While I've set clear monetary goals for my blogging, money certainly isn't the reason I blog. It'd be absolutely ridiculous to get into blogging if money was your primary reason to do so. First of all, you'd suck at it and wouldn't make much money anyway, secondly, blogging is an extremely inefficient way to make money - so if it's money you're after you should do something else. I mean, there's lots of work involved, and the chances of a good financial reward - compared to doing other things - are tiny at best. To make a good living doing this you pretty much have to be among the very best in the world. And nobody will be among the very best in the world doing something just for the money.
So while I do expect to make a good few dollars doing this, I think money really is a
benefit of blogging and not a
reason to blog. If money was something that really motivated me I would have stayed at my job as an investment banker, because I certainly made more money doing that than what I do now with my tiny consulting business. Money should never be your reason to do anything if you
really want to be happy in your life. What you make money on should be so enjoyable that you'd do it for free anyway. That gives you eight hours more per day, and it vasty increases your chances of making some
good money too. And if you don't, who cares, you're still rich in a way that most people are not.
When I first started blogging I didn't even consider making any money on it directly. I wanted to blog because I enjoy writing, I have stuff I want to get out to more people, and I think blogging is a great way to do just that - it's direct, instant and interactive. I thought it'd be good for branding purposes - which would make me money indirectly - but I didn't think I could make much money from advertising etc. This was a while ago, though, and then I started hearing about people driving mad traffic and having ads etc and pocketing a nice amount of cash every month, I went "hmmmmmm....." and pretty much realized that as the benefits of blogging seemed to be on the increase, the reasons not to fell away one by one.
As stated by Bloggeries: "I bet most of the people who genuinely take it as a hobby make more money then those who do it for the money." I second that. Big time.
Anyway, gotta quit these late night rants. The reason why I go on about this, I think, is that I see people at places like Digital Point getting into blogging for the money. These kids would be greatly helped by realizing that there is other stuff they can do which is much more likely to help them achieve
both their monetary and their personal goals. They'd probably make more money flipping burgers, and even if they do ok with blogging (fat chance....) I think there's no way they'd be able to do it long term and find any sort of fulfillment in it. After all, it really doesn't matter how far you climb the ladder if it's leaning against the wrong wall.