Can You Really Make Money From A Personal Blog?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Is it possible to earn a full-time income from blogging. John Chow says he is doing just that.

Total Blog Income For August 2007: $17,828.61

The amazing thing about the income figure – aside from the number itself – is I set it in the heart the summer. The other amazing thing is it will most likely be broken next month as those private ad spots kick in. Here is the income breakdown.

* Affiliate Sales: $7,244.00
* ReviewMe: $4,200.00
* Private Ad Sales: $2,370.00
* Text Link Ads: $2,157.88
* Kontera: $1,000
* Google AdSense: $490.94
* FeedBurner: $131.18
* Buy Me a Beer: $117.99
* TTZ Media: $66.62
* Subscription: $50.00
* Grand Total: $17,828.61

Many a blogger has set out on the road to gold and glory hoping to make a full-time income from their blogging efforts. But most bloggers never get that far. Is it possible if you’re not John Chow?

It’s interesting that John Chow’s income went up a full $5,000 in one month. So what’s his secret?

First, let me say that John himself says don’t do it for the money. John Chow is a personal blog, not a business blog, which makes it even more difficult to make money from. That said, however, he promotes himself like nobody’s business. He is totally shameless when it comes to self-promotion. Is that the secret to his success?

I’d say probably not. You can promote and promote and promote, but if you have nothing significant to say then people won’t read you. Whether you are writing a personal blog or a business blog I’d say the first thing you need to do is be yourself. Write from the heart and keep it real. The second thing is, offer something valuable to keep people coming back. John Chow’s blog is popular because he entertains while he enlightens and shares a little bit about himself without “telling all the details.” In other words, he borrows a technique from the sex kittens – he leaves something to the imagination.

Here are a few tips for helping you become a more successful blogger, no matter what kind of blog you write:

• Be yourself
• Offer something people want to read
• Promote, promote, promote
• Diversify your income – look at the list of John Chow’s income streams; he doesn’t get his money all from one source, does he?
• Optimize your posts to some degree (I haven’t analyzed John Chow’s posts to see if he does this, but if you aren’t John Chow then you’ll need to get your traffic from somewhere; learn something about SEO)
• Become a social media whore
• Join some affiliate programs (This is John Chow’s No. 1 income source)
• Finally, work tirelessly to increase your traffic; this will be your bread winner

It is hard to make money from blogging. Not impossible, but difficult. You really have to work hard. John Chow obviously has. You can too.