As bloggers the number one reason why we blog is to earn a passive income from our blog although many of us blog for many different reasons. We will explore the number one reason why we blog and that is obviously to make money although we see from my last post that some people blog for fun. The big question is should we start monetising our blog or should we build our authority first? This may sounds a bit thought provoking but as bloggers what do you do first start building your authority or monetise your blog, by building authority i meant building a community having a solid network of bloggers and readers.
Building authority and monetising to me both walk hand in hand however, there is an old saying that goes you can’t have your cake and eat it, same goes for bloggers. I strongly believe that if you start building your authority before you begin monetizing our blog then the chances of making money becomes greater. i must warn you this is my personal opinion there are no scientific facts to back this up but in reality this is obvious. Building Authority is a way of having a network of bloggers, readers and subscribers around you, this will serve you well as with this network you can gain their trust and they will help to promote your Blog. How building authority will help you may ask? Building a network of trusted bloggers and followers will be at your advantage because if you are trusted then very one around you will believe in what you do or offer. A perfect example is Hesham of famous bloggers he uses thesis theme on his blog that means if he recommends it you would trust him that it is good theme.
Blogging is not a ones man game I guest you have heard that before, so build your authority first then after that it is time to start monetizing your blog with a network of bloggers , readers and subscribers around you they will help to attract new readers who will potentially becomes customers. Monetising is on every if not all bloggers agenda how you do it is up to you , there are many different ways to choose from, you have Google adsense , selling E-books and or advertising space.
Now what is your take in this do you believe that you should build a network first or do you start monetising straight away? Share with us what you think is the best way of doing this. What method of monetising works best for you and did you build your authority first or start making money straight away. Thanks for reading this far your comment is important feel free to share your thoughts.
I think building authority is a critical first step for any blogger who’s ultimate goal is to make money. However, I also believe that a person can begin monetizing on a small scale.
Speaking from my own experience, I started right off with some Google ads on my blog. At first, I didn’t make much money from it but I don’t feel it hurt my blogging effort. I used it more for a learning tool to see what type of ads worked.
What I do not recommend is making blatant sales pitches and recommending products to an audience that does not know or trust you.
Great post Gary and it was thought provoking. 🙂
Thanks Robert that is what i believe when i started i have similar thoughts yes to make money however i soon realize that i need to focus and building relationship and marketing myself before the money would flow in .
Building authority is very hard. I can reccomend to choose one topic that isn’t too competitive, and try to be the best in that topic. Try to build authority in a topic like “making money online” are become very hard because is satured.
You are absolutely right Nicola it is best to choose a topic that is not too saturated and also one that you are very comfortable with as for making Money Online there is some many so called Gurus out there.
Building authority is a tedious task. To monetize your site you need to have trust of your readers.Those bloggers who just want to monetize their sites without buliding trust fail and hence quit blogging .
What i believe is that building trust and monetizing goes hand in hand. Just my opinion.
Btw an excellent post Gary 🙂 .This post will help new bloggers a lot.
Thanks Shabnam building authority can be a tedious task however as bloggers facing some of the biggest and toughest competition in our industry we should all realize by now that nothing comes easy.
this is a really tricky question, I also have been thinking of this for the past few days, that’s why I’m kind of stuck on what to blog about on my next post (if a review or a resource type content).
But after thinking over it, I’ve realized that to really attain both is to constantly blog, everyday if it’s possible, wherein you can split your daily entries from resources and the ones where you can earn from. However, requiring yourself to write daily will risk the quality of your contents. So I guess it’s still best to do blog postings moderately.
It is a real tricky one Jason however every thing we do as bloggers has its ups and downs however to gain success this is where we have to choose or make chioces in trcky situation like this. Thanks for your comment food for thought Jason
I agree with you, authority should come first. that is how I go on with my blogs, monetizing from the start is cool of you are building an adsens niche blog, but for regular blogs like yours and mind, building authority and network should come first.
If you can get the traffic and some action going on your blog it is not hard to monetize it, but if you try to monetize from the start you may lose that in the process. Well, in the end, that is just my experience from my own blogs, but I’m sure there are people that managed to do both at the same time with no problems!
Thanks Zarko your input is much appreciated and i agree with you if you are starting an adsense niche blog then i think it is right to monetise early that does not means that you would forget to build your authority also. good point Zarko very valid one
Website owners must build authority first and then monetize after wards because you can have many possible clients if you’ll start with working your popularity.
Thanks Peter i believe that is the right way to build your autority first then monetise after however what if you were starting a subscription service or some service? then the roles good be reversed.
Completely agree with you. You need to have an authority first. This is one of the perquisites for success in blogging. Building authority will certainly help in gaining trust of your esteemed readers. Thus they are more likely to visit you often and again which is what you expect in the end. And once you have those visits, I am pretty much sure that money making online can be quite easy then. Just need to be thinking, experimenting and placing right ads @ right places. It should work 🙂
Thanks Aswani good point you made here although as with Shabnam’s point building your Authority can be tedious but gaining readers trust will certainly bring back repeated visitors.
I think that both should be done at a time. But, if you are just starting your career as a blogger with a first blog then authority surely comes first. 🙂
Nice post btw. 🙂
Both can be done at the same time but you may not get the best result it is like having your cake and eating it
Simple formula Authority is directly proportional to income.
Thanks for the input authority should definately be done before starting to monetise our blog i strongly believe this will yeild better results.
Very useful factor of newbie bloggers like me !
I think that , we should first develop and influence search engines by topping charts and getting good SEO status .
Then any network you try for , you will easily monetize as monetizing depends on the content and authority of your site / blog 🙂
Developing an online influence is the best way to go about blogging if we manage to achieve this then when it comes to monetising it will be much easier.
maybe authority comes first.without it,no one will trust u and be interested in ur products.
Thanks for your comment here and i do hope to have you around taking part in further discussion thanks for the heads up
Hi, thanks for the insight, certainly gave me food for thought.
Is there any reason that the two cannot be built up together? Can they not run parallel?
The possibility exist Matt however way you look at it we shuold go for the one that will bring us the best results starting to monetise before building your authority do works but does not always brings the best results.
Authority should definitely come first. Monetization is every bloggers goal, although the process of blogging can be enjoyable itself.
By building Authority you prove that you know what your talking about first. Try to monetize too early and it is easy to seem like a scammer or someone out to simply make a quick buck.
That is the popular belief steve because the bigger the following the the better the chance of you success making money online is not a walk in the park.
I cannot imagine someone who would try making money before they build up mass. The technique just doesn’t work.
Your are spot on peter but onfortunately some bloggers do because of the perception that money can be made in three clicks.
Totally agree with Peter . Trying to make money too soon will not work for any blog. Until your blog is popular you are not even going to be able to attract any decent advertisers, and if someone would want to pay to place their product on unpopular blog, that would be because the product is so lousy no other reputable blog wants to touch it.
Build authority ALWAYS first. Monetizing too soon could ruin your site, while building a great reputation will set you up for future sustained success. Keep it up this blog is doing great!
seo is great techniques to bulid and rank your website in search engine. we are provide free seo services to rank up your website.
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