I saw an interesting post in a forum earlier today asking if blogging to make money online was even worth trying and some of the replies were very interesting from a few different perspectives.

In my view some of the replies were bad advice for going broke fast at worse and a dumb opinion based on nothing at best.

Either way these opinions were crap!

The problem is some of those opinions out there could seriously harm people if they followed them, just as we often see anywhere online there is simply way to much misinformation and loose opinions that count for shit in reality!

So is it worth blogging to “make money online”?

My issue with that is you rarely see the real underlying question that matters to most people and the one they would really ask, that is…

“Can you blog for consistent money?”

The answer is yes as it is being done, BUT the difference is they don’t “blog to make money online”, they blog as a part of their overall business…something all bloggers who wish to generate an income from it should bear in mind, including me at times.

But if you are going to blog, do it anyway, forget about the making money for now.

This one thing I have been asked a few times is “how do you write so much that is needed for a blog?”

My short answer is who said “you have to write so much?”

If you really want to blog you will have to write but there is nothing saying how much or what style it has to be etc, the best advice if you really want to write is to…write, then write some more but also read more, get your kids into the reading habit while you are at it as it is so important anyway.

Reading becomes interwined with writing anyway, so in that sense read the blogs on the topics, themes you feel you would blog about.

The truth is if you don’t write any content you will never make money online blogging.

But it’s not the blogging itself that makes the money it is the marketing of the blog, getting the eyeballs onto the content you write that really matters.

The 80/20 rule applies here IMO, which way round is up to you.

Puting in 20% of good effort on writing the blog content is better than doing none, add 80% promotion and marketing and you will get that ball rolling quick.

Put 80% effort into the content creating and 20% into the promotion and marketing and you will get the ball rolling slower, though maybe it will be better long term.

It depends on you, your plan, you efforts and the time you can put in, the topic you choose, so many factors no-one can say it’s worth it or not other than you.

One very good reason to take advice on forums etc with a pinch of salt.

Those who share bad advice I noticed don’t even have blogs!

Let alone blogging to make money online!

Happy new year!

While it is nice to see some of us can afford to relax!!

Most people are either nursing a sore head, tidying up a real after party mess or back to work!

Some of us now setting goals or if you like resolutions to achieve in 2009, starting today while that’s ok I am not sure it’s a good thing in some ways as it can also set you up for a bit of early disappointment depending on what it is, ie: give up smoking TODAY. (Failure tomorrow?)

So I am taking a slightly different route this year knowing it’s going to be more beneficial to me over the short, medium and long term, but I will have goals but…

Instead of just setting goals, planning the action to take you forward to them goals then taking the action needed to reach them, most people get bogged down by “stuff” that creeps back into the normality after the new year optimism.

Daily slots.

I am setting daily slots of big action to avoid getting bogged down by the “stuff” normality brings us, you may have seen someone wearing a t’ shirt proudly declaring…

“Same shit, different day!”

That is a truth for way too many of us! For far too many days!

I learnt a powerful lesson reading something Steve Jobs mentioned in a speech…(worth reading)

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

I have been saying that to myself for the last few months each morning and it has made a difference in a big way. I realise while it’s ok to have goals as people do, such and such by 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, etc, it’s the daily ones that matter the most as we are only here today, now.

Well for someone working online, that “stuff” that bogs you down is a time and money sucker, after all time is money.
That “stuff” is a distraction and can waste time we can’t afford to waste.
That “stuff” is, for someone working online things like forums, social sites, twitter, facebook, etc reading blogs too much etc.

Two sides to it all

But there lies the rub, it is a double edged sword, as we need to do this “stuff” too in many cases, it is finding that balance to make it all worthwhile and fit together for the bigger picture.

If you are to “work” online you need to earn money, you can’t do everything for nothing as it won’t last, before long you don’t even have an Internet connection!

Some will say “well you make the money in traffic and connections from these social sites, forums, blogs etc”…yes it’s a part of that double edge sword as a sort of a marketing action.

But without something to sell, or earn from by way of service etc from that marketing action it is useless, because there is something fundamentally missing…

Buy me buttons!
Hire me buttons!

If, as I suspect will happen sometime somewhere given the current economy, someone is to say, “hmmm maybe there is something in this make money online lark”

They will need to grasp that simple fact!

For you to “get” money, you have to give them a way of giving you that money.

A value exchange.

So there you have it, my daily goal, increase what value I can give, and create more buttons to
allow the acceptance of money. )

See I am sick of these so called “people who know better” telling us what we should and shouldn’t do, saying things like…

You shouldn’t be “monetising” a blog, it’s against our unwritten code of “ethical” blogging.

What?
Should I highlight the most important bit there? I will, done.

Bugger off, do what ya like with your blog, I couldn’t give a toss, THIS one is mine and I decide what goes here! )

Cheeky sods!

In any case…the truth is I don’t want to “monetise my blog”, I want to “monetise my time and business!”

That doesn’t mean stopping using social sites etc, it means using my time to better effect, ALL the time, making daily slots of big action that gets results, IE helps me make money online.

That is my aim this year henceforth known as 2009!

The end of the “same shit different day” for me!

What goals and actions have you set yourself for 2009?

A few post ago I wrote an example of how someone could start blogging, really in a way it’s starting a potential business simply blogging about something they do, while following that post would cost you a little sum it’s still no more than a bag of fish and chips, literally.

Despite that saying “you gotta spend money to make money” being the usual comment it’s not true really, is it?

Yes you could do that, spending money to jump ahead on the curve so to speak, using either tools to do the job, paying someone to do it for you, or simply spending money on a form of advertising…there is nothing saying that’s the only way.

With most people less likely to want to spend money, knowing you don’t have to is going to sound appealing and my friend Lynn has wrote a great post on starting a free online business on her fantastic clicknews blog.

With the current situation as it is there are going to be more and more people thinking about whether this make money online really is doable and that’s understandable and completely doable too.
Nowhere else but the Internet could you just start up and business and have a chance to make it work.

The real beauty is you can just test the waters many times until you do find something that will work, grab interest, gain a following, whatever the gaol may be.

Why listen to Lynn?

I’ve known Lynn a few years now and even remember sharing comments back and forth on our old blogs…*sigh memories….where was I?
Lynn is a successful work at home mum of two and has been working online for over ten years now, and doing it alone too and Lynn shares exactly what she does when she does it…you get a huge advantage of leapfrogging the learning curve reading her blog.

Now Lynn is really living the dream while we all work!

There’s a lot to be said for reading what other people have done, and watching what they do while telling you what they do…!! (That was a mouthful!) )

There are so many different ways to earn a living online, blogging, affiliate marketing, newsletters, forums, etc…Lynn has all of that going on!

How can you not learn from Lynn?

Lynn like everyone else started online with nothing, no experience, expert knowledge, big funds, just like most of us and yet shows what can be done.

It really does boil down to just doing something. Doing anything is better than nothing.

It doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg either, whatever anyone thinks.

I believe now could be the best time to try due to the “socialising aspect” of the Internet that is growing so rapidly.
Why this is important is due to the growing “personal” feeling of blogs, writing, etc, there is more personality coming through from a wider angle and rightly so, it’s people connecting to people.

Bigger business blogs and multiple author blogs will start to slow down, paying bloggers means outgoings so it makes sense that this will be something to cut back on for them.

This gives the smaller more personal bloggers like Lynn, me, thousands of others, you, a better chance of growing.

People trust and connect with people, not corporations etc.

People do things on the recommendation of people they trust and know, Lynn is someone I trust and know.
Therefor if Lynn shares her experience with us about something I would tend to believe her, no?

I know Lynn has done the very things she shares with us, so know that you can indeed start an online business for free!

Go for it, start now and use 2009 as your year to find your place online.
Even if you only spent 2 hours a week writing, that’s 100 hours a year!

Look back this time next year and see what you have achieved!

So, what’s stopping you?