Monday, November 12, 2007

Take it slower

I read a lot of blogs about making money on the internet. I’m sure you do too. I am always looking for new ideas, and always trying to imitate success. Anyway, one of the most common things I see is the advice to take this blogging business more slowly. Take time to get your feet wet and learn. Writing is the most important thing in the beginning. You need to attach yourself to a subject you like and begin writing about it. That's the advice I see coming from the big boys and girls in the blogging world.

Only later should you begin to monetize your site, they say. Work on being a good writer and getting people to come to your site for the writing you do and the information you provide. Later, monetization will become a natural transition. At least that’s the way many of the very successful bloggers say they did it. They began blogging because they loved it and because they felt they had something to say. Only later, after the audience was fairly large did the money-making part begin.

I think that is most likely true. It is like taking the time to get an education before your go out into the working world to earn a living. It is frustrating to make yourself wait when you want to start making money right now, but, really, how can you do it without the audience? Also, there is something about starting a blog for the primary purpose of making money that people seem to pick up on, and the feeling turns them off.

Consider starting a “pure” blog when you first start out. That is, just write about something you are really interested in. Build up a readership following over a few months. Then, if you still want to, that is the time to slowly make the moves toward monetization. If you don’t love to investigate things and write reports about them, this may not be the right job for you anyway.

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