When I first started to blog, I didn’t even know that bloggers can earn money with their free blogs. After reading some blogging blogs I got interested and one thing that inspired me that was bloggers sharing their revenue, checks etc. I got so much interested into blogging and to see if I can make a dollar with my blog?
After that I found John Chow Dot Com and again he shows his 5 figure earnings per month. With this entire year of blogging, I realized that earning with a blog is extremely hard and even harder when you have only one employee in your business -you!
But I started to earn a regular income from my blog within the 6th month but didn’t create a post to share my achievements. Now I always know that someday someone will ask about this. Few days ago I received this comment from Jakaria Uzzal,
“Hellow Tamal, many blogger explain ho much mony they earn after end of month. Why don’t you publish your earning?”
I posted a reply to his comment, but now the thing I want to express is why money making bloggers shouldn’t share their earnings with the world.
Contents
Income is not a metric to determine blogger’s success
If you post all about your income in your blog, then your readers will think that all you want is income, nothing else. Money can be made with jobs, small businesses and from any other ways but blogging is different. Blog is a tool to interact with the world. The things I learned in 1 year of blogging couldn’t be learned spending 20 years in a typical job. It gives an opportunity to help people and to inspire them even if they are thousands of miles away from you.
A mass audience will be discouraged
As a blogger, I target all of world for maximum chance for success. Check your Alexa data and see what are the major portion of your readers,
The main two countries that are sending me traffic are USA and India, east and west. Now these two countries have different economical status and are in different time zones.
For an example, if any blogger earns $200 a month and posts it on his blog, then visitors from India and all other related countries will increase because the average income of a person in India is $200 or less.
On the other hand, visitors from USA, Canada and Europe will go away because they are making even more per month with their jobs and business and why they want to read $200 worth blogging tip? So you should not share your earnings if you want to get traffic from both of the continents.
Earnings will spoil new bloggers
Earning reports are not inspiring everytime, sometimes they encourage people to blog even if they don’t know about it. This is why they run for the money from the very beginning and most people even quit their jobs. Money making bloggers should inspire people how to become a better blogger. Creating a better blog will bring traffic, popularity and money. When you’ll share, you made $xxx from adsesne, they will put adsense on their site and wait for the clicks; when you’ll share you made $xxx from PayPerPost, then they will apply for PPP and wait for the approvel. Different bloggers found success in different streams of income and one tip won’t help everyone.
The more you hide the more they come!
Then I found Darren Rowse from ProBlogger -the blogging idol of the world. He doesn’t shares how much money he’s making with his blogs and everyone wants to know that information. People are desperate to know his income and we imagine that he’s a 6 figure earner. So with this example, it’s clear that the more you hide about your income, the more they will be interested in your blog. People are watching that I’m earning from 6-8 different streams and also started my own web design and domain flipping business, they can imagine how much I’m making but I won’t tell the actual figure!
Have your say
- Do you think my points are valid?
- Do you share your earnings with your readers?
- Did I miss anything?
Very good post, I think John Chow posts his earnings because his blog is about ways to make money blogging or online.
Problogger, is more about better blogging, increasing traffic etc…, so that may explain why he doesn’t focus on disclosing his earnings.
I also imagine Darren pulls in six figures.
I haven’t disclosed my earnings either, but thats only because I make 3 figures blogging. 🙂
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@Geoserv: 3 figures or 4 figures, or even 6 figures, it’s a great achievement to make money with a blog. I don’t think anyone should show the exact figure of their money on their blogs and I feel it makes a cheap impression.
I totally agree, it’s a little tacky.
Kind of like bragging.
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I agree that it might not be in a bloggers best interests to publish their earnings..we readers would still like to know tho 🙂
@krjx, @Market Secrets Blogger and @Ching Ya: Thanks guys for those wonderful comments. I found that each money making blogger makes the most of their money from one stream.
some bloggers make the most from Adsense, Ades from adesblog.com makes from LinkWorth, John Chow makes the most from ReviewMe and I think Darren makes the most from direct ad sales.
A single money making tip may not work for everyone and each blogger founds profit in a unique stream.
I like to keep how much I make to myself but at the same time I like to share with other people on how to make money with blogging.
You make an interesting argument,but I think ppl who are looking to make money online will be greatly inspired from seeing a successful blogger’s income posted. They will see what is possible and begin to sense they can do it too!
Now maybe not showing it every single month and instead build up anticipation could be a compromise to this 😉
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Those are some relevant points. It’s simple really, who would just simply give out your biggest secrets of earning to the public if you wish to keep surviving? I haven’t yet to earn from blogging just yet, and although I wish to know how, but I understands why successful bloggers are hiding their earnings, and the ‘HOW’s. The ways given are usually quite general, sometimes unique, but very few are straight forward. I guess that’s the magic of it, just like you’ve said, the more you hide the more they come. Simply.
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Very valid points here – people do want to know that the person they’re learning from really knows what he’s talking about and has done it himself. I don’t like to get referred to programs and find out the hard way myself that it’s a scam I like the person who has already worked that program successfully to refer it to me, then I feel confident.
BUT, you have excellent and very mature and common sense points about building up a quality product and not just going for the tricks and scams or get rich quick schemes. I applaud you for that good common sense.
@earthmom22, Here on BlogKori I only share the ways and strategies that made me successful in such things. No matter it’s traffic or income, I provide the tips that worked for me.
Very few people thinks nice like you.There are many bloggers who show their earning into facebook and blog that ruins the new comer bloggers.Thank you very much.
This is actually a great post! But can you share how much @ MINIMUM will it take to get adsense account approved! I am not a professional blogger! Its actually my hobby! But still I am curious about this! I have some friends who are also blogging for heir own interest and I do know how hard it is to completely rely on Blogging as a profession! But what does google Adsense looks before accepting any blog! Do they really take a deep look into each and every blog!
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@Swashata, Google doesn’t knows where you’re putting the ads, so they won’t check your site strictly. Adsense loves the blog that makes them money and there’s no minimum. Wait a few days and they’ll approve your account.
@Tamal Anwar, Yaa thanks!! I will resubmit after 2-3 months I guess 🙂
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Actually some famous bloggers attract visitor showing his/her monthly income and also tell that they can give you tips on making money. I think it is just a method of attracting newbies. They can teach you how to do blogging but will not make money for you. For example I will tell about JohnChow. He tells” I make money telling people how to make money”.
But I found his blog full of shit.
Very well written post however, I would recommend that you turn the No Follow off in your comment section.
Keep up the good work.
Nice one!! and i totally agree with you, bloggers should not write about their incomecs on their blog.
thanx