Make Money Online from Blogs: Case Studies
January 21st, 2009 | Author: Noobpreneur | 5,429 views
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?
- Cash flow blogger – Cash flow bloggers make money month by month through various monetisation methods: affiliate sales, advertising, and some do paid reviews.
- 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].
About the Author
Ivan Widjaya is the Owner/Editor of Noobpreneur.com. He is a web property investor, blogger and web property maker, and currently manages and writes for Franchise Note. He also runs a web design business, Chalcedony Design, specialising in Wordpress theme creation.
Visit Noobpreneur's profile and other posts.
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This is article is right up my alley. I’ve been blogging for a few months (off and on) and I have so much to learn. I’d love to make money on the internet but I still have yet to do so. There is so much information out there, I simply don’t know where to start. Affiliate marketing, site flipping, advertising, ppc, adsense, etc, etc. What the h%#$ do I do first?
Thanks for this post, and I look forward to learning more!
T
Hey T,
Just take your time, man!
Affiliate marketing + advertising can be done as one, but site flipping is another way to go.
The most important thing in blogging is content + traffic – once you drive enough traffic and interest, you can start offering advertising opportunities. Getting the word out about your blog is what make or break a blog.
Stay tuned, T :)
Thanks so much, Man.
I WILL take my time and keep writing, which is the fun part of blogging for me. I’ve no doubt it will pay off soon.
T
You are right when you said that blogging can be profitable. But the caveat is that it takes a lot of learning and investments to get to profitability. Though I don’t rely solely on my online income since I have a full time job, my online income comes in nicely to take care of bills :D
@ T – Best of luck, man :)
@ Hi kawan – yes, indeed. The biggest investment is your time and desire to learn. Taking care of the bills are a good milestone to reach :) – ‘Going full-time online soon? ;)
Thanks for such an awesome and useful blog.I was just searching for such a blog.
Hi Thoufeeq,
Thanks for the praise. Good luck on your biz & entrepreneurial endeavours! :)
Hi, Ivan
I just wanna remember you, “no job that can make you burn your ass than to be a blogger”. You damn sit down every day to think and write articles, building backlink there ago to produce dollar back you.
Ehm, I still hard for trying to find a way how to make dollar on really damn autop[ilot.
Hi Joseph,
Yes – the dollar-to-burnt @ss ratio for bloggers are rather steep, indeed :) However, once you’ve got there, everything will be much, much more easier.
Autopilot – you actually can! You see, bloggers choose to blog or to outsource article writing based on their preference.
Guys like Darren Rowse love to blog – so yes – he loves getting his @ss burned :D – On contrary, B5 Media runs 300+ blogs by hiring 200+ bloggers. So, blogging can be your hobby, one-man-show business, or a fully-functioned small business.
Cheers!
There are only a select few who make money from their blogs. Sad but true….the majority of bloggers are in for quick money.
Money is the by product of the value we give to others and blogging allows us to do just that. Making money from blogs goes beyond just telling others “where you had your last dinner”.
Nice case studies, Ivan.
Yan
PS: oh, btw, are you Indonesian?
Hi Yan,
Exactly – creating valuable content day after day for the rest of your blogging life is challenging to most.
LOL – the only guy I know who blog about “where I had my last dinner” and make millions of dollar from his blog is John Chow :D
Thanks for visiting and commenting on Noobpreneur.com :)
ps. Yes – I’m proudly Indonesian ;) Where are you from?
LOL, who else do you think I was referring to anyway?
Yes, I’m Indonesian too residing in Kuala Lumpur. In fact, I’ve been away from Jakarta since I was 18.
Yan
Yan,
Hi – ada juga blogger Indonesia yang mampir :P
KL – nice place to live I suppose :) (much, much better than Jakarta :P)
You bet it is but the only thing I miss about Jakarta is the food – sup kambing, nasi padang, nasi uduk.
Probably we catch up some other days when I’m back. Join us at TSB if time permits……
See ya
Yan,
LOL – I’ll be waiting for you – perhaps we can do a little meet-up? :)
I’ve visited your TSB quite regularly, though I’m not quite an active reader – fantastic blog I must say…
‘later, Yan!
Hi, cool site, good writing ;)
Hi Clen,
Cheers!
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Elaina
http://www.freearticletrove.com
Hi Elaina,
Thanks for visiting my blog :)
It helps substantially, if, when you do try to monetize your blog, you speak English, or at least, be fluent in what language you do speak.
Hi Thomas,
Yes – language is important, especially if you are targeting a market that speaks different language from you :)