by Patricia Mayo

It is possible to make money blogging - but it doesn’t happen the most obvious way.


Photo by Jay Lopez

I actually make a good chunk of my income blogging.

However, if you look in my sidebars, I don’t have ads. Not a single one. No sponsors, no donate buttons, no Entrecard. This site isn’t in any kind of traffic rotator schemes. I did an affiliate promotion once, but the results were so crappy you’re not going to see that again.

This is all very much on purpose - because the concept of “problogging” does not work if all you have to offer are your words on one blog.

My Journey Through Problogging

Travels in Problogging
Photo by Terry

My first dive into problogging was in ‘05 with the first Mayobrains.com. I had to write and promote the blog, but with full creative control.

The company commissioning the blog wanted to remain secret until launch, but get their message out to prepare people in the meantime.

Contractually I can’t say how much I made, but I can say the blogging and guerrilla strategic consulting I did for them paid enough to make ends meet.

Did you catch that, by the way? I was getting paid to help a business promote themselves through word of mouth marketing.

They, as a business, knew they needed a blog to get their message out.

My second experience in getting paid to blog was Audeamus.com in April ‘07. That site is hosted amidst a network of blogs under the Creative Weblogging umbrella.

If you dare visit that site, be prepared to wait a while because it is loaded with ads.

I made $112.50 per month to write 15 to 20 posts per month, and promote the blog. That’s about $5 per post, if you do the math.

Now, first of all, you’re crazy if all you’re getting paid is $5 to just write a blog post - much less to also promote the blog at the same rate.

Even at this crazy low pay, in November of ‘07 Creative Weblogging started doing some hardcore restructuring because of money problems.

First they dropped the Photos.com contract. Then they dropped a whole bunch of blogs - Audeamus included - when they revamped the blogger contracts to pay everyone even less.

Then they switched from PayPal to pay bloggers, to MoneyBookers or checks as the only options. Quite understandably, there was an uproar of protest since MoneyBookers charges and checks take forever.

I call ads as a revenue model “the Hindenburg of the Internet” for good reason.

Ads as revenue are the Hindenberg of the Internet

Lessons Learned

Blogging as a business doesn’t work - but being a business that blogs, does.

A large chunk of my income actually does come from blogging because I’m a business that blogs, and my business is copy and content. Well, a portion of it, at least.

Last night on the Wordpress Weekly podcast, they got to talking about making money blogging again.

It irks me that people promote this idea because it just doesn’t work. Yes, you can make money with ads and blog sponsors, but do you really want to be caught in that rat race?

The STEEP Uphill Battle for Traffic

Subscribers by rank, Power Law
All mailing lists in the Yahoo Groups Television category, ranked by number of subscribers (Data from September 2002.)

Clay Shirky wrote some time ago about the application of Power Law in blogs.

In a nutshell, Power Law states that in an economy of free choice, even with all options being equal, there will still be a relatively very small percentage of blogs with the vast majority of attention and traffic.

Popularity asexually breeds more popularity.

Let’s say you’re given the choice between Option A and Option B, and they’re both exactly the same.

However, Option A has 20 votes of confidence but Option B has 2 votes of confidence.

The vast majority of people are going to choose Option A simply because “lots of other people like it too, it must be good.”

Clay Shirky:

“The basic shape is simple - in any system sorted by rank, the value for the Nth position will be 1/N. For whatever is being ranked - income, links, traffic - the value of second place will be half that of first place, and tenth place will be one-tenth of first place. (There are other, more complex formulae that make the slope more or less extreme, but they all relate to this curve.)”

You’re not going to win the traffic battle - you must make the most of what you have.

Shift Your Perspective


Photo by Caetano Lacerda

Your blog is your brand. It is your open portfolio. Your blog is not your income resource - it is your income generator. Your blog makes it easier for you to make money - it does not make money for you.

Having a blog gives you a launching pad. It gives you something to point at to capture people interested in you. Everything else adds to it - social profiles, Twitter, social bookmarking, forums, mailing lists, etc. Your blog is nothing more than your pitch-free zone. It’s where your customers feel safe, valued, and informed.

Blogging is a conversation, not a sales pitch. All those ads in your sidebar and header - man, stop pitchin’ me bro’.



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Trisha, @mayobrains on Twitter