Q: I’m thinking about starting my own blog. I don’t expect it to make me stinking rich, but what are the chances I can quit my day job and make a living just by blogging? I see all these success stories, but how much money can I really make?
A: If you’re passionate about a niche and you have decent writing skills, blogging definitely could be an alternative career path for you. The short answer is, yes, it is possible to make a good amount of money by writing stuffs online.
Blogging as an Occupation
Many people nowadays chose their career to become a full time blogger. There are two main approaches to professional blogging: You could be a freelance or employed blogger for an established company or site, or you can start your own blog from scratch.
Starting a blog from scratch takes a lot of time and effort. But it will be an asset for the future. Some people work under professional bloggers or an established company for getting industry experience at the beginning.
Getting a job as a professional blogger is much easier than starting at ground zero with your own blog. Those who get a job with an established company can earn a good living right off the bat.
Setting up and monetizing your own blog, however, takes a lot more work, like starting your own business. There’s no real career path or trajectory to base expectations on. Some people have made lakhs of rupees by writing their blog (or sold their blogs for millions), while others are still struggling to get some bucks.
The truth is, it’s not as easy to carve out your space on the web and make a name for yourself as a blogger today, as it was back when blogging was brand new. And it takes a lot of time to build your audience to the point where it’s successful. The most successful, multi-million dollar blogs today were started around 2000 or earlier. So it’s definitely not something you can get rich quickly with, though many people do work on their blogs full time.
How much you can earn?
Its all up to how much you work and how popular your blog/website is. I personally earn fairly a good amount for doing blogging as full time work with my KSRTC Blog & Aanavandi websites. My main revenue is from Google Adsense and earn a couple of bucks from some Affiliate Marketing program as well.
How much you could make would depend on several factors, including how often you blog, the quality of your content, how competitive your topic is, and how effective you are at building an audience and generating traffic. Plus a generous sprinkling of luck.
A blog itself isn’t really a business—it’s more of a platform for other income streams. Your content alone won’t likely make you money. Instead, you’ll have to get advertisers, sell services like consulting or speaking, use affiliate marketing to get a percentage of sales from links people click on your blog, or maybe offer products like ebooks or premium content to actually generate income.