Facebook Pixel
Join our Facebook Community

Do you have time to be a ProBlogger?

Posted By Darren Rowse 19th of October 2004 Business Blogging 0 Comments

I’m currently taking a bit of a working holiday in New Zealand and am spending a few days with two fellow bloggers to talk about the possibilities of working together as a blogging collective. One of the things I’ve found myself thinking on a number of occasions over the last few days is that it takes time to build a blogging business.

This morning I had an email from a reader of this site telling me that they want to earn money from blogging and they want to earn it fast.

In writing this blog I do not want to create any false impressions that blogs are a silver bullet – that all you have to do is start one, add some ads and then you’ll be set for life with a nice passive income.

The truth of the matter (in my experience) is this – if you want to make an honest and modest living from blogging that it is possible. In fact I believe it is possible to make a substantial living from blogging. However it takes a lot of work and it does not just happen over night. I started my first blog just under 2 years ago. Whilst I didn’t start blogging for dollars until around 1 year ago that first year was vital for the results I’m seeing today because it was a year of building my domain name’s ranking up. I’m just starting to see the fruit of all this hard work now – two years later.

Unless you have an absolutely brilliant concept or strike it incredibly lucky it will take you time to build your blogging up to a position where it earns you a decent income – even then you still need a bit of luck, many hours in front of the computer and a few intelligent strategies in place to make it worth your time. I spend at least 30 hours a week blogging – I treat it as a full time job – if I’m not willing to put substantial hours into it why would I expect it to reward me with a substantial figure?

Of course over the months my rate of return for the hours that I blog is on the increase but in the initial stages (as with any business) one has to be willing to put in the hard yards to get things going.

A recent study (see quote below) of business people found that 71% of marketers saw lack of time as a reason for not starting a business blog. I know business blogs are a different genre of blogging to the type of blogging that I do – however the principle still remains – if you don’t have time to blog you’ll never earn much from your blogging – and by time I mean time each day and week – but also time in the bigger picture of your life, if you’re not willing to work hard for a year or so with little return.

So some important questions to ask yourself when you start your problogging is ‘do I have time to dedicate to my blogging?’ ‘Do I have the patience and long term vision to pull it off?’

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. Good post. I know it’s old, but it’s the only one I found one ‘time management’. Maybe you should post some more about this?

    You’ve got like 19 blogs, so you probably have some really good time management going. I run a few blogs / websites, and I’m coming short for time. Any good tips / ideas? Mind you, I do have college to go to, so my time is limited (unfortunately).

  2. […] Do you have time to be a ProBlogger? […]

  3. Darren,

    Could you speak about your thoughts on the passive income nature of Blogging. I certainly don’t mind spending a few years building something up that could pay out for the next 20. Curious on your thoughts about a blog’s life-span. Truthfully I think a blog could out-live the blogger.

    – Bryan

  4. of course i have time to be a problogger.

    and it takes time and effort to be a problogger, just like you’re now darren..

A Practical Podcast… to Help You Build a Better Blog

The ProBlogger Podcast

A Practical Podcast…

Close
Open