Making money from blogging is not easy

James Ryan Jonas

You have been blogging for months now. Almost everyday, you come up with at least one blog post. And yet, your site’s traffic is not increasing and, worst, your online income is still close to zero. What’s wrong?

You are not alone. Several PMT Forum members who have been blogging for some time now have reached the same conclusion: Mahirap pala kumita sa blogging.

Indeed, making money from blogging is not easy.

Fortunately, several members of the PMT Forum have been giving tips on how to make money online through blogs. A few points raised:

On SEO, links, and ad optimization

FrugalPinoy says:

Here are some of your problems why your blogs don’t seem to be monetizing well:

  • 1. No SEO (search engine optimization) effort.  How can search engines like Google crawl your sites and make it show up in search engine results?

  • 2. Technically, hindi blogs yung websites mo dahil parang 1 post or 1 page lang sila.  Ang blogs ay regularly updated, parang online journal. (Your blog is not a blog if it only contains 1 post or 1 page. A blog must be regularly updated, like an online journal.)

  • 3) Do you have other sites linking to your site?  Dapat meron, or else mahirap hanapin ng search engines at ng mga tao yung site mo, how will they hear of it? (You should have, otherwise, search engines and site visitors themselves will fnd it difficult to find your site.)

  • 4) Medyo magulo layout ng site mo, hindi optimized ang pagkakalagay ng ads. (The layout of the site is a mess, ads are not located in their optimized position.)

  • 5) There are several sites about your topics on the internet.  Why should visitors go to your site and not to others?

On clicking your own ads and click fraud

Jaypee1985 says:

I hope you guys don’t try unethical methods (just to earn from blogging). It’s really not going to help in the long run. Kung mapapansin ng isang advertiser na wala naman siyang kita sa pag-advertise sa Google Adsense, hindi na siya gagamit nito. (If advertisers notice that they are not getting anything from advertising in Google Adsense, they will stop using it.)

When that happens, one paying advertiser is lost. Dadami ang mga hindi na magpapa-advertise sa google adsense kaya tayo rin ang magiging kawawa. (In the end, us publishers will suffer because many advertisers will not use Adsense anymore.) Play it nice guys. The ones who are now earning huge sums are those that followed the rules and policies.

On creating quality articles

tyronesolee says:

It took me 8 months before I first made my first $100 in adsense. But now, with my new self-hosted blog at WordPress, I think in just 3 months, it’s possible to get my second Adsense payment. Hopefully. Provide quality articles so that people will keep visiting your site and market it thoroughly. Sometimes, when you also write quality articles, people will spread it through word of mouth especially if they found your articles very useful.

Other Tips

geek says:

If you really want to earn from blogging, follow these simple tips:

  • post at least 3 unique posts a week

  • exchange links with other bloggers

  • submit to digg

  • use wordpress

PinoyMoneyTalk says:

We have been blogging for 3 years now but decent income started only on our second year. During the first months, average online income was $10 at the most. Constantly reading tips about blogging, trying and testing changes on the blog, and regularly improving the site were the key factors that brought the site to where it is right now.

Check out more Blogging Tips!

James Ryan Jonas teaches business management, investments, and entrepreneurship at the University of the Philippines (UP). He is also the Executive Director of UP Provident Fund Inc., managing and investing P3.2 Billion ($56.4 Million) worth of retirement funds on behalf of thousands of UP employees.