When every professional blogger starts a blog one of their first thoughts is generally, “Can you make money blogging?” The answer is yes, but the way to get there is probably longer than most people would like.
I spent the first year blogging asking myself that question over and over again, “Can you make money blogging?” and then other pertinent questions, such as “Can you make money blogging?” Oh, to run into me on the street is like finding the crazy blogger in life. I think all I needed was a tin cup as I evaluated the pro’s and con’s of blogging to myself in my own internal, and sometimes external dialogue.
So, now that we have this little “Can you make money blogging” conversation, should we discuss the options or are we good? Just kidding! Writing this early in the morning listening to Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” is making me loopy!
Can You Make Money Blogging Quiz
What I realized is that you need to take more quizzes to determine how you can be making money by blogging. I know, just what you want to do on this beautiful, rainy day. Take a test with the schmoozer! Fear not, we shall find out if your fears are warranted.
- Are you willing to spend at least 1 hour per day 3 times per week for one year (Or the rest of your life, whichever comes quicker) working on your blog?
- Can you come up with a list of 100 articles to write about for your chosen topic(roughly one year of content)?
- Do you have a plan?
- Are you willing to learn how to do this blogging thing?
- Are you interesting? Have someone who knows you answer this. If you do not feel comfortable asking anyone this question, you have your answer.
- Are you doing this for something greater than the American greenback (or euro, or peso)?
- What happens when you spend 6 months blogging and find out you only had 500 people visit your site? Will you re-focus or quit?
- Are you willing to spend 1 year, 2 years, 3 years without huge success to make your blog a long term financial success?
- Will you kill your first born for greater success. (OK that was a trick question, because I wanted to make sure that you did not answer everything yes without thinking.)
- Do you have a support system to encourage you to keep blogging?
How many questions did you answer yes to? Was it at least 6 yes’s? The fact is you have to be prepared for success with blogging. It is not a snap your finger and watch the money roll in type endeavor. Instead, there is a lot of trial and error to determine what works best for your blooming blog business.
Can You Make Money Blogging With These 5 Strategies?
- Sell your current services. One of the best things to do with blogging is to use it as an extension of your current services. I am a social networking schmoozer who helps businesses increase their revenue by using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and WordPress. Surprisingly, I blog all the time about those topics. It is not a crazy coincidence. Maybe a coincidence, but not a crazy coincidence.
- Use the second oldest profession. Advertising. It feels like ads have been around forever. They are not going away anytime soon either. Why not profit from them? A quick way to do so is through Google Ads, but as you grow you can also have people approach you looking to pay for ads on your site. Cool feeling indeed!
- Affiliate Marketing is another approach to look at. Ever make money for giving a recommendation? That is the principle behind affiliate marketing. Some of the links that I mention are affiliate products. To get started with affiliate marketing check out these sites: Peerfly, ShareASale, CJ, and ClickBank. Surprisingly enough, I am an affiliate with all of these products and get referral income from Peerfly and ShareASale for each successful affiliate I recommend.
- Network Marketing has been taking off over the past few years. As traditional business models have begun to fail, networking marketing has fit a niche which replaces people’s income with long term referral income. I recently joined Iwowwe(see extremely large banner on the right). One word of awareness is that be careful who you work with, because there are some companies that were real sharks.
- Sell Products/Services This is similar to number one, except I want to put a twist(ooh, maybe a little vodka in that twist). For all those who tell me they can not sell their product online, I now call thee out! Come out! Come out! Join us on the blogosphere. You can always create side products to increase your customer base and use it is a foundation for future deals with prospects. Write an e-book, hold paid online webinars, start a membership site. Whatever you do, create something easy based around what you are doing now that can sell online. It is a lot easier today with WordPress.
With this in mind, your fear firmly displaced, it is time to start your blog. After all, we did answer that age old question, “Can You Make Money Blogging?”
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Hello Andy, these are great questions! I’m not sure about the “are you interesting” one though? Do you think someone can become “interesting” as they gain more and more knowledge? I think everyone has the potential to be interesting to someone else.
I don’t know if you watch that show “Bigger Bang” (I do sometimes:-) While being a genius, some people would certainly not call Sheldon interesting, I know some people who can’t stand watching him. Yet, others find his fascinating and very funny!
So “interesting” to some is “really boring” to others! Hope you don’t mind me singling out one of your questions, loved everyone of the others (except the trick one of course). bye for now, Julieanne
Julieanne,
I think the more you blog on a topic the more well-rounded you get on a subject. That allows you more comfort and familiarity, which in turn makes you more interesting. Everyone has the potential to be interesting to someone else. However, we have the power to more interesting to a lot of people when we continue to talk about a subject that ignites our passion.
You are definitely correct however that Sheldon can be annoying to some people. That is the point of saying you can be more interesting. When you learn something you have to not deflate others who have not learned this talent yet.
You did not like my trick question? 🙂
Andy
Hey Andy!
Awesome posting my brother!
Look, for all the beginners out there… Blogging has a learning curve (a small one), and you need to know that.
Over a year ago, I started my own blog and started writing about things within the industry. Over the past 12 months, my blog has taken an entirely new look about 5 times, categories reset and major additions plus widgets have been added.
So understand, that a blog is much more than a site now days…. it’s like your underwear drawer. There’s so much going on, that you are forced to organize it and prep it almost on a daily basis (we hope so anyway!)
But in the end, not only can you use it to generate you money (leads, sell products, advertising) but it’s always very rewarding. Now I rank in the top 40K websites in the entire US… not shabby for a guy who knew nothing about it a short time ago.
Thanks Andy! Keep up the good work my friend and talk with you soon.
-Dereck
Derek,
Thanks!
I love your analogy about the underwear drawer. That completely fits with my own multiple revisions of my blog. That is awesome that you are in the top 40K alexa. I knew nothing about blogging when I started, and should be following in your heels shortly.
Andy
Dereck, is the top 40K a good thing?
🙂
Although I personally would not have thought of the underwear drawer, I am in the midst of reorganizing things.
However, Dereck and Andy, I’m going with my mom’s words of wisdom: “Do What You Love and The Money Will Come.”
“-)
Shari,
cutting to the quick! I agree with you that you do what you love and the money follows after. I used to think that was just a load of something not nice, now I have seen how much in my own life that is true.
Andy
Andy,
Truthfully, most bloggers make money blogging but the blogging is actually supplementary to either affiliate marketing or product creation. One could make money directly from blogging using sponsored posts but the aforementioned methods usually work best.
Dewane,
I actually do make some money from sponsored posts. Have been doing that for a few months now. It does not support the family by any stretch of the imagination, but it is definitely some nice play money.
Affiliate marketing is more of a lifestyle builder than sponsored posts.
Andy
Yes you can make money just by blogging. I’ve seen a lot of successful bloggers who turned nothing into something. Now they are making money. Not just the word money, but lots of money to be particular. There are also those who started their career using a free blog site, yet they are able to succeed.
Candice,
There are a million different examples of bloggers turning from zero into real cash by just plugging away at their blog until they succeeded.
Andy
Great tips!
I also believe in the “love first earn money afterwards” way of living. I remember when we had to choose what we wanted to study after high school and everyone was thinking in terms of what can be used to make a lot of money later on, opting for universities of law, medicine or economy even if they had no idea what it will bring, what it was about or if they even cared about those subjects. I was more of a free mind, following my heart, and to be honest I am still happy, doing what I love instead of what I thought would yield a lot of income. And since I love what I do, I now consider myself successful, with several employees around the world, working for me from their homes (which I also love). If I hated my job, I’d have given up at the first setback.
Leonard,
I appreciate your answer and how you have found something that truly inspires you to do more with your life. That is great!
Andy
The road to a successful blog is quite possibly one of the toughest road there is. There’s a lot of frustration, disappointment, hard work involved and a lot of people have given up after encountering some of those. But blogging is just like every other business, it doesn’t instantly become a success, it takes time, money, effort and whole lot of other things for it to be successful. We just have to keep going at it and hopefully one day we might see what we want.
Awesome article.
Thanks for the insight! It definitely is not an overnight money maker!