Blogs Are Business Support Tools, Not Direct Money Makers
There's a lot of buzz right now about how to make money from blogging. Jeremy Wright has put himself up for auction, Darren Barefoot likewise, Eric Rdz proposes a model of online business consultants.
This is all very interesting. But I'm not sure why so many people are looking for direct revenue streams from blogging. Or, well, I understand why. We all have to pay the mortgages. But I don't think that blogging as such ever will be more than a small niche business.
I have been blogging for more than four years. I have never made any money from the actual blogging. Still, I have made a living as an indirect result of it. It took me six months of blogging before I sold the first course on the subject I was blogging about. The client had visited my site. Then it just continued. More courses, consulting opportunities. I got a new job by contacting the company I wanted to work for, and told them that I'm the one you've heard about. Luckily they had. They hired me and bought the site. That took me and my family to Mallorca... :-) People still call me, saying "it was you who wrote at..., wasn't it?" even if it's been almost a year since I wrote my last post on that site.
This is just one example, of course. Maybe a lot of chance and luck involved. But I believe it's an example of the business model blogs can offer also on a larger scale. Only under very special circumstances will blogging directly generate cash - for the most of us they will be perfect business support tools. They will give us the opportunity to make money.