The problem with all of this is that a number of commenters leave a comment just for the backlink. These comments range from the “Me, Too’s and Way To Go Dudes” to ridiculous nonsense. I’ve noticed a trend over time toward more and more spammy comments on FreshBlogger as well as a number of highly irrelevant comments (followable links to something that has nothing to do with the content of the actual post).

I’m also concerned that the search engine rankings of this blog have suffered due to having a large number of irrelevant links, as well. I’m not going to pretend that the affects on revenue aren’t also influencing this decision. At one point, FreshBlogger had a PageRank of 5 and has since gone down to PR2. I realize that this isn’t the ultimate indicator of popularity, but it is indicative of a generally downward trend that has definitely been felt in terms of income.

So, while I welcome all comments that add something interesting, I’ve decided to stop using DoFollow. I realize this may cause some visitors to be less likely to leave a comment here. Fair enough.

I’ve done some searching and found that a few others share this sentiment and have likewise removed DoFollow from their blogs. A couple that I’ve come across are RT from Untwisted Vortex, “No More ‘Do Follow’” and Stephen Cronin from Scratch99, “Bye Bye DoFollow.”

What I can offer, though, is this: Since this is my personal blog and I tend to write about a number of different topics, I would be happy to link to your post or web page if I find it interesting or think it would be interesting to others who read this blog. Please feel free to leave a comment here or use the FreshBlogger Contact page to drop me a line.

I know a lot of bloggers will answer that they would do it for free or that it’s a a labor of love, etc. I don’t have any problem with this idea at all. Honestly, much of my blogging has been more of a cathartic, networking experience rather than an outright attempt to make money.

Yes, I make a few bucks from this blog, but not nearly enough to live off of. With that said, though, how many of you are making any kind of money from blogging? Maybe I should start another survey to find out. I think there are probably many bloggers out there who are making some money from their blog even if it isn’t doing away with the need for the day job.

In his article, Mark speculates that there are probably more people who have won more than $25,000 from lotteries than there are making more than $25,000 per year from blogging. I wonder if this is true. Anyone care to admit to being a part of this elite crowd?

Although, there is plenty of information in this article for beginning bloggers, I think the content is much more useful and immediately applicable for those who have already gotten their feet wet by blogging for a while. Regardless, he provides some thought-provoking ideas on how you as a blogger should think about blogging in order to successfully generate money from it. The most important quote I found was this:

There are lots of people trying to blog for income, but they’re stuck thinking like bloggers instead of entrepreneurs. The activity of blogging is not income-generating; hence a blog is not a business. If you think like a blogger, your blog won’t generate much money. In order to generate income from blogging, you have to learn to think like an entrepreneur.

This seems like a very simple and obvious idea, but I think the concept escapes many of us, even bloggers who have been in the game for some time. He goes on to talk about the idea of marketing. The content alone may be excellent, but writing the content isn’t the activity that generates income. It’s the marketing of that content, getting those great articles in front of as many eyes as possible, that opens up doors and ultimately makes you money.

This is definitely food for thought. If you’re struggling to make money as a blogger, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been doing this for years, take some time to think about how you’re marketing your writing. Are you getting yourself out there and really selling yourself to your readers? The time you spend on marketing will be well worth the effort.

If you’re interested in making a bid on a well-developed, very professional blog, then stop by and check out the impressive stats in the post linked above. This is a great opportunity to buy into a blog that is just beginning on it’s journey to success. There is already a significant amount of traffic and income, as well as a good number of RSS subscribers. With a little more time and effort, this blog has the potential to become a full time job with full time income.

Good luck to Adnan in his further adventures. I’m sure he’ll do well regardless of the path he chooses in life. Here’s to you, mate!

One way to look at this is purely financial: how much are we making per hour spent on blogging? How does this compare to your day job? If you’re making $25 an hour at your day job, but only making an average of $5 an hour blogging, is it worth it to you? Don’t answer yet, because I’m sure many of you will start off by saying how you’re not blogging for money. Income is a terrific incentive, though, and many bloggers continue blogging because of the financial benefits, even if they didn’t start out with that goal in mind.

The financial aspect of things is a powerful one. I’m amazed sometimes by the lengths I see people going to make money on the internet. I’m not talking about people who are making big bucks, but those who are making relatively small amounts, say, less than a couple hundred per month. Sure, this amount can be significant for a lot of people, but is the time spent earning this money actually worth it?

If you spend 10 hours per week filling out surveys, etc, on get-paid-to sites and it’s making you $50 per week, is it worth it? There are a number of people out there doing this and often making less than the $5 per hour that this example gives. Why not just get a part time job that makes more than that? Even figuring in taxes (which you’ll eventually have to do with your blogging income, too), most part time jobs will pay more and for less work. If you work at a job that makes tips, like delivering pizzas, tending bar, or parking cars, the amount per hour of work is likely to be significantly higher.

I understand that there are other, less tangible benefits to blogging. It can be a nice stress relief as well as a way to develop a network of friends around the world. I like this aspect of blogging a lot. At the same time, it’s appropriate to ask how much return you’re getting from the time you spend on your blog, or in any other pursuit. If it’s becoming a hassle for you and it requires a lot of time that doesn’t necessarily result in a significant benefit, then it’s time to reevaluate.

Ultimately, blogging is just like any other part-time job or hobby. There are reasons why you do it. As your life changes, take another look at the time you devote to these activities and make adjustments if the fit is no longer right. Remember that you are in the driver’s seat.

Maki has written this article in response to a post by famed SEO guy, Jim Westergren, who has shut down a successful web business in order to pursue his dream of creative writing. Why did he do it?

Jim was making a ton of money online, the kind of money we all dream of. At it’s peak earlier this year, he was bringing in tens of thousands of dollars per month. Amazing, huh? A lot of those who follow his blog were shocked and saddened that he would leave the world of SEO and just drop his whole business. It does seem shocking, given the amount of income and the success of the business.

The reasons he is doing this are many. The primary reason, however, is because he wants to write fiction. He didn’t start out in SEO for the sake of the business, he started doing it because it held the promise of making him enough money to write. It seems that the business then took over his life. At some point in the last couple of months, he decided to throw in the towel.

This is a great story and provides some valuable lessons for us. One is that it’s possible to be incredibly successful in internet business with very little investment other than your time and energy. This has been proven over and over again and will be demonstrated many times more in the future.

Another lesson is more of a cautionary warning: it’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the demands of a business that you create. Like traditional offline small businesses, online businesses tend to expand in such a way that they can easily take over your life and run you rather than the other way around. It sounds like this is what happened to Jim.

His business began consuming more and more of his time until it just burned him out. He knew that this wasn’t what he wanted to be doing with his life. In the end, the only solution he found tenable was to divest himself of the entire thing by shutting down the business completely.

Several commenters on his blog suggested he outsource the day to day business. This would allow him more time to pursue his own interests. This sounds like a good idea on the surface. Unfortunately, things had gotten to a point where he found this to not be a workable solution. Maybe if he’d tried this earlier on it would have worked out.

That lesson is an important one for us to remember. Yes, there are a bunch of success stories out there where people have created one man internet empires. There are many more stories, though, of people who experienced some early success, but then burned out before really hitting their stride.

So, what do we learn from this? The lesson I take away is that we should be keeping our life goals in mind as we continue our efforts to be successful in our online endeavors. We should be thinking about what we really want out of life, how we want to live. That should be the goal rather than some arbitrary dollar amount. The monthly income goal that we establish is only to allow us to have that lifestyle, right?

Now, we have to differentiate, as Mark does in his video, between making a small amount and making a living off of the internet. Mark is specifically talking about the latter. As he notes, it’s not terribly difficult to make enough to pay for your hosting, for instance. Things get much harder when you try to push it further than that.

Mark is contending that it takes a special type of person to push it far enough to make that much money, to be a real internet entrepreneur. Most people just don’t have what it takes. It’s clear that some of the qualities of entrepreneurs in the offline world are also needed to succeed in online business.

Internet marketers and other internet business types need to have persistence above all to stick with it through the early trials. In the video, Mark mentions making it past the first year as a good first goal. I have to agree, although, FreshBlogger hasn’t been around for quite a year yet (give it another week!), that the first year is hardest for many reasons.

Will sticking it out for a year guarantee success? Hardly. It definitely takes a lot of hard work and determination to make enough money online to quit your day job. Even though, theoretically, anyone can do it, not everyone can do it. If you don’t understand the distinction, then consider this: Anyone can buy a carpenter’s tools, but not everyone can build a beautiful desk or cabinet using those tools.

The same can be said for internet businesses. The tools are abundantly common these days. Just about everyone has a computer or has access to one. You don’t have to be a programmer any more, either. You can set up a blog or website very quickly using freely available software and templates. In a few more minutes, you can put some advertising on your blog or website and you’re in business? Right?

Yes, you’re in business, but then you have to have that crucial element before your business can be successful. Obviously, that element is people. Customers. Anyone who reads your blog is your customer, even if they aren’t buying anything. You’re delivering a product to them, your written thoughts or ideas.

I hope this message doesn’t turn people away from trying to make money online. I don’t think that was Mark’s intention at all. Clearly, it was intended to inject a little sobering reality into all the starry-eyed talk of making money online.

There are so many stories out there about people making tens of thousands of dollars a month. Yes, some of these stories are true. There definitely are people who are making a ton of cash on the web. Most people who are trying to aren’t, though. Many of them are making a few bucks. And maybe that’s enough because even a little bit extra helps.

In light of my recent post wrapping up the survey asking about using sponsored posts, I’d like to know how many people do have blogs just for the purpose of generating an income. I’m posting another survey in the right hand sidebar that asks this question.

Don’t worry: The results of this survey will, of course, be anonymous. I realize that this can be an issue for some, especially when revealing whether they blog for money.

Go ahead and vote and let us know whether you have a blog just for making some money.

It looks like there’s quite a split between what readers want and expect from this blog. However, it’s clear that the majority have no problem with sponsored posts.

There are a variety of opinions on this issue in the blogging world. Time and time again I read and hear bloggers saying that blogging shouldn’t be about money. I understand that blogging can be a more personalized approach to sharing your thoughts, ideas, and feelings with the world. At the same time, though, the purist approach is incredibly naive.

I’m sure some of you will be up in arms about this, but there is truly no reason why blogging can’t be just like any other business or hobby turned part-time business. The key word here is business. If you run it like a business, then it should be expected to make money.

Let’s put things this way: Are you disgusted and turned off by the fact that those hot chicks in the beer commercials may not even like that beer? Does it bother you if the people in the herpes commercials don’t really have herpes? Give me a break!

Guys, it’s OK to make money. And it’s OK to make money with blogging. Whether you’re blogging just for the money or you blog because you love it. It’s OK. If your readers are getting some value from whatever you’re writing, then what’s the problem? Your motive in writing it doesn’t really mean anything.

Back to the subject of sponsored posts. If someone pays you for a review, an honest review, then I don’t see that there’s an issue. If you don’t like the product or service, say so. If you’re getting paid to review it, say so. Is this topic really that controversial? I’d love to hear what you think about it.

There are lots of people who frown on this type of activity because it breaks the rules. Specifically, this sort of behavior is against the Terms of Service of both Digg and Stumbleupon. It’s not illegal to buy and sell your votes, but it is against the rules that you agree to when you sign up.

My question to you is this: If this stuff is bad, how bad is it? The internet is still a wild place where just about anything can be found. The attempts at establishing a sort of law and order have been only moderately successful in terms of regulating what goes on and what types of content are allowed.

This is both good and bad. Anyone with a little experience on the web knows that there is a huge amount of bad and worthless and even potentially harmful content out there. Sometimes a little regulation can protect users from this stuff. Also, a good set of rules that most people respect will make commerce go much more smoothly.

Before anyone gets their panties into a bunch, let me say that I’m generally against regulation of the web. The openness and freedom of expression available through this medium is unprecidented in history and of almost immeasurable value in spreading knowledge and free thought across the world.

Back to Subvert and Profit: Black markets are a part of just about every economy and the economy of social voting networks is no exception. Your votes have value. Is it wrong to take advantage of this?

I realize that’s a question requiring a completely subjective answer, but I’m curious anyway. It’s hard to say that black markets are wrong. Think of the underground markets that existed in the highly regulated economy of Soviet Russia. Sometimes the only way people could get enough food was to go through the black markets rather than state owned and operated stores. It’s hard to say this is a bad thing.

Subvert and Profit is simple to sign up for and offers another opportunity for web users to make some money and also for web site owners and bloggers to get some exposure and traffic. According to their FAQ, you can make $.50 for each Digg vote. You can also purchase Digg votes for $1 each. It doesn’t take a lot of votes to get to the front page of Digg. Some have said that less than 100 votes, maybe much less will get you there. The traffic that comes from that exposure can be incredible.

You have probably already noticed that I’ve signed up for the service by the referral links in this post. I’m curious enough about the service to check it out and see what happens. If you’re interested, go ahead and sign up and make sure to read their guidelines very carefully to ensure that you aren’t banned by Digg or Stumbleupon. Let me know what you think about the questions I’ve asked in this post and I’d love to hear about any experiences you’ve had with this or similar services.