7 Heartfelt Lessons I Learned in 7 Years of Blogging for Money

1. Very few people would pay you to blog about what you really want to blog about. 


Way back when blogging was considered a new phenomenon, a lot of people had the inaccurate perception that regularly writing little tidbits about their personal lives would somehow make them instant millionaires. I've learned that it's not true and it took me 7 years of blogging to figure it out. And no, I'm not yet a millionaire.

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2. The web is mostly impersonal

My top posts are still those that have no relation whatsoever to my personal thoughts, feelings or opinions. They're the boring stuff that people need or want to know about - like how to use the terminal to chat or play an MP3. I've written some of these 4 years ago and they're still the most read posts.

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3. Passion is overrated. 

Almost all of my top posts took me more than one day to write. Details, research and data that can be corroborated and verified are the true kings of content.



4. Honesty is just the second best policy
Authenticity, honesty and candor are very important. However, tact, politeness and empathy are equally as important, if not more important.

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5. Short term is short term
Promotions and gimmicks only tap the short term patronage and attention of people. More often than not, they are only there for the attraction of the prize. People will remember you for something else - how you touched their lives and how you made them feel.

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6. More readers doesn't always mean more income.

How often do you see new bloggers, urging total strangers in some random forum, board, comment section or even other blogs to look at their blog? Give reader's the value first and they will read more. Make them laugh often and they'll be your friend. It doesn't matter if you have 60,000 readers in one day or 100. What matters is how something you wrote on your blog post changed somebody else's life.


7. The golden rule of blogging

Yes, there are rules to blogging and writing on the web, but you don't always have to follow them. Silly writers like to make up these rules, but for every blogger, there's a different set of circumstances, goals, agendas and reasons. Follow your heart but write with the intention to address somebody's needs or wants - then back it up with solid data presented in an amusing way.
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