Are You Making Money Blogging?

Individuals that dream of blogging for profit will find this goal within reach as long as they have a willingness to put in the hard work and have a minimal grasp of the use of blogging software. Yet, only a small percentage of individuals actually get the profits they expected from their blog. So why is that?

There are fundamentally two reasons of failure for nearly all folks who try to make wealth through their weblogs. Often, bloggers have excessive expectations of how fast their following will grow and how much money they will make. When these heightened expectations are not met, often they are discouraged and just stop blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into has to do with lack of preparation. Generating wealth by writing a blog online requires development of a realistic plan and to adhere to it.

In order to make money with blogging, it is critical that you have a lot of readers, ie. traffic. Advertisers will pay you more if you have lots of traffic to your blog. However, cultivating the consistent traffic needed in order to make a profit isn't a walk in the park. A bright idea or engaging writing style is no longer enough to grab readers' attention. You have to market your blog to generate traffic to it.

There are many ways to market your blog. One is by writing articles such as this one and putting the link to your blog in the resource or author box. Others are by adding comments to other peoples' blogs or in related forums, always adding a link back to your own blog. Then there's social media sites like Twitter, Squidoo, Hub pages, etc. Building quality content on these websites and linking to your blog can all generate traffic.

All too often, bloggers spend all their time writing content, which is important, but they completely ignore the marketing aspect. You have to market your blog for traffic to know where to find it. Readers of blogs will keep coming back to your blog if you regularly update it with new content that has value. Regular updates allow blog search engines and directories to keep your internet rating high. All the same, it does not matter how often you update your blog posts if no one is reading your page. That's why it is so important to make the time to draw visitors to your blog website. Even if it means not posting quite as often so you can spend some of your time marketing, as long as you're providing value in the posts you make, the readers will return.

Remember to be realistic. Having a great blog idea and smart marketing strategy will not guarantee quick success. If you are blogging for profit it takes time to create a following, so don't expect much of a profit for several months.

The first thing to do is to Plan. Plan out your goals of what you want to have accomplished, and be specific. Put those goals to a timeline and stick to it. During the early stages, don't falter on your dedication to your blogging project. When you hit one of your planned goals, reward yourself and then move forward, sticking to your plan.