Who doesn't want to make money blogging? After all, if we put a good amount of time and hard work to establish and market our blogs, then this has to have a purpose.
Of course some blogs are started for fun – kind of like an online journal. Some start blogs to keep a journal of their life and happenings They enjoy writing about their family. Some start blogs to share fun, informative or other kind of stuff to a close circle – friends and family.
Neither of these kinds of bloggers are very serious about generating income from their blogs, because they do it for fun or as a hobby. Nothing wrong with that.
But I am speaking to those bloggers who want to set up an online business and those who want to use blogging as a source of income for them. So am I talking to you? I hope so!
If yes, in this post I am going to share some facts you should know before you expect your blogging efforts to produce an income. Some will be hard to accept and even bitter. But they're facts (at least from my experience). Let me start.
Blogging, on it's own, is not a business
Don't get me wrong here! I'm not discouraging you to go do some other business. The point is this: Your blog is your marketing tool.
You should have a business. And then you use your blog to “market” your business. You can use content marketing, or any other marketing approach to funnel your prospects through your blog to your actual business.
Your actual business can be anything that you have expertise in – web designing service, SEO service, freelancing, your products, whatever. And your blog should serve as a sales person who markets your services/products to your prospects and customers.
So where does this business model go? You should have “something” to sell in the first place. If you don't have anything to sell, blogging will simply create a collection of pointless posts that don't serve any purpose for your business.
Of course you can earn with services like Adsense, but you can't make a decent income.
Do you care if your blog is “ready” to make money?
I ask this because many don't. I mean, have you decided on a niche? Have you decided on a name for your blog? Or is it “just another WordPress blog”? Have you bought a domain name for your blog? Do you have a clean and professionally looking theme?
Most important of all, does your blog *help* your readers?
Oh wait, do you have any target audience? I mean, if I ask you now: “To whom you are writing your blog posts?”, can you give me a specific answer?
Specific – don't tell me I write blog posts for people who read blogs!
I hope you get my point.
Are you ready to spend… um.. sorry… invest?
Any business needs some kind of investment – a start up cost. This applies to both online and offline business.
Blogging is no different.
When you think about starting a blog and settle down with a decent income, you must be prepared to invest! Yes that's the start up cost. You should buy a domain name, get a good hosting, get a good design (or a ready-made theme/skin). In addition to this, you might want to invest on premium plugins, SEO tools, software that could help you with your business and so on.
Not just that, you should be prepared to invest something more valuable: your time and effort.
Yes, you would have heard this already many times. But let me repeat: Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. There is no silver bullet. There is no push button.
So be prepared to spend, I mean, invest some time and money in your blog.
I missed something…. oh yes, the LIST
Build your list from day one or you will be banging your head against a brick wall as I did. May be if you're starting out, you won't realize the importance of building a list right away.
I didn't realize that as well, when I started out.
But back those days, no one told me I should. May be if someone had insisted, I would have listened.
Anyway – now I am here telling you this: Start building your list TODAY. Not just me; but you would have noticed a lot of experienced, successful bloggers insisting on this.
Blogging To Make Money:Â Takeaway
I've highlighted some of the very simple facts you should be knowing if you are either planning to start a blog and make money or if you've already started.
I hope you would have got a sneak peek of what it looks like on the other side of the “make money blogging” wall.
when you say that your blog is in not a business but its a marketing tool but what exactly does this tool does for you?
just like there a thousand local advertising agencies , wouldn’t you call their business a business?
blogging might not be you business but treating it like a business , by business i mean managing it properly , be regular on it , invest time and money on it , creating relationship with your customers( readers).
Thats is basically a model of a business , dont you agree? 😉
P.S check the link i have attached and i have clearly mentioned that treat your blog as a business and invest some money on it hence you might end up failing.
Saad, when I said, the blog alone, on its own is not a business I meant that you should have something solid in the background to promote. Yes of course, any blogger who wants to make money blogging should treat their blog as a business; no doubts.
ops! looks like there was a little mis understanding there. Thanks for clearing it up. I got your point now.
I feel so pity for those who says I have started blog just to take some experience, or I was started as I saw people around me blogging, or they want to make money without investing any hard time.
What you expect? Just starting a blog, published few new articles and all set to make money online.
I’m even sick of those who come to me everyday, saying how they could make money online. I mean I’m not on blogging tips I’m blogging on computing tips & tricks how I’ll help you out?
I’m blogging cause I love to blog on things I experiment with and if it fills my pocket full then what’s wrong I’m investing hard time here. Anyways, nice write up jane investing on blog keeps it alive – that’s all I can state!
Irfan, its funny to know that people ask you how to make money online epecially when you are not openly telling that you’re offering such a service. Yes, this proves that there’s a BIG crowd that badly wants to make money blogging!
I agree. Ultimate aim should not be money. but creating trust withing your readers. Money will pour in when people start trusting you and your articles. I use Yahoo! Advertiser program on my Blog. Do have a look.
Thank you for this post. I think the most important takeaway from this post is to always build a list if you intend to go problogging.
That’s right Steve! Building a list is very vital to stay in touch with your readers, fans, and prospects.
Good point about investing/spending on your blog. A blog is like a business, you have to invest something in it first before you start getting a return!
I totally agree. Building a list is the most important part of blogging career. It helps you to make sales and grow.
Yes Shalu. And helps to CONNECT with our loyal readers. That matters a LOT.
Making money from blogging is a tall ask and its quite tough for the initial years. So, its all about patience.
Great Post Jane and several key things here that many bloggers don’t get, and I have been saying them for a long time. A blog is a business tool, not a business model. you still have to understand how to run a business in order to be a successful business blogger, which most bloggers I see don’t bother to learn how to do.
( I taught myself about business by reading books at the public library! you don’t need a formal college education these days to do it)
List building is one of the most essential things to building your business. I agree with you too. I didn’t build my list right from the start, and I have suffered because of it. even if you aren’t sure if you are going to run your blog as a business, start building a list. its a great traffic source, and if you decide to go into the business side of blogging, you will already be set up for success.
According to me, making money with blogging should not be yours only intentions. If you are able to increase your reader-base, they will automatically profit you.
According to me : You need creativity to make money. You should bring something new infront of peoples. ( I wish I am correct, since I know Jane and Ms. Ileane both of are are old players in this field )
Vivek, you’re right about being creative and bringing new to people. As long as you are able to stand out and help people you win.
Woah….
Can you please share the cons of not creating a LIST?
As I have not created ONE yet.
I think that if you don’t have your own list, you are losing readers because some readers will forget what they read after leaving the blog!
Okay. Thanks for the reply.
You are leaving potential connections and business opps on the table!
Hi Jane,
Awesome post, I really appreciate you sharing this info, I’m new to blogging and first of all my goal is to learn as much as I can, but ultimately I do want to earn some money from my blog. I more tempted to go with affiliate marketing then adsense or any other ad networks. This way I have more control over the content people see on my blog.
I really enjoyed your post Jane, all the best.
~Philip
Affiliate marketing is a nice choice Phil. The con is that you’d be promoting someone else’s product and brand. But the con is that in most cases you’d earn the same as the product owner himself – and you won’t have to put the time and effort in creating a new product!
When I first started blogging I didn’t think about building a list either and wish that I had. Big lesson learned. Since then I have moved my focus and have a different blog, but I still wish I had known then what I know now.
Great points for sure. I’ll one. Once you have your niche selected, ensure you can come up with a viable offer. If you want to make money online you need a great offer. It can be your own product or a product your promote as an affiliate. One excellent product can provide for a full time income if it sells and it’s properly aligned with your audience.
Therefore, once you choose a niche, before setting up your site, spend a lot of time considering your offers. Talk to the vendors to get a sense of conversions and target users. You can waste a lot of time and money failing to do this.
Great points Jon. Thanks for the addition 🙂
Sure Stella, passion is one of the greatest things that is needed with blogging coz results don’t always come up soon and you need this secret ingredient to keep things in place!
Blogging is not as easy as it looks, especially blogging for money. A right marketing strategy is required for people to recognize the blog and the blogger. It is true that blogging is not a business. Many bloggers keep their blogs personal where they share incidents and stories. To make a money blog, one needs to promote his content.
Hi Jane
Excellent post. If only every one who set out to start a blog had the same tips and detailed descriptions as those found here, then the blogosphere would look a whole lot better! Keep up the great work. Thanks for share this post.
I appreciate above posts. we should blog if we love to write. as far is concerned above earning , it needs hard work and dedication towards the work 🙂 thanks the article is really nice..thank you
Making money from blogging is certainly possible but its not that easy. One has to be extremely creative in the way they present their work. Also interaction with others is very important. List building is the single most important element to blogging success.
Interaction is very important. This is something I learned only recently. I wish I had known this earlier!
excellent post ! and i have following all your blogs regularly mam.
Hello jane,
A very good post indeed. When creating a blog, you will always have two things in mind which are “passion and money”. You can’t spend money creating a blog and not wanting some returns. Everybody needs money, who doesn’t?
Passion AND money – well said Baba.
Being specific is in everything you do blogging, is the key step to having success with it.
Blogging needs to be worked on everyday and will require great determination from you.
Money will start flowing in as long as you are digging up the river bed and pray for the rain to come!
Oh yes Sam. Being specific does matter a lot. We cannot be a jack of all trades, coz its really hard to gain the attention of a target audience that way!
You can make money from blogging only when you put a lot of effort in creating great and engaging content. You need to build an authority first to make good money. If you just start a blog and start thinking for money from the say you start then there are chances of failure.
Exactly Atish, and that is why blogging is NOT a get rich quick scheme. It does take time to build that authority and be recognized, isn’t it?
Hi Jane – I agree with all the points you make here. Your advice about building a list, and the comments about this, raised a wry smile on my face because you’re the second blogger to reinforce this point to me in the last couple of days.
I’ve been foolishly holding off building a list and I’ve now set myself a deadline of the end of this week to get my ‘give away’ product finished so that I can crack on with this.
Thanks for a great post with some really sound advice,
Sue
Hey Sue I’m SO glad that I can make this point out to as much as readers as I can. I find so many bloggers who are missing out on this point. Good luck with your list building efforts!
I can’t fault you with this post Jane. You are absolutely right and i think the only way to make serious money blogging is to have your own products.
Hi Jane,
Building an email list is important and that is like making new friends. I didn’t see the important of building an email list at the beginning too. But now it’s good to go to start right away.
Thanks – Ferb
It’s great to see how blogging came a long way from being considered as an online journal. I loved the tips, I know for a fact that you can make serious money off blogging but it does take months, sometimes years of work before you come to that point 🙂
Hi Jane
This is Excellent post. The way you built on what you have, and allow the reader to reference relative content with meat, is mean. Even though I have been through nearly everything on the site, this article sends me back, and I learn even more the second time. It’s threaded beautifully. That’s a swell lick! Plus it helps me answer some of my fundamental questions about the sport.
When ya can do that, you rule.
Hi Jane,
I think there are huge number of blogs that don’t have any specific service or product to offer, but still they earn good amount through affiliate marketing. My point here is only that bloggers are earning good money through blogging only without offering service or products.
Nearly same type of article I read on Blogging tips by Oni, both are awesome in the way they are presented.
Earning money online definitely doesn`t solely depend on traffic, when you have awesome blog like this one!
then you can actually make money from very day! If you already have good networking.
So here comes important thing, social networking very very important.
~@khajamoin1
Great post Jane. To start blogging which we calling business one must have a strong background in terms of invest and hard work.
Whenever I read something about making money from blogs, one thing is clearly mentioned there. Build and email list.
I should seriously think of building an email list now.
I would suggest that one should just work hard without thinking of making money and then only the money will start flowing automatically without even your knowledge.
Great post, Jane 🙂
i think the biggest mistake which a average blogger (who want to make money) make is a general perception that any kind of blog will make money. They are not ready to take it seriously, they don’t want invest in it as they thought it will generate money on auto-pilot. You post has cleared lot of air, people need to invest in their blogs like any other business. Thanks for sharing this.
Good stuff. As someone who struggled to make money online initially, I had to learn many of these things the hard way. There’s a lot to consider if you’re serious about making a buck or two from your blog, which is why it is essential to cover any and all ground rules, and think like a marketer.
I completely agree: Blogging itself is not a business and sometimes it’s hard to get people to realize that. I’m in the monetization process right now and it’s starting to trickle in through some advertising I have going. It’s a process that’s not an automatic flood but when I see my income increase daily, it’s great motivation to be a better blogger.
Thanks, Jane!
You can make a decent income with adsense but you have to give a lot of effort. The keywords who paid of well got some serious concurrences then.
Anyway, building a list every is the number 1 to make money online.
Great post Jane and I agree with most of what you said here.
However, when you have a really popular blogs, you have many ways out to make money even if you don’t have your own product or service to sale. Affiliate marketing, direct advertisements and other ad networks can be used to monetize a blog.
Traffic is the most important factor. Once you have good retaining traffic, hundreds of doors will be opened to monetize.
Am I right Jane ? Or I am right?
Well, if you aren’t selling your own product (ebook, consulting, service, etc), then your business is delivering advertising. Think about a TV studio – they produce content and they sell advertising. At the end of the day, the content is only useful.if it sells adverts…
And, from a money making perspective, your blog is the same. It just gets confusing, cause you often fill both the content creator and advert selling positions.
Mainly my online blogs are for promoting client sites but I imagine maintaining blogs full time is a massive undertaking.
Hello! A lot of most useful information here. I have a few comments, though. I don’t think that we cannot solely (or mostly) rely on AdSense or affiliate marketing. There are many bloggers and site owners out there who make loooots of money without having any product or service to sell. This, I think, is even better (though it may not be as profitable as selling something) and it is possible to earn DECENT income from it. Of course, just like in any other case, a blogger must create value, REAL value, something that people will love and want to read but being a pure infopreneur is POSSIBLE. I personally know a bunch of very successful bloggers-infopreneurs.
True that. I agree. Blogging, keeping money as the ultimate aim won’t work. you need to be passionate enough to give out quality stuff. once you have reached at the peek point, you can think of money. and investing a little does wonders.
Thanks for the article. I agree, having already a business and then using a blog to market or talk about it is much easier. It’s easier for the blog to become unique and one of a kind. Thanks for the article.
I believe that your blog is a business. Your content is what people are going to be seeing and that is the main premise of what brings your reader to your selling point. I don’t disagree that SEO, content marketing, and social media strategies are important, but the content shouldn’t take a backseat to any of these.
If you have a blog, then that is your business, because the business of a blog is writing.
Wow, this is so true! There are lots of people nowadays who want to put up a blog just to earn money. They aren’t that it is not easy thing to do. It not a quick way to earn money. You have to learn first how to love what you are doing, invest not only some of your money but most importantly your times in order for you to become successful.
Its true that content should never take a back seat whilst blogging. Many times bloggers hand their blogs over to guest bloggers…
That was an interesting read, Jane. I am glad that you have after all said blogging isn’t a free tool to generate millions. I regret telling people that blogging is free. We are actually meant to pay (Yeah, invest) before even getting the first check. Good hosting, email marketing client, theme, skin, plugins and other services cost us good enough and unless, we work hard enough; we can’t get the investment back and if we succeed, we get a lot more than what we have put
Koundeenya, thats right. There’s always some initial upfront investment. We should always be prepared to put our best in creating noteworthy content – this way, we can surely get back what we invested in multiple folds.
I really need to read this post. I just launched my new blog, well revamped blog. And am looking for ideas on how to make money off of it. Thanks for the tips.
Hi Ravi, starting a blog to make money is totally fine, until you know what you really want to achieve with the blog. Starting a blog first without the business idea and then scratching the head will only leave a blogger wondering how to make money!
great article jane, i am a newbee and i don’t know much about blogging i also got my adsense approval but i am not earning so much from it, plz tell me the efficient way to monetize my blog.., i will be highly thankful to you..:)
Hello…Newbie here..
I am new to blogging area and trying to learn about SEO i recently got my ad-sense approved but i am not getting sufficient amount of visitors and earnings..!!! Can you give me the tips???
its easy and better way to generate online making money fast and reliable.
I agree completely that blogging is not a business, but I’m sure that there are tons of people that would probably disagree. Being a photographer, it is just a marketing tool to hope that someone will use my services. So unlike lots of blogs mine doesn’t sell ads, but it does add to the number of clients that I book.
I used to have two blogs about automobiles, but it was too time consuming. Plus, the fact that I did not make much money and took a lot of my time away from my real passion – cars, I decided to read about blogs, instead of writing about them. Kudos to those who do blog and make money, and I am not one of those persons.
Some people create blog just to earn money but do so without passion always fails. Through this article you certainly helped many people.
I agree with you, yes we can blogging to make money but we must blogging with passion and consistency.
Thank you for the time and effort you put into this article. Wish every aspiring bloggers out there would read this before they even start their first post. And thumbs up for the mailing list tips, definitely important.
Hi Jane,
Everyone wants money blogging, I do:) but we can make money only if our blog is popular and in order to be popular our content should be unique and much informative and well organized so that we get a great traffic and then money.
Well said Jane, blogging on its own is not a business its a marketing tool for business, it is the source for business.
Having a list is absolutely the most important thing in blogging. It can help us in many ways like bringing traffic, increasing readership and making money too
Different people create different type of their website. If the question of income money from a blog then you need to spend some money for your commercial website. I like this blog because here include some main point like domain name, good hosting etc. I will try to create blog will all part of income requirement.
Great article Jane.I think this article will help me for my new upcoming website.Great job.Keep it up
Blogging is easy, but making money with that not easy, that is really hard work, we must wait and work smarter on every post, google launched many updates to keep quality contents on the web. Your post show many valuable tips to create better Blog.
Great article, I am glad when I see someone that emphasizes how important building a list of your blog followers truly is. I look forward to exploring your blog further.
These are some great tips for making money blogging. I need to take some of these home with me.
Great article! Making money online isn’t difficult if you have the drive and the know how! It’s really not that difficult – the main thing most people are missing is that they haven’t found the right system for them.
Hello Jane,
Great post as usual. want to share something which i consider very important in money making. Traffic source counts very much. So choose your audience by doing a good research and than start blogging with passion and QUALITY ORIGINAL content.
Great article! Found the information very helpful..and like the part about the blog not being a business. But, use it as a marketing tool….thanks so much!!
Thanks for the tips. Making money by blogging is not easy. It takes patience and hard work. You will really be tested how long can you last without seeing any monetary return of your efforts.
i have heard many times about creating an email list and i did the same and i made some sales with affiliate marketing so i suggest everyone that start building your list before its too late. great share jane
I like the post the way it was arranged from what we need to know to where we need to start… I am really new to blogging and I know there’s a lot of work I need to do in order for me to make this decent money. I think everybody should drive the newbies to a point where they can really start. I mean let them know what they need to know not that exact cause I know it’s a secret that to be paid. Hopefully I could find a blog which will really drive me to the way I need to follow..But, over all nice information..