Can a beginner Blogger Make a living only Blogging

I Had a question. I am unfortunately locked out out adsense program because my adsense account is linked to some other blog which will never be approved (i.e blog is dead). In my blogger login, adsense apply is greyed out, therefore I had a look at other publishers. 

For now my blog is hosting ad from infolinks, but I want to know which is the best ad program aside from Adsense. And any tutorials to learn about managing ads in a manner that it does not break flow of blog content.

All this is for my personal learning, dont want to focus on any monetization from blog but ya, who would say no to extra cash. My main effort for learning about ads is so that I can self host the blog on a paid server.

well thanks again everyone for the sharing thoughts i agree there can be a point where bloggers start focusing on money as an outcome of the effort but there is nothing wrong in that as long as we keep the readers happy

Winning contests is at best an encouragement... it can never replace a regular monthly income.

My belief is that blogger should be concerned about winning contests... as this is one thing that will tell them if they are writing what people want to read. Or am I wrong here? I think this isn't the most accurate observation so consider winning as just something that resembles a pat on your back. :)

Bit late to the party, but I'll share my experience here.

Some of you might know me as the batshit insane puzzle dude who roamed these forums a year and so ago. Some of you might know me as the guy whose news articles Vijay (who I am very grateful to) keeps sharing.

Either way, back in 2011, I was just a regular low-self-esteem fellow without much going on. I was just starting to get into this puzzle thing, and in December I created my first puzzle. Since it was all the rage in the International Puzzle community, I started a blog to put up my content, not really expecting anything *shrugs*.

My blog had a target of having a puzzle a day on it, and I kept to this target for almost a year, no matter what, even when I got interested parties publishing my puzzles for money (not much money, very little actually, but since there was no money in it previously, this was an infinity increase, as they say). Even after said almost-year, I kept to a regular schedule, gaining a reputation, getting new projects and assignments, and so on.

Now? I'm not regular at all on my blog. Instead of having puzzles on it, the most recent posts are recaps about my time at the World Championships, or announcing some new project. Somewhere along the line I also stopped being regular on this forum with you fine blogging folk. The reason for this is I now have so many projects that it takes up all of my time. My current online posting is at GM Puzzles, a US website with publishing projects and so on, and yes I get paid for this, and I am one of 6 International puzzle authors there. I am also heavily involved in all the planning of the Indian puzzle group, including organizing the National Puzzle and Sudoku Championships this past year.

So where on earth am I going with this rambling speech? Basically, none of this would've happened if I hadn't decided to start a blog, and then hadn't been dedicated to it enough to post regularly even when I had stuff like other projects, college exams and what not simultaneously. The last two years have seemed like 20 years, but I feel its been worth it just to get that level of respect among my peers. Any pay that comes my way is seemingly a bonus, but also an added incentive to stay in this.

This is not a done deal yet either. Though I'm earning a humble amount, its still not enough to stay in puzzles permanently (my equivalent of your question about staying in blogging, since I literally have a puzzle blog), which is something I intend to do. Its been a long struggle and it'll probably be more till I finally get to a place where I'm comfortable.

TL;DR - From my experience, as long as you know its going to be a hard slog, have a good idea of what your regular content will be and are prepared to be in it for the long run through the bad times, yes you can stay in blogging (or anything with some financial purpose to it). The gain may be direct or indirect, but there's a good chance it comes if those previous variables are all there, and also, to be blunt, if you're really good at what you do. The 'safe' bet would still be to stay at your day job, if you have one.

Some more experience sharing please  some more inspiration !

Yes and No.  I have many friends who earn around 50k to 5 lakhs a month but to reach that stage they have poured in years of hard work.  I dont think its is possible now a days unless you have a gamechanger idea brewing somewhere in a garrage

I get that, gamechanger Idea is difficult to come before starting, it may unfold somewhere, someday. 

We have all talked about what and how much bloggers have earned. I'd love to know what these bloggers who earn millions, actually write? Or do they write at all?

Hey Kanuj, I was looking at the responses by others and agree with Hunky. You CAN MAKE MONEY THROUGH BLOGGING. 

From my personal experience, I have been making money and so can now say this with full confidence. 

If you ask how much can you make one year down the line, I would say that probably to be a vague question because if you build a blog and just publish rehashed posts and don't promote your posts, you won't earn anything, not even after 5 years. 

Create a blog in a niche you're passionate about, and as Hunky said, look for the investment opportunities. If you don't have much to invest, then hop to some other niche. For example, if you create a blog about software products realted to some specific niche, it's not always needed to purchase the product, you can review the product by asking from the owner. And why only reviews, you can sell ad spaces directly, publish sponsored posts, monetize with AdSense, Chitika and similar ads, make money as ClickBank affiliate, give services to clients through your blog (example: if you write on tech niche, you can provide writing services). 

So, first write, publish and promote and show your expertise over the subject through your blog. Once done, create several monetization options on your blog. And finally, don't forget to promote your blog in order to bring in targeted traffic (please note: not traffic, but targeted traffic that converts) to your blog.

Like all business needs a strategy, you just need a good and the right strategy set forth in blogging to make money. 

Thanks Mainak for a positive reply, good to hear, you are able to do what many starters want to do down the line. thanks a lot for the encouragement 

It definitely is possible to earn from the blog but it takes years of hard work, loads of patience, dollops of sweat and you must have the ability to churn out high quality unique content on a consistent basis (3-4 posts monthly).

I started my travel blog in 2009 and it has only been in the last two years that I started to earn a decent amount from it.

Also do not fall for doing sponsored posts for topics that are not your niche. I have rejected so many of those online gambling sponsored posts even though some are ready to pay as high as 500 USD per post.

All the best Kanuj 

Now I am jumping to the party.

For those who didn't come for that wordup thingy, basically they talking about SEO, yeh, woh this that- most of it doesn't apply now because out of all the 2 speakers- 2 are an exception. One is a BJP fellow. and one is a Youtube lady.

For others, if you observe they have started websites at the time blogging was not a big deal.  2005-2009. SEO was a ohhhh-aaah at the time when it worked, now its not really that effective. By the time 2010~2014 came, these speakers have started earning money and they already have established readerbase. Ofcourse maintaining it is another challenge. Remember, if you want earn out of blogging- you're not exactly running a blog. Its no different from running an online publication because you spend a lot more time on research and testing, etc. One thing that I strongly disagree to is what fonearena said. He said that one shouldn't be shy to charge money for exposure. Boss, considering that this came from fonearena's owner- I question the credibility of their reviews and news. There are ways you can earn money out of this, but money for review is a sham. I hope that I misunderstood what he was trying to say, but alas it didn't seem that way. Many people say: I want to earn from blogging. But how many of you are ready to treat it like a publication: work 4 times harder and expect no money out of it. If you do get money out of it, put it on the publication to promote, push and for resources, paying bills, etc. Work harder, put more hours into it, sacrifice your social life on most counts, listen to the constant nagging, learn self discipline considering you're going to do it from your house and keep a mindset that all of this can still go down the drain. Get a part time job similar to your field where you can work from home. You get paid, you read a lot of information and sometimes you get connected with a series of people which is also beneficial for your and your own website. You have to work hard and you have to work smart. Everyone is your competition, including the garbage review blogs that basically copy paste specifications and post it as a review. I've seen that Asus Zenfone promo where one of the top 10 guys posted a 'review'. Whom are you trying to fool????Also,  stick to one niche. Don't switch to another niche just because it feels that the potential readerbase is low. I remember so many PRs saying "post about mobile phones and tablets because PC is dying!". I have seen the opposite. PC is where you review about components like CPU coolers- air and water, processor, motherboard, memory sticks, hard drive- mechanical and SSD- SATA III, PCIe and M.2 based, graphic card, PC Cases, external storage drives- mechanical and Flash based further categorised to SSD or flash drive, keyboard, mouse, speakers, sound card- both external and internal. It further roots down to NAS storage, thunderbolt, etc. Max to max I will do notebooks if I get them. My bounce rate these days never go above ten. Its always between 5-8%. This is google analytics we're talking about.

You look at techtree.com, back in the 90s they sticked with PCs and hardware related to PC hardware. Then they slowly shifted to mobile because apparently it was a thing- which pissed off their existing readerbase because the quality has gone down, even though they used to have 10-20 staff back then. Recently, they tried to make a comeback but it was not possible. End of the day, after the brand shifted between 2-3 management, now they only publish press releases consdering the URL has a value with the name "techtree". CHIP as a magazine shut down- same shit. PCWorld- dead. (Both are exception because they are magazines? No!). Tech2 is in such a mess. Digit is the same, though their design is better than Tech2. Now lets look at the other side of the fence. The non-media media. Indian Video Gamers. They seem to be doing pretty well and they have a good forum crowd. JAGS- Just another gaming site. They seem to be doing well. There are more sites. What's the common thing you'll find? No matter how small the niche may look like to the person who aren't really in the scene, there's a LOT to talk about. If you don't have the eye to pick them out and post it- and be consistent? Forget about it. Its best that you shut down your blog and call it quits. At the very least, its one less BS blog in the blogging ecosystem. Whether you are doing it for yourself or others, do it right or do everyone a favour by not running a blog. more than 90% of the tech bloggers are garbage, and because of these guys, the rest of the good and aspirational / potential tech bloggers find it difficult to interact with brands, respected in his surroundings, line of work, companies, people, etc.  

Well! Don't hold back! tell us how you really feel!!

I agree with the general gist of what you say, there, Sorcerer. Don't be a sheep blogger folowing the other dumb sheep. Back in the last century, I used to run a software products company I had many offers to get into the education side which was just starting to wake up, with the NIITs and the Aptechs etc. I resisted and we became pioneers and the SME's in our field which was access control / attendance systems. Small niche market but I counted ITC, HLL, DRDO, Pepsi, Reckitt and other such companies as clients (for a decade of repeat business) and made a fair amount of money in the process.

The truth is as Sorcerer said, find your niche and become THE AUTHORITY. Whether it is a tech blog or a personal blog.

1. Find your voice

2. Practice it

3. Market it

One point #3, I have been asking myself whether Indiblogger is right for my blog. It doesn't seem to fit in to the general tone of the blogs I see here. I don't write short stories that are poignant and full of pathos, reincarnation, ghosts and marriage breakups. I just write essays, some poetry, and stories of my experiences.Even my cricket posts don't mean much there.

I had a look at Blogadda and that makes absolutely no sense to me. Apparently the folks there find bloggers worthy of being awarded but I don't see how, the website is really busy and overall I don't see that a quiet blog like mine stands a chance in that little fish market of a site

But: Am I going to change my blog and suddenly start writing weirdly contrived posts about Borosil or some travel site or some cell-phone or whatever?

Correct answer: NO!

I have a voice that works for me, I'm comfortable with it, it does not sound contrived, this is how I talk, and I think I'm starting to say it well. I'm startig to develop a regular set of visitors who leave noit just comments but have conversations with me. With time it will grow. This blog (in it's present avatar) is just going to be 2 years old next week. I can see it is moving in the right direction, I'm becoming more confident with what I say and how I say it and the regular readers are coming to chat with me slowly and surely.

On the other hand, the blog was supposed to be a way for me to practice writing and learn how to develop characters, build a story and entice an audience. Foe the last few months, I'd become fascinated with the stats and it was starting to distract me and discourage me. But now, I have refocused on

1. the reason for my blog,

2. the type of people I am writing for (correct answer: ME. everyone else is a bonus),

3. developing my own personal voice.

OK! Now what was the original question?

Correct answer:

NO. If you blog.

Once the blog becomes your PRODUCT, it ceases to be a blog. It becomes ad space for whoever is paying you for the article. Your are essentially not blogging but writing advertising copy and hosting the ad on your erstwhile blog space. In this case you will make money, but you are not a blogger, you are a billboard.

Doesn't Adsense put ads on your blog pages? Are you not renting space on your blog to the advertisers? If that is true, I will stand by my stand...

BTW: did you have any relations who worked for the Brahmaputra River Valley Board? Back in the mid-80s? If so I worked with them and had an interesting episode. If not - never mind...

on my blog - Mr Deka's Nightmare. A techie ghost story.

Thanks for the sharing your thoughts Ajesh Sharma jee and Sorcerer , well I agree with you that SEO can help upto a limit to new blogs. I think the biggest limitation for individual blogger is time & time management - the amount of quality content he can generate managing a full time mind draining job and managing a family and a real life. Now what if you sacrifice everything for 3 years and later find out it was not worth it, in terms of financial gain as well as inner satisfaction of building something. This is the only reason I posted the question " Whether there is a light at the end of 2-3 long year tunnel" is it really worth the effort. Do you guys are making money who are doing to for like 2-3 yeasrs? 

In Blogging - Writing I will say is the coolest part , yet you have to do SEO , image resizing and social media promotions link building facebook page management , plugins and emailers etc and a whole lot of other activities which at times I just dont feel like doing.

Now here is another Point on which some views would be great  " Should we write 1 post a week which is like epic shit or 5-6 small posts through out the week" what has worked for you guys and what not, please through some light?

 huh khatam hi kar diya