We all know there are a lot of blogs out there that promise to teach you how to make money online. You can bet that 99% of them aren’t making anything significant. Sure, there are folks like Pat Flynn who are making tons of money; I believe Donna Merrill‘s probably making livable money… if not more (I’ll let her tell you if she ever sees this lol).
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Truth be told, I’m not sure how to make money anymore by blogging. I say “not sure” because at a couple of different points I was making a nice bit of “side money”. I was averaging around $600 a month with this blog and later around $300 a month on my finance blog. Two years ago I was averaging around $250 a month on my medical billing website/blog; now it’s down to $100 every 4 months (curse you Google!). That’s certainly not livable money, but it was great making some extra cash without having to work very hard for it.
That’s a misnomer also; if I hadn’t been working hard writing content on both of those sites, I wouldn’t have made that kind of money.
I was writing nearly 300 articles a year here; advertisers loved this blog. Unfortunately, Google didn’t like the kind of advertising I was getting and “disowned” this blog via page rank… which is luckily gone now.
I was also writing a lot on my finance blog, but nothing like what I did here. The difference maker was when I started accepting guest posts to add to what I was already doing. This time I made sure the advertisers were in the same niche so Google wouldn’t get mad at me. I probably should have been charging more at the time because the blog was ranked well, but truthfully almost no one ever read any of the guest posts and certainly didn’t comment on them (this is a lesson about accepting guest posts; make the writers help promote them and make sure they come back to respond to any comments).
My medical billing site has made most of the money instead of my medical blog, and that’s because of Adsense. The topic is a specific niche, and it was profitable for a short period of time. Suddenly the big G decided it wasn’t good enough, even with the articles on the blog… thus the income tank; sigh…
I guess this means I do know how to make money blogging… or at least I used to. The best thing I can say is that I thought my money making efforts were ethical. Even when I was posting products at the end of each blog, many of which I’d never used or even thought about using (like ladies clothing), I felt it was ethical; I wasn’t trying to mislead anyone; I thought some folk would see something that intrigued them and go to the site to check it out).
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I even wrote that it might not be our fault that we’re not making money. There are a lot of factors that go into it if you’re hoping to make a livable income, and most of us don’t know a lot of it, even if we’re reading the blogs and articles of others.
I also wrote a post talking about the kind of work it takes to drive more visitors to your blog so you can have a shot at making money. This is what I used to do… until I got tired. 🙂
At the end of 2017, I didn’t write any goals for this year… because I really didn’t have any. After a year where I had to get used to my mother living with me and her dementia, a year where I pretty much did nothing except live off reserves until December, I really wasn’t ready to think of any goals for 2018 other than to start getting contracts again… on my own terms.
Then it happened; I got two contracts, short and sweet, but I’ve already made more money from my business than all of last year… and it’s still February. That might be the spark for greater things in 2018… and I’ve now determined I have another goal… that’s to be making at least $500 a month blogging by the end of the year.
To me, that’s a pretty low goal based on the fact that I have 5 blogs; it shouldn’t be an issue. Yet, it’s been an issue; there’s no denying that. Since Mom’s not going anywhere anytime soon, I need another way to generate money from home and in a “passive” manner… if I could do it before, I can do it again… right? 🙂
How am I going to do it? Ahhh… it’s in the details!
First, I want to highlight my little donation button at the end of this article. In one of those articles I linked to above, I mentioned that I’d only had one person ever who’d donated something to the cause; now I’ve had 2. It might not be big numbers but it’s a start in the right direction. I’m going to put that same thing on all of my blogs; maybe it’ll generate a little bit of scratch.
Second, I’m going to punch up the content on my medical billing site… not necessarily the blog. I give some basic information about all aspects of medical billing, but most of the articles aren’t long enough or detailed enough by today’s standards. Thus, I’m going to work on those pages a bit more, and link to some of the blog articles; internal linking is always a smart thing to do.
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While I’m at it, I’m going to go back through some of my blogs, find articles that were pretty good but thin on meaning and content and beef those up also. No one said all content had to necessarily be new. I would recommend that if you’re thinking about doing it, do it for articles that didn’t get any comments… or very few.
Third, I’m going to put together a few small ebooks on topics that match up with the topics that 3 of my blogs discuss. I need a book on blogging for this site; I need one about budgeting on my finance site; and I need one pertinent to medical billing on that site. These will take some time to put together, but it’s got to get done sooner than later.
Fourth, I need to look to do a bit of affiliate marketing again, but I need to do it differently. I need to find products I believe in that have something to do with my interests for the particular blogs I’m writing on, even though I’m still big on things like Fitbit (looks like I need to fix some of the product links in the link to the right). Most will probably be books since that’s what I’m interested in more than anything else. I might need to see if I’m eligible for the Amazon influencer program (yeah, right lol) so I can market books I review, such as Lisa Sicard’s book How To Tweet And Thrive On Twitter, Marcie Hill’s book 62 Blog Posts To Overcome Blogger’s Block and Beverly Mahone’s book How To Get On The News Without Committing Murder; by the way, I’m in these last two! 🙂
Fifth, I’m going to comment on more blogs than I did in 2017. I used to be a serial commenter but that’s dropped considerably. Since leaving good comments drives more traffic than anything else (tested this many times), I need to get back into that… which I started this past weekend.
Sixth… this one is a toughie… I’m going to actively solicit advertisers and sponsors for a few of my other blogs… but not this one. I have the local blog so I’ll try to get a few local folk as sponsors. I can do the same with the finance blog and the medical billing blog. I can’t do it for my business blog and… well, I have no idea who I’d get to advertise anything regarding blogging or social media… but it’s possible there’s someone out there; research time!
Those are my plans to get it going. I’ll throw out the caveat that my consulting work will come first because it pays better; I’m not an idiot! lol Still, it’s a goal… one I believe I can make some progress on.
What do you think? Is this something you’d like to try yourself? Do you have suggestions (unless it’s to start a mailing list; I’ve heard that one often). Come on y’all; let’s go for the gusto! 😀
I’d like to think that my post (linked below) had something to with it, and if so, you have only yourself to thank. If it weren’t for your encouragement, I never would have done it. I learned a bit about myself in the process of writing it, so thanks for that.
I am not a wordy kind of a guy. I like to write short pieces. I surprised myself with a 4,000+ words. Hmmm. Maybe I can write meaningfully long articles, after all.
Your post helped reinforce what I’d already been thinking so you get kudos for that. Truthfully, your wordy post will probably get you 10 times the traffic that your shorter posts will get… if you check that sort of thing. You’re always learning few things about yourself because you try lots of different things; that’s what makes you inspirational to so many people. 🙂
Hey Mitch, my blogging income has remained relatively stable. What’s going to make that a little harder this year is YouTubes new rule.
To compensate, and you may have noticed this, I’ve started posting more regularly on two of my original blogs that still have Adsense on them.
I’m also going to try to meet YouTubes new rule so that income returns to my coffers.
Pete, whereas your income may be stable (except for YouTube; curse them! lol), it’s not close to being livable, which you’ve said in the past. I want livable blogging income, but I recognize I have to start somewhere with a reasonable goal. Now it’s out there; time to get busy. 🙂
Hi Mitch,
Have you tried ValuedVoice? You could do writing for them or they provide content for you at a price you set. Just a thought.
What about writing your own eBook? You could do that from your posts and sell them on Amazon. You won’t make a lot off the first one but if you did a series that would be something to generate money.
I don’t know how you do it with your mom, I’ve been having to go to my dads daily for an hour or more and it’s been harder to keep up. I can’t imagine 24/7 like you do.You must have the patience of a saint!
PS: Do you have a services page?
I’ve never heard of ValuedVoice; I’ll check them out. I hope it’s not like those services in the late 2000’s that had scripts for how you could write for them; ugh! Second, just look at the left sidebar; of course I have a Services page! lol
The difference in how we handle our parents is that I moved Mom in and you have to go to your dad’s. Also, you have a full time job whereas I’ve been self employed for a long time. Right now it’s not benefiting me as much since there’s a lot of things I can’t do with Mom here (like travel for gigs & be gone for weeks at a time), but I still have opportunities where I can generate income.
It was never liveable Mitch. Still waiting for that lucky break lol
I’m hoping to retire in about 10 years or so, hopefully by then it will supply a nice supplementary income.
Don’t we both lol
On my main blog (flooring), I’ve been growing my passive income. Last month I made $4,400 and it looks like this month I will hit $6000. It’s taken much longer than I expected, but moving in the right direction.
$1000-$2000 is from an “offline” program on Pinterest. But, the rest is my blog (and does not include consulting). For that, half is advertising…via an ad network (Monumetric) where they set up everything for you. Then, most of the rest is affiliate income (Amazon and a few home decor ones). And, a bit of misc. stuff.
Don’t hate me…because I’m ghost blogging and commenting for Rich. You can find my own blog at TheFlooringGirl.com. If you have an interest in sharing ideas, go to my contact page, leave me your phone #, so I can call you.
And, I do not blog about blogging.
My name is Debbie Gartner
Even though I ghost write and comment, all my comments are real and genuine.
I actually figured out a long time ago you weren’t Rich, though I didn’t know your real name. lol Your comments were legit though, so I let them go through. You’re doing it right, as I checked out your site and your niche is a good one. I’m going to look at a few of those articles, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to do much with my home at the present time. Welcome Debbie! 😉
It seems that the people making money from blogging are the ones teaching people how to make money from blogging…
Hi Sarah,
While it may SEEM that way, my observation has been that the bloggers making money are the ones who have built a large following, and applied the principles of marketing to leverage that asset.
There are many a blogger who is making money, but not teaching it. And if you look at the ones that teaching, you’ll find that they have multiple profit centers, and seldom is the case where education is their primary or most significant profit center.
I’m going to go in a different direction than Rasheed did. The overwhelming majority of people who give advice on making money blogging haven’t made all that much. If you look closely at most of the articles from these folks you’ll see they’re always saying the same thing… and none of it is related to making money whatsoever. For instance, the link leading to the article saying it might not be our fault we’re not making money, I pointed out some things that the writer wrote that have nothing to do with making money that he said did.
Years ago when I was actually making money I told people every single thing I was doing, step by step. Some other folks do the same type of thing and are making a nice chunk of change; the rest are faking it until they make it.
So you’re agreeing with me, then. I agree that most people giving advice about making money aren’t making money contrary to what Sarah said.
The legit ones made made their money before they started sharing how, and they disclosed it, like Steve Pavlina, Pat Flynn, and Chris Guillebeau
I did agree with you but you didn’t quite say it the same way so I was doing a clarification lol
I’ve never made any money blogging other than a few bucks from Adsense. I can imagine how it could be done and have a good idea of some fundamentals, but I’ve not made a serious effort to do this. But then I’d essentially have to change the nature of my blogs to do it. I’m pretty sure I would at least.
I wish you well on your quest.
Arlee, both of us would have to make some significant changes to most of our blogs. I have two that I need to boost up to start making money from them. I’m not sure about this blog making any real money but a combination of all my blogs making money could work.
Yes, you can make money from blogging!
I do blogging since I was in college!
I’m earning more than $500+ every month
The site you shared doesn’t have a blog; do you have one to share with us that we can look at to see how you might be doing it?
Yes, I figured you knew, and I’m not trying to hide, but I am trying to help Rich as I’m friends with his wife.
My main site is Home Decor. Obviously, home decor may not be for you…and that’s not the point. I’m writing for my target audience and then within the articles I build in affiliate links that are related to the topic. Many of my articles come up on search, and that seems to work best as those people are really seeking advice on the topic.
I have found it easiest to monetize on Amazon…which really applies to a slew of categories. Flooring itself is very hard to monetize due to the way it’s shipped and it’s not really sold on Amazon, but I found flooring accessories work (e.g. best products to clean hardwood floors, felt pads, etc.). Also, I found that ads have worked. I get over 140,000 pageviews/month, so that helps as I can have an ad network set it up for me, so it’s very passive.
I’m experimenting with different things. Some work, some don’t do much. I will eventually get there. I was very hesitant to use ads, but it’s a really nice chunk of money, so it really helps.
I’m proud of you for what you’re doing. I thank you for responding to my comment; the house sold last week, so I’m now done with it… whew! lol I don’t have anything quite like that, so I’m going to have to be a bit more creative.
Wow, Mitch! You know what, I have subscribed to a few blogs but only because it was a requirement for me to download some pdf or something. This is the very first blog I am subscribing to simply because I genuinely can’t wait for your next post!
You are a really great writer with such an authentic voice.
Yes, many of the blogs telling people how to make money online TRY to make it by telling others they can… and most don’t even make a hundred per month.
Great content. Subscribed!
Hey Ali,
If you like great content, you have come to the right place. I’ve known Mitch online since 2004, and as I said in one of my blog posts about him, “the dude writes.”
You’ll enjoy his stuff, but, don’t get lost in the hundreds of posts he already has.
Thanks Ali; I try. 🙂 I’ve written about my money making exploits over all these years, and I tell truths about it, whether it’s been good or bad. I don’t demean anyone who’s made real money doing this, but I do expose those who I know are lying… well, sometimes I do since I don’t always call out names.
It’s all about the effort and the honesty and the content and the love of blogging, whether one makes money or not. At least that’s how I see it.