Don't get greedy.

[SenseToday]

Stop thinking about dollar signs, and start thinking about content. I have found that many of my colleagues in the blogosphere started a blog with the sole aim of trying to earn money, and most have them have failed miserably. The greed takes over, chews up your blog, and spits it out with no regard for your hopes or dreams. When you start a blog, start it because you actually have something to share with the world. Start it because you want to fill a void that you feel the internet has. Start it because you feel passionate about something and you want to spread that passion to the masses. But don’t start it to make money. Money will come in time, but if you don’t have a real interest in what you are blogging about, then your blog never even had a chance in the first place.

Remember: readers can tell if the author is passionate or not about the subject matter. If you create a “MAKE MONEY ONLINE” website, but you have NEVER made money online, and all you see are dollar signs, do you really think that the reader won’t notice that you don’t know what the hell you are talking about? You simply can’t duplicate a passionate or exciting article if you have no passion or excitement regarding what you are blogging about.

If you don’t think you have anything interesting, think about it another way: When you are having conversations with friends, is there anything that you consistently know more than them about? Is there anything that you talk about, that other people REALLY listen to? I think that we all have something we enjoy, and when we talk about those things the enthusiasm spills out into our words; that’s what you blog about.

[anonymous]

Great advice, this is why I have one blog and I am passionate about it.

[Dr. Teeth]

Content is the King!
As long as you got unique content, traffic and income is no big deal.

[FELEX84]

Content is a core of blog ,just like you own a shop,if you have lousy products at the shop,you won't have a constant customers/loyalty customer .Our objective to blog is to write the content/info from out heart-but is not to monetize it at the first place.We have always question ourself "Why should readers visit my blog?How can i help readers from my post and so on...."I am still learning everyday to brush up my contents.Sometimes ,i will edit my old post which i found that is too empty and i will add in useful tools and resources to help readers to get what they want.

[CaffinePhil]

Originally Posted by sdfaheem

Content is the King!
As long as you got unique content, traffic and income is no big deal.

I wouldn't 100% agree with this. You can have the best content in the world but you still have to have a clue about getting it out there.

I have 3 blogs, I do not dedicate as much time to them as I like but I all the content is unique and in my own style. I don't blog purlely for money but it is an incentive. The next project will probably not have any advertising at all.

[Bloggeries]

Good advice!

The blogosphere is no different then most businesses. If you only think about making money you won't. You have to think about delivering value. Everyone who makes a dime online or offline does so because they give value to the person purchasing the service / product. If there is no value there is at least perceived value by the client or they wouldn't spend their money.

Create value and you'll create an income stream.

Thanks for posting this and hope to see you around,

[Harald Johnsen]

This is so true. You can work day out and day in to bring people to your blog, and have great advertising on your site, but there's only so much you can do yourself. Without great content no one is going to hang around, no one is going to link to it, and the search engines will treat it like the pile of crap it is (SEO really is about having a quality site these days, according to most experts). Besides, you'll have no love for your blog, hence your blog will end up down drain sooner than you think. Content is more important than anything. If you don't care about your blog (meaning: your content) no one else is going to care much either.

[thenetfool]

I disagree, money is king. If you have the money to show for it, people will follow you.
Case in point, John Chow.... terrible content, awesome reader/fan following. Content comes second to success in a lot of cases.

[liquidkiddie]

Originally Posted by thenetfool

I disagree, money is king. If you have the money to show for it, people will follow you.
Case in point, John Chow.... terrible content, awesome reader/fan following. Content comes second to success in a lot of cases.

Often it's not value but perceived value (which is what Rob said). John Chow is basically saying with his blog "this is how you make money online, and here's how I did it". Of course, he's selling a dream with his blog.

Of course, do I think it's good? No, it's terrible, it's just shilling of reviews and products, with a few guest posts here and there. Same with digital point, it's popular, but not good. Nevertheless, they're both successful ventures as they both have a perceived value.

Of course, everybody on here's much more intelligent to see otherwise

[SnavE]

Definitely good advise. Plus I think having good content is a step towards making money with a blog.