You have probably seen those rags-to-riches blog stories on the internet. A young guy in his late twenties has this huge multi million dollar blogging empire that almost runs on auto-pilot while he chills away in the Caribbean on his private yacht with his Ferrari in tow. Sounds too good to be true? This was precisely what I thought when I first came across such a blog. Apart from the usual ‘I can teach you how to do this for only $xx’ bit, there were also scanned images of Google ad sense cheques that he had received in the last couple of years. Sometimes, the amounts were as high as $5000 a month. Almost immediately, the question propped up in my mind. Can you earn that much in a month only using Google ad sense? I struggle with my ad sense revenues and they are mostly in the 0.2 cents per day range. Are those images doctored and those figures highly inflated? Not really, for there are people who earn more than $4000 a month only by blogging from home. Can an average person like you or me do it? That’s a different question altogether.
The content
If you have decided to be a blogger or already tried and failed at it, then it is probably because you didn’t plan it in advance. What kind of blog do you plan to start? There are several styles of blogging. There is the weekly blog that updates once in a week with interesting content to keep the readers going for one week and there is the daily blog which is updated on a daily basis. Consider it like the diary that you maintained as a kid. There is never a dearth of subjects and topics to write about in your blog. A good writer can weave an interesting story around just about any ordinary event of the day. Whereas a bad writer can have an encounter with a seemingly extinct saber tooth tiger in the dense forests of Peru and yet weave a dull lack luster story out of it. You can also start an issue oriented blog. These blogs focus on certain issues or a set of related topics. Whatever you blog about, it is important to maintain a certain level of interactivity in your language and to keep your readers updated. A lot of people aren’t able to do it. They feel that there is nothing interesting happening in their life on a daily basis. But then, it doesn’t have to be interesting. You have to make it interesting and as a writer, you should possess those skills. Readers are the only thing that can make your blog popular and fresh interesting content is the only way to get readers in. Remember, a stale blog is like a four hour silent movie. It won’t find many takers.
Marketing your blog
You cannot expect people to drop in and find your blog just like that. You have to ensure that your blog reaches out to people and in order to do this, you have to market it. Now there are a thousand different ways to market your blog and there is loads of information online on how to do it. However, most people are unable to do it, because it isn’t as easy as it is made out to be. I have tried to market my blog before and failed miserably at it. The people who have met success with their blogs have either mastered the art of marketing or have hired experts to do it. And online marketing services do not come cheap. You must be willing to put in at least 8 to 10 hours of your day every day marketing your blog if you intent to hit four figure income levels each month with it.
Trial and Error
There are several ways of monetizing blogs using advertising. But it doesn’t come that easily. Apart from readership which is the key, there is a lot of trial and error involved. The placement of the advertisements, the type of advertisements, the frequency of advertisements on a page, the way they are presented, hidden advertisements, the quality of advertisements, they all matter when it comes to getting returns. But it takes months and even years to perfect this and have a steady stream of income from your blog.
The conclusion
Do not get carried away by those rags to riches stories and get disappointed when you cannot duplicate that kind of success. Success with blogging will happen eventually if you possess good writing skills, are willing to invest the time and work to promote it. It might take slightly longer than you imagined. It also depends on how you define success. But you certainly can make about $2 to 3k a month, in about a year from the day you start blogging. Follow the rules. Update regularly and watch the money flow in.