12 Reasons Why Most Bloggers Don't Make Much Money Online

Despite all the free advice available to those who want to blog to earn a living, the vast majority don't make much money. A blogger will read a blog or ebook that says "do this" or "do that" and will do "this" and "that" and a number of other things, but to no avail.

Why?

There are a lot of reasons why a blogger is unable to earn a decent income from his or her blog(s):

Lack of knowledge and/or experience.

Perhaps the blogger just isn't experienced enough to know how to make sales, get the right kind of traffic, where to place contextual ads, etc. There is a lot to know, and it's hard to do something we know very little about. It takes some time to learn all the tricks and drill them into our brains, and even then, there's still a lot left to learn.

Not enough quality content.

The amount of content available affects the amount of money earned (most of the time). And not just any will do- this content must be valuable to a large number of people. Bloggers who do not put enough time and effort into developing this quality content (whether it be writing or having someone else write for them) usually will not be able to pull in much revenue, if any. The same goes for new blogs.

Try to think of your blog as a bridge, and you're trying to get to the other side of a river- if you don't build it, you will never be able to reach your destination. If you don't build your blog, you will never be able to reach your income goals.

Non-commercial topic.

Sometimes bloggers just choose the wrong topic to blog about. That is, the wrong topic to blog about if you want to make money doing it.

If you enjoy something unusual and want to write about it, go ahead. But if your main focus is money, there is a possibility that you have chosen the wrong niche. If you want to market your blog, it needs to be about something that people are familiar with and are interested in reading more about. Go where the people are.

Not reaching out to others.

In order for a blog's readership to grow, the author must reach out to new audiences. Otherwise, how will anyone know you even exist? Communication, friendships and working relationships are extremely important.

Lack of time and effort invested.

Blogging is not only hard work, but it is also very time-consuming. If you do not allow yourself enough time to write and promote your posts, or just don't commit to it, you're just wasting your time.

A blogger must have a passion for the topic he or she is writing about, and the discipline to update regularly and advertise new content- not just for a couple months, but for much longer- perhaps several years.

Concentrating on one detail and neglecting the rest.

It is not uncommon for a blogger to obsess over one aspect of a blog and let the rest go, and then he or she is left wondering why the blog went downhill.

For example, I've seen bloggers invest so much time into watching their stats, that the quality of their content dwindles as time progresses. Readers unsubscribe and don't return, the blog receives less hits from search engines, etc. Don't let this happen to you. Divide your attention between all the necessary details.

Ignoring readers.

I will say this bluntly- when money is involved, a blog is nothing without its readers. These people are the ones giving feedback (whether it be good or bad) about the quality of your blog and what they would like to read about. Listen to them, and keep them in mind when writing. Do not take your audience for granted.

The blog is not original.

An original design and content is essential for financial success in blogging. You could write and promote great articles all day, every day, but if people can find the same thing somewhere else (especially on a more popular blog), it will be difficult to gain anything from all that time invested. A blogger must constantly come up with new ideas and present them in a way that makes them stand out from all the others.

Ads are poorly presented.

There is a lot to think about when displaying advertisements. The blogger must know which programs and/or advertising techniques are suitable for his or her blog, and the ads must be relevant, placed in "hot spots" on the page, and blend well with the template.

Too many projects.

Sometimes bloggers will commit to more than they can handle, and the quality of the blog will drop as they struggle to keep up with each project. It's important to know what you are committing to before you choose to take on a new challenge. Doing too much is nothing more than a good way to burn yourself out.

Giving up too soon.

Most blogs don't reach their peak until at least a year after the start date, given that the blogger has developed an effective posting schedule and rarely strays from it. Blogs take some time to mature, so don't expect to start a new blog one day and the cash to come rolling in the next.

Luck of the draw.

As bloggers gain experience and publicity, they may encounter some great opportunities for further advancement. Sometimes they will not be able to take up those opportunities, or even choose to give them up, thus missing their chance for success.

Or, a blogger may be unlucky enough to never be presented with the opportunities that could launch their pro blogging career. It's disappointing to see amazing talent and knowledge go to waste, but it happens sometimes.

When looking at a lot of the things that could go wrong, the topic of making money from a blog can seem a little more intimidating. But with focus, patience and dedication, it is possible to build a significant income stream with a blog, even in the most crowded niches. Don't let my list get you down- use it as a guide to recognizing unprofitable habits and fixing them before they get out of hand.

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• What Every Blogger Should Know About Making Money Online
• How to Increase Your Page Views and Profit With CPM Advertising
• Why Google AdSense May Not be Suitable for Your Blog
• More AdSense Tips for Bloggers
• Make More Money With Multiple Income Streams
• Working for Yourself vs. Having a 'Real Job'

Comments

[blogengage]

Hey great article you wrote here Raivyn! I’m not a blogger for money as most people can tell when viewing my blog. I don’t post on a regular basis and I’m always posting about different things. In general a blogger looking to make a part time income could benefit from this article a lot!

Over at blogengage I have the ads in hopes I can cover the cost of the template, integrated blog, images and server hosting costs! So far I’ve been lucky and when the end of the year comes I might cover the hosting and server costs. When it comes to all the custom modifications I’m still in debt LOL.

Don’t get me wrong my server and hosting is cheap compared to some websites.

I enjoy your blog so much I was wondering if you would consider blogging over at blogengage at our guest blog. If you’re interested just send me a pm in our website forums! It’ would be my pleasure to have you as a guest blogger!

Thanks for sharing and again nice article!

[Gamer]

Thanks for this article. It really helps, my blog is still new and have a little visitors. It really helps to see the errors. Thanks!

[Michael Aulia]

Mine is a bad niche I guess.. got quite good clicks, but it's a techie blog. Techie people usually know not to click on ads lol

[Arun]

Thanks for your insights regarding why bloggers are not making money. This is truly an informative aricle.

regards

simple way of life

[Bartoneus]

I'd say another big reasons is because a lot of bloggers aren't doing it to make money online.

What I'd be more concerned with is that so many people ARE using their blogs as either partial income or all of their income when it is not something you can even closely consider a steady source. The fact that Google can single-handedly destroy a blog's search results, thus crippling their search / random traffic, I wouldn't put very much weight on the idea of living off of a blog.

I'd be interested to see what would happen if the readers said "get rid of your ads!" and a blog listened, they'd be following many people's advice to listen to their readers but how much would it hurt to keep the ads and lose readers vs. losing the ads.

[Matthew]

Interesting article, stumbled

[Travis]

I just setup my first blog and this has some good advice! I fear I've already taken on too many projects, theres just so much I want to do!

[Travis]

Weird, it posted my comment as 'Matthew'. Well, thats what I meant to say!

[Ashish]

This is really a nice post.
Yes these are the reasons why some blogs do not earn. Hoping for more in the initial stage itself makes the main diversion. But the must thing for any blog is unique and quality content.

[Geoserv]

Great list, its easy to get pulled into the "too many ads" game.

I did that when I first started, now I am trying to clean up my sidebar and remove uselss ads/widgets.

Thanks for the wake up.

Engaged you at BlogEngage.

[C K]

Thanks for sharing those tips. I think the choice of topic to blog about is really important. Am still trying to figure that out at the moment. Cheers!

[Corey Freeman]

Thanks for sharing the advice! Lots of interesting points made in this article. I definitely agree with the "giving up too soon" part. I know in the past I've had a lot of projects "fail" due to impatience.

[Kim Sawyer]

This is a great article. My husband and I just started blogging about 2 1/2 mos. ago and we're trying to learn all we can. Thanks for this article.

[Mechanic999]

Great post. seems like it takes a lot time for me to build money making blog.
No mechanic can be made in days, so is profitable blog.

[Rod]

I agree with your point about the time it takes a blog to mature - I've seen this first hand. Search engines and human readers alike often adopt a "wait-and-see" attitude with new blogs because there is so much spam around. Only the best/most committed survive the cut and go on to some measure of success.

[Andy]

Great post and as a blogger for almost a year now, the points you have made are spot on. I did a review of how much money bloggers are making in my domain (personal finance) and it takes about 1500 visitors a day to make $1000 a month. Not easy but the returns are worth it.

[snoreta]

Hi,
I really appreciate these 12 reasons.I got lots of by these reasons. Thanks for the information.

Snoreta

Make Money

[make free money at home]

You've covered the information well by touching on the key reasons why bloggers don't make money and how they can. Thanks for your interesting article.