FB Reminder: I am away on vacation right now. This post has been scheduled ahead of time.
I won’t be moderating comments until end of August 2009. Thanks for your patience!
I think this bears repeating, as I have read this many times on the internet.
If you get into blogging ONLY to make money, you will not last.
You have to want to blog, because you’re overly chatty and a bit narcissistic (oh wait.. is that just me? 
)
But seriously, you have to actually have a desire to write about whatever topic you choose, and to be passionate about it. You have to start off NOT caring if your blog will do well or not, but it’s just a cathartic release to get your ideas out there and see it on the web.
(Remember, everything you post is archived the minute you post it, forever, so be aware of that).
Some people may love what you say, some may hate it with a passion. That’s dem apples.
But you certainly cannot be interesting if you please everyone — it’s impossible. SOMEONE will always dislike you out there.
I started blogging NOT to make money, but to just talk about money from a Sex and the City-like perspective. Sort of like a Carrie Bradshaw meets Miranda Hobbes kind of deal.
Then it evolved into my talking about debt and my quest to get out of it, which ended quite wonderfully I might add.
But if you have this idea of getting into blogging to supplement your income or to replace your income entirely, all I can say is: Good Luck! Bonne chance! and so on…
Blogging is actual work, believe it or not.
It’s the same amount of effort and time that goes into a an actual part-time, almost full-time job. No kidding.
First, you have to set yourself up: think about a name, where you want to host it (Blogger, Wordpress or Custom?), the design and the layout, what you want to focus on and so on and so forth.
I think I’ve (over the years), spent countless hours just adjusting a couple of pixels on a blog layout to make it just the way I want, only to find out that it doesn’t work on all browsers. How frustrating.
Then you have to think about the design, and theme… it’s really not that simple.
Second, you have to write. Unless you just plan on scraping feeds from other blogs, you have to put your fingers to the keyboard.
Third, not only do you have to write, you have to write decent content. We’re talking about content that engages people, makes them interested to come back and read more, or makes them get so angry, they leave you nasty comments. All fame is good fame, right?
Fourth, it’s a lot of maintenance and work. You have to figure out how to promote it, you have to visit other bloggers, start networking… it’s not easy. It takes up a lot of time, and unless you’re willing to really dedicate to keeping the blog going, you are going to pretty much say: Arg.. screw this.
(I’ve wanted to give up many times before!)
I heard somewhere that blogs don’t last past 6 months. People realize how much effort goes into one and then they give up.
With all that being said, the monetary reward is maybe less than a buck a month when you start out, and it’ll stay that way for a couple of months, maybe years depending on how popular you become.
You will not make good money unless you start hitting the big-league subscribership, and even then.. I think it’s something like 30,000+ subscribers before you can make abotu $3000/month?
Nuts.
Here’s what worked for me so far:
Partly because I’m a bit lazy, and I really dislike blogs that have a ton of ads all over the place, giving me a righteous headache,
PayPerPostWhen you first start, they entice you with a $20 introductory post, then it goes downhill to $1.50 – $3.00 per post until you establish a readership of 1000+ members or have a Google Page Rank of at least 3.
What I like, is that after some time on the web, you can actually choose what ads you want to run.
In the beginning, I wrote about tactical gear, air vents… whatever I could get my hot lil’ paws on, because it was SLIM PICKINGS! And it’s fierce competition to get those opportunities, even at $1.00 each.
I’d log on, see an opportunity for $3.00, click on it, answer the “are you a human?” question, and then realize that the opportunity was already fully taken by everyone else who had a quicker internet connection. *kicks Bell Canada*
It was like a bunch of fashionistas at a sample sale in New York, where the sizes are 6+!!
Now, it’s not as frenetic. I’m trying to be more selective in what I write about, and I can get posts at around $6 on average now.
Payperpost referral link here.
To some degree, it works. So far, I’m seeing about $5 a month from this, but hey, any amount is good for me.I guess I could make more money if I slapped ads all over my site, but I have a design aesthetic to upkeep!
Plus, I’d be a big fat hypocrite if I did that. I personally hate blogs with ads all over the place.
It’s why I RSS Feed a lot of blogs most of the time.
SwagbucksI am on the internet.. a lot. My job entails being near a computer most of the time, and when I’m not working or at home, I am blogging or tweeting online.
Swagbucks is just another way to search for information, and to earn what they call “Swagbucks”.
You can then redeem these Swagbucks for gift cards to Amazon, iTunes, Target, or for cash being deposited into your Paypal account (which is what I do).
Read all about how it works here.
And you don’t even need to have a blog for it.
What hasn’t worked:
Linkbee
Got started on this with Krystal and Ginger, but it just ain’t panning out for me because of the time it takes.It may not seem like a lot of time to go into a site, put in a URL and convert it.. but it’s a pain in the arse, let me tell you. I’d rather forgo the $0.00001 I get paid (no seriously!) and just post it as a direct link.
Plus, Single Ma told me it was tacky on Twitter! (I think I chose the wrong option, Interstitial or whatever the hell that means?).
Her exact words? “Wassup with that tacky advertising on your blog!?“
They changed the rules lately. Cannot get paid just on sending people to Amazon. They actually want them to BUY something (what’s up with that!?!?)…
Didn’t make more than a penny of it.
Correction: I made $1.83, and then it disappeared into the wild west of the internet and now it says I haven’t heard squat.I’ve given up on it.
I only got started in this because Christian PF (as shared in my Google Reader by Penny I think), said that when he started, he was making like $1500/month within the first 3 months!!!
I was skeptical, but not a fool to dismiss it without at least giving it a shot. I don’t think it’s worth it.
I don’t even know what’s going on with this mess of a site.
It’s apparently a spin off from PayPerPost, but much less organized, more confusing and generally irritating to navigate through.
I haven’t been back there in a long time because my first impression was so awful.
Online Surveys
Er.. you don’t need a blog for this but I thought I’d throw it in there.
Although Canadian Saver seems to be pretty good at squeezing money out of the Canadian sites. I salute her and her patience!
This really doesn’t work for me, because I’m in Canada. It’s too much hassle and they don’t pay enough for the time it takes to click on all the damn answers! If I were in the States, I’d consider signing up for these things, but in Canada, it is slim pickins’!
So that’s it. Payperpost and Adsense. The only two sane things to do when you have a blog, other than having people contact you to write posts for money, or freelance articles.
(That means you, Big Bucks)
- September 2009: Budget End
- October 2009 Budget Recap
- Fun Final Year End in Review: Budget & Blog
- July 2009 Budget Recap
- September 2009 Budget Set
