Why You’ll Never Get Rich Blogging

I concede: I will never get rich blogging and I don’t recommend you try it, either. It worked well for some people at the right time, but it’s not ever going to work for me…and likely you.

The reason why is because blogging for money tends to evaporate creativity and the Linchpin. The majority of bloggers entering the scene are compelled to produce content that meets the goal of making a sale.

Opportunistic bloggers with little experience usually find a popular marketing blog or two to help get them started. These popular blogs are rooted in the “make money” formula, which is based on three things: building traffic, building a list and promoting affiliate offers.

Once in the cycle, the blogger starts to curb their writing to please the commodity of content. This cash-latching makes creating a blog post a meticulous task of clever copywriting instead of the expressing of great ideas.

Boredom sets in as passionless writing takes over. Nobody reads or comments. Then fear of failure sets in. Then, the blog shuts down, frozen in forgetten cyberspace.

Who Are You Really Writing For?

Unique Blog Designs caught my eye when they first came out. Here was a company on the cusp of a perfect niche: smartly designed WordPress themes with the brand and support to boot.

I bought one of their themes and signed up for their email updates. But all they ever sent me was sales funnel content — unspectacular advice written to promote unspectacular affiliate offers. Big disappointing mistake.

What they could have done is focused on standing out from the drones of the web marketing industry. They could have shifted the intent of their themes from how they can help make me money to how they can help me become a brilliant and influential blogger.

Lucky we have Organic Themes.

Go Home, Clickbank

John Chow wrote a thoughtful post about how he uses Clickbank to make a living. I happen to have a lot of respect for John Chow, but I can’t say I admire the people who bow down to his advice.

Clickbank is a marketplace for people selling information products. If you’re a blogger with a penchant for affiliate sales, chances are you go to Clickbank to find products to sell on your blog.

So far, so good, until you hit any given sales page of a product. Every single one of these offers are presented as brash, ugly, bold red underlined, yellow-highlighted scrolling pages that remind me of selling used cars on consignment.

You know something is wrong if you’re blogging to promote something like this — taken from a totally random Clickbank affiliate page.

It’s a sign that perhaps it’s time to look inward and ask yourself: Is this the legacy I want to leave?

Photo by Vlad & Marina Butsky.