Dear Colin, Help Me! No One Reads My Blog...

...Anne and I were lucky.  We got off to a quick start, and actually developed a small but growing readership.  After 3 months, I've learned quite a bit about finding those readers.  Most of my email is from people who have read something on our site;  but about 20% is from fellow bloggers all of whom want to build a web empire, from a bog, that will provide them with a high, consistent income.

     Stop here.

     Anne and I blog because we have a permanent disability and created a web site because we like to write.  We found that most of the sites that talked about our issues were insufficient for our personal needs.  We didn't need a web MD, or a forum of complainers sharing their personal horror stories, or technical information about spinal issues and problems.  The web is bursting with those sites.  If I want advice, I'll go to my Dr.s, if I want to gripe, I'll hit a forum.  These sites do a great job with that stuff.

      We wanted to create a site that spoke about hope.  We write about our embarrassments and achievements.  We see our disabilities but also the opportunity to live a brand new life.  We write about how our view of the world has changed.  It's kind of like watching the monkeys at the zoo, people act damn weird now.  We hope the site is funny, too.  As the world has changed, so has our perspective of it.  And yeah, from time to time we lecture or complain or preach.

     We didn't do this to make money.  The current structure of blogland is not built with the idea that individual bloggers make money.  It's like Vegas, which is also not built for gamblers to make money.  Vegas makes money on gamblers and blogland makes money on bloggers.  Vegas distracts ordinary people with showgirls, blinking lights, faux wealth, and the lucky stiff who walks away a $22 million dollar winner at the slots.  It's all part of the big Vegas business plan.  In blogland, ordinary people are distracted with "sophisticated" tracking systems, too good to be true revenue schemes, and the occasional lucky stiff whose blog hits it big (This person is rare!)

      The next time you wring your hands about the "failure" of your blog, ask yourself these questions:

1.  If it were easy to make money blogging, why is a blog site free?

2.  Who makes the money?

3.  How do they make the money?

    Of the 49,000,000 bloggers could 1% of them; 490,000 bloggers answer these 3 simple questions.  My guess is that one one hundreth of 1% or about 5,000 people could answer these 3 questions correctly.

    It's unfair to dazzle you with numbers, but here's the big question:

4.  How much money is made on blogs every year?  Have you figured out yet that you're working for someone and being paid nothing?

Could it be as high as one dollar per blogger, a 49.00 million dollar indusrty; how about $ 10.00/blogger, a half a billion dollar indusrty.  Try this, I guess about $ 100.00/blogger, about a 4.9 billion dollar industry.  Who knows? You try the math.  Then look at how many companies sevice this indusrty.  I'll go with the 4.9 billion dollar industry.

Of course, there are answers to these and many other more interesting questions.  Also, answers to these questions are a guide to cutting a sliver of the pie.  It's not easy, it's hard.  It's also a lot of work.  But it is doable.

Ask the 5,000.  Oh, they won't tell you how.

If you are curious about this, drop a note.  I'll answer all, but please subscriber to this site.  Tell me if you just joined.

Otherwise, blog for fun.  Blog to share info.  Blog to do a good deed.  blog because it's a kick to get published!  DON'T BLOG FOR MONEY UNTIL YOU CAN ANSWER THE $ QUESTIONS ABOVE AND CAN TIP THE ODDS IN YOUR FAVOR.

God bless, Colin

Comments

[dave gershner]

Good advice in this piece, and I hope I can return the favor, as I have a new article on my blog that can change your life.

It's about an amazing mattress: best nite's sleep you can get. Find out why.

[Nickie]

You're very right. I doubt most people will make a huge sum of money on their blogs. I sure don't want to. If the money starts talking, then some of the honesty may go away in my personal blog. Just my thought though.