Author Topic: Does blog writing generate income?  (Read 4591 times)

neonlight

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Does blog writing generate income?
« on: August 06, 2017, 09:03:11 PM »
I know it really depends on the quality and popularity of the blog.

Since I am single and mid 30s, my plan is to do a soft FIRE traveling the world. I want to do something while traveling and a way is to write. I know it's a long shot to make several hundred a month as a newbie, but any advice is appreciated :)



« Last Edit: August 06, 2017, 09:06:04 PM by neonlight »

meatface

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #1 on: August 07, 2017, 05:47:27 AM »
Here are some tips from MMM

Be sure to differentiate yourself. The surest way to have few readers is to do the same things everyone else is doing.

I'm a red panda

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #2 on: August 07, 2017, 07:11:58 AM »
You really need a multi-platform social media presence now. So get ready to snapchat, instagram, and facebook too.

I know a few people pulling in several hundred thousand on their blogs, but they work their butts off.  (I also feel that the writing of the blog has really suffered as they are basically just product shills now, but  I wouldn't ever tell them that. Besides, I don't think they'd care as they'd be setting off on another free trip to Hawaii.)

(I never monetized my blogs, and they have now been abandoned, but I made $1 off youtube last month! $99 more and they'll pay that out. I kind of wish now I had monetized my blogs when I had them a decade ago. I had about a thousand readers and probably could have had way more with hussle, but I just wrote for myself really. Oops, opportunity missed.)
« Last Edit: August 07, 2017, 10:48:14 AM by iowajes »

prognastat

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #3 on: August 07, 2017, 07:30:51 AM »
You can, but it definitely takes work and research(more work).

Being a really good writer is probably most important. A great writer can make something boring the most interesting thing in the world, while a poor one struggles to convey the wonder of something amazing.

Find something you are interested in and will allow you to write quite a bit. You'll need to be putting content out constantly to keep people hooked.

SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is pretty useful to understand.

Read up on monetization options. Ads alone don't pay very much until you have massive traffic. There are things like amazon referral links, product deals(this can be tricky though to walk the line between supporting great products and coming off as a shill), patreon, paypal donations and more that may grow your income before your ad income becomes significant.

A social media presence is a must for most to keep people engaged.

LessIsLess

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2017, 08:41:15 AM »
The toughest is to keep writing even when no one is reading.  If you can persist, eventually you will find success of some kind.

Syonyk

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #5 on: August 07, 2017, 10:12:16 AM »
I know it really depends on the quality and popularity of the blog.

Since I am single and mid 30s, my plan is to do a soft FIRE traveling the world. I want to do something while traveling and a way is to write. I know it's a long shot to make several hundred a month as a newbie, but any advice is appreciated :)

It's a bit of a lottery - popular blogs get more readers because they're popular.  Starting out, you are (by definition) unpopular, as you have no readers.

Making a few hundred a month as a newbie doing "Yet Another My Travels Blog" is quite challenging.  Not impossible, but I sure wouldn't rely on it.  You're not offering that much interesting/useful.  "Look at me!" is pretty well covered in the modern internet space.

SEO(Search Engine Optimization) is pretty useful to understand.

For something like a travel blog, yeah.  You're not really a unique operator in that space.  Conversely, if you have unique enough material (being the only source on the internet for things helps), SEO can be entirely ignored, because the content is the SEO.  I'm the #1 hit for an awful lot of search queries, and first page for quite a few more.

My blog generates beer money at this point, though the bulk of the value to me is that it feeds me work (battery pack rebuilds/analysis and the like).  That dwarfs my direct blog income.

Quote
Read up on monetization options. Ads alone don't pay very much until you have massive traffic. There are things like amazon referral links, product deals(this can be tricky though to walk the line between supporting great products and coming off as a shill), patreon, paypal donations and more that may grow your income before your ad income becomes significant.

Even if you have a lot of traffic, a lot of people run ad blockers.  Downsides of having a tech audience for me - there's a huge gap between page views and ad impressions.  Affiliate links (I generally use eBay because of the nature of my gizmos I work with) are useful, and are about 50% of my direct blog income at this point.  I can definitely tell when I've done a post that's affiliate-link heavy (and it's not just spamming links - it's links to the hardware I use in my builds or devices I'm reviewing).

Donations/Patreon/etc are something I haven't messed with, but have certainly considered.  Also, turning some of my content into ebooks.

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A social media presence is a must for most to keep people engaged.

Also quite true.  Which, at least for many of the options, requires posting other material so you're not seen as a spammer.  Most of my initial traffic is from those sources, but I don't have much in the way of "direct social media presence" because I value my time...

The toughest is to keep writing even when no one is reading.  If you can persist, eventually you will find success of some kind.

True, to an extent.  If there's nobody reading, you're just shouting into the void.  But posting regularly is important, and my switch to a weekly schedule a year and a half ago certainly forced me to find interesting things to write about.

So, doable, but... another travel blog?  Unlikely to be particularly profitable.  I'm 2.5 years into my blog project and am still excited when I break $50/mo.

czr

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #6 on: August 07, 2017, 12:49:10 PM »
So, doable, but... another travel blog?  Unlikely to be particularly profitable.  I'm 2.5 years into my blog project and am still excited when I break $50/mo.

:o 2.5 yrs seems like a lot of time and effort for $50 and not even passive since you will still have to be putting up content to maintain it.

Syonyk

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #7 on: August 07, 2017, 01:15:27 PM »
$50/month. And that's direct blog income - ads/affiliate links. I've had much better months when I front paged Reddit, but that was a one time thing so far.

The bulk of my blog /related/ income is battery pack analysis and rebuilding, which has netted me many thousands of dollars. My blog is essentially advertising for my other services. It establishes me as a global expert in certain areas.

Also it forces me to write and do interesting things.

marshdesign

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #8 on: August 07, 2017, 01:56:20 PM »
I think you can but not right off the bat. You have to be ready to self promote. Not everyone enjoys doing that. I started teaching on skillshare and had to do a lot of self promoting, and I do not enjoy that part. I feel that I am bothering, spamming people even though I do it in a very targeted, thoughtful way. When you run a blog, you become a salesperson of yourself. As long as you feel good about that then go for it.

The first few months, you have to build your base and that is very challenging. I would get comfortable emailing editors from publications all around country in hopes one or two picks you up and sends you across the interwebs.

Another way is slow going it through social media, posting and hoping people find it interesting. You can see my skillshare link to my classes below. That sentence I just wrote, I just hate promoting myself like that as I feel like a salesperson, but I do have good classes if you are into design or freelancing. So you just have to know if you are a self promoter or not. Not always enjoyable. I know for me I makes me feel odd!

JoJo

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #9 on: August 07, 2017, 02:29:17 PM »
Another travel blogger here.  Officially launched in February.  I've spent in the vicinity of $2000 - hosting, domain, etc.  Plus I needed a new computer and camera.  I attended a travel blogger convention in May, but that was a good chance to learn a ton, meet some others that are now following me, and get to see a part of the USA I wouldn't have visited otherwise.  In addition to being educational it was so much fun.  To date, I've earned $1.44 in income from Amazon Affliates.  I work at least 25 hours per month to write new content (1x a week) and put links on the internet to drive traffic.  I'm getting about 1,000 page views a month... I know some strategies to increase this but it will take alot of work. 

There are lots of dirty little secrets in travel blogging.  here are some things off the top of my head that I wish I knew before I started.
* Instagram is so frustrating, and twitter less so.  Some people use automation to follow/unfollow to grow their following.  Others pay someone in a 3rd world country $3 an hour to do it for them.  I decided to not worry about these platforms, passively post once every 2 days or so, and to not follow anyone that has a high ratio of followers to the number they follow... 100% they will unfollow you within a week or so
* Some people drive most of their business from searches/SEO but most of them are early bloggers.  Newer bloggers really need to use pinterest to grow, and that takes a big time commitment
* There are 1000's of new travel bloggers every year so it's a tight space.  I would guess most of them drop out once they need to renew their blogs.  I'm at bluehost and after my 3 years at a lower rate end, my domain & hosting will be over $200 per year.
* and that's just the minimal cost, there are lots of ways travel bloggers spend money - upgrades in canva for pinterest, consulting from other bloggers, website redesign (it looks nice but will likely cost $700+), facebook promotions... "pay $10 and reach up to 1,300 people"
* Most travel bloggers make no money.  They can get a bunch of free stuff but unless you are a top blogger, you need to constantly be asking for free stuff (free hotel rooms, meals, tours, etc).
* Before you get any free stuff, you will likely need to travel on your own dime to build up content and followers
* I get concerned that my constant promotion (on my personal facebook, etc) will turn some friends away.
* A niche is good - I don't think my niche is niche-y enough (middle aged, female, slightly adventurous, world travel).  There are many, many female bloggers but it's interesting that most of the top 100 bloggers are male.  One great niche is becoming the definitive guide to a single location but most of us travel bloggers don't have the patience to stay in the same place that long.
* some of the most successful bloggers have more than 1 site.  Many of those are early and rank very high in searches.
* There is a ton to learn, but resources to do so.  This can be both good and bad.  I have made alot of mistakes.
* Keep this in mind: some of the highest earning travel bloggers make much of their money from consulting other travel bloggers. 

neonlight

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #10 on: August 07, 2017, 10:26:58 PM »

* Keep this in mind: some of the highest earning travel bloggers make much of their money from consulting other travel bloggers.

Thanks for much!

That's an exhaustive list and clearly you have put in lots of effort.

I just want to check with you what do you mean when you say bloggers make money from consulting other bloggers. To start with many bloggers are not earning much and potentially competing in the same space, so how do the big players get fees from the newer or smaller players?

My bio: 35, single, male, from a small country. Am not sure if it's nitch-y enough but I plan to cater for my home market. However I plan to stay anonymous. Is being anonymous hurting popularity? I guess most people want to put a face on a blog.

prognastat

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #11 on: August 08, 2017, 07:29:31 AM »

* Keep this in mind: some of the highest earning travel bloggers make much of their money from consulting other travel bloggers.

Thanks for much!

That's an exhaustive list and clearly you have put in lots of effort.

I just want to check with you what do you mean when you say bloggers make money from consulting other bloggers. To start with many bloggers are not earning much and potentially competing in the same space, so how do the big players get fees from the newer or smaller players?

My bio: 35, single, male, from a small country. Am not sure if it's nitch-y enough but I plan to cater for my home market. However I plan to stay anonymous. Is being anonymous hurting popularity? I guess most people want to put a face on a blog.

I'm assuming he means consulting for new travel bloggers. As in charging them for advice and help.

JoJo

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #12 on: August 08, 2017, 09:55:19 AM »

* Keep this in mind: some of the highest earning travel bloggers make much of their money from consulting other travel bloggers.

Thanks for much!

That's an exhaustive list and clearly you have put in lots of effort.

I just want to check with you what do you mean when you say bloggers make money from consulting other bloggers. To start with many bloggers are not earning much and potentially competing in the same space, so how do the big players get fees from the newer or smaller players?

My bio: 35, single, male, from a small country. Am not sure if it's nitch-y enough but I plan to cater for my home market. However I plan to stay anonymous. Is being anonymous hurting popularity? I guess most people want to put a face on a blog.

More advanced bloggers give advice to new or struggling bloggers on how to grow, make money, etc.

Staying anonymous is possible but not super easy.  Here are some reasons it's difficult to stay anonymous:
* on Facebook, a blogger page is usually attached to your main account.
* your domain is registered to your name & address.  You have to pay every year to keep it masked
* the main way I got followers (and probably still 25-50% of my followers), is to get friends and family to follow.  They are also more willing to share your work with others.
* Added - if you want to start working with brands, travel companies, etc, you will need to put a name/face with the blog.  All of the media kits and business cards I see have the name on them.
« Last Edit: August 08, 2017, 01:48:43 PM by JoJo »

rachael talcott

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Re: Does blog writing generate income?
« Reply #13 on: August 08, 2017, 12:55:11 PM »
I've long admired Maria Popova, who has a blog with no ads.  There is a donate button but no pressure.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/fashion/maria-popova-has-some-big-ideas.html

"Today, Brain Pickings provides the bulk of her income. She eschews ads on the site, but openly solicits donations and earns a percentage from books purchased on her recommendation through Amazon. (Ms. Slaughter said she gives $25 a month — “a lot like giving to your public radio station.”) The earnings are “enough for me to live my life comfortably,” Ms. Popova said, “and be able to do what I do.”"