Written on October 16th, 2007 at 12:10 am by Darren Rowse
A Secret to Profitable Blogging – Trending Up Over the Long Haul
Over in my question box reader JoLynn Braley asked me:
“Was there a time when you first started blogging that you became despondent and thought about quitting? If so, what happened that gave you the confidence to keep going?”
This video is all about hanging in there for the long haul with your blog and changing your focus from absolute numbers (like how many visitors or how much you’re making) to focus upon whether your blog is trending up/growing and by how much (percentage wise).
You see early in my blogging ‘career’ I was close to giving up on blogging as an income source because my blog only earned a few dollars a day. What kept me going was that while the numbers were not high – the percentage growth each month was an indication that there might be some potential reward if I keep at it.
Here’s how my earnings looked over the first year or so.
Not the most spectacular start – but those first few months were already showing indications of where things were headed!
For more on this topic (and for some more details statistics and back story) you might want to check out my previous posts on a similar topic at Exponential Growth and Exponential Growth II.
83 Responses to “A Secret to Profitable Blogging – Trending Up Over the Long Haul” - Add Yours
Alfredo
October 16th, 2007 12:43 am
I once quit blogging when I got back to school and now I am back. This was long before I realized I can make money from blogging.
Chino Yray
October 16th, 2007 12:43 am
I was wondering what happened on that downward spike?
Chino Yray
October 16th, 2007 12:47 am
I mean.. so it’s the people around you that made you to less blog? People who don’t understand blogging will really pull you down. Especially if they are office mates.
Michael Martine
October 16th, 2007 12:54 am
Another great video. No wonder so many bloggers give up and abandon their blogs. All other factors aside, staying with it for the long haul makes a big difference in whether or not you will “make it” (whatever that means for you — hopefully you have a goal).
Tanner Christensen
October 16th, 2007 12:55 am
January ‘05 looks like it hurt a bit, what happened there?
Jeremy Steele
October 16th, 2007 12:57 am
The thing I think is interesting is how many people let blogging stress them out a bit too much. I think that is why many people give up with it – they expect miracles – and while a positive attitude is key, being realistic with your goals is also important.
Alex Roe
October 16th, 2007 1:02 am
I’m finding Problogger very useful. I recently started to monetize my blog, and so the tips are very useful. So far I’m off to a slow start and apart from drips of Adsense income, not much else is happening.
I’d like to see exponential growth, but I’m going to have to wait until I get more traffic and for readers who do not get ‘ad-shock’. In fact, putting ads in the right place is proving to be the most difficult aspect so far, and I wonder how many people the ads have put off.
I’m also running a ‘donate to a good cause’ scheme, but, again its proving slow. Still, early days yet, the blog went onto its own domain only at the end of September.
I shall keep coming back to Problogger though for more advice – the info here is invaluable.
All the best,
Alex
Andy C
October 16th, 2007 1:02 am
Interesting video, Darren
I also have been blogging for a while and added Adsense more as an experiment as opposed to getting rich.
I’m not even earning a coffee a day yet but, like you, I am more interested in trends rather than absolute numbers. I am also interested in seasonal variations and how different ad placements perform.
Andy
PS. Obvious question – what happened in Dec/Jan 2005 ?
* Miss Universe
October 16th, 2007 1:04 am
It is not always about numbers or income or trends.
How about the joy of sharing a topic with like minded people.
In other words – both giving and receiving niche information among a select group from around the world with the same interest as you.
The topic matter may not turn you into another TechCrunch or TMZ or Engadget – but it is a nice way to trade hard to find information and get updates from people just as passionate about a subject as you are.
This is especially helpful for those getting PHDs or doing important scientic research and want feedback from a very esoteric group.
Alex Roe
October 16th, 2007 1:05 am
Darn it! Forgot to tick the ‘Notify me of future comments via e-mail’ box. This comment is to achieve that. Sorry.
Matt Jones
October 16th, 2007 1:09 am
That is worth watching just for the crazy rap at the end. Great advice too :)
Promiscuous Blogger
October 16th, 2007 1:19 am
Darren,
Why did the rate go so much down between, Dec-Jan ? Any reason for thaT?
Thanks for advice
~ Bontb
Peter Morrow
October 16th, 2007 1:26 am
I think the key thing to take away from this is that you need to stay in for the long haul. It isn’t only percentage increases that motivate you. It’s the things that give you encouragement like good feedback, increases of PageRank and a site reputation which advertisers are attracted to. I’m not sure if I can pull of 30% increases month to month but then again I haven’t been blogging for very long. I find it to be a real thrill to establish a blog; to make it have a presence in your niche.
Humberto Arechiga
October 16th, 2007 1:29 am
hello, well I´m from Mexico, I´m new on blogging but I was looking around and found your blog, It´s realy nice by the way… How can i choose what to blog about? or how did you choose?
hope to hear from you soon.
Caroline Middlebrook
October 16th, 2007 1:38 am
This was a really encouraging video Darren. I love doing little spreadsheets where I play with numbers and predict various stats around income, RSS numbers and so on. It’s great fun and keep me motivated.
GettyCash
October 16th, 2007 1:38 am
I just started to blog seriously 2 months ago. I’ve created blog for a year but I rarely post anything.
Mark Dykeman
October 16th, 2007 1:52 am
Nice video post! Darren’s told us about a motivational tool that can help, particularly if you can focus on the long term goal of growth and resulting income. It can take a lot of work and time, but obviously it does pay off for some people if they can hang in there.
Starfeeder
October 16th, 2007 1:54 am
I think a big percentage of people that quit blogging just after a little bit, are the ones that got into it late and aren’t that use to the whole social online thingy, maybe they are business people looking to reap the rewards of quick cash online, but like anything built up to be great you have to work at it, just with the internet you don’t have to work that long for it, but you still have to work that hard for it…
I’m one of the younger bloggers, but I’ve had personal rambling blogs on free sites for well ever since they started. Before blogging people like me were on social networks like Virb, pownce, twitter, before that myspace, xanga and friendster, before that AIM, MSN, Yahoo messenger, before that Forums, and before that IRC chat rooms. So we’re use to not making money for talking about our passions, life or what have you online.
btw love the intro music for that video lol!
Brian Purkiss
October 16th, 2007 1:54 am
Very nice post!
Thanks so much for that perspective!
That is quite an encouragement.
(btw, like the music!)
Jennifer F.
October 16th, 2007 2:10 am
You have your own rap song?! That is so awesome.
Anyway, just wanted to thank you for this quality advice. I really applies to almost any startup business as well.
Love your blog. Keep up the good work!
sangesh
October 16th, 2007 2:10 am
well the curves look quite good for you and your website popularity.
cool
Nick
October 16th, 2007 2:12 am
Always like the video posts you do Darren and the music/rap was great!
60 in 3
October 16th, 2007 2:14 am
Heh, I remember how excited I was over my first dollar revenue when I opened my fitness blog. I have no idea why. I have no intention of making this my career. It’s just a little hobby for me because I enjoy talking about health and fitness. Still, it was very neat to see an actual revenue number! :)
Gal
Chris Jacobson
October 16th, 2007 2:17 am
Good post, Darren. Nice theme song there. :)
James
October 16th, 2007 2:18 am
Sometimes i got the same feeling when the situation is not good like when my proposal for Ads submission is rejected because of my low traffic and then i stop posting on my blog until my mood is back to normal. One of the thing i always do is to come to successful blogger website like Problogger and read some of articles that might inspire me. So far it works for me..
WP Themes Gallery
October 16th, 2007 2:41 am
Hey Darren, thanks for the encouragement.
DMedley
October 16th, 2007 2:43 am
What great timing. I had started 2 blogs and after a couple months felt like I was talking to myself and I threw in the towel. I just began a new blog the first of this month and have been looking at the traffic stats.
Even though you are talking about money earned from the blog I think this message applies just as strong to visitor growth or subscriber growth for a blog.
This short bit of advice could well mean the difference in my view of success for the article marketing hobo.
Thanks Darren
Max Powers at http://ConsumerFight.com
October 16th, 2007 2:47 am
I’m also curious about what happened from Nov. to Jan. with the fall of visitors.
Starting in September 2007, I’ve decided that I’m going to keep posting and continue to develop my website and blog as if I had 1,000 visitors per day (even though it is only averaging 50 visitors per day).
As I learn more about SEO and other methods to get the word out, hopefully the numbers will increase also.
Jason
October 16th, 2007 3:00 am
Nice rap.
Some wise advice. After a while of blogging and making basically nothing, I’ve gotten numb. Every once and a while I’ll get really frustrated, but doing like you said and setting goals has helped me see potential in my earnings.
I think I’ll make 30% revenue increase per month a goal of mine. $500 per day. I’ll take it. That’s more than I’ll be making this week with my hourly job.
Markus
October 16th, 2007 3:01 am
Hi Darren! This was an excellent video! Nice music ;)
I just started a new blog, my first English one. This might be very dangerous because of some language mistakes I’ll make, but I’m really looking forward to improve my written English during the process of blogging.
I hope new readers will understand that English is not my first language and that my main goal is to reach more people with my blog and my sport gadgets.
Best Regards from Germany
Markus
JoLynn Braley
October 16th, 2007 3:02 am
Darren, thank you so much, you don’t know how much that means to me to get your feedback…well actually you do because you’ve been there before (what you mentioned in your video about feeling like giving up blogging before).
When I asked you that question I was feeling pretty despondent (and sometimes still do), had gotten down with all of the spam comments that were making it through Akismet and Bad Behavior, lack of “real” comments, lower traffic #’s than I want, and just kinda wondering if I was really helping anyone out there with what I’m blogging about.
On top of that, I do want to earn my income from this….I put so much time into it and if I am able to give value to some folks out there then I want to do this full-time, and why not earn an honest living from it?
I can’t say that I’m making tons of income right now, but I am going to pull out my data since I started monetizing my blog in May and do exactly what you have suggested….look at the percentage increases, and then set some goals for myself for increasing those percentages from here on out.
Besides that, the biggest message that I am getting from you is to keep on going…..you’ve said this before but you are the perfect example of what you’ve built over the long haul. What if you had quit after 6 mos or a year? You certainly wouldn’t be where you are today, and I wouldn’t have found your site because Steve Pavlina wouldn’t have written about you in one of his articles, recommending you to his readers (that’s how I found Problogger months ago).
Thanks again Darren, you’ve given this blogger, sitting here at her keyboard some inspiration today, and even brought tears to my eyes. I really needed this, and I bet that there are other bloggers out there who are also going to get the same inspiration from you. Thank you. :)
2xKnight
October 16th, 2007 3:28 am
So if growth isn’t exponential we should give up trying to make money on our blogs? That’s the message I’m getting out of this one.
Ouch. >
mossygnome
October 16th, 2007 4:07 am
I write a blog primarily because I enjoy it. It’s fun and it’s interesting.
Earning some money for it would be a bonus. It would be great if I could earn enough even for the blog to pay for itself, but although the ads are well tailored to the site, only a few readers look at them, so it might be unrealistic to expect very much financial reward.
Doing it for the money produces too much anxiety and disheartenment would soon follow. Enjoyment should be your first priority.
Lizard Wisdom
October 16th, 2007 4:13 am
Hey Darren,
You continue to inspire the brand new bloggers out there. We have only been up for three days, and we have seen an increase in our RSS subscribers.
We totally get your point about looking at percentages instead of the raw numbers.
Another great post!
Chad
October 16th, 2007 4:24 am
I find the biggest detractor to my motivation is finding other sites that are basically doing the same things as mine. Once I get over that, however, I look at those sites a little closer and make sure I’m doing more than they are at whatever we have in common.
Rahul Bhambhani
October 16th, 2007 4:28 am
Love the intro song. It’s hilarious.
Thanks for this post. it’s very informative, and has helped motivate me even more!
mossygnome
October 16th, 2007 6:08 am
I think Darren must enjoy producing this blog, otherwise we would not enjoy being here. He is fortunate enough to make a profit from it, too – even more enjoyable!
Andrew G.R.
October 16th, 2007 6:11 am
Many successful folks will tell you that perseverance is half the battle. I’ve almost called it quits on my podcast – The Working Podcast – several times. It’s so labor intensive… but I love doing it. Why not click on my name above and show some love?!
I agree that trends can show important signs of demand. So I’m in for the long haul! And monitor those metrics!
Money Blogger
October 16th, 2007 6:18 am
Your advice is spot on. Not sure about the music though. :)
I’m seeing 30% monthly growth consistently in my main blog, and that gave me so much incentive when the actual numbers were still small.
Sean from AboutBlogging.Info
October 16th, 2007 6:45 am
At this stage the money I earn from blogging is more like a sign of recognition than anything worth going to a bank about. Monetary earnings at the moment are just another statistic I use to measure how I’m doing.
I appreciate your time scale in this. I think that if after two years, if I was still not making a living from blogging I would, if not give up, I would certainly cut down!
Mytoons
October 16th, 2007 6:45 am
Blog content quality can help you to increase your blog popularity. Some creative activity can also help yo increase your blog popularity.
Domtan
October 16th, 2007 7:33 am
Bloggers can go without the high income easily. Is the lack of traffic that discourages most bloggers, most. Is just ironic that traffic usually controls the level of income.
Would anybody here choose just one month of high income over one month of exposure, resulting in a surge of traffic?
Darren Rowse
October 16th, 2007 7:42 am
thanks everyone for the feedback – the slip in December 04/January 05 was when I disappeared from Google for 6 or so weeks. It taught me a lot of lessons – particularly about not relying upon any one type of traffic and diversifying your interests.
Telling It Like It Is
October 16th, 2007 7:46 am
Darren, I really pay close attention to your suggestions, recommendations and advice for bloggers. I haven’t been blogging online for a very long time, and haven’t made any money at it at all, and that’s ok with me. I write because I love to write, and fortunately my readership, comments and traffic are steadily growing. I guess that means I’m doing something… right. Thanks much!
Julian Ayrs
October 16th, 2007 9:08 am
My blog action is a tribute to the environment…with Leonardo DiCaprio, award-winning animated shorts, and newsbites from leading conservationists from around the Globe.
Check it out.
Julian
http://www.ijulian.blogspot.com
Barbara
October 16th, 2007 9:41 am
Money always seems to be one factor for people to get into blogging, however, for new bloggers, the money oftentimes comes slow.
What keeps me motivated are the encouraging comments my loyal readers leave on my blog.
I’ve believe “to blog” is easy, but to sustain a blog over a long period of time takes commitment, perseverance, and a love for sharing knowledge.
Rap music? That was a surprise, Darren! Now I can’t wait to see what the next “tune” will be.
Vascabruta
October 16th, 2007 11:23 am
Hi Darren,
Thanks for the words of encouragement, you know how difficult it is at the beginning. It’s nice to hear that you weren’t born with a pr5 rank.
Great suggestions to keep our eye on the percentage of growth rather than get stuck on the numbers.
Thanks
Carlo Selorio
October 16th, 2007 1:21 pm
Hi Darren,
I also wanted to know what happened in Jan 05? Great suggestions for all of us.
Cheers,
Carlo Selorio
Carlo Selorio
October 16th, 2007 1:22 pm
Disregard my post… you already answered my question.
Cheers,
Carlo
Mike
October 16th, 2007 2:04 pm
Darren – Great stuff. I’m just starting to get into this blogging stuff, and the advice from the video is great. Love your stuff. Thanks!
Fiancial Hack
October 16th, 2007 3:44 pm
I truly believe that 90%+ after the basics is not giving up. There are many talented bloggers that simply don’t have the stamina. It helps if you enjoy what you’re blogging about. When that is the case, not earning money doesn’t effect you near as much.
If you continue to provide good content consistently and do a bit of work to get your name out, even an average person blogging can succeed.
Kelvin Kao
October 16th, 2007 8:24 pm
Nice music, haha.
Google definitely awards people that constantly update. And for readers… I rarely subscribe to a blog that doesn’t have any recent updates. Even if the site has really great comments, I would just bookmark it, start digging through the archive, and then leave when I’m done digging… without actually subscribing. And without subscribing, I would probably just forget about the site after a while. So consistency definitely pays off.
Stephan Miller
October 16th, 2007 9:01 pm
Your first year gets me hope. I like seeing charts like this. And knowing that Google messed with you too also helps. You started just like other bloggers. You may have 34,000 subscribers now, but you didn’t at one time.
By the way, for some reason, your sidebar slid down the page.
Sonia Colon
October 17th, 2007 2:39 am
Hi Darren,
Great blog, great music simply great all around. Thank you for providing such an informative blog…I’m learning so much and truly appreciate your hard work!
Have a nice day!
Rob Schultz
October 17th, 2007 3:28 am
This is a great article for those of us that are new to blogging or are looking to finally get into it for the long run. Last night I was thinking about the growth of my blog and wanted results quicker…then I see this post and feel that I’m right on track.
CatherineL
October 17th, 2007 7:22 am
Hi Darren – in sharing this info you are motivating and inspiring others. Thank you.
Catherine
Aurelius Tjin
October 17th, 2007 1:06 pm
That was well inspiring, I must say.
Business has its ups and downs, and so does
blogging. Nice stats you have in there!
Edward
October 17th, 2007 3:06 pm
Inspirig indeed. I actually posted my thoughts about this post in my blog. This would really keep me going.. Thanks!
Johan Cyprich
October 17th, 2007 6:39 pm
I’m not making very much money on my blog right now, but my traffic has increased dramatically since August and I see now a potential for it to be profitable. You just need to stick with it and keep pushing until your successful. This applies to many other things in life as well. :)
Neil Duckett
October 17th, 2007 10:08 pm
Tremendous post Darren, very inspirational.
JoLynn Braley
October 18th, 2007 2:27 am
OK, I figured up my percentages – I have had an increase in percentage each month except for August when I had a decrease, followed by an increase in September.
I’ve set some goals for increasing my percentage each month and looked at it over the next year and can see how this can grow, just like you pointed out for us Darren.
Thanks again, and thank you very much for the link also…. I was so thrilled about your feedback I didn’t spell that out in my previous comment!
Raymond
October 18th, 2007 8:19 am
I really like your comforting advice! These type of articles are my favorite ProBlogger articles.
But the rapping….how should I put it.. It’s too cheesy and out of place for you. I know you want to be young and hip, but it makes me sort of cringe when I listen to the music.
John Harper Jr
October 18th, 2007 1:31 pm
I rarely comment in other people’s blogs, which is something I should change. But the rap background is worthy of creative praise. If it wasn’t for your advice Darren, my blog would have died out weeks ago.
gaby de wilde
October 18th, 2007 1:42 pm
oh bla bla bla
you are just a spammer.
Mandy
October 18th, 2007 10:25 pm
Thanks for the encouragement Darren,
I’m in that position now and it can get a bit depressing because things aren’t moving as quick as I would like.
But I am in it for the long haul, I want to be successful at blogging and I enjoy it immensely. So I look forward to learning more and looking for the signs of getting better over time to encourage me.
Thanks again!
gaby de wilde
October 19th, 2007 1:24 am
oh, the new get rich quick scheme didn’t work for you? AHHHHHHH
Maybe you have actual subjects in your blog? Maybe that’s what you are doing wrong?
Maybe you need to limit the topic to spam?
johno
October 19th, 2007 4:44 am
These videos are a real hit. It’s like Prison Break or Heroes — can’t wait until the next one!
Quais
October 19th, 2007 5:40 am
great videocast again Darren. good work.
btw, love the “Problogger” rap song :)
Reed
October 19th, 2007 10:15 am
giving up on your blog is one of the worst things you could do. While this doesn’t have to do with blogging, but does anyone remember when geocities websites used to be first in the search results for some goldmine keywords? Chances are those people forgot entirely about their websites and let them collect dust and while they were sleeping they failed to see that their tiny sites were grabbing top ranking on popular keywords. They would be kicking themselves in the face iif they realized how much money they could have made if they kept those websites up to date. Bottom line is, keep up with it for a year or two, after that it probably is acceptable to have some doubts.
Xavier
October 19th, 2007 10:41 pm
Nice video Darren! ;-)
Ryan
October 20th, 2007 12:42 am
Trending up over the long run is really encourgaging.
It is hard for me at the the moment to be encouraged to blog a lot seeing as I make about $0.20 per month!!!
I don’t even make a dollar a day (I wish I did)
I had blogs earlier this year and gave up (adsense deleted my account…which sucked!)
So now I am pretty much starting from scratch again and am interested if there are any ways to get a blog publicity and readership early on in the piece?
Michael
October 20th, 2007 1:06 am
I agree with Reed – those geocities used to be very popular (but so ugly). I never had one so I can’t kick myself :)
But anyway – content is #1 in my book. If you don’t have content than the traffic that you get will never stay.
http://www.earnmoneytoblog.com/
Sia
October 20th, 2007 3:28 am
Admittedly, blogging is not an easy affair. It is sometimes a love /hate affair. Yet in the back of my mind, I know, through examples of others (and my own) and not necessarily about blogging, PERSISTENCE pays. Or so I tell myself :)
Sia
October 20th, 2007 3:29 am
Admittedly, blogging is not an easy affair. It is sometimes a love /hate affair. Yet in the back of my mind, I know, through examples of others (and my own) and not necessarily about blogging, PERSISTENCE pays. Or so I tell myself :) Great video by the way…
Fluid
October 20th, 2007 10:40 am
Darren, thanks for the helpful and encouraging article. I just started my blog about a month ago and I was really excited at first – writing about something that genuinely interested me that helped others at the same time – but then reality kicks in and just kills your idealism. You have to deal with SEO, social bookmarking and other factors that deviate off your intended path. But I suppose that’s just how it is – people say content is king, but marketing plays a huge role in getting the necessary traffic (and earnings) to your site.
I’m glad you hung in there though. Your articles have been extremely helpful. Thanks again.
constructicle boy
October 22nd, 2007 3:56 pm
well yes darren,at some point of my blogging life,i thought of giving up.the reason..too little money.But slowly,i began enjoying blogging as my money increases and of course it has been enriching to learn new things as well.
Heidi
October 23rd, 2007 12:56 am
Your video is very helpful for people just starting to blog. I have been blogging for over a year now and am starting a blogging community. This will be a video I encourage all of them to watch and remember when things aren’t going as well as they would like.
John
October 23rd, 2007 8:49 am
I agree with the folks here. Blogging is hard work. When I first started my intention was to make as much money as I could. But slowly, I’ve realized that I derive more enjoyment out being a useful & informative site. I’m hoping that if I do a good job, the money will follow.
Sox
October 23rd, 2007 10:13 am
I’ve been looking at it the same way. I’m a co-author of a blog with a couple of buddies, and while the income is small (we pool it for trips) it has been growing. This will certainly help “keep me in the pocket.”
Ryan
October 23rd, 2007 3:43 pm
Excellent way keep your attention focused on the growth so you will naturally manifest more of it. This is just what I needed as my blog has been growing quite a bit. Thanks, -Ryan
Michael Eyer
October 24th, 2007 2:00 pm
Great post you have greatly inspired me to continue my dream.
prasanga
October 24th, 2007 6:40 pm
Thanks Darren, The music is fresh. The video is very informative. My earnings are growing. I think by the next pr update it will grow further. I must say my earnings are not growing fast, but hey. For now I have nothing to complaint. thanks again.
SEO Fanatic
October 24th, 2007 11:29 pm
Darren Rowse you are my blogging idol. I look to your blog for motivation and advice to keep me the SEO Fanatic from continuing my blogging journey
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