Normally in this place you would find an earnings report but I’m starting to feel like this is unnecessary. Though in the past I have recieved some comments on these posts, it doesn’t seem like most people are interested in hearing about it.
The main point of posts like these earnings reports is to illustrate that literally anyone can make money online and it doesn’t have to be limited to placing advertisements that are gaudy and distractive.
In fact, to that end I eliminated much of those kinds of ads on The Proficient Investor because after upgrading to a new format and new blog design, the ads were just getting in the way. I may eliminate the 125×125 ads you see on this blog in the sidebar as well because they just don’t seem to be performing like I would like to see.
I read an article a few weeks ago about how this magazine columnist attempted to prove that you can make money online. He proceeded to register a domain and began prolificly writing about everything he could think of. He wrote several articles a day and added some Google Adsense blocks in “high visibility” areas. After a month he had made only a couple dollars from the Adsense ads and tried out another ad platform only to be disappointed with the results and subsequently decided it wasn’t likely anyone could make money blogging and that only the rare exception (noting bloggers John Chow and Darren Rowse) could really make it.
I won’t give you the link to this article because it was crap.
First of all, let me tell you why this guy failed and why you shouldn’t follow his example in any fashion.
The most successful forms of media always stem from one thing. Passion. Writers who are successful become so because they are truly passionate about their craft. Every film, book, television show, newspaper, magazine, web site or blog that became successful happened because the person or people behind it truly care and are passionate about it. They eat, sleep, live and breathe their creation.
If your only goal for doing something is to make money, then I guarantee you are going to fail. 9 out of 10 businesses that start up fail in the first year. You know why? They fail because the owner gets bored or because they chose something they aren’t really into but picked because it seemed like a good idea. Or maybe, there just isn’t a market for that particular product or service.
With blogging it is only slightly different. You don’t have the same overhead as a traditional brick and mortar business but you also don’t have the same kind of public exposure so marketing yourself can be a little tougher. Kevin Rose has a great post on his blog about how to market yourself and I try to do every one of the 10 steps he talks about. It comes down to your ability to sell yourself whenever and wherever possible.
Making money from blogging shouldn’t be your primary concern. You first need to generate quality content based on something you actually know about and then drive traffic to that content. When that is working, you can implement some kind of money making strategy if you so choose but your primary purpose is to write. I do this because i love it. I love sharing ideas and writing about what I know. I also do a podcast about topics I am passionate about. Maybe that will turn into something that makes money and maybe it won’t but it isn’t going to stop me from doing it.
So, I hope this post has been helpful to you even though It’s not really about the money I made in February which was to be honest, less than $200 but Text-link-ads revenue was up as my ad spots filled up on The Proficient Investor and I sold a few new ad spots on this blog. If you haven’t done so already, you really should sign up. It’s free and all you need is quality content and a lot of traffic and TLA will sell itself.
PepperJam Network paid out $30 last month in referral fees which was very nice. I run PepperJam ads in the sidebar of this blog as well as some ppc campaigns. I’d like to see more revenue from PPJ but it’s hard finding the right products to promote and I won’t promote something I wouldn’t actually use myself.
I won’t even talk about Google Adsense. It’s been a terrible performer for over a year and I barely put any effort into it anymore. I’ve found that the quality of ads placed on my blogs just aren’t very good but at least they don’t cost me anything in the process.
I’d like to hear about your blog success. Comment on this or any other related post and join in the conversation. I read every single comment and respond when appropriate.
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