Making money off blogging?

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I have been thinking about this and was hoping for a little informed feedback. I am thinking of starting one or more blog sites about specific, general subjects ( i.e. "technology" or "finance", not a generic personal blog). My hope is to use Google Ad Sense to make money off of advertising. However, I have no real idea how to generate page views. How does one get a site listed high enough in Google searches to have a chance of generating revenue? I am not looking to make a lot of money off of it (I would be thrilled if it was $50-100 a month), but would like to have my efforts not go to waste. In the past, I had made a few sites that Googled VERY high ( top three on a subject) by using the Open Directory Project, but I think the game has long since changed. It was, after all, about 7 or 8 years ago. As this is an experiment at this point, I will probably host it for free on Google's "Blogger" service. Anyhow, I look forward to some feedback.

 

[HurstOlds]

Well, blogging is real fun but I don't consider it much of a money maker. You might have better luck waiting for the next big thing to come out and popping up the first forum dedicated to it and getting sponsors. Something like when the new Camaro came out...

Basically, now a days you need some unique content that can only be found at your site and no where else. One guy's blog that I follow is this dude:
http://www.dannychoo.com/

He has some really unique stuff, like anime dolls, pictures of Japanese hot chicks and other bloggings. He pulls like around $2000 - $5000 a month I believe with his blog. He had some blogs telling about how he does it and stuff. But you can consider him a pro at everything he does. He worked for some big name Internet companies over the years and knows how to pull in people.

You probably need a ton of hits. Bury your Google Ads into your writings to get suckers to click on them. You can get paid via two ways I believe. Either views or click thru's. I haven't look into it in a while so I could be wrong. But you can specify what type of ads you want to display via Google Ads, as well as set up ones you DONT want to show (in case a competitor was advertising car parts on your own car parts site or something like that).

I really don't think blogging is a good money maker. Like you said you want to at least get something out of putting in all your time into a site. I can't believe how fast it blew up, but I was interested in fquick.com. For what it is, I really didn't think it would get popular, and look how that blew up quick in only 2 years or so it's been going.

A site like that has some money put into the shell and initial start up, but the potential is unlimited. I heard from inside sources that the owner of the site makes bank off of it.

A buddy runs a hockey fan website that pulls a ton of traffic and he is only make like $10-$15 a month. He thinks it's worth it because it pays for his server fees, but m'eh. I used to run a website that was pulling in around 2 million hits a year (I don't consider that much), but I never pimped it out. The secret is to get referrals to send people to your site. That helps boost your ranking in Google searches. Another trick is SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If you are using a cookie cutter free blog host thing, you probably won't be able to pull this off. Those are the basic tricks that I'm giving out for now

 

[GP403]

If you've got a lot of time to put into the link building, networking, and marketing aspect of it, you can probably pull it off. You need to keep on top of your subject, though, and keep up with the posts. The adsense thing takes the right topic in order to pull in any kind of cash as well.

I've started and ended a few blogs in the past, and none of them have made any real money. This site is the biggest $ maker I have (and that's not saying much, believe me!! 😉 ) Just to give you an idea, my biggest trafficked blog, War Movie Blog, gets about 200-300 page views/day, sometimes more sometimes less, and gets me practically no adsense clicks, and the few I do get are literally pennies. I'm not abandoning that one just yet though, I think its still got potential, but it'd take time I just don't have to get it there. (Finally saw the Hurt Locker and it was awesome! need to write that one up!) The rest I don't want to put here since it'd look like I'm spamming up the place!!

There's lots of sites out there dedicated to blogging as a profession. Learn HTML/CSS, Wordpress, get hosting, and start your own. Blogger sites, while you could pull it off under the right circumstances/material I don't think carry a lot of weight. Like Hurst said, unless you're doing something different or can do it really really well you're going to be stuck competing with the big names. There's a bit of a learning curve, but not bad.

and Danny Choo's site is awesome, (although I don't much get into the whole anime/dolls thing) but yeah, he's got a huge network of people to draw on to get the word out and get new material. The Shibuya stormtrooper bit doesn't hurt, either.... His core audience is a bit, ah, eclectic might be a good word...

 

[adumb]

youtube is a HUGE market as well, if you set up a youtube account to parallel with your blog you could get subscribers on youtube and carry it over to the blog,

 

[HurstOlds]

Youtube is a good idea. I can't believe the number of followers some of the crappy channels are pulling in. Video blogging is a lot faster, less work and whatever, but it would probably be even harder to generate cash. A lot of sheeple like being able to watch a video that teaches them something, rather than reading something. lolz

The rest I don't want to put here since it'd look like I'm spamming up the place!!

Would they happen to be all the links at the bottom of this forums' theme? 🙂 🙂

 

[silent_orchestra]

I'm not sure blogging is where it's really at... Like people said you need something truely unique to your site... Either that or just better coverage of the subject than the others have, and a good fan bace, which could be difficult just starting (same reason most magazines and forums flop in the early stages)... I actually think if you had a forum/blog combo like this... http://www.jalopyjournal.com and the other half.. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum ... With good sponsers you could make fairly decent money (I pretty sure Ryan who runs the above mentioned sites does, plus he has 2 or three other forums, and possibly more blogs too)...

Now if this site could be expanded to draw more of crowd, maybe add a blog.. try and pick up more sponsers it could probably do fairly well too... And if you do like the hot rod site above and only allow discounts from sponsors to paying members you could make a few extra bucks... (the HAMB's "alliance membership" runs $50 a year and there's quite a few discounts that make it worth that...) I'm sure if this forum grew a bit more something like that could be done.. I would pay for a membership for a few good discounts or a cool shirt or some sh*t.... anyways just my take on things...

 

[carmangary]

Do you really have enough to say that 1000s of people will go to your website and click on things? Probably not. Maybe you can do something like make tshirts or stickers and sell them on the internet.

 

[adumb]

Do you really have enough to say that 1000s of people will go to your website and click on things? Probably not. Maybe you can do something like make tshirts or stickers and sell them on the internet.

if anyone on this forum does have enough to say/ knowledge to share, it is 85 cutlass

 

[85 Cutlass Brougham]

I figure that it costs me not one dime to write an article a day, and the subject I have chosen is not heavily covered. It will be on ways to live well on a limited income and touch on everything from money management to food to home decorating and getting the most life for a minimum amount of money ( sub $25k a year). I may do a companion blog about being a car guy with limited funds as well.

So, I have nothing but time at risk. Being that it is on a Google server, I do have the option to migrate all of my content off of it should it do well enough to make sense to change the business model. I also just decided to withdraw from the one class I am in right now as I really can't devote the time to it right now, so I will have the time freed up to do some writing.

 

[HurstOlds]

Hey 85, if I remember correctly weren't you into obscure power generating methods and things like that?
I think I remember you mentioning that you have spent a lot of time studying steam engines and a myriad of other engine systems and stuff.

I think that is a hot topic lately. Stuff like over unity, free energy, alternative energy and urban survival techniques and stuff like that. You strike me as a guy that already has all these interests, and maybe has looked into it as a hobby.

You could set up a blog dedicated to passing on information and ideas, or highlighting others' work in those fields, that laymen could read and understand and use in the event of 12-21-2012, or whatever.

I've been interested in all the above stuff for about a year now, and I've seen a huge growth in websites and forums that center around it.

Edit:
Found this thread just now, nice job 85!
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4128&hilit=HHO#p25852