Blogging for profit

[Sootah]

How many on here have a blog that they post to for the sake of profit more than anything? I've currently got a blogger blog that I post to every so often with random tidbits from what has happened in my business life along with some random computer tips or whatnot. I also link to any new articles I've written on my sites to get em indexed faster.

I may amp up the amount I post though if there's a bit of a chance that it'll start to pull in a little adsense income as well.

I'm not going to just start spamming my blog by any means, but those of you that blog for profit, what is your game plan? What do you blog about most of the time?

[EricGiguere]

Like anything with AdSense, you have to choose the right topic. For example, I posted an entry in my own blog two days ago called "Don't write about AdSense if you want to be rich" that discussed this very issue. It comes down to getting traffic to your blog (you can get the blog indexed fairly quickly, but that doesn't mean people will visit) and getting the average pay-per-click price up with the right topic. Don't write about AdSense, choose a better topic.

Eric
P.S.: I have my reasons for writing about AdSense. Even if I don't make a lot of money from the ads on the site, the site's main purpose isn't to be a direct revenue generator. The ad money is just a bonus.

[Sootah]

Anything I write about is generally not about websites or internet money making in general at all. I blog what I know, and that's computer repairing, spyware junk, and networking. I do it for a living so it makes it easy to type about, once I get a subject that I can prattle on about for a bit.

Perhaps I'll just chronicle what I go through daily more. Stuff that doesn't warrant its own article on my other sites, but is noteworthy nonetheless.

[arrowman]

[what is your game plan?]

Write what a relevant audience wants to read, instead of what you know. This is called 'publishing' :-)

I've spent weeks writing beautiful content that results in no more than $20 per month. I also wrote a quick "10 secrets of..." article that made it into the blogosphere and earned $1.000 in two or three months. Copywriting is key, IMO.

[EricGiguere]

Writing good content is hard, and I don't think many people realize that. Making it attractive at first glance to potential readers is even harder. I think it's better to spend one week to write a good article than trying to push out crappy articles every day.

Eric

[Dantol]

Can you actually make any money blogging?
Usually people tell me their CTR is max 1%. And that's not good.

[EricGiguere]

Yes, I know some people who make money with blogs. Like many posts have mentioned, it all depends on the topic. I suspect most blogs don't make a lot of money, however. But that may not be the main point of the blog, after all. It depends on your motivations.

Eric

[CheeseburgerBrown]

Topic, topic, topic!

I ran a blog that was essentially "for profit" last summer, but I had the good fortune/good sense to align my blog with the release of a summer blockbuster on a tightly related theme.

I currently run a blog with nearly identical content (in terms of quality and audience appeal) yet *without* the vehicle of a summer blockbuster.

Impressions and revenue are about 5% of the first blog.

[send2paul]

I think the big thing to differentiate between here is:

1. Having a blog to mess about in - your personal blog.
2. Creating a blog on a specific topic because you've heard that you can make money with Google Adsense.

In the first case - generally you will not make money off your "personal blog". Don't let that stop you putting Google Adsense on there - you never know the kind of ads that might appear, (that someone might click on) - depending on what you wrote.

For a "blog" specifically created to hopefully generate the right kind of Google Adsense ad - this is the one you have to work at etc etc.

I "got into" Google Adsense properly when I wrote about my laser eye surgery back in February of this year. Some "laser eye surgery" ads appeared along side that blog entry... someone clicked on them.... KERPOW(!) - a lot higher revenue for me than from clicking on the ads created by the usual drivel I write ;)

[angsuman]

With blog it is the long tail theory which works best IMHO.

Nick Denton, Jason Calacanis make serious money blogging. Though they have their expenditures too hirring bloggers, paid stuff etc. Don't know how their spreadsheets pan out yet.

[Jarodboy]

I think the worst part is to drive traffic to your blog, even if it has interesting content i don't see how to get good traffic there...:/

[jretzer]

I run two blogs, and they generate around $500 a month. Both are about hobbies that I have. Both have PRs of 5. I add content daily, and they are indexed by G within hours.

The problem with blogging as a revenue producer, however, is that it requires constant work. What I need are a couple of "fire and forget" sites :)

[Jarodboy]

500 a month? Wowww please share your secrets besides good daily content.
Which type of ads you use?

[Zygoot]

There's currently a story at slashdot about a blogger who claims to earn between $10,000 and $20,000 a month.

[jretzer]

@Jarodboy:

The $500 is from Adsense alone. I make a couple of hundred more from affiliate links. I've not had any success with any of the other ad programs.

Everything I've done to optimize the blogs has been discussed elsewhere here.

I think that my secret is that my primary blog -- which generates probably 3/4 of the income -- is about a real niche hobby. While there are lots of sites touching on various aspects of the hobby, mine is the only one that brings it all together. The blog is a year old now, and I've put up 1,500 posts in that time (mostly a few sentences, in the blog style).

[send2paul]

"Fire and forget" sites.....

1. Lots of content. Lots of keywords/phrases - not just the high paying keywords, (with which you will be in loads of competition for), but also the "lower paying" keywords/phrases where there is less competition - but a chance of making a more regular income.

2. NO LINKS OUT - absolutely vital. Forget about link building, two-traffic, reciprocal linking etc.

The secret is......

Your content, and your SEO should be soooo good that the only links out are the Google Adsense ads generated by the content of your webpage. If someone wants to know more about what you've written about - they'll have to click on a Google Adsense ad to find out - neat, eh?

Obviously, it's not as easy as it sounds, but it can and does work. Like everything else - it takes time, practice and experience.

[jretzer]

Thanks send2paul. That's the most succinct description of how to do a 'fire and forget" that I've seen. To be sure, I hadn't thought about the no links out part.

Now, I just have to use my imagination to come up with a topic.

[Undead Hunter]

I messed about with blogging for a month. Yes, things get noticed quickly (I mentioned two different experts, one a really big marketing guru and he picked up on my post via Technorati in two days, and responded personally to me). But wow, the upfront, daily work...

Calcanis and Denton have it right by hiring bloggers. I just read in Calcanis' blog for May 2005 - "We’re averaging less then $2,000 a day, but when our average gets to $2k that is $730,000 a year which is nice, but much, much, less then we write in checks to our team every
month (think 75+ bloggers and 10 full-time staff)."

I think what he means is that the $60k per month from AdSense is less than he pays his team monthly...

(Edited with up to date numbers)

[JoaoJose]

I think what he means is that the $60k per month from AdSense is less than he pays his team monthly...

hey at least I make money heheh

Really now, 75 bloggers and 10 staff?! how many blogs do they have? I thought it was around 100, do they actually need so much people?

A full time blogger could handle maybe 5 blogs I guess...don't actually see the need for so many people.

[shafaki]

I started a blog only three months ago, and it reached PR 4 now.

That's one cool thing about blogs.