(or 5 Bitter Things You Must Know Before You Start Blogging)
Last week, I received an email from one of my friends that read: Please provide me some information on how to start good blogging and earn a few bucks from it!
It was not the first time I have been asked in that way. I had a few requests from people who want to begin blogging and earn. Primarily for them, here is my list of 5 truths about blogging:
1. Setting up a blog is easy
Setting up a blog for you is as easy as opening an email address. There are free services such as wordpress.com and blogger.com which lets you begin a blog for free. Just click on sign up button, fill in the details and your blog is ready.
Writing a new entry [or post] for your blog is also quite easy. Click on new post button after logging in and write down the headline and text and click on post/publish button.
2. … but running a blog is very difficult
Setting of a blog is very easy but then having the passion to run in for a long time [which is necessary if you want something – little money, fame or recognition – from it. As many other bloggers in the world, I have myself, despite being known among many as a pioneer blogger, have found it hard to continue maintaining blog.
Sometime, we don’t have time, sometime no subject to write on and sometime when we have time and subject, no energy to write it. A lot of time, especially if your blog is not very popular, you question yourself why are you writing.
3. Blogging does not give instant cash [or sometime does not earn at all]
Money is a big attraction. Some bloggers earn their livings from it; but a very large number of them earn very little or nothing from their blogs. If you set up blog in WordPress.com, remember you cannot put advertisements on it and thus earn nothing.
My experience with Google Adsense is not very encouraging one. I earned about US$10 a month from this site in its early days [and that was the time when I used to write regularly]. I then decided not to put it on this site. Even with UWB!, an immensely popular blog during the Royal Regime, I don’t remember getting a 100 dollar check in one month, so if you are looking for money from your blog, think of other business unless you have a very concrete plan to do something to earn.
4. Blogging is not about money
Therefore blogging is not about money. If you read my article about why people blog in Nepal, you will know what can be motivation to blog.
5. Blogging does not make you famous
And, one more bitter truth about blogging – it does not make you famous. Well, there are every chance that a few dozens of people will read your blogs and will comment on your writing, there is no guarantee that blogging will make you famous [sometime even after blogging for many years]. One thing, for sure, is that if you maintain your blog for a long time writing consistently on some specific topic, you will have thousand people knowing you.
Becoming famous is to cash on the opportunities. Bad events are good opportunities – like the Royal Takeover was for me and many others; Tsunami was for many bloggers in Asia.
Now here are some links to my previous entries that could prove useful in understanding/getting more information on the topics I mentioned in this entry:
- Right tool to blog – a short entry on choosing best tool to blog
- Blog Rocks – Blog coverage of ongoing fight for democracy in Nepal shows the beauty of blogs
- Welcome to Blogosphere – an introductory article on blogging as published in The Kathmandu Post
- Why Nepalese Blog – Motivation behind blogging for Nepali bloggers
- Nepali Blogs as Alternative Media – crossroad for blogging and journalism and how Nepali blogging fulfilled the role of alternative media
- Promoting Blogging – some tips on promoting your blogs after setting up and writing a few entries
If you want to add anything about blogging or link to things/your blog entries, you are welcome!
