From Blogging Hobby to Pro Blogger
How One Blogger Grew His Blog Popularity and Influence
Dec 17, 2008
It only recently began that blogs started to make a move toward mainstream acceptance and recognition. For at least a few years, however, many blogs have been successful in terms of readership and monetary gain. So much so that bloggers have been able to earn a living blogging, sometimes an extraordinarily good living. Melbourne, Australia’s Darren Rowse is one of those people.
A Blogging Career Sparked By Chance
As he will describe, Darren Rowse was an unlikely blogger. He happened upon an article about blogging in 2002. "I didn’t know it at the time," says Rowse, "but that moment changed my life. I know statements like that belong on those cheesy ‘buy my book’ sites (don’t worry I’m not selling anything) but it is actually true."
Change his life it did. His first blog, LivingRoom, was the beginning of an education and passion that would lead to his blogs, headed by ProBlogger.net, reaching well in excess of one million unique users each month. Such success could lead to the notion that he was a tech wizard to begin with, but, according to Rowse, that simply was not the case. Says Rowse about his technical and blogging skills, "To put it bluntly - I had none. When I started my first blog I had only just read my first one a few hours before and my online activities to that point didn't extend much beyond using IRC chat, email and using the web to research essays for university."
Rowse’s sometimes self-deprecating humor reveals a lot about his character and the good fortune he has received. "I often joke about a time I had to ask another blogger how to make text bold," he says. "My understanding of html, coding, and design was pretty much non existent. The only 'skill' I really had was that I'd had some training in communication (mainly speaking) - skills that I was able to transfer to blogging."
Blogging as a Profession
Approximately a year after starting his first blog, Rowse began his first attempt at monetization by experimenting with advertising and affiliate programs. As it exists today, paid advertising can take many forms, such as pay-per-click, pay-per-impression, and flat fee ads. Bloggers can also join affiliate programs wherein links to or ads about a particular product related to the blog topic are placed on the blog. Says Rowse, "My first few days earned me a few dollars - not enough to live on by any means but it did show me that it was possible to make at least some money online."
Darren’s initial goal was to break even on his Internet costs and save up for emerging technology, in other words, a new computer. To date, that sounds like a laughable goal, as he has surpassed his first milestones many times over. As he described, there were four things that enabled him to move to full-time blogging:
1) He devoted more time to blogging - "It was fun to see earnings go up as I blogged more - it gave me energy to keep at it and increase my efforts."
2) He started a new blog with a niche focus - "I started writing about photography and cameras."
3) He improved at using ad networks and affiliate programs - "Learning to position ads better was one thing that helped a lot."
4) Building Traffic - "Over time I got better at building a readership. Traffic is the key to building monetization."
Although the blogging landscape has changed from those early days, the basics of building a successful blog remain unaltered. Even a novice, as Darren Rowse was in the beginning, can build a great blog. By using strategies like Rowse’s to build and improve upon success, the sky can be the limit.
Blog traffic source: Compete, Inc., December 17, 2008.
