Photo by Jacob Bøtter
In the last weeks I have received a big quantity of emails from people who is wondered about How to make money through blogging. I was analizing the content of this and similar blogs about this matter and I think the information is not arriving very well to that people who is starting in this lifestyle.
Making money by blogging is not so easy as many people say. In fact, it could be a hard task, and also it depends of the niche. First of all, it is very important to understand that the more people you have, the more money you earn – that’s a fact. Money is on masses, and if you want to earn big sums of money you should have many people following you, otherwise how do you expect to earn money from?. Tip 1: Traffic is key
The first thing many newbies think about making money with their blogs is Google Adsense. I must to say that you won’t earn a penny if your website doesn’t get enough traffic. So no matter how relevant the ads could be, if you don’t drive enough people to your website you will be wasting your time. Tip 2: Advertising does not work without people clicking on it
Another way to make monney with your blog is to sell ad spaces on it, i.e. 125x125px banners or textlinks. You can earn money by exposing other people’s services/products… Wait a minute! did I say services/products? Tip 3: You can make money by selling your own stuff: services, products, resources
There are other ways to make money online but you need to realize the idea of this post.
Is it possible to make money blogging?
Well, the answer to that question is quite simple, IT IS NOT. It is not possible to make money by blogging simply because Blogging cannot generate money by itself! Blogging is a medium, a path between you and an audience who is mainly looking for information and probably for products or services.
You need to devise something to generate money with: it could be a software, a service, a book, a clip of audio… And after then, you could use your blog in order to promote and inform the people about what you offer.
So why people say that they make money Blogging? I think they are not expressing the idea so well, they should be referring that they make money through blogging, or with the help of, using a blog.
Conclusion
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To make money “blogging”, you need to have something to sell. It could be whatever you want, in my case i’m involved with web design services, private sales (advertising), text link ads, SEO consulting and affiliate marketing.
When you have something to sell, you need to attract customers by driving traffic to your blog. To learn more about this topic, you can take a look into my Boost Traffic category.
One more thing, and probably the most important lesson of this topic. You need to be patient! It’s very difficult to see good results in a week, so you should have the patience to wait a couple of time until being successful!
What about you? How you do make money through your blog?
Hey! my name is Javier but you can call me Javo, everybody does.
Hello, great article you have here.
I like the idea you mentioned about blogging is just a medium to stay contact with the people in your market.
This shows that if you want to make money from your blog,
you must first have ‘something’ in your blog that people
are looking for.
And the ‘something’ will be your content. I guess one of
the most common reasons people fail to generate income
from their blog is that they do not know how it works.
They thought that by simply writing a few posts and
insert a few ads in their blog, they will automatically
make money from this.
This is a wrong move. You need to build quality content
to create trust and relationship with people before they
buy something on your blog. It is the same if you’re using
Adsense. When people come to your blog and see nothing but
full of ads, they will leave.
The number one reason for people to stay long enough in
your blog is your content. So always start by building
a quality blog.
There are too many blogs out there. If you want to make
money from your blog, you must be different from others
by providing what the people in your market are looking
for.
Thanks for sharing Javo,
Shawn
Success Strategies
Shawn Lims last blog post..How Positive Thinking Leads You To Success
Hey Shawn, what an awesome comment! You are right in your arguments, if you don’t have a great blog, something which can be differentiable from other blogs you won’t be successful, just because the people will leave too quick your blog and you won’t be able to deliver your content.
This way, it will be very difficult for you to make money with your blog.
Yes, Uniqueness is very important in blogging..
You need to be patient! , What a true statement, it takes at least 12 months to really see things happen online, this is because google takes that long to trust your site. Work hard everyday and you may start to make money blogging
Jason
I agree, 12 months could sound a little exaggerated but it’s not.
Patience and persistence will lead you to succeed!
I think a lot of bloggers think that they can simply copy what the top bloggers do and succeed. This is not the case because you have to create your own brand and direction. People don’t want to keep learning the same stuff over and over.
Donny Gambles last blog post..Next Generation of Link Building
Agree with you, when there is a pattern user will know how we work. And will decrease our earning. I just test this before. I’m not copy other site, but I copy one of my site because it gives me few $$ / day. I try to make the same thing, It’s not succedd like my first site
Busby SEOs last blog post..Busby SEO Test
Niche Blogging works best for Adsense except in the make money online or SEO niches. However other niches like gadgets and stuff that people actually buy are gold mines somebody even sold a banking blog for millions sometime ago. Hmmm.. Banking blog…. credit cards, loans, mortgage. Imagine how much money someone who grows a blog about this earns. Well his blog was sold for millions. General tip: Do not quit! Keep at it! Focus on search engine traffic and forget about stumble this tweet that. Social media is fun but not necessarily profitable.
Archie Penniess last blog post..Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting
That’s a great Tip, thanks for sharing it!
You are right about focusing on search engine traffic. We make most of our money from our unique visitors that are looking for an answer to the query that they have typed into a search engine. Social media will bring traffic, but not very good targeted traffic.
I’m going to disagree, and also assume that you don’t make money blogging. There are a lot of people that make money blogging, including myself, and they do not have some sort of product to sell.
For instance, there was a girl that blogged about her life and she managed to make $xxx,xxx simply off of Adsense each month. She wasn’t selling any product or personal ad space, she was simply talking about her life as a teenager and tons of people are interested and she benefited from all the Adsense clicks.
So, again, I will assume you personally don’t make money blogging, huh?
Jay
Jays last blog post..Take Chances But More Importantly, Take Advantage of Opportunities
Actually I do bro. But in the case of this girl, her source of income is Adsense, not blogging! Blogging is just a tool…
Jay your right. Take for example Dooce dot Com. That blog ears around six figures a year. This type of blog earns top bucks. The problem is that blogging about blogging and making money online is time consuming and not very profitable unless ou become an authority.Other types of blogs get better results fast. Example my blog earns me a wooping 10 bucks a month. While a 13 page niche site about HDTV made me $947 from Adsense and Ebay during the Holidays . And I have not updated it for months. Normally it makes around $500 more or less.
In my experience the money is in the links i like social media but mostly for fun and learning.
links=traffic traffic=money thus, links=money
Archie Penniess last blog post..Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting
It takes times and perseverance to suceed, it is not over night success.
Ari Lestarionos last blog post..New Year’s Resolution: Best Natural Foods for Longevity
I especially like the comment that ‘advertising doesn’t work if people aren’t clicking’. This is so important and it makes generating traffic a necessary step for a successful blog.
I’ve seen some newbies jump into the business with unrealistic expectations. These guys create these blogs plastered from head to toe with ads. And then they wait for the money to roll in…
It doesn’t roll in.
And these blogs are short lived. So great overall advice. It’s time to face the reality. Blogging alone doesn’t work, nor does just adding advertisements.
Shirleys last blog post..Google Maps’ Street View Helps Fight Crime!
That’s certainly sad. Many people create a blog expecting to earn tons of money automagically!
It’s very important to be very well informed about a biz before joining…
You are right about not making by blogging. The truth is you can make money by using your blog to generate traffic to the product or services that you promote. No one should ever assume that you can simply start blogging, place adsense ads on it or other ads promoting products, and start generating tons of cash. That’s just not going to happen. Not only do you need to get quality traffic to your blog you also need to offer them a product or service that they are willing to pay for. It is a lot harder than many gurus make it sound.
Your last point was especially important: “It is a lot harder than many gurus make it sound.” I can’t believe all the people who get into blogging and think they will get rich and have life-long income. Often, those people got that idea from online programs or courses that don’t seem much different than the real estate investment seminars with infomercials on late-night TV.
Minneapolis Attorneys last blog post..Trademark Attorney in Minneapolis, Minnesota
It’s absolutely true- blogging to make money takes a lot of work beyond just writing posts. You can earn a solid income, but it takes time and isn’t necessarily an overnight process. We’re working on several tools and tips that will be out on MLTV soon that address this very issue. Stay tuned!
Hey Dina, thanks for letting us know about that… I will be tuned
Nice tips, Javo. All forms of advertising is useless without traffic which is the essential prerequisite for any blog success. More so, if adsense is concerned.
The key is to build traffic first and monetize later. Oh, patience and a little bit of luck are equally important too.
Yan
It couldn’t be said better!
Its a nice Post…. I was under an impression that money can only be made online from affiliate programs. Your article has infused ideas in me that we can make money online from our blogs also… Thanx 4 sharing it…..
Welcome back!
So true. Many people go into blogging thinking that making money off of it is easy, and they will begin to rake in the dollars quickly. So many scams build on this expectation. But you’re right. It takes patience. And it’s hard work. In fact, a lot of people start it, then give up after a while…
Neil | Bartuls last blog post..Michael Bartul
Great article…every would-be blogger should be forced to read this ten times. Too many bloggers think all they have to do is write a handful of posts and throw up some “advertise here” banners and they’ll be rolling in the dough. Its not quite that easy I’m afraid.
Mike Collinss last blog post..50 Ways To Get Links To Your Site
Hello Mike! Don’t be afraid about it, it’s not so hard… Just do not push it and let the things flow…
Like you said, you have to create avenues to talk to people that are ultimately your customers! And a blog is one such avenue.
My blog connects me with people who are ultimately my clients for web designs and consulting projects. I also dabble in affiliate sales (which in my opinion is one of the better revenue producers).
What a great post and insightful comments you have here. It’s a big surprise that many out there blogging do not really know the purpose of the blog. Understanding the blog as a platform is really important.
If your blog is to be a money maker then treating it as a business is very necessary. The increase of blogs online have tripled the information overload. Making your blog a good source of the right info for your target audience is therefore imperative if your blog will make the money your desire. The simple rule therefore is give them what they want and they will give you want you want!
I believe most people wanting to make money online through blogging think they have to blog about making money online when they probably should be blogging about something they really know.
I have found many MMO blogs with no readers or comments at all. Some of those bloggers would find this post useful.
i agree with you. you must provide some unique and interesting stuff and sure you will gain a lot… nice post thanx for sharing.
Sky Xaviers last blog post..Increase blog traffic using StumbleUpon
Been following Mr.Javo a while now, some great stuff well put together. Just a couple or mentions:
1) did you know on your email subscription that thunderbird thinks your links are scams?
2) I agree about traffic here. I think another important thing is to have a clean site. Misspellings, bad colors, fonts etc breaks down someone’s trust or want in buying or clicking on your site.
3) Question for Mr. Javo re adsense. Do you think there will be a backlash of adsense users against adsense due to problems with PIN’s and once $100 limits are met, accounts are cut?
I’m interested as twice now I have asked for a pin and never got one. There’s no support. And the forums are empty aside from questions.
I am slowly removing Adsense off my site. It does quite well when I promote traffic to those pages. But I’m not doing that again until I get a PIN. Unfortunately in the meantime if google suspend me for not entering a pin, I will have public ads, no thanks. So I am taking the steps to remove them.
Instead I am relying on Affiliates, and sponsorship, the latter doing quite well.
Anyway I just wanted to stop by an relay those comments. Great work, and keep going!
Hi Dave,
1- Thunderbird thinks that about every aweber mailing list, the same happens with winningtheweb.com or tylercruz.com for example… You just need to click “this is not spam” and it will save the new settings.
3- Respecting the PIN of Google Adsense: it helps them to verify publisher addresses, and they will send you one when you have reached $10 in your account. That PIN is valid for 180 days and if you don’t enter it during that period, so after then they disable your account – they assume you faked you personal information…
I don’t believe Google cuts accounts with $100, that’s absurd… So if you reached more than $10 and you still waiting your PIN, I recommend you to keep emailing them… But I warn you, their support sucks very hard, they will reply your emails 3 months later.
Remember that you can change that kind of advertisement, for example replacing them with Bidvertiser. Also, as you said, you can change them for banners of affiliate networks or that kind of things, but first try to contact Google, by phone may be?
Good luck!
Good ideas Javo …. I have found that my blog is a nice Google “quality” builder, and well as providing keyword focused landing pages … I have done well getting ranked in the Top 10 this way.
makemoneys last blog post..Make Money Online Secrets