Pro Bloggers: Starving Artists or Cash Cows

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Comment by Erik Deckers on October 29, 2009 at 8:37am

I think there ARE people who are making money from blogging, but they are either affiliate marketers selling a product, or they are ebook writers. There's one guy, Yaro Somethingorother, who makes money blogging, but he's actually making it by selling books about how to do affiliate marketing through blogging.

To me, the true professional blogger would be someone who makes all their money through Google Ads or paid subscriptions. I wonder if that person truly exists.

It reminds me of my days in radio theatre. As far as I knew, there was only one person in the entire United States who made a full-time salary from making radio theatre; everyone else did it as a hobby. There was only one other guy who made any money from it, producing the Harry Nile mystery series. But he was a full-time voice over and audio production guy, but Harry Nile was a slightly profitable hobby. He was radio theatre's Doug Karr.

Comment by David Mark on October 29, 2009 at 7:27am

Thanks for the feedback Erik. It's good to see opinions from those who actually blog and/or ghost write for a living. In this new media age, so many are jumping on the socmed bandwagon and claiming so many things. Seth and Chris aside (perhaps bad examples), there are an overwhelming amount of folks who claim to be making money from blogging, not speaking or consulting. I'm simply curious about what the real story is, not the hype.

Comment by Erik Deckers on October 28, 2009 at 12:30pm

I'm with Doug: Chris Brogan and Seth Godin are not bloggers. They're consultants, authors, and speakers who use blogging as a way to promote their platform. The closest thing we have to a professional blogger in this town is Doug Karr. Doug makes money from his blog.

I'm not actually a professional blogger, at least not in that sense. I make my money as a ghostwriter of blogs, but my money comes from ghostwriting, not from people reading my blog. If, one day, I can create some serious income as a professional speaker, I would like to think it came from people reading my blog. But even then, I'll be a professional speaker, not a professional blogger.

Comment by David Mark on October 27, 2009 at 6:54am

Thanks for sharing, Doug. I get Chris and Seth have made money because of other means. What I'm getting at is there are people "trying" and claiming to make money exclusively off of blogging as a service. They're not counting on book deals, speaking engagements and consulting opps (at this point). These claims, among other things, have motivated me to write this posting.

Comment by Douglas Karr on October 26, 2009 at 9:18pm

I'm not sure I agree it's one camp or the other. Many 'pro bloggers' are making money because of their experience and expertise in a field that they are blogging about. That opens them up to speaking, writing and consulting opportunities. Chris Brogan has a flourishing consulting agency as well as a new book out. Seth Godin is an author and paid well for speaking.

I'm not sure blogging ever paid any "pro blogger's" bills. I count myself in that group.

Comment by Duke Snyder on October 26, 2009 at 6:57pm

What percentage of those online 10 or more hours weekly are into blogging?
Miniscule number I'm certain.
What percentage of that miniscule number entered the blogosphere with their primary intent being somehow captivating the number of regular followers required to gain even a sliver of hope for realizing income anywhere close to what most would consider to be worth the time and effort you expend.
That's not saying it can't, (and hasn't already,) be done; merely saying I see that as being the same as niche e-marketing...providing an answer to a customer's need. I, too, enjoy perusing blogs for information and sheer reading enjoyment yet it's doubtful that beyond a half dozen local ones I follow regularly it's unlikely I'd average more than an hour per week with reading others.
Personally I chose waiting to begin a blog until I was much closer to launching a website with which the blog dovetails. My primary reason for holding back is not as much timing it with the product launch because I've worked a couple of years in preparing three or four decent web products but my first one will not be launched because I feel it will be a barn-burning money-meker...moreso it is the project for which I hold the most passion and feel the blog, for whatever degree it gains supporters, will not be jeopardized by a risk of my becoming lackadaisicle and tossing anything on the wall simply to say another posting was made.
Content in blogging is king just as much as it is within sales copywriting. Whenthe writer's passion flares out at me unmistakably the content likewise manifests itself to a greater pitch in my mind.

Comment by Colin Clark on October 26, 2009 at 6:08pm

Making money directly from your blog is really really hard. It's pretty unrealistic for most people to expect to ever make much money. You have to look at where this money comes from.
1. Sell ads (assumes you're good at sales)
2. Sell products via affiliate links (assumes you have tons of targeted traffic)
3. Use google ad sense (assumes you have ridiculous traffic and that you don't mind competing with yourself).

I like what Jeff Jarvis has to say in his book 'What Would Google Do' he talks about where all the money comes from for his blog, Buzz Machine.

He makes $13 thousand or so a year off adsense and sponsorships, then he makes money speaking, consulting, and writing books. All in all his blogging brings in indirectly several hundred thousand dollars a year, but it's not all direct.

For me, I use my blog to get traffic from social media sites an search engines so that I can sell web development and consulting services.

If I were trying to make money from just blogging and not doing web development and consulting then I would really be starving ;)