The life of most blogs is short. Some claim 95% of blogs fail.

If the only reason someone starts a blog is to make money online, I can understand why they quickly give up.

But, aside from making money with a blog, it makes me wonder why bloggers not only decide to start a blog, but what inspires them to continue when the failure rate is so high.

Today’s Lesson

Like many others, one of the reasons I started blogging was to *hopefully* make a passive income. After experimenting with several advertising platforms, I quickly realized a blog wasn’t a venue I could get rich with.

But by that time, I was enjoying all of the elements of blogging, so I just kept posting.

Traffic built s-l-o-w-l-y, as did comments.

In the process, what happened was, you, my fellow bloggers, let me know I  wasn’t alone in how I felt about blogging and blogging issues.

I felt validated. Inspired to continue on.

The odds weren’t in my favor, but I have your support*.

That, is what keeps me going.

What about you?

Today’s Assignment

Why did you start blogging?

With such a high failure rate of blogs, what keeps you going?

Care to share?

Thank you to all of you who continue to not only read my blog, but share your thoughts in the comment section. I am truly grateful.

Truth be told, it can be you.

All it takes is hours.

Lots of hours.

Today’s Lesson

In the book, Outliers: The Story of Success*,one of the items Malcolm Gladwell (the author) credits for the success of many, is how 10,000 hours of practice appears to be the magic number needed to reach our full potential.

Obviously the more time we spend practicing anything, we should get better at it.

So what about blogging?

Does it take 10,000 hours to become a blogging phenomenon?

To get a better perspective of what 10,000 hours looks like, let’s do some math.

If we work 40 hours a week (full-time), by year-end we will have worked 2080 hours. Thus, in approximately five years (5 x 2080 = 10,400), we hit that 10,000 hour mark.

If 10,000 hours is the secret recipe for success, the same should hold true for blogging.

Right?

Personally, I think it depends how we spend our blogging time and how we define success.

If we have a game plan, focus on providing quality content, have determination as well as a good grasp on our topic, know how to drive traffic to our site, are willing to experiment and learn from our mistakes, understand the workings of the internet and get our name “out there”, I think we can see success sooner.

Not only that, but if we’re told we won’t see success until we’ve banked 10,000 hours, we’re apt to give up before we start.

What say you?

Today’s Assignment

How long have you been blogging?

How many hours would you say you’ve blogged thus far?

Do you think a blogger can fast track their success or do you think a blogger needs to put in their time just like everyone else before they’ll be a blogging phenomenon?

Care to share?

Photo Credit: Cookieater 2009

*Affiliate link

With blogging you’ll often hear the words, “link love”, but the technical term is “referral”.

In fact, if you look at your statistics, you see a category under the same name. Click on the links and you’ll see who and how someone is linking to your blog. (These are also known as “inbound links”.)

Today’s Lesson

With traffic coming to our blogs from a variety of sources, referrals could have the biggest impact. After all, these are fellow bloggers announcing our blog, product or services are worth checking out.

These inbound links can bring us more traffic and increased sales.

Being listed in the blogroll of a fellow blogger is another way we get referrals.

Being tweeted or Facedbooked about, helps too.

Personally, I like linking to others in my posts, but let’s look at what a few other bloggers are doing.

Here’s a small sampling of bloggers who use a blogroll:

1. Chase March of Silent Cacophony shows “Blogs to Check” in his sidebar.
2. The Farmer’s Wife lists “People I Read”
3. On Tammy’s Studio, you’ll find a category named “links”.
4. Susan Deborah, over at Meanderings and Reflections, titled her blogroll: “Let us go then you and I…”

You’ll also see bloggers doing extensive (and time-consuming) list posts:

1. Praveen of Geeks4Share wrote a post titled, “List of 60 High PR [page rank] Do Follow Blogs That Use CommentLuv

Other examples include:

1. Gail at Grow Map, who uses Twitter to “tweet” or “retweet” the blog posts of others.
2. Betsy at Passing Thru, includes the names of “Online All Stars” (bloggers) on her “Services” page and provides short write ups, as well.
3. Wendi and Deb of Blue Sun Studio include links to fellow bloggers in their ezine (newsletter).

Although some bloggers feel if they link to others they’ll lose readership, I’ve found the reverse is true.

It’s all about karma and good things will come back to us tenfold.

How sweet is that?

Today’s Assignment

Do you fear linking to others will negatively affect your readership?

If not, what is your favorite way of promoting the work of fellow bloggers?

Care to share?

P.S. This is the perfect opportunity for me to thank all of you who include me in your blogrolls, link to my posts and help to promote my blogs. I am truly humbled and honored to not only be mentioned, but to be your online friend. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

In the article, Should the Internet Be Taxed, WebPro News shared:

On Friday [July 1, 2011], a new California state law goes into effect that will tax Internet sales through affiliate advertising. Rather than pay such taxes, online retailers like Amazon will instead shut down their affiliate programs in the state. For Amazon, that is said to come to 25,000 sites in California alone.

Amazon has told affiliates in the past that they’d have to move to another state to continue earning commissions on referrals. Overstock.com has reportedly done that before too.

Some groups representing brick and mortars feel the law should be extended on a national level, claiming the taxes take away competitive advantages from Internet retailers that don’t have a physical presence in a particular state. Consumers are able to avoid fees from purchasing from these retailers that they’d otherwise have to pay by buying in-state.

My heart goes out to these affiliates. Hopefully this issue can be resolved in an amicable way.

Today’s Lesson

I think it’s great how us bloggers can potentially make an income from our blogs. It not only covers our overhead, but can also lead to new opportunities and even self employment.

And with the economy remaining slow, every little bit helps.

That said, anyone in business knows it’s not wise to put all of our eggs into one basket. Anytime we rely solely on one client for our livelihood , we set ourselves up for potential problems. If our star client dies, files bankrupty, goes out of business, hires our competitor, or ___(fill in the blank)___, our income stops. Sadly, the bills don’t.

I think there’s an important lesson to be learned here.

If we bloggers continually put our trust into one or two big named businesses, happily promoting the products/services of others, and wait with baited breath to receive our piddly commission checks, we could be setting ourselves up for disappointment and even financial ruin.

Just like when big banks and big government go down, the same can happen to us.

Trust in others is one thing, but when that trust could be broken on a moments notice, we soon realize our trust was misplaced.

Making money with a blog by using affiliate links or Google AdSense is one of the easiest routes to go, however our livelihood is in the hands of others.

Maybe it’s time we start thinking how we can do it on our own*.

What say you?

Today’s Assignment

Did you get caught up in the California tax law dilemma?

What do you think is the best way to protect ourselves from situations like this?

Care to share?

*Watch for an upcoming article where I share how fellow bloggers are making money with their blogs as well as ideas on how to diversify.

I include a donate page on some of my blogs and am always grateful for those who have used it (you know who you are. ), but…I don’t expect my visitors to make a contribution.

Unless I’m hired to design a custom header or ADvatar, the information I offer is free.

Today’s Lesson

I don’t mind seeing donate buttons considering how blog, plugin and theme authors are providing valuable information, for free. I see it as a way for them to be compensated for their knowledge, talent or services.

But the question is, do they work?

Or, do they make the blog, plugin or theme author seem greedy or needy? Or, make it look like they’re panhandling?

Based on what I’ve seen, I believe donate badges or pages can work, however unless we put the donate link in front of our readers, chances are they won’t see it, nor will a reader realize donating is an option.

I used a plugin named “Buy Me A Beer” which also had an option for “Buy Me A Coffee”. A click on the button would take you to the blog author’s PayPal account where you could enter the amount you’d like to give. (The plugin appears to be retired.)

I liked the plugin, but when I cleaned up my blog, I removed it and opted for a “Donate” page.

If donating is something you’d like to add to your blog, setting up a donate widget would be easy. Just find an image of a glass of beer, cup of coffee, tip jar, or…, add your own copy, code it to link to your PayPal account and voilà, there it is.

Or, set up a “Donate” page and include the link and button PayPal provides.

Today’s Assignment

Do you use a donate page or widget on your blog? If so, are readers using it?

Do you, or would you donate to a blog, plugin or theme author?

Or do you view a donate button/badge as a form of panhandling and ignore them?

Care to share?

P.S. The coffee cup image in this post is free for you to use. Just right-click on it and hit “save as”.