Can You Really Make Money As A Blogger?

I Have Been Talking About Becoming A Successful Blogger Online For Sometime Now - Well, I'm On My Way!

As many of you already know, it's been a while since my last post here on i-Blogger. And it's basically because this is not my main blog.

In the past I have mentioned my blog, HCG Diet 411 - Well, that is where I spend most of my blogging time. And in addition to running a blog, I also have a forum that has started to become pretty popular. I even have a full-time career.

In case you are wondering what I do, I am actually on the internet team for BMW. I do things like write content about our cars, I'm also an administrator for our Facebook fan pages, and believe it or not I even take photos of our vehicles before writing about them.

Actually, part of the reason I was able to even land the job with BMW, is because my boss had been a regular reader of this blog as well as HCG Diet 411.

And even though I'm not always posting to this blog, I enjoy doing it when I can. I like to try and help other bloggers by writing about my own blogging experiences.

But for some reason there are people out there that insist on having proof of your success before they will listen to anything you have to say. So today I have decided to show all of you what I make from my blog and the amount traffic that I receive each month.

And although I would love show you how great i-Blogger is doing, it's not anywhere near where I would like it to be. So for now I am just going to break down my monthly traffic statistics and earnings for HCG Diet 411 during the month of May.

Traffic Statistics For May 2011 (HCG Diet 411)

Visits: 32,432
Pageviews: 66,911
Bounce Rate: 67.43%

Daily Average: 1,046

And here is a breakdown of where my traffic comes from. You'll notice that a large percentage of my traffic comes from search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Below I've given you a breakdown of my earnings for the month of May 2011. Keep in mind this is only the money that I made as a result of people visiting my HCG Diet 411 Blog.

Monthly Earnings For May 2011 (HCG Diet 411)

Amazon: $80.57
Clickbank: $203.68
Adsense: $375.85
Personal Ad Space: $60.00
Affiliate Program #1: $572.38
Affiliate Program #2: $69.00
Affiliate Program #3: $159.98

Grand Total: $1521.46

As you can see it's not a ton of money, some months I make more, some months it's less, but it's growing. And I just want to be completely honest. Plus, this is from about an hour per day, 6 days per week. I used to blog 7 days a week, but I promised my wife I would spend a little less time doing it.

Another important thing to point out is I'm not just using one specific way to make money - I have a few different methods for earning income with my blog.

Actually, there are people out there that make way more money with even less traffic than I get. Remember, traffic doesn't always equal money - But it doesn't hurt either.

Keep in mind, I'm not doing this to brag or toot my own horn... Either way, it's not like I'm able to retire from my blogs earnings - Yet!


How much money do you earn from your blog each month?

As always, I would love to hear what you think - So be sure to tell me your thoughts in a comment below.

Like i-Blogger? Never miss a blog post - Start getting email updates delivered right to your inbox

Read full story

Living The Life Of An Internet Celebrity

Forget partying like a rock star, I want to party like an internet marketer!

Everyday you see these internet marketers and bloggers that are living the life of a celebrity. Doing interviews, hanging out with stars and even going to parties at the Playboy Mansion. No, that was not a typo - I said going to parties at the Playboy Mansion.

Is it really that hard to imagine, a bunch of "Computer Geeks" hanging out with gorgeous playmates at the famous Playboy Mansion - Well believe it!

But these aren't the Computer Geeks that you see in the hollywood movies; you know the ones I'm talking about - Oily hair, acne, glasses, shirts buttoned all the way to the top with their pants pulled up to their chest. Actually, it's just the opposite - These guys are slicked up, they dress well, drive fancy cars and they are always surrounded by beautiful women. That's right, no pocket protectors here. So if this is the definition of a computer geek - sign me up!

Don't believe me? Just ask my man DK, this guy even has the pictures to prove it. Just head on over to Purpose Inc. to see the evidence.

You know, watching DK's videos he seems like he'd be a cool guy to hang out with and a good friend to have too. He's always promoting his friends and talking about what amazing guys they are. Plus, he's always hanging out with the beautiful Jenny. I'm sure people go to ThinkTank just to meet her - If I could get a ticket, you better believe I'd be there. Not just for Jenny, but because it's the who's who of internet marketers. It sounds like one great time.

I've heard, the only rule of ThinkTank is... You don't talk about ThinkTank.

Actually the ThinkTank rules say...

"Each attendee will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and a liability waiver before the event begins. This means you will promise not to discuss anything you learn at the event with anyone unless you have the (sober) permission of the person who told you"

Now if you have to sign something like that just to get in, think of all the things that are shared at this event - I'm sure it's like an information gold mine.

But these are the internet celebrities that I am talking about, people like DK, Shoemoney, John Chow, Amish Shah and the list goes on. What they do online has gained them a celebrity status and a lot of money too. The cool thing is that they are just ordinary people; so it's a big motivator to know that you can accomplish the same things, if that is ultimately what you want.

As for me, I'm ready to join the party. So hand me the contract and show me where to sign!


What do you hope to achieve online?


Like i-Blogger? If so - Please share it below and subscribe to my RSS Feed

Read full story

And You Thought This Blogging Thing Would Be Easy

I thought making a living as a blogger was supposed to be easy

A couple of years ago I started getting into affiliate marketing. I built websites, joined an affiliate program and started selling products. We'll I started offering them anyways - I really didn't do much selling at first.

But then one day everything changed for me - I came across an article that was posted on some guys blog. The article was about how blogs have the potential to bring your website a lot of traffic. There is one part of the article that has always stuck with me, and this is basically a run down of what it said...


If you want to drive traffic to your website, a blog is a great way to do it. Start a blog on blogger.com, write a few articles that link back to your website and wait for the traffic to pour in.

After reading the article, I thought to myself - this looks easy enough, I'm going to start a blog. And like I've mentioned before, my only goal at the time was to drive traffic to my websites that I built for affiliate marketing. Needless to say, it worked, well sort of. See, I did get traffic, but it didn't funnel over to my websites. However, it did help me realize how much I enjoy blogging.

In fact, I liked it so much that I decided to stop building websites and start a completely new blog from scratch. I wanted to start a blog on a topic that I knew a little more about. So I abandoned the blog that I already had, which was getting traffic, and I started another blog. It was a video game blog - as if there wasn't enough of those on the web. Unfortunately it bombed. It was shown no love by the search engines, but still I kept at it and even started another blog.

It was about 1 year after that when my wife and I started the HCG Diet 411 Blog - Well, we had talked about doing it for about a year before we actually launched it in October 2009. Either way I'm glad we did; it has been well received by the search engines and visitors alike.

This blog on the other hand has yet to gain as much momentum. But it's a fun topic to blog about. After-all, I am enjoying the journey to become a successful full-time blogger. However, the road is anything but easy; there are a lot of speed bumps and detours along the way and I've yet to reach my destination. But at least I know that I'm on the right path.


So if anyone tries to tell you that blogging is an easy way to earn money online... they're lying. It takes a lot of hard work and dedication. In the beginning you'll probably spend more time with your computer than you do with your own wife. (or husband) Most people think that you can pick a template, type some words and boom, you're making money.

If people didn't think that, why does every single blog have Google AdSense all over it?

But you need to be the one to make the decision. If becoming a successful full-time blogger is something you want to take a run at, then I say go for it. However, I wouldn't go and quit your job just yet. For the simple fact that... most people that try to make a living online through blogging, give up on it within just a few months of starting. Even if you do stick with it - there are no guarantees. So make sure that you have a back-up plan.


3 Tips For People Wanting To Become Full-Time Bloggers

1. Don't go into it expecting too much - Otherwise you are going to feel very let down if it doesn't happen for you.
    
2. Find something that you really like to talk about - Because... you will likely have to write hundreds or even thousands of articles on the topic if you plan on being successful in that niche. So it is always better to write about things that you know a lot about.
    
3. Have a blogging schedule - I have learned through trial and error, that you can't put your blog before everything else. So set aside time for your family. And if your wife/husband tells you that you need to spend more time with the family, you better listen.
   

But more than anything, make sure that this is something that you want to do. Being a full time blogger is not for everyone and it's really not a quick way to earn money online. If you are looking for a get rich quick scheme, there are a lot of those to choose from online. But unfortunately, blogging isn't one of them.


Why did you first start blogging?

Like i-Blogger? If so - Please share it with the buttons below and subscribe to my RSS Feed

Read full story