Blogging for income is quite the hot topic these days, with many bloggers (including this one) touting the rewards of harvesting the massive internet traffic one can create by writing digestible articles and posting them regularly on a blog. For many budding entrepreneurs, blogging seemed to be the next easy way to strike it rich.
Steve’s Soldiers
It all started a little over three years ago when Steve Pavlina began writing personal development articles for his self-named website. His lengthy, yet insightful articles became such a smash hit that his blog quickly skyrocketed into the Technorati Top 100 , and he started to disclose that he was making over 50, 100, 200, 500, and even 1000 dollars a day from his blog! Blogging was no longer for lonely college freshman without anyone to talk to.
This news started a virtual stampede of wanna-be Steves, who flooded the blogosphere with thousands of unofficial Pavlina personal development franchises. Anyone who ever had aspirations of becoming a motivational speaker (but never got the chance) found new life in this gift from the internet.
I can’t lie, I was one of them. Steve’s was the first blog I had ever read, and I was blown away by both the content and the potential of the medium. I quickly set up Genius Types and started slinging out articles about what I knew best: creativity and passive income.
One of These Things is Not Like the Others
It wasn’t until I started to become part of the blogosphere by reading and communicating with other blogs, that I realized that I was not a blogger in the traditional sense. Most soldiers of the blogosphere are completely dedicated to the art of blogging by 1) focusing every waking moment on fulfilling a fierce regimen of one post a day, 2) tweaking their site code, 3) and leveraging social networking sites to the hilt.
Every time I tried to duplicate this process, it left me feeling uneasy. My intention in creating Genius Types was to share information and create passive income, not create a job. The amount of time it must have took some of the bloggers I met to crank out the content they were producing was very unappealing to me.
The pressure to create at least one post a day never sat well with me either. I still consider Steve Pavlina to be the greatest content-producer in the blogosphere, but even his post frequency started to wear on me. There are a handful of his articles that I find to be masterpieces; but even Picasso can’t produce a masterpiece every day.
Jaded
In the spirit of full disclosure: I don’t follow ANY blogs regularly. I have my favorites that I check up on from time to time, cherry-picking a few promising articles to browse; but the truth is that I find most blog content pretty boring. The pressure to post every day has really diluted the talent of most bloggers.
This jaded view of blogging was a stark contrast to the rose-colored glasses that Steve Pavlina gave me a year earlier. I once saw blogging as a way to permanently document a person’s inner genius. Instead of writing a book, a person could slowly piece together his life’s work on the internet for everyone to see till the end of time.
If the work had value, it would create passive income because people would always be interested in reading it. Each post would read like a chapter in a book.
When a blogger starts to write just to meet her daily quota instead of writing lasting content, the residual component of her work is greatly diminished. When a blogger starts writing for her daily readers instead of the readers that will discover her site years in the future; she is killing the goose to get to the golden eggs.
Blogging and Passive Income
There is definitely a passive component to blogging income, but only in direct correlation to how timeless the content is. For example: which blogger is creating more passive income?
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a) One who writes about the weather, what he had to eat, the new features of his website, what he read that day, what his new year’s resolutions are, what he plans on doing, and how he is feeling at the moment?… or
b) one who writes about a lasting principle that she has learned over many years, philosophies that took her years to develop, and what she learned from her experience in order to help other people save time and money?
The second blogger is writing timeless material while the first is writing material that is only relevant for the moment. The second blogger stands a much greater chance of creating passive income from blogging.
Measuring the Passive Component
No income source is completely passive. Passive income sources can be distributed on a continuum between completely passive and completely active, but it’s all relative. Most sources have a passive component and an active component.
It would be somewhat tricky to measure what percentage of a blogger’s income is passive and what percentage is active without asking that blogger to stop blogging for a year to see what percentage of his income persists.
Active blogging income is mainly composed of that traffic that is generated by eager fans who check in every day to get the latest post. Unfortunately, regular visitors aren’t the best source of income because they come for the content, not necessarily the advertisements. The click-through rates for regular visitors tend to be lower than for first-time viewers.
Passive blogging income has a lot to do with new visitors. Does your content have the ability to continually generate new viewers who are more likely to click on ads and affiliate links?
Complicating the formula is the fact that the amount of regular visitors contributes to the rate of new visitors. Regular visitors may spread the word about your site and attract new visitors.
Not a Traditional Blog
Genius Types has never really fit in with the traditional blogging mold. I’ve had many readers complain that I don’t post frequently enough, even to the point of questioning if I was still alive after a month-long break for the holidays. I’ve received harsh criticism for not participating in time-consuming blog memes and lists, which other blogs use as a source of harvesting cheap links (the currency of the web). Plus, I’m not very good with reciprocating links and comments.
The reality is that I’m more concerned with the long-term viability of Genius Types than I am with day-to-day traffic and social niceties. I see this site as a way to document the wisdom that I accumulate throughout life. Sometimes it comes to me frequently, and sometimes I go long periods of time without anything worth writing about.
I’ve tried forcing myself to post and it just didn’t feel right. Search through my archives and you’ll find a few trivial posts; but for the most part, I try not to write unless I have something to say.
Does Genius Types have Passive Income?
It’s interesting to note that I pushed content on Genius Types pretty heavily right up until about the then end of October 2007. Each month resulted in a greater income than the previous month. I was succeeding in creating an active following and generating plenty of new visitors.
I let off the gas starting in November to focus on other business ventures. Interestingly enough, my AdSense income and average traffic per day has remained consistent for almost three months. This includes a period of almost a month when I didn’t post anything new at all.
For me, there are only two reasons to blog: 1) to share information and 2) to create passive income. I’m not passionate enough about blogging itself to turn it into a job. That’s not to say that there aren’t people out there who are born to be full-time bloggers… I’m just not one of them.
My passions are creating art and passive income. Blogging has helped me to serve these passions on my own terms. I’ll never be a blogger in the traditional sense (traditions being 3-5 years old), but I see the potential that blogging has for those who write timeless content.
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You raise some good points. Blogging is just a medium. It’s an exciting medium to be sure, but it’s merely an empty shell and has virtually no value by itself.
Your message is far more important than your medium. A medium doesn’t generate income. Only your message can do that. If you’re looking to the medium of blogging for the answers, you’re staring into an empty void. There are no answers there.
When you find a message that’s so overwhelmingly powerful that you feel driven to share it, regardless of income, that’s where you’re finally tapping into your true source of value creation.
If you think of writing blog posts as creating content, and you need to push yourself to do that each day, then where’s the message? There’s no soul in that kind of writing. If you have to write those kinds of posts, and then you start looking to your income or your traffic for validation, you’ve already lost. That is a path without heart, and it will only kill you in the end, if not externally then certainly internally.
On the other hand, if you write because you must share something that just keeps pouring out of you, something that effortlessly animates your fingers on the keyboard, something that causes your very soul to dance, that’s the kind of work that will connect with others, and blogging is a terrific medium for it.
How do you find that message? You can start by sharing the very thing you’re most afraid to share, the one thing you swear you’ll never blog about, the topic that makes you sweat the most. Each step you take in that direction is a step towards greater authenticity, to a message that connects instead of just impacting on the surface.
There’s definitely a market for high-frequency bloggers and readers, but I see this model to be more like a magazine than a book. Magazine publishers have to come up with constant content to replace rapidly fading content, while book authors write the material once and it exists forever.
Hunter brings up a good point when he talks about fun vs. slave income. If producing or reading a high-frequency blog makes you happy, that’s a fantastic way to make a living. People should recognize the difference between the passive and active components of blogging and not mistake one for the other.
Hey Brian. You make a really great point. Working for yourself, working from home, or working on the Internet… they’re all still work. If the goal is to create as passive an income as possible, then you have to create self-sustaining enterprises, and those are few and far between. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new endeavor, especially a successful one. For those of us interested in passive income, we just need to remind ourselves that we need to measure success a little differently; not so much by the immediate return but rather on the long term sustainability.
Thanks for the reminder and looking forward to the next post…whenever it may come!
-Thom
Brian, I hear people talking about passive income all the time, but I wonder how many people actually have significant income that is truly passive. I think it makes sense to consider the active and passive components of an income source instead of thinking everything has to be one or the other. I also distinguish between fun income and slave income, which to me is more important than active vs. passive.
I’m glad you feel free to post only when you have something to say. I’ve thought about starting a petition for blog readers to sign, saying they promise never to unsubscribe from a blog for the reason of low posting frequency. I think it would make the blogosphere a far better place if bloggers wrote meaningful content when they can instead of cheap content when they have to.
You have some good points but since I probably have over 100 blogs in my feeds and read new content every day I don’t agree completely
I’ve found a few blogs that actually do turn up interesting ideas frequently (such as Marginal Revolution), but I agree that they’re a rarity. Most of the new posts are just noise. The only way this can be useful is when I’m interested in an area that I don’t know well – then immersing myself in the daily noise associated with it through several good blogs is a quick way to pick up the important ideas.
This shows in my feeds: I have a few technology blogs but I just don’t want to think about that all day so I don’t get much content from them. I have a nice collection of personal finance blogs built up over the last year but I don’t need the basics repeated every week anymore. I have several different collections of blogs for entrepreneurship, marketing, internet business, and traditional business consulting because I want to increase my level of knowledge. And I have a few economics blogs that show a different take on regular issues than the usual media and blogs from interesting authors for “smart” entertainment.
Alltogether my little collection of feeds gives me something new to think about regularly and keeps me entertained. When a blog becomes less relevant to me I remove it to keep out the pointless noise.
- A new blogger
Brian,
I like your new blog design. It’s much nicer than your previous site, which loaded very slowly.
I just wanted to say that I was also inspired to start a blog by Steve Pavlina. I’m sure there are thousands of others as well.
I really enjoy your blog, despite the infrequency of your posts. I would much rather read a couple of great posts per month, than a bunch of daily drivel.
Thanks for all of the Genius ideas.
Bret
BretFrohlich.com
Steve,
Thank you for stopping by and sharing your insights. Even your comments are rich with meaning.
You dug right down to the bottom of the issue: your success as a content producer is ultimately dependent on how closely you follow your heart.
I really like your suggestion to blog about what scares you the most. Those kind of risks have proven to pay off for me in both authenticity and popularity.
Thanks again for stopping by.
You have just verbalised eloquently what I have been thinking about for some time now.
I started blogging for the reasons you mentioned, i.e. hoping to leave lasting content. In my case, content that I hoped will help my children avoid making the mistakes I have made in managing my life and in particular my finances.
Making money from the blog was not an issue. My blog is still ad free.
Somehow I am now caught in the cycle of a post every weekday. Though I enjoy myself immensely, I have been having thoughts that I never expected to give a “lesson” a day to my children.
I have unsubscribed from blogs that post regularly far more than blogs that post once in a while. I’m not reading for trivial information, I’m reading for wisdom, and possibly humour.
Keep up the irregular posting.
I think it may be a source of passive income but who cares?
It is still money getting in the pocket.
How about fewer posts on how to make money by blogging and something useful.
I’m seeing a ton of sites blogging about how to create passive income from blogging (rather than creating real content).
I found you because you’re also named Brian Lee.
Brian, I totally agree with you. For passive income we need to have content that would last. Like my site, it deals with the fundamentals and needed knowledge. As long as we have men and women, men would always need advice on how to become more attractive, date more etc. My content would last.
Finally I look at it this way. For passive income, the site must produce consistent income every month. So if we have to continually slog away at the site, would it be considered passive income? I would say yes, only if that slogging is to increase that consistent passive income! So for example, after one month of hard work, you would get a higher passive income per month without caring about the site anymore.
Thanks Bret!
You’re the first to notice the new header. Yeah, I’m trying to go simpler, faster, and cleaner. I’m glad someone took notice!
Hey Brian,
This must be one of the best posts of geniustypes so far. I’m one of “Steve’s soldiers” myself
; the _timeless_ component cannot be stressed enough when it comes to bringing real value. Sure, there’s value in the “X ways to do Y” posts too, but I think the reaction people have on reading such posts is “oh that’s great”, and then after two days (or maybe earlier) they forget about it and never look for that post again, nor do they apply what they read (which would bring some value to their life). The value they bring is only as good as a way of lifting someone’s spirit for a while.
The timeless posts are the ones that really make a difference in your life. When you read a timeless post you have it in your mind for weeks on end. It gives you focus and motivation, you return to it again and again and eventually you make it part of your life.
As you say, it’s the difference between a book and a magazine.
Good luck!
Ion
I agree that blogging can be a 2nd income, but I don’t think blogging is passive income. We stilll have to do something to keep it running from time to time. It’s nothing like we own the stock of a company and only have to come for board meeting every quarter.
Colin Joss
East Lothian, Haddington
United Kingdom
I have been having a conversation just like this with a fellow blogger. We both like the idea of posting every day but do not want this to become a job. In order to accomplish this task I have two posts that occur each week that are “update posts.” Since my blog is on saving money one of these is about deals I find online and the other is weekly free samples and coupons. This fills two of the seven days with useful but not timeless content.
The strategy my friend is employing is to do a series of posts. Son instead of having one very long post he breaks a topic up into four posts. I love this idea because most people no longer want to spend the time to read large amounts of content. They can come to your site read that days info and then come back again the next day for the next segment. Overall these two strategies have worked great for us.
For me, passive is when you don’t need to do it in significant frequency. If you are getting paid writers and still have to keep some business to do with them regularly, then it would be a side business, but certainly not passive.
Hey Brian – I think you might of mentioned me in your post. I remember writing you an email asking you if you were still alive….. I’m glad to see that you are
As an aside – I share your philosophy, that is to write only when you feel it’s right or when you have something to say. I find this definitely leads to better content and more creative blog entries….. keep at’er!
Speaking as a new blogger, you have to HAVE income first!
I totally agree with you on this. I tend to think that blogging for income is a new age hunt for fools gold. Sure, there are some who will find riches, but most pursuants of this form of “passive income” are generally working just as hard as ever, at blogging instead of traditional employment.
I also share the desire for a more passive income, more freedom and mobility. However I have directed my efforts at making my real world business more passive whilst increasing its profitability. In the last 2 years I have managed to transform myself from stressed out, overworked business owner to globetrotting, relaxed business owner.
Its just a matter of applying all the great ideas of most online “passive income” experts to real world businesses. By being more focussed and better prioritized, by delegating and recruiting well and by increasing my margins significantly, I have been able to turn my business into a low stress, low involvement profit producer.
I just returned from 6 weeks of skiing, checking into work occasionally via my macBook. I have multiple trips planned this year. I will be able to keep the business chugging along successfully via email from a resort in Sabah, the cabin of a yacht on the Great Barrier Reef, amongst the palm trees of Lord Howe Island, the beach in Hawaii and the poolside Noosa (Queensland).
Thats not just passive…its great fun.
Surely if you rely on blogging for an income what started as an enjoyable way to express yourself would soon become a chore.
Such an enjoyable post.
It just goes to show you that any endeavor to create income has to work for you.
When it feels forced and unnatural, it will come out forced and unnatural and actually cause more harm than good.
Business is often a result of strategically funneling your passion, knowledge and interests in a manner that (1) gives authentic value to your customer base and (2) doesn’t tax you to the point where it squeezes out all of your creativity.
You hit it right on the nose when you spoke about finding the right mix of passive and active outlets for you.
There are some who wake up to an enlightened view every day…and others who have about 3 enlightened views per month.
The key is to give your creativity an outlet that will appease the appetite of your customer niche and give you a profitable return.
The reality lies in whether you have the patience to test the system enough to find THAT balance that really works for you and your customer base.
Thanks for sharing your insight and wisdom. I appreciate the fact that you choose to only give us the best of you.
You said, “I see this site as a way to document the wisdom that I accumulate throughout life. Sometimes it comes to me frequently, and sometimes I go long periods of time without anything worth writing about.” This statement has given me new direcion for the several blogs I write on nutrition. Nutrition principles are timeless. I would rather post when I truly have something new and fresh to say.
I agree with your comments on making blogging passive. I am just not sure how you do that in regard to timing. It seems like at first you need allot of resources and content created to get indexed and noticed. This to me is work. Passive would come later once you have everything turn key. Then you can enjoy a passive income life style. But it seems you will never totally get away with it being strictly passive because the readers of a good blog will demand a continuing stream of articles. Thanks.
There are those like me that blog because we want to be seen as experts in our field. Passive it’s not, but it leads to a fulfilling end. We blog about what we do and what we think about every day. Like minded individuals come and see that we know about our industry and we gain trust. It’s a good deal.
This is the first time I’ve been to your blog and I like it. Keep it up.
This site is awesome- I only found it today, and it has already answered a bunch of unanswered questions, relating to other books I have read!
I doubt that anyone can write something on a daily basis, that is sufficiently insightful as to be really memorable.
Far better to have articles such as the excellent ones here, which are written from a reasoned and experienced point of view, than someone’s daily ramblings about stuff which may, or may not work long term!
I really love the idea of generating passive income thru blogging. I am also an artist, and I have started a couple of blogs, but I still don’t understand two very important elements: How do I generate traffic to my blog, and how does one actually generate income just by blogging? All of the articles on link text, etc., just boggle me with how complicated they sound. I’d need to hire someone to get me set up! I do enjoy writing, and I think I could really be successful with this if I just knew the secrets of how to get it going. Can you help me out here?
good post old chap.
i have a good mind to forward this to a couple of the 4 blog writers that i subscribe to current (that i was about to ditch for the very reasons you say!)
Good article.
I know you weren’t talking about tax purposes, but I know that for income tax purposes it would most definitely NOT be passive income.
The blogger is actively involved in the activity. I think a better term than passive income might be residual income.
MrAchievement
Stanley F. Bronstein
Attorney, CPA, Author & Motivational Speaker
I like your website and was enjoying the content on this site for quite a while. Now your not updating the articles anymore it seems to be a lot less interesting
First you had a 2nd and even seen a first! position in google for the words “passive income” and now (i got to page 6) i can’t even find this site for those words.
Don’t get me wrong here this is a great site with great content but i will not come back if it is not updated anymore. I would rather see duplicated content on this site than this.
Keep up the good work! (even if it is meant to be passive income)
Hi Brian;
Found your blog through another blog post and this article caught my eye as passive income is such buzz word.
You are right there are so many blogs out there with their main focus is making money and not necessarily providing quality content. Also like your site, nice and clean design and not full of advertisement that you usually see. Well done.
Blogging isn’t a passive form of income at all. If you stop posting regularly, then you will lose your subscribers and readers and your ad revenues will decrease over time to close to zero.
Creating a website and blog has helped my speaking career but I am reluctant to drift into the realm of full-time blogger. There are many advantages of bogging for writers and speakers (aside from the income) but it is true that blogs that post daily usually lack the consistant kind of quality that first attracted me to them. Great post!
So far blogging, to me, has been an item of personal achievement. I love the forum and ability to get my thoughts published at my whim. It’s also great to rally like-minded, talented people to your venture.
I’m definitely a fan of multiple streams of income, and blogging is certainly not the most passive or lucrative form. However, it’s fun if you write about what you love, and helps introduce you to some awesome folks all over the planet!
Then again, my site is fairly new and certainly not geared towards income generation. In fact, I’ve turned down several decent income offers, particularly from junk affiliates that would have degraded the integrity of my work. I guess what I really need is expert advice on how to increase blog income!
I’m always up for constructive feedback…
Your blog rocks! I am building a vending route, my wife does Avon, and we both are trying to create passive income……….I LOVE passive income!
Thanks for the insight on writing lasting content. As for me , I try to post daily as I want to track my personal growth and maturity in my writing. It all goes back to the purpose of the blog and the target audience. I got so much to learn from seasoned bloggers like yourself. Thanks
God, I wish I had written this post. It is the most honest, straight forward, meaningful post I have ever read about Blogging. It is truly a breath of fresh air – a rare Picaso!
Yes so true! Blogging is just only a medium in all facets of life. Through blogging we can express our ideas or opinions towards the matter. A lot of blogs are perusal on other people’s ideas, but sometimes you come across something new, interesting, brilliant and beautiful that this idea would never had seen the light of day if mainstream media was the only place you could publish your idea for the world to see.
I gained lots of personal development through blogging as well. I will bookmark this site for my future use. It is indeed very helpful to us.
Brian,
I am growing more and more to really love this blog. What you said about creativity being a driving force behind what you do is refreshing. I started to a website and more recently a blog about bulk vending. Vending is my passion, but I am also learning I love to write creatively to help others develop passive income.
I feel the same way that my writing should not HAVE to be every single day in a cookie-cutter approach. It should come out of creative purpose (genius!). Keep up the good work!
Mark
finally someone who shares the same perspective as me on this issue, I write only when I feel inspired to write something new, if a new idea comes to me or a topic that I am sure will definately help someone to get closer to their goal and live a better life. I find that is the only way I can enjoy the whole blogging thing otherwise it feels too much like work and if you take the joy and fun out of the process the content will be boring and uninspiring.