01.11.09
Blogging For Buck$: Not The Way To Go
What If You Never Make Money by Blogging?
I ask this question because I see people getting into this blogging industry and starting a make money online blog to make money. They think that is how money is made online. In all true honesty, if you think that you are an IDIOT. Yup you are. I have experienced and I am sure a lot of you guys will agree with me that blogs are not the direct source of income. It can become a main source of income but that is in a very long run. So what motivates you for the long run… It is actually a pain in the ass to get up and write daily or weekly. Why would you do it?
I’ve been blogging now for a couple of years. I very early ran into the “blogging for buck$” sites. I quickly noticed that they all seemed to be about–you guessed it–blogging for buck$. I also noticed that it was like the ads you see in those start-a-biz magazines. You can do this part-time, at home, and you’ll soon be living a life of luxury. Well, my take on the whole thing is this: I don’t want to work from home in my underwear. I want to produce products and services that benefit others, and to earn a fair income as a result.
Yes, search engine optimization is important. Yes, engaging, informative content is important. Yes, it is important to have advertising (it actually adds credibility). And if you want to have readers, promotional activities are also important. But if you want money, get a job at your local grocery store or something. If you are excited about sharing your area of focus, your personal life, and the inside scoop on what is happening in your business, start a weblog.
That said, I love the way that being on the Web enabled me to become–in some small measure–a publisher. It started with one ‘publication’ on Blogger, and one on WordPress.com. From there, it became two on each of those platforms, plus several on this domain. I still have my regular job, so there are months where I barely have the time (or connectivity, in some places I go) to post at all. But all in all, this has been a great experience for me. I feel that I am developing better communication skills, and that it is easier for potential employers or clients to find me and to actually see what I have been doing.
Which is why I find it so puzzling when one of those work-at-home companies contacts me, saying “We found your resume on Monster, and we believe you’d be perfect for our innovative money-making program…”. If you really read my resume, if you did a Web search, you would see that multilevel marketing, outbound telemarketing, and collections jobs are not for me. Yes, I will do some calling when I have to for my own business, but if you’re going to try to convince me that your job is for me, at least search on Google or Yahoo! to find out what I do before you contact me.
To answer Syed Balkhi’s question, would you still blog if you never got paid for it, yes I would. I have never gotten paid for it, and that was never my objective in the first place.
