Last night the BBC Panorama documentary focussed on the issue of digital piracy. According to research cited in the programme around 7 million people in the UK engage in illegal file sharing of some sort. As more and more content becomes available to us we are increasingly expecting our access to this wealth of online information to be free and unrestricted. It is a fundamental right, we are told, to be able to access the internet. By extension most of us expect those rights to extend to the content we find while we are online.
Which brings me to the world of blogging. I love writing my blog. It gives me a great deal of pleasure and over time I hope it is enabling me to sharpen my own writing skills. But can it ever make enough money for me to call myself a blogger? Or is the content of the hundreds of millions of blogs just part of that free flowing stream of words and sounds that people have come to expect is theirs to access if they want?
Like countless others, I started off with a dream that a successful travel blog would make me some money and might even allow me to travel more. Monetisation was the magic word. Over time reality struck, and despite a modest cheque from Google (thank you Google people, we’ll raise a glass to you as we eat our meal) I have not yet managed to retire on the back of 501 Places.
So I tried to apply some of the few theoretical lessons I remember from business school to the world of blogging. A few points stand out, and I hope that others will disagree with some of this and add their own thoughts:
1. The market is saturated with suppliers (bloggers), and devoid of buyers (people who will pay for content). There are a few exceptions, but not enough for the vast majority of bloggers to get a sniff.
2. Buyers can pretty much dictate what they want and someone will do it. Many suppliers even offer their services for nothing: an extremely lop-sided situation.
3. A large part of the customer base (readership) comes from within the market itself (other bloggers); an unusual situation in any industry. In any case almost none of the customers are buying (paying) for the content on offer, nor will they ever do so.
4. The main way to monetise a blog is via advertising, whether through Google Ads or via private arrangements with companies. With so many tens of thousands of travel blogs jostling to be heard, where does an advertiser place his limited budget? Again, with more suppliers out there, the market share of any one blog is tiny so the value of placing an add on one particular site is diminished, and in addition the advertiser can drive a hard bargain. ‘If you don’t like my offer, there’s hundreds of others who will take it’.
There are some great bloggers out there. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some of them and I count them as friends. Some tell me that they are making a living from their websites. The number of ads on their sites suggests they have reasonable revenue coming in. I believe them and given the hard work that they do they deserve every success. They are in a minority however, and for every one making some money there are thousands who are trying to emulate the real high-profile bloggers who travel the world for ‘free’.
I make my modest living writing for publications that are about as far removed from the world of travel as it’s possible to be. But I have eventually found where my blog does sit within my business. On one hand it is my shop window. More than that though, it keeps me disciplined to write on a constant basis and allows me to try and articulate new ideas. Most of all it allows me to communicate with so many people around the world from whom I can learn so much.
Blogging does have a great place to play in connecting people, in sharing thoughts and exchanging knowledge. But as a get rich quick scheme? You’ll be lucky.
Sobering and true, I suspect, on all counts. But I prefer to think that like in any competitive business, given enough time and effort, you might just make it…optimistic? hopeful? Or just naive?
Writing is like any art. You have to do it for the love of it and not the money. You understand this I can tell. Many don’t, and that’s why they look for the quick buck. They create a site or two, work really hard for a few months, and then give up when it doesn’t pay off quickly. I’ve been working on my websites for five years and am just getting to a place where I can see a future of just blogging and building my sites. I’ve done this like any business. It took planning, thought, creativity, hard work, and some luck. I told a friend starting a website that it must be treated like any business. Consider it a bakery. The advantage to a web based business is that you can often take a break from it without it going under. If I’m slammed with family and my day job I can back off for a week or two. Something I couldn’t do with a bakery. But it still has taken thousands of hours to build something that works.
Lisa, I agree time and perseverance are critical. On top of that, you need to go out and build relationships with those who will be your customers: tour operators, booking websites, advertisers. They have so many options out there that there has to be something compelling about a blog for it to stand a chance of attracting money ahead of the others.
Scott, great points. I agree that a blog can be left for a few days without any long-term impact (unlike your bakery example). I am certainly more comfortable about going away now and taking a few days away from this site than I was at the start. But as you say, the hours that go into setting up a site like this will never be repaid on a simple return on investment measure. You’ve got to be getting more out of it (enjoyment) for it to be worthwhile.
I also suspect that many folks deliberately don’t disclose their blog incomes because they want to appear more successful than they are, thus bringing in more readers. I love the blog Nerdy Nomad because she does a monthly report on how much she made and really breaks it down. In a blog-world where people love to make claims without backing them up, she’s a nice breath of fresh air.
I’m about to start putting advertising on my own blog, now that I’m over the 10k/mo visitor hump. I don’t plan on making a living at it by any means, but an extra couple hundred dollars a month would go a long way toward helping to pay off my credit card debt, etc.
I agree with most of your points on this blog. I’ve read about people who make money online with their blogs but once you look closely you notice that the bulk of their income comes from non-blogging related activities. Such as writing an e-book on how to make money. We didn’t really think google ads would bring in enough money to justify cluttering up our blog so we have only used it very sparingly. However we have just recently merged our travel blog with our new design company as many of our customers are travel bloggers as well
weird industry indeed!
Thank you for providing a realistic perspective. Writing does take quite a bit of time, research and effort so while it’s romantic to have an outlet for creative expression, the practicalities of monetization make it hard to keep the affair going. I haven’t been blogging very long but what I have discovered is many writers blog for fun, a way to write about their passion, not as a means of livable income. I’d like to think that’s the way it should be. As you pointed out, there’s such low barriers to entry but at the end of the day, is it really about competition? Or is the blogosphere more about getting individual voices heard and interaction through thoughtful conversations? Throw money into the mix and views get skewed. In the world of wine, ethical writing is a hot debate: when given free samples how biased is one’s review? Monetization is a contradiction that artists have battled for years – how to be creative and make a living. The journey to find an answer has personally been rewarding thus far, and I’m just thankful to have an outlet.
Thanks for the further comments. Agree with you Kelsey, it’s very good to see Nerdy Nomad publish figures like that (and she’s doing very well!) Good luck with your ads. I hope you get some positive interest.
Aly, spot on about the e-books and ‘how to make money by blogging’ as being the route many have followed. It reminds me of an old story, where an ad appeared in the paper saying ‘I made a million dollars, and if you send me $9.99 I’ll tell you exactly how I did it’. Lots of people sent him a cheque, and what advice did they get back? It was simple. ‘Place an ad in the paper like mine!’
Sarita, you are right that the online world allows so many people a voice, and that’s got to be a good thing. Interesting to hear your analogies with the wine blogging. I can imagine the conflicts there!
I’m one of those who got into travel blogging in hopes of making money to fund my travel. After almost four years, I’m only starting to really earn. While I earn enough to fund a couple of weekend trips, it’s still not enough to pay the bills. Earning money online isn’t as easy as they make out to be — it’s not just a matter of putting in the Adsense code and start earning while you sleep. And here’s the kicker: no two blogs are alike. What works for one blog doesn’t necessarily mean it would work for another blog, so all those advice about making money through blogging may not be applicable for your blog!
Still, travel blogging has opened plenty of opportunities for me. I’m now traveling more than I ever had (and spending some serious money along the way), I sometimes get invited to go on media tours and I have been able to meet some really interesting people as well.
Some other people say they gain a lot from blogging. Maybe they have a lot of blogs to maintain and offer advertisement for their sponsors.
Popular magazine writers are the common bloggers who gain a lot from just writing good articles.
The web is filling with user-generated content, much of it unusable to travel companies.
We are only taking writers with real-life travel and adventure sports experience to help differentiate ourselves. What we are hoping to foster are ‘actual’ expert bloggers. By ‘expert’, I mean they will be grammatically and stylistically competent – and engaging too – as well as always having first-hand knowledge of their subject.
There may be less work for the writers at first – something we all have to learn to accept – but in the long term, they should become the new digital advocates that Web 2.0/3.0 is searching for.
Press tickets for bloggers not yet worthy of uberblogger status are almost non-existent; companies really won’t take the risk.
However, they are still interested in people who have “been there, seen it, done it and can now write the content”, just less bothered by aggregated, lifeless, drivel.
Monetisation is the hidden buzz-word tacked onto the PR of next week’s social network. Lets get away from this. Other than an introductory piece, which acts as a CV and is linked to our writers’ profiles, all content is paid for. No exceptions. As the editor, I am also a writer: there can be no other way.
My only advice (and I’m hoping you have lots for me, too!) is don’t work for free. Show companies/editors what you can do; if they don’t take you seriously, move on.
Comrades, keep your heads up! Keep your powder dry – the batteries in your wireless keyboards charged – and keep writing. The web needs you as much as you need it – just make sure it pays!
The site is here, still developing, links going in to writers’ work today:
http://www.travel-copywriting.com/
My adventure sports/ travel blog here
http://www.adventuresportsholidays.com/blog/
All comments welcomed.
I enjoyed Hiking Trip Reports very much, will leave a few comments on pack weight.
Something for Kelsey too, enjoy http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/8284370.stm
Best wishes to all,
Mp
Thanks Mark. I liked you BBC piece. I take it you’re a fellow Polish speaker? Cześć if so.
Agree with much of what you say, particularly that only a tiny amount of user generated content will ever have a commercial value (although that’s not dismissing the rest of it. There are many bloggers whose writing I enjoy although their work is not saleable).
The issue of not working for free is one we all buy into in principle. But I suspect there are many interpretations of working for free. Some writers I know won’t blog at all, as they consider it writing for free. Others will send a book chapter to an editor as a free sample of their work. We each have our own tolerance of what we give away.
Press trips are a funny subject. I don’t know if I agree with you about needing uberblogger status. Some bloggers are just good at pitching to tourist boards and land a gig to write about a destination or an activity. To my knowledge it is usually a free visit in return for a blog post or two, rather than a cash pay-out. But I may be wrong… Great points. Thanks for sharing, and I wish you well with your travel writing business.
Nina, thanks for sharing your experiences. Absolutely right that it’s not about setting up a blog and letting the ads do the job while you sleep. Glad to hear you’re travelling more than ever. It’s a sure sign you’re on the right track
I’m been working on my travel content site, Europe a la Carte, since 2002, first as a hobby, then part time and from June 2010 as my full time job. Most of the time I love what I do but I work at least 60 hours a week. Once your travel blog becomes a business you have to spend more time on admin, selling ads, doing SEO and marketing, probably not the reasons I wanted to be a travel blogger.
Press trips are a great perk but I have to consider the opportunity cost of this “free” trave,l if I spend a few days on the trip and a couple of days writing content related to the trip on my return. Also there is generally a packed itinerary on press trips, so I don’t have time to see the places I might prefer to visit and write about.
I make about 300 dollars a month off advertising for Nerd’s Eye View. (There. Numbers, shared.) On the one hand, well, that is awesome, 300 bucks for doing something I really love! On the other hand, a person can not live on 300/month,not where I live, no sir,no way. I also get some really great invites for trips — more and more they’re solo trips, not crazy press summer camp death marches, so that’s a super nice perk — and I generally stay away from the summer camp death march. (Okay, okay, I exaggerate, save your hate mail for Congress,thanks.)
But I have a day job as a freelance tech writer. And I think a lot of the personalities we see in blogland have modern patrons, day jobs, indulgent spouses, other incomes from SOMEWHERE.
I LOVE blogging. I REALLY LOVE BLOGGING. But making my living at it? Oh, that’s a fine dream.
Thanks for the sobering stuff.
Surely the same rules apply as to any other medium?
The more numbers you get, the more advertisers will be interested (or in many blogging cases, the more affiliate sales you get).
Personally, I prefer WoJ to not carry a jot of advertising, it stops me from being beholden and lets me say what I want… but I think there is still space out here for a really decent travel editorial site, just no one has nailed it yet.
Thanks Karen, James, Pam for the further insights.
Karen, I completely agree with you on the subject of press trips. Very hard work and can be hard to do your own thing. I certainly wouldn’t think of them as a free holiday, although the solo trips you have taken must be better. You’ve listed just a few of the challenges you no doubt have to deal with.
Thanks for sharing numbers Pam. You make a great point about having other incomes and supporting spouses. I have both, and would be nervous about blogging without those fall backs. Glad to hear you’re getting solo trips too. Much more civilised.
James, like you I’m keeping the ads down for now. Yes, same rules apply although the numbers of hits have to be put in context with the number of channels (blogs) out there. We all channel flick online, and how much notice does one ad get? I wonder how the ad revenue model will look in 10 yrs from now. Very different I suspect.
It’s hard to do with a single site but possible with a number of travel blogs. It does take a lot of work though and a great deal of patience. It’s also nice to have something to fall back on for months when ad revenue is slow.
True Anil, the more sites the better chance of a decent revenue. It’s a lot of work and as you say, a huge amount of patience. I applaud those who have the determination and willingness to do it.
“True Anil, the more sites the better chance of a decent revenue. It’s a lot of work and as you say, a huge amount of patience. I applaud those who have the determination and willingness to do it.”…………..
I agree with you Andy, that you really need to have more than 1 site in order to have decent revenue, the more..the better