Blogging for Yourself: Ways to make money

[mpweaver4]

Wondering if any of you have experimented or currently maintain any blogs as a form of income. I have recently started two and am in search of intelligent opinions of the content.

I'd love to hear any success stories about bloggers on here!

[LivingAlmostLarge]

I blog because it's fun, not for money.

[jeffrey]

Yes, it is certainly possible to make money blogging, but it definitely won't be an instant money maker. I usually tell people that it will take about 1.5 years before you will begin to see a bit of money from your blog if you blog consistently during that time and you do a lot of promotion of it.

It is one of the more difficult ways to make money and will take a lot of hours with a very little return for those hours until 2+ years down the line. It's also important to note that a successful blog these days is 75% promotion and only 25% of what you write (although what you write has to be top quality as well or the promotion won't work).

If you have a passion for something and you would be writing about it for no money anyway, then it makes sense to monetize (if you also don't mind spending most of your free time promoting it), but to blog with the main goal of making money doesn't make much sense as there are a lot less risky ways to make more money for less time and energy spent.

[mom-from-missouri]

I blog, but don't see it as making money. Very few people click on my ads--mine is a homeschooling, living frugal & farming blog. Some ads (most relate to homeschooling) do get clicked, but they (adsense) keep putting the same ones on all the time...

I blog more for the fun of it and to give others ideas. I in turn get homeschooling, farming and saving ideas from others blogs.

[amandasfinances]

I think if you want to blog purely for money you're doing it for all the wrong reasons. I think good bloggers are always passionate about their topics and write because they love it. Besides, you can't make all that much from blogging anyways, unless you are a part of a really big site.

[good2goo]

I want to start a blog, but Im not terribly savvy with websites. I was thinking about writing about different refer a friend offers that companies have. I think it would be fun, but I doubt I would make much money from it. Sure I may get adsense, but Id need too many visitors and if money was the only reason for writing a blog I would probably get discouraged in about a month.

[junosama]

I started a blog as my senior project and sold it for 20k right out of college and it also got my a full time job for almost 2 years. I was generating 1-2k a month when I had it.

Since then ive had/sold several other blogs but not for as much. Moving on to other projects now, but you can def make money blogging. You just need traffic and you have to be aggressive with monetizing your blog.

[herm4]

You can check out how i've done here: learning to live well without spending a lot of money

[sandyandry]

Blogging is my hobby. I never thought of earning from blogging. But I think I should think over it

_______________
Expense tracking

[NickLeavens]

If you really intend on trying to make money from blogging, make sure you always provide valuable content for your readers. There's so much crap on the Internet that you can really create quite a following by providing real information that has a purpose- as opposed to everything else out there.

Some of the most successful bloggers out there will say that they never intended to make money from their blog - they just wanted to share information that they thought was interesting, and they have a passion for it.

[shubh]

The content of the blog should be :
Interesting
Involving
informative
Fresh and updated
Supportive

[lizzy_09]

Never though about this myself. Though, I thought of considering it too. Used to work on contract as a marketing assistant at a website and learned a lot from them. They closed down a few months ago.

[KTP]

Hmmm, I might look into blogging. I do enjoy typing out responses to posts and reading what other people write. I have so many hobbies I have to think there is something I could focus on that would be interesting to others.

My big interests are computer controlled machining, electronics, lasers, and sailing.

I wonder what is considered interesting nowadays? A blog on how to get started in electronics seems overdone and dated. Even a blog on how to construct a cheap computer controlled milling/engraving machine doesn't seem like it would attract a wide crowd. Lasers are interesting, but quite dangerous if you do not know what you are doing, so not sure I would be comfortable teaching some 13 year old how to build a 100 watt CO2 laser in his garage out of old plumbing fittings, a junk refrigerator and a scrap neon sign transformer.

Exactly how much liability can you incur with a blog? If I make a blog that describes how get started building transmitters and other electronic devices and someone uses this information and hurts themselves or others (thinking of a young uni-bomber here), can it come back to hurt me finacially (aside from any emotional guilt).

[spock0149]

I think it should be a hobby, or something you love. I don't know many people who got into blogging for the money who did that well from it.

[spock0149]

...forgot to mention.

One way I'm trying to make some extra income is by releasing a short 30 minute documentary onto the web. It tooks some initial investment, and I had to have some knowledge of the subject but it's up there now and making money.

Here were the steps.

i. Write short documentary on subject I'm interested in.
ii. Hire student cameraman to film on pro camera and do post editing ($500)
iii. Build website ($200)
iv. Release to blip.tv, itunes, pando and various other syndicates and promote on relevant sites.

So far it's made about $4.

Oh well....this time next year....

[Radiance]

I can not provide testimony (yet) but for what I research blogging can be made into a decent income. But to do that you need to:

1) Be or become teachable
2) Treat it as a business; you need a buesiness plan, a marketting strategy and you need to work. It is your business.
3) Don't give up, it does take time.

Will report back in 10 months and tell you how it goes!

[Sonja]

A blog can bring in decent money if only the blogger becomes a well-known expert who knows the subject better than fairly well, and other people visit his or her blog to get real information. E.g., if your blog is about digital cameras, you have to know EVERYTHING about them, you must be ready to help other people compare them, choose among them, use them, get the latest news about them, etc. And you have to make your blog popular, that is to get as much followers as you can. Sure, some of them will purchase something from time to time, using Google AdSense, etc, but first it will take quite a lot of months (or even years) to become well-known.

[supersaversam]

To be successful as a blogger you really have to enjoy it, otherwise you'll write a few posts and quit.

Successful bloggers often blog for years before receiving recognition and only a few can earn full time incomes.

[mickeylily]

When everyone starts a blog to make money, blogs will absolutely become worthless.

[Staceyy]

I was offered a book deal as the result of my blog.

Stacey
The Diabetic Pastry Chef