I've been blogging for five or six years now. If you think I am rolling in dough by now you may be right... if I were having a kinky moment with a pizza maker.
Blogging can be lucrative, but more often than not it just isn't. Making money on a blog takes a lot of things that people typically don't have. The first thing?
Time. You need to spend a lot of time when you are blogging. Why? Because people don't give a crap about what you have to say. In the land of social media where everyone has a voice the views of the blogger are often well,...lost. You have to find a way to speak over all the noise that blares across super highway that is the internet. So, it's going to take time for you to learn what you need to say to make people actually pay attention and then keep their attention so they want to come back to your blog and see what else you have to say. Be prepared to spend endless hours just figuring out your messaging and approach toward your audience. That alone can take a long time. I spend several hours a day comparing posts and analyzing which platforms work for which posts. For example, if your posts about fashion do extremely well with a facebook population but they may suck with your twitter population. Twitter folks hate your fashion. They want tech posts. So now you are blogging about two different topics for two different demographics across two different social media platforms. This isn't a huge issue once you get the hang of it, but until you do? You will be spending a ton of time figuring things out.
I often hear so many reformed single moms who say they are professional bloggers. You want to guess why? Because after school aged children are sitting in a classroom, after the baby has went to bed, after the morning run, and the clothes are in the dryer, there is this beautiful thing called "time". You can sit down and tend to things. Even if you don't have very much of it, you have more of it than most which allows you to look at all the things that people who don't have as time can't.
Want to know why else it's tough monetizing a blog or even keeping up with it?
Subject Matter. If you have one blog, it's hard to always stick to one topic. Sure there are fashion bloggers who only write about fashion. There are food bloggers who only write about food. There are also business bloggers who give all kinds of business tips and seminars. They even sell books on their blogs. That's great. But what if you don't have much to say on a particular day? What then? I recall when I worked for a medical practice that had of the best marketing teams I had ever seen and I was thankful to have been a part of it. One day I told my supervisor that I had writers block for an article I was required to write for the same demographic once per month. She gave me a smirk and said: It's always the same message, you just spin it a new way. As a blogger you will have to really tug the creativity out of you because the moment you don't know what to talk about, the day will turn into a week and you will lose followers faster than you think. Folks like instant gratification and as soon as you fade away, they will be on to something new and you won't be it.
Monetizing Strategies: This one is big. It's the friggin elephant in the room that people breeze over but is most important. Seldom do people blog for hobby anymore. Heck, I started off doing it as a hobby and before long I decided to take a ride on the money train along with all of the other bloggers. What I didn't know was that the reason why it was so easy to catch the train was because it doesn't move very fast. Between investing the time to create content, determine the content people actually want to read about, and consistently creating that content, it's going to be slow going. But let's assume you mastered that part. Well, you still need to obtain visibility. You need to find ways to be found. You need to drive people to your content, not the ones who already like it, but new ones! You want to grow your population. Faithful followers are great, but without growth you're at a standstill as far as increasing your earning potential. Discovering what is going to work to bring in some cash for your blog is another task for you to complete.
Some people like to use affiliate marketing to monetize their blogs. Some use Amazon and others use Adsense or Skimlinks. There are plenty others that you can find through a simple search online. There are some who use more than one. If you have a few blogs you may find that some work better than others. Some people place ads on their blogs, some people opt to give reviews of advertise products openly. This can sometimes turn off a reader, as they feel they are being sold to however in this day in age, it's no secret that people want to get paid for what they do. Blogging is a hobby for some and a business for other's and there's no shame in either purpose.
Once find the balance between credibility and popularity, you may be able to offer products on your blog that actually belong to you rather than a huge company that pays you cents on the dollar when other's purchase through your site. This is a great way to increase your earning potential and another reason why it's worth it to pay attention to what your audience likes. Among the things bloggers sell are eBooks, products, and consultations. This seems to occur when high credibility and excellent, useful content is present. I think another reason why some blogs don't thrive is:
Research: I spend a lot of time (there goes that word again) reading other blogs with higher followings and traffic volumes to figure out ways I can achieve those results. There is nothing wrong with copying a working model. In fact, I think there is everything right with it. I subscribe for free information so often that my inbox looks like my spam folder. I call friends and ask them random questions about what they would be interested in reading and check out what's trending on the internet all the time. My life is spent clicking and reading, followed by typing and scheduling blog posts. I won't admit that I love it all the time but I do it because while I don't have all the answers to what makes for a successful blog, I'm certain that I have one of the things needed to be successful at blogging:
Passion: If you are thinking of blogging just because you want to make a crap load of cash, you may as well give up now. I respect people who make money blogging and take no issue if that was their primary intention when they started however, the lack of passion will not help anyone succeed. I love writing. I enjoy it very much and my goal is to be compensated for doing what I sincerely enjoy. I have written a novel and ghostwritten short stories. I'm confident in my skills as a writer. Blogging for me is a joy because I can write as I would in my journal without the stuffy tone of most authors.
Blogging can be written in a professional tone, but I don't want to be professional. I want to be me. If that stands in the way of monetizing my blog, I suppose I will have to go back to ghostwriting. Over all, my passion to write greatly outweighs my desire to make money doing it. That's the honest truth.
So if you are in it for the money, judging by the time, energy, and homework it takes to accomplish that goal...if you lack passion you will likely give up before you can reap the reward.
That's what blogging has been for me in a nutshell. I'm not an expert, I'm just a Nappy Haired Diva, that's doing her thing.
Blogging can be lucrative, but more often than not it just isn't. Making money on a blog takes a lot of things that people typically don't have. The first thing?
Time. You need to spend a lot of time when you are blogging. Why? Because people don't give a crap about what you have to say. In the land of social media where everyone has a voice the views of the blogger are often well,...lost. You have to find a way to speak over all the noise that blares across super highway that is the internet. So, it's going to take time for you to learn what you need to say to make people actually pay attention and then keep their attention so they want to come back to your blog and see what else you have to say. Be prepared to spend endless hours just figuring out your messaging and approach toward your audience. That alone can take a long time. I spend several hours a day comparing posts and analyzing which platforms work for which posts. For example, if your posts about fashion do extremely well with a facebook population but they may suck with your twitter population. Twitter folks hate your fashion. They want tech posts. So now you are blogging about two different topics for two different demographics across two different social media platforms. This isn't a huge issue once you get the hang of it, but until you do? You will be spending a ton of time figuring things out.I often hear so many reformed single moms who say they are professional bloggers. You want to guess why? Because after school aged children are sitting in a classroom, after the baby has went to bed, after the morning run, and the clothes are in the dryer, there is this beautiful thing called "time". You can sit down and tend to things. Even if you don't have very much of it, you have more of it than most which allows you to look at all the things that people who don't have as time can't.
Want to know why else it's tough monetizing a blog or even keeping up with it?
Some people like to use affiliate marketing to monetize their blogs. Some use Amazon and others use Adsense or Skimlinks. There are plenty others that you can find through a simple search online. There are some who use more than one. If you have a few blogs you may find that some work better than others. Some people place ads on their blogs, some people opt to give reviews of advertise products openly. This can sometimes turn off a reader, as they feel they are being sold to however in this day in age, it's no secret that people want to get paid for what they do. Blogging is a hobby for some and a business for other's and there's no shame in either purpose.
Once find the balance between credibility and popularity, you may be able to offer products on your blog that actually belong to you rather than a huge company that pays you cents on the dollar when other's purchase through your site. This is a great way to increase your earning potential and another reason why it's worth it to pay attention to what your audience likes. Among the things bloggers sell are eBooks, products, and consultations. This seems to occur when high credibility and excellent, useful content is present. I think another reason why some blogs don't thrive is:
Research: I spend a lot of time (there goes that word again) reading other blogs with higher followings and traffic volumes to figure out ways I can achieve those results. There is nothing wrong with copying a working model. In fact, I think there is everything right with it. I subscribe for free information so often that my inbox looks like my spam folder. I call friends and ask them random questions about what they would be interested in reading and check out what's trending on the internet all the time. My life is spent clicking and reading, followed by typing and scheduling blog posts. I won't admit that I love it all the time but I do it because while I don't have all the answers to what makes for a successful blog, I'm certain that I have one of the things needed to be successful at blogging:Passion: If you are thinking of blogging just because you want to make a crap load of cash, you may as well give up now. I respect people who make money blogging and take no issue if that was their primary intention when they started however, the lack of passion will not help anyone succeed. I love writing. I enjoy it very much and my goal is to be compensated for doing what I sincerely enjoy. I have written a novel and ghostwritten short stories. I'm confident in my skills as a writer. Blogging for me is a joy because I can write as I would in my journal without the stuffy tone of most authors.
Blogging can be written in a professional tone, but I don't want to be professional. I want to be me. If that stands in the way of monetizing my blog, I suppose I will have to go back to ghostwriting. Over all, my passion to write greatly outweighs my desire to make money doing it. That's the honest truth.
So if you are in it for the money, judging by the time, energy, and homework it takes to accomplish that goal...if you lack passion you will likely give up before you can reap the reward.
That's what blogging has been for me in a nutshell. I'm not an expert, I'm just a Nappy Haired Diva, that's doing her thing.
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