Blogging

I’ve been blogging for four years now, the majority of which was on MySpace. Having built and run my own blogs for the last two years, I hardly consider blogging on MySpace, blogging, but I digress.

Blogging is now my full-time hobby, if not my full-time job, the benefits of which you just can’t get on a hosted platform. If you don’t own your domain name, you don’t own any of the content on your blog, and worse, someone else is making money off of the content you do publish. On MySpace, there are little Google ads next to each post that contain some information related to the topic of the blog post. When someone clicks one of those ads, Rupert Murdoch gets paid half and Google gets paid the other half. If for no other reason than YOU could be making money from those clicks, taking control of your blog should be an immediate priority.

Where Are Blogs Headed?

Blogging has become the new media, whether people want to admit it or not. Each of us is an expert on something, and the aggregation of all of our expertise far outweighs the supposed expertise of traditional journalism. I have a degree in journalism and know very well that I’m a far more effective communicator when I’m knowledgeable and passionate about the information I’m sharing. When that information is restricted to a specific topic instead of as in journalism, a different topic every day, the information takes on life.

Because people can create their own publishing platforms and establish themselves as leaders in a specific niche, they can command advertising revenue. Therefore, there is an incentive to offering the most thorough content possible. According to a recent poll on Problogger, 18% of the 2490 readers polled were making over $1000 a month from blogging, and 7% were making over $10,000 a month.

In October, How Much Did You Earn from Blogging?

 

• I don’t make money blogging

  658 26% of all votes

• Under $10

  454 18% of all votes

• $10 – $29

  204 8% of all votes

• $30 – $99

  244 10% of all votes

• $100 – $499

  341 14% of all votes

• $500 – $999

  155 6% of all votes

• $1000 – $1499

  81 3% of all votes

• $1500 – $2499

  63 3% of all votes

• $2500 – $4999

  67 3% of all votes

• $5000 – $9999

  47 2% of all votes

• $10000 – $14999

  19 1% of all votes

• Over $15000

  157 6% of all votes

Total Votes: 2490 Started: 11/7/2007

Poll Courtesy of Problogger.net

The thing is, these bloggers are publishing in any number of niches, from making money online to celebrity gossip. It doesn’t matter what topic you pick, what’s important is that you are passionate about the topic you pick and that you improve on your research and organization skills so that your writing will continue to improve. With the right combination of time, effort and passion, you can turn any blog into a money making venture.

What Else Do You Need To Know?

Hopefully by now, you believe you can make money becoming your own publisher, as well, but there are many other things to think about and learn before that will ever become a reality. Most of these things took me more than a year of consistent blogging before I even knew what they were and truth be told, I learn something new every single day. To get started though, let’s keep it to a short list of must knows.

• An understanding of Search Engine Optimization – READ This Book ASAP…You’ll Save Yourself A Year
• An understanding of HOW to make money with a blog – Check out this post for 60+ great blogs on the topic
• An understanding of the different blog platforms – Read this article to help you decide
• An understanding of social media – Read this article to see how to use social media to bring new traffic to your blog

Like I said, there are literally a million other things to learn about blogging, but those are the basics. It requires little to no understanding of HTML, can earn you money, build your reputation, establish you as an expert and replace all your current hobbies. If you aren’t blogging, start. If you’re blogging on MySpace, stop.

You deserve more.

Tags: blogging, make money online