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| No | 83% | 934 votes | Total: 1128 votes | |
| Yes | 17% | 194 votes |
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Add to FavoritesOf course not, especially if you're raising a family, carrying a mortgage and living week to week. In other words, that's most of us. For starters, just consider the time it would take you to design and crank up the blog, secure advertising revenue and post new material on it every day. Even if you were eventually successful, you can be sure you'll have little or no income for months. Don't give away your job security on a whim.
What are your chances of launching a financially successful blog? Check the statistics. It is estimated there are more than five million of them originating in the US alone, and maybe a thousand can gross more than $100 a month. Probably less, and hundreds of new competitors are launched every day.
Virtually the only chance a blog .... which is usually nothing more than an amateurish personal diary/scrap book ... has to get any regular readership is if it is posted on the web by an already established commercial enterprise or a celebrity. And the celebrity has to have enough talent, persistence and smarts to make it earn money.
If you really believe you have the talent, discipline and ambition to start up a money-making blog, study the field as thoroughly as you can. Check out the commercially-success ful ones. Learn all the creative and computer skills you'll need to put your page design together. If you're willing to pay, there are experts who can do all of the preparatory design and graphic building blocks for your blog. When you've done all of that, get advice from other bloggers, experts and friends on what is right and what is wrong with your prototype blog.
When you launch your blog, do not immediately quit your day job under any circumstances, even if you visualize thousands of dollars coming your way in the first week. Until it becomes the equal or more of the income you're getting now, and maintains that amount week after week, then you can consider devoting full time to your blog.
The odds are at least a thousand to one that your effort will become successful. However, if you consider it a fun hobby, with no chance for future riches, give it a shot. And good luck!
Learn more about this author, Ted Sherman.
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Yes
To quit your day job to blog is to imply that there is no work involved in blogging. Blogging in and of itself can easily constitute as someones day job, it requires a ton of writing and writing a good, well thought out article is not a walk in the park. Especially in this day and age, where it is extremely easy to make money in one form or another simply by writing your opinions on the internet, if they are good enough that is. There are websites like Helium, that pay you to write articles when they get views, and then there are websites that you personally run, where you put your own ads up, and earn all the profit yourself. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, but in the end, a day job as a blogger is a completely feasible feat.
I have personally seen both sides of the spectrum. Granted, I haven't had a paycheck in my hand yet, I've merely begun realizing my writing passion. The point still stands, however, that there is money to be made. I started my own blog over on Blogspot, on which I put a few ads using Google Adsense. While I didn't get many hits, I got a few and it was nice seeing that I was actually earning something. Like I said, it wasn't a lot, and it certainly was not something I could go buy a house on, but it was a start. Then I decided I should see what else is out there, to see how soon I could turn this into a full-time job. I later found Helium, and here I am today.
If someone were to make blogging their day job, it would require a few things. First and foremost, they have to have a way to pay their bills while they are getting their blogging off of the ground. This can be done by simply blogging on the side, writing up a little something after they get home from work or on the weekends. This is a definite good start. However, the absolute best position someone could be in to blog as their day job is one similar to mine. Young, still living with their parents, little to no bills to worry about. In this case, they can focus completely on making their dream of blogging for a living a reality. They can spend 8 hours a day doing what they love to do, working towards the ultimate goal that we all strive for. They don't have to worry about making ends meet, they simply focus on the writing.
I think to be successful at this whole blogging thing, one has to really get themselves out there. They have to spend countless hours getting the word out about their website or articles. They have to spend countless hours honing their writing skills, and doing plenty of research so that they do not spread false information. They have to spend countless hours revising, editing, and rewriting to make their writing the best that they can, to make it worth reading. If they are running their own website, they have to spend countless hours editing the site and making sure it is bug-free and fool-proof, as well as good looking, easy to navigate, and they have to get it advertised whether it be through search engines, word of mouth, or paid advertisements. All in all, blogging to make money is plenty of hard work, and can easily qualify as a day job, and yes, you should quit your day job to blog. If you like writing, that is!
Learn more about this author, Mark Dent.
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