Living in an instantaneous world we commonly look for instantaneous gratification in everything we do. If I’m thinking “I really don’t like Donald Trump’s hair piece it looks like he has a squirrel on his head” and I want you to know that, well I will just tweet it. Blogging is no different, people put up a blog and add some Google Adsense and look for advertisers to purchase ad space on their blog before they have their first post. I can’t blame the individual who aspires to be the next millionaire blogger who now makes thousands of dollars per tweet. Especially when for every individual giving true advice on the subject there are 300 times as many other blogs and adds selling the get rich quick scheme. Do those schemes even work, and how do you go about truly making a steady income from blogging?
The truth is- I don’t know, gasp, that’s right I could tell you all the stuff I have read and sell it as my own in a fancy ebook, maybe even have Hop and Jaunt design a fancy graphic for it like they did for Nomadic Matt’s new Ebook Secrets to Successful World Travel, but I’m not NomadicMatt and I don’t have any first hand experience to share with you. I won’t have any experience in attempting to make money, and likely not successfully, for a few more months because I’ve decided to wait. I made a deal with myself that I would wait 6 months of blogging and if I stuck with it, then I would incorporate adsense and advertise space to sell. The point being is that I want to invest in my own blog before I ask others to.
Turning your passion into a career VS Making a career out of a passion
Utilizing the steps I laid out in How to Create a Successful Travel Blog and investing in David Lee of Go Backpacking‘s Travel Blog Success has helped me to figure out the proper steps to develop my blog and then work on the financial aspect. I would be lying if I said I wouldn’t want to make money off my blog-being paid to travel, work is writing and taking photographs, turning your passion into a career who wouldn’t want that? Yet, if I try to make a career out of a passion things get foggy and your purpose becomes lost. If you look at most of the people boasting they will teach you how to get rich, they aren’t making a profit any other way then selling you the dream on how to get rich. I’ve also learned that many of those that quickly rise, quickly fall. Yet, before I make money I’m enjoying building a community, every new comment gets me excited and learning that those who are successful in what they do (not just monetarily) have been working on it for years.
I really don’t know if this is a rant, an explanation, a promise or a tip, maybe it’s all of them. However if you like my site, I hope you stick by when I put up an adsense link and have some great travel company purchase space on my site click through so I can keep doing what I love to do – which is fling facts/opinions at you.
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Don’t forget to fling this post to others if you like what you see!
April 5th, 2010 at 3:57 am
I completely agree with you, starting a blog with the intent of making money is not the way to go. It should be a passion, that's what gains readers etc. If you make money in the process, that's great.
April 5th, 2010 at 3:59 am
What an honest post. A lot of people don't understand doing something for free, spending 15-20 hours out of your week to write posts, market, and maintain a site. I'm with you on putting in hard work first before jumping the gun. And the comment thing, I definitely get excited to receive any. I don't think that will change.
April 5th, 2010 at 4:09 am
I'm with you – I've started playing around with AdSense and Google Analytics to learn some of the ins and outs along the way, but I'm not planning on making money on the blog anytime soon (if ever).
I'm not opposed to it, if it turns out I'm enjoying it (and the readers are). I'm setting things up to allow for it, but I'm not driven by it.
Besides, do you really think anyone's going to pay you in bananas?
April 5th, 2010 at 4:27 am
I think this is just the post I needed: I just launched my blog last week–and in my state of being unemployed, I'm already thinking about monetization. However, I like the thought about needing to invest in myself first before I can ask others to invest in me. Great post!
April 5th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
How and who makes thousands of dollars per Tweet? Example please
On the instant gratification bit, I agree with you!
April 5th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Yeah yet sometimes it is easy to loose sight of that when you've already put so much into it and you are bombarded with tips on how to turn your blog into a money making machine. Thanks for your support and confirming that I'm doing the right thing.
April 5th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Yeah yet sometimes it is easy to loose sight of that when you've already put so much into it and you are bombarded with tips on how to turn your blog into a money making machine. Thanks for your support and confirming that I'm doing the right thing.
April 5th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
Yeah I'm always excited to read a comment, even if it takes me a day or two to reply back. blush.
April 5th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I've already come to the sad realization that one cannot be paid in bananas, but fret not for I have found a solution. This green smelly paper that Americans pass around have the power to get bananas from markets. I love the concept and will be accepting all forms of cash to my Jungle Bank account where “they don't monkey with money.”
April 5th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I love your site, C'est Christine.com and hope you stick to building up your community first. I think you will find it more rewarding in the long run if you wait, however if you can't and have WP.org template try the Why Do Work AdSense plugin
April 5th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
Ok maybe not that much money but people are raking in dough off of sponsored tweets, and I can't find it but I know there is a URL shortener that puts advertisement in a pop up toolbar that you can make money off of like adsense.
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I totally agree with everything you said!!! When I first got into travel blogging a year ago firstly I didn't even know it was called blogging (didn't figure that untill 6 months in) I was just writing for the sake of writing and hoping someone would stumble upon it an find it useful! Then I discovered this whole making money side and thought geeze that sounds great but thinking about it why rush it!!! I was never in this to make money and if I never make a $ i'll still be happy bcos I know i'm doing what I love and that's all that is really important!!!!
April 22nd, 2010 at 6:41 pm
Great to see others are out there too, but I would be lying if I said I never want to make money off my site. I'm just not set out on that goal, but having a site that is self supplying cost wise with domain names and host server charges it would be nice to eventually get there. I just never want to be driven to only make money first and forget about the people who read my blog because they actually want to read my blog (wow that just sounds cool)
May 1st, 2010 at 8:57 pm
I agree with you too, Cornelius. As someone who is also fairly new to blogging, I have heard all of the success stories of people making thousands every month, but that's not the reason I'm doing it. I don't even factor it into my plans. When I run out of travel funds I plan on teaching English or picking up a bartending gig. I think alot of people focus on the wrong things at first, which I believe should be writing awesome posts and building a community. Once those two are in place, the money should come easily.
May 3rd, 2010 at 1:14 am
Indeed unless you are already famous that is and I'm with you on the teaching English but I never thought of bar tending although I'm better at drinking than serving alcohol.