Written on August 19th, 2005 at 09:08 am by Darren Rowse

When is it time to ‘Go Pro’ as a Blogger?

31 Days to Building a Better Blog, Miscellaneous Blog Tips 30 comments

Instant Messaging Conversation with Reader (used with permission - name changed to protect the innocent)

Rex - ‘Darren Darren Darren….I’ve decided to become a Professional Blogger!!!!’
Darren - ‘Wow that’s exciting Rex!’
Rex - ‘yeah I’m writing my letter of resignation as we speak….’
Rex - ‘I can’t wait to see my boss’s face when he sees it! :-)’
Darren - ‘that’s great…. but before you resign can I ask you a couple of questions?’
Rex - ’sure’
Darren - ‘how long have you been blogging?’
Rex - ‘3 months’
Darren - ‘how many blogs do you have?’
Rex - ‘just one’
Darren - ‘and if you don’t mind me asking how much does it earn each day?’
Rex - ‘…around $1.50′
Darren - ‘do you have any savings to live off for the next year?’
Rex - ‘………..’

This is a real conversation and one that I seem to have about once per month - bloggers who are excited by the potential that blogging has to pay them an income - who are so eager to ‘Go Pro’ that all sensibility goes out the window.

Most people would make sure they have another job to go to before resigning from a current one (or at least they’d make sure they had a way to survive in the short term) - why wouldn’t they do the same with blogging?

I’ve written about this before at Monkey Bar Blogging (a public service announcement that I wrote for bloggers a few months back) - it’s a post that I’d highly recommend anyone considering ‘Going Pro’ has a read. What I write below is similar I guess and my latest thinking on the topic.

So when should a blogger ‘Go Pro’?

Let me start answering this question by saying there is no one way to enter into blogging on a professional level. I know quite a few bloggers who have gone full time into blogging and with virtually every one there is a different variation on the story of how they did it.

Below is some of the advice I give to bloggers with aspirations to full time blogging:

Don’t view going Pro as an event, instead see it as a process

You don’t just decided to turn professional in any area of life without there being some sort of process that leads up to it. Tiger Woods didn’t just decide to turn pro one day - he had practiced for yeas, he’d put a lot of time into his golf, he’d had coaching, he’d played tournaments as an amateur, he’d developed skills and had made sacrifices. There must have come a time in his development when he (and those around him) realized that he was ready and he officially became a Professional athlete - however in reality he’d been becoming professional for many years proceeding that date. I think bloggers need to take a similar approach. It takes practice, ground work, experience, sacrifice and planning to go pro in most cases - it’s not just a decision.

One step at a time

The temptation when embarking upon this journey is to behave like you’ve already arrived and to forget the reality of life that you’re currently in. Don’t just quit your job without having some way of surviving in the mean time. This is irresponsible. The way I did it was to recognize I was in a transition and to slowly back off the work that I was doing in my ‘real job/s’ and as my blogging earnings increased to increase the time I allocated to blogging.

In the beginning for me blogging was a pure hobby that I did after work. 9 months in it was something I was able to cut my ‘real job’ back to 4 days per week, 18 months in I was 2-3 days per week blogging….and the process continued. Even today - almost three years after I started blogging I have another part time job (this ends in a month). I have this partly because when I took it I still wasn’t sure whether blogging would sustain me full time and also because I didn’t want to spend all day everyday alone in front of a computer).

It takes Significant time

I always say that ProBlogging takes time on two levels. Firstly on a long term level - getting to a full time level with your blogging can take years. Some do it quicker but the reality is that for most that have achieved this goal it has been a long journey. In the IM conversation above, this was one of the key things that Rex didn’t understand - he thought it was like starting a job - you start work and you get paid. This is not the case. The work you do now many not really pay off for 12, 24 or even 36 months. In fact the reality is that it may never pay off (sorry to be the prophet of doom).

Secondly blogging takes time on a daily basis - significant time. You need to be able to find spare hours in your day for blogging if you want to build a career out of it. It’s not easy money. My tip to new bloggers exploring income from blogging is to put an hour or two each day into it. Get up an hour early, go to bed an hour later, sacrifice some time in front of the TV, do it in your lunch break - I don’t care where the hour or two comes from but if you don’t invest significant time into it in the early days it is very difficult to develop a blog (or blogs) big enough to sustain a large enough income to begin to cut back on your ‘real job’. Any small business owner will tell you that the set up phase calls for a lot of time and sacrifice - a blog business is no different.

Diversify

‘Don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ is the advice I was brought up hearing from my parents. This is a good lesson for enternetuserss. While I know of one or two bloggers that make a full time living off the single blog, most have a number of projects underway. In fact I was chatting to one full time blogger recently and he told me how he’d been full time on a single blog - but that Google had reindexed it in the last update to the point where it was virtually gone from that search engine - his income was also virtually gone.

So diversify - You can do this in a number of ways - start multiple blogs on multiple domains on a variety of topics. Take on some blogging work on someone else’s blogs. Do some consulting work. Have a non blogging part time job. Experiment with some websites that aren’t blogs. Partner with other bloggers to work on combined projects. Hire yourself to a business who wants a corporate blog. Write a book, start a podcast - just mix it up. You’ll find this also helps your sanity as you’re not just thinking about one topic and medium all day.

Adapt

Blogging is a fluid medium (in fact online work in all its forms are fluid). One of the biggest lessons I’ve learnt over the past few years is to expect the unexpected in my work and that the key to moving forward is to be flexible enough to maneuver into the right position at the right time as opportunities present themselves. Don’t hold so tightly to ideas that you can’t let them go if they don’t work out. Some of my best ideas for blogs flopped and some of my accidents are my biggest successes.

Experiment heaps, be willing to work with new people and see where collaborations lead and whilst you work your butt off be willing to let go of the flops and move onto the next thing.

Blogger for Hire

One thing that I do recommend for bloggers on this journey to full time blogging is to consider working for someone else - at least in part. I constantly get emails from readers wanting to start their own network of blogs (I got three yesterday alone). While starting your own network is a great way to earn an income from blogging its a very long term strategy and with the emergence of new networks every week or so it’s getting to be a crowded and difficult thing. Perhaps another way forward is to work for an existing network on one of their blogs. In doing this you generate an income (some networks give a guaranteed minimum each month), you gain experience, you build profile, you gather skills and make contacts.

Of course you need to realize that this approach means you’re building someone else’s empire, the reality is that most networks own the content that you write - this is seeing blogging as more of a job than a business. I think this is a totally valid way forward however and a great way to get into the industry. Perhaps as you write for someone else you can also be working on your own projects with the hope of one day being able to transition with more and more time spent on them.

Have your Say

These are some of the things I’d recommend bloggers keep in mind as they consider going pro. I am sure there is a lot more wisdom in our community though and so I’m interested in the experiences and stories of others who are both at the start of this journey or those who have made the transition and are now full time bloggers. Share your stories of going pro in comments below or write your own ProBlogging story up on your own blog and let me know the URL and I’ll include it in my next daily summary (I’d love to read the way it happened for others and am sure I’m not alone).

What next?

30 Responses to “When is it time to ‘Go Pro’ as a Blogger?”

Jason Gilman

August 19th, 2005 10:01 am

Darren, nice post and good advice. Hopefully “Rex” took your advice to heart. I couldn’t agree more with all your points. I’m hoping to supplement my income with a few different blogging projects besides axodys.com over the next couple years, but my mindset has always been that it’s going to be a long gradual building (and learning) process.
David Oh

August 19th, 2005 10:16 am

It goes not just for blogs, but for any self-started business enteprise, or hell, non-blog web sites. It took 3 years for various sites of mine to generate a good amount of income.
Darren Rowse

August 19th, 2005 10:25 am

thanks guys.

I should have mentioned - ‘Rex’ did take the advice and didn’t quit his job. Phew :-)
Kurt

August 19th, 2005 10:35 am

Darren, this is all excellent advice. I got into blogging just to mess around with it, thought I might as well do it right and get an extra cup of coffee a week and pay my hosting bill off for it, and now I’m exploring other options; but I’m looking at it in a long-term sense. I’ve got two years of school left before I have to really start worrying about a steady income, so I guess I’m in a more advantaged position than most.
Comic Strip Blogger

August 19th, 2005 11:13 am

While I appreciate your advice about diversification, I don’t agree with “start a podcast” advice. There is no money in Podcasting! I.e. there is but only for Adam Curry and his associates. Not for anybody else.
Darren Rowse

August 19th, 2005 11:23 am

What if you became one of his associates?

I wonder if perhaps there isn’t much money in it now - but 3 years ago there wasn’t much in blogging either - maybe its about positioning yourself for the future and hence diversifying for the future.

Just a thought
Kim

August 19th, 2005 11:38 am

I fell into it by accident. I started a small site on a whim and it happened to take off (that was a year and a half ago). I now blog in support of the site, which is an online magazine. I quit my day job when a second publisher asked me to write a book. So now my primary income is from book writing, but I spend about a third of my time editing the site and blogging as often as I can to keep some content fresh.

Thanks for giving such good advice!
Dominic Foster

August 19th, 2005 11:39 am

Podcasting - has been on my mind this week. Especially to do with what you say about positioning yourself for the future. How many times do we say to ourselves - ‘I wish I got into XYZ’ last year?

This week there was a feature on the news here in New Zealand about a couple of guys who are podcasting and have built up quite an audience. Sorry - can’t remember names or exact figures, but it was very interesting. I was very envious of the one guy who lives in (and podcasts from) Queenstown - his house overlooks lake Wakatipu.
Steve Pavlina

August 19th, 2005 1:44 pm

I think one mistake bloggers make is confusing the medium with the message. For example, I don’t think of myself as a blogger on personal development. Rather, I think of myself as a personal development expert who happens to blog. If you define yourself as a blogger, you tie yourself to that medium, which limits your options. The fact that you’re a blogger doesn’t align with your true value to your readers. Your value lies in your knowledge, and there are many other ways to communicate that knowledge and be paid for it.
Athomemama

August 19th, 2005 3:35 pm

Darren,

Thanks for the site. I am a frequent lurker.

I am working toward this biz being economically viable, but right now it just isn’t. It works out ok for me because I stay home with my kids while my husband works (I homeschool them when I’m not blogging). Of course, money is tight, but we manage w/his income. So anything I make is free money (or, at least isn’t ‘bill’ money but can be spent on shoes, school supplies, etc.).

I have a network of sites, only two of which are true blogs. One of those is a business blog for others bloggers and the other is my passion, a gaming/tech blog. The other 3 sites consist of a landing page to list the other sites on (haven’t really messed with it yet), a sales listings ‘blog’ (with good deals and affiliate links) and a diet site w/message boards and a recipe database.

I know it will take quite a bit of time and money to get all this where I want it, but I see growth every month. I have recently been spending a little extra money on advertising for my favorite site. Here’e a link to my recent Adwords adventure.
HART

August 19th, 2005 4:22 pm

Of course, I won’t quit my “day job” … But, I hope that in the long-term I can supplement me income from the few blogs that I do have.. and take extra weeks off and have longer vacations. Right now, I can only buy Ice Cream at the corner grocery store - but I know that I have to keep plugging at it everyday and it is a long-term project. My mind knows that …

In my heart, I’m just like REX.. If I had an inheritance or a bank account balance to support me for a year or so - I would quit my “day job” on a dime.. I’d be here all day.. having fun and trying different things, and even get seriously focused.

Blogging to me (i mean the whole aspect.. writing, design of blogs, research, reading, surfing, learning, etc).. it’s like it was in the mid 1990’s … Remember when ICQ was first introduced and people chatted on Forums? Back then, it was actually enjoyable to check for new emails.. The instant chat and IRC changed the email excitement.. Now I’ve set my filters to play a sound when I receive emails that AREN’T routed to spam folders and end up in my IN box.

It’s interesting on your outlook of podcasting and its future popularity maybe in 3 years… I think it will be a much shorter time than that.
John (SYNTAGMA)

August 19th, 2005 4:57 pm

I agree absolutely with Steve. You have to separate content from architecture. As a full-time professional writer myself, I’ve learned the hard way that what goes best on blogs is all about Immediacy. Anything with buzz, momentum, excitement, sparkle, plays to the blogosphere and gains audience ~ essential for enternetuserss. Anything static, staid, long-term, needs a more stable platform ~ of which there are many. So, as Steve says, put your expertise where it works, don’t throw it all on a blog. Watch what Darren does. He knows what blogging is all about.
Drew Whittle

August 19th, 2005 8:00 pm

Good words Darren, but I’m taking a slightly different path, I guess I could call myself a enternetusers now because it is my only income source at present. I got retrenched about 6 months back and haven’t managed to get another job as yet. (wrong skills for the area, but for lifestyle reasons not interested in moving)

So you can be a enternetusers quickly, it’s just that you might work for less than peanuts ;
Tony Lawrence

August 19th, 2005 9:33 pm

“So you can be a enternetusers quickly, it’s just that you might work for less than peanuts”

That reminded me of how I started my main consulting business - I was working at Tandy as a tech support person for minimum wage plus a percentage of the store’s sales. It wasn’t a bad income, but when the IBM computer came out, sales went down. to almost nothing and I found myself living on minimum wage. I had nothing to lose, so I started my business - that was in 1983.

Actually, right now my blogging income is about at minimum wage :-) That’s not so horrible as extra income, so I’m not complaining. But the interesting thing is that the busier I am in my ordinary work, the less time I have for my blog. I force myself to make time anyway, because Darren is right: what you put in now may not pay off until years later - or may never pay off, but if you do nothing, that guarantees no payoff.

I’m hoping that as I slide slowly into retirement (working less, not stopping working) the blogging income will rise to fill in some of the gap. It looks like it will, but making the investment NOW is necessary. But that’s the good thing too: you CAN make that investment now while still working elsewhere.
Aimee

August 20th, 2005 12:44 am

Great advice; it would be smart for every entrepreneur or fledgling freelancer to take this to heart.

Eventually, quitting your job to become a professional blogger will be as common as quitting your job to become a full-time, freelance copywriter. There will be more of a market.

Right now, I’m lucky enough to blog for my company. It’s just part of my job, but by far *THE BEST* part. I’ll have three business blogs running by next month, as well as two personal blogs.

But I guess I can consider myself a “professional blogger.” Right now I’m one of the lucky few (couldn’t be happier, really - I pretty much have the best job ever), but opportunities are becoming available every day. Whether these opps are being handed to marketing staffers or being outsourced is actually unknown to me. But I noticed that there’s at least one blogging gig open on MediaBistro right now. (Quick, tell Rex!)
LcF

August 20th, 2005 1:18 am

I published my journey to become pro blogger at my blog.
Link: http://www.liewcf.com/blog/archives/2005/08/journey-to-become-pro-blogger/
ChrisH

August 20th, 2005 2:02 am

There’s another side to this story. Rex’s job dissatisfaction. It’s important with someone who sounds so keen to leave their job, to help them see not only why they shouldn’t (yet), but help them see their job in a positive light.

And you want make sure they don’t get blogonthejob syndrome. You don’t want them blogging on the job - or researching for their blog. A recent US study said people spend on average 2 hrs per day using the internet for non-work purposes.

We don’t want bloggers getting a bad reputation as internet-time-wasters.

BTW I speak from experience - I was a shocking internet-time-waster at my last job (I wasn’t even a blogger then). Not surprisngly, they let me go…
Lei

August 20th, 2005 6:56 pm

You probably didn’t intent this post to be a discouragement, but it’s made me realize that problogging is probably not for me. I love writing my genetics and public health blog, but am not really interested in branching out and writing about this and that just to have a consistent flow of sustainable income from blogging. I suspect I’ll eventually head back to work in my field (genetic epidemiology) but doing less original research and focus more on writing, which my blog has helped me to polish.

Meanwhile, I still like to see what makes the blogosphere tick and enternetusers is a great place to learn about it!
Bill Spaulding

August 24th, 2005 3:44 pm

I wonder what percentage of bloggers make more than $100 per week. What is the distribution curve?
colbert

September 5th, 2005 3:47 am

I am blogging part time right now but hopefully I can go pro and full time in 1 year time when my contract ends….thanks for all the great post on pro bloggin.
Ambot ah! » On your way to be a Pro-Blogger?

September 11th, 2005 3:59 pm

[…] Darren has a more comprehensive post about “When is it time to ‘Go Pro’ as a Blogger?” here. […]
Mike

October 31st, 2005 7:07 pm

I.5$ per day means 45 dollars per month. Damn! I can’t maximize my utility for 45 $ only. :(
Cotton-Pickin’ Days » Blog Archive » ProBlogging: Feasible or Not?

November 29th, 2005 6:33 pm

[…] Yesterday, Darren wrote about how to decide when it’s time to blog full-time as a main source of income. After reading it, I realized that problogging is probably not for me. I’m not interested in writing on a variety of different topics so as to diversify my income stream and I don’t think I could crank out over 20 blog entries a day like he does. […]
18 Lessons I’ve Learnt about Blogging: Blog Tips at enternetusers

December 20th, 2005 1:14 am

[…] I’ve written on numerous occasions about the e-mails I regularly get from people telling me that they are quitting their job to become a full time blogger without much thought to how they’ll pay their bills in the year or three that it might take to build up their blogging to pay a reasonable wage. […]
weight loss

March 17th, surf zone.2:13 am

This topic is very important especially to newbies into blogging. Start as a part-timer and then go pro when the income can sustain you. Or, rather, when the anticipated extra income when you go pro is equal to or more than what you earn in your present job.
adsense money dude - mrHowTo

August 1st, surf zone.11:42 pm

Long way off for me at the moment, but will persevere! These things take a lot of time, effort and endless will-power.
Marc

January 20th, 2007 1:01 pm

I was wondering if maybe another way to hedge one self against the uncertainties of Google traffic is to try to diversify ones traffic sources rather than setting up lots of different blogs. Also try to generate and maintain the loyalty of a massive email list. I know it would be difficult for me to be an authority on a lot of different topics.
70 domande di Blogologia Sindromica | Stalkk.ed

April 9th, 2007 12:53 am

[…] When is it time to ‘Go Pro’ as a Blogger? […]
Leo

April 13th, 2007 2:04 am

Anyone who knows anything about how world works knows not just go from something to nothing until wagon is already rolling. Is a lot like real estate, one does not just jump right into money, is process and one must be doing something in meantime until blog start rolling.
Bird

May 8th, 2007 1:41 am

I am interested in the idea of “blogging”. I have never spent much time in the blogging world and yet I have been recommended by a friend of mine who is in the marketing industry. “Blogging is a great way to let people know that you are the expert in a particular field.” I am in sales so when you can provide information that is interesting and informative, you will see a demand either increase or decrease. Customers or clients will come to you for their purchase.

Have you experienced anything like this? How does one generate income from blogging?

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Written on August 19th, 2005 at 09:08 am by Darren Rowse

When is it time to ‘Go Pro’ as a Blogger?