Bloggers, Overworked And Underpaid
Let’s assume that a bloggers main aim is to utilize his blog to make money, with the sole intention that one day he or she can tell their bosses to go get stuffed, as they now have their very own profitable online business. They dream about the look on their boss’s face when they will one day drop the ‘I Quit’, bombshell.
The trouble is that this dream, for the majority of bloggers, is a long way off and there is a lot of hard work ahead of them. Let’s face it, monetizing the old Blog isn’t as easy as we once thought. So much goes into blogging from choosing the host, theme, affiliates and then to consistently provide quality content in order to build a presence on the Web that will hopefully build into a strong readership.
The problem is that content alone will not achieve this. We also have to become marketers and SEO wizards just so that our blogs will become noticed by the big search engines. This in itself takes a lot of time as we sift through all the information available on the Web, trying all the different things we learn, usually by trial and error, hoping that we will hit on the right mix that will suddenly thrust us into blogging fame and glory.
All this to encourage what we hope to be thousands of daily visitors. Visitors that will provide interaction with our posts bringing even more visitors. In the end the plan is that our blogs become so popular that advertisers will beg for a spot on our blogs. The thing is that until that happens all we can hope is that these visitors will click on our Google Adsense ads or on one of our affiliate links.
The thing is that even after doing all the right things, bringing in all those visitors and getting all those affiliate links constantly clicked, unless the landing page of those affiliates are designed in such a way as to encourage a lead or sale, all that hard work has been in vain. I know, because very few of the thousands of clicks that I have sent to affiliates over my blogging career have actually culminated in a sale thereby earning me money.
Does this mean that it has all been in vain? No, certainly not! It just means that I haven’t yet hit on the right mixture of affiliates. This naturally means more work for me as a blogger, as I constantly strive for that lucky mixture of factors that will finally give me the fame, glory and financial freedom that seek.
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No truer words have ever been uttered, Sire. I will say, though, that I believe some niches will work better for monetizing a blog than others, and maybe we haven’t quite hit on that niche yet. It’s something my mind is working on, though, so we can only wait and see what it comes up with, if anything good.
Of course, I just noticed you don’t seem to have the Widget Bucks ad running anymore here, and I had to take if off my blog, at least for now, because the javascript was conflicting with other stuff I wanted to do. If some of the stuff that makes us money fails, that’s not good either.
Mitch´s Last blog post..A Slave To The Numbers
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What’s that Mitch? But I thought that we didn’t like niche’s.
As for Widget Bucks, I haven’t removed it, but I am seriously considering it, especially if it doesn’t pick up it’s game and start producing some income.
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Mitch Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 2:54 am
In general, we don’t like niches. However, for specifics, it would seem to be the way to go, in some circles. For instance, we’ve seen that the “niche” of internet marketing doesn’t make any Adsense money because that group already knows what it’s all about. The same goes with posts about blogging. However, the ads that are showing for my recent posts on writing are something quite different, and those posts have a chance to make some pretty good money; that is, if people visit them from Google.
Mitch´s Last blog post..Book Writing Series Step One – The Concept
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Sire Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 3:16 am
When you put it that way I can see what you mean. I suppose the right keywords in a post may also trigger the right response, but then we all know how I feel about searching for the right keywords.
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Mitch Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 10:58 am
Same with me, at least with this particular blog. With my other blog, pretty much the same, I suppose. But I’m thinking about taking over a third blog, which will have a much different focus; let’s see what comes out of it all.
Mitch´s Last blog post..Book Writing Series Part Six – Publishing Your Book
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Sire Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
And yet another blog in the making. Careful Mitch, you may catch up with me one day. I wish you all the best mate with your next blog and I will watch it’s growth with much interest.
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Mitch Reply:
November 26th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Thanks, Sire. Of course, I think you and everyone else will be surprised with what I’ll be coming out with.
Mitch´s Last blog post..Book Writing Series Part Three – When And How To Write
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Lets hope that one day you find that magic mix and enter the realms of a pro blogger. You can write that post about what you say to your boss and more importantly how he reacts. Out of interest what method do you use to get your keywords?
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I like not to think too much about actually searching for keywords as that would take all the fun out of blogging. I usually just skim through the post and pick words that I think may do the SEO trick for me.
As for the words I would say to my boss, I would have to be quite selective as I am my own boss.
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It’s a never-ending learning experience, isn’t it? Trial and error! I think the most important thing to remember about blogging is that it takes time. People seem to think you can pop up a blog and be making a living off it in a matter of weeks or months, but like any worthwhile endeavor, it takes a bit more than that in the beginning. Great post!
Melissa Donovan, Copywriter´s Last blog post..The Top 5 Blogging Essentials
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Thanks Belinda. You know, even though I don’t think I will ever reach ProBlogger status I don’t think that I could give blogging up as it has now become a part of who I am. Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment.
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Indeed, blogging takes a lot of time, but even though we don’t earn that much like ProBlogger, I find it rewarding and fulfilling just to earn some :)
Blogging from Scratch´s Last blog post..Vote me off as the next Blogging Idol
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I find it extremely rewarding and every time someone leaves a comment it is even more rewarding still. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
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JR from Internet Marketing Strategies Reply:
November 27th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Oh, I totally agree with you Sire, I too find any comments made very rewarding, it’s the first thing I check every time I log on to my computer.
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Sire Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 12:17 am
Yep, me too. I head straight for the email to see who has left me a comment, even before I check stats and whether or not I made any money from adsense and stuff.
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JR from Internet Marketing Strategies Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 2:45 am
LOL, maybe that’s what makes us overworked and underpaid, the “gurus” must check their money first ;-)
JR´s Last blog post..Increase Web Site Traffic – 8 Tips to Using Forums Effectively
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I never considered making a living from blogging. Maybe a side revenue stream but not a full time income. I’ve thought about it more recently but I’m still not sure.
I started my blog just to share things that I have learned and now it sort of enhances my freelancing business. I removed all ads – it was a brief experiment – because I want to sell services, not ad space..
Kim Woodbridge | (Anti) Social Development´s Last blog post..Google Page Rank – A Sudden 3 Point Drop!!!
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Sire Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 12:21 am
That’s cool, but I’ll leave my ads there. They’re aren’t hurting anyone and if anybody decides that one is good enough to click on it then I reckon that I have just provided them a service.
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I like your style Sire! Overworked and underpaid?? Never! ;-). By the way Problogger has a huge advantage he started way in the beginning and so he was one of the first about blogging bloggers and so the competition was nill for him!
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Sire Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Yeah, I was thinking that very same thing the other day after going through his archives. Man, when he first started he wasn’t getting hardly any comments at all. Naturally, what this means is that if we ever reach ProBlogger status, we will be so much better than Darren because we had to climb through all the competition.
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JR from Internet Marketing Strategies Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 2:49 am
That is damn right!!! And same applies to many of the “gurus” high traffic blogs, like John Chow and Shoemoney, they all started way back when…it’s a lot harder for us now, so all our achievements are actually three fold over them!
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Sire Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 3:12 am
That’s it, it all depends on how you look at it. That is why my glass is always half full and never half empty!
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The same thing happened to blogging that happened to everything else – it became known, and then popular, and then over-saturated. To get somewhere in the early days wouldn’t have taken quite so much effort – even though now we have all these amazing tools and plugins to help us.
We are definatly overworked, and most are underpaid, but as you say at the start of your post, will all want to be ‘free’, and if we are determined in our cause then we will never stop.
You know, until we’re either rich or dead – literal, and ‘brain dead’ sense :P
Dan´s Last blog post..Christmas Is Here…What Will You do?
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Sire Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Hey Dan, the thing about blogging is that even though I ain’t making all that much I like it way more than my 9-5 job. The beauty about it is that when you come right down to it the cash is now secondary to the joy of blogging. Having said that I won’t be knocking back ProBlogger status if it happened to come around, that’s for sure.
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Mitch Reply:
November 28th, 2008 at 12:39 am
Actually Dan, I’d like to take a different side of this argument. I’m not big on niche writing, as you know, but I will acknowledge that there is this thing about figuring out which audience it is you’re writing for. Most of us write articles for making money online in some fashion, but the people who are visiting us are doing the same thing, therefore they’re not trying to learn as much as validate what they already do. The hardest thing is to find something to write about where people are not only learning about something for the first time, but are willing to purchase the things you’re mentioning because of it.
if we ever figure out that balance for our blogs as much as for some of our websites, we’ll be able to look at the big boys at some point and laugh.
Mitch´s Last blog post..Thanksgiving Turkeys Away
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My blog doesn’t make much money and that’s not the goal to be honest. I make money online yes, but outside the blog and that’s how most people started! ShoeMoney wasn’t making money blogging until last year or something because he didn’t want to monetize the blog. But, he was making a shitload of money with other websites…I just think that’s the way to go if you blog about making money online: you can’t blog about making money online if you don’t make money online! ;)
Ben Tremblay´s Last blog post..Why sharing your knowledge is not a problem
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Hey Ben, this blog is still fairly new and so it isn’t really making me a whole heap of cash but I am enjoying myself way more on this one than some of my other blogs. Thanks for taking the time to comment mate.
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How true! Assuming that you post 3-4 times a day, that itself is like 4 hrs or more. Then commenting on other blogs, moderating own stuff, reading blogs etc may be 10-12 hrs a week. SEO activities, tracking stats, advertising, being active on social media/network etc cost additional time.
Basically one works as much as his fulltime job – and mostly (95% cases for not much returns)
As you rightly said, how many probloggers can be there? I feel that unless you make $5K or above, it’s mostly a useless pastime (unless you blog because it’s your passion)
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Stop it Ajith, your making me tired just thinking about all the work we put into it. The thing with blogging, for me at least, is that I do not begrudge it’s time consuming nature because I love it so much. Thanks so much for your well thought out comment.
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