Self Employed or Bust

Don’t Try to Make Money Online Through Social Blogging.

January 2, 2009 – 7:00 am

Back in my last post on keywords - Where Can I Find Good Keywords, I mentioned I’d be discussing a great free keyword analysis tool in my next post. Since then I’ve interjected with three posts on an unsavory make-money-online scheme I encountered and I’m about to further fall short on the promise of that tool post by writing this post as well. But, I promise, this is an important post. If your self-employment objective will center around blogging, it’s simply a must-read and might spare you the headache of my own trial and error approach. I’ll also be introducing a real talent in the make money online world and it would be a horrible loss to you if you didn’t visit his blog.

This post was inspired by a question posed by a friend. We were enjoying lunch together and discussing blogging to earn money. The conversation was casual and I didn’t go into much detail on the concepts at the time. Before we finished our meals, my friend announced he’d give blogging a try and would setup a blog focusing on his conservative political opinions and earn a few bucks in the process. I hated to do it because I’m a fan of anybody who takes the time to expand their minds through writing, but I had to warn him not to expect much if anything in the way of earnings.

“You don’t think there’s any money in that?” My friend asked.

“Well, no, but there’s more to it than just the subject matter. It’s not what I’d recommend if you want to become self-employed through blogging for several reasons.”

I went on to explain that, while I thought of the guy as a brother and valued his opinion, why would a complete stranger in some far-flung state or country care what he had to say? What clout, reputation or particular value did he bring to the equation that would make somebody else care what he thought? It is true that money can sometimes be made in a social niche market but it’s rare and there are other factors that make any potential earnings possible.

A particularly talented writer, for example, might do well blogging well-researched satirical commentary. Even as a relative unknown, his particular writing style, in time and coupled with aggressive marketing to get his blog “out there” could translate into legitimate traffic which, in turn, could translate into legitimate earnings. But, by his own admission, my friend isn’t a talented writer. In fact, he loathes writing. “So you’re talking about doing something you already hate with no raw talent in an effort to break into an extremely competitive market with already limited earning potential,” I went on, “all the chips are stacked against you.”

“I thought you said earnings were potentially unlimited on the internet,” My friend countered. Recognizing the conversation was going to require more time, I ordered another beer and settled in. I’ll try to keep this short for your benefit, though.

I explained to my friend that, yes, earnings (in general) are potentially limitless providing you’re moving a product people have an interest in buying. If you want to make money online and be self-employed doing so, the first questions you have to ask before you do anything else are 1) what is my product? And 2) will it attract customers? I asked my friend to think for a moment about this before expanding on it. Do you think there’s anybody out there shopping for opinions on conservative politics? Maybe some newspapers or periodicals, but how many are looking to buy your opinion? Assume there are potential customers. Is there anything about you or the information you’d be providing that will set you apart so dramatically that you’d attract enough customers to even buy your product? Last, but not least, assume you actually were so well known that people cared what you thought. What are they buying when they come to your blog? You’ve already given your opinion away free of charge. At best, somebody might want to hire you as a writer but now you’re right back at square one. You’re a slave to an employer and locked into somebody else’s schedule. That’s what you want to get away from, isn’t it?

My friend’s idea came with major hurdles - a limited interest and talent in the medium in which he’d be working (the written word), nothing else such as fame, infamy or celebrity status to attract readers and potential customers and, finally, not much in the way of consumers and no real salable product when all is said and done. It’s for these reasons that so many bloggers fail to make any real money online. They want to blog, to journal, to opine. Not to be rude but, really, who cares what you think? Does that mean it’s impossible to make money online as a social blogger? No. Think Perez Hilton. He’s rolling in internet money and he got there through social blogging. But he’s the exception, not the rule.

To do well in social blogging you need one key element and that’s the ability to attract traffic to your ads. A lot of traffic. TONS of traffic. Enough traffic that advertisers are willing to pay you just to host ads on your site. Whether or not your visitors click or purchase is not relevant here. You get paid simply because you bring so many eyes to the ads you display that it is worth advertiser’s money to pay you to host their ads. In the make money online world, this is known as CPM or Cost per Mille - payout based on how many thousand visitors you bring to the page on which the ad is placed. Advertisers are pretty stingy here, too. We’re not talking a thousand or so visitors a month. They want you to bring in thousands or tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands visitors per day before they’ll pay you any real money! For the overwhelming majority of us, those numbers aren’t just unrealistic, they’re a virtual pipe-dream.

The secrets to success here are fairly simple - Be famous, be infamous, know something nobody else does or be exceedingly talented. Perez Hilton, for example, first banked on the fame of the name he butchered. By associating himself with Paris Hilton, he drew an audience. By getting his name, face and opinions out there, he then banked on infamy and expanded that audience. Finally, by scooping gossip (true or not) he subsequently solidified his position as a legitimate internet earner. As for talent - well, other than knowing what vapid, useless, celebrity garbage people will be interested in dining on, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not Perez is talented. But nobody can question his success and, therefore, you have to give some credit where it’s due. Can you do the same? Can you offer something which will propel you to the rarified air in which a few people like Perez dwell?

I’m first going to paraphrase and then introduce you to one of the real make money online geniuses out there. He goes by the name Grizzly (we all call him Grizz) and he’s one of those select few I’m always talking about who, to my way of thinking, is deserving of sainthood simply because he’s making an honest effort to help others realize financial success on the internet.

Grizz has pointed out, again and again, that there are bloggers and there are internet marketers. Both can use the exact same medium (blogs) in hopes of making money online. The vast, nearly overwhelming, number of bloggers out there will rarely make any real money online. They’ll bring in some spare change, but they’ll almost never strike it rich or even earn a living. Bloggers write social blogs. They express their feelings, their opinions, their moods and they almost all do it free of charge and often at a loss in the form of hosting fees with no revenue to counteract those fees. Some cover their costs and even earn a bit of money. Their lunch is paid for now and again. Even fewer (a precious few) actually earn a legitimate living at it. Every once in a blue moon, hell freezes over and a blogger makes it big. Now contrast that with internet marketers.

Most internet marketers can easily make money online well in excess of what they pay out in the form of hosting fees and domain-name purchases. A dedicated internet marketer can earn a comfortable living through the internet. Though the super wealthy are still comparatively rare, there are far more internet marketers making big money out there than there are bloggers. If you want to make money online, be an internet marketer, not a blogger. The odds are MUCH better.

Grizz offers a wealth of information on how to make money online and it is, without question, in your interest to get a cup of coffee and, starting with his archives, read his entire blog from beginning to end. When you’ve finished reading this post I strongly recommend visiting Grizzly’s How to Make Money Online for Beginners. Trust his wisdom. Don’t question, just do. If you are serious about making money online, you’ll thank me for having sent you to his site. Oh, and if you think his blog is ugly, that’s just fine. It is, in fact, part of his strategy. Trust me. Ugly works. And, by the way, look at the anchor text there I’ve used to link to his site. It’s a perfect example of the long-tail keyword Grizz is targeting which I’ve talked about in other posts.

My friend took my advice and abandoned his plans to start a political blog in the hopes of making money online. Unfortunately, he abandoned any blogging or internet marketing plans all together because…, well, he’s a lazy bastard, honestly. He’s a great friend, but not all that motivated (I love the guy, but we all have our short-comings and lack of motivation is his). For the rest of you, by all means BLOG! Blog to your heart’s content. Write down your whacky gripes, feelings and opinions. If nothing else, it’ll be cathartic. But unless you are extraordinary, nefarious, infamous, famous, brilliant, exceedingly knowledgeable or well informed, don’t expect to earn a living doing it. If you want to be self-employed and attain that goal through the internet, internet marketing is the horse you bet on hands down, every time.

Stumble it!