So, here I am with ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. Just arrived this morning.
First step: Read the book!
Second step: Follow the advice – I’m not always good at that.
Third step: Join all the other bloggers as we stagger to the bank with our ££££ or $$$$.
Can I do it? What d’you reckon?
Technorati Tags: Barney, Barnabas Quotidianus, blogging, ProBlogger, money
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Hi Barney,
I’ve been reading it today and it’s really good. We share a problem, however, Barney. And that is the topic of our blogs: namely religion. I don’t think religion blogs are good at selling stuff
P.S. Hope your cold is better.
Hi, Umm Yasmin, good to hear from you.
You’re right about the topic of our respective blogs. Perhaps I shall have to start another blog to get my six figure income from! Six figures? That’s like £1,000.50.
My cold is much better, thanks. I pumped my nasal passages full of Vick’s First Defence (excellent stuff) and took some Lemsip Direct and went to bed late (after clearing up after Feast). Slept badly – kept waking myself (and Erica) up with my snoring, but for all that feel pretty good today.
By the way, another remedy: chop up raw ginger root into chewable chunks – and chew. It blows your head off, but it’s very effective if taken as soon as you get the very early stages of cold or fever.
Bet I make more than you both do! £1000.52
I’ll see your £1000.52 and raise you 1p.
Umm Yasmin wrote:
“I don’t think religion blogs are good at selling stuff ”
The last I heard, even dominant players like BeliefNet were really struggling to stay afloat. The problem isn’t getting readers. Our blogs and websites have heaps of them. The problem is getting purchasers. Is it possible that our readers aren’t materialists?
Essentially we’re promoting a product that money can’t buy. If we want to get an income from it, then we’re stuck with the goods and services at the periphery. For example, we might help Amazon to sell Baha’i-related books and Google to sell contextual advertising.
Fortunately, I don’t think any of us is in it for the money. The pocket-money that comes in, at least pays for the hosting and it is a reasonable indicator of whether the site is being used. On Baha’is Online I’d be lucky to make $US100 a year, and half that would be from straight-out donations, or from web-hosting referral.
That income could be increased if I dropped my standards. Some months ago I linked to an article in the LA Times about a character who incorporated Baha’i mysticism and the use of ayahuasca (a drug). Soon after, I got emails from two separate people, both of whom were asking to go on an ayahuasca retreat. Let me say right now that neither of the two enquirers were paying much attention to reality if they thought I was the one running an ayahuasca retreat! Clearly there’s money to be made promoting “drug-induced spirituality” and other questionable activities, but do we want to be involved?
I’ll stick with the pocket-money, thanks.
ka kite
Steve
Hi, Steve, thanks for the comment. You’ve hit the nail on the head. Access to spiritual truth cannot be bought and sold. Occasionally some character advertises a seminar which promises some kind of esoteric knowledge for hundreds of dollars. I think this falls into the category of what Bahá’u'lláh calls “bones for dogs” in the Aqdas.
Mind you, what is true of Bahá’í-related websites is also true of Bahá’í publishers. George Ronald, for example, is a modest enterprise, which aims to break even year on year. Those who run GR regard it as a service to the Bahá’í community.
I think we should all stick with the pocket money!
thanks for buying the book – I really appreciate it.
The ‘religion as a topic’ thing can be tricky. I’m yet to meet too many (any) bloggers making any money on the topic. There are websites out there that do ok, but they usually promote affiliate programs for Christian Singles – not really most Christian blogger’s cup of tea.
As someone who blogged on a Christian blog early on my main advice would be to start a 2nd blog – with a more commercial nature.
Anyway – looking forward to see what you think about the book!
Darren
Darren, thanks for your comment. I’m certainly thinking seriously about starting a second, more commercial, blog.
I’ll let you know what I think about the book.
My experience with blogging and money has taught me to calm down and use my blog to enlighten while having links to my business sites whee I fully expect 7-figures (oh, maybe 2 years down the road…)
To build traffic which, if my site is interesting will cause the clicks on the business site links, is building apace–in the last month my traffic has increased from an average of c. 15/day to 90/day.
I use gathering blogs to my RSS Reader so I can make Meaningful comments + pinging major blog “awareness” sites, like technorati.
With that traffic, my business site is clicked on by close to 4% of visitors.
I feel that a ten-times increase in traffic will see those clicks start to develop into business contacts…
Mother grammar told fled in my previous post…
Many thanks for sharing your experience, Alexander. Helpful and much appreciated.
Man’s merit lieth in service and virtue and not in the pageantry of wealth and riches.
–Bahá’u'lláh
However, unto them that are rid of all attachments a deed is, verily, its own reward.
–Bahá’u'lláh
Agreed with Barney & Steve, re: type of readers likely to frequent a religion-based blog. The whole point of market-capitalism consumer society is that you’re inculcated to ‘buy stuff to make you happy/rich/powerful etc.’ and the values of religion go directly against that. (I’m not ragging on making money from blogs, or making money generally, just reflecting on the excesses of a materialist culture).
I think Darren’s right in that if we want to make a modest sum to at least cover hosting/technology costs, and support book & coffee habits that so many of us have, we’re probably better off developing a second blog that caters to some service/product that can be sold and that people will be interested in buying.
At Dervish, my AdSense links are largely unrelated, but then Dervish is such a hodge-podge site anyway. (I do get the odd ad wanting to sell Baha’i books
)
Wow Barney, Darren Rowse commented on your blog!!! That must be worth another 3p.
I agree with others who have commented – the subjects we write about are not necessarily money-spinners. I was interested in Steve’s comment that even BeliefNet and similar are having problems.
So yes, the second blog route for me, too I think. But I’m determined it’s going to be something else that I really enjoy and believe in.
Tess, I certainly was surprised to have a comment from Darren – and I was really pleased, as you can imagine.
Kurt, Umm Yasmin, Tess, I think we were all interested in Steve’s comments and I’m sure we all agree that religious blogs are not the place to make money – I mean it is probably not morally acceptable and it certainly doesn’t work in market-place terms.
I can see that we may well be heading towards second, more commercial blogs. Anyone got any spare time they can sell me?
Income from a website, no matter how modest it may be, remains a useful indicator of how successful a website is at attracting genuine visitors. It’s all very well looking at usage stats such as visitor numbers, bandwidth and page-views, but sometimes those figures can be skewed by unusual activities. I checked my usage logs the other day and found that a couple of closely-related IP addresses originating in Germany were extremely active on my site on 8 May. And I can confirm that there’s no corresponding spike in Google AdSense income.
May now (falsely?) looks like it was a busy month. For example, page-views for the first 2/3 of May are already quite a bit higher than for each of the previous four months.
I’d love to know why those Germans were hoovering up my site, though.
Steve, many thanks for your very helpful comment. I’m learning the whole time and you’ve made a point that Darren makes in ProBlogger about the challenges of choosing suitable metrics for one’s blog. For a monetized blog, clearly the level of income from it must be an important measure.
Hi guys. I have to say I might disagree with making money from religious topics. I have not read Darren’s book, but I do read his blog and he has some posts on Amazon affiliates that you might want to check out. I don’t know if he covers it in the book, maybe he does.
I am using Amazon on a health site I run and the Amazon thing is working out quite well. Health does lend itself well to selling products since you have exercise equipment and things of that nature that people buy. However, I think you could extend that to your site topic as well. I am not sure it will get you to 6 figures, but it will probably earn you more than now.
My recommendation would be to open an Amazon affiliate store niche site and find books, DVDs and other religious products that you think are good for your readers and post them.
Keep in mind that once someone clicks on your product link you not only get a commission if they buy that product, but if they buy something else you get commission on that as well. Look at my site to see how I am doing it. I also see no reason why being religious means you can’t make money. You are providing a valuable service to the community. I think most preachers preaching on Sunday are not doing it for free.
Doug, many thanks for weighing in here and helping us learn more about how to earn in an appropriate way from our religion-focused blogs.
I love all this learning from other people’s experience. Now, I need to finish reading Darren’s excellent book and do the exercises he recommends for establishing what one can start and sustain a blog about and the ways of earning that fit with one’s moral/religious stance.
I’m most grateful to everyone who’s commented here so far. Keep that learning coming!
Barney I appreciate the kind remarks. I am no different than you in a lot of ways. Still searching for the secret sauce, but wanted to encourage you that you will find the right mix that works for your situation and that you can feel good about. As for me, I actually need to go and order the book myself! Good luck!
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