So you know you need more income. There’s always too much month at the end of your paycheck. You need to find a viable way to increase your cash flow. Well, you’ve got a computer … you could start a blog … but what should you write about? It rarely fails, when someone gets on the Internet and decides they’d like earn extra income, one of the first ideas that pops into their head is to start a new blog about making money.
I mean heck, if I’m interested in it, then other people must be too right? I’ll just go copy some PLR articles, slap about 25 or 30 bright flashing 125×125 ads in my side bars, then sit back and wait for the huge checks to start rolling in. Sounds like a good plan huh?
Unfortunately, for the vast majority of people …
Earning a Significant Income writing about Making Money Online is about as likely as Winning the Lottery
The biggest problem … probably 99% of the people who are (attempting to) write about making money online, are NOT cashing big checks themselves … never have … and sadly, most likely Never will. In fact, I’d almost be willing to bet that the majority of “make money” bloggers aren’t even using most of the “sounds too good to be true” programs that they so proudly display in the “check out our sponsors”, above the fold, section of their website. (note: for most, it’s probably a good thing they didn’t actually buy into these schemes … but it sucks that they think it’s ok to hope that other suckers will)
Speaking of Ads …
How many times have you visited a website or blog, and almost immediately noticed that there are multiple types of advertising … adsense, banners, chitika, fake blog rolls, and of course the obligatory posts about the latest and greatest “hot” affiliate deals? Or what about those sites you sometimes land on, where there literally appears to be more advertising than actual content? Here’s a dirty little (not so) Secret for you …
The More ads you see, the LESS likely it is the blog is Making Money
Now obviously, there are exceptions. But for the most part, this is a pretty tried and true “rule” … especially in the MMO niche. And webmasters who break this rule, pretty much betray a lack of basic salesmanship knowledge. Don’t get me wrong, it sounds perfectly logical to someone who doesn’t know any better, that the more choices you give someone, the more likely they are to make a “good” decision … in this case clicking on an ad, and/or making a purchase. However, those who have experience in sales, and/or have studied human nature will know all too well that the Exact Opposite is more often true. Faced with an over abundance of choices, most people will simply choose Not to act at all.
If you’re reading the above paragraph, and it sounds like your blog/website, it’s might just be a good explanation for why the click thru rate on your adsense always seems to hover around .07%, and the clicks you do get tend to pay a whopping 3 or 4 cents each. Heck with the 10-15 visitors you get (on a good) day, you might just make enough money each month to buy a soda or a cup of coffee (McDonalds not Starbucks).
Oh, that reminds me, let’s talk about traffic for a minute …
Competition for traffic in the MMO niche is TOUGH
Did you realize that just in Google, there are over 180 MILLION websites trying to rank for the keyword “Make Money Online” ? Don’t let that number daunt you too much … It’s not terribly hard to get a post/site indexed for those keywords. But if you’re not in the first 10 results for that search string, the chances of getting any significant traffic for that term are about … not bloody likely.
And, one other thing to consider; I guarantee you, those sites that are on first page of Google, did not get there by accident. They’ve been doing this for a Long Time, and they know probably more than you or I ever will about How to make money online. Why in the world would someone who’s either brand new, or has never been successful want to try to compete with that?
Being the sharp mind that you obviously are (since you’ve read this far into the article), you’ve probably already begun to ask yourself … Wait a Minute !!! … if writing about making money online is such a bad idea, why is Todd writing a post about Can You Get Rich Blogging ????
I’m glad you asked …
If I’m Not going to Get Rich writing about Making Money, WHY would I start a blog/write articles about Earning Extra Income?
I think my friend Allyn actually explains the answer pretty well in his video blog post about How Natural Links, and Online Friends help us get by. The bottom line is, while having a blog about blogging, making money, affiliate programs, etc, is unlikely to ever turn into a true Cash Cow, it can definitely be a great way to NETWORK with other likely minded people.
… and (pay attention because this is Important) those RELATIONSHIPS that you take the time to form, are exactly what (over the long run) are likely to make a difference in how successful you are in your efforts to earn more than just a “few extra bucks” with your computer.
In the mean time (while you’re still building your empire), having the right friends can even be used for “fun” … such as calling out alleged scammers , and actually getting enough traffic/high enough SERP ranking that they notice you.
Plus, and more importantly, having online friends can be a great way to LEARN from other’s blogging mistakes … while at the same time helping get links/drive traffic to your sites that actually do allow you to make money from home … putting money in your bank account today.
BUT …. here’s the part of this equation that some people tend to forget (and it can be “fatal” to your success) …
When it come to building Online Relationships, you have to be Willing to GIVE, if you Expect to Receive
Read that again … and again if you need to … be willing to give first.
One of Zig Ziggler’s more famous quote is probably quite apt here:
“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”
Who have you helped today?
Til next time …
Todd
p.s. this article was originally written for a different blog. unfortunately, that site gets very little traffic. it seemed a shame to write a 1000 word article, with links to some of my friends, and then post it someplace where very few people are likely to read it. so I moved it here. hope you like it.
