I have been blogging off and on for over four years now. After putting immense thought in my previous blogs and mustering up only two readers at best (myself included), I gave up on blogging. But then around a month ago, I got captivated by the idea of monetizing my blog and for that I needed a wider audience, which I couldn't even imagine with dark sketches like my Capote film review. Amid myriads of "makeup" blogs, I thought reviewing products will be quite lucrative but little did I realize that for any makeup/beauty product there will be countless reviews strewn all over the internet. My reviews don't appear even at the 5th page of Google search and after that I give up - people read only the top few search results.
My blog monetizing journey:
Currently, my blog has around 1500 views (which I think is quite good for a blog in its nascent stages but the truth is that at least a thousand of the hits are my own :P). Without further digressing from the topic: Despite adding adsense widgets on my sidebars and below my posts, I have made only 5 cents so far. To attract a wider audience a) I compromised on my writing skills b) I commented on utterly random posts (I am sure everyone can relate to this) c) I wrote about things that matter little to me (jumped into the bandwagon) and d) Compromised on my ethics as a writer (I have always wanted to write to reach out to people, not to make money and given the largess of Google, I think I will disable advertisements after a month of looking at my "blog earnings".)
Lesson learnt: You cannot become a Gates or Ambani with your blog. Let alone making a decent living, you cannot even buy a meal with your weekly earnings (At least if you're a novice). Blog for your love of writing. Adding random product reviews to your blog only scavenges on your time and energy if your heart doesn't lie in it.
- Eccentrica 101
Umm you may make money using a blog if you are doing it full time as a profession and if you are offering something which a lot of people find compelling to read.
ReplyDeleteObviously moneymaking was not your primary intent so enjoy the writing. You at least have one compelled reader:P
Yes money making wasn't the primary idea but even if someone starts blogging as a full-time venture, it's not that easy to make money out of it. You need at least 200+ hits a day to make 3-4 cents and google doesn't pay you for anything less than a hundred hits a day, which seems quite an insurmountable task especially for someone new. I thought earlier, for each click you get a fixed amount of money, but that's not true at all! Anyway, for more than myself, I wrote this article with a general blogger's perspective.
ReplyDeleteDon't get disheartened. Always remember one thing "SUCCESS IS NOT A GOOD TEACHER. FAILURE MAKES YOU HUMBLE"
ReplyDelete-SRK