Reality check: You’re not going to make money from your blog
Almost everyone should forget about making money directly from blogging. It’s so unlikely that it’s a total waste of your time trying. I am actually shocked at how ubiquitous the idea is that blogging is a get-rich-quick scheme. Or even a get-rich-slowly scheme. It’s not. Blogging is a great career tool for creating opportunities for yourself. But here are eight reasons you should stop thinking about money from blogging:
1. Big bloggers come from big media.
Usually I’m the first person to rip on print media as outdated and a dead-end career. But here’s something that maybe you don’t realize: Most big bloggers today have a strong background writing for print. For example: Erik Schoenfeld (TechCrunch), Owen Thomas (Valleywag), and I all wrote for Business 2.0 magazine at the same time. Ten years ago. Which means we had a ton of national media experience before we started blogging. Anya Kamenetz (Yahoo Finance) wrote for the Village Voice and had a very serious book published—before she started blogging.
2. Sure, there are exceptions. But you’re probably not one of them.
Let’s look at some people who have big blogs who didn’t come from big media. Heather Armstrong at Dooce. She’s a good one. Here’s what she has that you don’t: She’s a talented writer and a talented designer. She’s married to a developer who does all her tech stuff for free. And she has an amazing story to tell. She has the ability to translate her genius across many media—photography, memoir, twitter, and so on. She is a marvel. And you are not. None of us is. That’s why she is making so much money from her blog.
3. Even if you can do it, supporting yourself with a blog is crazy hard.
Most people had to do their day job and experiment with their blog and figure out what works and then do two, pretty much full-time jobs, and then quit their day job when their blog earned enough money. JD Roth did this at Get Rich Slowly. I did this with my blog (and nearly fell apart). Most people who do this do not have kids. Because if you have kids and a job you already have two full-time jobs, so you cannot add another. Blogging to support yourself is a complete full-time job. Read Gina Trapani’s post about how she is taking a break from blogging because it’s so life-consuming.
4. You probably have to be controversial to make money blogging.
Yes, there are some topics that do not require controversy: Productivity tools, for example. I think it’s safe to say, though, that that market is pretty saturated. You will have to find a good niche for yourself in order to stand out from the crowd. So you will have to be different, and the bloggers who are different have surprising things to say. And if you have surprising opinions, you’ll have people who tell you you’re an idiot. And if you are making good money from your blog, you’ll have hundreds of people telling you how you’re an idiot. Do you want that? Really? Will you be able to write another controversial opinion the next day or will you be too nervous?
5. You can make more money flipping burgers.
If you want to get your opinions out into the world, or you want to write a diary about your life, whatever—do that. But why do you have to make money at it? Most of you would probably like to write a bit, to get new opportunities, and then leverage the blog to do something fun. Most of you do not want to write blog posts optimized for advertisers. Really.
6. Please shut up about your book deal.
Books are not cash cows. They are time sinks. And they are marketing tools for something else. Like a consulting business or a speaking career or a blog. And people who are great speakers are seldom great writers, and vice versa. So don’t tell me you are doing a blog to get a book deal: Dead end. And don’t tell me it’s not a dead end because you’ll turn that into a speaking career. Show me someone that has worked for. Don’t tell me about Seth Godin. He had huge books before he started blogging. Not the other way around.
7. Blog for better reasons than money.
There are a lot of reasons to blog, but for the most part, money is not one of them. In the book, Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share Their Secrets, Stephane Grenier asked forty bloggers what their definition of blogging success is. He talked with people like Seth Godin, Neil Patel, Ramit Sethi, and me. We all make a living online, and we all have big blogs, but almost no one in the book said money was the definition of success.
Bloggers defined success as things that mattered in their life: influence, connections, friendships, the ability to lead a conversation that matters to people. Some talked about a blog leading to other business opportunities.
8. Banner advertising is the mafia.
I have not had banner advertising on my site because I am so adamant that people should not blog to earn money—I don’t want to encourage anyone. I did take one ad. For Career Bags. I’m going to tell you something: The amount they paid for that ad was insignificant to me. But they let me do a lot of shopping on the site for free. Which was a huge treat. Shopping was fun. And I think about how much I love my blog every time I put my laptop into my Casauri bag.
I would never say that about a banner ad. But I am about to capitulate and sign a contract with Federated Media, the by-far-biggest company for online ad sales. Federated is sort of doing me a favor. I mean, I have about 400,000 page views a month, which I think is less traffic than any of their other clients. I’m grateful to be part of Federated because I do, in fact, need to make money from my blog. But what I have done to get here—work two jobs at once while raising kids, sell equity in my blog and then almost go out of business, and spend about four hours on each post—you probably wouldn’t want to go through all that just to make money on banner ads. You probably have a way more efficient mechanism for earning money and you can blog on the side.
This seems like a good time to tell you the advice my writing teacher gave our who class in graduate school: Writing for a living is a very, very hard life. If you can do anything else for a living, you should.
So the idea that blogging will help you get rich: Forget it. Your chances of that are so slim, while your chances of gaining the other benefits of blogging are very high. So blog, yes, and do it to reach real goals, just not financial goals.
Dear Readers,
This blog is a new type of “Virus” designed to infect your head. Penelope uses this blog to spread “rotten propaganda”. This “doubt spearing campaign”, attempts to get you to conform to her thinking. Penelope has “Tall Poppy Syndrome” and is delusional placing herself amongst the elite. Penelope resents others and seeks to sabotage them, falsifying claims in her stories to maliciously mislead. Penelope has used controversy to justify her actions and mask her deception. She wants you to fail because it makes her feel better. She gets off on causing people to doubt themselves.
Honestly do you believe Penelope’s claim; “your results will be the same as hers”?
Just think about it for a minute. Even if you had handwritten instructions from Penelope and you followed them exactly, right down to the letter. Your topic would be different, wouldn’t it? Therefore the media you use, the target market, the keywords and possibly the blogging platforms would all be different. There also many other variables that change the makeup of your blog and on top of this new developments are being released daily in the industry. It is constantly changing. So clearly your blog would not be like hers therefore would get different results! Penelope is a liar who is wrong and untrustworthy.
I mentioned Penelope has the condition called “Tall Poppy Syndrome” earlier. This condition; I hate. It’s when people believe they are better than they are, and they seek to sabotage anyone who is doing better than them. They use their talents or achievements to elevate themselves, as if they were someone. Their self-importance is paramount and fueled by the cliquey groups they belong to. This bunch of delusional Hot-air-heads consider themselves elite and comparable to the superrich and superstars. In reality it’s all a glorious lie.
The schemes they create are ingenuous (like this one) designed to subtly coax people to conforming to their thinking. Victims end up depressed and empty hearted as this is exactly what the tall poppy’s what you to feel like, so they can laud it over you.
Forget her crap. You can make a blog that will make money. You might not do it on your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 1000th time. But if you have the right attitude you will succeed. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose the battles; winning the War is what counts”.
The 1992 & 1996 Australian Olympic Gold Medalist, Kieran Perkins says it well,
“Being your best is not so much about overcoming the barriers other people place in front of you as it is about overcoming the barriers we place in front of ourselves. It has nothing to do with how many times you win or lose. It has no relation to where you finish in a race or whether you break world records. But it does have everything to do with having the vision to dream, the courage to recover from adversity and the determination never to be shifted from your goals.”
Here are some quotes from some truly wise and successful minds;
Thomas. A. Edison:
-“When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this – you haven’t.”
-“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
-“Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.”
Jesus Christ:
-Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you; for everyone asking receives, and everyone seeking finds, and to everyone knocking, it will be opened (Matt 7:7,8)
-There is more happiness in giving than there is in receiving.” (Acts 20:35)
-“Keep your eyes open and guard against every sort of greed, because even when a person has an abundance, his life does not result from the things he possesses.” Luke (12:15)
Regards,
Lance T Forthwright.
You’re a massive bitch. You are like the people who tell little kids their dreams will never come true. And the worst part, is that you are writing this on your OWN blog.
maybe YOU need the reality check!
PS!!!
And you are not. None of us is.
It’s none of us ARE, not is.
you should edit this post and at least sound literate if you’re going to be a huge bitch…. there are countless mistakes
Penelope,
Thank you for being so transparent in this blog (and in the others I have read from you); I had the wrong idea in mind when it came to making money off of blogging, and your blog totally confirmed that all the way through- good luck with everything and stay amazing!!!
Become your own boss. Start your business and earn money from home. Learn skills which can make you earn money from home. Learn Internet marketing from experts, live life your way
I believe that blogging is a passion. It is never meant to be a cash machine. If your intention for blogging is to get ultra rich, then you are in the wrong business!
Thanks for the blog post.. I come from another part of the world in Asia. Agree that the first mindset about blogging is pure interest. Blogging involves a degree of time, commitment and effort. Without the drive to write and pen down your thoughts, purely by thinking of making money, I guess one is better off than putting your dollars into other investment vehicles.
Cheers,
Ken
Penelope….maybe it wasnt your intention but this is a post to discourage people….not to lead them into the right track, that is what i want to think you wanted to do…
Maybe you should consider feeling like a newbie blogger…then you might get the right words to express ur ideas in a way that wont seem you are killing everyones passion here…saying things like you dont care we, new bloggers, are reading…
I take it you have had bad experience with the blogging industry or marketing. You are right with most of your information. However, you need too understand it’s all about passion. If you write about something you love and do some serious research on it you can find a solution to a problem. Look at Google, they found a solution to a small problem in search engines and became billionaires. It’s not easy and takes extreme amount of work, problem-solving, passion, determination, and other motivators that you need to be successful. My good friend told me, “have you ever noticed most billionaires go to college and drop out, and most millionaires drop out of high school”. It’s interesting! Furthermore, I like to encourage people not to blog for money, but write about your passion and others will follow, but learn how to market and have an open mind to suggestions.
I saw the reason for your sentiments on blogging. W have our own preference and if you ask me placing different ad banners from all major ad networks is the right solution to make money on blogging. I should know, I’m making money.
Reading your post 5 years later – it’s still reads like new. Timeless advice, the greatest there is – thanks for the great writing.
A so destructive article with the impression that no one would succeed because places are taken and you and your friends are on the top and all starters can not take your places !!! .. whatever the people target is to make money or not, please don’t break their visions may be they are more talented than you and they will be better than you in a short while, the places are always changing and no one stays always on the top.
even if the way is hard it’s not possible to try what they want because you say so … think positive .. tell people its hard but don’t confirm them that’s impossible !!!
Can’t really say what I think of your blog P. I’ve been browsing trough various articles and what I really like about your writing style (prob heard this millions of times) is you death-on honesty.
You bring up a ton of relevant stuff that mess with my head. Sometimes we get the image that we have everything figured out and that we just can’t possibly fail.
I liked the interview you had with Steve from endingthegrind.com, liked how you gave him clear advice on setting goals.
Dislike how you are easily bothered with other people and try to “get them back?” not really sure. David lives his own life, you live yours. No need to react to people who just don’t see the things you see.
Exposing Tim Ferriss was an interesting read though, a man I admired for many different things (after your post still do). An interview between you two would be pretty cool haha ;)
I’m also a fond believer in the fact that we’re able to create our own reality. Are there really “types” of people? like the mbti-test indicates?
I’m comfortable alone but am also able to get really sociable at parties when I want to. It’s just stupid to lock yourself in a box saying; I’m just not a good speaker and it’s going to stay that way the rest of my life.
I used to suck at talking to women, still do most of the times but doesn’t that mean that our weaknesses are something we should build on too? When it comes to choosing a career what advice would you give?
Sooo many comments
You’re legit, guess I’ll stick around for a bit.
Take care Penelope
Simon
Great blog post.I’m glad I found it.
Reality check: Everyone’s got an opinion (or an alterior motive.)
I started my blog for fun and then some friends told me I should make money with it. Though I think ads are annoying, I researched about them…..and that didn’t seem very fun to pursue. And then I stumbled across your blog…..and using ads really, really, really doesn’t seem like fun. So…….thank you Penelope for this post!!! and for saving my fun. You’re cool. Hope your farm is awesome. All the best.
Clued-up publish! Your own recognized knowledge is excellent. Many thanks with regard to maintain me personally inform. To learn more I’ll be in contact.
Am long time reader of your blog. You inspired me to start my blog about my grandfather, Jazz Trumpeter with Louis Armstrong, WC Handy, Gershwin and the big bands of 20’s and 30’s.
Thank you!
While I don’t blog for a living (I love my career and job) I do make money from my blog. I realize this post is over five years old. My how times have changed…I know a lot of “no name” bloggers making a healthy living now. :)
Nice to see the update here.
You have an awesome story and you are a great example. Congrats on hitting number 1.
Thats is perfect article! very useful for peoples who aren’t make any money.
Hi Penelope,
I enjoyed your blog post in a “it slapped me in the face kind of way”. I just started blogging (3 weeks ago) – totally against your rule #7 – Don’t blog for money. What if money is what interests me? Should I not blog? I mean i am probably not bringing any new ideas to the internet, but it feels good to write and maybe I can make a few bucks one day.
Everybody has to start somewhere and maybe this is what gets some people going. Anyhow your blog was a great read and enjoyed it and feel educated by it. Thanks for posting – I am glad that you shared it.