According to Anne-Marie Nichols’s The Write Spot, NBC asked the top 130 New York bloggers how much they made from their sites. The results are revealing:
- 17% – over $1,000/month
- 14% – $200-500/month
- 4% – $100/month
- 14% – less that $100/month
- 51% – NOTHING
Guy Kawasaki, a top 100 blogger and hero of mine, reckons he earned $3,350 in his first year from Google ads; although the advertising on his site now is much more visible and perhaps he’ll earn more. I don’t think he’s going to give up running his VC business or writing books to live off his blogging income.
My own experience? I get about $10 a month in Google ad revenue on ModernPilot.com, my flying website. I don’t run ads on Bad Language but there’s a trickle of income from Amazon Associate links, perhaps a few pounds a month on average.
Having said all that, blogging is fun. It brings in business (my blog is my marketing department). It builds connections with interesting people. Readers’ comments and feedback inspire me.
Technorati Tags: blogging, income, advertising, revenue
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If you blog to make money, then you are going to be disappointed. If you blog for human/social reasons, then your life can be enriched beyond monetary values.
Indeed. Couldn’t agree more. It’s just interesting to see that it isn’t yet a viable business model in its own right, even for a top 100 blogger.
I haven’t even bothered adding any revenue sources to my blog because I figure it’s just a waste of time right now. I, too, use my blog as my marketing department – in a number of ways. That’s working great for drawing business and building relationships right now. And I’m happy with that. Perhaps sometime in the future I’ll add passive revenue sources. But not now.
My copywriting and marketing blogs either generate work or they don’t, but I have a top niche outdoor blog, and I’m toying with that one.
I’d like to “monetize” it without mucking up the experience, and so far I’m making enough to cover the hosting and domain costs for my blogs and sites.
Getting rich? I’ve decided to confront that issue next week.
Tom makes a good point. If you aren’t going to make the big bucks, why spoil the user experience with ads? On the other hand, getting a bit of cash to cover hosting is always nice.
Amit Agarwal over on labnol.blogspot.com reckons Guy Kawasaki makes nowhere near as much as he should from Google Adsense because he has simply failed to optimise his site. Agarwal actually suggests ways to improve things for any blogger/webmaster looking to “monetize” (what’s wrong with the phrase ‘make money from’, anyway?) from their blog.
The straightforward tips that Google offers can work well, but I discovered a reasonable compromise between invasiveness and adsense profit for my own site, and it pays fairly well.
That said it really boils down to traffic, if you’re getting 5000 visitors a day it will pay it’s way but if you’re only seeing a few dozen (as is the case with another of my sites) it’s barely worth modifying your template to add the google script (that ‘other’ site made $1 last month! whereas my main site made several times that)
db
I have been “playing” on the net now for 3 years. It all stared when a friend and I were drunk one evening and decided that we should start a site about a Scottish music venue (www.glasgowapollo.com). We did this for the right reasons i.e. for the love of the old place. What followed was incredible – hits lead to a book which lead to a DVD and now a musical! My “business” blog is fresh out of the box and once again I am doing it for the love of my subject – can you imagine “Influence the Musical”??
it’s —–> its in my post, I do know the difference, but my fingers sometimes type fast than my brain
I, too, use my blog as my marketing department – in a number of ways. That’s working great for drawing business and building relationships right now. And I’m happy with that. Perhaps sometime in the future I’ll add passive revenue sources. But not now.
I use my blog as personal idea & news sharing while adding some comments: earnings after taxes? 50 $ per year!
Will I be rich?
^______*
Great story and inspirational for bloggers like me. I wrote a post recently in reagards to the personal finance space and it was intersesting to see the great revenue potential form blogging. I make about $700 per month as discussed, and can only hope to get some of the loftier levels. Keep up these great stories!