I’ve told you what’s the biggest reason for my online success. Now, I’m going to tell you what I think are the biggest reasons people fail at making money online. Technorati says there are over 175,000 new blogs entering the blogsphere everyday. While most bloggers don’t blog for money, a great number entering the sector are doing it for cash because they read some story in Entrepreneur magazine about some guy making over $300,000 a year just by blogging about what he ate for lunch.
The sad truth is the vast majority of these blogging for money bloggers will fail at making any meaningful amounts from their blogs. Why is that? I’ve came up with the following top reasons. I’m sure there are more. Feel free to add to the list in the comments.
They Don’t Take It Seriously
Most bloggers don’t think of their blog as a business. As a result, they don’t take it as seriously as they should. Look at the really big blogs like TechCrunch or Engadget. They are run like full blown bricks and mortar businesses and I can assure you, the owners of those blogs takes it very seriously. Now, you can say they take it seriously because they’re so big but here’s the key; they took it seriously from the get go. It’s really easy to treat a blog like a real business once it’s making real dollars. However, it’s a lot harder to do when the blog is brand new and making nothing.
When I made the decision to monetize this blog, I didn’t tip toe through the tulips. I used as many monetization methods possible and I had to take it seriously if the case study was to succeed. Treat your blog as a serious business if you wish to make serious money from it.
Easy In, Easy Out
Because the barriers of entry in blogging is so low (you can start for zero dollars), people don’t have much to lose and as a result, don’t take it seriously. You start a blog, it makes nothing, you quit. Easy in, easy out. Contrast this with a traditional business where you invested a few hundred thousand dollars into it. If that doesn’t work, you will try everything possible to turn it around.
This low cost of entry has to be the biggest reason people don’t take blogging seriously and that’s really too bad. I’m pretty sure my blog is more profitable than many businesses that took a few hundred grand to start. If making money by blogging required a big money investment, you wouldn’t see a 99% failure rate.
They’re Just Blogging for Money
It’s a strange fact in the blogshere that if you just blog for money, you’ll get everything but money. People who blog for money don’t blog about stuff they’re interested in or are passionate about. They blog about whatever hot niche is paying the most. The problem is they don’t know anything about the topics - they’re only doing it for the money. Readers can see through that from a mile away.
Blogging is very much like a normal business in that it takes time to build up a customer (readership) base. It’s very slow going in the beginning. It took me over a year to go from zero to 1,000 RSS subscribers. The blog now gets over 1,000 new RSS readers per month. If you’re not blogging about stuff you’re interested in, you won’t stick around long enough for the blog to make you money.
They Don’t Believe In Themselves
There is a wise saying (I forgot who said it) that states, “Whether you believe you can or cannot, both are true.” The biggest limiting factor in your blog’s success is you. If you don’t believe that you can be a successful blogger, then you won’t. It’s really that simple.
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Not taking making money online seriously is a serious problem. When I see people who start blogs and the masthead says I’m blogging about WTF I want to blog about, and then they put ads on the site, I just have to wonder, what are they thinking?
Those sites should be forced to shut down.
They don’t have to be shut down because the blogger will do it by default.
Making money online with a blog is easy?
I know that was my initial thought when getting into the blogging biz. Wrong!
A lot of great blogs are started this way. The important thing is to get started and learn from your experiences, mistakes, and successes.
I don`t see the point of putting ads on blog about your personal(and mostly boring) life.. You have nothing to offer for adsense keywords and mostly, your blog readers are your relatives.. But blogging about something that really inspires you and it`s your niche, is worth of putting ads on blog.. Ads are like “what to do next links”.. but links which will get you the money
“They’re Just Blogging for Money
It’s a strange fact in the blogshere that if you just blog for money, you’ll get everything but money.”
Ain’t that the truth. When I started my blog it was all about the cash. Not until I actually started enjoying myself and doing adsense experiments and podcasts did I actually starting making money.
I read a post by Nate Whitehill a while ago called “Top 5 Reasons Most Blogs Don’t Last”. It’s a really insightful post. Regarding blogging just to make money he said…
“Many new “make money online” blogs have popped up over the past few months. That being said, how many of those people actually make money online and are passionate about it? John Chow didn’t start writing only about how to make money online - he initially just used his blog to talk about his passions, only one of which was making that online dough. My passions are business and web development, and only since I have been blogging has my passion for blog development emerged. Now, blog development is one of my favorite topics to write about.”
If you only blog for money and aren’t passionate about what you’re doing, your readers will realize that and you will face the consequences. Let’s face it, people visit your blog in order to gain information, not so that you make money.
Alan Johnson
Yeah, I hear you Honest Ed. I think that is a really common mistake. I know I made it a few times myself.
It is so much more enjoyable (and easier!) blogging about something that you are really passionate about.
This is a good post for people who are early in the game
It brings back memories when I first started out. After 10 months, I’ve grown the blog to have 700+ subscribers but hopefully I will be pulling JohnChow numbers in a year 
Hey you all fantastic bloggers. I like to blog to about the things I am passionate about. Which is Swedish folkart and crafts. And art and crafts in general and to teach people crafts, and to get along with the animals they own or see in their neigborhood each day. I guess if I do it in my own language Swedish there is no money in it? I am pretty fluent in english though. I also do inspirational paintings that I like to sell as postcards. Is there a way to make any money here for me? There must be a way on line with my knowledge in these areas. Can somebody help me please? I read so much of how to make money on line but I feel outside with my interests. Can I fit in somewhere? Is my niche to small?
Blogger may fail if
- misunderstood that blogger will give them infinite passive income…i guess every single cent worth a drop of blood.
- People only take blogger serious for first few days and lose his/her momentum after that…
- Blogging something that he/she like but not reader like*
* If he/she is only blog for interest, this is the best approach…
And that’s the most common beliefs people have about making money from a blog. It’s easy and comes quick. Quite the opposite though isn’t it?
A basic knowledge of making money offline is always a help too.
That’s right bro. Real business techniques that are taught in good business schools, or self learnt.
um, I think you mean self taught.
I agree, my experience as far as running a brick&mortar business is concerned has proven to be extremely useful and has helped me avoid quite a few mistakes.
Alan Johnson
I believe I can win some blog contests and I really won some great prizes from blog contests
Make Money and Get Free Stuff from blog contest. Visit MyBlogContest.com for more information
Your comment has nothing to do with the post. Do you speak english?
Well I guess most people don’t have any idea about business strategy. They just set up shop and off they go. The other ones don’t care about money.
These are so very true. It’s easy to put together a blog, write some crap and say you know how to make money online, even if it’s not true.
Thet sounds like most of the “make money” ebooks out there.
The quote you reference is from Henry Ford, for those of you who care. All good points here, and you can definitely tell when someone is passionate and knowledgeable.
My fellow Canadian… it’s good to see you’ve not lost the ability to write good posts… Congratulations on this one!
By the way… what happened to that project of yours of starting a weblog from scratch, with no “famous name” behind… remember?
Good points. Serious ness is dafanitely important. more important is frequency. Dynamic content is better than static in the blog world.
Couldn’t have said it better myself, John. Especially the blogging only for money part.
you’re right mr. johnchow, blogging making it as a passion
I just started this whole blogging thing, and I have to admit I am doing it to make money. I am working on it and learning as I go and can’t believe how much I have learned in just a week’s time! Your articles put a lot of things in perspective for me thanks!
As a blogger, you always have to ask yourself: why should people visit my website? If the answer is “so that I make money”, it’s back to the drawing board I’m afraid.
Alan Johnson
I think you already posted a topic about it… anywaythey just don’t understand that it is not going to happen overnight… thats it..
1 more, They did not use correct techniques to blog.
–blog for dream–
Another reason for failure–picking a very small niche that doesn’t have many readers or advertisers.
This is the best post ever on JohnChow.com.
Great post John!
Why is it that there are so many people blogging about making money online and yet there are only a small number of people actually successful at doing it? John, being the exception.
In any field that someone has success in, there are others that fail. That’s just the nature of business. And, as John mentioned a lot of people don’t take it seriously.
Hi John
I’ve been reading your post with interest, thks for sharing.
BTW, I’ve subscribed for your newsletter, twice, but have yet to receive any. I’ve also emailed you on this via Contact but still nothing from you accept for your auto-response. How come?
Kong hee fatt choy.
Yang
You haven’t received a newsletter because I haven’t sent one out. They don’t go out on any schedule.
John, great post mate, seriously. This type of post is why I stick around through all the food posts and look what conference I’m at now stuff. Keep these coming man!
Another challenge is, if you blog is in Chinese language, you may have extra hurdle (like my blog) to overcome when monetizing the blog. Most of the affiliate like textlinkads don’t accept non-engligh blog.
You’ve got to love what you do. Simple as that.
Nice post john. People who want to earn some money through blogging must really be serious about it.
The first step is getting started too, instead of spending countless hours reading online forums and not doing anything. John Chow FTW!
Great post!
Great points John - and they can be applied to any business. Too many people want something for nothing. And when they don’t get it in a short space of time, it’s easy to walk away, as they haven’t really invested anything anyway.
Exactly, most people tend to give up if they don’t see results right away, expecting everything to happen overnight is the biggest mistake an entrepreneur could make.
Alan Johnson
Out of 100% blogs started for money, only 10% gets through the initial phase, and only 1% (maybe less than that) manage to earn and make blogging a full-time job.
I discovered this by reading too many blogs, and by extending my sites network and seeing how hard it is not to lose grip, and to maintain more than 5 sites (not necessarily blogs) in the same time.
It all resumes to work, more work and a bit of (more) luck.
[...] Can a personal blog success in the blogging world and make good profit off it? JohnChow.com answered my questions. He posts a great post, which I call the best post of John Chow. You should read it at “The Biggest Reasons People Fail At Making Money Online” [...]
When i told my friends that John Chow or Johnchow.com is making 20k$ a month, they were laughing at me and ask me to wake up from my dreams. They even said how foolish i am to trust to such things online.
It’s true. If you believe it will. But everything takes time. There are many rubbish advisers on the net, so people think to start before they know what they are going to do. That’s why most fails. Everything takes time and its perseverance.