Make Money Blogging – Is it really that easy?

One of the network morning shows (can’t remember which one) recently did a segment about making money online in which they presented a sure fire way to succeed:

1. Sign up for a free blog
2. Create good interesting content
3. Sign up for Google Adsense
4. Sit back and watch the money come rolling in

If it were only that simple.

I completely despise these shows that try to cover technology in 2 minutes. They do a terrible job and usually provide completely misleading information. In the case of this show at least they got some of steps correct. I agree with step 2, and some of step 3 but as for step 4 — well, I’m still waiting.

Bottom line, lots of people have blogged about how to be a successful blogger. In my humble opinion, there is no sure fire approach. There are several things you can do to improve your chances at success, but they won’t guarantee success.

Look around, there are lots of great blogs out there with small audiences and making only pennies. There are also some highly successful blogs with lots of readers and making a very respectable salary. Why one blog succeeds and another one fails is not easily understood. In fact I’d go so far as to say that blogging success is a complete mystery tittering on “pure luck.” Yes, we’d all like to think there is blogging success formula and that if you have good content “they will come.” But the truth of the matter is that blogging success is similar to the 1970’s Pet Rock craze — it makes no sense whatsoever so just throw it against the wall and see if it sticks.