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| No | 83% | 934 votes | Total: 1128 votes | |
| Yes | 17% | 194 votes |
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Add to FavoritesIn years to come, perhaps there will be a new saying: "Those who can, write; those who can't, blog."
I've been blogging for a couple of years and have found that unless you specialize in certain popular areas, you can't really make much money from blogging. Too many blogs have become cyber hangars for Youtube videos, newspaper clips, and meaningless rants about pet projects. People are communicating what is in their hearts, but they're not using their minds to convey their messages.
Being a religious blogger (several times a day, mainly on faith issues), I've discovered that thousands of people from all over the world hit my blog page for different reasons. Take this month, for instance. I wrote a few pieces on loneliness and because we're in the post-Christmas depression cycle, hundreds of people have hit the site (www.glenkirk.blogsp ot.com). I added Google Adsense to the blog about a month ago and so far, despite having two thousand hits this months, I've only managed to generate $6. Giving up my day job to keep blogging is nowhere in sight.
Now perhaps you may think that a religious site isn't going to make many connections, but I also have a political cartoon blog called "Pushing the Envelope" (www.stushietoon.blo gspot.com). It also gets about 2500 hits per month, and yesterday I drew a Ted Kennedy, Barack Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton cartoon. It generated about 200 hits today, but I only managed to make fifty cents off the Google ads. I guess I won't be seeing any of the millions of dollars that the Presidential Campaigners have raised either.
My point is this: blogging is mainly a leisure pursuit that we all enjoy because it provides us with a vehicle to get our ideas out into the world. I don't look for compensation or financial rewards. Knowing that other people from many nations across the earth are reading my blogs, just makes my day.
And how do I know this?
Firstly, I've got a free counter from Statcounter.com. They offer a lot of statistics and information for bloggers. One of my favorite programs from Statcounter.com involves looking at the flags from all over the world, showing where readers of my blog live. It's fascinating to see a Saudi Arabian flag next to a Canadian one; or an Irish flag beside a Philippine one. I even had one the other day from the Holy See, in the Vatican City! The laugh was on me though, because the reader weren't looking at my religious blog; someone in the Vatican was viewing my political cartoons!
Secondly, I've placed the Babel fish widget on my blog pages, which allows people from all over the world who speak Spanish, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Korean to instantly translate my blog articles into their languages. Whenever I get feedback from them, I have to put their comments through the same translator.
Blogging is a great hobby and I love the way it promotes connectionalism throughout the world. I may never make millions by blogging, but I feel that my life has been enriched knowing that many people each day read my blog. Money isn't everything; but being connected to the world is priceless.
Blogs & sites mentioned
Heaven's Highway at www.glenkirk.blogspo t.com
Pushing the Envelope at www.stushietoon.blog spot.com
Free blog counter at www.statcounter.com
F ree blog translator at http://babelfish.alt avista.com/
Learn more about this author, Stushie.
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Yes
I was not very much into blogging and internet chat before. From day one, my internet usage has always been limited to checking my emails, reading the news, chat with my friends on the messenger and looking up the meaning of words from the online dictionary. Call me anything you want coz I know I'm pretty square where the internet is concerned.
I did attempt to create my own blog though, but it was a total failure as I was completely clueless of what to write and the kind of pictures I would have to upload in order to make my blog interesting. I browsed other people's blogs and most often became very impressed by some of them who had done their page creatively. Then I learnt from one of my friends that her wedding planning business is doing well since the day she created her blog for business! Not willing to give up, I attempted creating my blog for the second time. Still it just did not work for me.
I was already giving up until about two weeks ago, somebody gave me a free ticket to the World Internet Mega Summit held in Singapore. Gosh! This seminar has really changed my perspective entirely! For four solid days, we learnt about how people make money from the internet and one lady shared her experience of how she started by writing a journal on her blog and eventually became the bestseller at amazon.com through her ebook! Even the speech delivered by the renowned speakers were all highly motivational and realistic.
So this just proves that it is possible to make money just through blogging alone and depending on how good your marketing strategy is, it is even achievable for you to earn more than USD10,000 per month, just through blogging!
Of course no pain, no gain. Quitting your day job just to blog would mean a lot of sacrifice as you are no longer under a fixed payroll. Full time blogging involves a high degree of self-discipline as one needs to focus himself and know what he is striving for at the end of the day but the gain you are going to receive would be definitely more rewarding as opposed to what you have earned before. The most important thing is to make the blog work for you and not the other way round.
Even I have started blogging full time too....finally!
Learn more about this author, Lady Z.
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