The Only Way to Make a Living Blogging
By 
Aaron •
July 1, 2008
If you’re a capitalist blogger, one of your goals may be to quit your day job and work from home.
If you want to make a living blogging, remember it’s a full-time job. How many hours per week are you spending on your blog? It’s probably not as many as a 40-hour work week.
I’m not suggesting that you quit your job to put more time into blogging, but remember that the success of your blog is going to be a function of focused time spent on improve and maintaining your blog. If you only spend an hour or two writing for your blog, you probably aren’t going to earn a book deal any time soon.
Blogging has to have the same priority as a “real” job would. Schedule meetings with yourself to write posts, set up interviews, and promote your blog. Create goals, schedule your upcoming projects, and meet deadlines. Develop good relationships with the people you interact with.
You aren’t going to make a living from your blog if you don’t deserve it.
It’s your choice: are you going to make your blog a hobby, or a business? Both are suitable answers, but stick with one or the other.
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Great post. I spend about 40 hours a week on my blog, and sometimes I wonder if that’s enough. Problem is, most people dont have that kind of time to put into a blog. They usually have to maintain a job, and a family, ’cause even if you’re blogging everyday, It will usually take more than a year to make some real money at blogging.
Ria, thanks for leaving a comment. I’m impressed by your dedication. It’s true, you typically have the blog for several months before you gain a substantial following. It’s hard to get overnight success.
i’m just starting my personal finance blog and you’ve got it right…i have spent MORE than 8 hours a day the past week just tweaking things, promoting, commenting on other blogs. it really is a full time job…and i’m not even saying i want to make money from it…i just want to be a part of something
Another dedicated blogger. As you’ve noticed, starting a new blog does take TONS of time, but less promotion and tweaks will be necessary once your blog finds a decent following. Hang in there, and keep up the good work!
Good post,
A timely reality check for those out there who expect maximum returns for minimum investment.
The key ingredients? Time and perseverance. If you have these, you’ll go far!
John.
Thanks for stopping by, John. There sure are a lot of marketers out there offering to help you earn a fortune in just a couple hours; that’s not the way it works!
Great points here… it really is a reality check for those who want to make a full-time income from blogging. I think most people think if they write a post every now and then, do a little promotion, and post some comments on other blogs every couple days that they’ll be able to quit their job soon and make blogging their only gig.
That is also most-likely why most people give up after a few months…
I like how you stressed the importance of dedicating A LOT of time to blogging EACH week, because nobody is going to be able to become a full-time blogger unless they “deserve it”.
Great posts on this blog! I noticed it looks like a fairly new blog but very promising as long as you stay persistent and keep up the work. I also, am a fan of the Options Wordpress theme—my blog uses it as well, of course I modified to match my blog’s “flavor”.
Thanks again for the great content!