I’ve been posting to a blog of some sort for almost eight years, so the part that involves writing posts and having my wife read them comes pretty naturally. But I’ve learned recently that while this is blogging, it is not really “blogging.” I’ve been studying the fine art of “blogging” as it relates to increasing readership and also increasing income. It could be argued that the latter is evil and goes against the spirit of community and camaraderie that is so prevalent in the blogging world. However, it has become evident to me that my chances at landing a book deal are really slim. To land a book deal you have to follow tons of rules laid down by publishers and you have to focus for more than 800 words at a time – neither of which I seem able to do.
It occurred to me that there were people in the world making a living as writers who were not writing books or magazine articles. These people were called bloggers, and though I was one of them, I was not blogging to my full potential. So, I started studying. I have learned some stuff, and one of those stuffs is that in order to be considered a “professional” blogger, you have to tell other people how to make money blogging. So I thought I should post all the stuff I have learned, thereby educating the public and perpetuating the pyramid-like structure of the blogging world.
Making Money Blogging
It is super easy to make money blogging. All you do is put ads on your page, and then make a million people come and read your blog. A percentage of those people will magically click the ads, and the advertisers will say thanks by giving you almost a whole penny for every click. (Actual amounts will vary and can not be disclosed.) You can see how folks like Shoemoney can make hundreds of thousands of dollars just from ads, even though he writes mostly about how to make money blogging.
The trick is making the million people come to your blog – sometimes called “traffic.” The best way to increase traffic, according to the expert bloggers, is to consistently write stuff. I can tell you from experience that this can be hit or miss. Luckily, there is also Search Engine Optimization – a theory that says you can bring people to your site from search engines by using the right words in your posts and in your tags. So far my most popular tag, according to the google stats, seems to be “penguin sex.”
If that sounds fishy, then you are going to be skeptical about the last idea to increase traffic – blog carnivals. When I first learned of these, I couldn’t find any information on them. Once I went back and re-read, I saw that I’d been searching for “blog circuses” – which I think is a better term, but which did not exist in anyone’s search engine terms. A blog carnival is like a magazine – a collection of blogs from around the globe that generally pertain to the same basic topic. There is a carnival about almost everything – food reviews, tarot, business tips, healing, digital scrapbooking and, of course, blogging. Unfortunately for me, I don’t really write about one thing. I could not find a blog carnival about “stupid posts about your life,” so after a few minutes I gave up on that idea.
Niche
The trouble with the blog carnivals and with monetizing my blog in general, is that I don’t have a niche. (Pronounced niche.) The reason you need a niche is pretty obvious, but I like to illustrate it with a tale from my childhood.
When I was in sixth grade the assistant coach of my baseball team invited my family to his house for dinner. After a nice dinner, he broke out the Amway sales materials and pitched the concept to my parents. The key, he said, was that we didn’t really need to buy Amway so much as we needed to sell it. We would make money, he would make money, and how could that not be a good deal? The only real loser in the deal was the last guy to sign up, because he would have no one to sell to, and no one to recruit.
Blogging is a lot like that. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that 98% of the folks who read this post are “bloggers.” If I tell you how to make money blogging, and you follow those secret steps to success, then I have to compete with you; unless of course you write a blog about the European Economy, which I know nothing about. That is where the concept of “niches” comes in to the whole blogging thing. Everyone needs to write about something different so that the people interested in your blog are not also interested in my blog – market segmentation. But, eventually, someone else will want to write about the European Economy, and then what will you do? You will have to either kill them, or discourage them from stealing your traffic. That’s where the next tip comes in.
Don’t Take Advice
It is possible that there are people out there who really want you to succeed at blogging. I am not one of them. First, if you succeed and I fail, then I won’t like you, and how is that good for our friendship? Second, if I succeed, and then you succeed and steal my people away, thereby making me un-succeed, then I won’t like you. You see how it’s not a good thing. You may not have thought of this, so you may ask me for advice. (Not directly, but by reading my “secrets to blogging success” blog.) I have thought of this, so I am not going to tell you how to succeed. I might pretend to do so, but it is only pretend.
The President of Starbucks would never go the the President of (look up another coffee place and put name here) and ask them “hey, how can I make more money selling coffee?” The answer is simple – the latter President would say “just steal my customers and you should be golden.” But, he would not say that, because he is a human. So, you should not take advice from people.
Final Thoughts
If I seem skeptical, it is to keep you guessing about this whole blogging thing. I think there might be legitimate amounts of advertising dollars still out there for the right people to snatch up. But, as an amateur economist, I gotta think it’s finite, and that we’re near the bottom of the jar. But, feel free to give it a shot. As long as you avoid e-books and seminars on “blogging for dollars” then your monetary outlay should be minimal, so the risk, for you, is small. The risk for me, if you are more brilliant than me, is quite large, which is why I have to hire a professional to make sure you do not succeed. Its just business – you understand.
