Whoa.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Really?
That’s how I’m going to start things off.
By saying that blogs don’t make money?
And I’m going to say it on a blog that helps me make money.
Sounds like clickbait to me!
But it really isn’t.
It’s an important lesson that all aspiring bloggers need to pay attention and it literally will define whether you see a dime from all of the hard work that you’re putting into your blog or not.
So when I say that blogs don’t make money, what do I really mean?
Well, let’s explore this by starting at the beginning. And yes, we’re going to answer the question do blogs make money anymore?
How Blogging Really Works
Blogging itself is a pretty simple concept.
You write some words. You publish those words. You promote those words. You hope people come to read those words.
I think we can all agree that if we had to make blogging sound as generic as possible then this would be an accurate description.
The problem with that description is you’re left wondering how in the hell you make money if that’s all blogging is.
And that’s exactly why your friends and family laugh at you when you tell them that you’re going to start a blog and make money from it. All they see is someone writing words and people coming to read those words.
That in itself doesn’t make money
To make money you have to offer someone something of value and in exchange, they give you money.
If blogging is writing, then in its simplest form this would mean that people are paying you to write.
But very, very few bloggers are able to charge for the content on their blogs. Those that do can legitimately say that blogging makes them money.
But you aren’t that person.
The Product
People who use their blogs to help them make money understand that the value is in the product that they present.
Again, this is where a lot of confusion comes in because there are a lot of bloggers who don’t have any products for sale and yet they make money.
So am I lying?
Of course, I’m not lying. We just met!
The thing is, any blogger that makes money has a product. Sometimes the product is obvious and other times it isn’t.
Ads
For example, a lot of bloggers make money with ads.
Because they do they believe that blogging is what makes them money. They write words. They attach ads next to those words. People come to read those words and see those ads. The blogger gets paid.
But why does the blogger get paid?
The blogger gets paid because companies want to get in front of their audience.
This means that the product is actually the audience that comes to the site. The blogger is selling the audience to the ad companies.
With this business model, the more products that you can produce, the more money you can make. That’s why it’s important to write content that a lot of people want to read.
This is also why it can be so draining making all (or most) of your money from ads. You don’t technically control the product.
The product decides when it comes and goes and you actually have a partner in creating this product.
For most bloggers, it’s Pinterest or Google.
You also don’t get to control the price that someone pays for your product if you run your ads through an ad network.
That’s why making a living off of ads is so erratic. You really don’t control much of the business.
Courses, Books, Webinars, Etc.
Let’s say you’re a blogger that creates info products. Mmmmmmm, I love me some info products.
In this case, blogging still isn’t making you money. It’s the products that make the money.
So what role does blogging play?
Blogging is the marketing department of your business and that’s what makes blogging so special and important.
When people think of blogging they think of generic blogging.
When I talk about blogging, I’m really talking about marketing. You’re creating content to bring people to your site so that they can buy your products.
It doesn’t matter if you like the term marketing or not.
It’s marketing and the better you do with it, the more money you end up making.
This is also why so many bloggers struggle.
Because if you aren’t writing super popular content that most of the people in your audience want so that you can get a shitload of traffic to make more money with ads, then you need to write content that the right people want so the right people come to your site and buy the products that are just right for them.
Got it?
Those are your two options.
The biggest problem that wannabe bloggers have is that they write content that doesn’t appeal to a large portion of their audience OR the right portion of their audience.
There isn’t a 3rd option.
Well, I guess if you write content for both of those sections that is the 3rd option but don’t get technical on me.
Take this post as a good example. If I wanted to appeal to the largest portion of the potential blogger audience then I would write posts on how blogging is easy and that all you need to do is follow your passion.
Oh, and sign up for Bluehost.
For some reason, Bluehost is the magic solution to all blogging.
But this post isn’t for that person.
So, Do Blogs Make Money?
This post is for the person who is a bit skeptical about how blogs make money. They see people talk about making money with blogging but they don’t really go into detail about how it’s done.
It has to be more than just hoping you get into an ad network or getting people to click your affiliate links.
And they’re right.
Blogging is a lot more than that.
This is where I’m supposed to tell you about my blogging course and how it will solve all of your blogging problems.
But I really want to see if you’re the right person and I really want you to see if I’m the right person for you.
For that reason, I suggest going through our entire Blogging Library as it covers everything here and a lot more.
A LOT MORE.
There is no reason to dive headfirst into blogging without the right knowledge. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.
However, there is a reason that we start all of our new brands off with a blog. For example, when we want to build a business around worldbuilding what do we do?
We started a blog on it. And we created an ebook to sell so that we could monetize the blog as quickly as possible. This is why we don’t have to ask if blogs make money because we know they do.
So hopefully I see you on the other side.
