Many of us are wondering how those big bloggers making so much money on their blog. Are you trying to do the same? It used to be fun to write a blog for personal or for hobby. Now, many people put up blog just for money! Especially, there are so many blogs on blogger.com (blogspot.com) are showing too many advertisement, which is very annoying. Most of them are not even making good money at all. Do you think you can make good money online with blog?
Why make money online with blog is not right for me?
Many people already knew that John Chow, Darrin Rowse from problogger.net, Maki from DoshDosh.com and many others are making good money by blogging. I often see that people are so desperate following their steps and try to make as good money as they are. Most of them are doing just OK. I was wondering if there is something missing that those big shot guns did not tell?
I have been thinking about this for some time. What’s wrong with the picture? Why can they make such a good incoming but others don’t?
We all know that they make good money off their blog by putting up advertisement, reviewme, buy me a beer and many other tricks to get money from their viewers or vendors. Is that all? We can all copy all those methods and get potential clicks on ad, if we have enough viewers. Did I just mention the key point? You need to have enough viewers (followers), before you can successfully make good money off your blog with advertisement and other money generator. Now the question is how to drive so much traffic to your blog?
OH! You just put up your blog with “Make money Online” and expect people to come? Forget it! You are already too late. Since they are on top of the food chain, you will be just one of the followers in the lower chain. So what can you do to move yourself to the top of food chain?
Personally, I am not in the right position to tell you how? I don’t think I will spend much more time on make money online with blog. Why? I will tell you that later. I will list out what I think those top guns did to make their success today and what I think those top gun have to do to stay on top. You will have to do your own judgment to see if that is right answer to you! Please keep that in mind. I am not an expert on make money online with blog. So my opinions may not be suitable to your situation.
What do they do?
- They are all talented and very very smart people. Are they much smarter than all of us? I don’t think so, but they are smart enough to find what other smart people don’t find. What do they find? Opportunities. Not one, not two but many opportunities. They take it all! Many people are waiting for opportunities to come, but they just sit and wait. They believe their opportunities will come, because they think they are smart. And what? It never comes!
- They act very fast and make breaking news. Where do you find those breaking news about new ideas or new ways to make new revenue? Where do you look for what other people are going after? You know where, because that’s where the breaking news or buzz is happening. You go there and try to find the answers.
- They know what people need. Buzz! Buzz! They know that they have to make breaking news or buzz to attract more people. So you will come back to read again or subscribe to their blog. Do they really care about how you make money by learning what they have done? Would you put up something that will make your viewers your competitors in the sensitive business world? What you see is what you want to see, because you only see what you want to see. It’s not about what they want you to see. Huh? In other words, all you see is how they put the money in their pocket, because you think you can duplicate what they have done to put money in your own pocket. Now. You are still wondering what exactly they make money. Why you have tried and tried and still not making as good as they did? Do you know what your viewer need? Did you give them what they want to see? Or did you put up something you want to see? Get the point?
- They know the factors of driving revenue. They know that good quality content will bring more viewers. They know that what people want to see is an example of success. Who wants to see a failure case? They know how to create critical points that they need your support to get more traffic while you don’t even feel you are driving traffic to him.
- Do you know me? What’ my name? How many times have you seen their name out there? How many times have people mentioned their names? How many times have you seen “Because I am John Chow?” in the comments? Why are we still using some nicknames like ‘HotCowboy”, “PencilMen” …. etc? Who are you?
What do they do to keep on top of “make money online” food chain?
- Be a full time blogger. How much exactly are they making? Where were they up to yesterday? Are they making money over weekend? Those are the common questions people asked. Did you see them answering comments over weekend. Did you see them post a new topic over weekend? Almost all the answers are yes. If they don’t post new topics in two days, you might felt something went terribly wrong to that person. Have you felt that way? Why there is no post in two days? Where are they? You just keep hoping they come back and post something you really want to see. So! Are you a full time blogger? Will you sacrifice your vacation time and post your vacation photos or picnic photos, which have nothing to do with make money online? Once you stop blogging for few days, you lost many subscriber and readers. Your traffic drop, because people think you were dead! Are you a full time blogger?
- Be a social networker. Those top blogger either social on their own blog or in the public as a speaker or on the blog community answering others question. This is one of the key points to success. How many social networks have you signed up? Are you actively answering others’ questions?
- Hiring guest blogger. OK. You don’t have time to blog while you are on a cruise trip to Alaska. You don’t want to lose any subscribers. So you need a guest blogger to post a new topic for you, but you are so afraid of that someone screwed up your reputation by hiring someone promoting themselves while you were gone. You are so tired by the torture mentally. Yes. You are luck, you find a good guest speaker for you. What if you don’t?
- Get paid for speech. Do you really think advertisement can bring you such a good fortune without extra effort? Just like I mentioned above. Without a good name and reputation out there, you won’t live long in this brutal make money online blogging world. You have to find an extra revenue resource to fill up your pocket. If you are name are out there, you have better chance to make more money in one hour with a speech than one month advertisement.
- Start a side business. How many times does John Chow mentioned that he has other online business running? A smart people will never limit themselves by putting all their eggs into one basket. You will have to have something else as a plan B. So does other top gun blogger. And so DO YOU!
- Pay for exposure. Just like many other big name stars out there. You will have to pay to get more exposure. It’s the reality. You will have to pay for your reputation sometimes. Without the investment, no one will ever know who you are at the first place. Just like you have to put up some advertisement on Google.
So why is making money online with blog not right for me? First of all, I don’t want to sacrifice my vacation time. I travel a lot. I have better thing to do which can make me happier. Can I be a billionaire as a blogger? I really don’t think so. Why don’t Bill Gates blog as much as we all do? He has better things to do which could make better revenue. That is what I think. I want to make money online with as little effort as possible. I want to run a business with money flooding my bank account regardless I blog or not. Personally, making money online with blog is hard money. The ROI (return of investment) is too risky. Once you stop, your income stops too!
I appreciate that you have read this far! I would love to hear your thoughts. Is make money online with blog right for you?
Popularity: 6%
I confess that I do hope to make money with my blog. However, I would still do the blog regardless. My goals are to use the blog for more things than just making money. I plan to use it for interaction with friends and other bloggers, interaction with customers and potential customers, and just to distribute information that just wouldn’t fit on any of my other websites.
In the future, I will add more ads on my blog, but not to the point where the advertising overwhelms the content.
@dcr:
We all start with something small. Whatever you do and do it well is the goal. Good luck on your adventure in the future. !
Thank you for your confession.
Thanks!
This was a very long post! Nice job! Anyway, all the things you said about the “top bloggers” are true. They are way ahead of “everyone else” which is one of the reasons they are going to STAY as top bloggers.
@Sly:
No one will ever stay on top forever. The food chain changed from time to time. You just need to figure out your way to the top. It’s not easy, but nothing start easy. Even John Chow, he have gone a long way to what he has today. So keep up your good works and be creative! You will make it to the top!
You are right !! There are numerous amount of make money online blogs and another addition will just add one more to the crowd …Where mostly 90 % of techniques are already posted , its very difficult to post something unique …
@Kanak:
Thank you for stopping by. I think it’s not difficult to find your own unique niche, it’s just difficult to keep it up 24×7x365. Those big shot gun all have their other incoming source, because they all know that once they stop, their income from their blog will drop! They are very smart to use their blog to create other revenue. That is something more important!
The top bloggers are there because they seize the moment.
“Carpe Diem”
It took an OPPORTUNITY to get them where they are. Great content or not, bloggers need breaks. They had a few breaks somewhere along the line and were able to leverage their traffic into a steady readership.
Is John Chow smarter than we are? Not a chance. He just knows how to take advantage of situations that others don’t. It’s all about experience, marketing, promotion, networking and opportunity.
The secret formula to success?
THERE IS NO SECRET FORMULA
@Bryan:
I thought you were sleep! You are right. There is no secret formula. Without the readers, a blog will never be success. I think you are on the right track! Good luck to you!
@terence, hey you are in my greader, so I am always aware what this blog is upto
.coming to the point, Mostly the major source of income , you can say google search engine , where the people searching for some information click on adds for more information. So, if Johnchow or doshdosh is at the top of the google or yahoo search engine, that itself increases the income to a high level !!
. And hence there is no secret formula … its all about already having skils , or Developing skills
I also agree with Bryan , They are good at marketing and networking. I was amazed when I saw johnchow’s add in my google adsense.
@kanak:
I knew you were watching me. Just kidding. You make good point on the JohnChow’s ad on Google adsense. They all do advertisement from time to time.
That’s how they are so success. Not many people are willing to “INVEST” and take risks prior to gain! 
Terence – You should know me better by now! I NEVER sleep…
Blogging sucks my life away moment by moment
@Bryan:
Now! That is what I said “dedication 24×7x365″ If you drop it, it will stop! You need to find your unique way to be more efficient in the blogging world. Let your viewer do the works for you!
Maybe eventually… my blog is still new, so I’m stuck doing all the promotion!
Unless you want to do it for me?
@Bryan:
You are doing great! Soon you will be one of them I mentioned in my blog.
In my case, I didn’t start a blog yet… don’t really know how to make it read by other… 15 years ago, I wrote some text about CV and things around that… and forget it for many years…. same things with my student thesis… and now, Google bring me some visitors each days… I don’t make very much money with that but I take it as a hobby so… Maybe I’ll start one ever…
@alain:
Good for you. If you keep up your work, you will make more money, but you just need to know if that is what you want to do for long term.
I agree with everything you say. It’s hard. People play lotto and there is very small chance to win. I wont to play this lotto. You never know.
Maybe will work for me.
Thank for the nice advice.
@identikit:
Thank you for stopping by. Making money online with blog is just not my thing. Good luck to you!
Terence, Hope you are having a good time in China! This is a very good post. I think the key points are you have to put in lots of time to be a blogging success and you have to have something unique to offer. John Chow etc, aren’t unique, but they were there before a lot of the recent imitators. As you say, if you put the time elsewhere maybe you’ll make more money! For me, I want to blog, I’d like to make a little money, but it’s not the most important thing.
@Stephen:
Thanks! I really enjoyed the trip in China. I think the ROI (return of investment) on Blog is not as big as doing online e-commerce. When I come back to my home, I will be working even harder to make more money online.