Almost 2 1/2 years ago I had a series of posts on Sundays called the Sunday Question. In April 2010 one of the posts I wrote was titled Why Do You Blog. On that post, I described my reasons for blogging, and as I looked back on it I realized that my reasoning hasn’t really changed all that much since then; obviously, since I’ve added two more blogs. 🙂
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Yet, since last Sunday I’ve been thinking about something that one of my co-hosts on our Sunday’s Hot Blog Tips Hangout crew, Sheryl Loch, said during one of our topic discussions. She said that blogging, blogging rank, comments and the like don’t mean anything if your intention is to make money and you’re not making any. During the conversation I wanted to debate with her, but later on as I was thinking about it I knew that she was right in that regard.
I’ve never really ever said that my purpose in blogging was to make money. I have said that I hoped to spread my influence because that would give me a better opportunity to make money but that’s not quite the same thing. I have 5 blogs and I have one that makes money, and that’s really the only blog I have where I had hopes that the blog would make money. That it makes money in a way I never anticipated is a nice bonus, and yet I know it could be much better.
In November 2011 I wrote a post telling people the reality about making money by blogging. Almost no one really does it. Those that do look at it in two different ways. One, they see it as only a business and nothing else. Two, they don’t care how much traffic they get or whether they get comments; they care only about targeted traffic that wants what they have to sell.
I know this because over and over you see these posts by people you know are making money and then you look at their rankings and they’re often worse than yours or mine. In the other direction are people with great rankings and traffic that are making very little money, or at least aren’t making enough money to live on. A good example of that, and I appreciate her honesty, is Ana Hoffman of Traffic Generation Cafe; take a look at this link and see how much she made in October, then compare her traffic to yours.
So then, how are people making money if blogging won’t get it done? They’re finding ways of doing other things outside of blogging to help them along. I’ve always said that if you’re hoping to make money blogging that you have to look at it in a much different way. If you have a monetary consideration, blogs are there to highlight what you do, show your potential customers you know what you’re talking about, and responding to their queries and comments because that’s what customer service is all about. You can even advertise your wares.
After that, depending on what you do, you have to get out there and find your customers. You can use your blog to drive your customers if you’re going to promote yourself online. You can do traditional marketing but use your blog and blog posts to help you along the way. If you’re a writer you can use your blog to show off your skills. Of course blogging is great for SEO and that might help drive people to your website.
In other words, if you’re looking to make money and it includes blogging, think outside the box and figure out a symbiotic relationship between the two. Don’t be held back by convention, and don’t be scared to take chances. By the way, I’m going to be working on that myself with my main business blog. I figure after more than 7 years it’s probably time to push things a bit. What am I going to do? Not sure yet.
This blog’s focus probably won’t change much. After all, I still have too much I want to share. 😉
Mitch, I see many blog authors that want to teach you how to do proper KW research, make money, marketing, and etc.
I was watching this youtube video last night of a guy doing a review of seopressor plugin.
I wanted to turn the video off when I realized he was using KW stuffing to rank higher in seopressor.
He was using his main term and rewording it right below.
Anyway blogging can make a great platform to introduce people to your ideas and people like Ana walk the talk.
At least her blog is about traffic and nothing else, she even shows you how she makes her money.
Certainly you are right Mitch, business and blogging are different things that have to co-exist. I can say that more than 80% of my customers do not have blog in addition to business website. One of the companies I used to work in the past haven’t redesign the company website for nearly 8 years, but sales levels were always steady, even not coming from SEO, social media, even the owner do not have LinkedIn profile, but he is very good businessman.
Carl, I always figure it’s what we’re hoping to do with our business. Since I offer consulting services where I can work with people anywhere, I try to reach out to the masses, especially since I talked about how hard it is to get local people to acknowledge me. But it’s still a business venture I’m seeking, so I have to remember that I need to do more than just blog at all times.
As we discussed on Skype few weeks ago, I haven’t tried to look at the local business, which probably is my mistakes. I doubt that anybody in the area offer these services, however I doubt the most companies are prepared to pay these services, so in most cases I just working online.
Carl, with one of my businesses I do try to get local business, but for the others it hasn’t been my focus.
Yes Mitch, I too have noticed that many successful bloggers offer other services as well along with blogging to make huge earnings. Some offer SEO services, freelance writing, wordpress assistance and so on.
Keep blogging here Mitch. I like to read all your posts though I don’t comment on all of them. I blog for fun and I have no business or any income through the net. I can afford to be funny in my blog!
Rummuser, I can afford to be funny on this one as well, though I’m not sure if I am or not. However, it’s a reminder to those people hoping to do any kind of business with their blog that it takes more than just the blog to get that business.
I keep trying to remind people that money is a slave to value.
The good news is you can create as much VALUE as you want. I guess you have to first know that and then know how.
Oh yeah you have to then Take Action. It really is wash and repeat after that though.
Keep sharing bro.
Thanks Jacko. Truthfully I have to remind myself of this on occasion as I work on spreading my reach and influence through my blog.
Hi Mitch.. this is my first time to visit your blog and I am impressed when I heard from you that your purpose of blogging doesn’t change even if years have been passed. Although I create blog but I am not familiar on how to create money through it. I heard several fellow bloggers who are earning decent money through affiliate links, adsense but I don’t know where and how to start.
If you look above you’ll see that I have a blogging series of tutorial posts that might help some.
Nice post. I too believe that blogging is just to increase your business more. The real effort that is being focused is in the main business that is being brought up and certainly every businessman will concentrate on other traditional factors that helps to increase business value rather than just on blogging. I truly enjoyed reading your post, Mitch!
Thanks Kenny. I like the concept that blogging can help get you business and show expertise, but overall, for the majority of people, they’re not going to make livable money off blogging.
I can definitely see that with my customers. I am always trying to get my customers to take up a blog or social media campaign. But very few ever do it, and some just let me do it for them. As a business owner myself i don’t blog to make money off of the traffic, I’m trying to bring eyes to my brand and products. Either way money is money.
Thanks for posting
Thanks for your perspective Jeremy, and I totally agree with you. Blogs can definitely help, and a few will make money directly from blogging. But overall, it’s about so much more.