I think from the year 2011 onwards, I started discouraging those who come up to me to learn blogging because they admitted that the purpose is to earn money!
Are you shocked to hear this from a problogger since 2006? Don’t I believe anymore in earning money by blogging?
I believe money can be made by blogging but it doesn’t work for all whose sole aim is making money.
Only I know the hardship faced to become a problogger. Blogging requires extreme passion to share, to connect and experiment. Above all, one should be a self learner which is lacking in majority of the budding bloggers. Not all of them realize that money by blogging might not live up to their expectations just because there is plenty of news about successful bloggers who boast of earning a 4 figure income by blogging. Unfortunately, they don’t declare how many blogs they maintain and how much time they spend a day in front of their computers.
I share with aspiring bloggers some of the things they have to face to become a problogger.
Invariably, you would choose Blogger platform to publish your first blog because it is free and easy to learn. After a few months of blogging what comes to you easily, you would realize that you are wasting time because you have not seen your first U.S. dollar. It is the starting point to learn further about blogging.
- You have to migrate to WordPress blogging platform if you are serious about problogging and this involves investment in domain name and web hosting. Very few people are ready for this.
- You must know what kind of content is money-worthy. For this, you must learn keyword analysis. Let me tell you, it is not easy. It is time consuming and frustrating.
- Next, choosing a keyword rich domain name matching your blog topic is Himalayan task. Almost every good domain name would have been taken. This means repeating keyword analysis. You may even end up with having to switch your blog topic.
- Though blog posting style is much easier than article writing, initially, you may not be satisfied with your own work. In order to improve, you must be willing to read at least 10 others’ blogs regularly.
- Now come to the biggest task of attracting visitors through search engine which may take months before Google sends you the first visitor. One person told me once that he is only person reading his blog posts after since months of blogging.
- Of course there are plenty of avenues to get instant visitors that include bloggers’ communities, Social Marketing and signature marketing but this means you must be active in all the above avenues and socialize. If you are only interested in your blog, it is very unlikely to see others to visit your blog.
- You must be ready to implement the new versions of blogging software, try plugins and widgets to go in tune with the changes. This would off you if you are not technically sound or afraid to try.
- You must safeguard your hosting account from hackers and this requires regular backup of your blog and updating plugin and theme versions. Maintaining a blog is a lot of work.
- You must be watching your blog’s Alexa rank, Google page rank and the number of visitors you get. Any dip in these parameters means you must put in extra effort to increase your blog’s visibility.
Be prepared to face a day when your mind gets dried of blog post ideas. To avoid this obstacle, you must have been compiling content ideas and resources.
I think you now realize blogging is not a career option for all housewives and unemployed. If you are not Internet savvy, stay away from blogging.
IMAGE CREDIT: DAILYBLOGTIPS
This article is written by Malathy Badri. He is a problogger since 2006 and maintains 18 blogs and 27 web sites. He blogs at Blogavenues. If you wish to write for HBB, kindly check this.
Excellent and well written factors which describes hardship to become a problogger. No doubt, blogging is not an easy task it requires a lot of time and effort.
Agree with need to get your own domain and run WordPress as a starting move but I have really started to question if WordPress is the best tool for SEO-focused content, Most of the default WordPress installations tend to scatter your backlink “credibility” throughout our your site.
I have had better results using WordPress as a blog to faciliate acquisition of back links – then linking heavily to a series of hand prepared HTML pages (non-Wordpress) on the same site with rifle focus on targeted keywords. You can be really sharp on the hand created pages about how many links, who gets linked to, etc.
Also – be wary of how much link juice WordPress is passing to other sites outside the editorial content; there are a often default / hidden links in templates, social media buttons, etc. than can leak pagerank.
Ya i agree with this because most of the budding bloggers have the same concept in the mind to make money. But they don’t see the backend…Its really a tough time to be faced to reach a goal 🙂
Hello Malathy
Nice post
I agree, bloggers should not blog with the intention for making money, bloggers should have the passion for blogging. I is impossible to become a problogger if your sole motive is to make money form blogging
thanks for sharing
Bryan
Being a problogger sounds like too much work, and yes, it is. The bottom line of this post simply says that a blogger must work hard for its efforts to be appreciated and monetized. The number of visits, Google ranks, and other success determining factors will determine how much hard work you put to a site. There are no shortcuts…
Like every other ways of earning money Blogging is also a way not the easiest way than others.
Well pointed out facts, But you shouldn’t be discouraging people who are willing to blog. We 90% of the probloggers blog for money, unless it is a personal, travel or something similar, every bloggers wants money, for that he needs to have patience
Malathy, you’re a pro blogger right, why do you still blog on a blogspot domain?
@Sahl Ahmed,
I also have wp blogs. Most of blogspot blogs are all enlisted in several blog marketing companies. I cannot afford to abandon them. In addition, I can’t lose regular readers as those blogs have been around since 2006.
(Smile)
Alright. Pro bloggers like you encourage people to migrate to wp. I think you should also do it. practice what you preach. its not hard to migrate to wp.
I already replied to you Sahl Ahmed that I have blogs on WP. In addition, I don’t see any necessity to transfer my blogger blogs to wp when they are already serving me well financially.
Oh my God! I was not fully aware of this much popularity Pradeepkumar’s blog has. I am glad to have chosen to submit my thoughts in a blog post. Thank you Pradeep for publishing it. In addition, I thank you all for reading and commenting on it.
I am exploring everyone’s link and adding them in my social profiles. Right now I am reading Sandeep Kumar’s seobloggerstips.com It looks I may be there for at least 30 minutes.
Hi Malathy
Thanks for showing reality of bloggers who thinks that starting a blog and earning from it just a game of kids.
They don’t know how much dedication require to ful fill your blogging dream.
Thanks once again.
I agree with you. even blogging is not everyone’s cup of tea. It takes years of hard work to reach to a level. If you think for money in the start then you will going to fail. Blogging is a thing which gives money naturally if you honest towards your blogging.
Very true puneet…..Money is just the by product of it…real thing is to create a successful blog…if you got success in that then…..rest will come automatically…so aim for to setup a successful blog not Money
I agree with you, blogging is not as easy as many think.
Many will start and after couple of months will gave up because money will not start coming that easy.
If you want to make real money, it’s better to visit freelance websites and find part time jobs and opportunities which will bring you more money in a month then blogging can.
And the real truth is, blogging is time consuming and takes hard work, there’s no a lot of money there.
Better start your own company and provide services like social media exposure or creating a product.
thanks for sharing
Very good advice James….
If someone want to earn money from day one then it is better to go for freelancing website instead of blogging…..
This article is very useful for youngsters as there are many such children around the worl who believe that they can take blogging as their main job and can easily make bucks.
Good Job 🙂
Malathy Badri, just like you, I also blog for fun and pocket money! Yes, it’s not easy to become a problogger if your interest is to make money only! Good sharing, friend.
I agree with you Jasmine. Blogging is not an easy task but can be made easy if we are passionate about it. Again money cannot be made by blogging over night, it comes after months of hard work.
and sometimes after years of hard work… 🙂
Most of blog owners has niche work like Freelance writing ,SEO,WordPress management.
Example:Youngprepro
Spending hours of time before computer is the biggest task for a newbie blogger and we think it is easy. but the moment we logon to internet we get lost in the jungle…! staying without getting diverted is qute tough… 🙁 I like your point that probloggers get those huge income with many blogs and many of their services but newbies dont understand that… 🙁
Problem is people don’t want to understand the reality of blogging and how people are earning from it….they just saw one line ads – “Earn 1000 dollar per month from blogging” and just created a blog and waiting for money to flow…..
but background reality is far away from that one liner ads
Pradeep, you should declare it’s a guest post in the beginning of the article. I started to read this like you were talking but later came to know it was Malathy.
Hi Rakesh…
It’s a good advise but it doesn’t affect your reading intention….
are you interested in the article only written by Pradeep (your comment is pointing in this direction only)
Exactly true factors.Those looking money from Blogs will depress when they didn’t get.Blogging is a passion,when we give everything to our blog and 100% honesty to our blog, sure we will get benefit.No one can win without others help ,after starting a blog make friendship with other blog owners.There are lot of things to learn from other bloggers.
Thanks for your Valuable post