There is a very simple basic formula to make a million dollars with your blog site. It’s obviously a white-hot topic, as evidenced by the fact that most of the top blog sites are about this very subject.

And that’s part of the formula. Create a blog site about making money with your blog site. It doesn’t matter that you’ll be just another one of thousands of similar sites. How else will you get in on this incestuous circle of income? Yes, incestuous, as in keeping it in the family. Bloggers who want to make money by blogging go to blog sites about making money by blogging, buying and selling all the tricks of the trade to each other.

Not that I’m criticizing. I’m just observing. Let me explain. When someone (like me) decides to move beyond MySpace or FaceBook and finally take the step toward creating his or her very own blog site, the natural question becomes “How?”. We have the inspiration and perhaps a talent for writing, so how do we actually do it? And while we’re at it, can we make enough of this easy money we hear so much about to at least pay for our server space? Or maybe $80,000 a month, as has been reported?

So we Google the subject and come across gurus of all sizes. There are thousands of us, remember, so these blogging-for-money sites are sharing our attention. Even if you pick a particular cyber-mentor (I picked John Chow, who doesn’t make enough money so I’ll put this Make Money Online link to him), you continue to flit around among the friendly competitors. And this is expected, as you’ll notice they all sell each other’s products and profits.

So you hunker down and follow this tsunami of advice. In a day or so you begin to realize that this takes a lot of work. A LOT of work. First find a domain name that’s unique yet easy to remember, descriptive, nonproprietary, and most importantly: available. Then get a server and set up the blog site – pretty easy with BlueHost and WordPress. Next, pick a WordPress theme template, apply it to your site, and tweak it to make it look relatively different and fresh (this site uses the very malleable Atahualpa theme).

Now create original content. Post your own writing, drawings, pictures, and videos. Get friends and strangers to create original content for you. Some sites merely re-post content from other sites, which I find crass. After you have some content up, keep it coming on a regular basis.

Now you’ve set the table. Next you need to attract visitors. Studying and implementing this step seems to take up the rest of your life, but if you want that million dollars, you have to put in some effort. And some money. You’ll learn about RSS feeds, reciprocal links, commenting on other sites, and your own pay-per-click advertising.

But show me the money! Okay. More ongoing study and implementation will result in Google Ads, affiliate links, and offering your own products and services. Expect more expenses in honing these opportunities. With enough traffic to your site, you may generate hundreds of dollars per month!

But no, show me the BIG money! Well, I’m afraid that’s not likely to happen, actually. Applying the Pareto principle (the 80/20 Rule that 80% of the money goes to 20% of the blog sites), you have little chance of getting in on the big money. This is especially true if your blog site subject – like mine – is not about how to make money with your blog site.

That simple formula I mentioned is this: spend an enormous amount of time and money creating and maintaining a money blog site. But my suggestion is to just forget the million dollars. Relax, have fun building a site of your favorite subject, and enjoy your visitors. Play with the tools of the trade, if you like, and maybe they’ll pay for your server. That’s cool enough, isn’t it?

Jim Lawter

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