Make Money Online from Blogs: Case Studies

Yes, you can make money from blogging!

However, make money online through blogging has always been challenging for me. Of all web investments I have, blogs are one of the hardest to monetised.

Not that blogs are not profitable. Blog CAN be profitable (Noobpreneur.com IS profitable, and could be way, way much better if I learn more on how to monetize this blog), but money wasn’t always come first in bloggers mind.

That’s why blogs – the good ones – can sell beyond the amount of money they are actually making.

Blogging and blog as a small business

Blogging today is way, way much different than it was a few years ago; Blogging today is highly related to make money online.

Of course, there are die-hard bloggers who use blogs to share their opinion to the world without thinking about money. But as blogs’ roles in business world is getting bigger and bigger, us blogger can’t overlook the potential of blogs as money making tools and as web investments.

For me, blogging and blogs have been my small business, online. I blog and I invest in blogs.

However, unlike other online business, making money through blogging and blogs is, let’s say, trivial.

First of all – How much a blogger can make in a month from his/her blog?

There are, in my opinion, two ways a blogger can make money from his/her blog. The right question is, is the blogger aiming for cash flow or capital gain?

1. Cash flow blogger – Cash flow bloggers make money month by month through various monetisation methods: affiliate sales, advertising, and some do paid reviews.
2. Capital gain blogger – Capital gain bloggers buy and sell blogs, and view them as investments – they don’t really care how much the blogs can make them, but they do care how much money the can get if they sell the blogs.

Of course, a combo is always better – I start or buy a blog with a vision that I will sell the blog someday, somehow.

Along the way, I want the blog to sustain itself, initially – I want a blog to be able to pay it’s own operating costs, such as hosting cost, domain name renewals, and such. After that, of course, I want my blog to get more traffic, have more readers and make more money.

When the blog ‘matures’, I want to sell it if the price is right OR hold it as long as I can.

How much a blogger can make? It varies widely: Most bloggers I know can make less than $100 a month, while a select few – the probloggers – can make in five, even six digits per month.

My Case Study #1: Noobpreneur.com

Noobpreneur.com is a business blog that updates you with business ideas, opportunities and reviews.

How much

Noobpreneur.com income varies a lot. But on average, it can make at least $300 per month, while in a few good month can make more than $1000 a month.

How-to

I build Noobpreneur.com from scratch, post by post, mistakes by mistakes. Unlike many fortunate bloggers that traffic is viral, getting the traffic Noobpreneur.com has right now is with sweat and tears – the traffic is never really automatic. The traffic is fight for and through extensive work.

How can I achieve such income? I mainly offer advertisements and sponsored reviews, as well as getting a fair share of revenue from Google AdSense and Affiliate Sales. Nothing special, really… Except, I actively look for advertisers, instead of the other way around.

Where do I find for advertisers? I dwell in forums, mainly in Sitepoint.com and Digitalpoint.com.

Noobpreneur.com is definitely NOT FOR SALE! :D

My Case Study #2: MyWebEstate.com

MyWebEstate.com is a website and blog creation service, offering clients ready-made startup sites or create the sites from scratch for them.

How much

Within a month of its age, MyWebEstate.com is making more than $1000. It is actually a showcase blog for my web investments and the work I’ve done so far in my make money online endeavour.

How-to

The key is offering the right service to the right people at the right price. Your professionalism is the key success factor. If you are not professional, who would trust you?

Let the portfolio speaks by itself – promote yours to the blogosphere through forums and blogs.

My Case Study #3: Technoblab.com

Technoblab.com is a technology and science blog.

How much

I acquire Technoblab.com a few months ago from Sitepoint.com Marketplace. It’s not really a bargain, but I love the domain name and the automatic nature of the blog (it’s an autoblog.) It’s not making significant amount of money, but I don’t consider it as a failed investment.

How-to

The blog runs by itself, and to tell you the truth, I can’t see autoblog makes a considerable amount of money – not today, not even tomorrow.

All I can see, to monetize Technoblab.com is by selling it to interested parties – so, this blog is completely a capital gain investment.

My Case Study #4: MoneyAndMinds.com

MoneyAndMinds.com is a personal neurofinance blog that explores relationship between human minds and their money decision making.

How much

MoneyAndMinds.com is making at least $200 a month, mainly through advertising and sponsored review.

How-to

MoneyAndMinds.com has actually been sold a couple of days ago to a web investor. Although I can sell it at least 20 times monthly income, I decided not to, simply because I want it to be a quick sale.

Why? Because I do need the money for my off line business.

So, yes – blogs can make A LOT of money :D

What others do to make money online from blogs

Others do the similar things I did, but some others do it differently.

I notice that some online business owners create a blog network – the larger scale of this would be Jeremy Wright’s B5Media that has more than 300 blogs and 200 bloggers.

One blog network owner I know is running his 100 blogs with the help of his wife and a couple of writers, and the revenue is, indeed, hefty :)

How you can make money from your blogs

If you are not making a lot of money blogging today, don’t give up blogging for the sake of it. Keep on blogging and sharing your thought to the blogosphere.

What you should do is actually learn about how to make money through your blog.

I insist you to visit the blogs of those that have paved the road for you and me: Guys like Darren Rowse of Problogger.net, Yaro Starak of Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, and John Chow of JohnChow.com are making five to six digit a month through blogging. And they are willing to share their secret for free!

The best tip I receive in my early making money online endeavour: Invest in a domain name, and host your blog yourself! Never use free-blogging platforms, such as Blogger.com and Typepad.com, as selling your blog later on is a very difficult thing to do.

One crucial thing to learn: Learn to see your blogs as a business or an investment – Learn to outsource and learn how to organise your blog as a business without losing its personality.

Good luck make money online!

Ivan Widjaya
keep on blogging
Image by Chaparral [Kendra].