Welcome to my new series of blog posts on Monetizing Your Blog!

Every week, for the next 10-12 weeks, I will publish a blog post on this theme. We’re going to start by looking at the issues that might be holding you back from monetizing your blog: namely, creating content and a frank discussion about numbers. Once we’ve examined those issues, we’ll start to look at different ways you can monetize your blog, and each week, I’ll interview someone who’s actually doing it using that tool. There is also a group of us that will be committing to doing a weekly task related to monetizing our blogs. If you want in on that action, you can join here, otherwise, just sit back and enjoy.

Dispelling Some Myths

Sometimes I feel like blogging is the modern equivalent of the snake-oil salesman. It seems like there’s this common misconception out there that all you need to do to get rich is start a blog, install Google Adsense, and watch the money roll in.

If you’re of that opinion, I hate to harsh your mellow, but it’s time. Blogging is hard. It takes dedication, consistency, and perseverance. One of my favourite quotes of all time is from the speech that Julie Larson gave when she accepted the Pulitzer Prize on behalf of her brother, Jonathan (RENT): “It took my brother 15 years to become an overnight sensation.”

I’ve been blogging for almost 6 years, and it’s only been in the last 6 months to a year that I’ve really started to get things for free, and have offers for paid posts on my blog.

To be fair, that stuff was not my goal when I started my blog. Although I have been monetizing it from day one, as it is my number one marketing technique for my business (more about that in a future post).

Even some of the “big guys,” like Miss 604 admit that this stuff doesn’t usually come overnight. Check out what Rebecca (Vancouver’s #1 Blogger) says in this post and also in this one.

So. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. The problem with marathons is that you get tired. It’s hard to go on after a while, especially if it feels like no one but your mom is reading your blog.

But there’s really only one way to do this right, and that is consistently.

If you want to monetize your blog, at a minimum, you should have 3-6 months of consistent posts from the recent past. You should have been posting a minimum of one post a week. Ideally, you want to have about 20-50 posts already written and out there before you start this process. Really simply put, the more content you create, the more hits you’re going to have. Generally speaking, someone who posts on a daily basis is going to have higher traffic than someone who posts on a weekly basis.

And if  you don’t have a history of recent posts? It’s not too late to start.

While I believe that businesses don’t necessarily care as much about your traffic as you may think they do (which is the topic of next week’s post), they will not want to do a business partnership with you if they visit your site and see the last post was 4 months ago.

That means:

• Creating a posting schedule and sticking to it. 
• Setting aside time every week to write.
• Keeping a running inspiration list for the times when your inspiration has run dry.
• Using social media to promote your posts and drive traffic back to your blog so you can grow your brand. 

Next week: a frank conversation about traffic and its importance (or not?).