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How to Make Money Blogging

By Kevin M

Millions of people have blogs; a small number make money blogging—the vast majority don’t. What’s the difference between the two, and how can you join the money making crowd?

This may seem like an oversimplification, but I think it comes down to a few basics:

  • You have to be passionate about what you are doing (it’s not a job, it’s a business—your business)
  • You have to be patient—it will take months and maybe years to reach your goals, but that’s the case with any business
  • You have to be consistent, willing to write, post and keep your blog going no matter what
  • You have to be flexible—everything happens faster on the web and you have to roll with it, or get rolled over by it

If that’s describes you and your approach to blogging, you have an excellent chance of succeeding, even if you don’t have all of the technical skills right now.

How much can you make blogging? Some people are content to make a few hundred dollars per month blogging, keeping it mostly as a side business. Others make in the thousands, and that’s where blogging starts to become something more. And a small percentage are making in the tens of thousands each month, making them blogging entrepreneurs.

I’m not in that last category by any means…but there’s always tomorrow! And that’s the point—blogging is a dynamic process, not a destination. It’s an opportunity to grow your business, if you’re committed.

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Building a Blogging Career—One Step at a Time

By Kevin M

Who doesn’t dream of making money online these days? Guess what–it isn’t impossible. You can do it blogging—I am—and there are all kinds of directions you can take that. A blogging career can seem like either an impossible journey or a plunge into the unknown. After all, of the millions of blogs that are started each year only a very few ever make any money and last as long as a year.

I’m of the opinion that having a workable strategy can stack the blogging deck in your favor—not just a little, but substantially. Like any other money making venture, blogging can actually be done in steps, and as you master one, you’ll be well-prepared for the next. I’ve identified at least three—complete each and you’ll have built your own online business!

The place to start: Freelance blog writing (Step One)

Most bloggers don’t start this way, but I feel strongly that freelance blog writing should be Step Number One on the road to a blogging career. This is where you write for other sites—established blogs that are already making money. There are more than a few compelling reasons why you might want to go this route first:

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Blogging is NOT a Get-Rich-Quick Scheme

By Kevin M

I’ve been writing a good bit lately about the trials and tribulations and triumphs and benefits of self employment—mostly as it relates to blogging since that’s the business I’m engaged in. But this is a good time to highlight one critical point—as the title of this post reads, bogging is NOT a get-rich-quick scheme!

Now that point may be obvious to the thousands of people who have built successful blogging businesses, and even more so to those who have tried to do it but haven’t been successful. But to the vast majority of the non-blogging crowd and to those who might aspire to join the ranks, that point may not be as apparent.

Helping to distort reality is the fact that blogging has only been around for a few years—I’d say ten at best. Businesses that create success stories tend to conjure up thoughts of quick riches, especially when the business in question is at least loosely related to technology.

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Self-employment in the Internet Age

By Kevin M

“Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”—Motto of The Christophers

I mostly make my living on the internet these days but I have a confession. I never worked much with computers until three years ago, least of which the internet. Sure, in the preceding 25 years that I worked in mortgages and accounting I used computer applications, lots of them, but most of us understand the not so subtle difference between that and working in an environment in which your primary means of support is coming directly from working on/in computers or somewhere out in cyberspace.

My career as a paper pusher ended unceremoniously at the end of 2008, a time when recycled paper pushers weren’t in very big demand. Where to go, what to do? Damn computers–#%&*@$g internet—they’ll be the end of the world, you watch!

That last line is a fiction (OK, it was a deeply suppressed thought), but I chose to intentionally avoid dwelling on it. Every one who’s ever seen their career crash and burn can point to one or more big picture factors that directly or indirectly greased the wheels of their departure. We can either poison ourselves with bitterness, or find some way to benefit from prevailing changes (hence the Christopher’s quote above). Which route we take will mostly determine our future direction.

Job VS Opportunity


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7 Reasons Self-Employment is More Secure than a Job

By Kevin M

Last night my wife learned something disturbing—not for herself but for some of her coworkers. She has a part time job with a company that just announced that fulltime employees are losing their benefits and being converted to part time status.

Now the optimist may say, “it could have been worse—at least they didn’t lose their jobs”. And while there may be a grain of truth to that assumption, the bad news outweighs the good here, and I’d say by a wide margin. First of all, part time isn’t full time—it’s part time. That means even if you keep your hourly rate of pay, there’s no guarantee of 40 hours a week, or even of 30 or 20. That looks an awful lot like a pay cut to me.

Second is suddenly going from a job with benefits to one without—that includes health insurance. Charles Hugh Smith has made a strong case that the middle class isn’t middle class without health insurance coverage, and I think that point is beyond debate. What we’re looking at here, in addition to the pay cut, is the loss of socio-economic class status. They’ve been demoted to “the working poor” without ever losing their jobs. That’s pretty radical.

There ain’t no more job security


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How Blogging Solved My Mid-Life Career Crisis

By Kevin M

Picture this: you’re 50 years old, your career is dying on the vine—your entire industry is on life support—and you need to find a new career to carry you through the rest of your life.

Sadly—and gladly—this situation was not hypothetical. It was my reality. I say “sadly” because it was an incredibly stressful situation to go through, especially having a family to support while it was unfolding. But I also say “gladly” because overcoming crisis is an amazingly empowering experience.

Rising out of the pile of economic statistics

I was one of the millions of career casualties of the financial meltdown that you no doubt heard tell of from the news media and assorted talking heads. In fact, I was at the epicenter of the storm, working many years as a loan originator in the mortgage industry. (When I wrote in the first paragraph that “your entire industry is on life support” I’m sure you can appreciate that I wasn’t exaggerating!)

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