Blogging Doesn't Pay My Bills

When I clock in for my retail associate job I know that I will be getting paid $12/hour. Knowing this makes it easier to figure out my paychecks. Number of hours “X” $12—minus taxes.

Now back in the late 80’s, I started reading articles online about “making money online from blogging”. Over the years I have bought many books, online courses and subscribed to more newsletters than I could keep up with from well known blogging “experts”. I have had a dozen or more blogs on different websites and in the last 20 years I have earned $0.00 from blogging. Obviously my day job pays better

Well if you looked up the definition of blog/blogging…A person types up a journal to put it on the world wide web. You can type about almost anything that interests you. You can make it your very own public diary. That public journal on the web is now your blog and you become the blogger.

But if you really think that typing up your daily journal is going to bring in money, then you are also a dreamer. Where do you think money will come from when you type up your new dinner recipe, or post your favorite photo from your weekend getaway?

You can type up a dozen recipes a day for the rest of your life but unless you are making an actual cookbook to sell, then I don’t believe that JUST typing up recipes on your blog will make you any money. If you truly love to cook, then besides selling a cookbook, maybe you need to also figure out how to compare prices in different stores or review different restaurants in your area or choose some unique ingredient and type up something and link it to the company that sells it. See long before the internet was available, companies would hire someone to be creative and come up with slogans to sell their product. Now with the internet, we can type up a whole blog about a product or restaurant. The blog becomes the advertisement slogan.

Do you remember any catchy television commercials from years ago? One of my brother’s favorites had a dancing egg and it was singing about how not to drown your food in ketchup, mayo, and goo. Just by using that commercial you could write about eggs, condiments, and better ways to flavor food. You just have to grab your audience’s attention just like the dancing egg grabbed my brother.

I work in retail, but I am not a salesman. In the past I have tried selling Avon, Tupperware, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Scentsy Candles and I am sure there were other things that I can’t remember right now. All I do remember is losing money with every company. I probably couldn’t sell guacamole to a Mexican restaurant. I do know how to type and can post up a blog about ways I like to eat it. But I don’t think my guacamole blog (if I wrote one) would be a money-maker. Supposedly good blogs are made to solve a problem or question that someone else might have. Me eating guacamole doesn’t solve anything.

1. BANK CARD: Lets face it, how else will you be getting paid? Now-a-days I don’t think big internet companies will be sending out a paper check in the mail. Just be sure that your bank has your updated physical address on file. Unfortunately this can be a hassle if you move often and the bank will insist on sending you a new card every 4-6 months with a new card number so they can prevent fraud.

2. PAYPAL: I had a problem years ago with paypal for a couple different reasons. Mainly I seem to remember that they didn’t like it when I keep forgetting passwords or had to change my email or physical mail addresses so often. Paypal connects to your bank somehow…sorry but I don’t have a paypal account so I don’t remember exactly what they want anymore.

3. PHONE: Even in this internet era, different affiliate programs want you to list a phone number with them when you sign up with them. Unfortunately I have no phone. Wow, the 3 things needed are 3 things I seem to have a problem keeping.

After 20 years I still can't explain what these terms all mean. It's all like a foreign language to me.

AdSense,

Affiliate Marketing,

Analytics,

APA Format,

Backend,

Branding,

Content,

CSS/CMS,

Cloud,

Dropbox,

Hosting,

SEO,

Widgets/Plug-Ins