Confessions of a Six Figure Professional Blogger

This is Why Most Bloggers Don’t Make Progress

View Comments | Posted In Blogging by David

This is a guest post by Melvin Dichoso from MelvinBlog.com

As you are reading this, you are probably aware by now that 90% of bloggers don’t really succeed and make money while only like 10% of them are the ones that do very well with their blog. Making money online through blogging is really cool, and there’s no doubt about it. That’s perhaps the reason why with all the other millions of ways to make money online, most of us choose blogging.

Unfortunately, success cannot take all of us. It can only take very few people and these are people who are dedicated and are doing things correctly. That being said, we can therefore assume that most bloggers are doing it incorrectly. I have been a good observer and these are some of the things I found out why they most bloggers don’t make progress:

  • Blog Commenting is their no.1 marketing tactic – Don’t get me wrong, I comment too on blogs but not too many of them. I just think the days where you can leave a comment on one blog and then get 50 hits because of that is long over. People who mostly do commenting are mad people who try to leave as much comments as possible. With that being said, they don’t really care about your comments. Commenting is good, but to make it your main promotion tactic is just absurd.
  • Looking at the stats everyday – Again, analyzing your stats from Analytics is crucial part on making necessary changes for the benefit of the blog and there’s nothing wrong in it. It only becomes wrong when you do it every day. Studying your own stats is good but when it’s hurting your productivity then it’s not worth doing it any more. Don’t look at your stats every day. You can do it weekly, every 2 weeks or even every month.
  • No Goal, No Idea where they are heading – Goal setting is very important in succeeding in every business. When you ask most bloggers what their goals are they usually respond and say “to make more money online”. Proper goal? No! Things that are so generic like “become a popular blogger” or “get rich” can make you fail. Make sure you target REALISTIC goals and list tasks on how you can attain them. For example, this year one of my goals is to reach the 1,000 RSS mark and one of the tasks that I need to do to attain them is by guest posting. Realistic? You judge.
  • Wrong Mentality and Not Understanding the game well – It’s kind of funny but most bloggers follow this process. Write, promote, write some more, write even more, hope to get more traffic, still continue writing, and then get more Adsense clicks/advertising income. To be honest, it took me some time to get that this process is stupid. If you’re still following that old process then I’m afraid you’re wasting a lot of your precious time in it.
  • They are impatient – Blogging, for me is the hardest way to make money online. Why? Because you have to put a lot of work at the start! I mean I can take the PPC Affiliate marketing route and make money immediately (or lose some immediately), I can take clients and use my graphic skills and make money too w/o risking anything. As you can see blogging is really a long term work. Look at the top bloggers, it took them almost a year before they started really getting it going. I even love to say we’re very lucky by now because things are not that hard as it used to be. If you’re seeing blogging as a get-rich quick business them I’m afraid you’re not gonna last in this market for long.

With all those other millions of people trying to succeed in blogging, it’s definitely a jungle out there. But I don’t really believe there’s a tight competition because I know what I’m doing is something that can set me apart from the others. How about you? Are you in the same boat with bloggers that are doing the wrong things? What do you think?

This article is written by Melvin. Melvin is a young entrepreneur and blogger who blogs @ MelvinBlog.comMelvin is a young blogger and internet marketer who is in this space since 2007. He writes @ MelvinBlog.com where he shares all his useful stuffs. He has recently done an eBook entitled Blog Marketing for Fame which has received a lot of positive responses. The eBook is free for newsletter subscribers so subscribe now!

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  • Hiro
    You mention that they don't know how to play the game well, but you did not offer a solution or explain the way you think the game should be played.
  • "Wrong Mentality and Not Understanding the game well" I agree that most beginner blogger make this mistake and follow the old process that you see stupid.

    But you didn't tell us how to play the game well, how to get out of the circle race " writing , promoting and writing again"

    OK. We should avoid doing these mistakes but what we should do to make the progress we want to make money at the end.

    Thank you.
  • After reading this topic i get to know why i was unsuccessful in my blog, i realize after reading that article that i dont hav any goal regarding my blog in my mind. but now these tips definately will help me. thanks for this post
  • i love commenting people blog, not for gaining traffic back or marketing stuff.. it just something that i love to do..

    if i want to use my blog to make money, i guess i need to do a lot of change.
  • Informative guest post. The point that stuck out the most for me was Wrong Mentality and not understanding the Process. I think that is why you need patience. It takes time not only to build the traffic but to find your voice, build your confidence, not follow every new idea that comes your way and to weed out those that may not give the best information.
    Once you have found your "comfort" zone then you can build your relationships, build a following, find just the write platform and "look" along with functionality you will need
    then "grand open" the business.
  • Hi Dave, thanks for getting this post featured here. :D Anyways there's a broken link in the author's bio. Please just unlink MelvinBlog.com in the first sentence.

    Thanks
  • Great point on the last one...blogging has, by far, the worst ROI in the short-term. Things change in the long run, but it requires a lot of patience and a clear direction in order to succeed online, no matter how you slice it.

    Commenting doesn't work as well as it used to...there's just too much. The only thing that works, guaranteed...is to be damn good.
  • not really worst ROI. its a matter of reaping the benefits after some heavy lifting work. I always think we're even lucky now that its not that hard to make money as oppose to before. Just look at some pioneers of blogging. they've done it first for a year before making some revenue
  • You bring up some good points. I blog because I enjoy writing. If I make some money from it great. I blogged for years though before I even added Google ads to my blog.
  • You make a valid point here. The biggest thing I feel that sets apart those who will succeed later on down the road from the bloggers out there who will just quit is a plan and a goal. As you said, if your only plan is to make money and you have no strategy for doing something about getting to the point where you might just make any money at all, what are you really going for?

    Great article, seriously.
  • Eric, there's actually a big difference between wanting to make money and working/striving to make money. I always feel that most people just want to make money, they read stuffs, implement but overall they dont have the roadmap. Understanding things too is vital. I know that as a beginner it will really be hard to get off that learning curve. And thats where passion comes in. If you're doing a ton of work on things you really aren't passsionate about then you'll quit as oppose when you're doing what you want.
  • Melvin (and David)-

    Agree with these points. Especially the last one. I've found that this blogging stuff is MUCH harder than other ways to make money. I'm used to creating small niche websites and be profiting within the first month.

    This blogging stuff is a pretty lengthy process. But overall, I think it's something that'll provide a greater reward in the end.
  • It does. It is a matter of short-term verus longer term. In the long run, a business backend based on a well structured blog will outperform tiny little one-hit-wonder niche sites anyday.
  • I've definitely heard that and seen many examples. But still a little overwhelmed by the learning curve. All I do is keep pressing on each and every day. It's worked in other areas of my life, so I have faith it'll work here. Anyway, thanks again for the article.
  • Looking at the stats everyday <-- That sucks a lot of time.

    Melvin Nice post. Loved you first point about commenting, never thought like that. Its good to have a different view.
  • travisamorgan
    I like what you said here: "If you’re seeing blogging as a get-rich quick business them I’m afraid you’re not gonna last in this market for long."

    For me, that's far from discouraging. It's very encouraging!! To know that it's okay that I've been blogging for a month and not made a dime. That's good to hear.

    And just like Gordie, I look at blogging as more of a platform for my dreams and goals, but not as much as the be all to end all. (I hope I used that phrase in the right context).
    Keep it up bro!
  • I like your take on blogging. actually i think the profit is just one of the many advantages of blogging. If you're planning to get a job soon then a blog is a good boost in your portfolio.
  • N9i8ce tips.. I think if you do a little bit of everything you will be fine,, not focusing to much on one thing.

    As far as stats I agree they are important, but focusing to much on them in the beggining isn't good, since things will not change that much daily and it can be discouraging.
  • Great points Melvin. Commenting can not be the only marketing strategy. I think what it comes down to is that it has to be treated like a real business. That means having a plan, having a strategy and thinking about how you are actually going to make money. It has to be treated as platform for other things.
  • Right on. Very true. A blog is a platform on which to build other things. A blog is not a business.
  • Successful blogging isn't really a matter of marketing and promoting as much as it is simply interacting with others online through the various outlets available for us to connect. I agree that commenting should not be your main tactic in promoting your blog, but rather it should be viewed as a method to connect with others and provide additional value to expand on the post you are commenting on. The point of commenting is to share your thoughts, experiences and add value, thus helping you to establish good relations but also build credibility. Your number one marketing tactic should be the understanding that you are operating in the relm of social media and your job is to provide value through quality content and strong established relationships with others.

    Melvin's comments about goal setting is dead on... No business or individual, online or not, can be successful without properly setting goals and breaking the tasks to achieve them down into small manageable tasks. Make it a point now to map out your goals and define how and WHEN you intend to achieve them.

    I view blogging as a fun, informative activity which allows me to share my passion with others in an effort to enlighten them. I spend the majority of my time doing this with most of my clients anyway, so why not blog about it so it is documented and my clients can use my blog as a resource. Yes, I provide services at a cost on my blog, but 90% of the content on my blog I provide freely simply because I enjoy sharing it. The intent to make money from my blog is there of course, but in a way that allows me to provide value while taking the back door approach to making money, similar to recommending a good movie or restaurant.

    Point is, you should establish your goals and intent with your blog right of the bat for yourself. Doing so will allow you to feel more comfortable with your efforts when it comes to blogging and you will eventually find that making money from your blog really isn't all that difficult cuz you are necessarily focusing on the money making aspect as much as you are sharing your passion and connecting with others. Success in business, whether blogging or not, is all about networking and establishing relationships while providing value at the same time.

    Great post - spark a lot of thought process for me, thus resulting in a long comment - sorry about that ;-)
  • This is an awesome post. The problem is that I do most of what you're saying is the reason why most bloggers don't make progress :)

    But understanding this, is progress in itself isn't it?

    I comment a lot more now, than I did before, but it's still not my main promotion tactic. I comment, because I read blogs, and I like to give my opinion.

    I look at my stats every day, but I don't use more than 5 minutes. I'm just way too curious about what happened at my site yesterday to leave it all alone. I should probably stick to looking at my stats once a week.

    But I have a goal, actually, I have several goals.

    It takes time and hard work to become successful, and I have a long way to go, but I'm getting better at it :)
  • Thats a pretty inspiring thought Jens. Thanks for sharing. :)
  • For me - great post.

    I started blogging only a short time ago - Dec 2009.

    My biggest challenge is the marketing aspect and driving traffic. The blog itself is easy.

    I am constantly reviewing my marketing process and updating it.

    Your comments on making comments on other blogs was very interesting. Most others recommend it. However, I appreciate your view.

    I am also learning very quickly to be patient.

    It is through reading posts such as this that I continue to be stoked about the possibilities of blogging

    Peter
    FitnessOver50

  • Im glad you find this post beneficial. Being patient is good in a certain point but can be harmful as well when you're too lenient with your goals. While no one can become a blogging sensation overnight, it always makes sense to reevaluate again and again.
  • I agree that blogging is one of the hardest and possibly one of the most inefficient ways to make money online. I look at blogging as a platform for me now, rather than a money making method. I don't know whether that's a defeatist attitude or not, but it seems to be my reality when it comes to blogging.
  • I don't think I'd call it inefficient. It does take time to build it up, but once it is built it is much more secure and lasting. Other methods of building traffic are harder or depend on purchasing advertising.

    But, in terms of using blogs to make money, here's the thing... blogs don't make money by themselves. The money from blogs come from having a business backend to the blog. The blog is a promotion medium, a way of building traffic and an audience. The money is going to come not directly from the blog, but indirectly through the stuff you drive your audience into.

    Most bloggers never understand that, which is why they get so frustrated.
  • Its true. Thats why there's no other worthy way of making money from a blog than building a business in it. And besides inefficient is not the perfect term although I get your point Gordie.
  • Hi David,
    Yeah, I have to admit that I should have had a product or business in place first. Also, I plan to start a business online when I go back to New Zealand, but it won't be related to the niche of my current blog. That is a little frustrating for me. I think I've done things backward and dug myself into a little hole. I still enjoy blogging, but it hasn't made me any money to date.

  • Me too, Gordie. It takes time to build. I think too many people expect to make a good living in their first year, when in reality, it takes much longer. Even the A-listers admit it took some of them 3 years of working like heck to make enough money to quit their job. Blogging is not a get rich quick thing!

    And, speaking of stats... mine are broken. No idea why, but since the redesign things aren't working. Had I been addicted to checking my stats, this would bother me a lot. But, I'm not terribly worried about it right now. It gives me time to focus on other things.
  • Do use use Google Analytics?
  • No, I'm not a fan. I use something called Piwik, which we host on our
    own server, and have rebranded as our own. It's an open source
    alternative to Google Analytics. I also use the WP Stats. Niether has
    worked since the redesign, but I'm thinking it started more when I
    disabled and re-enabled all my plugins back when I was experiencing some
    conflicts with plugins and my theme. I know it's not the fault of either
    of the stat programs, as they work fine everywhere else.
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