Can you Really Make Money Blogging?

I know there are millions of people out there who definitely think the answer is yes and they are right. But, most of them think they will do so by frequently posting and sticking up a few adsense ads and/or affiliate banners. And when that’s the case, they do make some money, but very rarely is it a substantial amount.

I’m writing this blog post… the same blog post that so many others have written on other blogs because I believe I have something new to offer. I bet there are at least 100,000 other blog posts on the Internet right now with a topic similar to this one “Can you make money blogging?” And I bet 98% of them say basically the same thing (yes, you can make loads of money blogging)… written primarily by people who are making little to no money blogging.

So let’s talk about the average blogger, then we’ll compare the average blogger, who makes little to no money, to “professional” bloggers who make a good deal of money.

The Average Blogger:

- Has an interest in the topic he or she writes about.

- Doesn’t really have any form of business strategy in place other than “write as much as possible” and try to build links.

- Worries WAY too much about how many people are subscribed to their RSS feed and doesn’t even build an email list.

- Will go about 1 year (max) … realize he or she isn’t making much money and quit posting to that blog.

The Successful Blogger:

- Has a PASSION for the topic he or she writes about.

- Has a solid plan for his or her business, in which his or her blog is usually only a PART of.

- Concentrates on using his or her blog as a platform to build his or her list!

- Will not quit, even if little to no money is made because of passion and confidence.

I predict one of the first 5 comments below will be similar to “But Darren Rowse of ProBlogger doesn’t seem to concentrate on building his list.” And you’re right… or at least it’s seems that way by glancing at the current layout of his blog. My answer to that, he’s leaving ALOT of money on the table and for every one successful blogger who doesn’t have a list, I’ll give you 10 Successful bloggers who do!!

Give me 100,000 RSS subscribers and 100,000 Email Subscribers all in the same niche and I Guarantee you I’ll make $100,000 more with the email subscribers.

The primary reason I decided to write this blog post is because I see SO MANY people spending hours every single day writing blog posts with no real plan… no visitor retention other than RSS… no passion.. Yet they have a dream of blogging full-time and being a “Pro Blogger.”