Blogs and websites that make money from content

3 MORE YEARS

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Dec 31, 2008
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This is a just a general question. I was wondering does anyone know of anyone personally, who actually makes a good living from a content driven website, where the bulk of the money is from advertising. We have all heard of the famous blogs etc making millions. I am not talking about millions, and the famous names like Huffington Post. I am talking about the more average, let's just call it making a very good salary or even at best making £100K a year from online content driven websites. Do you know someone personally, or are you that person?

I ask because I am curious, and I have very limited knowledge in this area, so someone could educate me. How hard is it nowadays to make a good content driven website, and make a "reasonably good" income from it. I am not taking about becoming a millionaire or something. Just curios.

Thoughts, views, opinions welcome. Especially from those that have tried it and have succeeded or had less success.
 

Kevin007

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Oct 30, 2012
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You can find a lot of bloggers online who have made it big when it comes to creating niche blogs and earning money from these blogs. I have been following a are lot of people myself who do say that it works but then it depends on your area of interest. For a blog to be noticed by your niche it does take a lot of time once noticed if the blog/website if uploaded with a regular schedule you can certainly make money out of it. But lets say you love finance and you are writing about medicine after investing some months time you wont be able to write on the same as you are not passionate enough about that field. Affiliate marketing sites clickbank and many others provide decent revenue share on the ads. A lot of options for monetizing a website are available online but you need to put a lot of effort in order to generate traffic and reach your niche or target market online.

Hope that helps :)
 
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a1exn1987

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Nov 18, 2013
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The Oatmeal springs to mind. It's a content driven site, mainly in the form of comics, that relies on advertising and also merchandise to make money. Don't take this as gospel but I think I read somewhere it makes about $500k a year.

It's worth mentioning that many blogs are an addition to another service provided, so if you're a restaurant you might blog about food ingredients used in your restaurant to help get people through the door. As a result that blog might make money, but not directly from advertising etc. That's arguably the best way to achieve a successful blog - when it augments your other services and enhances them.
 
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Andy Lux

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Dec 8, 2013
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Content blogs certainly do have the ability to generate a good income. It will depend on a number of factors, first is the niche, if it is something like medicine/finance/insurance related then it is likely to make a decent amount even from a relatively low number of visitors, the second is the amount of traffic the site receives. Even if it isn't a particularly high value niche, if there is a large funnel of new visitors this will always convert to a sustainable income providing the visitors is on-going and not a one off!
 
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3 MORE YEARS

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@doctorlife , I know about ehow.com and about.com , and I consider them in the same league as the big boys of content driven sites.

@a1exn1987 , "The Oatmeal" sounds like a good example that I am looking for. However, when I go to the site, I have hardly noticed very little advertising or it was very discreet. A spent a few minutes on the site, the comics look done really to a high standard, so it must take time, money and energy to maintain a site with regular comics to that standard. I am curious to know how they make their £500K.

I raised this question because, I am in my late thirties. I have or have had regular business/s that have made me OK money, nothing to shout about, but it was OK. I want to start taking it a bit easy, and wanted to turn something I enjoy into small income that could build over time. Web content driven sites was one of many things that I am looking into. I realised that it is really very competitive. However, I know if its is one of my hobbies, then it won't feel like work, and I will enjoy writing about it. But as you have guessed, my main issue is I have met or heard of very few people from the real world who have made or make "descent regular income" from a content driven site. I could be wrong, hence why I posted this. I kind of felt the only one that really wins is Google.

I am not so worried about search and rankings etc. I can deal with that in one way or another. I have managed to make sites rank before so hopefully should be able to do it again. However, it would be good to see some real life examples of sites that make some normal people a healthy income. I know most people probably don't want to say if they are making a good income from a content driven site from the fear of attracting competition. But, at the same time, I thought, people would know of people who have achieved it.
 
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Thom

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Sep 10, 2012
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Hi 3 More Years. I'd be interested to know this too. I've come across a few people who make a decent living from writing content, freelance, but never someone who has managed it from just one passive, content-driven site. In my own experience, making money from advertising/affiliates is tough, although to be honest I haven't put in much effort. So far, my (modest) success has been from a directory website but it makes nowhere near enough to live off.

Would be interesting to know what your previous businesses were?

Regards.
 
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3 MORE YEARS

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@Thom , my previous businesses were in IT repair services which are kind of still running but I am in the process of thinking of winding them down as they have recently been slumping because of my own fault, basically neglect. My hear has not been in it for a long time. I am just going through the motions. I didn't do anything clever. I have many sites e.g, iPad Repair, iPhone Repair, business maintenance contract etc which generated business enquiries. I have an office in Central London in the City where I have/had a small team servicing the needs of the customers. I am now in a position where I am at a point in my life where I need a change in direction, for various reasons. It's never as simple as one reason. I don't have visions of grandiosity. I didn't make tons of money. However, I did do OK, and I never lost money. It always made money (most of the time). So I have no regrets on that part. But there is a lot of headache to take on as it is a service industry.

People are not going to like me saying this. But I also hate paying so much tax to UK HMRC for very little back. But I don't want to start a political discussion here, so I will get back on subject.

I am in the process of launching a service business in social media, which top be honest I can't say too much about. However, I am extremely confident about it. I have never been so confident about something in a long time. It will operate across multiple countries with staff in multiple countries. However, I am one of those people who likes to look at best case and worst case scenario. So this social media business is something I am comfortable with. It's simple old fashioned business, customer pays for service, and customer get's service. However, I was also looking at other things, like content driven sites, just in case I fell flat on my face and things did not work out. I am 38, and I consider myself old. I know I am not supposed to, but I do. Content driven sites are a new territory for me, but they interest me a lot. I am really old fashioned in the way I do business, I have a strict no loans policy, my own cash. So I don't answer to anyone. So that means I have to make it work within the funds I have. I have thought about going to crowd funding with this new venture, but I am not so sure. Although I have desperately wanted business partners over the years (just for support less than the money), I have never met anyone that was driven enough or bought something to the table e.g. sales skills, accounting skills etc. I am the worst person for accounting. An area of weakness.

Back, to the point of this thread. So in short, content driven sites would be ideal for me. I love the idea, that I could sit somewhere with just my laptop and make living from it. I realise it's not as simple as that. That the content has to be good, it has to rank, there needs to regular traffic etc. But the thought of just me working by myself with a laptop not depending on others really appeals to me. So hence why I say, I don't need to make loads of money. Just enough for a salary of say £50K and I would be happy, as I have other incomes. How hard would that be I wonder, to make £50K after taxes etc year from a content driven site!

I have ideas for some sites where I know the traffic should be huge, which I am also passionate about. So it should be easy for me to write about. I saw the competition, and I kind of feel, over some time we could take a lot of traffic from the competition. So you could say, I am in the midst of deciding my future direction for the next few years.

I hope that answers your question, in a long winded way :)
 
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If you write content about certain sectors that pay well and have SEO know how (which most people don't and why 99% of people won't make any money from it) you can make a good income. But the trouble is, the best paying sectors are in the most competitve SEO sectors so most people don't make much money.
 
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3 MORE YEARS

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@ massey, I would say I have medium level knowledge (if that makes any sense), and I know enough to make it rank. The areas where I don't know something, I know the people I can contact to get things done.

I know that I need to make a change in my life. It's not just about money. It's funny how fear drives most people's decisions, including mine. Fear of the unknown. Fear of will it work or won't it. All that kind of stuff.

@ thom, would you mind sharing the domain of the directory that has allowed you to make some money, but not enough to earn a living. If you don't want to make it public, I will understand you can pm me. I would like to take a look at the domain/website and I would be interested to know the kind of money that you were making. Again you can PM me if you you do not want to make it public. As have an idea around that area. If I can do anything in return to help, I will try. I saw that you are a copywriter. I will also understand if you do not want to share that information at all.
 
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amitaharij

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Oct 1, 2013
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Yes, I’m making a healthy income from my website through advertising, and the site is only 20 months old. We don’t need to be a programmer, but we need a decent functional understanding of a variety of web technologies to achieve good income. Some of the examples:

blog comments, RSS/syndication, pings, search engine optimization, page rank, social bookmarking, affiliate programs, traffic statistics
 
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a1exn1987

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I realised that it is really very competitive. However, I know if its is one of my hobbies, then it won't feel like work, and I will enjoy writing about it.
That's a very valuable thing. Blogging, or successful web content in general, is basically about loving what you do and being consistent with it. Stick to that and you'll have a good chance, there's not point in forcing it with something you think will sell if you're not interested in it.

The Oatmeal makes a large amount of its money from merchandising. I did a little bit of research and found a resource that said that around 75% of The Oatmeal's money comes from merchandise. I can't post a link but it was on Incomediary.com

Still, that's a healthy amount of profit from advertising and other sources - $125k

In terms of practical advice I would say definitely use a blog on your own site and don't use Blogger etc. The basic premise here is that you will ultimately take more profit without being tied to Google - who would have ultimate control over your blog, although admittedly probably wouldn't do anything to it. You can still use AdSense on your own website blog, so stick with that.

Also, I'd say if you want to make a living from your blog you should eventually invite content from other people - this keeps you from getting bogged down with having to post blogs yourself all the time and makes you have a content curation element that is very valuable on a good platform.
 
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3 MORE YEARS

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@a1exn1987 , thank you. That is very helpful and good advice. In the beginning I plan to just two wordpress sites with regular good content. I am doing it things that I already love and enjoy and have done for years. I am not going to bother with advertising etc until a year or so later until I know I got regular good traffic.

Secondly, as I will have a "traditional" service business, I won't need to depend on it for the income for some time yet. So I am hoping, with good SEO, good content, over time, it can attract good traffic. I know it's easier said then done. Time will tell.
 
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I'd suggest a magazine/newsletter rather than a blog. Even if G penalises your blog with some future update, you still have the mailing list. If you do it right, and build a lot of trust, your subscribers will become your 'salesmen'. And you'd get better conversions due to the trust built. Yes, this could also happen with a blog, but people will tend to forget to visit, whereas a newsletter appearing in their inbox is no effort for them.

Advertising can be placed within the magazine/newsletter, and you'd also have the option of selling your own products or as an affiliate of others. Newsletters work well if you give a lot of good content relative to any offers.
 
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3 MORE YEARS

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@WeblinkPlus I agree with you. When I use the term Wordpress I don't often mean a blog. All my 10 plus sites are wordpress, but most of them are brochure site. So I was thinking of using wordpress as the technology. I would do it in a magazine style and completely agree about the subscribers point. However, I was thinking of the best platform to build this site, and wordpress came to mind, partly because it's what I am familiar with. However, unless someone tells me different.

The truth is, in the beginning my main objective is to create a friendly site, and get really good content on a daily basis, and get some good solid foundation SEO. I will worry about advertising etc later down the line. The only thing, that I will probably add is a subscribe button and that's about it.

You have got me thinking though. I wonder what the best platform for a magazine type of site is? Is it wordpress or something else like Joomla?
 
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We use wordpress for most things. Used to use joomla, but had various issues with sites being hacked. Joomla can sometimes be a bit of a pitta to upgrade (at least a couple of years ago - haven't looked at it since). I'd say stick with what you know unless it can't do what you want.

Also I was talking about sending emails to a list rather than a magazine type blog... (in case that wasn't clear:))
 
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T

That Bates Girl

The Oatmeal springs to mind. It's a content driven site, mainly in the form of comics, that relies on advertising and also merchandise to make money. Don't take this as gospel but I think I read somewhere it makes about $500k a year.

That figure is quoted in a profile of Mathew Inman (The Oatmeal) here.

The thing to remember about Mathew Inman is that he is really, really good at what he does - to the extent that people regularly rip-off his content for their own sites. He doesn't bring in $500k because he has a content driven site, he brings in $500k because he creates really funny, really sharable content, which he posts in his site. It's a subtle, but important distinction.

He's also pretty close to the y in a distribution with a really really long tail. There's a blog post here with people reporting how much they earn on their blogs - the most successful of who reports that they bring in $2,500 - $3,000 a month on 15-20 hours work per week. Which works out at about £20-£30 an hour. Not to be sniffed at, but well short of "a good salary".

In fact, in Technorati's recent Digital Influence Report, they discovered that...

"Nearly two-thirds of influencers say they make money from blogging, but more than 80 percent say it’s less than $10,000 per year. Only 11 percent of bloggers report making more than $30,000 per year."

The number making $100k+ (£60k in real money) was 4%

There's a lot of places online that say you can make money blogging - coincidentally, they also sell the very courses, products, coaching, widgets and whatever else you need to help you become a rockstar/problogger.

A blog/website is a brilliant way to get your content 'out there', but you have to start with the content first.

Lyds
 
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He's also pretty close to the y in a distribution with a really really long tail. There's a blog post here with people reporting how much they earn on their blogs - the most successful of who reports that they bring in $2,500 - $3,000 a month on 15-20 hours work per week. Which works out at about £20-£30 an hour. Not to be sniffed at, but well short of "a good salary".

Well i did 1 hour last month, maybe less, and made half of what he did so i guess i need to start putting more hours in LOL.
 
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Scott-Copywriter

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It's all down to the idea behind your website. It's a bit like trying to create a new invention to make you rich. You can put in all the effort and determination you want, but you need to stumble across that one great idea.

Making money from content and advertising is very much a quantity over quality game. The market is completely saturated with places to advertise your products or services to your target audience, so single visits, hits and clicks are usually worth fractions of a penny, meaning that you need tens or hundreds of thousands of unique visitors to make any decent money.

The best way to go about it is to create many small websites and accumulate your income that way. Establishing 10 sites all making £100 per month is much easier than 1 site making £1,000 per month. That way, you don't really need any of your websites to become big or famous, which is the most challenging task of all.
 
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10032012

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You need passion and the attitude of if you build it they will come - don't try too hard, keep doing what you are good at, like a hobby as such, network... (swap links with bloggers etc.) and take it from there.

There are lot of grade C websites (or as I call them) not exactly dodgy, but rather dodgy. Some pathetic, misguided articles, photo captions etc. just a website where someone spools out constant content of relatively poor quality but participates in sharing traffic with other similar websites - 'outbrain' etc. I believe as a paid example (the articles are adverts technically but to the user they see it as further blog posts).

You then keep doing content on "whats hot" - eventually Google will ban you or update its algorithm so you drop down in popularity, but nothing is forever... 18 months of this isn't bad, as long as you avoid black hat SEO and make sure you never host viruses or browser exploits etc you will probably be ok.

For example.... (title only, but you get the picture) "Xbox One sales beat PS4 by 3 to 1 in Italy", "iphone 6 prototype design leaked", "Google Glass alerts you of crime hotspots", "Facebook to acquire XYZ Inc", "Twitter to extend tweets to 290 characters", "Top 10 richest people in the world", "2013 must have Christmas presents and stocking fillers"

Most of the time you can get away with relaying the same pointless information... pick up on company press releases of significant companies and write an article about it, politics, celebs, rumours, fashion tips etc and add your opinion too encouraging people to comment and share via social media. You could even reblog several websites articles too in order to get them traffic.

The only reason I wouldn't do anything like that is people will always be passing through (social media, website links, google search, emails etc) and will never visit your website directly. But if its solely about money.... it might be an option. I think these type of websites are very saturated now so will be hard to stick out of the crowd.
 
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CPSMedia Carl

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Of course its possibe. in 2012 £5BN was spent on display advertising in the UK alone, thats people buying ad space on content sites

Back in 2011, before penguin/panda kicked in nearly half of my income came from Adsense from around 50 small niche sites, this dropped a little after the updates so I sold a lot of my sites and decided to concentrate on my more stabel income streams and the ones that I enjoy more (not a big writer).

Saying that there is definitely huge potential.

Get good at keyword research and also be sure to share your content and become an active member of the community in the niche you are targeting, think Social, forums, blogs etc also build an email list, this is effectivley a traffic source in itself, then every time you post new content you can email your list and bam instant traffic, make it easy for them to share your content then you will see more traffic from the inevitable social shares you get from your tribe.

Then once you have traffic you just need to monitise it effectivley, the way you do this largley depends on the content, Adsense for me personally has always delivered the best CPM's but with that said, there are many more options including your own products and affiliate products
 
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