I was asked by a client how to make their website so good it would make a million dollars. Aside from over 2,000 posts on his website (by the way- no you may not ask which site), there was next to nil on engagement. That many posts are admirable. Without even having the opportunity to actually get a look on his stats, I was more than willing to bet it was all from the search engines. Why? Well, he had nothing on Facebook or Twitter, not even a single tweet. So, of course, I shared with him some of my own advice I have learned over the years.
Here is the truth about blogging and making money.
You are not going to make a million dollars right away.
This takes time. Even Facebook took time to get popular and make their first million. You can do Adsense, Adbrite, BuySellAds, in-house banner advertising, text link ads, sponsored posts, or even affiliate marketing, but it all still takes time. How long? Who knows- but it depends greatly on how active you are about promoting your site.
You need to make realistic goals as your site grows and as you accomplish them, then you can go on to tackling bigger goals.
While it is great that you might want to make a lot of money, making big goals only sets your standards so high that if you fail, you might give up in a few tries.
You cannot have content and SEO methods alone. You need people to engage.
If you have hundreds, or thousands of posts, you may drive some traffic in from the search engines. However – will those people remain? Will they leave feedback on posts? Are you going to reply to what your readers comment?
In the case your site is new, blasting people with advertisements is not exactly a good way to keep visitors coming back.
Gradually introduce an advertisement program or two. Experiment in bi-monthly or monthly increments by moving your ads around to find the best spot.
Your web designer is not your right hand buddy to get you rich.
If you hired a person for web design or development, their focus is to design your blog and give you a branded website that you can be proud of, and people can connect with. If you are going to expect them to market for you, you need to pay them for those services if they do offer them.
You need to engage with people.
I mentioned it earlier, but I am focusing this point on engaging people. Get out there on the social network sites- Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, forums, and more. Find people who are interested in what you like to talk about and are actively talking about it. The dynamic of social networking is a way to eventually pave the way for others to visit your site. While you might not jump in right away and tell people to come visit, but you can certainly at least take 10 or 15 minutes in a day to try to reach out. You never know, you might find great topics to write about from just engaging with others. (I know I do!)
Make sure you are prepared to run a blog first before focusing on the money factor.
It is one thing to have a blog, but another to regularly update it and find the passion within to share your thoughts with others. If you are blogging, you are trying to reach people – not make money. Some of the best bloggers did not have advertisements on their site for some time. Why? Because they networked and built good relationships with others. They guest posted, did giveaways, or even gave free stuff for subscribers of their newsletters.
When you want to blog, be prepared to invest at least the time because in the end- even making money for blogging, especially good money, takes a lot of effort, engaging, and above all, time.
couldn't agree more, even moreso with 'Make sure you are prepared to run a blog first before focusing on the money factor.' Truth is, I've started/ended close to 40 blogs and the successful ones are always ones I enjoy doing… Not ones on topics that generate great ad revenue because of the topic
Hi, Nile. Indeed, getting results from doing any kind of business on the Internet takes time. If a person does not have the perseverance to hang on, he will surely give up even before he can achieve his intended ROI. It is very admirable of you to write a post about this. This will surely serve as the well-needed rap on the knuckles for those who believe that they can get it easy just by blogging or by having an ecommerce site.
It is not a really good idea to depend on google only for traffic. Reason being is that you become very vulnerable once they make the slightest change to their algo and all the traffic you rely on is gone. This is why it is important to diversify traffic sources.
Excellent Nile, I agree about Social Networking sites. I have found that connecting with a network that has similar interests brings in lots of traffic. For instance, my first blog, has been going for over 3 years but has had less than a 1000 views. The next blog, with only one post got over a thousand views in less than a month! I generated lots of interest within my network on Facebook, and with some lucky breaks, it exploded and got picked up by other sites. One thing I have done, and it may get annoying is reposting the link several times as I add on new friends. Some people on FB have thousands of friends and can easily miss posts. It is critical to re-post if you believe in your story/content. Self promotion done right, pays off.
When i read the title i hesitated to read all the post but now i'm happy for spend those 5 minutes here. This is one of the best posts i was read it. Everybody wants to make money with blogs and forget about the readers. Everybody of us is a reader at one time so. bloggers, think about the readers before the money. Work hard and money will come!
"Your web designer is not your right hand buddy to get you rich." – that is such a true statement that needs expressing more often. i work as a design and marketing consultant in a freelance capacity, and the sheer number of people i've had essentially referring to me as their "go to guy" who is there, day and night, to practically run their websites has been extraordinary. just because it's online, does not mean you don't have to work hard at it!
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Hi Nile! The how-to of making money from a blog is a very interesting (…if not controversial) topic! What people ask me most often is "How long it will take" and "What should I sell". I agree with your answer that the "how long" depends on how active you are with your blog. I found it also depends on certain trends! One of my sites made a good fortune in just a few months after its launch in 2008. The site was promoting a property related product. Now due to the recession in the real estate market, this site is not turning over the same profit. Nobody could make the same profit now at the same speed even if they were using the exact same promotional methods I did. I found that very often it is not just a matter of "how long it will take" or "what to sell" but what wave or trend am I going to leverage on. A huge trend can help someone capitalize much quicker. I also found that really rich and successful bloggers sold things when nobody else was selling them, and got out when everyone else started to do it!
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Basically Blogging is a part of web blog which gives us a overall idea about a topic,content etc,it has a great future,and in this business there is a lot of money.
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Great post – great info you shared this weekend at WordCamp Louisville. Thanks!
Great article. I hate when people ask me how to make money, or how much I make with my website because that’s not what you should be concerned about, at least not at first anyway.
There is so much work involved if you want to be a serious blogger and people don’t understand that. I love blogging but sometimes it drives me crazy; so much to do and so little time. I actually don’t even have ads up on my site right now because I can’t decide where I want them and where they belong.
For me it’s not about the money. Making a million dollars is great but the chances of that happening are so small I’d be wasting my dreams dreaming about it. To blog you have to have passion and I think I have that but we’ll see!
Again, great article! Thanks 🙂
Definitely good information. A website or blog doesn’t become a million dollars site over a night. Everything wants a time. And i think your presence or interaction with your site or blog is really the most important success factor. You have to give contribution to your blog or website otherwise it would be look like orphan.