01 Mar 09 Blogging: Can I depend on it?

Every day we hear about the tales of earning a six-figure income from blogs or of individuals selling off their blogs to some media house, and we get excited about it.  And the most impatient among us might start jumping with anticipation over the possible opportunity he or she found to earn a living, but the rest of us will wait.  And how long this wait-period will be depends upon two things: how much we are excited about this idea and how much resources we are willing to invest for it.

I am sure, after reading the word resources our most excited friend must have twitched, “Isn’t blogging free?”

We would respond with, “No.  It’s not.  My dear friend, it is not.”

And by resources we meant not only money; by resources we meant time and energy as well.  Money involved in starting a blog (or any online business) is pretty low compared to the same set up in the physical world, hence the reason why many people are jumping on the bandwagon (which raises the success-bar even higher).

The higher the success-bar goes up (with each new competitive blog), the more effort that will be required to reach for it.  Earning a living off a blog is not going to be easy; it takes lots of hard work and patience.  Like every other legitimate means of earning your living, this is also not a shortcut to make millions.

The question is then how do people earn money from blogs? Don’t get disheartened by what I wrote – it was written intentionally to bring things in right perspective – there are ways in which you can monetize your blog and to do so you need to put some serious work to it.

Our friend would once again pipe up, “Okay!  Sounds good.  But ‘some serious work’ to get what?”

Sometimes the excited ones also turn into skeptics, and the question is legitimate.  What is the one thing that our blogs should strive towards in order to be successful?  Well, it’s not one thing but two things that a blog should aspire to get, in order to make money for its owner: (1) trust; and (2) expertise, which in turn will build reputation.  Trust is found in the authenticity of the content, and expertise is delivered through the subject (reading niche) you are writing on.

We can’t repeat this enough; trust and expertise are the two things that will pull visitors to your blog and it will also force them to come back tomorrow!  Did we forget to tell you earlier that the game of blogging might be new, but the rules are still the same?

Banner advertising, e-mail marketing, viral videos, social bookmarking, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, social media marketing, etc. will at best get you a trial audience (or maybe work as a reminder to an already loyal reader of your blog), but nothing will stop a new user on your blog more if he or she just doesn’t trust your content or feels that you don’t have enough knowledge on the subject you are talking about.

Now, as you know what the target is, you can draw your map and reach it.  Let’s draw an analogy to finish this article.  We’ll leave you to consider the following:

“If the Internet is a market then your blog is a mall in the market, and as any mall requires footfalls to sell its goods, your blog requires click-falls to succeed.”

Tags: Anticipation, Authenticity, blog, blogs, Dear Friend, Earning A Living, Excitement, How To Earn Money, Invest, Jumping On The Bandwagon, Many People, Media Houses, Money, Niche, Patience, People Jumping, Perspective, Reputation, Skeptic, Skeptics, Sounds, Word Resources