Blogging - do you actually make money at it?

[MVal]

I've heard for years about blogging and making money, but who here has really had any success with it? What platform do you use? I attempted blogging before with Hubpages and only wrote a dozen or so articles before giving up. I'm not tech savvy or knowledgeable on things like SEO and whatever else actually makes you the money from writing online, so I'm not really sure how it works. Currently I'm making like $1 or less a month on Hubpages.

[undercover]

Like anything else...both hard work, consistency, and luck will determine whether you make money or not. I don't have any statistics on how many people start and give up, but I'd say it's far higher than many other ventures just because there are no rules, guidelines, or anyone to really tell you where to start.

I don't think many (successful) bloggers get started blogging to make money. If that's your motivation, there are far better ways to make money, I assure you!

[MoneyCat]

I wrote about 100 articles and had about 1000 Twitter followers and I made a grand total of $2 in advertising revenue. I made $0 from referral links. Blogging is a total waste of time unless you have hundreds of thousands of readers like MMM.

[SnackDog]

Peter supposedly makes over $400,000/yr with MMM.

[JoRocka]

You have to put a lot of work into it to get it to really launch to the point where it makes money.

Secondly consistency is key.
Consistency in content- and consistency in post frequency.

Until you HAVE a huge fan base- people don't care about your personal life- nor will they want to invest in it- they want to know about your subject matter and thoughts. And thats it. Because as you build- remember you're building clickable blogs/content- so- you're target audience for a long while will be new users who are googling XXXXXX and YYYYYYYYY Subjects.

Plus - consistent posting- and constant editing- I know youtubers who that's their job- and they spend hours editing content- it takes dedicated time and energy to get to a point where you are generating any money at it.  You kind of really have to want it.

[CopperTex]

I think blogging is like a lot of lifestyle businesses now - completely over-saturated.

[Syonyk]

Uh.  Given that this is basically the Mr Money Mustache blog forum, I think some people do! :D

I've been blogging for a year and change (see my sig), and over the last few months have been bringing in $15/mo or so in advertising and affiliate links (just eBay - haven't bothered with Amazon yet, since most of the stuff I link is pretty esoteric).

I average about 300 page views/day from organic search and people linking my blog random places, and will get a spike with a new post, especially if it's something interesting that I toss up on Reddit or wherever and get some traffic.  Ebike analysis, bike light teardowns, reviews of random Chinese electronic gizmos, etc.

It's beer money right now, but for me it also serves as an avenue to advertise my battery pack rebuilds.  I do teardown/analysis/rebuilds of a variety of ebike battery packs (mostly BionX), and my blog is the top hit for common queries about those, so people contact me via the contact form and I'll rebuild their batteries, which is quite profitable for me at this point.  I make it known in the rebuild posts that I do this, and have a page dedicated to that as well (with more information on what I offer).

I intend to continue posting weekly for the foreseeable future, and I'll see what I end up with in 5 years or so.  A lot of my older posts still receive tons of traffic from search engines, since they're still technically useful and relevant.

My current series of posts isn't getting much traffic as I'm not advertising them - it's about my off grid office build.  Once that series is done in another 2 months or so (I have way, way more detail than is generally useful, but would be helpful to people trying something similar), I'll do a summary post and then go about linking that places - which I expect will drive a good bit of traffic, and hopefully people who are really interested in the build will dive down into the detailed stage posts.

I haven't done much work with video yet.  I'm not actually a fan of video, but I recognize that it's a "thing" and that one can make good money with it on YouTube.  I'll see.  It'd be a very different style from my current teardowns and analysis, but I may play with it at some point.

Income through blogging is certainly something that takes a long time to build up, and you have to offer something of value to people.  "What I did today" isn't likely to be a popular blog, unless you're doing something very, very interesting on a regular basis.

As to areas one can blog about to make money?  I have no idea.  I really just started my blog when I was bored to death after my daughter was born (home on paternity leave, and there's only so much to do around the house, so I started some projects and started blogging because I thought they were interesting).  I've continued it because it is generating some money, and also because it forces me to write.  And, because I can show off things I've created and mistakes I've made.  Many of my build posts include a summary at the end of, "Things I would have done differently" - and hopefully I can help some people avoid making similar mistakes.

[limeandpepper]

If you want to make lots of money with a blog, it will take a lot of work, especially at first. It's not enough that you enjoy writing, or whatever. You also have to do the admin and marketing side of things. Blogging used to be simpler. Believe it or not, most people used to blog just for the heck of it, not for the money. And social media wasn't a thing, people would just bookmark websites they liked, instead of following on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/Pinterest. But things have changed, so if you want to join the many others wanting to make money, you have to do so much more to stand out.

I currently get AUD$50/month from my blog. I was just doing whatever I was doing, when out of the blue, a company asked if I would put their ad unit on my blog, and I said yes, and that was that. In the past I've also done a few paid sponsored posts, and I've gotten invitations to events, and freebies from companies (all of these I always disclose on the blog), though after going on a travel sabbatical and moving interstate and not being so active on the scene anymore, that faded off. I didn't do it for fun money, though - I did it because I wanted to have a space where I can be creative, and because I thought it would be good for my resume. It worked well on both fronts! It can feel like a lot of work sometimes, but it can also be fulfilling. I've gotten a side gig from it, and it has also helped me score interviews, including the one that ended up getting me my current job. :)

[basd]

Not directly. I haven't bothered with AdWords, affiliate programs or stuff like that, nor do I particularly want to. I have a blog (related to my field of work) because:

• It gives me a reason to keep up with current trends and technologies (I'm in IT)
• It gives me a way of practicing my English skills (I'm not a native speaker)

It has lead to a couple of small side gigs so far, though, mostly writing articles for other people. Plus it showcases my interest in and knowledge of the field when I'm being interviewed for new projects (I'm a freelancer, although I started blogging before I took the freelancing route), and that often gives me an advantage. So there's indirect income from it, but I can't express that in cold hard dollars (or euros, in my case).

I consistently have around 800-1000 page views per day on weekdays and around 250 per day on weekends. Most are from India, the US and the UK (in that order).

[Smokystache]

My summer project is to create a blog. The best advice I've read about a blog (that is designed to make money) is that it is an avenue to spread the word about your business. Your blog is not your business - it is your communication method. Therefore, the first challenge is to figure out what your business is.

In my opinion, blog-related businesses come down to 1 or both of these areas:
- reselling things you purchase and/or make
- selling information that you've compiled/created about a topic (e.g. money, electronics, DIY, crafting, photography, writing, etc. etc.)

I plan to do both. I have an expertise in an area and I do some paid speaking on that topic (lets say Underwater BasketWeaving; UBW) for businesses who serve customers. The businesses I work with want the information shared directly with their customers. My goal for my blog is to share more information about UBW directly with businesses and their customers (in fact, a major goal is for the businesses to directly share my blog posts on their Facebook pages and help drive traffic to my blog).  I hope that this will further enhance my status as an expert UBWer and will increase speaking opportunities (and how much I charge for them).

I also have products that I've already created - imagine short books on UBW for Dummies, and UBW - Advanced Techniques. My blog posts will tie into these topics and I'll recommend my own booklets that will be available on amazon as an ebook. I plan to closely view my traffic to find the most popular blog posts and then create longer, more in-depth ebooks for that topic for purchase. 

If things go amazingly well, then I may directly contact some related businesses (e.g., Reeds R Us - all your Basketweaving Needs in One Megastore!!) to see if they'd like to have longstanding ads on my blog.

My limited research suggests that simply creating a blog and relying on click-through ads will not generate much income at all.

I've not studied Hubpages - my site will not be connected to a larger blogging or article website. I'm going to have a professional web designer create my blog, help me set up a way to generate an email list, etc. But I've already got a small business and a little name recognition in my very small pond/field - so it isn't quite as risky as starting from scratch.

[Mr.Tako]

Most of what's been said already is true.  It is a lot of work, with very little monetary reward.

If you aren't looking for a cash grab, it can be a great outlet.

I've been blogging for 6 months, putting in roughly 20 hours a week, and I pull in only a few dollars a month from Adsense.  But you know what?  It's not about the money.  I have money!  That's not why I write my blog!

[rafiki]

It is very possible if you approach it smartly. I have a blog (not the one in my signature - a stand alone blog) that pulls in between 1,500-2k a month currently. That is small potatoes in the online business / blogging world. Successful bloggers can make far more than that, but I'm happy to have the income.

I also have a blog for my offline business that has generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue. That is my true success in blogging. I applied the lessons learned from the hobby blog to create something powerful. Done right, blogging can do wonders for a local business. For me it's made the difference between working for someone else and being self employed (and thriving).

Like a lot of people that have read MMM, I started something of a personal finance blog (to be honest it's more of a journal).  My finance blog will likely languish in obscurity, but I am having fun with it and that's the main reason for the project.

While it's entirely possible to pursue a blog purely for the money (many do), it takes a ton of work to make it happen. My advice is to be interested in the subject matter and be very willing to get your hands dirty with all aspects of blogging. Simply writing well is usually not enough to reap the full benefits. It takes planning, consistency, and marketing.