Make Money Blogging: Learn From My Mistakes!

First of all, I'd like to say that I am not a marketer. I have had no schooling or experience at marketing, and I don't even think I am very good at it. I am a freelance writer, which has helped a bit, but when it comes to marketing, I am just stabbing around in the dark like almost any average Jane. So this hub is not to give you expert advice on top page ranks and millions of views. Rather, it is to showcase my own personal experience, and share tips I have picked up in the blogosphere and online money making world.

I first began to see the internet as a source of income about two years ago. Back then, I was writing in my spare time and working as a retail store manager. After leaving my miserable day job, I was left with a lot of anxiety about what to do to support myself. In a state like that, it's not hard to guess that I was sucked into a scam or two. I won't go into what they were here, but they definitely left me in worse shape -scrambling for any dollar I could find, and weeping at every collection notice.

My Introduction to Blogging

I'd picked up freelance writing and was producing articles for private clients as well as large content sites on a regular basis, but the work and pay were both pretty sporadic. Any money I made was instantly gone and the wait for my next "paycheck" was excurciating at times.

I have been a blogger for 12 years or so, but always on personal blog sites and simply for my life experience, not for anything else. It had never occurred to me that it could make me a dime, so I never even researched the possibility until April 2009.

The interesting answer to my never-ending search for opportunity came when I was not even looking for it. To be honest, I was browsing artist blogs on Blogger simply to waste time (I know, tsk-tsk) when I accidentally stumbled on a mis-categorized blog. This was a woman's account of her personal life as a professional blogger. "A professional WHAT?" As I read more, I began to kick myself for all the wasted time, money, and effort I'd spent on dead ends when something I've always done as a hobby could have been earning me an income this whole time!

After much more research into terms that were not even in my vocabulary yet (such as affiliate marketing, PPC, Adsense, etc.), I decided That I was going to try this tactic. Might as well, I figured.

So I set up a blog. The topic choice was suggested by a friend, as I have written blog posts on it already. It was a product/technique for labor which I had already used and loved for it's effectiveness. It is possibly also a dead horse, but I don't care too much at this point. To avoid a spam filter here, I've opted to not put the link here, but in the link box below.

It turns out, making money online works the same way as makig money anywhere else. Unless you are willing to be involved in illegal activity, it takes training, skill and work. It is not "easy money", unless you're a pro...or just a lot smarter than the averge person.

But it is also unlike making money elsewhere, because your time and efforts do not reap benefits in steady increments every two weeks. In fact, you could go months without seeing a decent return for all of your work, especially if you don't have funds to set up your own site or PPC account, and that is what will turn most people away from it. It almost turned me away, but I'm very stubborn.

Another setback at times is each site you are a member of will have it's own do's and dont's.  So the formula that you use for one network might just get you banned from another.  This means that you really NEED to read and understand a site's TOS before you go wild with your writing and building.

Other Options

Since I have started my semi-professional blogging, I have opened the doors to many other options and opportunities as well. Many of you probably already the income earning potential of sites like Squidoo and, of course, Hubpages. These sites work by giving you a percentage by ad clicks and products your "mini-sites" sell.

I have very recently started to play with youtube or marketing.  By recently, I mean within the last two weeks.  It's been so little time that I can not give any honest feedback on the technique.  I can say that lots of people are making some money with video marketing, and I am definitely into learning all I can!

Learning how to get traffic without spending thousands of dollars for PPC and e-products is the hardest part.  It's like trying to learn how to manage a trade without any schooling or paying for anyone to train you.  Not impossible, but difficult and at times, frustrating. 

The Payout

So, after five months and lots of lessons learned, what exactly have I got to show for my efforts? Well, My total earned amount has been about $1100. Divide that by 5 and you could say that I've gotten around $220 extra per month. Except of course for the fact that the first two months I got $0. This may seem meager and not worth the time to most of you, however consider the fact that I have put NO money into it, and actually enjoy doing it.

Would I conclude that this is a good option for everyone?  Not at all.  It requires a lot of time, love, effort, and self discipline to move forward, and it may be worth to others to dedicate that kind of energy to another career path.