the worst! I love your site and your writing; keep up the great work!!
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I think like a lot of things in my life I do things in an opposite way. When I started my blog (and I think I passed 6 months recently too – I’d have to look up the date) I was just looking to share some things that I had learned and needed a distraction. I really never even thought about earning money from it.
I think that for most of us it would be very difficult to write articles, throw up some ads and expect to earn a living. We have to offer other services as well – ebooks, freelance writing or design, plugin development, training, etc.
It’s funny when things are in sync – you had your questions the same day ProBlogger posted his article.
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Rachel – Thank you for the well wishes, I wasn’t really thinking about it being any milestone I was just thinking about the numbers and such. I certainly don’t think I should be making any kind of living at this point, a little more side cash would be nice. I love it so I would blog without monetizing – probably not as disciplined but…
Kim – I agree completely and I am quite certain that all the diversification is a major part in the successful bloggers bank account. For some reason that part is glossed over or completely left out.
That is too funny about the very same topic at Problogger! That has happened more than once. That is the law of attraction telling me I am on the right channel!
Hi Dee,
The best way to make money Blogging is not through Blogging itself, its through selling your services aswell as blogging.
I like you make very little off my Blogs, But I offer a blog Analysis Service through my Blog, very discretly, which makes me money…I still have my day job, more a passion though cause I get to Blog and design websites in work.
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I started blogging on a whim. As a computer illiterate for most of my life, and started creating email “posts” for family and freinds. It seemed to be a logical progression to blog my thoughts and reach a larger audience.
What I did not realize was the friendships that would follow. There are people that I am in contact with every day. For the first month I had a blog … it was like talking to a wall. All of a sudden I realized the HUGE buzz that is out there. I cannot think of anything bad about my experience so far. I am in it for the long haul
I never attempted to make money blogging. Seems that many start out with this intention, then find the true enjoyment is about sharing, and meeting all types of folks from around the world.
Hello from Minnesota,
Eric “SpeedyCat”
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Ciara – I find it is strange that in all the blog articles and ebooks that I have read, that is never mentioned. What’s the secret? It would certainly eliminate a lot of short term start up blogs!
Hello Eric, welcome to BloggerNewbie. I think your experience with blogging is every bloggers story. The first month you do feel like you are talking to yourself! But I figured that was okay, it would allow me to create some content.
It would be icing on the cake to make a few bucks from blogging but that is only secondary. The community a blog creates is unmeasurable.
I’m trying to figure that out for my blog. My blog is connected to my main website, but it would be nice to have the blog as a source of income as well. Becuase of the nature of the blog, I think I already have too much on it now – I dont want to look like the Las Vegas strip.
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I’ve found that developing revenue from a blog is largely a matter of getting targeted traffic from search engines and showing them how to get what they want whether it’s from an Adsense ad, affiliate banner or link or a product or service of your own creation.
Social referral traffic, such as you get from bookmarking sites, RSS feeds and Twitter, generally doesn’t consist of people who’re in a buying mood so selling to them is much tougher since it involves building relationships over the long term. This can be quite frustrating due to the sales skills involved and most bloggers will get discouraged in a few months.
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Carla,
On one hand, I think a very specific niche like yours is even more of a challenge to get traffic – a smaller number of people versus a wider audience such as a blog about blogging, however the challenge here is sharing the same group of readers.
Frank,
The search engine traffic is the whole challenge and can either be bought or earned. And yes, I totally agree, the social traffic is usually a smaller number of people and we are all kind of in the same group so we all have very similar ads and such.
I would say the majority of revenue comes from other areas such as sales of your own product.