There is only one rule and this post will outline how that rule worked for me as I’ve been working to turn my blogging hobby into an income.
The only rule about online income:
It constantly changes.
Yes, that is it. Simple, isn’t it? And yet, that is what can make it incredibly challenging.
There may have been a time when millionaires were made overnight, but if they are still looking for their online business to provide income revenues they are working hard and still hustling.
In that sense, it is the same story as with any business. Success depends on hard work, and wild success is engined by people who love the process.
…Like gazillionaire Les Wexnerexample of someone who loved the process, who built his Limited empire less for the money and more for his drive to make his business grow and succeed ( I heard him on an interview given to a PBS show).
That seems to be the factor that almost all wildly successful business people have: they are driven to compete, most of all with themselves.
You may disagree with me… if you think it is something else I would love to read your opinion in the comments.
But Back To My Story
This is about how to make money, but mostly about not worrying if you don’t (yet)
source: Ilona Erwin
Right. I was going to sum up my online pathway in generating income and how that looks:
- At first I wrote entirely as a free service to others. I benefitted the “free” hosting, and in return I didn’t have to pay money for hosting. We weren’t allowed to have competing ads on our sites.
- Then I discovered AmazonTheir rules have changed since my early days. You will need to make a sale or two to stay in the program. For years I made $0.00 -and was doubtful that anyone could make enough to qualify for the minimum for a payout.
- Soon after I was able to sign up for Google Adsense. That also made me nothing, and with a higher qualifying payout. At least it kept whatever pennies were earned in an accumulating amount. Eventually, years later I did get that first payment.
Alrighty- the story here is that there is a learning curve to understanding what it means to monetize blogging.
Initially I was handicapped by the idea that it was crass to have ads on a blog. Yet, my html website was given ads that weren’t even my own while at Geocities. My idea translated into:
“I can’t make money with integrity on my own writing, but it is okay for others to reap income from all my hard work”
It was hard work I most willingly gave because I loved having readers enjoy and benefit from what I was offering. I wanted them to see beauty, to be inspired, to learn from me.
I can’t emphasize enough what hard work it was. But it was fun, stimulating, and gave me creative outlet. I also cannot emphasize enough how much I needed that as a stay at home wife with ten kids.
But I was using my life to give the blogs so much time and effort, and at the same time my husband and I were struggling financially.
I needed to improve the blog, and I needed for it to pay for itself. It wasn’t until much much later that I felt it should become a business (or even had the idea that it could)
Keys To Adsense and Amazon
The keys are placement and traffic.
source: tawheed manzoor on flickr
Now more than ever, there must be enough eyeballs visiting a page to create income from these two sources. That is traffic.
Along with those two keys, which are particularly important for Amazon affiliates, is that you must have enough places where products are included included within the posts and pages of the blog. One on the front page or a few in the sidebar won’t do it, for most of us.
That was always so hard for me because I am primarily a writer. Photos were a challenge, graphics were a challenge, and now including relevant items from Amazon? Yes, it seemed to be one more hurdle to writing a good post.
For years I didn’t even try. And I made so little income I privately thought it might be a scam. But it wasn’t, I just didn’t know how it worked.
So for Adsense there are two main things- having plenty of traffic to the blog and lots of content.
For Amazon, take the time to include links to the products you are advocating anyway. I always like the magazine resource pages that told me where I could get featured items, and that is what Amazon links on a blog can do.
I usually qualify for the minimum payout for Amazon now.
That isn’t something to boast about exactly… it is small potatoes, but at least it is potatoes on the plate.
Amazon Learning Center
That is what I would call my time on Squidoo. Before I participated in that writing community (which is what it was for me), I had no idea how to include products within my writing. Not really incorporate them, or write income producing pages. I just wrote.
Squidoo (It is no more, it was sold and closed) had so many tutorials and tips from many writers. It had traffic. And it shared income.
Google Adsense is very up and down for me. My sites were google slappeddrops in search engine placement due to changes in how google gives results, like their Panda update so many times, that if I depended on that to pay the hosting bills, this story would be over.
Squidoo articles added up in small increments. The more I wrote the more I was making, sometimes it would surprise me which topics and pages could give me support.
Eventually, it paid the way for my other sites, including my garden site, Ilona’s Garden. I was able to buy Premium themes, which was necessary as WordPress had become more and more complex, and my sites were hacked. (Hacking meant I had to keep everything updated, and have reliably secure themes).
There is so much more to these stories that can only hinted at here … but it shows that income switched from Google ads to Squidoo ad-sharing community.
And a side effect of those pages was that my own Amazon affiliate earnings were finally increasing. They sent me traffic, due to their liberal policies on linking and adding your own affiliate products.
Squidoo became Hubpages, and for me, the adjustment is only in format. The income levels are about on par. I have no idea how long that will last.
But that could change at any time.
And that is the point of my story, online success depends on making the changes, and keeping abreast of what works and what doesn’t.
Secondly, but Importantly
Always, for me, everything is servant to the writing. I am one of those people who likes to craft, who wants to provide my readers with something worthwhile. Something that means something to me.
Making money from this is always secondary and I have had issues and difficulties because of that.
Other Things I Won’t Compromise
- My family comes before the blog
- I write from my inner muse, not in response to whether it makes money
- I must be honest as possible.
Sure I make mistakes and sometimes deviate from the path, but those are my guiding principles in what I do, to create the blogs and to build income.
More Changes That Challenge
Blogging today is so different than when I started, although I saw many of these things coming.
What I didn’t foresee is how important the visuals would become. And how it would be a more proprietary environment.
We now need to have our own professional photos. Our own professional looking graphics. Participation on many social platforms ( which means lots of writing that never finds its way to the blog.
This makes a difference in income. Presently I have plough more than I make back into this blogging adventure.
Your Takeaways From My Experience
To sum up
- Have diverse sources of income for your blogging/writing
- SEO and traffic building are important
- Each manner of generating income has its own rules and learning curve. They change.
- Implicit, but previously unsaid, is the fact that you should concentrate on growing your own blogs and creating your own products.
- Don’t give up too soon. The one thing it all takes is patience, work, and time. If it changes, change with it.
And it ought to be fun. You ought to enjoy creating and giving, or it just isn’t worthwhile.
