Blogging for Dollars - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Wheel_Estate · RV-Dreams Family Member

Blogging for Dollars

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Google Adsense and Amazon affiliates are one way to make a little (and I do mean.. little) beer money here and there. But it does take generating quite a bit of blog traffic to generate more than a few pennies.

When folks ask us if they should blog, I generally advise them to only do it if it's something they'll enjoy doing irregardless of the money. Keeping one up is a LOT of work - both in building it, designing it, keeping your posts active and building up a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, G+, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr and forums within your niche. If you're a writer, and enjoy it.. then great.

We keep ours mostly because we're drawn to sharing via the written word, and have been bloggers for over a decade, and journalism before that. While we don't specifically 'blog for dollars' (you'll see no advertising on ours, except for our own products), it has now become quite a platform for us in launching our own niche related products (apps, books, etc.) and as an online resume of sorts. But mostly we blog because we enjoy it, and love the amazing people it brings into our lives.

We do have Amazon affiliate links and only generate maybe a $100/month in affiliate sales - it helps pay the hosting costs of up keeping the site. Expect a newly launched blog to generate maybe a few hundred visitors a month (compared to our couple thousand unique visitors a day), and do the math to how much effort it will take to generate any substantial income without doing a LOT of marketing, learning SEO and all the other things that go into income generating blogging. Those that blog for a sizable income source usually approach blogging as a full time job... we dropped that notion a long time ago.

That said.. there are tons of resources out there for teaching yourself blogging and techniques for earning an income from it. It's been a few years since I researched it myself and know things change all the time - so I don't have any in particular to recommend. But ProBlogger seemed to be a good resource last I checked.

- Cherie

-- Edited by Technomadia on Saturday 12th of April 2014 02:56:39 PM

Wheel_Estate · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks for your response.
I think I'm going into overload looking at all the professional blogs, such as yours, which, by the way, is like wow.
I look at more tech savvy bloggers sites and am usually no no less impressed with their work and commitment.

Keeping a positive I have plodded along, first learning how to turn on a computer and get the darn thing to do more than stare back at my perplexed face. I punched all kinds of keys and things would happen, but nothing I was expecting to see. You're going to laugh, but I finally found out I needed to open a browser to enter the World Wide Web and its many pitfalls and wonders. Big LOL when I look back. I had asked around and tried to bribe someone, anyone in our small town (at the time) to PLEASE show me a few things, all to no avail.
Long story short...still lots of stuff I don't understand. I love sharing photos and that would, hopefully, be a big part of my blog efforts. (finally learned to place them properly within the story body).

All that being said, I like writing, and though, far from professional, I've had some good reviews on both my subject matter, as well as its presentation. (was actually surprised at dashboard numbers, as well as comments). Though my objectives do include the possibility of a small addition to my social security (less than your fixed expenses monthly), the main intent is to enjoy something I like doing (writing) and have public access to share it. Plus, its a great way to keep all our friends and family updated, as well as entertained all in one shot. Emails can do that, but why not have a nice presentation with all the cool features. Doesn't hurt that many of those readers already use Amazon (for instance) and provided links will still give credit if they buy something else using my associate link.

Boiled down...I'd like to figure out how to have an attractive blog site that I can build on over time. One that catches the eye and draws their interest to look around. I'm not expecting "fancy", just not a boring stock page with a thousand words and 4 pics.

Maybe I'm in over my head on this.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

You have the right attitude for enjoying blogging... which is exactly why we do it (and we're far far far from 'professional'... but thank you.)

If you want something that doesn't look stock, you may want to consider self-hosted WordPress.. that's where you can start to get creative in your themes and plug-ins.

Wheel_Estate · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks.
I'll look into WordPress. I'm going to do some more research. In the meantime, I can work on keeping the readers I have. I read that a "track record" is preferred by reviewers, should I decide on an associate deal for income.
You spoke of social media, need to branch out there too.

I appreciate your thoughts.

Howard · Host

As Technomadia said, earning dollars by blogging takes a lot of traffic and a lot of work. But if you like to write, and you are going to write anyway, it doesn't take much effort to add some Google AdSense Ads, Amazon, and other affiliate ads to your pages.

If you are a good writer with an interesting subject matter, especially in a particular niche, folks will eventually find you if you post consistently and your blog doesn't get stale. Most blogging platforms have a tutorial on getting set up and search engine optimization (SEO). Blogger has a help page on setting up Google AdSense on your sidebar. The good news is that most bloggers are low tech and were able to learn on their own to make their blogs look nice.

Your blog doesn't have to be extremely pretty, but it does have to be easy to read and photos certainly help. It's really about content, content, content. Content is what eventually drives enough traffic to start picking up a few pennies or dollars a day.

Expanding your readership and the traffic takes time. The faster you want that to happen, the more work you will have to do. The good news is it's never been easier to get the word out without a lot of dollar investment. But, the time investment to work social media and the websites in your niche can be enormous.

So, you can write for fun, throw up a few Google Ads, and passively bring in some pocket change and possibly cover your monthly Wi-Fi hotspot in a few years time. Or, you can spend a lot of time learning, set up a more professional blog, and work your tail off promoting and getting people to your site in which case you can make a decent income. Or you can do anything in between.

We make between $400 - $500 a month on Google Ads, about $100 a month from Amazon, and a little bit here and there from other affiliate ads. Like Technomadia, we have between 2,000 - 3,000 readers per day, and it's no easy task to get there - we've been at it for nine years, but we've never pushed the promotion hard either. If you are willing to put in the hours to get to that level, then other opportunities may start coming in. Folks in your niche may start contacting you about paying for advertising on your blog or becoming referral partners.

Like most opportunities, you can choose the effort you want to put in to meet the needs you have. smile

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

I think Cherie mentioned it, but consistency of publishing, and good/interesting content is the key to success. And it will take some time - measured in years.

Unlike Howard and Cherie I do not publish a blog - I use a straight website. But I'm not writing "reading material", I'm writing more long-term reference material. My site has been up for at least 10 years....I'm not even sure how long. And I get less traffic than H/L and Technomania. I average 30K unique visits a month. I have 2 Google ads on my site - one on the front page above the fold, and one on the Electrical page. Those two ads generate enough income to pay for the site plus some....but under $100/month. And I will note that in general Goggle ad revenue is dropping - across the board.

I write because I like to....I do not do it for income.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

By the way.. this post inspired us choosing the topic of our monthly live video chat this week: 'Blogging for RVers'. Thanks :)

We get asked about blogging quite often, so seems like a fun little discussion.

We'll be hosting it on Thursday evening at 8pm CST.

More information on how to join us can be found at: www.technomadia.com/video

Description of what we'll cover: "To blog.. or not to blog? There seems to be RVers starting blogs all the time, but is starting one right for you? We’ll discuss the various motivations behind blogging – from keeping family & friends up to date, keeping a record of your adventures to generating an income. We’ll share some of the rewards of blogging and some of the challenges. We’ll also briefly discuss the various blogging platforms out there – and how to choose what is right for your motivations and technical skill sets. As always, a general Q&A to follow."

Wheel_Estate · RV-Dreams Family Member

This is super. As naive as it may sound, I'm happy to have raised a question that has lead to you sharing your knowledge in video.
Thank you.
I'll be there.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ooops.. looks like we'll need to reschedule our video chat. Got to our new location, and the bandwidth just isn't as abundant as we need for a clear video chat. We'll reschedule for sometime next week hopefully once we get into St. Louis!

- Cherie

Wheel_Estate · RV-Dreams Family Member

Well dern, now I have to message everyone I invited, LOL.

How well we understand tho. In Quartzsite all internet (other than hotspot users) was compromised, as usual during season, due to heavy loads. Sometimes it was hard to post to websites even with the booster. No chance of using youtube without buffer after buffer.

We'll look forward to seeing you next week...hopefully.

Technomadia · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've rescheduled our 'Blogging for RVers' live video chat for THIS Thursday at 8:30pm CST.

Details can be found at: www.technomadia.com/video

See you then :)

Wheel_Estate · RV-Dreams Family Member

Great, I'll spread the word.

Also....I've had a mentor offer. He is designing a site(s) to sell ebooks. He's been doing this on the road for a number of years with great success. He's working on it as he has time, so I should be up and running soon. Using his guidance, I hope to build a little extra income working part time.