Earning a Six Figure Income from Blogging?

There has been quite a bit of flow on interest from the Interview that I did a few days back with Susannah Gardner. Interestingly, despite the fact that I wrote thousands of words of wisdom (I like to think so) it was a line buried way down at the bottom of the first part of the interview that seems to have gotten everyone talking and emailing me. In response to the question of ‘how much do you earn’ I wrote:

‘This is the big question, isn’t it? Some of the systems I use don’t allow disclosure of actual figures so I won’t break it down or give specifics. It is actually difficult to put a figure on it because each month is different and overall my earnings are still on the rise from month to month. However based on how things are currently going I expect that this year my blogging (across all blogs and income streams) will generate a six figure income ($US).‘

To be honest I grappled with whether to include that detail in this interview. As I’ve said here before, I was brought up not to discuss money and to do so to me feels a little awkward – but i did it for a couple of reasons:

1. It is the question i get asked more than any other question. People are fascinated with a blogger earning money from their blogging. I thought I’d answer it once and for all so we could get past it and start talking about more important things.

2. I partly did it because people constantly write off the idea of Pro Blogging to me.They see what I and a growing list of other Pro Bloggers as a hobby and write it off as just a stage we’re going through. I want to legitimate what we do and show it is a significant earner and something worth putting some serious time into. Pro Blogging is here to stay.

3. I wanted to encourage my fellow Professional Bloggers(and those aspiring to be them) with a figure that would give them a bit of hope. If I can earn that kind of money then I know others can (and already are). Yes I’m working very hard on this (and have done so for a couple of years) but I’m just an ordinary guy following some hunches and dreams.

A couple of people have told me I shouldn’t have revealed how much I earn because it breaks confidentiality clauses with the ad programs that I use. Thanks for your concern but please don’t worry. In saying I earn a six figure income (in excess of $100,000 $US) I have not said how much over and I have made it clear that the figure is calculated on a number of income sources including private advertising deals, affiliate programs, impression based ad programs, Adsense, BlogAds, text ads and blog consulting revenues etc.

Lastly I’ve had a number of people write to me in the last 24 hours via email and I’m quite amazed by the diversity of responses that I’ve had. They range from utter rage and anger that I earn money from blogging through to people asking for lessons and consulting.

To those that are angry – I am sorry that you are offended by me earning money from blogging. A guy has to support his family somehow and I figure it might as well be by helping people on the net by providing them with the information that they are searching for.

To those that want help to do what I do– sure thing – I’d love to help. I’d suggest the first port of call is to take a few hours to wander through the archives of this site. Virtually everything I’ve learnt is here for free. Yes I am open to doing some consulting work to help people but I’d recommend you start with the free stuff that I offer here on this blog. If after you’ve had a read you would still like to engage me for some coaching or consultation I’d be more than happy to do that. I do charge for this service.

update: Since writing this post I’ve had many requests for help from people wanting to know more about how to blog for money. The requests are so many that I’m unable to respond to all individually or to give everyone the attention that they want. As a result I suggest two things for those wanting to know how to make money blogging.

Firstly I encourage you to read the archives of this blog. Everything I know about blogging professionally is on this blog. There are thousands of posts on the topic and I encourage you to put some time aside one day to have a read.

Secondly if you don’t have the time or patience to wade through my archives (there are a lot) I’ve developed a course in conjunction with Andy Wibbels to introduce people to the ways to make money from blogging. The course was inspired by this post and is called Six Figure Blogging. The course is made up of six one hour recordings of Andy and myself looking at different aspects of making money from blogs and includes over 200 pages of transcripts from the recordings. The course is not free but we believe it contains information that has the potential to earn bloggers money from blogging through hard work, putting in time and following some of the ideas we include in the course.

I hope that between the course and my archives you find the information you’re looking for on making money from blogging.