A lot of people tend to jump into trying to make money online too quick and they tend to overlook a few things.
First of all, a majority of people who make money from their blogs actually started making money online prior to it, or at least has a lot of experience in the field. Look at John Chow, Shoemoney, Uberaffiliate, Zac Johnson, and the list goes on. Maybe that was a bad example because I just listed affiliate marketers but notice how making money from their blogs came after the fact they already had their source of income flowing in?
Let me give you another example - I blog for a few different blogs, but I do it for fun a majority of the times. Though, I find various ways of making money online and my main source of income is not from blogging. One of the ways I make money is by designing banner ads and that has brought in a pretty steady income since I started it back in January. Surprisingly, the word has spread about my banner designs and now I do not promote or market it, and people still continue to find me.
Just imagine if I focused primarily on banner designs and promoted it like I do for my blog(s)?
When it comes down to it, you should handle your business first because your blog will still be there. Plus, you don’t need to post every single day, just enough for your readers to know that you didn’t abandon them!
And I know I’ve been bad the past few days but that’s because I was out-of-town attending a graduation.
A fine example would be Jason a.k.a. The University Kid (and I’m not trying to suck up) because he continues to find ways to make money outside of his blog. And if I read right, he makes a pretty good chunk of change and he’s willing to help people out with his ideas on how to make money.
But when it comes down to it, you should focus on your strengths and what’s bringing in your biggest and most steady income. In my case, I should focus more on banner designs but do not rely only on one source of income! That’s just one small thing people tend to do - put all their eggs in one basket. And if you do that, you’ll be screwed on those down months.
So, however you make money online, focus on that first and foremost before you blog. And if you happen to make a pretty good chunk of change from blogging, I guess that’s your first and second focus.
Good points. But Jason started blogging before he was making money
Tom - StandOutBlogger.coms last blog post..How Do You Monetize Your New Blogs?
I know a lot of bloggers that are going out of their “blogging” life to make money
What I try to do is see how much I could earn from just blogging, but without trying at all to make money 
-Mike
Mike Huangs last blog post..Preventing Burn Out by Finding Motivation
@ Tom, man that’s not true. I was making a steady 50c a day before I started blogging.
Seriously though, good posting. Blogging should be done for fun, not profit - unless you’re an A-Lister, you’re not going to get good money relative to the time spent.
Jasons last blog post..Contest Prizes Needed
I blogged long before I thougt about trying to make money at it. Just on a different blog.
Barrys last blog post..It Is So Easy a Pig (Boar) Can Do It!
I am not sure why people look at running a blog any different then any other business (if that is your focus, to make it a business and earn from it). In the real world (offline), you business plan, outline, have multiple brainstorming meetings - all to figure out how you are going to pay for what you want to do AND to figure out how you are going to profit from what you want to do. why would it be any different online. Soooooo many people I know just throw up a blog and then wonder why they dont make any money or dont see any growth. it takes time effort and A PLAN.
I work hard on my Political Blog, but understand going in that there are some massive political blogs out there that I would have to make some inroads into to see a return, so I set up a orchestrated plan to try to get some exposure, marketing and name recognition of my blog, even if just a tiny piece of the bigger guys audience. A little here and a little there adds up to a pretty nice pile of quality readers, but it takes time and again, a plan. I am still working on “my plan”. I always will be, but I will never start a site without some gameplan in place or idea of where I am and where I want to end up with the site.
—
Political Disgust
Political Disgusts last blog post..UN Peacekeepers Shame, Rape, & Abuse Of Power
Interestingly, many are still pinning so much hope to make money from the blog instead of ‘off the blog’.
IMO blogging should never be the primary source of income.
Yans last blog post..How To Change File Permission - CHMOD
Tom - See! Jason was making an incredible 50 cents a day! And that’s more than most bloggers make lol!
Mike - Good luck with that because you definitely seem to be doing just fine for yourself.
Jason - Exactly! I mean, we have these discussions all the time on making money outside of blogging… and yes, you’re doing a LOT better than me now… I’m a little jealous lol!
Barry - That means you actually did it for fun so I would just keep that mindset.
Political Disgust - Yes, everyone needs a plan and unfortunately, most bloggers who try to make money from their blogs do not. I realized blogging is not and will not be my primarily source of income from making money online but I’m fine with that. It’s just another source of income but you shouldn’t rely heavily on ONLY one source.
Yan - LOL! Exactly… most people swear they can make thousands and thousands a month from ONLY their blog. And yes, people have and will but that’s not as often as people may think.
Jay
I agree with Yan, “Interestingly, many are still pinning so much hope to make money from the blog instead of ‘off the blog’.”
I don’t know why people want to make money online [or blogging]. A dollar is a dollar, it doesn’t matter you make it online, or earn your money conventionally [buy/sell, agent, salesman, lawyer, accountant, carpenter trade, cleaner or baby sitting].
The blogosphere need more bloggers who are passionate about blogging and less about making money. I reason the latter is the end result of the former. Just my thought.
I was of a simple mind when I started blogging. Had no concept that money could be made from doing so.
Musta had my head buried in the sand, or mayhap it was old age and it took awhile to sink in.
Slowly switching from a serious side of blogging to having more fun with as you can tell by new blog
wendys last blog post..Awesome toilet! ??????????
I started making money before blogging which is why I have a make money blog and not a make money blogging blog. There are definitely a lot of things to learn when making money online. The ease of using blogging software kind of hides the real work you have to do to make money doing it. If you start making money first, then blogging is just that much easier.
Stephan Millers last blog post..On the Trail of LifeClusters
It’s always about the money!
Jay I see you’re no banned at digg huh… too bad I went to submit it and wa-bam! Told me this url was reported for being a spam blog.. how embarrassing…
I feel your pain bro… I feel you pain!
Brian - Yup, it seems a lot of people reported this website quite sometime ago because people at Digg STRONGLY dislike MMO blogs… but lesson learned, luckily I never relied on Digg for traffic…
Jay
Jays last blog post..Not Less than 20 Minutes After Contest Winners were Announced, People Unsubscribe
What a scam! I wonder if we can do anything to allow the domain name again! Did you try and contact support.
Let me be the first to say even tho you don’t rely off the traffic from digg it’s still remains to be really decent web traffic and you’re missing out!
Money on the net = traffic and without digg oh boy you are missing some money!
wanna start a petition?
bbrian017s last blog post..4 Weirdest Internet Celebrities
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience! I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and I’m glad to have found your blog. Thank you for sharing with us.
Cheers,
Roy
Brian - I don’t worry too much about it, I never relied on Digg for traffic…
Roy - I love how you spam people’s comment with the same EXACT message as the ones you leave other people’s blogs. Yup, you can check out a whole bunch of Roy’s spam at http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/sales_training/newwith/my
Jay
HAHAHA Roy Phay…
It’s so funny when I see people get busted!
nice catch jay haha!
bbrian017s last blog post..Bearded, Dateless Men Gather in Brighton
Brian - Man, you should check out http://www.datmoney.com/2008/05/comment-spammers-are-you-one.html and I had to put a couple other people out there too. I can’t believe so many people just comment spam… I was going to copy and paste his message and post it on his site but it’s just a BS site to begin with.
Jay
Jays last blog post..Get $775+ Free Software & Bonuses When You Sign Up w/ LunarPages Hosting