Can You Make Money Blogging?

The question seems to come up fairly often. Can you really make money blogging? The answers come back all across the board. Everything from “Look at John Chow or Shoemoney, they’re raking in the cash!” to “I’ve got great content, I write for my readers and I spend the time it takes to write a well thought out, spell checked post, and I am still not making a dime!”

As well as writing for my own blogs, I also like writing for HubPages. I have a few hubs over there, and when I am not writing I like to read the forums. The forums are full of very good writers complaining that they are not making any money. They spend hours on their hubs, get hundreds of readers, dozens of comments, and don’t make any money. Others throw a hub together in just a few minutes, have a few dozen readers, and get a check from Google every month. It just doesn’t seem fair!

What some writers don’t seem to understand, is that to make money you have to sell what people are buying. The best ice cream in the world doesn’t sell well in the dead of winter! Your blog post on the Russian Revolution might be incredibly well written, gather lots of comments, and even win you an award, but it probably won’t make you any money. There just aren’t that many buyers (or advertisers) for the topic. On the other hand, an article on a diet that actually works, or a review on the latest tech gadget, those posts are going to attract people who are looking to buy. Buyers might not comment, but they will click on ads.

Some complain that they don’t want to “sell out”. They don’t want to write just for the money. That is fine, but then it doesn’t make sense to complain that you aren’t making money. I know that you have been told to write great content, spell check your work, and writer for your reader. That is all true. However, if you don’t also write for buyers, people who are looking to buy something, then you will have trouble making money blogging. Let’s face it, the market isn’t always fair and the most deserving don’t necessarily make the most money.

For me, I mix it up a bit. Sometimes I am write for the pleasure of writing. I pick a topic I am intersted in and write just to put my ideas out on the World Wide Web. Othertimes, I am writing with a specific market in mind. I am writing just to make money.

The results have been OK. For the amount of effort I put into my blogs I make a reasonable amount of money. I am not about to quit my dayjob, but I earn enough to pay for my hosting and my domains and to have a little left over. I am sure that if I spent more time I could make more money.

How about you, are you really blogging to make money?