
Why 81% Of Bloggers Never Make Any Money From Their Blogs
A shocking statistic.
Although it’s an old statistic, it i probably just as valid today. 81% of bloggers never even make $100 from their blogs. Only about 9% of bloggers are able to sustain their lifestyle via the income made from their blogs.
Regardless of the precise numbers, it is a matter of fact that the large majority of bloggers don’t make a living from what they do. And that is despite the fact that they invest huge amounts of time into their blogs.
In this article, I am going to discuss some of the most common mistakes that bloggers make.
Mistakes, which prevent them from making a decent income blogging.
1. They don’t get the basics right.
There are some basics, which every business needs to get right. For once, one needs to have a viable business model in place. That is, providing a real solution to a real problem for a real target market.
Many bloggers just choose a broad “topic” and that’s it.
They have no idea whatsoever what problem they are solving and for whom. And even if they do, then they might’ve made that decision arbitrarily and without any real research to test the assumptions they are making.
Like that, a blog just can’t be profitable.
After all, these kinds of blogs are more “random collections of thought” rather than having a clear objective on a problem they are solving. This makes it extremely hard to develop a product that sells.
2. They are not sales oriented.
Many blogs are simply providers of free information. Because they are giving everything away for free, their readers develop the expectation that on this blog, everything is free.
This only attracts people who are unwilling to pay.
And if those people are your audience, then you’ll never make money.
What these bloggers forget is that their blog is essentially only a tool to generate interest into their products and services. It is a lead-generation tool that exists for the goal of attracting first interest in your products.
This doesn’t mean that you should push for sales all the time and be like a super-annoying salesman. But it does mean that your blog needs to support your business objectives.
Your content needs to be a logical first step in the sales process.
3. They have nothing to offer beyond the blog.
By itself, a blog is not a business. Again, a blog is only the lead generation tool that exists to attract the attention of your audience. Basically it is like a modern form of an advertisement.
So if all you have is the blog itself, then you are essentially running a long and expensive advertisement, while having nothing to sell.
You can be the best blogger in the world in terms of producing awesome quality content and still make zero dollars in revenue.
Why?
Because you have no business beyond your blog.
What you need to ask yourself is what kind of business you are actually running. What it is that you are selling. What kind of results you are actually producing for your clients.
And what role your blog plays in all that.
4. They are setting the wrong priorities.
If you are spending 80% of your time producing content, then you are definitely doing something wrong. It’s not like quality content isn’t important, but it’s just not the only important thing.
- What about distributing your content in different channels?
- What about doing customer research?
- What about developing new products and revenue streams?
- What about optimizing your sales funnel?
- What about building partnerships with other businesses?
There is so much to a blogging business beyond just the blog itself. And since many bloggers prefer to do what they are good at (which mostly is producing great content), they are neglecting all these other things.
Make sure that you don’t prioritize one aspect of your blog, while ignoring everything else.
5. They are mostly concerned with traffic.
Traffic is the most overrated thing in the blogging world. Ask the large majority of bloggers what the number one challenge of bloggers is, and they will talk about traffic.
But traffic is mostly a problem of beginning bloggers.
They are struggling to attract any attention whatsoever and with everybody talking about it, they come to believe that traffic is indeed the #1 challenge bloggers face.
And then they get stuck in this cycle, where all they ever think about is how to attract more people to their blogs.
They want to reach more and more people, so they end up “diversifying” the topics they cover with the goal of reaching more people instead of staying within the constraints of their niche.
In the end they end up with lots of traffic and a huge readership, while still not making any money from their blogs at all.
Plus, it’s getting more and more difficult for them to monetize, because they…
… already created the expectation within their readers that their content is free.
… don’t have a clearly defined niche anymore.
… have no idea what target audience they are addressing and what problem they are solving.
Conclusion:
It will probably always remain the case that the large majority of bloggers make no money from their blogs whatsoever. This, however, is not because it is impossible to monetize a blog.
Monetizing a blog is just like monetizing any other business.
- You need to have a clear business model
- You need to solve a real problem for real people
- You need to create products that are grounded in reality
- You need to find effective marketing strategies
- You need to take customers through a clearly-defined sales process
- etc.
If you are serious about building a blogging business, then you need to start thinking like an entrepreneur. Because hey, that’s who you need to become if you want to make money blogging.
Call to action:
I’ve put together a free step-by-step guide on how to build a profitable business around your blog. You can get the guide by clicking here.

