the most important tip you need to know to make money blogging

Posted | 29 comments

There are thousands of blogs that focus on blogging tips and how to make money blogging .  I am sure you have heard that content is king and social media is the wave of the future and hundreds of other blog tips along those lines.  I was thinking about what separates bloggers and why some bloggers fail and others succeed.  I have come to the following formula :

Time + Effort = Blogging Success

If you want to be a well known blogger and make serious money from this medium than you have to go all in.  You have to work your ass off.  You have to be dedicated and be ready to commit yourself to working on your blog each and every day.  Some times you might not feel like writing content, that is fine but you should then do something else like link building or interacting on Twitter or Facebook.

It makes sense then that the most famous bloggers are the ones that blog full time, they have made it their career.  Most of these blogs are on cruise control now and they do not have to work as much but in the early days they worked like crazy to get their blog off the ground.

I understand that most bloggers do not have the time to blog full time.  I know that I don’t.  I work a typical 9-5 and have a wife and 2 kids so my blogging time is pretty limited.  I do make a commitment to spend at least 2-3 hours each and every day to do something to move my blog forward.  I feel that with my commitment and effort and the 15-20 hours a week that I am committing to this blog and my career advice blog that I can be moderately successful and make some decent money.  I also know that if I had 40-50 hours a week to spend on blogging, I would be able to make a hell of a lot more money than I am making now.

Oh, in case you were wondering what that important tip was that I was alluding to.

Put in the time.

I guess I could of wrapped up this post in 4 words but I somehow found a way to ramble on and make a 400 word post out of this. :-)

Are you putting in enough time and effort in to be a successful blogger?

29 Responses to “the most important tip you need to know to make money blogging”

  1. Domain name regis... says:
    June 17, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    Thanks for sharing this tip, time and effort lead to success, it is not all that easy to make money online with blogging.

  2. mk akan says:
    February 25, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    there is no other short cut…work your ass off or die trying…
    on a serious note–other things you need to succeed is focus and smart work…we need to focus on work that will eventually win or succeed
    .-= mk akan´s last blog ..Is Akismet Bullying Your Comments Too? =-.

  3. Tycoon Blogger says:
    February 24, 2010 at 8:21 pm

    I view blogging as all the activities including research, writing, promoting, etc…
    I stopped dropping EC a couple months back and I love all the extra time I have…
    .-= Tycoon Blogger @promote your blog´s last blog ..the most important tip you need to know to make money blogging =-.

  4. Martin says:
    February 24, 2010 at 3:39 pm

    The time i spent blogging depends on what are you including into the topic “blogging”. Is it just writing the post, is it the research, is it additional promoting in social media networks?
    when i combine the time for all these activities it will exceed 40 hours/week but i do this just since a few weeks more intensive as i stopped/reduced dropping Entrecard 2 weeks ago and focusing more on Twitter/StumbleUpon + blog research :)
    .-= Martin@Cornyman’s Money-Blog´s last blog ..Sponsored Tweets – Is it the end for it? =-.

  5. fingernails says:
    February 24, 2010 at 12:27 pm

    a lot of time,patience and work :)

  6. Dana says:
    February 24, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    The biggest investing in blogging is time in my opinion. The more time you can allocate the best will be the return.
    .-= Dana @ Blogging Update´s last blog ..6 Benefits of Guest Blogging =-.

  7. online shopping cart says:
    February 24, 2010 at 9:51 am

    Great post, i voted for 20-25 hours a day, because i spend within that hours a week blogging, however, i believe knowing what you doing and doing it correctly is just the key. Knowing what you are doing then spending the time and more effort to make all going fine…

  8. Fazreen says:
    February 24, 2010 at 9:13 am

    This year I’m not doing well for my blog as I’m getting busy with my practical work. So my blogging time is limited too
    .-= Fazreen´s last blog ..Dear Facebook stalkers, promoters and anonymous, I have removed you =-.

  9. Andi B. says:
    February 24, 2010 at 4:05 am

    You´re absolutely right, you really have to spend a lot of time blogging if you want to be successful. If I visit a blog, and the last article was published two or more months ago, I won´t visit it a second time, except it was really interesting and I would like to read some more older articles. It´s okay if there happens nothing on your blog for two or three days. If you go for holidays for some weeks, you should write something about your plans and when you´ll be back. That´s the best way to get and hold many visitors.

  10. Alison Moore Smith says:
    February 24, 2010 at 1:45 am

    Dan, I’m pretty sure this is going to sound snarky, but I sincerely don’t mean it to sound that way. Trust me!

    If you’re going to tell me the “most important tip” I need to making money with my blog, then I assume you’re making a boatload of money blogging. Or quoting someone who does. Otherwise, how are you qualified to make the statement?

    I’ve read a few of our articles before, but am not terribly familiar with your blog. So, are you an expert at making money blogging?
    .-= Alison Moore Smith@Start Blogging´s last blog ..31DBBB: Day #3 Promote a Blog Post =-.

    • Tycoon Blogger says:
      February 24, 2010 at 8:06 pm

      @Alison Moore Smith@Start Blogging, You’re right that does sound snarky. If you read my post carefully, you will see that I stated that I would be making a lot more money if I had more time. I stopped by your blog and I am wondering how you are qualified to give blogging tips? You get my point?
      You do not have to be the richest or most successful blogger to help other bloggers reach their full potential.

      Oh and by the way, I do very well making money online which includes blogging. You would be well served to keep reading my blog as I am sure you could learn a thing or two.
      .-= Tycoon Blogger @promote your blog´s last blog ..the most important tip you need to know to make money blogging =-.

      • Alison Moore Smith says:
        February 25, 2010 at 12:50 am

        @Tycoon Blogger @promote your blog, Dan, I did read your post carefully. My point is that I don’t see evidence that you really *know* “the most important tip” to make money is.

        I sure don’t know THE tip and I make decent money blogging and have for years.

        I agree that you don’t need to be the richest blogger to help others. But I do think you need to be making more money than most bloggers to claim THE MOST IMPORTANT tip to making money.

        You’ll note that my tips focus on things I know very explicitly. Like how how to set up a dofollow blog or how to add a linked header to a specific blog or how to use a particular plugin, etc. You won’t find me blogging on how to make six figures a month on my blog. :)

        As I said, it’s not a snark, it’s a legitimate concern. I hear people over and over every day searching for the magic MMO bullet and I think we have to be very careful what we present and the claims we make. And claiming THE MOST IMPORTANT tip is a huge claim that few bloggers are really qualified to make.
        .-= Alison Moore Smith@Start Blogging´s last blog ..31DBBB: Day #3 Promote a Blog Post =-.

        • Keith says:
          February 25, 2010 at 1:29 pm

          @Alison Moore Smith@Start Blogging, I will have to say, I make a full time income from my site(s) and Dan’s tip is spot on, “put the time in”. It couldn’t be said any better.

          I have been making money from online ventures for about two years, and it takes time and effort to do it, period. Yes there are many other tips to doing it, but I feel this is probably one that so many coming into this field forget about.

          Darren, Brian, David, John and whoever else you want to list (which by the way, there are plenty that make full time income online that are not well known) had to do exactly what Dan said, “put the time in”.

          So whether or not you think he is qualified to make give that tip, doesn’t really matter. You have to broaden your thinking a little, I learned some things from a 12yr old blogger the other day, he makes no money blogging, but he was not corrupted by the fact that there are so many fallacies existing about blogging and he told me what he thought, and he was right!

          I see it this way: If you don’t want to hear tips from someone that isn’t Darren Rowse (or another famous name) then why read and comment? If you don’t think you can learn something from someone just because their bank account isn’t flowing with cash, then you still have much to learn Alison.
          .-= Keith´s last blog ..Removing DoFollow From This Site =-.

        • Alison Moore Smith says:
          February 25, 2010 at 2:56 pm

          @Alison Moore Smith, Keith, my complaint wasn’t with the idea that bloggers need to put in time. It’s that the claim was overstated and, as stated, wasn’t accurate. Putting in time and effort are not equivalent to “blogging success.” It’s likely all of us know dozens of bloggers that prove that point.

          I don’t understand the point of saying someone’s opinion doesn’t matter — given that is itself an opinion. :) What I did was pose a QUESTION about making such an exclusive claim. I don’t mind hyperbole at all, but the statement wasn’t used that way.

          And, again, it’s not an issue about seniority. My comment doesn’t indicate that at all. I’ve been making money online since 1994 and I learn things from newbies all the time. Everyone has very specific expertise and no one has it all. My statement was very specific about making a huge overstatement in an area *outside* one’s expertise. I love valid tips from anyone.
          .-= Alison Moore Smith@Start Blogging´s last blog ..31DBBB: Day #3 Promote a Blog Post =-.

  11. selurus says:
    February 23, 2010 at 11:37 pm

    Time is scarce. I try to do as much as possible when I’m off or sometimes I’m up till 3am.
    .-= selurus´s last blog ..Data Connection for Google Maps =-.

  12. Hesham says:
    February 23, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    I don’t know what is the exact meaning of blogging here on your post, if we included blog management and other promotion work, I mean the whole thing, then I am doing more than 40 hours a week, I actually do this 40 hours in 3 days!

    time I spend on blogging is about 100 hours every week, I blog on weekends as well! I mean I don’t have week ends! I don’t know if you will believe me or not!
    .-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers´s last blog ..Nick Roach, you asked for opinion about Business Card, and coming TheCorporation & Polished themes =-.

  13. element321 says:
    February 23, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    My schedule is pretty limited. Luckily I have a job I work about 30 hours a week that I tend to have a lot of free time where I can work on my blog and social media projects in between work projects. The rest of my work schedule is spent working with freelance work or family time.

    So between work and free time I can can sometimes get up to 30 hours a week. I try and schedule my weekly blog promotion for the next based on my real life schedule.
    .-= element321 @ evolutionary designs´s last blog ..Blogging Tips #4 – Comment Strategies =-.

  14. Tom says:
    February 23, 2010 at 8:45 pm

    I put in a lot of effort to all my blogs. So about 20-30 hours a week. I am slowly starting to see the fruit of my labour with some profit and traffic.
    .-= Tom@Free Squeeze Pages´s last blog ..The Aweber Code….And Why You Need To Promote It! =-.