Can You Really Make Money Blogging?
I read a lot of blogs in a week’s time. Lately I’ve noticed more talk about blogging to make money. More specifically, there’s an interesting up-and-down trend of “yes, you can” and “no, you can’t.”
The “yes, you can” bloggers say that it is possible to make money blogging. But then there is a wide varying of opinion as to how to make money blogging. Some say Adsense is the way to go. But even more bloggers are saying to stay away from Adsense and try other things, like Widget Bucks, Kontera and Amazon context.
The “no, you can’t” bloggers say that it’s impossible to expect to earn a decent income solely from a blog. They suggest rather, to hire yourself out as a freelancer, or do something else to earn a living while you blog for a hobby.
And then there are the bloggers who say that it is possible to make money with a blog, but you have to be willing to put in lots of hard work and you can’t expect it to happen overnight.
I have found that the bloggers who say it is possible are most often those who began blogging solely as a hobby. They birthed an audience, who grew with them over an extended period of time (in most cases, years). They didn’t start out with hopes of making money, but just did it for fun. Because they carved out a name for themselves in a community of people who were also interested in the same things, they became popular and widely known across the Net. Slowly, they began to test and try new things–just to make a few bucks to pay for the regular upkeep of the blog–and discovered that they could monetize their passion after all.
Lessons we can learn from this…
Are You Passionate About The Topic?
If you’re thinking about blogging just to make money, forget about it. It’s definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme. If you aren’t passionate about the topic, you’ll run out of things to say–and fast!
If you’re going to start a blog, be confident that you can talk about the topic extensively and often. Most blogs update daily; three times per week minimum. To build a readership, you have to be able to post content regularly, or else nobody will want to come back. If you aren’t very interested in the topic, it’s going to be difficult to keep producing content as often as you need to.
Can You Devote Time To It?
Blogging requires more time and effort than you think. Professional bloggers don’t just whip out articles and post them on a whim, then leave until it’s time to blog again.
Blogging requires things like research, networking, and traffic building. Not only are you the author, but you have to manage comments, respond to your readers, and generate an overall interest in your blog. If you can’t devote the time required to build an audience, it’s pointless to blog (unless you just enjoy reading your own thoughts 
).
Are You Willing To Test And Tweak To Discover What Works Best?
When your blog grows to the point that you are ready to monetize it, how will you go about doing this? You can’t just slap a few blocks of Adsense on your blog and walk away. You have to ask yourself questions like:
- What are my readers interested in?
- What products can I recommend to my readers that will provide them with quality, helpful information they need?
- Is paid advertising more conducive than placing Adsense on my website?
- Do I want my readers to stay on my website, or is it okay for them to click away (Adsense)?
Those are just a few things you have to consider.
Can You Build A “Sticky” Blog?
Believe it or not, blogging requires more thought than just throwing together a few paragraphs and posting it for people to read. You have to consider your audience, and what they want or expect to read when they return.
A sticky blog is one that keeps the reader there for a long period of time. How do you know if your blog is sticky? Take a look at your site stats. If it shows that the majority of your readers click away after being on your blog for less than a minute or two, it’s pretty safe to say your blog isn’t sticky.
A few examples of my favorite sticky blogs are:
Go check them out and see if you can figure out the “stickiness” of each blog. 
Can you make money blogging?
Some say you can; some say you can’t. I say…it’s all up to YOU. Can you make money blogging? You tell me….can you?
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December 1st, 2007 at 9:59 pm
I get a little concerned when I see zillions of people talking about how they’re going to get rich from blogging. I really believe that lots of people just see it as a get-rich-quick scheme. Sure, you can make money blogging, but it’s a lot of work. I’ve been tempting myself to jump into the fray, but I’m so intimidated by how much there is to learn to be successful. At this point, my blogs are either written just because I want to write them, or because I’m getting paid by the owner to write them. I haven’t built and monetized my own because I’m too overwhelmed by how difficult it seems.
December 2nd, 2007 at 8:01 am
Precisely! While I *do* think you can earn money with a blog, it takes hard work…and that’s the thing so many people overlook. There’s no such thing as a quick buck…unless you’re doing something illegal.
And by the way, monetizing a blog isn’t difficult. But it is important to learn, test, and tweak. I’m still learning. I’ll never stop learning.
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
You know, you say it’s not that difficult to learn; but I keep putting my hands over my ears and saying “la, la, la, la, I can’t hear you” because I’ve gotten myself so freaked out about it. I have a copy of WordPress for Dummies coming, compliments of a contest at Casual Keystrokes, and I’m hoping that will give me enough information to feel brave enough to step out of my comfort zone. My husband is starting his own Search and Rescue-related blog, and he would be more than happy for me to experiment on it.
December 2nd, 2007 at 5:55 pm
LOL! Baby steps, my dear, baby steps.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:10 am
[...] Finally, consider analyzing your FeedBurner Feed Statistics , Stopping Content Theft and Scoring Points for Better Blogging. By the time you’ve read all these, you should be able to answer Hope’s question: Can You Really Make Money Blogging? [...]
March 20th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Hi Lorna,
If anyone had said to me three years ago that I would run not one but two blogs by now, I would have laughed at them.
I was reluctant to start blogging, mostly because I found the process and the people doing it very intimidating. It seemed like such a large amount of work!
My time was also limited, and while I was happy to write the content, I had no interest in learning the “technical aspects.”
So I decided to take it slow - basically posting text for a couple of months and sending links to people I thought might be interested in specific posts. Strangely enough, some of my offline friends and found me and before long interview subjects for my job were saying “l read your blog.”
That was scary for me.
About one Saturday morning a month, I’d spend about two hours exploring blogger and learning how I could improve the look and feel of my blog, change fonts, add pictures, promote the blog.
It took me forever to feel competent enough to move beyond just text, but I worked to my internal clock, not what other people told me to do.
The marketing of the blog was even harder because it is so time consuming.
18 months later I was confident enough to start a second blog,in a niche that interests me, on a blogging network.
I was shocked to realise how much I’d learnt while tinkering with my first blog and those lessons helped me earn some income right from the launch of the second blog.
I still have tons to learn, but the blogs are out there, and the financial rewards have been more than just cash.
I guess I’m reiterating what Hope is saying about the hard work, but another thing I want to emphasise is that it’s easier on the nerves when you take away the pressure of shoulds and have to’s and focus on what you can do for now. Sure there’s tons to learn and do to make your blog successful.And maybe you won’t have as many readers, make as much money as you would if you followed the advice of the gurus to the letter, ASAP. But slow and steady wins the race, as the cliche goes.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
So true, damaria! Thanks so much for sharing your story here.