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| No | 83% | 934 votes | Total: 1128 votes | |
| Yes | 17% | 194 votes |
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Add to FavoritesI would love to say yes, more then everything else in the world. After all as a freelance writer it is my dream and delightful hope to make that elusive full time income and yes blogging looks wonderful, however from a realistic and tested point of view the sad answer has to be NO.
Here are a few reasons why blogging instead lieu of a regular day job may not be a good idea for everyone.
1. Not enough traffic to your Blog for quiet a while or enough Readership.
Now what does that have to do with working on a Blog full time? Simple for your Blog to generate steady Revenue on a weekly or monthly basis to meet all your obligations a.k.a bills, health care, food, emergency and upkeep of your "online Business" you have to work with a Revenue generating Company. Places like "Get Paid to Blog", have certain criteria to hire you on as a fulltime freelance Blogger. One of them being that your Blog is at least 3 month old and has a healthy readership. This means you have to have enough Traffic going through your Blog to make it worth their while.
2. Income is too unpredictable.
So you have found a couple of Affiliate Programs that are willing to work with you. That is fantastic and you are flying high of course. Trust me, I was happy go lucky and my dreams were somewhere around the moon. Now, a dose of sad reality. For every 1000 unique hits you might get one interested customer and for every 100 interested customers you may get one purchase. You do the math. Then you have that little thing called a minimum payout. If you don't reach it before the payout period it gets rolled over to the next, which in most cases means another month. You are 50cents short and now you will not have a check from this specific venue that week or month. Some companies are not very good about paying out on time and when your rent is due nobody cares why you can not make the payment on time.
3. Can you keep a predictable and steady interesting flow of content coming?
Of course you will answer yes to that one. After all you are working for yourself and you have so much to share with the world. Wrong. There is actually such a thing as "Writers Blog" and believe me, when you have to write and not just want to it is there quiet often. Suddenly the fun hobby becomes a chore and it is no longer so great. Where your friends and family agree or admire you at first, when it comes to making a living of it, they may not be so appreciative of your gifts. Ideas run dry or are not catching enough. You are now working against some stiff competition. Your text has to be intriguing, challenging, and informative, stand on its own and be researched. Unless it is opinion pieces only, which in that case might not be quiet so revenue generating as some "Meat and Potato" Articles, sooner or later you will come up against the big boys. Can you keep your content coming? Daily. Advertise, generate, update. Put your name out there.
4. No Business Sense.
Did you know that once you make Blogging your fulltime job, just like any other freelance writing, it now has become a Business? This means now you have to keep files, records, spreadsheets, etc. You will have to file Taxes as self employed at the end of the year. You have to provide Records etc. You need to advertise your Product, which in this case are your Blog and your Writing. Do you know how to represent your-self? Do you have Business Sense enough to make it?
5. Do you have enough money saved up to get you over the dead spots?
As with every other Business, you will end up in dead spots. Most of the time it is right in the beginning of a Business Venture that you do. Can you make it over those dead Spots? Do you have enough Savings ready at hand in case of an emergency? Do you have enough to buy your way into "being known"?
6. What is your Business and long term Goal Plan?
I just want to make my money of my Blog and have all the free time and easy living I want, is neither a Business nor long term Goal Plan. That is a dream and a wish. Have you set down and made a Goal of how much money you need to generate in what time frame. Have you decided if you want to run one, two, three etc? Blogs and how you will make them appear. Do you use free software and blog hosting or are you interested in giving it a professional appeal. Are you going to make this your online business to retire with and if yes, how are you planning to provide for your retirement. What is your back up plan in case you have internet failure? Your computer equipment burns up?
Those are only a few simple things to consider. Believe me there are plenty more where those came from. I have a dream as well, I want to be a fulltime freelance writer, but I know that to achieve that, I have a long way to go. It has to be treated like a business and with that, capital has to be on hand to get started. Can you eventually make enough money to quit your day job? By the time you make enough money with your blog to do that, it will have become your second day job already. So the answer will remain no
Learn more about this author, Regina Sunderland.
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Yes
After reading some of the articles about blogging featured in this debate I have to wonder how many of these writers are actually bloggers. Hearing comments like "earning pennies in Adsense" blows my mind because the reality is that there are many bloggers who are earning hundreds, even thousands each month.
I did leave my day job to become a full time blogger but it's not something I would recommend to just anyone. Blogging in itself can be fun, but blogging for a living is not all fun and games, it's a very tough job.
In order to earn a weekly income a blogger has devote a lot of time to not only blogging, but learning how to blog properly. I've been blogging for over two years and I still devote at least two hours a week to educate myself on everything from SEO to ad placement. There is a lot more involved than just typing away on the keyboard, you have to know how to bring a steady flow of search engine traffic to your blog and understand how to monetize your site properly with Adsense, Chitika, affiliates, etc.
Not only do you need to be a strong writer but you also must have the ability to design and maintain a web site, having knowledge of HTML or JavaScript helps. Writing a daily diary of your life won't make you any money (unless your Madonna) so you need to find a topic that you are highly knowledgeable in, remembering that the goal is to share some kind of interesting information with readers.
You also need to be self motivated because like anyone running their own home business there is nobody to tell you what to do. Like it or not you are on your own and you must be able to manage your time well. If you're a social butterfly you likely won't enjoy the isolation of working alone and will need to build a strong social network.
Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme but rather a long and tedious process. If you have the skills and the stamina it takes to become a blogger you don't need to purchase e-books that promise you'll be a blogging millionaire overnight. You can find free blogging information on top bloggers web sites like Problogger.net and StevePavlina.com.
Som e bloggers choose to devote their time to one or two blogs and others run up to 50 blogs earning a bit of income off of each one. How a blogger chooses to earn a living can vary greatly depending on the topic of a blog, for example a health blog might earn a good income off of its vitamin supplement affiliates and a news blog earn more off of Adsense ads and selling ad space.
If you think you have what it takes to be a full time blogger don't quit your day job just yet. It takes between 3 to 6 months for most bloggers to start earning money and earnings build up slowly over time. I earn $250.00 a week on average by running 11 blogs and celebrity blogging for a blog network. I still need to supplement my income by selling articles and stories as a freelance writer. But the steady income of blogging has allowed me to leave my full time job as a daycare provider. If you are making a really good living in your current job it might take a few years before you can afford to quit, but if you're earning minimum wage or only working part time you could afford to quit your job much sooner.
As a mother of four I'm grateful for the flexibility that blogging provides, because I have two teenagers who can help out with the care of their younger siblings I am lucky that I don't need to pay for childcare but if you are a parent of very young children than you'll have to factor in the cost of a babysitter and decide whether or not becoming a blogger is worth it.
The blogging industry is booming right now, even in the midst of a recession, so now is a great time to get started. Blogging is not an easy job and it's definitely not for everyone but if you take it seriously and devote yourself to learning everything there is to know on the subject of blogging you will have a good chance of earning a living as a blogger. Good luck!
Learn more about this author, Angelica Biel.
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