Get Rich Blogging!

Gotcha, didn't I? Seriously, this is the perfect place to illustrate the whether an activity makes economic sense.

I actively write three blogs on three very different topics: green roofs, economic efficiency, and management. One of my friends convinced me that I should write a blog because I could make a bunch of money. He was making $300 a day. While that seems like a fantastic claim, I saw the balances.

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So, how does one make money blogging? The simple answer is ad revenue. Whether you use a service like Blogger or Typepad or Wordpress, advertisements on the sites, when clicked, provide a meager amount of money to the site "owner." Ehow allows you to write "how to" articles, while they provide the hosting and the ads. When people read your ads, they are also present ads from Google Adsense. While they don't disclose their payment formula, my guess is that readers need to click the ads.

Ads are often provided by Google Adsense, or folks act as affiliates for a company selling something. Both blog sites and Adsense have particular rules about their use. Adsense only allows three ad units per page. Blogger doesn't allow you to write things like "Support our Sponsors" or "Click Here!" Its reasonable, as using Blogger is free for the person writing the blog. Besides, Blogger is not for "commercial" purposes. Cheap? No. 100% Free. Trade stocks for free on Zecco.com. The Free Trading Community. www.zecco.com

When I review the amount of time I have taken to write approximately 100 posts, as well as the supporting research and interviews I have conducted, the operation is completely in the red. In other words, I can't even think about quitting my day job, or buying that tempting cookie for desert at lunch.

So why do it if it isn't economically efficient? Simple, its fun. I enjoy writing, particularly about the topics I write about. I also enjoy learning about Web 2.0, content creation, and the metrics surrounding it. In short, its a hobby, not a job. If blogging ever becomes like work to, I am out. Trading time for fun is worthwhile, that's why casinos are still around.