Don’t start blogging to earn money

For those of you who aren’t aware, I started my blogging career a few months back. And by blogging career, I mean I started this personal blog a few months back.

While I saw so many popular bloggers making a living out of blogging, I struggled to understand what I was doing wrong. I was getting traffic (well, the bare minimum), but none of them stuck by. That was what made me think.

I wouldn’t say that the recurring visitors were zero but very less in comparison to what I would like it to be. This was the primary reason why I started to dig deeper as to what I was doing wrong with blogging.

I read through multiple website articles and other blogs to get an idea. I was looking through the dos and don’ts and nothing seemed to be in place. It was very unsettling.

And, then it struck me like a bucket of cold water. I was blogging because I wanted to earn money. I didn’t start out blogging just to blog. I wanted them to bring me revenue.

Some people reading this might be like, “Well, isn’t that a justified reason?” And, technically it is. But, if you start out with a notion to just earn money, nothing is going to come back to you. I learned it the hard way.

It takes time

Much like how Rome wasn’t built in a day, even your blog isn’t going to become popular in just a day. There are several writers and digital marketing experts who have been working on a single website for years but to no avail.

Yes, there is a possibility that your content could be the problem but that isn’t the case all the time.

If you want people to come back to your blog, you need to post something that’s not on the internet already.

If the statistics are to be considered, one single topic has millions of contents written about it. This itself should give you a clear idea of why blogging isn’t blurbing out content on the internet.

You need to write content that others aren’t writing. You need to have your own touch and spin to the blog that the readers can value from. This is what makes all the difference.

And for you to be able to do that, you need to take time. Take time to think about the next blog post. Take time to research about it. Take time to curate a draft and then finally post the piece that you are proud of.

It is when you least expect it

The majority of the viral content that you see on the internet wasn’t posted because the writer or the creator knew that they would go viral.

Much like any other piece of content, even a viral content is posted. It is the audience and how they perceive it that makes it viral.

One thing I have learned from blogging and from the concept of viral content is the fact that the same happens when you least expect it. This is exactly why you need to focus on creating content.

If you focus on the next step, chances are that you will rush through the content.

It isn’t about the quantity

If you ask any of the digital marketing experts, they will tell you that it isn’t about the quantity of the content.

I heard about an editor who gets paid in six figures per month for posting just one column. Can you even imagine?

But, the reason why he is so handsomely paid is because of the authenticity and the genuineness of the post that he is making.

This is what makes all the difference. If you want your content to rank or to stand out of the crowd in the blogging sphere, you need to focus on the quality.

Once you gain a reasonable amount of traction, it becomes a lot easier to maintain and manage the credibility.

Focus on the revenue later

If you are just starting out blogging on your own like I am, I will suggest that you do it for the passion it brings. If you are just thinking about revenue, chances are that it will become a lot harder for you to manage through the blogs.

I put up AdSense on my blog just a few days after the blog reached 500 visitors. I pulled it down just the day after.

Not only is it causing a ruckus on the website, slowing down the speed of the website, it is also not practical.

I didn’t realize that if I wanted to earn ad revenue, I should have a substantial amount of traffic for that as well.

That was when I stopped thinking about the revenue. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be upset if the blog didn’t rank in the first year. From now on, I am focusing on pushing out unique blogs and personal experiences that aren’t available on the internet already. I want to bring forth content that people are searching for but not getting satisfying answers for. I have gone two weeks without posting anything and I think that’s okay.

For my blogging endeavors, I am going to focus on the content first. If that shines, I am pretty sure, the revenue will step in as well.