Can I Get Rich Blogging?

"Would you like to make a fortune off the Internet? Buy my book, create a blog, sign up as my affiliate and write about my books on your site! When people buy my book from your site you'll be rich!"

Meh--it's not that easy!

I have been blogging for a few years now and it occurred to me that there is a lot of misinformation about blogging on the Web. It is time to correct that with the voice of experience.

Misperception #1: All blogs can make money.
Wrong. While it is true that some blogs do make money, the majority actually don't make that much, if any. The trick to blogging is building up a sizeable readership and frankly that can be hard to do. When you start your first blog you will have no readers at all and you will have to show readers that you exist: even when they do start visiting you won't become rich off of the advertising revenue alone unless you alienate your readers by stuffing your pages with more ads than content.

Certain free blogs, like the ones hosted on WordPress won't even let you advertise so your chances of earning any money from them are completely nonexistent.

Misperception #2: You can earn thousands of dollars by Affiliate Marketing.
Maybe. The trick is getting readers to your site to begin with. If you have a lot of readers and you promote your affiliate associations properly you CAN make money--but you have to get the readers first. Without them all of those affiliate links are just a waste of space.

Misperception #3:You can get rich blogging.
Not that I'm aware of. While I have known of some, like Everett Bogue, who have earned their living entirely from their blog, the majority of their income didn't come from the blog directly but from the sales of books and self-created materials they offered for sale on the blog. Leo Babauta removed all advertising from his site because he earned almost all of his money from book sales.

Confession: I earned enough in advertising revenue on my free blog to open my main blog at Annienygma, but the majority of money I actually earn from blogging comes from book sales on the site and now on Amazon and Smashwords. It took over a year to make my first $50 in advertising revenue--enough to pay for a year's hosting.

Unless you manage to create a wildly popular blog that everyone loves, you won't break even on your time with affiliate sales or advertising revenue. However, if you use that blog as a launch pad to market something from you: a book you've created, an audio recording, even crafts like quilts or clothing or specialty items--you can use these items to make your blogging into a profitable endeavor. In that case the blogging would bring the readers who would browse your wares and some of them would actually buy, which helps to pay the bills.

Blogging is a wonderful tool and creative outlet with the potential of earning you a decent income; it is NOT a get rich quick avenue though--and I'll bet money that anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.

Reference:
Personal Experience