Can a beginner Blogger Make a living only Blogging

I Had a question. I am unfortunately locked out out adsense program because my adsense account is linked to some other blog which will never be approved (i.e blog is dead). In my blogger login, adsense apply is greyed out, therefore I had a look at other publishers. 

For now my blog is hosting ad from infolinks, but I want to know which is the best ad program aside from Adsense. And any tutorials to learn about managing ads in a manner that it does not break flow of blog content.

All this is for my personal learning, dont want to focus on any monetization from blog but ya, who would say no to extra cash. My main effort for learning about ads is so that I can self host the blog on a paid server.

You can apply for adsense using a new gmail account. Adsense is THE best. 

depends on your niche

i hv tried chitika,infolinks and buy and sell adds

if you have niches = tech,fashion,travel you can earn by affilates like amazon , flipkart etc

if you have niche like personal blog then earning ~ null from chitika and infolinks.

so all depends on your target market and traffic source.

now a days ppl dont click on ads

now a days ppl dont click on ads

and they use ad blockers 

now a days ppl dont click on ads

and they use ad blockers

grrr

now a days ppl dont click on ads

Companies are creating such offers that people do.. Even knowing its an ads..  Because it is highly intersting 

But then again, I wish i get enough such ads and people in my blog..

but again there are tricks (if u dont get caught) :P 

No, I am talking about legitimate ads..

Oviously I don't lick own ads.. WIll be banned within minutes..

I am talking about in general..

I was reading a webhosting review and saw an ad about cheap vps.. I clicked it.. Since I needed that..

That is the actual concept..

You're right Ranjith... even I use an ad-blocker.

And even when I did not use one, I never clicked on an ad.

But then again, I wish i get enough such ads and people in my blog.

hunky u get 50k daily visitors...aur kitna chahiye

50k is less 

50k is less

Finally some one understands.. 

Try media.net

It's from Yahoo-Bing and pays quite good.

Please list down the eligibility criteria so that don't get rejected within applying without satisfying their needs !!

Thanks..

well thanks again everyone for the sharing thoughts i agree there can be a point where bloggers start focusing on money as an outcome of the effort but there is nothing wrong in that as long as we keep the readers happy

Winning contests is at best an encouragement... it can never replace a regular monthly income.

My belief is that blogger should be concerned about winning contests... as this is one thing that will tell them if they are writing what people want to read. Or am I wrong here? I think this isn't the most accurate observation so consider winning as just something that resembles a pat on your back. :)

That is the fun..

Blog is the only place in this word, where you, no matter which part of the world you live in, can set your own rule.. So people will have their different need and goal and ambition !!

For some, its a place to publish their story, poem and write up.. No investment and they can share their thoughts and work to the world..For some, its a place to compete in contest as like IB For some, its a place to earn money..For some its a place to share knowledge

So everyone is right in their views.. That is the fun of blogging !!!

You may like wining contest, nothing wrong in that, appreciable, for me, honestly right now, I need to monetize the blog since can't afford the ever raising hosting bills !!!

Others may compete to get their stats high.. So everyone is right in their view 

Bit late to the party, but I'll share my experience here.

Some of you might know me as the batshit insane puzzle dude who roamed these forums a year and so ago. Some of you might know me as the guy whose news articles Vijay (who I am very grateful to) keeps sharing.

Either way, back in 2011, I was just a regular low-self-esteem fellow without much going on. I was just starting to get into this puzzle thing, and in December I created my first puzzle. Since it was all the rage in the International Puzzle community, I started a blog to put up my content, not really expecting anything *shrugs*.

My blog had a target of having a puzzle a day on it, and I kept to this target for almost a year, no matter what, even when I got interested parties publishing my puzzles for money (not much money, very little actually, but since there was no money in it previously, this was an infinity increase, as they say). Even after said almost-year, I kept to a regular schedule, gaining a reputation, getting new projects and assignments, and so on.

Now? I'm not regular at all on my blog. Instead of having puzzles on it, the most recent posts are recaps about my time at the World Championships, or announcing some new project. Somewhere along the line I also stopped being regular on this forum with you fine blogging folk. The reason for this is I now have so many projects that it takes up all of my time. My current online posting is at GM Puzzles, a US website with publishing projects and so on, and yes I get paid for this, and I am one of 6 International puzzle authors there. I am also heavily involved in all the planning of the Indian puzzle group, including organizing the National Puzzle and Sudoku Championships this past year.

So where on earth am I going with this rambling speech? Basically, none of this would've happened if I hadn't decided to start a blog, and then hadn't been dedicated to it enough to post regularly even when I had stuff like other projects, college exams and what not simultaneously. The last two years have seemed like 20 years, but I feel its been worth it just to get that level of respect among my peers. Any pay that comes my way is seemingly a bonus, but also an added incentive to stay in this.

This is not a done deal yet either. Though I'm earning a humble amount, its still not enough to stay in puzzles permanently (my equivalent of your question about staying in blogging, since I literally have a puzzle blog), which is something I intend to do. Its been a long struggle and it'll probably be more till I finally get to a place where I'm comfortable.

TL;DR - From my experience, as long as you know its going to be a hard slog, have a good idea of what your regular content will be and are prepared to be in it for the long run through the bad times, yes you can stay in blogging (or anything with some financial purpose to it). The gain may be direct or indirect, but there's a good chance it comes if those previous variables are all there, and also, to be blunt, if you're really good at what you do. The 'safe' bet would still be to stay at your day job, if you have one.

Thanks for sharing the experience it reminds of a story i read in the book "stay hungry stay foolish" about the Naukri.com founder Sanjeev Bikhchandani who started info edge for online classifieds and came up with Naukri.com later.

in your case the domain  has remained same but destiny changed what you were intending to do with blog ...

Thanks for sharing with the community your story

Hey PS : Glad you shared this :0

Thanks for sharing your experience PS

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, PS. It's great to know that your blogging career has got you successes. So, it is safe to say that you started a blog, and have achieved a lot from it, even if  what you achieved was never your primary objective.

Some more experience sharing please  some more inspiration !

Yes and No.  I have many friends who earn around 50k to 5 lakhs a month but to reach that stage they have poured in years of hard work.  I dont think its is possible now a days unless you have a gamechanger idea brewing somewhere in a garrage

Garage I have access to, but its not a game changer it seems..

hunky you need an idea in a garage not just a garage 

an idean in garage 

Where as I got the entire garage down stairs !!

But seems no idea at all..

You are already halfway to your goal. You have the garage. You just need an idea. 

Maybe Hunky will debut his nextgenbikes on NYSE in 2025 with worlds largest IPO at $1444 a share You never know 

I get that, gamechanger Idea is difficult to come before starting, it may unfold somewhere, someday. 

We have all talked about what and how much bloggers have earned. I'd love to know what these bloggers who earn millions, actually write? Or do they write at all?

Does that matter ??

Writting and earning money can be two different thing all together !!

Look into this way, there are doctors, who likes serving people, where as there are doctors who likes earning  So do they treat while earning ??

exactly hunky 

They definitely don't write stories and poems. (atleast a majority of them) 

But as Hunky said, it doesn't matter. 

It is like saying - How mean that writer is to publish a book and earn money from it instead of putting the entire script online for free for his readers. 

Hey Kanuj, I was looking at the responses by others and agree with Hunky. You CAN MAKE MONEY THROUGH BLOGGING. 

From my personal experience, I have been making money and so can now say this with full confidence. 

If you ask how much can you make one year down the line, I would say that probably to be a vague question because if you build a blog and just publish rehashed posts and don't promote your posts, you won't earn anything, not even after 5 years. 

Create a blog in a niche you're passionate about, and as Hunky said, look for the investment opportunities. If you don't have much to invest, then hop to some other niche. For example, if you create a blog about software products realted to some specific niche, it's not always needed to purchase the product, you can review the product by asking from the owner. And why only reviews, you can sell ad spaces directly, publish sponsored posts, monetize with AdSense, Chitika and similar ads, make money as ClickBank affiliate, give services to clients through your blog (example: if you write on tech niche, you can provide writing services). 

So, first write, publish and promote and show your expertise over the subject through your blog. Once done, create several monetization options on your blog. And finally, don't forget to promote your blog in order to bring in targeted traffic (please note: not traffic, but targeted traffic that converts) to your blog.

Like all business needs a strategy, you just need a good and the right strategy set forth in blogging to make money. 

Thanks Mainak for a positive reply, good to hear, you are able to do what many starters want to do down the line. thanks a lot for the encouragement 

It definitely is possible to earn from the blog but it takes years of hard work, loads of patience, dollops of sweat and you must have the ability to churn out high quality unique content on a consistent basis (3-4 posts monthly).

I started my travel blog in 2009 and it has only been in the last two years that I started to earn a decent amount from it.

Also do not fall for doing sponsored posts for topics that are not your niche. I have rejected so many of those online gambling sponsored posts even though some are ready to pay as high as 500 USD per post.

All the best Kanuj 

500 $ 

What m Arti you are a star :P

USD 500 

Now I am jumping to the party.

For those who didn't come for that wordup thingy, basically they talking about SEO, yeh, woh this that- most of it doesn't apply now because out of all the 2 speakers- 2 are an exception. One is a BJP fellow. and one is a Youtube lady.

For others, if you observe they have started websites at the time blogging was not a big deal.  2005-2009. SEO was a ohhhh-aaah at the time when it worked, now its not really that effective. By the time 2010~2014 came, these speakers have started earning money and they already have established readerbase. Ofcourse maintaining it is another challenge. Remember, if you want earn out of blogging- you're not exactly running a blog. Its no different from running an online publication because you spend a lot more time on research and testing, etc. One thing that I strongly disagree to is what fonearena said. He said that one shouldn't be shy to charge money for exposure. Boss, considering that this came from fonearena's owner- I question the credibility of their reviews and news. There are ways you can earn money out of this, but money for review is a sham. I hope that I misunderstood what he was trying to say, but alas it didn't seem that way. Many people say: I want to earn from blogging. But how many of you are ready to treat it like a publication: work 4 times harder and expect no money out of it. If you do get money out of it, put it on the publication to promote, push and for resources, paying bills, etc. Work harder, put more hours into it, sacrifice your social life on most counts, listen to the constant nagging, learn self discipline considering you're going to do it from your house and keep a mindset that all of this can still go down the drain. Get a part time job similar to your field where you can work from home. You get paid, you read a lot of information and sometimes you get connected with a series of people which is also beneficial for your and your own website. You have to work hard and you have to work smart. Everyone is your competition, including the garbage review blogs that basically copy paste specifications and post it as a review. I've seen that Asus Zenfone promo where one of the top 10 guys posted a 'review'. Whom are you trying to fool????Also,  stick to one niche. Don't switch to another niche just because it feels that the potential readerbase is low. I remember so many PRs saying "post about mobile phones and tablets because PC is dying!". I have seen the opposite. PC is where you review about components like CPU coolers- air and water, processor, motherboard, memory sticks, hard drive- mechanical and SSD- SATA III, PCIe and M.2 based, graphic card, PC Cases, external storage drives- mechanical and Flash based further categorised to SSD or flash drive, keyboard, mouse, speakers, sound card- both external and internal. It further roots down to NAS storage, thunderbolt, etc. Max to max I will do notebooks if I get them. My bounce rate these days never go above ten. Its always between 5-8%. This is google analytics we're talking about.

You look at techtree.com, back in the 90s they sticked with PCs and hardware related to PC hardware. Then they slowly shifted to mobile because apparently it was a thing- which pissed off their existing readerbase because the quality has gone down, even though they used to have 10-20 staff back then. Recently, they tried to make a comeback but it was not possible. End of the day, after the brand shifted between 2-3 management, now they only publish press releases consdering the URL has a value with the name "techtree". CHIP as a magazine shut down- same shit. PCWorld- dead. (Both are exception because they are magazines? No!). Tech2 is in such a mess. Digit is the same, though their design is better than Tech2. Now lets look at the other side of the fence. The non-media media. Indian Video Gamers. They seem to be doing pretty well and they have a good forum crowd. JAGS- Just another gaming site. They seem to be doing well. There are more sites. What's the common thing you'll find? No matter how small the niche may look like to the person who aren't really in the scene, there's a LOT to talk about. If you don't have the eye to pick them out and post it- and be consistent? Forget about it. Its best that you shut down your blog and call it quits. At the very least, its one less BS blog in the blogging ecosystem. Whether you are doing it for yourself or others, do it right or do everyone a favour by not running a blog. more than 90% of the tech bloggers are garbage, and because of these guys, the rest of the good and aspirational / potential tech bloggers find it difficult to interact with brands, respected in his surroundings, line of work, companies, people, etc.  

 Applause

Standing Ovation.

If only you added some line breaks here and there!   Went to your cake blog hoping to see a blog post about this but there was none 

@TS..

I completely disagree with the fact there is no value for SEO..

Yes, I agree one should not go all out with SEO but basic SEO is very much needed.. SEO may have lost its charm but for those who benefited with blackhat techniques but Search engines have evolved with their understanding and made their code more robust..

But basic SEO still has a lot of value..

Friendly URL, Meta data, alt tag in your images.. KeyWords, back links, they still hold a great value when comes organic results on your subject..

Went to your cake blog hoping to see a blog post about this but there was none

Next time you consider purchasing a PC or Laptop, consider giving his blog a read !!

I am talking about his cake blog dudethecakeisalie.wordpress.com not BBQ. I hardly understand anything related to hardware 

The cake blog was meant for people around me. Now I don't need that anymore. But the cake is still a lie!

Well! Don't hold back! tell us how you really feel!!

I agree with the general gist of what you say, there, Sorcerer. Don't be a sheep blogger folowing the other dumb sheep. Back in the last century, I used to run a software products company I had many offers to get into the education side which was just starting to wake up, with the NIITs and the Aptechs etc. I resisted and we became pioneers and the SME's in our field which was access control / attendance systems. Small niche market but I counted ITC, HLL, DRDO, Pepsi, Reckitt and other such companies as clients (for a decade of repeat business) and made a fair amount of money in the process.

The truth is as Sorcerer said, find your niche and become THE AUTHORITY. Whether it is a tech blog or a personal blog.

1. Find your voice

2. Practice it

3. Market it

One point #3, I have been asking myself whether Indiblogger is right for my blog. It doesn't seem to fit in to the general tone of the blogs I see here. I don't write short stories that are poignant and full of pathos, reincarnation, ghosts and marriage breakups. I just write essays, some poetry, and stories of my experiences.Even my cricket posts don't mean much there.

I had a look at Blogadda and that makes absolutely no sense to me. Apparently the folks there find bloggers worthy of being awarded but I don't see how, the website is really busy and overall I don't see that a quiet blog like mine stands a chance in that little fish market of a site

But: Am I going to change my blog and suddenly start writing weirdly contrived posts about Borosil or some travel site or some cell-phone or whatever?

Correct answer: NO!

I have a voice that works for me, I'm comfortable with it, it does not sound contrived, this is how I talk, and I think I'm starting to say it well. I'm startig to develop a regular set of visitors who leave noit just comments but have conversations with me. With time it will grow. This blog (in it's present avatar) is just going to be 2 years old next week. I can see it is moving in the right direction, I'm becoming more confident with what I say and how I say it and the regular readers are coming to chat with me slowly and surely.

On the other hand, the blog was supposed to be a way for me to practice writing and learn how to develop characters, build a story and entice an audience. Foe the last few months, I'd become fascinated with the stats and it was starting to distract me and discourage me. But now, I have refocused on

1. the reason for my blog,

2. the type of people I am writing for (correct answer: ME. everyone else is a bonus),

3. developing my own personal voice.

OK! Now what was the original question?

Correct answer:

NO. If you blog.

Once the blog becomes your PRODUCT, it ceases to be a blog. It becomes ad space for whoever is paying you for the article. Your are essentially not blogging but writing advertising copy and hosting the ad on your erstwhile blog space. In this case you will make money, but you are not a blogger, you are a billboard.

Actually, I think I lied. Yes, there is one other possibility. Someone pays you to be yourself, which is a hybrid solution.You're still a billboard, but a billboard with creative license. The problem is if you stray too far from the style that got you the ad revenue, you stand to lose the ad revenue

Once the blog becomes your PRODUCT, it ceases to be a blog. It becomes ad space for whoever is paying you for the article. Your are essentially not blogging but writing advertising copy and hosting the ad on your erstwhile blog space. In this case you will make money, but you are not a blogger, you are a billboard.

Sponsored articles are one of the many ways to earn. Another way is adsense or similar programs where you need not advertise products in any way. You can be yourself and still earn. But unfortunately, it doesn't work for personal blogs. 

You're still a billboard, but a billboard with creative license. 

abt what TS mentioned regarding paid reviews...i guess this is ideal way to be where your creative license is not compromised and you can write honest reviews n still get paid. i'd love to be that billboard...for my other blog..not the one registered in IB

In this case you will make money, but you are not a blogger, you are a billboard.

Very aptly said. Once you start thinking of earning money, and actually start doing so, blogging becomes a need, a necessity, rather than staying a leisure.

Shakespeare was a billboard! 

Shakespeare had a blog??^^

shakespear had word+press 

Shakespeare wrote for money 

I am not a sheep blogger.. I went into a subject, something which very few does.. And I write something which none does..

I have a sheep and I am blogger 

Doesn't Adsense put ads on your blog pages? Are you not renting space on your blog to the advertisers? If that is true, I will stand by my stand...

yes...so? best thing is forget what others do...just keep rocking with ur own blog. everyone has choice what they wanna do with theirs.

You are being unncessarily combative, Nandini, and maybe a tad defensive. You seem to imply that I am judging, when I am not.

I'm not expecting anyone to stop whatever they're doing. Quite the opposite, actually. I'm saying that you should do whatever works for you. If it gets you where you want to be, that's great! In fact I clearly state that I am NOT going to change what works for me. If you bother to read what I had written you would have seen that.

If I am not wrong, you were saying that there is no way to earn without changing your writing style / writing sponsored posts. With Adsense, you can earn and at the same time blog the way you used to blog before you started using Adsense! 

i'm neither combative, defensive or implying anything :o you asked some qs..i replied thats all...anyways i better run before i get to read few more such terms that i ain't doing :P *runs away @lightning speed*

Nope - I didn't say that. I said that if you get the creative licence AND the revenue, then it will be difficult to change your style you could potential lose the revenue stream. I mean they paid you because they liked your style. If you change, then they may not like the new style.

Happens to recording artists all the time. Record company just wants them to keep producing the same type of music that gave them the hits. If the artist wants to try something new then lots of hoo-hah comes up.

What do you mean by creative license? 

as In I type SexyBear in stead of Shakespear 

@Sharma Uncle..

Why would you want ads in your website ??

That is a quetion one needs to answer First..

Personal blogger, blogging for hobby, should not put ads, matter of fact people would prefer seeing clutter free design of your website..

You still didn't go to sleep? 

BTW: did you have any relations who worked for the Brahmaputra River Valley Board? Back in the mid-80s? If so I worked with them and had an interesting episode. If not - never mind...

Please share the episode! 

on my blog - Mr Deka's Nightmare. A techie ghost story.

3.0 + 2.0 is indeed 4.995 

Thanks for the sharing your thoughts Ajesh Sharma jee and Sorcerer , well I agree with you that SEO can help upto a limit to new blogs. I think the biggest limitation for individual blogger is time & time management - the amount of quality content he can generate managing a full time mind draining job and managing a family and a real life. Now what if you sacrifice everything for 3 years and later find out it was not worth it, in terms of financial gain as well as inner satisfaction of building something. This is the only reason I posted the question " Whether there is a light at the end of 2-3 long year tunnel" is it really worth the effort. Do you guys are making money who are doing to for like 2-3 yeasrs? 

In Blogging - Writing I will say is the coolest part , yet you have to do SEO , image resizing and social media promotions link building facebook page management , plugins and emailers etc and a whole lot of other activities which at times I just dont feel like doing.

Now here is another Point on which some views would be great  " Should we write 1 post a week which is like epic shit or 5-6 small posts through out the week" what has worked for you guys and what not, please through some light?

Write both 1 epic post + 5-6 small posts. 

Quantity and Quality both are important, especially for new blogs.

Now what if you sacrifice everything for 3 years and later find out it was not worth it? Move on, get a job or change your tactics. Its no different from a startup. I know someone in U.S. who started his PC tech site when he was 17 and miserably flopped despite keeping it alive for 3 years. At the age of 25, he started with the same genre of writing, new name- and after a year he started earning enough money that he can go to computex, CeBit, CES on his own with 2-3 people with him and hire 2-3 more people. Some people succeed, some people don't. Business is not for everyone. Self-employment is not for everyone. Blogging, that too with an intention to earn something and having a respect of those who run a publication is not for everyone. This is not about money or resources. Ha, but I'll you one thing. If you've seen my reviews, especially the test setup and testing page that's usually present in most reviews, I disclose the components that I get from companies. These are not gifts. I need stuff so that I can test their stuff and other components. They give with an intention so that their product will be exposed. For example, I got 4 units of WD Red 3TB- total value of 50-56k at the time I've received it. I said I need it to do RAID tests- for both motherboards and for NAS. Win-win for everyone. Brand's product is more exposed in reviews. I as a reviewer get resources to seriously test other components. Readers because they know how good or bad the component is. Everytime I mention the model "WD30EFRX", I link it to my review. No favours done to WD since we're both getting something good out of it. You can call it product placement if you want to, but I've tested it and published the review, therefore I know how good it is. I've asked specifically for that for which WD did not hesitate to give. This is called ROI- Return of Investment. Ofcourse, you and the company must understand that when this is done, no1 is favouring eachother. That being said, you should ask only with the company who don't show nakra and all that jazz. Another HDD company also has NAS-centric drives, but when they addressed it as a "gift" and don't understand the concept of "ROI", I ignored and went ahead with WD. You'll need to generate content and quality of traffic, and also consistency. When you're a reviewer on a regular basis and doing it with dedication, the excitement to keep something doesn't reside in you. Because when that happens, you're doing it on behalf of the user- to generate quality content. 

That being said, having the best or the flagship model is not the best way to go about. The idea is to get "mid-level" product so that readers can roughly assume what they can expect if they go with drives with higher/lower capacity or performance. If I wanted to, I can easily ask WD for 4TB counterpart. But the idea was that to make sure to find out that NAS has the ability to detect and properly format units higher than 2TB (considering the 2.2TB barrier, back in the old BIOS days). Same applies for other hardware. Like I said, its no different from running a publication. Ethics as a writer is something you'll have to enforce. There were times I am frustrated that I don't get things on time, or not given on 1st priority- and the person who is given as 1st priority is writing garbage that you really feel like writing a well-detailed email to the company, scrutinizing everything he said. For example, one of the GPU companies calls me only for a press conference for the last 4 years- despite correcting their mistakes on a regular basis, despite correcting their press releases and their specification sheet, chart, etc. You feel that the company is trolling you. You need to learn how to deflect that. That's why I yap and rant a lot. Because unlike other bloggers and tech journos who talk about this behind people's back- I bring it towards the front. Of course, when you do that, you'll need to take care of not alienating your readers. Nobody wants to know about the insider politics unless its something that affects the output of the reviews.  Honestly speaking, I don't worry about media promotions and all that. If people genuinely like my content, they'll follow. If they don't-fair enough. In a time where people have twitter, RSS, Facebook, google+, etc., I don't think a lot will go for an email subscription. That may end up being in the thing of the past.  "Like" and "+1" does not convert to sales (in our case, people reading the content). This is something that gametheori told me during the wordup event (lol, irony of the event is that real gyaan was given by people who are not even speakers :P ). How many people even remember what they've liked yesterday on FB? It doesn't matter. Fame and reputation are not the same thing. Ofcourse, in commercial sense, more the bling- more potential the monies, but its not long term. Probably such bloggers will work long enough to be so influential that they might patao some brand to given them a position of a respectable position. There's nothing wrong with doing that, unless your content is designed in such a way to gain a favour with the brands. 

Note, I am not saying that you should do what I do. I am doing what I am doing because it works for me so far. But see and read how others do things. Take inspiration but put your own personal masala in it. The only thing I regret is that I wish I would have done this when I was young. But then again, parents would have easily discouraged me, and most likely brands may not take me seriously, even if I was a well-respected forum member and contributor in sites like techenclave, digit, etc. ethics is important under all costs. You rather shut down your site rather than breaking ethics. Atleast you'll sleep well.  

 huh khatam hi kar diya 

:P :P