How People Make Money Blogging
Blogging for money is a very popular idea. Every year as more success stories surface, more people race to the internet for their chance to make money. It is something to be expected, what isn't expected is the time commitment, frustration, and determination that it requires. Many people who start blogging for money don't have an idea where to begin, they just begin and with no real plan in place, they are doomed to failure. One of the first questions a hopeful blogger needs to answer, is How do they want to make money blogging?
I usually lump money making bloggers into two different categories: serial bloggers and passionate bloggers. Almost everyone really starts off as a passionate blogger, but usually gets discouraged and gives up. Serial bloggers are people who are familiar with blogging, the internet, seo and online marketing. They are usually more advanced and significantly more internet savvy. Serial bloggers usually invest more money up front but start making money faster.
There are a lot of methods people use to make money online: affiliate programs, article hosting, lead generation, promoting products, paid ads, or paid links. No matter which one someone chooses, the will still be fitting into one of the two categories.
Serial Bloggers
Serial bloggers are like lays potato chips, they can't have just one. Serial bloggers have several sites. Usually more than five and sometimes into the thousands. They make money mostly by the amount of volume they have. The sites usually aren't high quality, dependent on each other for traffic and page rank. Many of the sites share the same articles.
If they are making money through lead generation, promoting products, affiliate programs, or paid ads, they are counting on volume of clicks. If they choose the article hosting or paid links, they are charging small amounts for a great deal of volume. This is one of the riskier business models because they are likely to get punished by Google. It isn't possible to manage that many sites, and constantly create quality content.
Serial bloggers require nicer computers, high speed internet connections, and start-up cash to purchase and host numerous domain names. It is often more efficient to buy already established blogs, something that increases costs, but greatly diminishes time.
Passionate Bloggers
The passionate blogger usually doesn't start off with the intent to make money. They blog because they really like it. Someone who is passionate about cats starts off writing about cats. Over time the blog acquires a large following. People approach these bloggers to host ads, articles or promote products. In some cases powerful sites have been known to charge $7500 for an article. One article a month is enough to make a decent living. However, it takes time and a lot of love to get blogs to be this powerful.
Usually passionate bloggers don't need anything besides a computer, and less than a hundred dollars to start blogging. Many passionate bloggers will have a few blogs they manage at a time, but for the most part, they blog cause they want to not in the hopes of making money. Money just happens to come after a lot of time and work.
If you decide to try blogging as a source of income, you have to have a clear vision of what it takes, and what type of blogger you want to be. If you choose to be a serial blogger, I would start off with your own blog based off your passion. You should be familiar with the operation of a blog before you invest into several blogs.