Is Professional Blogging A Viable Business Model?
Can you be a hot-shot “problogger” and make a full time income from blogging?
Yaro Starak from Entrepreneur’s Journey says “maybe not”. Here’s his conclusion:
In the second part I concluded that professional blogging is NOT a sustainable business model after taking a close look behind the success of the professional blogger Darren Rowse.
Darren’s Rowse has in recent times become synonymous to the term “ProBlogger”, partly due to his domain name and partly due to his six-figure checks from various blog advertising networks, Google Adsense included.
Indeed many people dream of being the next Darren Rowse, but as in Yaro’s article, there’s a few reasons why that may never happen.
Yaro’s argument is that there are 2 types of bloggers:
- Those who depend on blogging as the primary source of income
- Those who use blogging as a tool for an existing business
I think his argument about barriers to success in markets where there are already tons of established big-name bloggers is only half-true. I do agree however that competing with the big players (if that’s what you want to do) is difficult, and you’ll at most be labelled a copycat.
But maybe, if you differenciate yourself so you’re not competing in the sense of the word, but building your own readership and market, that it’s possible?
I don’t consider myself to be in the first category of bloggers, although I can think of many who are. I see myself as the second type.
You may also want to read my article “Bloggers Vs Internet Marketers” for a better explanation of the way I see things.