Last Updated on: January 29th, 2021
I often get asked, “Do you make money from blogging?”
This is a tricky question, because I actually make money as a result of blogging. Sure, I earn some money through affiliate sales and AdSense… and The Essence of Blogging (+ How to Earn Money Online) lists the other ways I have expanded my income sources. I now have 9+ revenue streams! 🙂
But…
No one pays me for creating blog posts for my own sites.
No one pays me for promoting them, either.
However, if I DIDN’T blog, no one would know who the heck I was!
They wouldn’t learn about my freelancing writing and editing services.
Nor would they know I’m an independently published author who has another website where I talk about my books, and all other things, including poetry, book review, and true stories about my life.
Nor would they know I help others become authors too.
Blogging is a way to get your content in front of the right people.
So is guest posting! 😉
Is Blogging A Complete Waste of Time?
Some people think blogging is a ridiculous waste of time. I’m not kidding.
The truth is: IT CAN BE.
Or, at least, it can feel that way… sometimes. There is A LOT TO BLOGGING. Read 5 Things New Bloggers Need to Know.
It’s no secret that there are many pros and cons to blogging. After we look a the benefits, we’ll look at some of the pitfalls.
Blogging Benefits
But blogging, if done properly, can be a wonderful way to:
- get noticed by Google
- add credibility to your brand or business
- acquire more leads, clients, and/or sales
- provide clips to others, if you’re a freelancer
- increase your social media presence
- network with others
Blogging Pitfalls
There are an equal amount of cons to blogging.
- Blogging can be time-consuming.
- Blogging requires a lot of promotion.
- If no promotion is done, chances are your posts WON’T be read.
- There is a small likelihood of going viral.
- If your writing is not great or valuable, there is a small chance of impressing Google.
- You might put forth a lot of effort for little or no return.
How to Become A Great Blogger: How I Did It (My True Story)
When I first started blogging, I did so on WordPress.com, which is a free platform open to everyone.
I called my blog Lorraine Reguly’s Life, because, at the time, I also thought that blogging was simply online journaling. Kind of old-school, I know. (What can I say? I was a total newbie back then!)
After writing my fourth blog post EVER, something spectacular happened.
I got noticed by Google.
People began to read my posts, especially my fourth blog post. It kinda went viral. Seriously. It even ranked on the first page of Google Search.
Why?
I provided a solution to a major problem people were having. Their computers were being infected with a toolbar that was malware, which was extremely annoying to deal with.
I know this because it happened to me.
I shared the story of what happened to me and my laptop, and ultimately where I found the solution for removing it.
When people began searching for answers, Google sent them to my post.
Suddenly, my blog was on the map.
Blogging Evolution
Over time, my blog evolved. As a blogger, I evolved, too.
In my quest to be a better blogger, I started reading top blogs and taking the advice of pro bloggers. I learned about SEO. I learned about blog promotion. I learned “insider” secrets, tips, and tricks. In fact, I learned so much that it felt like my brain was going to explode!
I also began to experiment with my writing.
I decided to try writing for the search engines, to see how close I could come to landing in the first slot of Google Search.
Amazingly, out the dozen posts I wrote, I was able to land on the first page for all of them, and even managed to land in the first slot of Search for my post on the Liebster Award (an award for newbie bloggers)!
Then I wrote a post about my suicide attempt, which also hit the number one slot. I wrote about my false teeth too, which also landed on the first page of Google. So did the post about the letter I wrote to my son.
I could go on and on… but the key takeaway here is that Google started sending more and more people my way.
Because of this, I decided it was time to monetize my site.
This involved first making the move to WordPress.org.
The Birth of Wording Well
Deciding to move was scary. I wanted to choose a great name. I wanted it to relate to writing. After all, I am a writer and an editor!
This move caused my freelancing business to be born.
Many factors were taken into consideration when I decided to move my site from a free-hosted site to a self-hosted one.
I also hired a designer to create my logo. I added the tagline myself.
Then I installed AdSense on my website, which became yet another of my revenue streams. I had already been freelancing for a while.
(Read the complete tutorial for setting up AdSense HERE.)
I used the above image for about a year, until I decided to revamp my site. This was after I learned about branding my business online.
During this part of my blog’s evolution, I hired another designer to create a new image I could use, and install a new theme on my site.
Earning Through Multiple Revenue Streams
In addition to providing writing and editing services, I also added two more services to my income streams during my revamp: coaching/consulting, and helping others become authors.
Plus, I became an affiliate for a few people as well as my web hosting company. (I wrote a humongous guide on which companies are the best.)
The Essence of Blogging (+ How to Earn Money Online) lists the other ways I have expanded my income sources. I now have 9+ revenue streams! 🙂
How to Become A Great Blogger: Some Tips
You should also do everything on the following list if you want to become a blogging superstar:
- Study SEO.
- Research your posts.
- Write well, or hire someone to write for you.
- Edit your posts, or hire someone to edit for you.
- Promote your posts after they’re published.
- Write and publish on a regular basis.
- Network with others.
- Offer value.
- Tell a personal story that will make you memorable.
- Use the tips and tricks the “big” bloggers use.
- Never stop learning.
- Don’t give up.
Blog Your Way To Success… But Learn Other Things Too
No one ever said blogging is easy. Making money while blogging can be difficult, too. In fact, some people think that it’s a complete waste of time, like Ramsay Taplin, AKA The Blog Tyrant, who thinks blogging is a waste of time.
He suggests expanding your knowledge and income streams, too, by doing these:
- developing product-based websites about things you know about
- creating a book or e-book based on your areas of expertise
- learning affiliate marketing and how to create product landing pages
- building a website around a tool or concept that you know
- building an iPhone app
- making YouTube instructional videos
- getting content creation work
- etc.
However, if your writing is good (or even great!) and you promote your posts, others WILL read them. Google might even decide you’re worthy of a fine ranking.
And you won’t think your time has been wasted.
YOUR TURN:
Do you think blogging is a ridiculous waste of time? Why or why not?
Share in the comments, please!
Lorraine Reguly is a freelance blogger, writer, and editor for hire. She’s also an author who can help you create an ebook to give away on your site, sell, and even turn into a print book. Her business site is Wording Well, where she gives away a FREE ebook, 20 Blog Post Must-Haves, to her newsletter subscribers.
NOTE: This post first appeared on Kikolani in 2015. It has since be updated and posted here!
I agree with you..it can be waste of time..sometime…but if we do it in a proper way..we can make money…
Checkout for the Biography of Celebrities
Yes, you can. I have multiple income streams now because of blogging!
Creating courses is also a great way to make money! 😉
celebrityboss recently posted…Shruti Sodhi Height, Age, Weight, Wiki, Biography, Family, Profile
Yes, so I have heard! That’s why I am going to create one!
Howdy Lorraine,
Fascinating post! I alter my opinion about in the case of blogging is an exercise in futility LOL
As any individual who is endeavoring to blog appropriately will concur, it’s tremendously tedious. Furthermore, I’m a stickler for my own greatness. I re-read and change posts again and again. The advantages are side-benefits, as you appropriately distinguish.
Also, I do take an unreasonable sort of delight out of having a blog!
Alka, many bloggers love blogging! But it can get tiresome after a while… especially if you have been doing it for years!
I agree with the title of your article that blogging can be a waste of time if the sole purpose of blogging is making money out of it.
With that intention, quality of blog suffers.
Blogging should be done if one really enjoys doing it and is serious on making some contribution to the community.
These are my thoughts.
I agree, Mehedi! 🙂
Hey Lorraine, I totally agree. Blogging can be so exhausting. But, when you keep learning and eventually find your path, it’s one of the best home based businesses that you can do. I really like your suggestion to build product based sites. I think that’s the best way to make money online.
Creating courses is also a great way to make money! 😉
Read this! http://neilpatel.com/blog/create-sell-and-profit-from-online-courses/
I am not sure but when you didn’t get visitors / feedbacks on your posts. Blogging sometimes seems to be a ridiculous waste of time.
I agree! 😉
Blogging is an excellent career if you have a passion,The quality of the content on your blog should be a priority if you’re blogging to earn money and not as a hobby, Blogging Is Not The Waste of time ,you can earn a good amount from blogs.
I agree, Shaik!
Now, please go read this and set up a gravatar for yourself. It will help you! https://twinsmommy.com/blogging-basics-every-blogger-needs-gravatar-set-one/
Blogging is an excellent career if you have a passion for writing. It requires lots of hard work, research and commitment from our side.
It can unlock several opportunities in acquiring knowledge, building relationships and monetization. But without interest, nothing will work.
Take care,
Have you a nice week ahead.
Manoj, what you said about blogging is SO TRUE!
Most people do not have this type of commitment, and that is why there are so many abandoned blogs on the Internet!
Have a great week, too, and thanks for stopping by to read and comment!
thanks for the information Lorren … but blogging is never a time waste … its time investing to secure the future 😀
keep sharing such valuable posts
Akshay, I love your positive outlook!
Thanks, I will. 🙂
Take care!
First of all Thanks for this wonderful Article.
This is very helpful article for everyone. Excellent tips and tools for great deal. I really appreciate your input. Thanks for sharing & Keep it up. I will wait your new post.
Thanks, Muhammad. 🙂
Hello Lorraine, I’m a newbie in this blogging career. I just wanted to say thank you for sharing useful information that I’ve seeking. Best wishes for you and look forward to your new posts in the future.
Hi, William. Thanks for reading and commenting. I wish the best of luck to you in your blogging career!
Good stuff William; hey, I am seeing you everywhere 😉
Ryan
Hi,
I’ve recently started blogging, and wrote my first blog post today, and I was reading through some stuff and found your site.
I do agree it is really over whelming having alot of blogs out there teaching different stuff, however, let see how this goes for me.
Good day.
Saima, I wish you the best with your blogging experiences! 🙂
Good luck, and congratulations on publishing your first post!
Congrats Saima!
Ryan
Hey Lorraine,
How are you doing? From someone who’s written countless blogs for others and now doing it for myself, I’ll admit: It does feel like an awful waste of time.
How hard can it get? Think of titles, do keyword research, write up massive posts, publish regularly, and then start promoting posts when it should even look like a promotion.
All this is for what? A trickle of traffic that comes in from drifters just wanting to scan posts. Curious bees who couldn’t resist clicking on the tempting click bait titles.
Whether or not this traffic actually ends up subscribing to your list or buying anything is something else altogether.
But then, you are right. If you don’t blog (and if I don’t blog), no one would ever know about me. Ever.
Whether we like it or not, I guess the only thing we can do is keep blogging, keep doing what we need to. Right?
Ash, I feel your pain. There is a LOT to blogging, and that is why I once cut back from two posts a week to one, and now just publish one to three posts per month!
With the increase of client work, blogging has taken a backside on my priority list. However, I continue to publish because I don’t want to lose my followers/fans/readers!
I also want to gain more! 😉
Anyway, thanks for sharing your views on this subject. I really appreciate it. 🙂
Take care, Ash.
Hey Lorraine,
As of now, I am having to do three different jobs (they seem like jobs at least). Blog 1, blog 2, and client work. I badly want to move out of client work and do these two blogs for myself but I guess it’s going to take a while.
I am exhausting just writing those two links since it made me think about it 🙂
Ash
Ash, I feel your pain. I have client work, too, and two blogs.
This blog has not had a new post published on it in over a month and my other blog has basically been abandoned at this point.
It’s hard to keep up with everything!
Keep on blogging Ash!
Ryan
hi Lorraine,
I agree with the title of your article that blogging can be a waste of time if the sole purpose of blogging is making money out of it.
With that intention, quality of blog suffers.
Blogging should be done if one really enjoys doing it and is serious on making some contribution to the community.
These are my thoughts.
feedback from others are welcome.
nice article.
keep up the good work.
Dhruv, thanks for chiming in! The quality of the content on your blog should be a priority if you’re blogging to earn money and not as a hobby!
Hi, Lorraine !
I think not all blogging niches get the same benefits, some are very easy to make money and others are not, but still effort is required in every case.
Plus there are alot of blogs out there offering the same kind of advise and reading becomes a boring task as well. Now you say that we should hire someone to write for us if we can’t, than what is the point of opening a blog, no ?
I think blogging should be done by the writer of the blog itself because mostly he/she can produce a content that will really matters.
Anyways have a great day.
Regards
Usman, I have to agree with you. Blogging should be done by those who have something original to share. 😉
However, it all depends on the goals of the blogger. Some bloggers blog strictly to rank their posts with Google and earn from AdSense or affiliate links.
Thanks for commenting. 🙂 I appreciate your time!
Hi Lorraine,
I’m very much grateful to you for sharing your life and ideas about how this Blogging World works, and what are the pitfalls as well as the need of traffic boosting for blogging. I’m a newbie in this field. Thanks for your guidance.
Kriti, I am glad I could help you! Good luck to you with your blogging journey! 🙂
For newbies like me in this blogging world this post is a boon because for most of the writers blogging is merely a way of expressing them out but what they lack is how to get good traffic or say viewers on their blog so that more and more people can read those blogs.
Just writing and thinking people will read it is just a waste of time I guess.
Thanks for providing such a good post.
Ashley
Ashley, that’s a good insight. Many people think that way!
However, some people blog just for the heck of it. They don’t care how many people read their stuff. For them, it’s a just a hobby. For others, it’s merely a way to express their feelings. Writing can be therapeutic, you know!
Hi Lorraine! This was an awesome post. I’m just getting into blogging in order to help my carpet cleaning business! Thanks again for the great post, definitely helps us beginners!
You’re welcome, Wallace.
I suggest you upload an image of yourself to Gravatar. It’s free. https://en.gravatar.com/
Then people can see who you are instead of appearing like an invisible guy in your comments.
You might also like the post for bloggers on my Resource Kit page. Check them out. There’s a lot of gold gems there!
Hey Lorraine,
At first when I came into blogging, it looked like waste of time to me too, but with time, constant learning made me work on right spot and changed my thinking.
So, I would say, Blogging is a great field only when we know which path or niche we are going to work on, it becomes very crucial to choose business or brand or niche, whatever we like to call it.
Jeannette, long time no see!
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Everyone has a different take on blogging. Of course, it all depends on what type of blogger you are, and what your end goals are.
I agree with you, too, about “niching down” because many new bloggers do not realize the value in specializing in one particular niche.
It’s true that blogging takes time, but if you’re passionate about it and have specific target goals in mind, then it’s NOT a waste of time, but time well-invested!
Well, you have certainly come a long way, Lorraine. And im sure it’s been a long road composed of blood, sweat and tears. Plenty of joyous moments and days when you really wanted to quit.
But at the end of the day, you’ve always decided to stay and fight the good blogging fight.
So keep it up; I like how you remain realistic about blogging and aren’t always painting a pretty picture or sugarcoating it. These lessons are always welcome for newcomers and veterans alike.
Enjoy the rest of your week 🙂
Elvis
Elvis, it’s tough to be consistent all of the time but if you plan on doing what you can TODAY, then your TOMORROW will be better!
Rough times are good to have because you can learn from them. You can take those lessons to improve yourself and even teach others.
I’ve had my share of tough times but I also have had my share of good ones too!
Being realistic is something most people aren’t. I try to be… always.
Thanks so much for your comment. I have started looking forward to seeing comments from you, even though I don’t know you very well. I guess it’s time to change that! 😉 Connect with me on Facebook!
Ha, thanks!
And you just reminded me to make up my mind about FB. Right now im focusing on Twitter and LinkedIn — and I feel that one more social network will make my head explode, lol.
One day at a time. Thanks for the wise words 😉
@listiller
Elvis
Elvis, Facebook allows you to truly let others see the “real” you. In fact, many of my clients have contacted me after seeing something I posted on there.
Give it a shot. You’ve got nothing to lose!
And your head *won’t* explode, despite what you might think! 🙂
Hi Lorraine,
Interesting post! I change my mind about whether blogging is a waste of time LOL
As anyone who is trying to blog properly will agree, it’s hugely time-consuming. And I’m too much of a perfectionist for my own good. I re-read and tweak posts over and over again.
The benefits are side-benefits, as you quite rightly identify.
And I do take a perverse kind of pleasure out of having a blog, whether Google likes it or not!
Joy – Blogging After Dark
Hi, Joy!
I agree with you. Blogging IS very time-consuming! That is why I stopped blogging so much! LOL
It sounds like we are two of a kind, because I am a perfectionist too! The benefits seem to outweigh the cons, however, which is why I still blog. 😉
And who the heck cares about Google! LOL
I will blog regardless of what Google thinks!
To your (our) continued success! Cheers!
Hi Lorraine,
Oh yes; without any direction, blogging is a huge time suck. Gotta be intentional in all you do blogging-wise by opening income streams – especially passive streams – and by leveraging your presence quickly through all types of guest posting and blog commenting.
My biggest goal now is to build my email list so I can enjoy more passive traffic and profits. Once you have a big, responsive list, you can pull back on other promoting aspects of your campaign. Because readers are coming to you 😉
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Ryan, list-building is where it’s at these days. Everyone is talking about it!
Good for you!
My goals involve the same but also to write more books and to fulfill a few personal goals. 🙂
Good luck to us both!
Hey Lorraine,
Blogging can be really time-consuming and may be the waste if you don’t do if smartly. There are millions of blogs right now but to make it stand, you have to keep consistent.
It’s good to know about your story how you managed to get recognized and what people learn from you. No doubt that you can help people to become the guest author or even freelance writers.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Enjoy your day.
~Ravi
Ravi, one thing I admire about you is your ability to be consistent with all of the aspects of blogging, which includes a strong social media presence! I see you everywhere! Twitter, Facebook, comments, etc. Congratulations to you for your dedication!
It’s hard to remain this consistent after several years of blogging if your heart is not in it.
Thanks for coming by to leave your views! I appreciate it!
Hi Lorraine,
An excellent view we all seem to fall into the pitfall of do what you have to do when you do it scenario and think no further, Videos is certainly popular these days and i need to conform too. Thanks for reminding me!
Guillaume, video-making truly is becoming more and more popular these days! It’s time to get on board! (I need to take my own advice here, too!)
I believe nothing is waste of time at all, if done in the right way. As we can see plenty of successful people doing it. I am sure success won’t come overnight in any industry. If it comes, probably won’t be permanent.
Even if you don’t get success instantly, failure teaches more.
You have mentioned some great points Lorraine and can inspire anyone…
Thanks.
Navin, success is often short-lived for many bloggers. It’s tough to keep the continuum of success going!
I also agree with you that failure teaches us. That is why it is good to experiment!
Thank you for the compliment, Navin. I appreciate it as well as your comment. 🙂
Have a great day!
As much as people like to read, they *love* NOT to! 🙂 That’s the thing, the negative side I see in Blogging. And that’s also the reason I’m a YouTuber and recommend others to be the same.
Umar, video usage is becoming more and more popular among blogger nowadays. Videos are preferred by many, and marketers are now changing their ways.
Blogging is undergoing a major revolution, that’s for sure!
Congrats to you, by the way! And thanks for stopping by and sharing your views. 🙂