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Bloggers, Blogging, Blogs, CA, Likely, Making Money, Supply and Demand
Last night I was asked the question, “Can you make money by blogging?” In Part 1 of this article I gave the answer, but I probably should elaborate.
Paul Kiser
Disclaimer: I am not now, nor have I ever been a card-carrying professional blogger.
I have never made a dime (penny, nickel, quarter, etc.) from blogging. As such, I can’t speak to those who are raking it in by blogging….but I suspect that there are not many profiting from blogging. Why?
Make Money By Blogging? NOT Likely!
First, the market for blogging is a supply and demand thing. The Internet gives access to anyone who has an connection, a device to connect, the capability to use the device, and the ability to read and write. That’s how many potential bloggers are out there who want to talk about something. The number of consumers of blogs is relatively small because there are not a lot of people who care about the thoughts of someone else, unless they are saying something really interesting or teaching something that the reader wants to learn. Simply put, the supply of bloggers and blogs exceeds the demand for their work and therefore there is no market.
To put it in financial terms, even if you could get a reader to pay you $0.10 (ten cents) to read one of your blogs one time you would need 2000 readers a week, or 286 readers per day to make $200/week at blogging. I’m probably not a great example, but I work pretty hard at producing blogs and on a good day I have 20 readers.
Second, blogging is like acting or teaching. Your value as a blogger is determined by your ability to entertain or teach, or both. Few can blog so well that they can gather the audience to read their work, and even fewer could gather an audience willing to pay for the privilege.
Blogging is about Branding. It tells the world who you are and what you think. Blogs may help others understand the value (skills, knowledge, and experience) of the blogger, which may lead to new job opportunities, or if you’re really good, a blogger might get paid for speaking or consulting. There are ways for groups of bloggers to combine efforts in a mega-blog site that uses advertising to pay the bloggers, but that is for people who have established themselves as great bloggers.
For me, blogging is about enjoying the process of writing and expressing my thoughts….but if anyone wants to pay me…….
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Paul,
I would have to respectfully disagree. There are many people out there, some right here in town, that are making plenty of money blogging as a consultant. Professional blogging in my mind is like the article writers of the past. The only difference being that the revenue comes mainly from advertisers on your site rather than just from the consulting cost of the blogs you write for other people.
Now, I am not saying that they are good, I am just saying they are making a good living at it.
Sharon
http://www.sharonmarkovsky.com
Sharon:
For my clarification, are they making money directly off their blog (charge for view) or are they making money by consulting others? I was trying to separate the two because I believe blogging can lead to consulting work, but I don’t of anyone who is able to charge people to read their blog. Of course, I may not be involved in the circle of people who are able to have a pay-to-read audience.
Let me know….and thanks for your feedback!
Paul
There are many sites out there that companies will pay to advertise on…here’s a very famous one…
http://perezhilton.com/
Sharon:
I see where you’re coming from and I agree, you can make money off of advertising. My discussion was about making money directly off of the reader, but your point is valid that a blogger can work their site to get advertisers to pay them money to use their site as a ‘billboard’ for their products and the more popular you are the more you can demand from the advertiser.
However, the point you and I may disagree on is the impact of advertising on the bloggers site. I would say that advertising on a blog (or website) is a version of spam, and it actually reduces the value of the site. While it may provide income it annoys the reader (at least it annoys me) and I don’t think that it’s what a blogger wants to do to their readers.
One thing I didn’t discuss in this blog is methods people can use to attract people to their site, but there are ways to bring people to the site if you’re willing to pander to the lowest common denominator. I had over 1100 hits one day because a doomsday website featured my blog about the rise in sunspot activity. They linked my blog and suddenly I got a spike of people who are wanting proof the world is about to end!
It was a good lesson for me that you can drive your blog value up if you’re willing to go for the ‘Enquirer’ type of audience. Personally I prefer the readers that breathe AND can think, like yourself.
Thanks for the clarification!
Paul