Is blogging a profitable business? in fact, is blogging even a business at all?
The answer is NO if you just want to start a blog as a way of expressing your view when you please.
However, if your goal is to make money from your blog, then blogging is a legitimate business, and it can be very profitable.
Today I will be sharing with you the little known secret of making 6 to 7 figure income from blogging – a unique business model that is profitable, and the 2 key enablers you need in order to generate income.
Before I lead you down to the path of a profitable blogging business, let’s define what is blogging first, shall we?
Disclosure: Some of the links in the article contains affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase through one of the links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the blog and allows me to continue to make free content. I will only recommend products that I use and love. Thank you for your support!
What Is Blogging?
Blogging is a form of online content creation, by producing and publishing blog posts in order to establish online presents, expanding the customer base.
Blogging is a powerful marketing tool for whatever you are selling or end up selling.
Yep, you heard me right – “selling”.
I was too, turned off by the word, at the beginning.
But let’s face it.
The honest truth here is that, if your intent is to make money from your blog, then you should treat it as a business from the beginning and develop a strategy with a goal to make a profit.
If you want to make money from your blog, passive or active, you need to sell something.
Either through selling “real-estate” on your blog pages to the advertisers, or selling actual products or services, or both. More on this later.
However, the “selling” I am referring to is very different to the traditional way of selling.
If you are like me, who HATES selling, let me explain the unique business model behind the blogging business. I hope I can put your mind at ease…
Spoiler alert – You get to be YOU, and there should not be any hard sales involved.
Is Blogging A Profitable Business? The (Little Known) Blogging Business Model
Before we answer the question “Is blogging a profitable business?”, let’s take a look at how is the blogging business model different from the traditional small business model.
The Traditional Small Business Model – The PUSH system
A traditional small business model looks something like this:
- Invest in setting up a business & creating a product or service to sell
- Find customers to buy
- Break-even
- Make profit OR Fail…
According to Fundera – What Percentage of Small Business Fail:
While 80% of the small businesses make it through their first year, only 50% survive by year five. Finally, 33% of all make it to the tenth year.
The top 2 reasons these small business fails are:
- No or short of market needs
- Lack of cash flow
With the traditional business model, it requires high investment upfront. So if you are not making sales quickly, the business will run into cash flow problem real fast.
And that, is the path to failure.
Moreover, if you take a closer look at the business model, the business has taken a lot of financial risk upfront before even considering whether there is a market for it.
Consequently, pushing the product and service out to the market becomes an upstream battle.
This traditional business model is a PUSH model, meaning pushing the products and services out to the market regardless of the needs.
In contrast, the blogging business model is exactly the opposite of that.
The Profitable Blogging Business Model – The PULL system
Instead of starting by investing a lot of money on setting up a business and creating a product or service that you have no idea whether there’s a market for it, you start by developing a relationship with an audience of your chosen niche.
If you find a niche that attracts a lot of interest very quickly, congrats! You might have just hit the jackpot.
For the rest of us, we will need to tweak and hone the message over time. I don’t want to sugar coat this, or make it sound as “easy peasy”, because it is NOT.
This is the most important step of all, and it will require hard work and patience from you.
But the good news is, you can keep making changes, without being under huge time and financial pressures.
Once you build a trust relationship with your audience, they will tell you exactly what their needs are and where the pain points are.
At this point, your audience will start to create a PULL for you.
This is when you are ready to create the product or service to meet your audience needs and solve their problems. Unlike the traditional push business model, you already have a loyal customer base before you even created your product or service.
While this may not be the business model for all bloggers, it’s certainly a proven effective one by many successful bloggers who are making 6 to 7 figures as a result.
Is Blogging a Profitable Business? 2 Enablers to Build a Pull System
So if your readers are the ones to create a pull for your business, how do you building that relationship with them?
Here are the 2 key enablers…
Enabler #1- Know Your Customer Avatar
To make blogging a thriving business, the first enabler is to know your customer avatar.
And I mean REALLY know them.
I am not talking about the vague fuzzy cloud of a general demographic of an age range, gender, and occupation that sort of thing.
I am talking about knowing them like you know a good friend.
And if you do, you should be able to answer these questions about your friend…
- What’s his/her name?
- How old is he/she?
- Does he/she have children?
- What’s his/her income level?
- Where does he/she live?
- Where does he/she work?
- What are his/her hobbies?
- What are his/her concerns in life right now?
- What are his/her hopes and dreams?
- What makes him/her laugh?
- …
I know what you are thinking… SO SPECIFIC!? Would that limit the rest of the potential audience, by having such a specific persona?
The answer is NO.
By trying to write to everybody, you are writing to nobody.
On the other hand, by having a clear vision of who exactly you are writing to, will not only make your writing a lot easier, but also will make you come across so much more personal.
I know publishing blog posts online can be daunting sometimes, but I am sure you have all written to our friends before, right? And the more personal you come across, the better the trust you can create
Action Tip:
If you don’t have a clear vision of who your audience is, take 10min. to create one.
Grab your FREE worksheet below, to create your specific Ideal Customer Avatar.
Create Your
Ideal Customer Avatar
Enabler #2: Create Binge-Worthy Content, Consistently
Now that you know this “friend” you are writing to, the next step is to start creating binge-worthy content consistently.
The three key elements here are:
- being unique
- high quality
- consistency
Have you subscribed to a blog or a youtube channel, that you love the content so much, you binged read or watched all the content in one go, and can’t wait for the next new one to come out?
That should be your goal as a blogger.
Firstly, write subjects of interest with your unique take on it. This is the part you get to be YOU.
Do not follow whatever everyone else is saying. Remember, your friends like the way YOU are, not because you are like everybody else.
Secondly, write a blog post long enough that allows you to explain an idea properly.
While it’s difficult to define exactly what is considered high quality, the search engine sees any post that has more than 1000 words as higher quality content. Because statistically, that’s the length it will typically take, in order to explain something properly.
As a result, bloggers reported more success when they write that length and beyond.
Finally, consistency is makes the 3rd element of creating binge-worthy content.
Not only readers love content from bloggers who are consistent because they know when to expect and what to expect from them, but Google also rewards blogging consistency by ranking your site higher over time.
The higher you rank in Google, the more traffic you will get.
Action Tip:
Establish a blogging consistency that is achievable for you to create high-quality content. Maybe that is 1 post per week, or maybe 2-3 post per week.
Related read: What Is The Ideal Frequency For Your Blog Post?
To wrap up, blogging is a profitable business if you follow the unique business model by firstly develop a relationship with your customer avatar.
Knowing who they are, and start to create high-quality and consistent content for them, are the 2 enablers for audience to create that “PULL” .
Yes, Blogging is A Profitable Business. But Is It Right For you?
Now you know blogging is not only just a business, but it can also be very profitable too.
But is blogging right for you?
Although blogging can be lucrative, it is certainly NOT a get rich quick scheme. While it costs very little cash to start, it takes a lot of hard work and patience before you start seeing any results.
Blogging is for people with big dreams and willing to put in the work.
The Fear of Starting Your Blog?
When I started my blogging journey, I feared that I wasn’t technical enough and didn’t have the right training and support.
After days of research, I came across Wealthy Affiliate, an all-in-one blogging platform that hosts WordPress websites, provides step-by-step training, and has a supportive community for an over 1.4 million members.
Two days after I joined as a FREE member, I upgraded to a premium so I can get the full benefit of the platform and actually get my blogging journey started.
I never looked back!
One of the attractive benefits of being a part of Wealthy Affiliate is that, they have a well-paid affiliate program. So you can start making your affiliate income while learning.
Wealthy Affiliate is not perfect by any means. But it was the one that helped me to leave my fear behind and kick start my dream. I want to share it with you in case this feels right for you.
Click below to try it for FREE:
If you decide this is the right path for you, I would love to offer you 3 personal bonuses:
Remember this offer is only available within the first 7 days after starting your free membership with WA.
- Bonus #1 – A $30 OFF of your first month Premium membership. (Instead of $49/month, you only pay $19)
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- Bonus #3 – Learn from experience: 5 Mistakes Newbies Make at Wealthy Affiliate (A video, via email)
I wish you the best with your profitable blogging business, and hope to see you inside of Wealthy Affiliate community!
Chloe
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I remember someone asked me the same question a few days ago. With this self quarantining thing going on across the world I think blogging could be a good way one came learn to make money whilst at home. I haven’t done much blogging but have just getting started and hope that I’ll be able to make it big in this business.
I’m still a little stuck though about what niche to blog about. I hear a lot about the length of an article and how it helps you succeed I’ve written a few articles and I’m really thinking of hiring some writers to help out.
Hi Donny,
I agree. With the current global COVID-19 pandemic, it is a great time to start blogging.
Not sure what niche to blog about? check out Which of the 6 Blogging Niches that Make Money in 2020.
As for hiring writers to help out, I want to really encourage you to practice writing as much as you can by yourself. There are many other tasks that you can hire for an assistant, writing is not one. What I will promise you is that the more you write, the better it gets. If I can do it, you can too!
I wish you the best,
Chloe
I really enjoyed reading your blog post here. I have to fully agree that blogging can make you a good income but if your someone whose not willing to work hard and put in the effort then it will never work.
Kinda of just like any other businesses.
I also liked that you said you need unique high quality content published on a frequent basis I order to get traffic. I think too many people just post low quality content or not enough content and don’t see the results they want.
I had a quick question though.
What would you say is the average amount of time it takes to earn a regular income from blogging, and how long after that until your making enough to quit your job?
Hi Michael,
It varies a lot on how long it takes to earn a regular income from blogging. As you mentioned, it depends on the niche, how much work one put in, and how effective you can build that relationship with readers.
From stalking many bloggers’ income reports, it typically takes between 6-18months to start getting a regular income, then from there sky is the limit.
You can read more here on “How much can bloggers make? 5 inspiring top bloggers income report“.
Hope that helps.
Chloe