If only blogging for money was this easy.
How many of you started a blog thinking it’s an easy way to make money and do almost nothing? So you start your blog and it didn’t take long for you to realize that doing almost nothing will get you nothing to show for it. So you try to do just a little bit more and … still nothing. That, my friend, is where 90% of bloggers give up.
There’s just so much information (and misinformation) on the web today, how do we sort through all the garbage and find the real useful stuff that will actually help us earn an income by blogging? Let’s set the record straight on some common myths.
Top 5 myths of blogging for money
- You can get rich quick. Not at all! In fact, it’s the opposite. If you poured your heart and soul and every waking moment of your day into your blog for a month straight, you would probably making more money flipping burgers during that same time. Whether you plan on being a full-timer or a hobbyist, your blog site is still a business, one that requires nurturing and time to grow. In the long run, you will out-earn a short-order cook but it will take plenty of time on your part.
- It is easy to make money with a blog. Also totally untrue. Anyone who tries to sell you a “secret” to making money fast is a scam artist. So let me add a caveat to my previous myth: you cannot get rich quick unless you are a scam artist, then you have a small chance. Not only will growing your blog take a lot of time but it will also require focus and energy. You will have to pay attention to it closely and perform many experiments. Then you have to find solutions for your problem areas, which require creativity, patience, and lots of trial and error.
- You can start your money making blog for free. Of course you can start a blog for free but if you want to make money, it will cost you. It’s an investment in yourself, after all. Your upfront costs are a domain name and hosting, usually less than $100 for the year combined. However, before your first year is up, logos, themes, email service, and advertising are among your other costs, which can add up real quick.
- There is a recipe for success. There are general road maps but there is no “system” that works for everyone; there are just too many variables. Even if you were to try to reproduce the niche, the strategy, the tactics, and the theme of a successful blogger, the timing isn’t the same. Furthermore, you don’t get to see what strings are being pulled from behind the curtain. Take the time to learn from experts, digest the information, and as Simon, Paula and Randy would tell you, “make it your own”.
- Once a blog is successful, it can be put on autopilot. The internet is organic. As a result, there is no autopilot button that would work well long-term. Let’s say you were able to create amazing success after a few months or a year, in order to continue that success you would have to keep up with trends, adapt to changes, grow existing relationships, create new relationships, rethink your strategies, fine-tune your tactics, continue to market your blog, perform regular SEO and tweak your ads. And did I mention that you still have to write fresh content?!?
Not exactly what some of you want to hear, is it? There’s a bright side to it. I’m not trying to de-motivate potentially great bloggers, rather, save bloggers who wouldn’t make it anyway several months of their time.
So, if you still want to blog for money, go for it. Now you know what you’re up against.
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I am a business professional
with an entrepreneurial spirit. Although I have an MBA and managed websites and IT departments
for several Fortune 500 companies ...
Gabe,
Very, very true on all counts!
Let add one thing though, which I learned from Frank Kern: “Nobody gets rich slow.” What this means is that when you actually do “get rich,” it happens PDQ. This is what “Overnight success takes 20 years” means!
In a month or two, after this article disappears way down into your feed, I’d like to have it as a guest post in WIAW.
Thanks,
-d
Glad this article interested you enough to ask for a guest post, Dave. I think it’s perfect for Website In A Weekend!
Ha, the irony. This is actually the reason why I came into blogging: the money. I will keep in mind of these debunked myths. Thanks.
@Brad, if you take a look at the earnings history of most of the “6 figure” bloggers, you might be surprised at 1. how few there are, and 2. how long it took them to get there.
Blogging is ridiculously low paid compared to industries such as medicine or law which have legally protected gatekeepers. On the other hand, much less BS. You either cut the mustard, or you do not.
Oh yeah, get yourself a gravatar!
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[...] so I didn’t scare some of you away with yesterday’s post, Top 5 myths of blogging for money. If you’re new, where do you go from here? Although Blogger (aka Blogspot) is a great tool [...]
Lol, I am not in it to replace my paycheck, but rather to have it be that extra bonus.
Nice post Gabe, as someone said there is no shortcut to success similarly there is no shortcut to make money. Every one who promise that they can help you make money over night is big scam and shoo them at the first point.
On your 5th point, this is the most common mistake made by any blogger, once a blogger start making good money, he leave his blog as it is, or downgrade its quality of posts. Never forget whats your ultimate source of income.
Good post!
Great article Gabe, I can attest to everything written here! Well done!
That’s a good point. Pareto’s Law, aka 80-20 rule, applies here. In fact, it might even be 90-10. So 90% of bloggers make 10% of the money while 10% of bloggers make 90% of the money.
The climb to that top 10% is one that requires hard work. Since the barrier to entry is light, expect a lot of competition, even in the smallest of niches. Everyone should ask themselves this: can you be more persistent than 90% of the other bloggers in your niche?
This is very helpful information and I really needed to hear some of it. Thanks.
Harsh, keeping up with a site is hard work. It’s all fun and games during the first week or so. Then money’s not coming like you wrongly perceived. Then topics are harder to come by. Then motivation declines…
So when the dedicated people finally make it over that hurdle, they do tend to let off the gas a little. Over time, there’s more and more to do while the posts should still be fresh and interesting.
One can easily argue that it’s actually more work once a blog is “successful”.
I think if people knew some of these facts upfront, they wouldn’t even begin a blog in the first place!
Experienced writers like yourself have a nice head start since the writing can come so natural. You could spend more time optimizing and building traffic, a luxury many bloggers wish they had!
Thanks Gabe, great post!
Your right about if most people new the about these myth busters before hand, they most likely would never have started a blog in the first place.
I not real concerned about the money making on my blog as much as wanting to drive traffic to my sites and rank high on search engines. I am at that hurtle right now, of loosing motivation, trying to keep coming up with new, good content to post each week can be difficult and time consuming.
Blogging has lots of indirect benefits. If you’re trying to drive traffic to your ecommerce site, your blog will help move it along. It does take time and dedication but persistence will pay off. You just need to outlast your competition.
Just to give you an idea, I’ve had bookmarks for many bloggers who exchange comments with me. There are some who haven’t written a new post in weeks or months. It’s natural to hit a wall when there’s not a lot of visible results. Just give it time. To save yourself from burnout, set a different schedule. Instead of posting every day, try three times a week. Use the other “off” days to connect with other bloggers.
[...] who has. Out of the 100 million plus blogs out there, only a handful survive. If only they knew what blogging really entails before they [...]
First of all great post. It is interesting to see somebody write about a topic like this and still seem passionate about getting their word heard by the readers. To me you seem sincere.
I recently started blogging (about 2 weeks ago) and I came into this game with the understanding that it would likely be a difficult task to generate a reader base.
I have not yet decided on what my true goal is, but I do know that I have quite a bit to offer in terms of information and resources to my readers. That being said, it has been about two weeks and I have not yet received any new subscribers (other than my friends and family of course) ha ha. It becomes draining when you come home after a hard day at work and spend your evenings researching and deciding what topic you will use for your next post. Because I feel that it is important that my content be unique, helpful, and useful; it does take time.
I would be lying if I were to say that I was not in this for the money, because I am. However, I feel that for the most part information, especially in this day and age, should be passed on freely since to me, collaboration and partnership are the keys to success and innovation.
I am an aspiring entrepreneur, and although I stated earlier that my goal is yet to be defined, I am looking forward to establishing myself as a credible source of information within the fields of entrepreneurship, personal growth, and business growth. Once I have developed a reader base (if this ever happens), I will decide on a product or service that will be useful to my market, leveraging my blog to demonstrate that I am truly a human being who is looking to satisfy the needs of his customers.
I have much work to do, but I do appreciate the realistic words of the post and the general feel that I have received from you and your readers.
Gabe, I think it is important like you said to keep a positive mind set and give yourself days in between posts to rest and just enjoy life in general.
The goal isn’t always only to make money, but it is about building a network, learning from your readers and that network, and helping each other build businesses (whether it be a blog, or an e-commerce website) that will be sustained through social and human interaction with your customers.
Again, great post, I will be back– I promise I didn’t mean to come off like Arnold there.
Brad
Brad, thanks for the kind words.
You’re right, creating a following will take time. For now, if I were you, I would focus on delivering quality content and learning as much as possible. You’ll have to endure several milestones since you’re going to be writing to an audience of one for a while.
By creating fresh content regularly, you’ll get off on the right foot with Google. Don’t worry about monetizing your site yet, you’ll have plenty of time for that.
Those bloggers who can survive the first six months will never tell people that blogging is a quick way to make money.
scheng1´s last blog ..Withdrawal syndrome
you stated all the myths that most newbees think is true. most people think its very easy to blog for money but you dont relize how hard it is and how much time and effort you have to put in, in order to get to somewhere. plus not always your efforts going to payoff. i guess more people should read such a post to come in to the game with a more realstic view of blogging.
satrap´s last blog ..5 Powerful Secrets To Making The Most Attractive Squidoo Lens For Gaining More Traffic And Sale
Nice article, it is easy for high profile bloggers but not easy for newbies like me. Anyway, make money online is a long strategy and we can not be hurried to be rich
Tinh´s last blog ..Site Performance: Check Your Site Speed Within Google Webmaster Tools
The road to success is much easier to conquer if we know what lies ahead of us. It’s just that so many new bloggers get hit hard early on because they didn’t realize how much there is to do and no such thing as a magic formula.
Agree. No easy way to blog for money. Be original, people will come back for more.
Jayce´s last blog ..How to hack Facebook account profile
As much as we all dream of overnight success, it just doesn’t happen in a blogger’s world.
Here is myth #6: “Making money via blogging is a myth”!
Those who whine about how impossible and hard it is to earn any real money via blogging, they are the ones who are doing it wrong!
TechChunks´s last blog ..Blogger’s Day Out: A Day in ‘The Internet’
I am still struggling to earn good money from my blog since 2008.
Tech Maish´s last blog ..25 Popular Google Wave Robots
Monetizing a site can be quite a chore in itself. Converting visitors into dollars is something even the best marketers think about constantly.