Novice Bloggers Don't Quit Your Day Job

Posted on March 21, 2005

A few people who got into blogging early are reportedly now making some money from blogging. For many of these people the blogs began as a hobby. Now as word has gone out that some hard working (and lucky) individuals are making money from blogging everyone wants to give it a shot. And that's great because competition is good for blogging and the future of digital media. But don't quit your day job before you are sure you can make money doing it. Darren Rowse, the blogger at ProBlogger.net, has posted an entry about his concerns that people might be approaching blogging irrationally. In the post Darren writes about a poll he has been running about how much revenues bloggers are getting from Google's AdSense program. Darren writes, "Over a third of those who have responded make less than $30 each Month -- less than $1 per day. Around half of those who responded earn less than $100 per month -- less than $3 per day. Those are numbers to consider before you launch into ProBlogging without a back up plan." With those kind of numbers your blog is not going to pay your bills so you shouldn't quit your day job until you can do much, much better. ProBlogger also offered this Public Service Announcement:

It takes time to build a profitable blog. You do not just become a Professional Blogger anymore than you just become a Professional Golfer. It is not a decision you make, it is something you work towards over time.