Who can make money blogging?
Many people jump in the fray every single day, with the goal of making money by blogging. Some will succeed, but most will fail to make any significant amount of money. So, who is making money blogging, you ask? Let’s take a look.
Most people who make money blogging have already hit it big in another area. To these folks, blogging is simply an extension of their existing business, or a new challenge to excel at. Take a look at a few of the names that pop into my head:
- John Chow was rich and famous long before his blog launched. The Tech Zone was his claim to fame - John Chow dot com is just icing on his cake.
- Brian from Copyblogger is an established lawyer. He certainly didn’t get famous by blogging.
- Shoemoney made his fortune and fame through affiliate programs, not blogging.
- Darren Rowse of Problogger fame is one of the truly few people who made their name, and their fortune, solely by blogging.
With the exception of Darren, all these people, and indeed many of the famous bloggers, were not bloggers during their rise to fame. Having a well-known name and reputation can have a huge impact on a blogger’s ability to quickly build a reader base and income stream.
When it comes right down to it, it’s very very hard to make a living online solely by being a blogger. Blogging is difficult to do well, and income is only a trickle at first. It takes a long time and a lot of skill & some luck to become a good enough blogger to make a living online. If you’re just starting out, you might want to consider other avenues to establish a name for yourself, and some solid income first. Once you have solid ground to stand on, then blogging can be a great tool to extend your business / brand / name, and even earn some cash in it’s own right.
George said
March 26 2007 @ 2:48 pm
You might want to read the interview I am posting tomorrow on my blog. It’s with someone who is a problogger, who did not have a name.
Anyway, very interesting post and I kind of agree. Unless you are starting a blog network covering niche news topics, a blog is more of an additional marketing tool for most people, rather than an income generator.
Cory OBrien said
March 26 2007 @ 3:53 pm
I also find it interesting that Darren, the only person on your list who was not famous before blogging, makes money by telling other people how to make money with blogging.
If anyone is trying to blog for money, I’d warn them that it takes a year or more before you start to see any kind of revenue from all of the work you put in.
Leroy Brown said
March 26 2007 @ 5:19 pm
George - I’ll keep an eye out for that post tomorrow.
Cory - True, Darren does earn a good bit of his blogging money by telling people how to make money blogging. Kinda ironic, isn’t it? But the way I understand it, he was making money blogging fulltime before Problogger really came into it’s own anyway.
And I’d definitely say a year at the very minimum, maybe even longer now. It can be frustrating at times, the amount of patience that’s needed.