Here is an interesting article from Slate Magazine about blogs that make (or don’t) make money. Some interesting metrics – and stats, including some good data and insight from Technorati, and some popular bloggers you probably have heard of…and if you’re a bit myopic like me, a bunch that you haven’t, too.
But here is the rub – and something that is simply continuously overlooked by these folks who try to measure and quantify how much you can make banging on them keys.
Blogs are a means – not an end.
For many of us, they are simply the engine that drives our model of content distribution.
A CMS.
A templating system for those who can’t code.
(and that includes the vast majority of the direct marketing space who couldn’t care a whit about emoting online – but simply use blogs for their utalitarian ability to distribute content effectively. )
I would count myself in that group – but I’ve accidentally picked up some coding skills along the way, and like to take credit for whatever skills I do have when possible.
The significance of this is only that the stats are simply misleading.
If I’m using a blog for it’s myriad of SEO and syndication benefits, but my primary goal is simply name capture and selling products and services in the sequence – it gets lost in these figures.
Blogs That DO Make Money
If I put up 200 articles on the Medifast diet, or Match.com, or run a small network of data feeds that push CJ offers through an automated blogging solution like feedwordpress, in concert with the product catalogs I’m pulling in – is that a blog – or not?
I haven’t put up a static html site in a few years.
And yet – none of my sites (other than this one I guess) would really be considered a blog, either.
It’s interesting – because I really believe the opportunity to truly make a lot of money from blogging, as a primary theology is gone. Yes, there will be some folks out there who will hit the right niche, at the right time, and speak in the right voice to do well. But the chances are, it ain’t gonna be you.
You have blogs like Shoemoney – and John Chow and those guys – you have some of the early adopters in the "Working Mom’s" market – the tech sort of blogs that were first adopters, etc – they will all thrive for years. But to get in now – and say something truly unique in a different way ( trust me – I’ve tried blogging naked, tripping on mushrooms and even blindfolded and it hasn’t done much good) that is PROFITABLE….is not going to be worth the time required.
The good news? Making money online is dead simple – and emoting about your aunt esther, ain’t the way to do it.
Pick the Easiest Path to Profit
Affiliate marketing through blog building is very easy, and as long as you use proper direct response principles as the lifeblood of your business – it’s a great model.
I mean – is Dan Kennedy a blogger? Or Jeff Walker of Product Launch Formula fame? Of course they’re not….but I guarantee their blogs are making them a hell of alot more money than 75 grand a year. ( the number quoted as representative of 100,000 visitors a month)
If you have the time – building a blog a day is NOT tough – it is time consuming – but even if 75% of them fail – you will STILL make far more money annually than the folks mentioned in the article below. Simply collect names with every site – offer something for free, and follow up until your fingers bleed and your eyes turn orange. ( which gives you a good head start on a Halloween costume if you start today..:-) Check out the full article below – worth checking for sure.
Last week, the blog search engine Technorati released its 2008 State of the Blogosphere report with the slightly menacing promise to "deliver even deeper insights into the blogging mind." Bloggers create 900,000 blog posts a day worldwide, and some of them are actually making money. Blogs with 100,000 or more unique visitors a month earn an average of $75,000 annually—though that figure is skewed by the small percentage of blogs that make more than $200,000 a year. The estimates from a 2007 Business Week article are older but juicier: The LOLcat empire rakes in $5,600 per month; Overheard in New York gets $8,100 per month; and Perez Hilton, gossip king, scoops up $111,000 per month.With this kind of cash sloshing around, one wonders: What does it take to live the dream—to write what I know, and then watch the money flow?
How do bloggers make money? – By Michael Agger – Slate Magazine
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