Tiffany Washko

In the last few months I have gotten several emails from perspective mom bloggers who want to know what kind of money can be made blogging. Most kinda dance around the specific question I KNOW they want to ask but some come right out and ask. How much money do you make EXACTLY and do you think I could make that much too?

I think all to often we see articles and advice that you can make money blogging but then when moms go out and try it they may  only sew a few dollars trickle in. They get discouraged and they think they have been duped or that it is a matter of luck. Some quit blogging and others continue but are highly dubious of the moms who “claim” to make real money. I know I felt that way at one time. I saw Internet Marketers online claiming to make upwards of 5-10 grand a month and when I managed to squeak by with only $50 after busting my butt behind the screen…I was skeptical.

I am not skeptical any more but I am realistic. Some of the figures floating around are not going to be within the reach of the average blogger. Much of it is about having the right niche at the right time. Much of it is about having the right voice and the right writing style. BUT much of it is still about working hard, finding a unique voice and site, testing and tracking your efforts, and always looking for ways to put your content in front of more and more eyes.

I saw this article online today that addresses a WSJ claim that bloggers who have 100,000 uniques per month make on average $75,000. In my personal opinion that figure is crap. I am sure some do make that much but they must have a super hot niche with hot affiliate products to promote. That just cannot be the “average” IMO. I had 88,000 uniques to just ONE of my sites last month and that would theoretically make me $66,000 richer this month. Yeah… that didn’t happen. If that HAD happened I would be blogging right know from my villa in Tuscany or my condo in Costa Rica.

So how can you gauge the amount of money you can potentially make? Heck if I know!

Well, actually I saw a much better model on Frederic Patenaude’s site a few weeks back. I like Frederic because he makes a very good living online in the raw foods niche. He also does some business to business stuff but mostly I see him promoting health and information products so he is closer to my “niche” than a guy who promotes IM stuff. The IM niche (Internet Marketing) model is not very relevant to me and what I do.

Anyway in his graph, in the video on that page, you see the general figures you can make depending on the size of your list. He claims that if you have 3000 readers you can make about $1500-3000 per month. For 5000 readers the number is $2500-5000 and for 10,000 readers the figure is $5000-10,000.

I really like this chart but that may be because I have had results that mesh with it. My list number and monthly income falls within the second tier and I DO see gains when my reader numbers go up. For me the key is having regular readers and also still having that search engine traffic that comes from relevant, focused, content. Those visitors don’t always subscribe but they DO buy and they do increase ad network revenues.

So overall I find it better to work on building your lists (subscribers) rather than just trying to drum up high traffic numbers. The money is in the list.

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If you want to make money with your blog eventually you will likely consider joining an ad network. They basically act as a broker for advertising and their large reach and network of bloggers makes it easier for them to contract with big name advertisers. You devote a spot on your blog, usually a  top position for their ad code and whenever they sign new advertisers they automatically show up on your blog and you get paid on a CPM basis. The ad network does all the work finding advertisers and collecting the money. This makes it easier for YOU to make money selling ads. But is it always peachy working with ad networks? In one word, NO.

Foe one thing, joining an ad network typically changes the way you blog. Many bloggers start out using full RSS feeds where their readers can read all the content in their feed readers. But no money can be made from ad impressions by doing that so bloggers will usually opt to use summary feeds and make their readers click on over to the actual web site. Readers may get annoyed and they may stop reading. At the very least you may have fewer actual readers since you only have a title and a short summary to catch their attention.

Ad networks may also contract with advertisers you and your audience do not approve of. While most networks allow you to opt out of certain campaigns some can get by you and it is highly embarrassing to have junk food ads displaying on a  healthy eating blog, for instance.

Ad networks are also getting more and more picky about your content. A large network that I use recently added a bunch of new rules for their bloggers. You have to post at least once a week, you cannot review products given to you by a company that are valued at over $40, and you cannot do a company sponsored giveaway of any kind. Another ad network disqualifies any social media traffic, like referrals from Stumbleupon or Digg.

More and more it seems that companies wanting to buy ad space on blogs do not want compete with your other money making ventures. They do not want their ad next to giveaway for another company or a review of another product. They want their ad next to a rant about potty training or your latest garden produce…safe posts that will not detract from their banner ad. Frankly it is getting rather annoying.

The network I mentioned earlier decided that you could do reviews and giveaways if you put them on a page that had none of their ads. This required you to make a custom template and relegate your content to a static page where it would not appear with your other posts or be picked up in your RSS feed.

Thanks to help from the lovely Lynette at Mom Masterminds I was able to create a custom “post” template so that I could post giveaways and sponsored reviews in a special category that would not display ads. It is a great solution for me and allowed me to keep working with this ad network. Otherwise I would have kicked them to the curb for trying to dictate the terms under which I run my business…blogging IS a business for me and the other ways I make money are none of their concern.

So if you are considering joining and ad network look closely at their policies and see if the advantages are truly worth it. And if you do decide that the money is worth the aggravation, join up with Mom Masterminds as they ALWAYS help me find tech solutions when I need them and it is all part of the membership!

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I was amazed this month to read over at Problogger how much money bloggers are making. What amazed me was that according to his chart I am making quite  a bit more than the average blogger. I am making more than 88% of those that read Problogger and participated in the poll. I still can’t believe that 57% of bloggers make less than $100 a month. Maybe I have forgotten what the early days of blogging were like.

Check it out…very interesting.

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