Today a new ‘make money blogging fast‘ product is being launched into the blogosphere that promises those who buy it that they can make big money blogging – fast.
As this thing is launching and I’m already getting emails about it from readers asking if they should buy it – let me give you a few quick reactions to it and other products I’ve seen like it.
Do keep in mind, I’ve not bought the product so I’m making these calls based solely upon what I’ve seen in the sales material and what I’ve heard from charter members. Much of what I have written below applies to most of these kinds of products (and there are many).
Note: I’m not naming the product here (and I’m certainly not going to try to make a quick buck with an affiliate promotion), I just don’t feel good about promoting it in any way – for reasons that I guess will become clear below.
Make Fast Money Blogging?
Here’s the main thing – making money from blogging instantly… immediately… quickly… fast isn’t something I’ve seen too many people achieve (I’m actually yet to meet any). I have seen bloggers make A LOT of money blogging – millions of dollars in fact. It’s certainly possible to do – however in every case that I’ve seen the blogger has worked their butts off blogging for a long time, building their authority, credibility and by writing content that is original and useful – well before their blog started making money.
If you think you can flick a switch or change to a new system and instantly make a lot of money fast – you’re in for a fall. Don’t fall for that line – to make money in this game you’re going to have to work really hard and have a long term view of things.
Lots of Blogs Each Earning Little Bits of Money
OK – the methodology of this program is that you need to start a blog network – multiple blogs that each earn a relatively small amount of money, that mounts up to be a significant amount.
Sounds like a reasonable way to approach things and there is actually some truth to the methodology. I know a number of bloggers who have made some money this way, a few that even make a full time living from it.
I’m not going to knock people for taking on this model – it can work and I guess people do need to make a living. I even did it for a little while myself. However keep in mind that there is a cost of this method – something that I learned for myself the hard way.
The problem with maintaining lots of blogs is that while they each might make a little money that adds up to a reasonable amount – you end up with lots of blogs that don’t really amount to anything in and of themselves on any other level than that they earn a little money.
Perhaps that’s all your dream is (to make a little money from lots of blogs that no one has ever heard of) but what I love about blogs is the way that they open up other opportunities for a blogger. A blog can build your brand and profile to the point that it opens up doors for new jobs, partnerships, book deals, speaking engagements, friendships, business ideas…. etc. The problem is that most bloggers who have experienced these opportunities have worked hard to build a small number of blogs (usually a single one) which they’ve worked hard at – rather than spreading themselves thinly across multiple blogs.
My experience of a small network of blogs was that it while I was able to sustain 10-20 blogs (20-30 posts a day) that the quality of what I was producing was pretty low. I did get a little traffic to each from Google – but never really generated any regular readers, never had anyone comment, never had any opportunities open up as a result of those blogs.
It was only when I switched to having 1-2 blogs with quality, useful and original content that things opened up. As a result I slowly started to make real money blogging and more importantly started to see opportunities to leverage the profile of my blogs to bigger and better opportunities.
Using Other People’s Content
One of the main methods taught by many make money blogging products is to use other people’s content on your blog for the bulk of your posts. This one teaches that you should use other people’s content for the bulk of your posts and throw in some original stuff from time to time. They even give you tools to find and import other people’s content quickly (remember you need lots of blogs to make this work – so you need to do it quickly).
Again – this is something I dabbled in for a while. I did it all manually and tried to use the content in a way that added value rather than just copying and pasting in content (I also did it with the blessing of those whose content I aggregated and always acknowledge sources) – but in the end I dropped it as a method for a couple of reasons.
Firstly it was the most boring thing I had ever done (and I’ve worked on conveyor belts on production lines for 12 hour shifts – so I know boring). Blogging can be an amazingly uplifting experience – but copying and pasting in content is not fun.
Secondly it’s only marginally useful – there are ways of aggregating content from other sites that can be useful, but it always takes work and extra effort for this to happen. The method demonstrated in the product I’m referring to just mashes up a load of content from other sites in a way that doesn’t really help anyone. As a result a blog that does this as the bulk of its content isn’t really useful to anyone, except the blogger making a few dollars from it. The demonstrator describes the post as quality content – it’s not really. It’s on topic, it might do ok in Google, but it doesn’t really help anyone.
Thirdly – you end up a blog that isn’t really unique or original. This comes back to my points above about creating blogs that actually help build a brand or profile for you. If all you do with the bulk of your content is rehash and mashup other people’s content you’ll never get a name for being anything much more than someone who reads, quotes and links to other people’s content. Perhaps I’m crazy – but I’d rather be known for someone who has original, interesting and useful ideas than someone who whips up mashups of other people’s stuff all day every day. But maybe that’s just me?
Fourthly – while search engines unfortunately do rank this kind of content, I’m finding that they’re getting better and better at identifying truly useful content and junky content like this that is created purely to get search traffic. Sites like this can and do rank well but often they fall out of the rankings and in the long term don’t tend to rank well.
Note: at least the teaching offered in today’s course acknowledges sources of content with links and only uses short quotes from those sources – I don’t think it’s anywhere near as bad as some tools that scrape content, strip links and acknowledgements and automatically produce very spammy content.
Final Thoughts
In the end people will believe that they can make fast money blogging if they want to. Some people just want to believe the dream and nothing I can say will convince them. They’ll happily pay their $67 a month, create a few of these ‘blogs’ and a few months later realise that this isn’t a ‘fast’ or particularly ‘easy’ game.
If you’re tempted then please just pause for a moment and think about your objectives for blogging. If you’re looking to purely make money and you don’t want any real personal satisfaction or have any goals of building a brand or profile – then this type of model may actually work for you.
But if your dream is to build something that grows your profile as someone with authority in your niche, or to land a job or book deal, or to get invited to speak at an industry event, or to be quoted in mainstream media about your topic, or it’s just to build a blog that has loyal readers who keep coming back because you’re helping them…. then perhaps this isn’t the type of blogging model for you.
Your Thoughts?
PS: Interestingly the sales page of this new product highlights some successful blogs that make a lot of money blogging. They include Dooce and Mashable. I would argue that these blogs pretty much prove my point. They’re all about original and useful content. They are not about creating lots of blogs that each a little money – they’re about putting in a lot of work to produce useful and original content over a long period of time and don’t resemble anything I’ve seen about the actual product being promoted on the page.
These make money fast programs are aimed to trick newbies and nothing else. Anyone in their right mind knows you can’t get something for nothing ie. heaps of cash without putting in hard work.
Well done on highlighting this issue Darren. It’s honest and thorough.
It certainly seems like the majority of blogs these days focus on making money. As I can’t pool the collective brainpower any other way, i’ll ask here; don’t these people think they’d get more traffic, and more interested traffic if these folks blogged about what they know, and what truly interests them!?
I’d rather take what money I can take through blogging real content on topics i’m interested in. Readers seem happier that way.
-MP
What else I could add? Well, i guess I have none. I’m not a professional writer but I always want to make original contents (not copied and pasted from somewhere else). I find myself happy and contented. AT one time, at my old blogs, I tried copy-paste method too but I always end up having a guilty feeling. It’s like I’m stealing some ingredients from other chefs to make my own meal.
Some other wise commenter here said it best: There are no shortcuts to success! I’ll admit, when I first read about these kinds of blogs as I was just getting my own blog off the ground, I thought, “Hmmm, should I just try it? To see if I can create an income stream while I work on my real passion — writing about food and wine?” And I decided not to, because it would take my focus off of building my own brand/blog/authority,etc, in my own niche. And no matter how long that takes, it will make me feel much better to build something of lasting value to myself and my readers (hopefully)!
Well, I’m with you on this one. It’s a no brainer really. What’s really sad is that because theses types of scam are run again and again obviously some people do fall for them.
Good on you for exposing it in the nicest possible way.
One of the Reasons to Stay away from products That Offer quick ROI using a lazy approach. No Matter How many times this is said a lot of people still fall for it as Annabel rightly said. Most times Newbies are the ones who fall for it.
People need to understand that there is no shortcut to success and there will never be one. It Takes Focus and Determination to Be Successful in Blogging.
-Emmanuel.
Information that is interesting information that readers benefit from it.
Hopefully the information you become one.
It takes time to make money from blog.But those products which tell people that they can make quick money always sell well.Because we all want make money easily.If you tell the people that it takes time to see the results they will not buy your products,even if it is the truth.Most people are always looking for the products which can teach them how to make money quickly.
I pretty much agree with you Darren. I’ve been wondering if this type of blog can make money or even get ranked in the search engines quickly and I believe they can if you know what you’re doing.
But all the points you made above have made me cautious about creating one of these blogs.
I love and I know that the search engines like original and helpful content. Even though, I believe I’m going to make a current events blog adding great posts and articles from other sites and blogs to see what happens….
But of course I’m going to be using some new tools I’ve discovered like the “Zemanta plugin and utility poster”…
I love this post, most of people think that blogging is the fast way to make money, but actually blogging is same with other business, it needs hard working and time. Couple months ago I also made some tiny blogs to get money, until I felt exhausted and the worse was I didn’t get any money lol. Now I decide to focus only for two blogs so I hope I can give the best effort that I can do. And about using people’s content, I don’t get any satisfaction from that, so I don’t do it.
Sure, we can make money in short time by use this kind way but it is will be in doom in long term.
I really agree with you, Making money through blogging is not an easy job and it is not as quick as it is promised, so these paid offers of selling money are just scam and have nothing to do.
As it is evident, quantity and quality do not always go hand in hand. How much can one write with the original essence in it. People start looking for ideas and ‘inspirations’ after some time and this is what could be called copying in some way.
There is a lot to be achieved when one works in a team. A single person is a single person after all. Get someone to write your blog articles,get a person to work on SEO of your blog and keep people informed i.e. advertise yourself.
Blogging, though a promising activity has not yet reached its firm reach in most places and that makes people ‘want’ to have it and share it among friends. This is a positive thing associated in Blogging.
Have as many variety as possible and keep it attractive.
That’s why you Darren and this blog are untouchable. The best by a country mile.
As a blogger I almost try all thing about MAKE MONEY BLOGGING, but I do not think that there is some such option that you can make quick money.
I would have to agree on this one with you Darren. I have been promoting various different affiliate products online, but i don’t recommend going this route either.
Making money fast by blogging just doesn’t happen overnight unfortunately for most…lol. Blogging is a long term commitment for those of us that want to actually want to make the money that we so desire.
I will admit i tried this same method with a huge network of blogs, and the results yielded a whole lot of time spent and very little return on investment.
Great post Darren you hit the nail right on the head!
Have a blessed day
-Todd
Thanks for this new Money Making method for bloggers. We will try all the steps mentioned here.
I use my blog and website to build my authority. I can’t build my authority on borrowed content. I don’t care if the blog makes money or not; I’m interested in generating speaking fees and appraisal work. After just a dozen posts, one of my articles was picked up by a major regional print magazine (trade publication). That’s exactly what I want, and it never would have happened unless the content was mine.
This is a bit of a sore point with me, actually. I’ve found a few sites have used some of my articles from my blog in this way. It really upset me, because I felt it cheapened my writing and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. But, thanks to this article, I at least know why it was being done, LOL!
I think also, by doing this article you’ve highlighted once again what it takes to be a great blogger: an individual, original person who is prepared to put the work in and pour their heart into it too.
This is PERFECT. We’ve been having a huge cross-blog discussion lately about the Passion Paradox (how pursuing our passion, for profit, is making us miserable).
I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to link to this post as your “expert” advice on the subject.
Thanks!
I’ve actually just finished writing a blog post about a very similar topic.
It’s very saddening to see the amount of people that are suckered into these kinds of products. I will always stand behind the concepts of hard work, integrity and persistance when attempting to make any sort of profit from any sort of project.
Anything remotely hinting of a get rich quick scheme is an immediate turn off for me.
We are each entitled to our own opinion, but I for one think that people should be blogging because they have a passion for something. Like you said, there is something more attractive about building 1-2 blogs with authority over time than lots of blogs solely for monetary purposes. It should be something where the prospect of NOT making money for a while does not deter you in the slightest.
As for “get-rich quick” schemes, I think it takes a lifetime of experiences to get rich. “Outliers,” anyone?
You have to first BE a wealthy person (someone who is valuable to others, someone who can manage money, someone with integrity and values) in order to attain wealth.
Look at all the people who fritter away their lottery earnings, for example.
And as far as blogging goes, I agree wholeheartedly, you have to develop your brand. Successful people brand themselves. They are self-promoters. They ask people to buy their stuff.
Scraping other people’s content is a short-term view. It may work, for a little while.
Building a brand is long-term thinking. It’s all about solving other people’s problems through what you have to offer.
A couple quick thoughts on this.
First, well put together post! It was clear, concise, and really made your point without going over the top or sounding like you were attacking. I wish I could be half as diplomatic in my writing :)
Much like the Internet marketing craze, the blogging craze has the same people wanting to make the same money. What anyone remotely successful in either/both niches will tell you (and I think you’ll agree based on where your income is mostly generated) – is the key isn’t to blog about blogging. Sure, it’s about building a community, but not a POOR community. (Hopeful Probloggers are rich in ideas and great to have a conversation with…but generally not the disposable income type. There are exceptions, but not enough to run a real, sustainable business on.)
At least if you create 50 sites you have a chance of targeting demographics outside of your own watering hole. Maybe you strike niche gold and find some people that haven’t been addressed yet and then you have a moment of epiphany and focus on them. (Best case scenario, probably.)
Maybe I see it a little differently because I sell products and those same products can be sold to different types of people but the whole site has to be targeted differently, as will the blog content. So I *need* multiple sites in order to create niche communities.
In that sense, I’m not trying to be a problogger – I use my knowledge about blogging and Internet marketing to DO SOMETHING ELSE. I use them as tools, not as something to resell to someone who knows less than I do. But that doesn’t require an e-book, just three words in all caps – and still most people don’t (and won’t ever) get it.
With a crash course like the one you are reviewing (I’m not on any lists anymore so have no clue what the product is) at least it forces people to dive in and DO something – even if it’s learning what not to do – because that knowledge can easily be worth $69/mo. in the long run.
But until people get the concept that marketing to marketers is not good, and blogging for bloggers is not good (present company totally excluded, of course!) then maybe more people will see the financial freedom light at the end of the tunnel.
Last but not least – blogging is not a passion for me. It’s a job. Things that make money are jobs that require work. I would blog about deep-sea diving every day of the week if it was a profitable niche. I would become an expert and learn to love it. I’m okay working 8 hours a day, paying my bills, and then relaxing on the weekends. When your work is your passion you’re going to do it 24/7 and then get burned out. What fun is that? I guess I feel that passion and caring and love in a blog are just red herrings to the goal, which is having a career you love and bills that are paid and a savings account making you feel secure and allowing you to take risks.
Of course, brand building is important, but I’ve seen too many people rant and rave on Facebook and other sites and then think that won’t affect the brand. If you’re committing to having a brand online, you have to keep up that facade EVERYWHERE. Authenticity is all fine and good until you are depressed – then you better learn to shut the hell up or people aren’t going to buy anything from you cause you’re coming across as a loser.
Sorry – done rambling. Thanks again, love your blog (and fond of you as well LOL) hope you have an awesome holiday!
I can only laugh at those that pay money when most of everything they teach is found easily enough elsewhere.
There are very few secrets out there, and surely some dude marketing under a banner like that doesn’t hold the secrets.
As for mash up site, there is plenty of value to using other peoples content when it’s organized in a certain way to make the bulk of the information more readily available, searchable and meaningful.
The thing about blogs is that you can start one, get it going, then walk away from it. It doesn’t need to be a living, breathing day to day type thing. Once you get enough content in one, walk away, start another, rinse repeat.
That’s all there is to it, and each one can create enough value to impress even you Darren. So why wouldn’t you just create 100 of these? If each made $10 a day, I’d say it’s very well worth the effort.
I won’t ever pay for someones make money program since it usually turns out to make the author money, not the customers.
This is an eye opener to focus my effort to blogs that are manageable to maintain. Though I like to get trainings of this kind, I have no money to pay on this for now.
Thanks for this post, I have gotten lots of these offers as well recently. I guess it is the time of year for everyone trying to pad their collectives for next year.
For me these just feel weird. Not because of the work, but because they just don’t seem like the real deal. So I follow my gut feeling and try and determine if that route will make me happier…forget about richer…
Chris
Thanks for the honesty of this post Darren,
Hard work isn’t that appealing to people looking for a fast and easy way out of their money problems.In my experience as a business mentor and advisor I have found that everyone who has made consistently good money from any type of business always has worked hard.
The appeal of the silver bullet that quickly solves your money problems has suckered so many people in it is amazing. I’m aware of spruikers who sold educational products from the stage and one of them put blank CD’s in the material they were selling. ONLY 3% of people who bought came back to have their CD’s replaced with authentic ones which means 97% of people who bought never even opened their product. It goes to proving that people who want to take money off other people know that if they have a promise big enough there will be people who will take it up.
Like the old saying
A fool and his money are easily parted
Darren,
You continue to produce valuable insight with just the right amount of modesty!
I’ve dropped out of nearly all of the other blog-guru’s subscriptions because they have become patently self-promoting and take advantage of my “hospitality.”
Your messages match your style; and I welcome every one of your posts. And, I’ve passed them on to other aspiring bloggers because I’m comfortable recommending they pay heed to what you have to say. And they have subscribed. I guess that’s the idea, isn’t it. :-)
Anyway, keep up the good work. I’ve saved each of your posts and, when I’m ready to settle down to the full-time job it requires to make six figures, the first thing I’ll do is trot them out, review them, and implement them.
ET
I thought Google killed off the paid post by taking page ranks to zero for sites with paid posts.
I like private label rights as a source of ideals for articles but I always completely rewrite the material.
Bravo. Thanks for saying this.
Thanks for everyone’s feedback – overwhelmed by your thoughts. Here’s a few quick responses to a few of you!
Andy Beard – I see your point but the reality was that it wasn’t just about me liking the work, I ended up feeling that I wasn’t really doing anything valuable for my readers. It went beyond liking it and was more about feeling as though I was just creating clutter on the web. Philosophically I just couldn’t keep doing that.
Graham Jones – I’m sure some do make money fast from blogging, for a period but in most cases loopholes in Google close or systems being used stop being effective – for me its about building a long term effective business/brand rather than just after a few quick dollars by making some money by manipulating Google. But that’s just me I guess :-)
Sarge – their approach is to take a quote (paragraph or two) from others, link to the full article, then do the same for 3-4 other blogs all in the same post. They slap a sentence or two introduction onto it and that’s their ‘useful post’.
Thanks for the reply, Darren. Always good to see you around in the comments section :-)
I hope that the sites that do that sort of thing make it VERY CLEAR that’s what they’re doing – quoting from other websites.
It would appear those sort of sites are looking for a quick buck and I can’t imagine the people that visit there are after anything more than a quick buy – unless people are just happy giving their money away to a site (it’s not even a person, as they’re re-using content from many others) And the conversion-rate of which the ‘quick buy’ would generate you would think is pretty low.
Sarge | BeginnerBlogger.com
Damn good post. I dug it the most! Many thanks, Darren. P. :)
Darren,
For me the key point is not the strategy but the motivation to create a blog. The motivation could be just to make money. Then the blogger will end up providing a very low value to the blog because he is focused in the strategies for making money. The other reason is because the blogger is passionate about “something”. Then the blogger can follow advices from blogs like yours and become better in creating a unique blog that provides value and eventually, he/she will make money…
You are absolutely right, those who say can teach other to earn fast money is probably scam.
If one can earn quick money, the world will be full of rich people.
Thanks for the post.
Hey Darren, I know my last post said that I wouldn’t be leaving a comment on a Problogger’s blog anymore, but you see I have this policy where I have committed myself to reciprocating when a comment is left on my blog and so here I am ;)
I’ve gotten a lot of these emails before and when receiving said emails I apply the ‘does it sound too good to be true’ rule, because if it does then it’s best to be on your guard. Almost anything that promises easy money with little or no input would fall into that category.
Most of the time you see these standing in front of a Ferrari or a mansion leading one to assume their method paid for all these luxuries. It probably did, but that doesn’t mean their method works, only that a lot of people got sucked in.
Once again, thanks for weighing in on the discussion. I know I appreciated it and I am sure all my readers do as well.
The fast money blogging pitches always ring as snake oil to me, but I appreciate hearing your take on them. What I am even more thankful for is your talking about blogging for a goal other than money: “But if your dream is to build something that grows your profile as someone with authority in your niche, or to land a job or book deal, or to get invited to speak at an industry event, or to be quoted in mainstream media about your topic, or it’s just to build a blog that has loyal readers who keep coming back because you’re helping them….” Great list! Thank you.
Just my opinion, make money blogging fast is just a popular words like “make money online”. I think you should think twice before buying the product.
I really have nothing original to add to this conversation. Much of what has been said is completely true. There are predators out there to take your money if you’re willing to open it up. They’ll lie, cheat and steal to make this happen.
The other day I was looking for a legitimate affiliate marketing tracking program. I spent 3 hours sifting through blogs about these get rich quick schemes. I even got on Technorati and found the top blogs for certain keywords, and they were all ridiculous. The sad thing is that even with all the web experience I have, some were very convincing.
I ended up driving down to a few keywords that worked, and I found some options, but it really opened my eyes as to how horrible this stuff really is.
It inspired me more than ever to follow blogs like this, be honest with my content and followers, and offer my relevant knowledge to all that will listen.
Your spot on Darren!… Great post…
There are no such products as how to build fast money blogs. It’s all about time and effort. I would say you can build a faster list of people on Facebook as a contact source than any other platform.
Interviews, great photographs, videos and articles get the return visitors not copy and paste!…
Cheers
David
Hi Darren,
Thanks for another great post.
Agree. There are lots of things to learn if you really want to earn some bucks from blogging. There is no shortcut, work hard is a must.
This is again one of the great article i’ve read.
I must agree. Making money online especially thru blogs takes a lot of time, perseverance and patience as well. And the most important one is never to give up on your goal. Success and luck will just follow if you have these kind of traits in your online business.
I have only two blogs, and I have a hard time maintaining them. I can’t imagine having 20 to 30 blogs.
The word “fast” is to mislead those new blogger who do not know that search engine spiders need time to crawl the blogs, and then to display the content in search engine result page.
They may not aware that link building takes time too.
These make money fast programs are aimed to trick newbies and nothing else. Anyone in their right mind knows you can’t get something for nothing ie. heaps of cash without putting in hard work.
Best Regards, Joe.
Outstanding! I’m doing a podcast on this same topic. What I see is that most of the money being made- is in selling the “method” rather than actual product sales.
I also started a few of these blogs but soon found it to be unproductive. These spam and scam tactics are also part of the reason for the new FTC rules.
I guess you have to decide to be a blogger- or an internet marketer. Two different things indeed. As a political blogger for 6 years, I have a hard time pilfering outher peoples content. I guess i was not raised that way. Bloggers have more cyber smarts and respect!
Darren,
Thank you for sharing this. I feel it makes a mockery of the blogging principles I’ve read from the successful bloggers.
Regards
Paul
Greetings,
Before I comment on this post, I wanted to say how much I enjoy your blog!
It is a great “model” for those who want to utilize blogging effectively. Everything about your blog looks and feels original. That is refreshing and keeps me coming back. Bravo!
I have been reading your content for awhile now and was never moved to comment until today.
What you say about single vs. multiple blogs is dead on. At least for those who want their blog to be a place that allows people to get to know YOU (what you do, how you think, recommendations you make, etc.)
I just wanted to say “THANKS” for posting this. It is a valuable concept.
Your work in presenting this blog is appreciated!
Positively,
Craig Worrell
I totally agree with your opinions and conclusions. I am a new blogger and will need to support myself and my husband by bringing in some money beyond Social Security. I want to be seen as an expert on my topic. Writing worthwhile content is time-consuming for me. I am a perfectionist, my site is my persona, and there is no place for giving short shrift to a worthwhile topic. More than anything, the niche I’m aiming for deserves helpful topics and I hope to be providing them. The reward will be some bucks coming in and the knowledge that I made a difference in somebody’s life.