Making Money Blogging by Matthew Haughey

Making money blogging is a real challenge

We all have blogs and many here would love to do it full-time

Finding an audience — and beyond that — finding revenue amid the sea of millions of blogs seems impossible

Stake out your place and make the hard work pay off

Follow your passion, find your audience, and gain revenue

Find your passion

“ The most important thing is to do something you love, whatever that is. It goes back to the definition of a good job, which is, if you could afford to, would you do the same work for free? If you would, you've got a great job -- if not, what the heck are you doing? -- you're going to be dead a long time. We're in a field that allows you to look forward to that work, not watch the clock, be creative, and even get paid for it. I've often thought I make a living from my hobby.” -- David Carson

MetaFilter and PVRblog

What are you passionate about?

You have hobbies, right?

Passion doesn't feel like work

You'll need passion for the long, thankless hours

The democratic web

Fakery will get you nowhere. Don't just do it to make a buck.

Start small, avoid creating a network

Stephanie Quilao’s story

The paradox of love (also works with money)

Find your audience

Content. Is. King.

Just say no to SEO

The road to success is long and takes a lot of hard work.

Be patient. Stick with it.

Ideas for content

Time spent doing research= dozens of posts

Review products

Google news alerts

You can interview anyone if you just ask

Mine the forums, deliver the gold

Op/Ed beats news any day

Find the Money

Some numbers

Text Ads

Google is easy

Google is flexible. You should be too.

Typical adsense use on a blog

Don't overdo it.

Image ads

Blogads is easy

Eventually, larger networks are better

Don't overdo it

Diversify: Affiliates, Jobs, etc

“We’re all one greasemonkey script away from poverty”

Amazon Affiliates is easy

Monthly/Annual subscriptions, memberships, or swag

Lots of people get hired because of their blog

Companies you blog about will need business bloggers

Can you find a topic, gain an audience, and stick with it?

Generating revenue from your slice of the blogosphere is a challenge

Follow your passion, find your audience, and gain revenue

Hard work on a topic you love can pay off.

Pro Blogging: a lot of work, a lot of fun, perhaps a lot of money