When it comes to blogging there are not many Indians who make a fortune out of it. Remember I said fortune and not living. Main reason that they do not do well is they plan to make quick money out of blogging but like any other business, online business and specially blogging is not just flipping or get rich quick game. It is a business which needs time and passion to flourish.
Few days back over a phone call one of my readers asked me very interesting question
Can I make earn money from blogging? I live in India.
Simple yet very important one and though he shared with me few more details about him but asked me not to disclose anything to anybody. He just wanted to make a living and wanted to know if it is possible to earn INR 10,000 per month (close to 220 USD). He has read it somewhere that he can earn money online blogging and wanted to confirm if that is actually true or not?
My answer was definitely yes you can earn and suggested him my course.
But before I tell him anything else he shoots the second question.
How?
I suggested that blogging is nothing but a way to do business online and you need to start building your blog for as much as a year with dedication and passion. If you can do that you can make some decent income out of it.
Why dedication / Passion for a year long time?
Now I am sure this question may be bugging your mind and so first let me answer it.
The short answer is many people who just want to be millionaire overnight just move out of the blogging game after hearing this
Long answer is that there is not even a single site till date which I can say is made for making money. Take an example of Google, Orkut, YouTube or even Facebook which had no ads till they built the user-base. Present example is Twitter which still has no ads and way to monetize its traffic.
So if you plan to be millionaire online you may not become one but if you plan to build your business you can make handsome money out of it.
Does it take that long?
No. If you are into web business for some time and know the basic stuff about blogging it does not take a year long to build it but if you are new to it there are lot of things to be learned and then even apply them. I am hardly into few months of CodeItWell.com and it makes me decent income now.
Back to Original Question…
Assuming you have a passion and dedication for blogging and is really very serious about becoming and online entrepreneur then what should be your next step?
Get your blog online. If you have a reliable host, use them or else you can sign up from my list of best yet cheap web hosts. It hardly costs 200 INR and takes few minutes to create your blog and make it live.
After you have your blog online you will definitely want to give it a new custom look. My prefer choice of theme is Thesis Theme but you can use any free WordPress theme of your choice
The next thing you should be doing is getting yourself users who are ready to listen to what you blog. I prefer AWeber Autoresponder because they are best in the industry.
The last but by no means least is you should start building traffic to your blog and I have shared my best traffic tips.
After you have decent traffic there are numerous ways to monetize your blog but remember it is not about earning but it is about blogging. Money should not be the driving force for blogging but it should be blogging which should drive money.
Have you a blog to share? Share them in comments.
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I do lot of experimentation on new ways to internet marketing strategies for my web properties and like to share my experiences on ways to make money online @ IMTips.co. Read more about me
{ 59 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent post.
Nice one.
mobiexpress.blogspot.com
This is my blog.. can i earn money with this??
If you are serious about making money with your blog I will suggest you to use self hosted wordpress and not blogger.com. See why here
Hello Shabir sir,
I read your blogs regularly and found many of them very informative.
I started my blog two months back. I created blog using blogger.com. As of now, I posted almost 20 pages in it and preparing some more pages to be added in it.
Shabir, is there any maximum limit for number of pages that one can add to any blogger.com blog? I know there is a limit but i do not know in terms of number of pages.
I ask this because, they ( blogger.com) deleted my this particular blog. They mentioned that this blog is suspected as SPAM so they removed. My other two blogger blogs are intact ( both these consist only just 3 pages) so i am able to access.
Shabir, what could be the real reason for it? Blogger do not have direct help line to ask this question. However, I posted this question on their public forum and i am waiting for someone to reply to it. I wonder, why blogger.com do not have any customer service to answer queries like this?
Anyway, I hope you will able to throw some lights on this matter.
Regards,
Salman
I have never been a fan of blogger.com and if you follow the blog you will know why. – http://www.codeitwell.com/blogspot-vs-wordpress…
But whatever be my preference I do not see anything but spamming from your end as the cause of removing
Hi
I have been blogging since 2006 and have a few regular followers and a decent no. of hits on each post. My blog address is http://www.natasha-kaushal.blogspot.com
Your post has been very informative. Thank you.
Do you think I should switch from blogspot to wordpress?
Natasha, I will suggest you to move to self hosted wordpress and check out ( http://www.codeitwell.com/blogspot-vs-wordpress.html )
Thanks for the information. If I go for self hosted wordpress, what happened to my adsense account which has approved my blogspot blog? Can I use the same blogspot URL when I use self host facility with word press? Otherwise, I need to change URL to any top level domain and again has to wait for adsense approval.
Kindly suggest some ways.
I followed your freelance tips. I used your link for vWorker.com and start bidding for listed jobs. Yet to land in my first project but I am getting response from few employers. I think I should start my work with much lesser bid price to begin my base here.
Anyway, thanks for suggesting this site.
Regards
Great to see that Salma and also try other sites like Elance / Freelancer.
Shabir,
Thanks for your reply. You did not respond to my first paragraph question. Please share your views.
I missed your first para but here I go. If your Adsense account is approved for blogspot URL you can use Adsense on that account. If you wish to have another blog in Wordpress and if it qualifies the Adsense TOS you can use Adsense on that site as well. You don’t need to be doing anything else.
Thanks for your reply.
Suppose if I need to add another blog to my existing adsesne account, is it necessary for the second blog to meet all adsense terms? Is there any possbility for the second blog gets rejected while my adsense account remains intact?
You don’t need to apply for the second blog in the same account and you have to know what is ok with Adsense and what is not. If your second blog is ok you can put the Adsense Ads on that blog as well without any issues.
Shabir,
Thanks but it seems you did not follow my question.
Suppose my second blog is not actually meeting few of adsense criteria and i am adding this blog site to my existing adsense account. In such cases, will adsense look in to my second blog as strict as they did in my first blog before accepting or they ignore it as the new blog is added to the first blog which was already approved by the adsense?
HOpe you understood my doubt?
Thanks
Every page you have your Adsense code should be be withing the Adsense TOS. If any one criteria you think is doubtful you should not have Adsense on that page or else your account can be banned. It is not about blogs but even valid for any page on the same domain / same blog.
Hi Shabbir,
I am very much impress with your blogs and newsletters your sending because it is one of the few newsletters I have subscribed which talks about Indian online community.
I want to organize a online business seminar in Hyderabad, can you recommend somebody who is doing well in online business and come and talk in that seminar.
With some kind of marketing deals.
Regards,
Amer
Amer,
Thanks for your comments and I am not in touch with anybody who can present anything in that arena in Hyderabad but if you want me to be doing it we can talk about it.
- Shabbir
Very nice post and so hekpful to me thanks
i dont want to invest any penny before earning from my blog , so if possible give step by step solution
Blogging is not the right choice for you and try doing freelancing then. Blogging needs the blog to be setup and freelancing can be started with a website.
Shabbir! Your way of writing is interesting and precise. Congrats bro! About me, am not sure if i can call myself as a blogger since i do lots of grammatical mistakes[:P].
Okay shabbir, here is my question, am hosting 3 of my websites in blogger. It was easy to create in blogger than wp since i’ve no knowledge about coding. I know even WP doesn’t require any coding knowledge, but seriously, i cant even find the difference between wp.com or wp.org and after a lot of confusion, I’ve downloaded wp windows tool(forgot its name?). But since I was not sure as how to install it, I just left wp and sticked back to blogger.
Is it safe to be in blogger? or will they remove my content all of a sudden(i heard many such stories)? Am ready to pay for a hosting, but since i don’t have any coding knowledge, am afraid i would stuck up with many issues. Any suggestions would be highly appreciated, Shabbir bro! Thanks!!
Karthic, if you are on the right side of the TOS of blogger you don’t need to worry about those horrible stories but it is always better to move to Wordpress. You don’t need any knowledge of Coding to get the site live in Wordpress. Apart from that I am also offering a free installation service. See http://imtips.co/free-wordpress-installation-service.html
Bro! I’ll look at it. by the way, do I have to install wordpress windows software? And should I use wp.org or wp.com?
Karthic, you don’t need any Wordpress windows software and you also don’t need to use wp.org or wp.com. You hosting will have an option to install Wordpress for your site with few clicks. If your hosting does not have that option you can download the Wordpress from wp.org site
Shabir, I don’t have any hosting account. As of now, am using blogger’s free hosting. So I believe I would use wordpress’ free hosting. I have already downloaded the wordpress long back. Still not sure as how to install it. Will check. thanks buddy!
If you plan to host with Wordpress Free hosting I would recommend blogger because Wordpress free hosting comes on a subdomain of Wordpress.com which has lot more restrictions. See http://imtips.co/blogger-or-wordpress.html
yes shabbir! There seems to be some disadvantages. Am fine with blogger, but the problem am facing is, my website looks different at some other computers. Like yesterday when i viewed it from my client’s office, the entire menu bar was missing. Day before yesterday it looked ugly from another client’s place. And I had attached paypal ‘buy now’ button for one of my website. Instead of button, ‘img missing’ is what showing up. Irritating though!!
That is because your HTML for your choosen theme may not be compatible with your client’s browser.
This is why I regret for not being a programmer
You don’t need to know everything and the important thing is to know what you don’t know and so hire people to get that done.
Have to think, a lot
. If my website is sure to monetize well, I can happily hire. Am not sure how to monetize my website. Will look into that first and hire if its viable.
Yes if you are looking at your website as business, you should understand the financial part of it as well. If it is just a hobby, you can just put in few bucks for what you want.
True. I’ve a different blogsite for hobby where I’ll randomly scribble or say, unleash myself. This website is for commercial purpose only
Shabbir, I can see something like keywords under ‘I blog about’ in your right pane. How did you do that? any such readymade plugins for blogger? And is it really useful i,e, are you getting traffic through that? I know traffic leading sources may be a secret for bloggers. Just asked outta curiosity. You may answer or skip [:P]
Normally I don’t skip answers. I am not sure about blogger but for Wordpress it is called Tag cloud. See if there is something like Tag cloud in Blogger or not.
that’ll be really useful. Transparency is always appreciated since it will help other to learn and implement. Thanks Shabbir!!
The pleasure is all mine Karthic.
Hi Shabir,
Recently I noticed that a site named http://www.phunwa.com publicise name, personal contact details and address publicizing on net. WHoever has BSNL landline connection, their names are listed in this website. I think it is a sheer intrusion in to the privacy of people without their knowledge.
This site tapped almost all people’s (Only those people who have BSNL number) contact details in Bangalore ( I stay here) and it is availble in Kolkatta, Delhi, Mumbai as well.
These contact details are now popping up Google search results now. I do not understand how did this website got personal details such as mobile number, BSNL number, full communication address etc and got them listed in their website.
I wrote this matter to the owner of this site expressing my concern. It appears like this site is owned by an indian but the given address is of US.
ANy way I am waiting for his reply to my mail. Any idea how to go about in case i do not get any response? I think slowly this site will gather info about people in other cities as well and it is too dangerous, you know!!
Waiting for your comment about this?
Thanks and regards
Good to share such things. But are not BSNL directory themselves gives such public information? or do we need to subscribe them if we need or data to be in their directory?
Not sure how they got the details but may be BSNL have this information on their site as well. As they are making it accessible to public is really dangerous.
Yes Karthik and Shabir.
BSNL provide such information. But there is a difference. BSNL provides info only to those people who live in the same city or having that city phone directory. But in this case it is worldwide, anywhere in the world you can find details of people who lives in the listed cities. Ofcourse you can get personal info from BSNL website online but only if you know the contact number of a person you look for not just with the name.
Apart from this, the details are appeared on GOOGLE search results too. That means, if I know just your full name I can find out your contact number, address, mobile number etc by just searching in this site or by just googling without your knowledge. In BSNL online it is not possible to get details by just knowing the name because there is no option to search by name.
I checked this system with my own details but also details of my friends and relatives as well just to confirm. I confirmed that the personal details of every BSNL cusomters of the listed cities can be accessed from this site.
This is why I said it is dangerious and against the law.
Is there any way can we stop this? Should I raise complaint in Cybercell for this? Any idea? or else more and more listed phone details will start appearing in search results in the coming days.
Thanks
Can you show me what type of information they are sharing because I don’t see my information online.
Yes. let me know BSNL number in Kolkatta, if you have one. Then I can send you the link in this site where the details are listed.
I have my couple of BSNL landline numbers and it does not show anything about my numbers.
Hi Shabbir,
Excellent post, concise, to the point.
Thanks!
Swagatam
The pleasure is all mine Swagatam
Just wanted to share my blog with you and get your opinion about it. Here’s the link:
http://mohur.blogspot.com/
Debdatta, Read http://imtips.co/blogger-or-wordpress.html
Well, here is what I am working on right now! http://singularitycometh.blogspot.com/
Let me know your comments if any!
Read this – http://imtips.co/blogger-or-wordpress.html
Yes Shabbir, I have read your comparison. The thing is I am just starting in this field (well this is one thing which I had been postponing since a while) so am trying to get some experience with this first.
Anyways, nice site you have going on here! Do let me know if you have any feedback etc for my blog http://singularitycometh.blogspot.com/
Also, any recommendation of how to combine this with facebook?
Your blog is online since 2007 and if you still you are saying you are just starting, Combining with Facebook I am not sure what you are trying here.
Shabbir my friend, I did try to start up that early, but could not. If you see the posts frequency, I actually started the regular posting last month.
The Facebook combination I refer to is integrating the Facebook social plugins with blogger service (simply speaking, showing the LIKE, SHARE subscribed people etc.) Sorry if I didn’t make sense earlier!
To have Facebook like and share button all you need is grab the code from FB and place them on your pages. Get the FB like button code here
This is my blog, which I have just started.
Nicely written the first article Rahul.
Thanks sir. Kindly keep providing your suggestions and comments on all articles I write, on my writing style, etc. Looking forward to your valuable inputs and suggestions for improvements.
As and when I read them, I will provide you with the feedback.