Every blogger has that dream, someone in their head, of making money from their blog whether it’s just a bit to have a night out or to completely replace their income. Problem is, not many bloggers make a single penny for their hard effort they put into their blog. Well, I’m going to tell you what I believe are the five major reasons why your blog doesn’t make money.
Reason 1: You’re Not Focus
Focus is a major element of blogging that may people lack; it’s complete discipline that has to be learned. To make money from your blog, you have to stay focused on the main goals for why you’ve started it and how you plan to eventually monetize your platform. Staying from your goals will send you down a path where you’re speaking to an audience that doesn’t care which creates a false sense of community that will never buy from you.
Reason 2: You’re Promoting the Wrong Products
The product is everything. Your content becomes a vehicle for promoting products once you’ve gained traction online but it’s far too common to see a blogger choose items that are going to make them a lot of money per sale vs. what actually fits on their blog. With enough time, people feel burnt out on your offerings because you’re always throwing new products at them; they catch on to this, leave and now your blog fails to make money.
Reason 3: You’re Reaching the Wrong Audience
Speaking of audience and talking to the wrong people – far too many bloggers write for other bloggers. The problem comes when fellow bloggers, in the niche, regularly comment on your blog; this sways the way you speak to your true community (the real buyers) so you end up appealing to these bloggers rather than the community at large. In time, you’re off your track, changed your tone and lost focus in turning your blog into a profit because you are too overwhelmed trying to “keep up” with other bloggers.
Reason 4: You’re Confusing the Readers
There are niche sites and authority websites; the later makes you the most money because of the sheer size of an audience you can bring in but niche sites can certainly make a boatload of money. Unfortunately, many bloggers start to sway from their topics and end up confusing the readers. One day you’re promoting a product and the next you are trying to get them to sign up for a service – stick with only a few options for your readers and drive it home; don’t confuse them.
Reason 5: You’re a Fake
This one isn’t really meant to be an attack but there are far too many people that are completely fake about their blogging. What I mean is that they setup a blog and pretend to be experts in their topic yet all they do is regurgitate information over and over again – people can see through this. Sure, you may eventually make money with enough traffic but you’re not going to get the right kind of traction to make any decent amount of money. Instead of trying to chase some niche you don’t know – go after something you do and become the master of that.
Conclusion
Making money with a blog really isn’t all that difficult; it really just comes down to finding a product people want, wrapping it around content people want to read and reaching out to the people that want your message. Don’t overcomplicate things and certainly don’t make the mistakes and reasons for failing that have been described in this post else you’re going to be spending a lot of time with no financial gain.
Six Figure Income
I think you hit the nail on the head. Great article I agree with all of your points. Write what you love, be an expert in it and people will like you. You will make conversions you deserve.
Lisa
Murray Lunn
Definitely!
After all these years of blogging, I’ve learned one thing: you can’t force it.
There have been tons of blogs I’ve started and lost interest in because I didn’t really care for the content. However, the ones that I felt passionate about are the ones that took off.
Find what you like and don’t worry about making money from it at the moment – keep moving forward with everything and in time, things work out.
Ileane
Hi Murray, great to see you guest posting here on Tech Walls. I need to catch up on your posts here. I like your tips about confusing the reader. At times I feel like I’m doing that but I need to find out more about my audience so I can focus on a clear target. Thanks for the advice.
Murray Lunn
I know I certainly do it at times, for sure.
Sometimes, it can be a good thing to throw in a curve ball but for the most part – people are coming to blog because they have found a great resource for what they’re looking for. Going off the track every once in a while adds a bit of personality but I wouldn’t jump ship all the time else people don’t have that reason to come back after they get their information.
Thanks for the comment
Casey
Hi Murray,
Your information is really useful for me as a beginner in the internet marketing. I will keep your tips as a reference for my blogging style.
sudha
This comes to show how successful a blog can earn, if you are committed. This is a very inspiring post that will be idealized by millions of lone bloggers over the web, wishing to have the same out come as Darren. You deserve it, from the very start and I wish the income will grow even more.
Dani
Hi Murray,
Just following up to your conclusion, a great way to monetize your blog is through selling video lessons. You can do this easily using a platform called Sparkeo, which let’s you upload videos and embed & sell them straight from your blog. Obviously, the better your video is, and the higher your traffic, the stronger your video sales will be!
-Dani
Sanjay
Nice list! In #1 you can add this, the blog owner is only after the money and money alone. User isn’t his / her concerned. You’ll never make any money when you’re not sharing great content. I think this is the biggest mistake any blogger can do.
DJ Trinity from New Songs 2012
Very true, blogging for money is hard. On the other hand, no need to give up. If you keep trying and find your “voice” you will sooner or later have some success. Find something you’re passionate about and write about that.Link building is time consuming, but if you make a bit of money, consider outsourcing a few of these tedious tasks to for instance scriptlance or some other marketplace.