Introduction
Becoming a ProBlogger:
Darren’s Story of Blogging
During the first year of my blogging career, I worked three jobs simultaneously,
studied part-time, and blogged on the side.
A common misconception that first-time readers arriving at ProBlogger.net
have is that the six-figure income I’ve earned from blogging was something
that I achieved overnight. It wasn’t.
Though blogging has enabled a growing number of people to earn an
income, the process is rarely a quick one. For this reason I’d like to share my
own story of blogging—from hobbyist to full-time blogger.
So, grab a coffee, make yourself comfortable, and relax—this could take a
little while.
Once Upon a Time...
In November, 2002, when I first hit “Publish” on my original (and shortlived)
blog, I did so believing that this “blogging thing,” which I’d only just
heard of that day, would be nothing more than a bit of fun.
I started this blog for a number of reasons, but it was largely out of curiosity,
the idea of having a new hobby, and the hope that perhaps I might meet
some new people with similar interests to mine.
At the time I was working three jobs.
My Three Jobs
My main job at the time was as a minister of a church, three days per week.
It was a part-time job (I was not “the” minister but one of four working in a
team), and my responsibility was to work with young people.
Becoming a ProBlogger:
Darren’s Story of Blogging
During the first year of my blogging career, I worked three jobs simultaneously,
studied part-time, and blogged on the side.
A common misconception that first-time readers arriving at ProBlogger.net
have is that the six-figure income I’ve earned from blogging was something
that I achieved overnight. It wasn’t.
Though blogging has enabled a growing number of people to earn an
income, the process is rarely a quick one. For this reason I’d like to share my
own story of blogging—from hobbyist to full-time blogger.
So, grab a coffee, make yourself comfortable, and relax—this could take a
little while.
Once Upon a Time...
In November, 2002, when I first hit “Publish” on my original (and shortlived)
blog, I did so believing that this “blogging thing,” which I’d only just
heard of that day, would be nothing more than a bit of fun.
I started this blog for a number of reasons, but it was largely out of curiosity,
the idea of having a new hobby, and the hope that perhaps I might meet
some new people with similar interests to mine.
At the time I was working three jobs.
My Three Jobs
My main job at the time was as a minister of a church, three days per week.
It was a part-time job (I was not “the” minister but one of four working in a
team), and my responsibility was to work with young people.
I was engaged to be married (to Vanessa, or “V,” as I call her) and trying to
save for a wedding and pay off a car loan and college fees, so I had also taken
on a number of part-time jobs (minister’s wages are not fantastic at the best of
times, but part-time they are even less spectacular).
My second job was working for an online department store. Although that
might sound interesting and useful for what was to come in blogging, it was
not. I was the warehouse “dog’s-body,” and my job consisted largely of sweeping,
cleaning, lifting boxes, packing orders, and other menial and boring
tasks. Still, it helped pay the rent.
My third job was as a casual laborer. I was on-call with an employment agency
and did all kinds of temping work ranging from mind-numbing production-line
work on a conveyor belt to helping to assemble circuses (don’t ask).
Alongside these jobs I was finishing off my theology degree part-time—
a long-term endeavor which took 10 years to complete.
This was my life that fateful day when I first got the taste for blogging.
Hobby Blogger
I’d like to say that at the moment I hit “Publish” on my first blog that the earth
shook and a light from heaven came down and I was suddenly transformed
into a full-time blogger—but as we all know, it usually doesn’t happen that
way, and it didn’t for me.
In fact, for the first 12 or so months of my blogging very little changed. If
anything, I became busier as a result of taking on an extra subject at college and
leaving my job as a minister to lead a team starting a new, “emerging church.”
Blogging at this time was a hobby and a way to connect with others who
were thinking through issues of the “emerging church.”
My blog LivingRoom (www.livingroom.org.au/blog) became reasonably
popular in emerging-church circles that year, and my site-hosting and ISP
costs (I was still on dial-up) began to escalate.
It was after about a year of blogging that I accidentally started Digital Photo -
graphy Blog; it was originally a photoblog, but no one looked at my images,
and the review that I wrote of my camera got a lot of traffic. In an attempt to
help cover my hosting costs, I decided to add some AdSense ads and the
Amazon Affiliate program to this blog. I just wanted to cover expenses.
I quickly discovered that my hope of covering my costs was realistic, not
simply because of AdSense, but also because I put it on an established blog
xii ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
save for a wedding and pay off a car loan and college fees, so I had also taken
on a number of part-time jobs (minister’s wages are not fantastic at the best of
times, but part-time they are even less spectacular).
My second job was working for an online department store. Although that
might sound interesting and useful for what was to come in blogging, it was
not. I was the warehouse “dog’s-body,” and my job consisted largely of sweeping,
cleaning, lifting boxes, packing orders, and other menial and boring
tasks. Still, it helped pay the rent.
My third job was as a casual laborer. I was on-call with an employment agency
and did all kinds of temping work ranging from mind-numbing production-line
work on a conveyor belt to helping to assemble circuses (don’t ask).
Alongside these jobs I was finishing off my theology degree part-time—
a long-term endeavor which took 10 years to complete.
This was my life that fateful day when I first got the taste for blogging.
Hobby Blogger
I’d like to say that at the moment I hit “Publish” on my first blog that the earth
shook and a light from heaven came down and I was suddenly transformed
into a full-time blogger—but as we all know, it usually doesn’t happen that
way, and it didn’t for me.
In fact, for the first 12 or so months of my blogging very little changed. If
anything, I became busier as a result of taking on an extra subject at college and
leaving my job as a minister to lead a team starting a new, “emerging church.”
Blogging at this time was a hobby and a way to connect with others who
were thinking through issues of the “emerging church.”
My blog LivingRoom (www.livingroom.org.au/blog) became reasonably
popular in emerging-church circles that year, and my site-hosting and ISP
costs (I was still on dial-up) began to escalate.
It was after about a year of blogging that I accidentally started Digital Photo -
graphy Blog; it was originally a photoblog, but no one looked at my images,
and the review that I wrote of my camera got a lot of traffic. In an attempt to
help cover my hosting costs, I decided to add some AdSense ads and the
Amazon Affiliate program to this blog. I just wanted to cover expenses.
I quickly discovered that my hope of covering my costs was realistic, not
simply because of AdSense, but also because I put it on an established blog
xii ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
that was getting several thousand readers per day (this is important to keep
in mind).
Even with established traffic the earnings in the early days were not high.
In my first month (October, 2003), I averaged about $1.40 per day, and that
was with lots of curiosity clicks from my readers; by November, I'd hit $3
a day.
The money was minimal, but it covered my costs, and I began to wonder if
with the extra few dollars a month I might be able to save up for a new computer
(up to this point I was blogging on dial-up from a six-year-old PC that worked
most days). My other lofty goal was to save for a professional blog design.
December saw daily earnings hit $6 per day, January $9, February $10, and
March $15—hardly big dollars, but I began to wonder what would happen if
I saw the same sorts of increases in income over a longer period of time. By
that I don’t mean adding $2 to $3 to the daily average per month, but what
would happen if I could sustain 30-, 40-, or even 50-percent growth each
month?
I began to think in terms of exponential growth.
Part-Time Blogger
Around this time, I had a little more time on my hands and was in need of
another part-time job.
My study was winding down (I finally graduated), and other jobs ended.
“V” (my wife by now) began to hint that maybe I should start looking for
another part-time job (rightfully so), and we decided that when I finished my
degree at the end of June, I’d need to get serious about finding another two
days of work per week. All this time I was secretly doing the calculations in
my mind to see how much I’d need to earn per day to be able to call blogging
my part-time job.
April’s earnings came in and averaged around $20 per day, and I realized that
I just might have myself a part-time job already. The beauty of blogging income
is that it earns you money seven days per week, so I totaled $140 per week.
I began to work harder (largely after hours and late into the night), with
the hope of getting earnings up high enough to convince “V” to let me pass
on getting a “real” part-time job and to concentrate on blogging.
in mind).
Even with established traffic the earnings in the early days were not high.
In my first month (October, 2003), I averaged about $1.40 per day, and that
was with lots of curiosity clicks from my readers; by November, I'd hit $3
a day.
The money was minimal, but it covered my costs, and I began to wonder if
with the extra few dollars a month I might be able to save up for a new computer
(up to this point I was blogging on dial-up from a six-year-old PC that worked
most days). My other lofty goal was to save for a professional blog design.
December saw daily earnings hit $6 per day, January $9, February $10, and
March $15—hardly big dollars, but I began to wonder what would happen if
I saw the same sorts of increases in income over a longer period of time. By
that I don’t mean adding $2 to $3 to the daily average per month, but what
would happen if I could sustain 30-, 40-, or even 50-percent growth each
month?
I began to think in terms of exponential growth.
Part-Time Blogger
Around this time, I had a little more time on my hands and was in need of
another part-time job.
My study was winding down (I finally graduated), and other jobs ended.
“V” (my wife by now) began to hint that maybe I should start looking for
another part-time job (rightfully so), and we decided that when I finished my
degree at the end of June, I’d need to get serious about finding another two
days of work per week. All this time I was secretly doing the calculations in
my mind to see how much I’d need to earn per day to be able to call blogging
my part-time job.
April’s earnings came in and averaged around $20 per day, and I realized that
I just might have myself a part-time job already. The beauty of blogging income
is that it earns you money seven days per week, so I totaled $140 per week.
I began to work harder (largely after hours and late into the night), with
the hope of getting earnings up high enough to convince “V” to let me pass
on getting a “real” part-time job and to concentrate on blogging.
The work paid off: In May earnings hit $32 per day, and by the end of June,
I’d broken $1,000 in a month for the first time and was bringing in $48
per day.
It was crunch-time, and “V” and I had to consider our next move. I could
probably keep growing things each month by working after hours on blogging
and go find another job—or I could put the two free days that had been taken
up by study into blogging and see if I could make a go of it.
I decided to put six more months of effort into blogging to see where it
would end up. At the end of the six months, “V” and I would assess the situation
again—the threat of getting a “real job” still loomed. I also got my new
computer and the professional blog design that I’d been eyeing.
I’ll pause here in my story to say that this was a bit of a freaky moment for
both “V” and me. Neither of us had started a small business, and though I’ve
always had something of an entrepreneurial spirit, we are both fairly conservative
people in many ways. Although the figures indicated that there was
potential on many other levels, it just seemed plain weird.
I mean, who makes their income blogging? Needless to say, we didn’t tell
many people of our decision, and when we did tell a few family and friends,
there were plenty of raised eyebrows and lots of comments like, “That’s nice,
but are you going to get a real job?” and, “How’s your little hobby business
going?”
I’ll stop going into the monthly earnings at this point except to say that
investing the two days per week into blogging proved to be one of the best
decisions we made. I will stress that this decision came after I’d already been
blogging for 19 months and after establishing a number of blogs that were
earning reasonable money.
Quitting jobs is not something I recommend people just do off-the-cuff in
their early days of blogging. Work up over time, because though it worked
out for me, there are plenty of others for whom it has taken a lot longer, and
some for whom it just hasn’t worked at all.
Throughout the second half of 2004, I continued to put two days per week
into blogging while maintaining another three days a week of other work
(some church work and some warehousing). It was more than two days per
week in practice because I continued to work long hours in the evenings to
keep things moving forward, and at times worked literally around the clock
(like during the Olympics when I partnered with another blogger to run a
blog on the games).
xiv ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
I’d broken $1,000 in a month for the first time and was bringing in $48
per day.
It was crunch-time, and “V” and I had to consider our next move. I could
probably keep growing things each month by working after hours on blogging
and go find another job—or I could put the two free days that had been taken
up by study into blogging and see if I could make a go of it.
I decided to put six more months of effort into blogging to see where it
would end up. At the end of the six months, “V” and I would assess the situation
again—the threat of getting a “real job” still loomed. I also got my new
computer and the professional blog design that I’d been eyeing.
I’ll pause here in my story to say that this was a bit of a freaky moment for
both “V” and me. Neither of us had started a small business, and though I’ve
always had something of an entrepreneurial spirit, we are both fairly conservative
people in many ways. Although the figures indicated that there was
potential on many other levels, it just seemed plain weird.
I mean, who makes their income blogging? Needless to say, we didn’t tell
many people of our decision, and when we did tell a few family and friends,
there were plenty of raised eyebrows and lots of comments like, “That’s nice,
but are you going to get a real job?” and, “How’s your little hobby business
going?”
I’ll stop going into the monthly earnings at this point except to say that
investing the two days per week into blogging proved to be one of the best
decisions we made. I will stress that this decision came after I’d already been
blogging for 19 months and after establishing a number of blogs that were
earning reasonable money.
Quitting jobs is not something I recommend people just do off-the-cuff in
their early days of blogging. Work up over time, because though it worked
out for me, there are plenty of others for whom it has taken a lot longer, and
some for whom it just hasn’t worked at all.
Throughout the second half of 2004, I continued to put two days per week
into blogging while maintaining another three days a week of other work
(some church work and some warehousing). It was more than two days per
week in practice because I continued to work long hours in the evenings to
keep things moving forward, and at times worked literally around the clock
(like during the Olympics when I partnered with another blogger to run a
blog on the games).
xiv ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
This was a time when I began numerous blogs (I had 20 at one point) and
experimented with many different income streams and advertising systems. It
was during this time that I also started blogging seriously about blogging and
had an active blog-tips section on my LivingRoom blog. This didn’t go down
too well with some of my readers there, and so I decided to move all of those
tips to a new blog called ProBlogger.net. It launched on September 23, 2004.
Full-Time Blogger—Eventually
By mid December of 2004 we had pretty much decided that 2005 would see
me go full-time as a blogger. I’d already ditched most of my warehousing work
because the earnings from blogging had continued to rise, and my paid
church work had ended as we transitioned the church to a voluntary leadership
model.
All was going well, with some amazing figures in terms of earnings in
November and December, until what felt a little like disaster happened in mid
December. Google did one of its notorious updates where some bloggers go
way up in search results and others go way down—I was in the latter group
and most of my blogs virtually disappeared from Google, taking with them
almost three-quarters of my traffic and earnings. Ouch!
Things looked a little uncertain for the first time in more than six months,
and I wondered if the next Google update would see things back to where
they were or get worse. The Google update in mid December left us at a level
where we could still get by, but it was time for a contingency plan. I even went
out and got another part-time job for a while.
The next Google update brought things back to a level just under what
they were before. The experience did teach me many lessons, including the
importance of diversifying your interests, not relying only on search-engine
traffic, and expecting the unexpected when working online.
2005 was a massive year. I worked the part-time job that I’d got during the
“Google crash” and worked full-time on my blogging (a juggling act, but both
were worthwhile). I continued to diversify my efforts, which resulted in new
blogs and partnerships, including developing a course called Six Figure
Blogging with another blogger, Andy Wibbels. The name for the course came
as I realized that I’d in fact grown my blogging to a point where I earned more
than $100,000 per year from the medium—a staggering realization.
experimented with many different income streams and advertising systems. It
was during this time that I also started blogging seriously about blogging and
had an active blog-tips section on my LivingRoom blog. This didn’t go down
too well with some of my readers there, and so I decided to move all of those
tips to a new blog called ProBlogger.net. It launched on September 23, 2004.
Full-Time Blogger—Eventually
By mid December of 2004 we had pretty much decided that 2005 would see
me go full-time as a blogger. I’d already ditched most of my warehousing work
because the earnings from blogging had continued to rise, and my paid
church work had ended as we transitioned the church to a voluntary leadership
model.
All was going well, with some amazing figures in terms of earnings in
November and December, until what felt a little like disaster happened in mid
December. Google did one of its notorious updates where some bloggers go
way up in search results and others go way down—I was in the latter group
and most of my blogs virtually disappeared from Google, taking with them
almost three-quarters of my traffic and earnings. Ouch!
Things looked a little uncertain for the first time in more than six months,
and I wondered if the next Google update would see things back to where
they were or get worse. The Google update in mid December left us at a level
where we could still get by, but it was time for a contingency plan. I even went
out and got another part-time job for a while.
The next Google update brought things back to a level just under what
they were before. The experience did teach me many lessons, including the
importance of diversifying your interests, not relying only on search-engine
traffic, and expecting the unexpected when working online.
2005 was a massive year. I worked the part-time job that I’d got during the
“Google crash” and worked full-time on my blogging (a juggling act, but both
were worthwhile). I continued to diversify my efforts, which resulted in new
blogs and partnerships, including developing a course called Six Figure
Blogging with another blogger, Andy Wibbels. The name for the course came
as I realized that I’d in fact grown my blogging to a point where I earned more
than $100,000 per year from the medium—a staggering realization.
Since that time things have continued to grow, with new blogs and partnerships.
The biggest development was the starting of a blog network—
b5media—with a small group of other bloggers.
The idea behind the network was to see what we could achieve if we put
our experiences and skills together.
We started out small with just a handful of blogs, but quickly grew it into
a network of hundreds of blogs employing hundreds of bloggers from around
the world. The business took on $2 million of venture-capital investment in
late 2006 and has continued to grow into a multimillion-dollar business.
Lessons from My Journey
So why am I telling this story? Is it just a self-gratification thing? I have
enjoyed reminiscing, but there’s more to it than that. The main reason I
wanted to tell the story is because I think it’s important to keep emphasizing
a number of points:
1. Blogging for an income takes time. Although there are stories of
people making good money from blogs faster than I have (I’ve been
at it since 2002, remember), there are many others whose growth has
been slower. I’ve had my share of luck, have worked insane hours,
and I started out at a time when blogging was a lot less competitive
than it is now. All of these things have contributed to my success. It
took me more than 1.5 years to be able to call blogging a part-time
job, and another year before I went full-time. Building up to going
pro as a blogger takes time.
2. Take it one step at a time. Unless you have a massive pile of cash
somewhere or a sugar daddy (or mommy) to cover your expenses,
you need to approach blogging professionally one step at a time. My
approach was to always have a backup plan and to increase the time I
dedicated to blogging only gradually as it started to show me earnings
that justified it. My wife and I decided what level of income I
needed to earn and agreed that as long as blogging was bringing in
less than that, I would need other work. We put a time limit on it. If
income hadn’t reached the level we wanted within that time frame, I
would have been looking for work. Though this might sound a little
rigid or a bit of a downer, I didn’t want to run off ahead of “V” in my
own direction without our decisions being joint ones that we were
xvi ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
The biggest development was the starting of a blog network—
b5media—with a small group of other bloggers.
The idea behind the network was to see what we could achieve if we put
our experiences and skills together.
We started out small with just a handful of blogs, but quickly grew it into
a network of hundreds of blogs employing hundreds of bloggers from around
the world. The business took on $2 million of venture-capital investment in
late 2006 and has continued to grow into a multimillion-dollar business.
Lessons from My Journey
So why am I telling this story? Is it just a self-gratification thing? I have
enjoyed reminiscing, but there’s more to it than that. The main reason I
wanted to tell the story is because I think it’s important to keep emphasizing
a number of points:
1. Blogging for an income takes time. Although there are stories of
people making good money from blogs faster than I have (I’ve been
at it since 2002, remember), there are many others whose growth has
been slower. I’ve had my share of luck, have worked insane hours,
and I started out at a time when blogging was a lot less competitive
than it is now. All of these things have contributed to my success. It
took me more than 1.5 years to be able to call blogging a part-time
job, and another year before I went full-time. Building up to going
pro as a blogger takes time.
2. Take it one step at a time. Unless you have a massive pile of cash
somewhere or a sugar daddy (or mommy) to cover your expenses,
you need to approach blogging professionally one step at a time. My
approach was to always have a backup plan and to increase the time I
dedicated to blogging only gradually as it started to show me earnings
that justified it. My wife and I decided what level of income I
needed to earn and agreed that as long as blogging was bringing in
less than that, I would need other work. We put a time limit on it. If
income hadn’t reached the level we wanted within that time frame, I
would have been looking for work. Though this might sound a little
rigid or a bit of a downer, I didn’t want to run off ahead of “V” in my
own direction without our decisions being joint ones that we were
xvi ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
both comfortable with. “V” has been incredibly supportive in all this
and has allowed me to follow my dreams even when they seemed
quite bizarre—but there have also been times when she’s rightly been
the voice of reason and pulled me back to earth.
3. It takes hard work and discipline. As I mentioned a number of
times in this story, there have been countless nights when I’ve
worked into the wee hours of the morning blogging. Though I have
better boundaries these days, it wasn’t unusual for me to post 50
times per day over 12 hours in front of the screen. I love blogging, so
this isn’t a chore all of the time, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t
days (and weeks) that I didn’t want to slack off and ignore my business.
Friends talking about starting a home-based business often say
to me that they’d never be able to do it because they’d be too tempted
to never work. I always thought I’d be like this too, but I’ve worked
hard at being disciplined and working hard, and I credit a lot of my
success to that discipline.
4. Follow your dreams. The main point of this story was to communicate
the preceding three points and to give a realistic view of the
process of becoming a pro blogger. I never want to be accused of giving
an unbalanced view of blogging or hyping it up as a get-richquick
thing.
Having said all this, it would also be irresponsible of me not to say that it
is possible to make money blogging—and for some (but not all), it is possible
to make very good money doing it.
There is a growing number of bloggers earning a full-time living from blogging
(we employ a few at b5media) and even more that supplement their
income on a part-time basis while spending other time doing other work, raising
a family, or studying.
My hope is that this book will help the number of people making a living
from blogging increase even further.
Chris Garrett’s Blogging Story
My blogging story is quite different than Darren’s and, in fact, Darren plays
quite a pivotal role in it.
and has allowed me to follow my dreams even when they seemed
quite bizarre—but there have also been times when she’s rightly been
the voice of reason and pulled me back to earth.
3. It takes hard work and discipline. As I mentioned a number of
times in this story, there have been countless nights when I’ve
worked into the wee hours of the morning blogging. Though I have
better boundaries these days, it wasn’t unusual for me to post 50
times per day over 12 hours in front of the screen. I love blogging, so
this isn’t a chore all of the time, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t
days (and weeks) that I didn’t want to slack off and ignore my business.
Friends talking about starting a home-based business often say
to me that they’d never be able to do it because they’d be too tempted
to never work. I always thought I’d be like this too, but I’ve worked
hard at being disciplined and working hard, and I credit a lot of my
success to that discipline.
4. Follow your dreams. The main point of this story was to communicate
the preceding three points and to give a realistic view of the
process of becoming a pro blogger. I never want to be accused of giving
an unbalanced view of blogging or hyping it up as a get-richquick
thing.
Having said all this, it would also be irresponsible of me not to say that it
is possible to make money blogging—and for some (but not all), it is possible
to make very good money doing it.
There is a growing number of bloggers earning a full-time living from blogging
(we employ a few at b5media) and even more that supplement their
income on a part-time basis while spending other time doing other work, raising
a family, or studying.
My hope is that this book will help the number of people making a living
from blogging increase even further.
Chris Garrett’s Blogging Story
My blogging story is quite different than Darren’s and, in fact, Darren plays
quite a pivotal role in it.
The early part of my career consisted of various IT and programming roles
until I discovered the Internet or, more accurately, the Internet found me!
I was working for a college in the U.K. when the management decided we
should have Internet infrastructure and a website. The task for setting all this
up fell to me.
Although I had experienced the Internet in a limited way, and had been
online for a while, first through “bulletin boards” then later using Usenet discussion
groups, it was my first experience of the Mosaic web browser that
switched me on to the Internet in a real way, and this project meant learning
everything, and in detail. I was hooked from that moment.
As well as the college website I built my own, one after another. I had a
science-fiction news site, I built sites around my favorite Usenet newsgroups,
and, of course, I had a personal homepage. Then I started doing sites on the
side for local companies.
After that I took various Web and marketing-agency roles and looked for
ways to increase my connections and job marketability. This, combined with
a naturally helpful nature, and also being a complete geek, meant that I was
active on discussion lists and forums. Getting known in those geek communities
led to writing work, which led to co-authoring a couple of programming
books, which led to even more of a geek profile.
Around this time I started trying to supplement my meager salary with
building affiliate marketing websites. Though I had some successes hawking
magazine subscriptions, lawyer leads, and loans, my heart really wasn’t in it.
My programming websites still did very well, bringing in leads for my programmer-
training sideline and freelance writing.
It was Darren and Google AdSense that switched me on to professional
blogging.
Though I had hand-developed a blog as a journal in 1999, in fact before
they were called “blogs,” and routinely blogged and wrote articles about programming,
it was the knowledge that you could make money off blogs without
selling products you don’t necessarily have interest in that made me a true
believer.
I fell out with AdSense almost as quickly as I fell in, but thanks to Darren
I knew this blogging thing was a perfect fit for me.
My biggest blogging achievement to date is probably having worked on
Performancing.com before it was sold to Splashpress Media. I was one of the
founding bloggers on the site. In the space of a year we took it from nothing
xviii ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
until I discovered the Internet or, more accurately, the Internet found me!
I was working for a college in the U.K. when the management decided we
should have Internet infrastructure and a website. The task for setting all this
up fell to me.
Although I had experienced the Internet in a limited way, and had been
online for a while, first through “bulletin boards” then later using Usenet discussion
groups, it was my first experience of the Mosaic web browser that
switched me on to the Internet in a real way, and this project meant learning
everything, and in detail. I was hooked from that moment.
As well as the college website I built my own, one after another. I had a
science-fiction news site, I built sites around my favorite Usenet newsgroups,
and, of course, I had a personal homepage. Then I started doing sites on the
side for local companies.
After that I took various Web and marketing-agency roles and looked for
ways to increase my connections and job marketability. This, combined with
a naturally helpful nature, and also being a complete geek, meant that I was
active on discussion lists and forums. Getting known in those geek communities
led to writing work, which led to co-authoring a couple of programming
books, which led to even more of a geek profile.
Around this time I started trying to supplement my meager salary with
building affiliate marketing websites. Though I had some successes hawking
magazine subscriptions, lawyer leads, and loans, my heart really wasn’t in it.
My programming websites still did very well, bringing in leads for my programmer-
training sideline and freelance writing.
It was Darren and Google AdSense that switched me on to professional
blogging.
Though I had hand-developed a blog as a journal in 1999, in fact before
they were called “blogs,” and routinely blogged and wrote articles about programming,
it was the knowledge that you could make money off blogs without
selling products you don’t necessarily have interest in that made me a true
believer.
I fell out with AdSense almost as quickly as I fell in, but thanks to Darren
I knew this blogging thing was a perfect fit for me.
My biggest blogging achievement to date is probably having worked on
Performancing.com before it was sold to Splashpress Media. I was one of the
founding bloggers on the site. In the space of a year we took it from nothing
xviii ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income
to number 15 on the Technorati 100 list, had our software downloaded hundreds
of thousands of times, and had more than 30,000 registered users.
Fast-forward a few years to today; I now make 100 percent of my income
directly or indirectly from blogging. As well as my own blog, chrisg.com, I
write for several other blogs as a guest or paid writer, and I do consulting,
with leads all coming from my blog or past-client referrals.
of thousands of times, and had more than 30,000 registered users.
Fast-forward a few years to today; I now make 100 percent of my income
directly or indirectly from blogging. As well as my own blog, chrisg.com, I
write for several other blogs as a guest or paid writer, and I do consulting,
with leads all coming from my blog or past-client referrals.
It is hard to miss the word “blog” today. We hear blogs mentioned in the
media, see them all over the World Wide Web, and we even hear them discussed
now in business and social situations. In many cases the term “blogger”
is used not just to describe a person who writes a blog, but also someone
who earns money doing it.
In this chapter we examine what blogging actually is and what it involves,
the different types of blogger, and the truth about making money blogging.
Before we get into earning money from a blog, we had better define what
exactly a blog is.
What Is a Blog?
So what exactly is a blog? Because we are at the beginning of a blogging book,
this is definitely an issue we need to be clear on!
There are a number of ways we can answer this question, ranging from the
broad to the highly technical. To put it as clearly as possible, a blog is a particular
type of website. You can see an example in Figure 1-1.
Studies have shown that although awareness of blogs is increasing, there
are still many people who frequent blogs without realizing it. This is fine; the
key thing is that readers get value out of it. Anyone who has been reading
blogs for a while, though, will know there is more to blogging than just publishing
any old website.
Though blogs started out as informal lists of links and personal journals,
they have evolved into a far more varied medium. In addition to diary blogs
and link blogs, there are now CEO blogs, educational blogs, marketing
blogs—you name it!
1 Blogging for
Money
media, see them all over the World Wide Web, and we even hear them discussed
now in business and social situations. In many cases the term “blogger”
is used not just to describe a person who writes a blog, but also someone
who earns money doing it.
In this chapter we examine what blogging actually is and what it involves,
the different types of blogger, and the truth about making money blogging.
Before we get into earning money from a blog, we had better define what
exactly a blog is.
What Is a Blog?
So what exactly is a blog? Because we are at the beginning of a blogging book,
this is definitely an issue we need to be clear on!
There are a number of ways we can answer this question, ranging from the
broad to the highly technical. To put it as clearly as possible, a blog is a particular
type of website. You can see an example in Figure 1-1.
Studies have shown that although awareness of blogs is increasing, there
are still many people who frequent blogs without realizing it. This is fine; the
key thing is that readers get value out of it. Anyone who has been reading
blogs for a while, though, will know there is more to blogging than just publishing
any old website.
Though blogs started out as informal lists of links and personal journals,
they have evolved into a far more varied medium. In addition to diary blogs
and link blogs, there are now CEO blogs, educational blogs, marketing
blogs—you name it!
1 Blogging for
Money
