During our Big Money Blogger panel, a question was asked what was the one key tip to give to a blogger to help them be successful. My answer was just simply to write great content.
Now I would have had many things more to add but it wasnt a “name your top 10 tips to have a successful blog” so I just answered the question with the best answer I could which was to provide quality content.
During the panel we had access to see twits and I noticed this one:
@tonyhung (Tony Hung) says:I think that Shoemoney is giving the wrong idea — that great content is enough. Too many blogs have great content and don’t fly #izeafest
When it came to general Q&A the statement/question this person asked me basically what he had twitted and I responded that I agreed there were a lot of blogs out there with great content but nobody reads. I think that is pretty much a no brainer.
I also went on to talk about how I am now in my 4th year of blogging and I post at least 1 blog post per day. I also made a statement that I did not think it would be possible for someone to blog as much as I do for 4 years and not be successful. I posed the question to the audience and nobody volunteered their website but it was a relatively small audience.
I think the big question is what is your definition of success for a blog?
Money?
Many people view a blog by how much money it makes. ShoeMoney.com in 2008 will make over 400k in revenue and after all the prizes, server costs, and general bs it should profit well over 350k. A lot of that is due to bringing on someone dedicated to handling sponsorships and advertising. I never accepted any money for advertising until last year (2007). I am not sure exactly where shoemoney.com would be placed in the top 50 most read blogs on the internet but I am guessing its revenues are up there.
Readers?
Shoemoney.com is a big fish in a small pond. Its hard for me to imagine this site getting more viewership and readers then it does…. but of course that happens every day pretty much has continued to happen since I started the site. The shoemoney.com domain gets between 25,000 and 30,000 unique visitors per day and with RSS and other stuff the reach could be as big as 50k people per day.
Now as far as success goes if you look at sites like TechCrunch who have a RSS of over 1 million readers its hard to say this is very successful only reaching 50k visitors per day with just the reader criteria.
John Chow has a great statement during our panel saying that he writes 2.8 blog posts per day on average and has since his blog started. He wrote 2.8 blog posts back when it made no money and he writes 2.8 blog posts per day now that it makes over 30k per month. He also says if it goes back to making nothing he will still write 2.8 blog posts per day.
John’s statement is a lot like how I feel. I wrote blog posts every day for 2 years before this site ever made a dime and if someday it makes zero money again I will still write posts. Money is not the motivation for this blog for me.
So getting back to the issue I think the most common thing you see with “successful” bloggers is they have trouble defining what a successful blog even is…. Because to them/us the ability just to be able to write our thoughts on a web log was the whole goal from the start 
- Comment Likes 
- Comment Dislikes
November 8, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Very interesting post. I would think that great content has the heart and soul of the writer.
December 18, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I would say as long as it draws in its readers .. holds onto them .. and brings the back .. it’s successful
October 3, 2008 at 6:48 pm
WoW
Could you please provide us a breakup of your earnings ?
350K is a lot of money !!
September 28, 2008 at 6:33 am
Yeah. Thats a good point to write. And you done it well because you wrote what you really have. And i get the most important knowledge of this day. Thanks Jeremy.
September 22, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Like blogging most success come from talent and passion. It’s rare to see somebody reap a great deal of monetary success from any venture if they are doing it just for the money.
September 21, 2008 at 10:30 am
Well its really hard to tell when you have a successful blog, even you have so many things in your head that you would like to poured it out but you just cant let it out
September 19, 2008 at 10:56 am
how about that? no blog will make money till some human gets it to…
September 19, 2008 at 3:26 am
A well designed site with good content that makes money for you!
that will be my definition.
September 18, 2008 at 2:29 pm
I run a small blog.
new in this field. shoemoney is sucessfull mate lol
September 18, 2008 at 9:12 am
I’d say readers first, then money. Not all blogs are made to be a cash cow!
September 18, 2008 at 7:39 am
Great and successful blogs are as a result of commitments, and dedication showed by the author. And also the passion the author has for blogging.
You wat i mean by saying having passion for blogging?
i.e. blogging till eternity even if no one sees, hears or notice any single thing about your blog without being paid. When you do something to learn and not to earn then one day the credits and awards will set in.
Also one need to let time play its own part just like shoemoney.com.
September 18, 2008 at 7:34 am
Great content and regular posts is what makes your blog grow as you’ll attract more readers when there’s always fresh information posted. This will then lead to loyal readership from your existing readers and much more new ones.
A blog at the end of the day is basically your self-expression outlet, only recently the cause focused on making money from affilliate campaigns. So the success of a blog can be actually calculated by the amount of loyal readers and increasing visitors (traffic) and the money is just a bonus.
September 17, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I like that fact that you write a post everyday when this blog did not make any money. Perseverance rewarded you.
September 18, 2008 at 12:48 pm
I have been reading this blog for a long time, at least in “internet time” and it was a good read when there was no advertising and it is still a good read.
A blog is not something that everyone can do, and if you are going to start one be sure that you are doing it for the right reasons. Shoemoney has done a great job with this web property, but he started it for a soapbox not to make money
September 17, 2008 at 1:55 am
I have only recently started blogging and really enjoy giving information I hope is useful to everyone and enjoy reading other blogs. I am not steady but hope to change that. Thanks for the information. Blessings.
Joyce Jacobsen
September 16, 2008 at 5:58 pm
I write my blog to stroke my own ego. In that I can say I am a great success.
September 16, 2008 at 4:40 pm
I run a very small blog……..VERY small blog in comparison to the big fishes in the blogosphere.
My blog is barely 1.5 years of age. I earn barely 300 USD a month. My daily visitors come to barely 15% of Shoemoney’s RSS subscribers. I only publish 1 article every 3 – 5 days. (0.33 article per day?).
Despite being a junior, I’m proud to say that I’m damn happy that the blog is recognized by brands like ASUS and NOKIA. Talks are under-way with AMD too.
I get to computer hardware and computer games to play …..for FREE. Nokia even gave me an N81 8GB to use and a bunch of N-Gage games to play. I get invitations to product launches too.
I missed the Nokia N96 launch but I’m going to ASUS EEE BOX launch this week.
So Jeremy, do you consider my blog a successful one?
I certainly do.
All in all, I don’t think we can define a SUCCESS. Every blog is a success in their own way.
September 16, 2008 at 7:52 am
I think it depends on the author of the blog. If the author of the blog is satisfied with the blog, then at least the author can consider it a success.
September 16, 2008 at 6:44 am
For me two things are important:
1. Personal Satisfaction (of being able to write what I know and share knowledge)
2. Money – of course.
September 16, 2008 at 12:58 am
Frequent updates , nice content , wide reader base all make up for a good blog ..
September 16, 2008 at 12:44 am
I think most of the biggest successes tend to come in such a random way that you’re better off just doing something you’re passionate about regardless. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t then also try to be “successful” — but these things are so random….
September 15, 2008 at 11:31 pm
successful blogs are those that engage their audience.
September 15, 2008 at 11:30 pm
There is no standard blog approach and that what really counts is how effective you are at communicating to your selected audiences.
September 15, 2008 at 11:13 pm
It’s interesting to see everyone’s response to this post. Some people are all about money, some like the realization that they’re inspiring people. For me a successful blog would be freedom – from being employed to self-employed. The danger there is that you then become a slave to what you once loved. But, if things are going well enough you can just move on to a different hobby or different project.
Funny that regardless of the measure, the path to success is always the same – long hours and hard work!
September 15, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Yeah,I think you are right but what determines succesful blogger is his income-believe it or not.
September 18, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Do you mean direct income from the blog or income that is developed from the blog.
Some people and companies use their blog to attract the interested parties and start to develop business relationships that will blossom into money making enterprises
September 15, 2008 at 9:50 pm
You can’t get traffic without content.
September 15, 2008 at 9:21 pm
Money is the first thing that almost blogger are targeting now
September 15, 2008 at 11:10 pm
i think in todays time… that is the only thing they target… these new bloggers…
show me a blog without advertising…
September 16, 2008 at 4:56 pm
There has to be an equilibrium between the two for a new blog..
Once you are established you can do anything or any changes and no one will ask anything.
September 18, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I can show you a blog with minimal advertising. This guy does it for the marketing it provides. There is some but it is nothing like what you see on a lot of sites
http://blog.sourcinginnovation.com/
September 15, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I am with Benspark. Anytime a post of mine motivates a person to leave a comment then I consider it to be a success. As long as I continue to enjoy posting and soliciting interaction then I consider myself a successful blogger. The money side if any is a bonus, but if I was to rely solely on the earning capacity of the blogs I would have given up long ago.
September 15, 2008 at 11:13 pm
very true… i would second with this…
September 15, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Success depends on your goal when you started. If you’re goal was an income… then you need to reach that income… if you’re goal exposure to enter a market such as book publishing.. then you need the exposure.
Me personally, I get about fifty to a hundred emails and facebook messages a week from guys telling me how much my articles inspired them… to me.. that is success
September 15, 2008 at 8:52 pm
Last year i attended Avinash’s session on analytics at BlogWorld. One thing he said really stuck, which is that he loves his blog. That passion is common with successful and emerging blogs. A blogger who can demonstrate that passion should get the visitors there eventually, and agree that content is a key component.
September 15, 2008 at 11:09 pm
that should always be the final goal…
September 15, 2008 at 8:29 pm
2.8 posts a day doesn’t seem like a lot on paper. Then when it actually comes down to doing it, it’s another story.
Most non-pro bloggers have actual day jobs. So doing 2.8 posts either usually happens after work. Factoring in the time, motivation, and creativity into your daily life gets to be hard.
As evident in the other comments, it clearly comes in bursts. Sometimes you have energy and time to do it consistently for a week. Than life happens and you run out of time!
What I’ve tried to do is come up with a few posts each week that are none time sensitive. So I can write them and save them as drafts. Then when I’m running out of time, inspiration, etc, I can just pull one out of the bank and make it live. Or, I can forward date it to publish tomorrow if I know I am going to be out of time.
It makes things more consistent, but then I’m faced with coming up with 5 posts at once to spread out over time. See how it goes.
September 15, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Natural writers do not have to make an effort to write something. It comes just natural to them. They are pretty regular in writing, just like we eat everyday. On the other hand, if you are forcing yourself to think and then write, then you know … you may not be natural.
September 15, 2008 at 11:17 pm
One reason that I focus my money-making efforts on projects other than blogs! I’m not (yet, at least) the type of person that can crank out blog entries, so I focus my efforts on other types of sites that can bring in income. If I create a few successful sites, I’m sure I’ll have more to blog about than I would now!
September 15, 2008 at 7:54 pm
For me, I’m a small fish so I consider someone commenting on my daily photo a success, it made people stop long enough to read what I had to say and to say something to me. I make a little money with my blog and while it is not my main motivation for blogging it is a nice incentive.
September 15, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Traffic that likes to click through and have a decent conversation rate = a great blog.
Being able to clear 350k off of a blog is great.
September 15, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Traffic = a good blog
Content only matters if people are reading it.
September 15, 2008 at 11:11 pm
people will ready it if it is genuine and new content… not one that is scraped of someone eleses post…
September 15, 2008 at 11:13 pm
sorry that is ‘people will read’…
typo!
September 15, 2008 at 11:53 pm
People won’t find a site without content – without content there won’t be traffic
September 15, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Just be simple and original in content post of your blog.
September 15, 2008 at 6:15 pm
It really all depends on how success is defined. To me, a successful blog provides value to its readers, earns a sizeable and consistent income or revenue; perhaps not large, but enough to compensate for the time spent and pay for its blog maintenance; is recognized by mainstream press, and most importantly, gives its owner personal fulfillment and continued motivation.
It could be all these in one blog or one metric for every blog topic.
Cheers!
September 16, 2008 at 8:22 am
I agree that a blog is a place for expressing personal thoughts and emotions. Readers want to read genuine article.
September 15, 2008 at 5:57 pm
A successful blog is to deliver a message or at least teach someone someting. Seriously I could blog about about my dog all day and who would care about what he was sniffing all day??
September 15, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Shoemoney, I know of a site that get’s nearly 10x’s as much traffic as your blog but cant make even get close to $100,000 a yr. Great work
September 15, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Great article and I wish I could post 2.8 articles a day. That being said….can I have a loan, haha
September 15, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I think a successful blog will mean something different to people. I think a successful blog would need a lot of different criteria for it to be successful. I think traffic, money, comments and RSS feed size are the criteria that we should be looking at to say hey your blog is successful.
Greg Ellison
September 15, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Shoemoney,
I couldn’t have said it better myself. I think so many people are focused on profit and not the passion of their craft. I am a firm believer in dedicating oneself’s to the passion of their craft and the profits will come in due time. Awesome work! Keep it up!
September 15, 2008 at 4:42 pm
“What do I think of Success? it sucks” – Eminem
September 15, 2008 at 3:16 pm
A successful blog is a blog its author is happy with.
September 15, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Blog’s are opinion-based sites written by self-proclaimed hobbyists/experts on certain topics. When it comes to the success of a blog, it depends what your blog is about. If you are a “make money online” blog, and you make $XXX,XXX a year from your blog, then your successful. If you write a blog about art, and you see in increase in the art movements you discussed, you can consider yourself successful.
Good stuff Shoe!
September 15, 2008 at 2:46 pm
I dunno shoe, ima big fan of the green. I consider it a great motivation. lol
September 16, 2008 at 3:16 am
The time this motivational factor comes into play the other person is already a lot ahead and it gets difficult to catch him at times..
Do stuff for your own self and not for others..
September 15, 2008 at 2:45 pm
I agree 50/50 on this. I know there are sites with great content, but I don’t think the author really makes big money because they are not great marketers. From your statement it is true where you only started to make a lot of money since you hired someone dedicated to magnetizing the blog. So I would go on to say, great content is key to get traffic, but you need be able to find an angle to market something to your audience.
So its 50% content 50% marketing. don’t you think? I know another lady who writes about her day-to-day stuff as a stay at home mom with two kids. Makes about 240K/yearly just from adbrite ads. but I don’t think her reader base is big as yours, how ever almost all her readers are women at home, shopping away online
like my wife does hahaha.
September 16, 2008 at 8:19 am
People are more important than money. Money there are people in the end.
September 15, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Passion is the motivation, jeremy you remember your site which was related to MAC which was started just out of you passion of MAC when you had a new mac (i guess around 5 years back) and that site got a PR 6 without any SEO or links … gosh you were selling it for only 10k USD at that time
September 15, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Great answer to an interesting question Shoe. I certainly agree with you that if you write great content everyday, you’ll just need one little spark to set your blog on fire and with google indexing almost every site on the web now-a-days, that spark won’t be hard to find.
September 15, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Great content + loyal readers
September 15, 2008 at 2:05 pm
What code do you use to embed Twitter tweets like above?
September 15, 2008 at 2:17 pm
just built some tools for the twitter search api.
September 15, 2008 at 1:53 pm
In my opinion a successful blog is one that YOU yourself take pride in and put hard work into. Sure readership and traffic can make a blog successful but if you don’t enjoy it then your going to be miserable and it’s going to feel like a job. I enjoy making posts and that should be the point of a personal blog. If your in it for the money then don’t even bother because most likely you won’t succeed.
September 15, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Successful Blog would depend on what you wanted to get out of the blogging. If your goal was to work from home and be able to support your family on the blogging alone then money would be your gauge of success. Some people start blogs for other reasons, for networking purposes, to become well known as a knowledgeable person in their field, to share information with people, or just for love of the topic. For those people traffic to their site and contacts made would be their measurement of success.
So it depends on your situation
September 15, 2008 at 1:03 pm
when you can quit your day job then you sir have a successful blogs
September 15, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Only if you are thinking is success in terms of money.
September 15, 2008 at 11:02 pm
That’s not a bad measure of success, especially the freedom aspect – doing what you want and making a living at it. I think that’s better motivation than money!
September 15, 2008 at 1:02 pm
350K profit a month on your blog… Thats pretty crazy, clickbooth must be paying you an assload of money.
September 15, 2008 at 5:19 pm
you got it wrong…that’s for a year and not a month.
September 15, 2008 at 12:49 pm
One that has great content, well written and resourceful. Thats what a blog should be.. basically a good read
September 15, 2008 at 12:44 pm
I like the fact that you post almost everyday and that you’ve got some funny-as-shit stories. You are entertaining as well as educational. People get to see the real person behind the Superman logo and large Google check. Heckuva job on the Izeafest keynote BTW.
September 15, 2008 at 12:33 pm
A blog that creates a win/win for the blogger and the readers. For instance, I enjoy your blog because I can tell you are passionate about your subject matter and I learn some cool things as well. Same thing with John Chow’s blog: he loves what he does and it shows, but he is also generous with those of us who take the time to read. I have a small hobby blog which only gets about 100 visits a day w/o me really doing anything to promote it. I am trying to learn more about monetizing though, so I can kick it up a notch. I mean… doing what you love and loving what you do + decent cash is NOT a bad thing!
September 15, 2008 at 2:48 pm
Best reason to start blog is to share your knowledge with the world.. on stuff you know .. success will follow
September 15, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Finding legit things to write about it sometimes hard, so millions of people are doing it and have been doing it. Giving legit opinions perhaps is better, as you do.
September 15, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I don’t really think that a blog can make a lot of money since the start up, I have a 8 months old blog that hardly make me 500$ per month and a 3 months old website that make me over $1k per month. Blogs is to express ourselves, recommend products and share our experience, just stick to that and the money will come to you
September 15, 2008 at 11:52 am
“Success” is defined as different things to everyone, and nobody is absolutely right. Personally, I rate my website success by readership, and more abstractly by visitor loyalty. If you have good content that keeps the visitors coming, and more importantly staying, then the money will follow. There are ways to boost revenues, but if you don’t have the user base, your efforts to boost revenue will likely to result in short-term spikes only. With good content, similar efforts will be far longer lasting, thus making the same efforts more worthwhile. It all comes down to content to me.
September 15, 2008 at 11:09 am
tony does have a good point, but I think he is missing yours. If you write good content and are passionate about what you do, everything else will fall in line. Kind of how people think you get lucky, when its actually being prepared to take advantage of an opportunity.
September 15, 2008 at 10:59 am
Starting a Blog and writing for a cause like money will bias your decision. Find a better cause to write now to win the money / popularity / traffic in a long run.
September 15, 2008 at 10:55 pm
It *would* be interesting to see the number of “make money” blogs that have failed b/c the owner’s sole motivation was profit, and that profit did not come before they lost interest.
There has to be a different, primary motivation beyond money.
September 15, 2008 at 10:50 am
Thanks for this article. Everyday I ask myself what do I consider a successful blog and what others consider as a successful blog. Although my personal blog is still very small and has small audience I’ve already achieved a bunch of goals I can call a small successes. …and I expect more. But of course it needs passion, work, fun and getting better.
September 16, 2008 at 5:57 pm
the first goal is to change your domain name lol
just kidding
September 15, 2008 at 10:43 am
I think that when you dedicate four years to something and you ACTUALLY put in the time and effort, then you can’t help but succeed at least on some level…
September 15, 2008 at 10:36 am
I think you explained it really well. You do have to have good content and I think the blogs that dont do well and have good content, are the ones that are not getting there good content out there. Networking with other bloggers in my niche is teaching me a lot of new things.
September 15, 2008 at 10:42 am
I agree with you and shoe.
September 15, 2008 at 10:14 am
I would think what you are blogging about should also play a role in how successful your blog is. Sites where people talk about being successful at anything (blogging, graphic design, etc.) are always going to be more successful than say, a blog about the art of hopscotch. Not everyone likes hopscotch, so you’re already segregating a portion of the audience a more generalized or popular topic is going to have.
September 15, 2008 at 10:12 am
Well said Shoe. Everyone has their own criteria on what is successfull and what is not. In my case, it is hitting the short-term goals that I set and seeing the positive reactions from my visitors. I’m sure many bloggers who enjoy blogging are content with that regardless of the income directly from the blog. It’s a common misunderstanding people seem to have that when you make money from your blog, that you are blogging to make money. It’s not entirely true. We’re following a passion we have here, and money is just following that passion of ours.
September 15, 2008 at 10:06 am
Money is the easiest and most popular barometer for success but I think the real measure is whether you’re achieving what you set out to do. For some personal finance bloggers, the goal isn’t so much to earn money as it is to document their progress out of debt. Many have blogged about it and achieved their goal of paying off their credit card debt because the blogging has kept them accountable.
Money is critically important, as are readers, but ultimately you’re trying to achieve a goal (pay debt, get clients, enjoyment) and if you do that then you’re successful.
September 15, 2008 at 9:51 am
how many blogs are successful that don’t market themselves as a brand? Maybe none. I also agree that placing goals to achieve creates the mindset of becoming successful.
no goals = what are you successful at?
I know that JC and Shoe didn’t sit down and say “let’s make 30K a month on a blog”, but if there wasn’t SOME goal, there is nothing to measure.
Good content is really a large % because, what the hell are people here for? Content is what makes a blog and if it isn’t even remotely good, there will be no readers.
September 15, 2008 at 9:19 am
I think you are right, great content will eventually bring people to your blog!
September 15, 2008 at 9:18 am
People don’t write a blog like yours for fun, Shoe. Be honest. Your motivation for writing this blog is for the financial gain. Look at your logo. If you did it for fun you would write about gardening or something.
September 15, 2008 at 11:18 pm
silly leo, making money is fun
September 15, 2008 at 9:09 am
Success is when you get what you wanted to get (readers, comments, money, whatever).
And damn, 2.8 posts a day is really a lot…even 1 post/day like you do shoe seems a lot to me…I hardly reach the 0,4post a day :-/
September 15, 2008 at 9:02 am
I think one thing that a lot of people forget is that it probably becomes easier to find stuff to write about the longer you do it (just guessing here). You are more and more involved in the community and people start giving you ideas. Shoemoney just had a post about how he can’t respond to 99% of e-mails. Think about how many ideas are in there. It takes hard work to make a great blog. No question. But I wonder if it gets easier from a content perspective – time is always an issue!
September 15, 2008 at 8:18 am
For me success is just having my own platform to write about what I want and actually have somebody read it whether they agree or not. Sometimes I just write some off the wall crap to see if I get a reaction.
I’ve also met other people with similar interests as me through my blog so that part of it is really cool. I’m a programmer and have gotten small side projects through blogging too. If my my blog ever got to the point where it made $100/month I’d probably be ecstatic
I can’t imagine 30k a month.
September 15, 2008 at 8:16 am
A writer is a writer, not because he writes, but because he cannot stop himself from writing. That one thing is true with all really successful bloggers.
September 15, 2008 at 8:11 am
It’s interesting how so many people have differing opinions on what makes a successful blog or not. I’ve read it’s the number of comments per post, while others say it’s the subscriber number, and others have said it’s how famous you are as a blogger (ie A-lister etc) or if you make a lot of money blogging.
In my opinion, it all depends on your motivation for being a blogger. With social blogs there would certainly be the expectation of having a lot of comments. Authority blogs, or those that are written with search engine traffic in mind may or may not have many comments or any at all. I would disagree with anyone that claims having a lot of comments for each post is a major determining factor on how successful a blog is.
September 15, 2008 at 8:09 am
I always visualized successful blogs as being mentioned on A list blogs like umm say…Shoemoney, Problogger or Blog Herald (just to name a few)
Wonder if I’ll ever be able to feel successful?
j/k – I think success is what you make it.
September 15, 2008 at 1:19 pm
I got mentioned here, why aren’t you reading my blog!
September 15, 2008 at 7:53 am
being successful, depends on what your starting goals where.
September 30, 2008 at 7:57 am
I agree if you set goals and than you reach them, than you are considered successful
September 15, 2008 at 7:46 am
damn.. 2.8 posts a day, i have no idea how you come up with the motivation for that
September 15, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Its quite easy, you sit your self down and do it. You just have to be driven.
September 15, 2008 at 2:27 pm
Keep in mind that John’s posts aren’t usually very long.
September 16, 2008 at 5:51 am
True and many of them are “what I ate” which is complete garbage if you ask me
September 15, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Simple, if it makes money, you do it ha ha
September 15, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Ah, but even money is not enough to motivate some people. Some people cannot bring themselves to be motivated, despite the reward. If everyone was that easily motivated, the business world would be much more dificult
September 17, 2008 at 1:26 am
Remember its not 2.8 posts per day.
Its 3 most days, 2 others and 1 when “you” have a lazy period/writers block
September 15, 2008 at 7:45 am
That is absolutely the best answer to Tony’s statement that anyone could have given. And you’re very right. Money isn’t necessarily the thing that makes a blog successful. Just as in everyday life away from the internet.
September 15, 2008 at 7:44 am
I think it also has something to do with the definition of blog constantly changing as years go by… Originally before, blog is just like a diary wherein you put your thoughts and so… I even had some blogs with sites like friendster, multiply, hi5 or so and w/o anyone even commenting on those 3 paragraph confessions of me, (I dont expect comments either) I still feel well.. Now it now varies on different person. Some can say that when a blog starts makign money then its starting to be successful and I cant argue with them….. Now its understandable that when a blog has been for more than 2 years, it becomes succesful because it says something about how that certain blogger has maintained and enjoyed blogging for that long…
September 15, 2008 at 11:05 am
Even before blogs where diaries they were just lists of links. Blogs were where people just logged sites they found interesting and wanted to share with other people. Blogs where originally not about unique content, but about linking to unique content.
September 15, 2008 at 7:31 am
The ability to specify the task is one of the key skills of a businessman.
September 15, 2008 at 7:28 am
You hit the nail on the head this time. It’s exactly true, if it’s your personal blog then write about what you care about, don’t try and be someone who your not.
I wrote a post yesterday relating to this about if your thinking about starting blogging 5 very good tips from my own experience:
http://bryn.me/2008/09/14/newbie-bloggers/
September 15, 2008 at 7:20 am
Wow, that is some hot revenue for one blog!!!
September 15, 2008 at 7:16 am
I couldn’t agree more. It’s got to be the starting point. Without good content. Word of mouth aint gonna happen. Without attracting users, advertisers won’t invest.
It’s a circle that starts with good content.
September 15, 2008 at 2:05 pm
I see blogs taking more of a marketing approach now. For instance right here we have adult toys on shoemoney.com lol
September 15, 2008 at 11:16 pm
can’t hate for trying to find a niche….
da dum dum shhhh….. ok bad joke.
September 15, 2008 at 7:12 am
It’s nice to see that money is not your motivating factor, ironically, that’s probably why your blog is so successful. If you’re just chasing the fast buck all the time, people eventually see through it and turn off.
I don’t believe you can be truly passionate about something and produce quality consistently if you’re always thinking of the financial ramifications in the background.
September 15, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Though money should not be the motivating factor, i would still feel there should be enough to at least cover costs…
September 15, 2008 at 6:57 am
What you have to remember when talking about websites versus TechCrunch or the like, is that you only have one person (or maybe a small team at best). Those websites have large teams to keep up. Shoemoney is doing great and you should be proud. I’d be curious to know how much of that 30k uniques a day is organic
September 15, 2008 at 11:15 pm
you’d be surprised how small some of these shops are.. anyone know the official headcount at techcrunch?
September 17, 2008 at 1:25 am
I believe there is 8 plus interns.
September 15, 2008 at 6:57 am
It depends why you are blogging that determines what a successful blog is. If you are blogging to make money then your blog will be successful when you make a lot of money. If you a blogging to make friend or become famous then your blog will be successful when you are famous.
Why you blog will always determine what a successful blog is. There is no one standard for everyone because everyone is different.
I might have a 30k readership but make no money. This would not be a successful blog for me as I want to make a full time wage from my blog.
What does everyone think about this?
September 15, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Remember the panel, me peeps…Remember the panel!
Chow spoke a little about your brand and when i comes to your blog brand it really comes down to your personality. There are only a few personalities out there so you are bound to find some that like what you have to say.
Ryan, I think you’re right about your definition of successful. In short, its having success at reaching “your goal.” What I do think is missing is really your niche. If you want to make money from blogging then you have to market your brand to a specific niche that will give that money.
Also, I don’t understand why there is a problem with having a passion to blog for money. If you are successful at it then you have a life that gives you a lot of opportunity to create and do things that you and your family wouldn’t be able to do if you had a “regular” job. Heck, sign me up for “my passion to blog for money!!!!” list.
To think about it, If i had a choice to be famous and make money from branding my thoughts to a high profit niche and being famous for my thoughts after i die and my family is living on pay check to pay check, then I choose the former with my head held high.
September 15, 2008 at 6:46 am
Excellent point there – 30k Uniques + Rss Vs TechCrunch’s Million Readers. Another thing to note down is Single Person Handed Blog Vs a Big Team/Group of Bloggers who create a big network. If shoemoney joins up with some big bloggers, creates a chain of blogs then obviously everything in the network would gain better name, fame and money.
Amit Bhawani
September 15, 2008 at 7:33 am
I think that blogging is unique hobby. The money here is not the main thing.
September 15, 2008 at 11:05 pm
If you are blogging or running a website for money… forget it… you won’t be able to put the shop up for long…
For instance… when i started JumboCasher.com i had in mind on day one to have no annoying ads or sponsors… that probabaly one reason it took off really well…
September 18, 2008 at 9:14 am
Not to mention the Make Money blog is a niche that is so saturated you’ll have almost no chance of making it unless you have some great new material.
September 18, 2008 at 12:43 pm
I don’t agree. I have a couple of sites that I run simply for the money.
A blog is too personal to be the same. The only way you can write so much about a topic is to enjoy it. That said there are ways to run a blog that you don’t enjoy and make money….Elance
September 15, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I bet he has thought of this.
September 16, 2008 at 1:13 am
I think this is not an effective approach to hire a big team of bloggers. Look at about.com — they have 750 bloggers/guides, and the most of the blogs are comments-empty.
Uniquness and connection with your audience is the key. Call it quality vs quantity.
September 16, 2008 at 6:33 am
Do you need About.com was started for getting comments on their blogs or have they already got the results in terms of group blogging efforts and getting paid in advance from google for the huge traffic. Not even 1% of the blogs out there are without any ads or are seriously for a passion. The clear point is everyone here is for money and information, show me some blogs which are being worked on heavily and the proceeds are given to charity.
Talking in public is easy to show off you are a real good peron by telling others you blog not for money though you really are doing the same for money!
September 17, 2008 at 1:23 am
The blog makes roughly $40k/month now.
Until the growth period – including more revenue occurs – that means blog revenue will be cut to pay other authors.
Which isn’t the greatest idea.
Also because, its Jeremy’s personal blog it kills the point for going multi-author
September 15, 2008 at 6:41 am
So great content is key, but certainly regularity lends something to that as well – do you feel that daily posting is a key part of the formula as well? Or can somebody post, say, once every 2 days _consistently_ from day 1 of their blog and still gain loyal readership? I’ve read some bloggers that have intentionally “cut back” their posting routine b/c they can be more consistent with posting every 2 or 3 days and they feel that being consistent is more important than trying to post daily and failing. Thoughts?
September 15, 2008 at 6:58 am
Being consistent is definately more important than posting 5 times a day and then giving up for a week or two and then trying again. Look at zenhabits.net
Leo posts just 3-4 times per week (sometimes a little more now) and he is super popular because he consistently writes quality posts. I think 1 posts a day is the best minimum when starting out…
What does everyone else think??
September 15, 2008 at 2:00 pm
I agree, however it is interesting to see how users react to a shortage of content.
September 15, 2008 at 11:03 pm
More than consistency it is the true dedication of the people behind the blog that will ultimately matter…
every one my at time leave the regularity of posting on their blog… Everyone takes time out sometime in a year or so… So a regularity can generally not be maintained throughout the year… what i am saying here is that it is rather difficult to maintain regularity…
however if the dedication exists… readers will remain when they know you are out and are comming back to your writing patern in a couple of days…
as long as a blogger has enough zeal in them to research and research and research and get the best of content… there is nothing stopping them…
September 18, 2008 at 9:13 am
I post a day is a good minimum but it is hard to maintain! Real life can take away your time unexpectedly so it’s a good idea to write an archive of posts which you can post if you don’t have time to write one that day.
September 18, 2008 at 12:42 pm
I think that it is a lot easier to grow your blog when you are writing a quality blog post once a day, but you have to be sure that there is no fluff. That one post a day must be good, and then the second can be fluff
September 15, 2008 at 6:36 am
I think having a name thats out there before you start a blog plays a massive role in its success Shoe. I remember when you posted on DP more so then you do now and saw everything unfold for you from almost nothing. Its good to see you are where you are it just proves hard work can pay off. The picture with the check is in my opinion what propelled you to the success you see today after that check.
September 15, 2008 at 2:02 pm
agree with you..
frequent updates, hard work, good content, CONTROVERSIES :p make a blog successful.
September 22, 2008 at 10:13 am
Controversies.? I dont want to get into any….
September 17, 2008 at 1:21 am
Having a name for yourself helps starting out.
Although having authority links from reviewme, openads blog and others helps too