When you look around and see so many people making a living on the Internet, why would you not want to make it a full-time job? Sure, bloggers like Darren Rowse of Pro Blogger make enough money to live happily, but there are other moves that can be made to supplement your income.
Blogging Is a Slow Money Maker
When you first set up your blog, you’re going to need a day job for another few years. If you’re really good at what you do, you can probably make $100 in your first year of blogging. Making money from eBook sales, advertising, affiliate marketing, and other means is very slow and takes a while to pick up. Don’t expect to have an overloaded bank right away – or ever.
In 2012, New Blogs Have No Chance
If you ever look around when you do a Google search, most of the top websites that are being displayed have been around for years. Blogs like Engadget have been high ranking websites since 2004 and will continue to be high ranking for many years to come, so competing with these blogs is almost impossible. If you’re considering a niche that may be overcrowded, you might never have success in the field of blogging.
Blogging Does Not Require Full-Time Effort
At this current moment in time, I run two blogs (Omega Web and Aquarium Watch), go to school at Northwest Florida State College, run a web design service, and still have a life. If you’re planning on writing one or two blog posts a day, that may only take you about two hours. Writing more than two posts a day is not necessary to rank higher in search engines or make more money.
Plenty Of Full-Time Jobs Have Downtime
If you have a job such as a middle or high school teacher, you could always use the downtime when your students are working to write. Plenty of my teachers in high school spent their time on the Internet playing games, reading the news, or emailing their friends, so I’m sure blogging would be okay with your principal. If you could write one blog post for every two classes of the day, you could have three or four posts done by the end of the school day – and be paid a teacher’s salary.
Your Bank Account and Blog’s Success Are Related
Just like a business, your blog’s success and your income are closely related. If your blog gets hammered by a Google update and you have a 50% drop in viewers one month, then theoretically you will have a 50% drop in income as well. If you are trying to run a family and pay bills, an unexpected 50% drop in your monthly income would not be a good thing.
Conclusion
After reading this far into my rant, I’m sure you can conclude that blogging is not something everyone can do full-time. I’m obviously not against the concept of making money on the Internet, but plenty of opportunities will allow you to blog and have a full-time job at the same time. Even if you only work at McDonald’s and publish a website, you will be bringing in more income than just one or the other. I see blogging as a tool to supplement your already-stable income, not a way to replace it.
Image Source: Part-Time Jobs For Pregnant Women
Hey Ian!
Many Internet marketers will be against you, but I think that you are right. Blogs are just going insane (such as engadget, like you said).
Basically, if you are willing to start a blog, better buy an already established one.
I know that many internet marketers sell fake or feature-less products, just to make a buck online. I personally try to keep my content at an instructional, helpful level and don’t try so hard to make money. Furthermore, blogging will never be a full time job opportunity time-wise because you only have to publish a few posts a week to keep the content flowing.
G’day Ian blogging is one of the slowest methods of building a income online, especially for someone who is just starting out. If you can build a strong email list from your blog and keep providing quality to that list, this can be a quicker way to earn income. It all comes down to knowledge and more you have the easier things are online.
I agree. Blogging is a very slow source of income, which is why I don’t recommend it to people who need fast money. I recommend blogging for people who having a stable job and are willing to work for little income for a few years.
Sad, but true! Those web sites are high-ranked, so a new blog would need years to be able to compete those sites. You’re right about the teachers. I mean not just teachers, but thousands of people having a job that wouldn’t needed to be a full-time job. So it would be great for them in their breaks to do something sensible instead playing.
Thanks for leaving a great comment! I totally agree with you, but the reason teachers and other jobs like that take so many breaks is because they’re lazy in the first place… Lazy people can’t run blogs!
Hey Ian,
Interesting point mate!
You’re right Darren Rowse is making 6 figure income from Blogging.
Do you know he made $1,000,000 just from selling an E-book!
He is an inspiration for every Blogger.
Yeah, you’re right, Everyone should make Blogging as a part time job for first and full time job after sometime.
That’s a ton of money from a single eBook… That makes me really jealous when I look at my AdSense revenue and it’s $50.