Blogging Income Report 2018

This article was updated on April 22nd, 2018 at 03:52 am

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TLDR;

• Started blogging early but it took ten years to make sense.
• Kept blogging on the side while I did “real jobs”.
• Spent a decade helping others with digital marketing.
• Quit my job in US to return to India. (CNN Report)
• Switched to my own game, once cash flow got positive.
• Started off as freelancer but later incorporated a company in India.
• AdSense pays you peanuts.
• Makes 5 figure monthly income.
• Affiliates pay out is highest.
• Be an expert at something.
• Making money should not be your motivation.
• Follow your passion – money will come later.
• Don’t buy into get rick quick schemes.

“So, what exactly do you do Mani?”

Latest income report trend. (March 2018)

This is a question I get asked a lot. And I take it seriously every time. 5 Minutes. Is all I take to explain. May be 15. Because you know, there’ll be add-on questions usually.

Like “What is a blog?” or “The hell is AdSense?” etc.

Then, it often pins down to “So, how much do you really make?”. Then I accept defeat.

But hey, being a blogger is tough. All these explanations and you get asked “So, what is your real job?”.

You need some context here, to understand.

I started off my career at a bank. Not the high profile banker. An entry level, suck-your-life kinda job.

And of course, I hated it. This was soon out of college. I tried my hand at few other jobs too.

Apprenticeship at a Marketing agency. Junior graphic designer with a film studio. Marketing guy at a Telecom company and a few more.

I didn’t know what I wanted to be, but it was clear that whatever I did was temporary.  I sucked at every job. Why?

Because all the while, I was focused on the web. I had fallen in love with it the very first time I experienced it.

But since I didn’t know what to make out of it, I kept playing with it. Making hand-coded HTML websites, running phpBB forums, editing photos on Photoshop, creating GIFs in Fireworks, playing with 3D Max, animating with Flash, After-effects etc.

CNN Feature (Click to read)

I loved what I did, but it wasn’t paying me. So I kept my love with the web secret, while I was doing odd jobs.

And then blogging happened sometime in 2005. Worse, I read that someone from India was minting money with blogging.

Made me feel ridiculous. I mean, here I was doing the cool stuff on web for years now and I wasn’t making a dime (well, a few dollars with AdSense, but that’s it).

And so I took to blogging. I started journaling my experiments with managing my forums and creating websites. I didn’t even know it was called SEO, then.

And then it took off. I could now help some dude sitting half way around the globe with “SEO”. And it paid me well. Finally. Honey moon period ON.

But then a freelancer is a free-lancer. I approached a bank for home loan and that was it. End of honey moon.

So, I started looking out for “real-job” opportunities. Luckily, I didn’t have to try too hard but opportunities came at me. Be it the agency life in Dubai, or the startup scene in Silicon Valley.

I did a 2 year thing in Dubai, another 6 year stint in US. Worked with small and big companies alike. Went from pure SEO to full-stack marketing.

All the while, my love for blogging and internet grew. On the side, of course.

Long story short. I quit my job in US because I was making more on the side than what I was making on the job.

Sounds very cliche but it’s the truth. What did I do? Move back to India and set up my own company.

That’s where it is now. I work from my home office and have a distributed team from different parts of the world.

I have multiple websites under various niches that brings in the revenue.

When I started off, there were even more websites but then I narrowed in on few, that are on topics close to my heart, so I didn’t feel bored of them (especially when there’s no income).

Everything is an experiment. Sometimes you start out a blog in one niche and it flops! You learn from the mistakes and make sure you don’t repeat them in the next project.

Trust me, I’ve had hundreds of domains and multiple websites that at one point, it got really out of hand. Then I had to prune them and limit to a few I was serious about.

This page is where I’m hoping to share my performance generating income from all my online properties as an internet entrepreneur.

I was really hesitant to do this initially, because it felt like a show-off thing to me.

But now I think it’s a good way to challenge myself and put some pressure on, opening up income reports to public. Hope you like it.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vTqmjvm3i9JAlarlXU1vcUZgLAWFIgy4OyebPQcl7Cy3MEIVnoMhP9I1iSXU4lx5doZI_cganM-tIBi/pubhtml

I’m not a guru. I’m not asking you to quit your job and start blogging. This is just a way to show some transparency into what I do. I really don’t buy in to those “get rich quick” schemes and urge you not to as well.

Because most of the time, when someone shows you how to be rich on the internet, they’re going to sell you something. Well, I do too. I have affiliate links thrown all around this website and all my other properties, but I’m not promising you that buying those products will earn you dollars.

What really matters is not the tools or products you use, but your attitude and perseverance. I mean, keep in mind, it took me ten years to get to a level where I was satisfied with myself.

What gurus don’t tell you

• AdSense pays you peanuts. Don’t use it as your only source of income.
• It’ll take a lot of time to make it big. Perseverance is key.
• Starting off on your own is probably a good idea.
• But to scale, you need a team and help from others.
• Get everything covered legally. Don’t mess with law.
• Don’t try quick wins, they don’t work all the time.
• Be an expert at something – i.e is a lot of failures in one niche.
• Focus on one a few niches instead of everything that can be monetized.
• Learn from folks who’ve done it in the past.
• Get a mentor. He/she’ll show you where to step. Then you climb.

Can you do it as well?

The next question is…

So, if I start blogging, can I make $10K as well?

Well, I don’t have a simple answer to it. But I can clarify a few things.

There is no silver bullet solution I can share with you. I know there are several websites and gurus that promise you the stars and moon with blogging. Some secret formula, that if you replicate, that’ll earn you a fortune. Trust me, I’ve tried them. NONE of them works. Well, at least the ones I tried, didn’t work. But they sure taught me some lessons…

• There is no secret formula.
• You will not start earning from day one, or month one, or sometimes ever year one.
• Blogging is a long term game. Not a short cut to getting rich.
• It’s like growing a garden. You need to be patient.
• You need to water the “plants” and nurture it.
• The results will surely come for the hard working ones.

So, when people ask me if they can also make this much money, if they start blogging, I say no.

Not because they can’t. But I don’t want them to get in the game just for making money.

Because if you do, then you are setting the wrong expectations. If your interest is in making money overnight, try stock trading.

The odds of making big money quick, is more with stock trading than with blogging.

With blogging, you have to give it a lot of time.

Everyone who is successful with blogging has done it over a period of time. Starting it on the side with their other job.

So, what do I recommend?

Start blogging on the side, along with your “real job”

Don’t ever make the mistake of quitting your job to start blogging. You will be disappointed.

Instead, since you have the money and time (and a real job), I recommend that you start playing with blogging, while you have a real job. Now.

Play with it, experiment with it, try it out and see if it makes sense. Or more important, do you enjoy it.

Like I said, it’s like gardening. You have to attend to it daily, be patient, and nurture it for a long time before you see the fruits.

Not everyone will enjoy it. So, think again.

If you want to make it big, blogging is a great opportunity. It needs some investment. But if you give it some time, you can earn big, later.

But if you are looking for a short cut to make money, it is clearly not it.

Give it a try, start slow & play with it

So, start with some really basic stuff and give it a try. May be you’ll enjoy it.

If you do, then like me, you have an opportunity to make a living, doing something you’ll love. No boss, no deadlines, your own game.

No boss, no deadlines, your own game.

If you are interested to learn, I can perhaps help. Subscribe with your email id and I’ll send you the details.

You’ll get step by step directions on how to get started in your journey.

If you have any questions, shoot me an email or comment below. Or you could also ping me on WhatsApp. (+0014084894785)

Cheers!