Can blogs make serious money?
January 31st 2009 01:56
Heather Armstrong, author of the Dooce blog
Blogs can make serious money, and many already do. There are now serious blog tracking and ranking services which show that many people are writing blogs which attract tens of thousands of individual readers a day.
To make it a bit more real, and a bit more personal, however, here are two case studies.
Heather Armstrong, of Salt Lake City, Utah, started her blog Doocein February 2001 as an old-style blog-diary, chronicling her life as a young, single woman in Los Angeles. From the start, however, her considerable writing ability won her fans. Consider these attention-grabbing headlines: "The Proper Way to Hate a Job" and "Dear Cranky Old Bitch Who Cut in Front of Me at Canter's Deli".
Ms Armstrong subsequently married, moved back to her native Utah, gave birth to a daughter, and turned her blog into a focused daily discussion of aspects of young motherhood. It happened to be the fastest-growing interest sector on the internet.
The blog's readership traffic ballooned due to a combination of the popular parenthood subject on which the blog now focused, having been around long enough to have a considerable body of content and search engine visibility, and Heather Armstrong's talent as a writer.
An article in The New York Times in 2005 said Dooce had 40,000 readers a day. Another article in The New York Times in 2008 said the readership had grown to 850,000 readers a day and that both Armstrong and her husband had quit their regular jobs to run the blog.
With that many subject-focused readers a day, think how attractive it would be to advertise on it if you make diapers or washing machines or refrigerators. It's enough to have your own advertising agency, and Dooce does. It's called Federated Media and, according to a post at the Blog Herald, Dooce’s revenue in 2008 was on track to be seven times its size in 2006.
The second case study is the story of Darren Rowse and his stable of blogs, including ProBlogger.net. Rowse is the quintessential blogger and proves that with the right subject, the right content (in terms of quality and quantity) and the right promotion, blogs can be become a full-time business and success story.
He and co-author Chris Garret have even written the book on the subject, ProBlogger - Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income. The 200-odd page book, like many of its kind, could have been condensed into something much shorter, but it is reasonably no-nonsense, it is clearly honest and its extensive advice on what makes a successful blog in readership traffic terms is all any beginner will need.
The best way both to learn more about both Darren Rowse's story and about successful blogging is to go to ProBlogger.net and start reading.
Darren Rowse, author of the ProBlogger blog
images: www.nytimes.com, www.smh.com.au
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Comment by Summer
Comment by Chris Champion
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Comment by Norm
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Disclaimer
That comment was in no way meant to say anything more about the subject than it does about the author.
Comment by Chris Champion
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Comment by Norm
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The ball was called good.
Comment by Mike Crowl
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I've just had a look at Dooce, and the same sort of comments apply. There are plenty of other brilliant writers out there writing about motherhood, being a wife, running a home. Do they earn six figures annually or have a readership in the six-figure arena? Nope. So what's the difference? I think Armstrong writes well and with a neat sense of wit. So why is she the one getting all the readers and not some other blog?
Was it getting her name in the NY Times that did it? Was it some other kind of promo? Was it just the luck of the draw?
Good on them both. I don't have any sense of envy, but equally I don't have any sense of why their blogs have succeeded where other equally good ones haven't.
Comment by Janet Collins
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Comment by Chris Champion
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For now, let me say that I don't pretend to be an expert, but I think I can point to some things at least which differentiate and create a successful blog, including Dooce and ProBlogger.
I'll post a comment here when it's done.
Comment by Chris Champion
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Comment by Janet Collins
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Comment by Julie Vaux
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Aaargh a six figure income...methnks its time to be "naughty" andf start using Paris' name and fame in one of my blogs again... lets see what excuse can I use this time?
Comment by Julie Vaux
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Comment by Spike 2
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I've always held that you need one of four things to make vast quantities of money blogging: fame, riches, luck or a unique subject. Being famous already pretty much ensures massive visits (cf. Wil Wheaton or President Obama). Being rich gives you unlimited resources to promote and even pay other people to do the work. Luck is, well, luck and unique subjects are pretty much gone now that there are millions of blogs.
Of course, having more than one of these things is also a darned fine way to be successful!
Comment by moonglow
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Comment by Chris Champion
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Hi Spike, you remember back to 2000! I still had brain cells back then. Fame will kick-start you for sure, and get you up to a point - after that I suggest you still have to address blog basics to continue growth. Riches means you can hire the best to do it for you - the best being those who really understand blog basics. Blog basics are content quality, content quantity, writing quality, and marketing know-how. As for luck, a successful blog is a business, and there's an old saying that you make your own luck in business.
Hi moonglow, what did you think of Dooce?
Comment by Lilla
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An interesting read... and situation.
I cant really add much as most have already said what I thought, especially to echo Spike 2. Being famous or well known would help heaps, as would being infamous (I suspect?) *chuckle* ordinary plebians have a tougher time at making the big digits, no doubts... not that it cant be achieved, but you really do need a specialised subject, and I have found; masses of energy, it really does have to become a fulltime gig to get to the purely maintenance levels ... who has that time?
...I find Heathers story inspiring...
Thanks.
Lilla ...
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Comment by Morgan Bell
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sorry . . . obviously not my sort of topic matter
you know, i actually dont read very many blogs (apart for a few here on Orble) because i rarely find other peoples lives very interesting
Comment by James Rickard
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