Blogging for money is a hot topic these days, in fact that’s why most us are here ;). But deciding to blog for money is not an easy decision because you don’t always know how to start.

I have been making money online for a little more than two years, and it has been a nice way up to this point. All my incomes have come principally from freelance programming jobs, but I have earned some bucks from adsense and writing too. Now I’m working on the internet but I don’t get pay by internet users, although I still consider it an online job since all the work is done here.

But blogging has been an elusive income source for me. Until now I have not seriously considered the possibility to maintain a blog that makes money in some way or other, but a week ago I decided that I’ll work to become a problogger of the “make money online” topic and therefore this blog will be one my most important income sources in the future.

Reaching that decision wasn’t easy. I considered a lot of things before I made the jump. This post is a brief description of those considerations.

The good

The good part of blogging is that almost everybody can do it. You just need to have something interesting to say and I’m sure you have.

But that’s not enough. If you want to earn money thanks to your blog you must offer remarkable content.

Like it was said by Bryan in Zen and the art of remarkable blogging [copyblogger.com], you have to offer your readers a killer angle on your blog’s topic in order to be worth their attention. The problem is that with so many smart people out there that share with you an interest in your blog’s topic, it’s becoming very difficult to come with something valuable to say.

In the other hand, the good thing is that it’s not impossible. The presence of all those smart guys and girls out there that are writing on same topic you do has a positive side effect: it helps you. This is like in any area of human thought: individually we are smart, but in groups we can be even smarter. Therefore don’t lose that opportunity and leverage on the abundance of ideas and talent that exists on other people’s blogs. So the good point is: you are not alone, there’s plenty of help out there.

The bad

Although there’s a lot of resources that can help you to blog, just a small subset of all the bloggers are able to make a living out of their blogs (I think something like 1% of the bloggers). So to become a problogger you have to be diligent and write good content, right? No. The ability to write won’t take you so far. Some bloggers are incredible gifted writers, however they are not able to make money with their blogs (even when wanting to do it). That’s the bad point: it’s not just an issue of content.

Fortunately there’s a mindset that can help you overcome this difficulty: the business mindset. This is a business so it doesn’t matter if your product is the best. Instead you have to be best and be sure to make them know you are the best. Your posts are your products, and you have to spread the word, you have to tell them that you have something valuable to offer. Only this way they will find you and will come back to read what you wrote again.

There’s a lot of ways to make publicity for your blog: you can do networking, you can exchange links, you can comment on other people’s blogs, and you can even buy advertising. If you want to make money out of your blog, it makes sense to invest in it, isn’t it?

The ugly

The ugly part is that blogging is difficult. Although you can write great content and then make publicity, there’s a lot of other bloggers that are doing the same on your blog’s topic.

The competition is fierce. This is almost a jungle (a very nice one I must say :)).

But there are ways to be remarkable even under these conditions, and I have found useful the following 5 ideas:

• Consistency: Pick a well-defined topic and wrote only about that topic.
• Discipline: Write posts in a consistent basis, most preferably daily, at least in the first months.
• Predictability: Help your readers to know what to expect from your blog.
• Originality: Write only original content, that comes fresh from your mind and experience.
• Quality: Write only quality, remarkable content.

So the final result of these considerations was positive and it empowered my willing to become a problogger on the “make money online” topic I hope it can also help you in your journey to become a problogger.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 29th, 2007 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.