Man, you guys are full of good ideas. When I put out the call for story requests on Thursday, you came through with over 150 suggestions. And some of them are stellar.
I’ll get to work on some of these, farm some out to guest authors, and see if the staff writers want to take a stab at a few. Between us all, we may be able to hit some topics that GRS has never covered before.
Many readers asked to see more articles on boosting income. In fact, there seem to be quite a few people interested in a series of posts about blogging as a business. I think this could be very interesting if done right, with periodic updates like the garden project we did in 2008 and 2009.
I wouldn’t want to use Get Rich Slowly as an example (for a variety of reasons), but since I’m itching to resurrect one or more other blogs, I’d be very open to showing how to build a blog from scratch, including all of the income stuff.
Here’s what I propose.
Blogging for Dollars
I have three dormant blogs, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. They are:
- Animal Intelligence, a blog about — well, animal intelligence. I’ve considered reviving this with a broader theme. I’d cover all sorts of fun and interesting stories about animals. Pros: There’s a huge market for this sort of thing, there’s plenty of material, each post would be quick to produce, not much competition that I know of. Cons: Difficult to monetize. (Animal Intelligence currently receives about 6,000 visits per month, and generated $8.74 of income in June.)
- Four Color Comics, a blog about comics. Four Color Comics was the first site I ever set up with the intention to make money. It died when Get Rich Slowly became popular. Pros: I have lots of source material to draw from, and would enjoy the research. Also, there are probably some moderately good ways to make money with this topic. Cons: There’s tons of competition in this niche. And though the audience is passionate, it’s small (especially for the comics I’d write about). (Four Color Comics currently receives about 600 visits per month, and generated $0.87 of income in June.)
- Success Daily, a blog about self-improvement. I intended to launch this site in April, but the book publicity overwhelmed me. Now I’ve pushed back the launch date to 01 January 2011 at the earliest, though I’d accelerate that if we chose the site for this project. Pros: I’m deeply interested in this subject, and would love to write about it. There’s a fairly good market for the info. Cons: Very tough to monetize; we’d probably have to do e-books or something. Articles would take a lot of work. (Success Daily currently receives about 500 visits per month and generates no income.)
What if I were to revive one of these hibernating sites and share publicly the steps I take as I try to build traffic and income? I could document my design decisions, the ads I choose, and the income I receive. I think it would be instructive. And if we kept the project to just one or two Saturdays each month, I don’t think it’d overwhelm the folks who just don’t care.
I think this could be a fun way for all of us to learn about building and monetizing a blog. What do you think? Would you be interested in a project like this? And if you are interested, which blog would you like to see me flesh out? I’ll tell you right now that I think Animal Intelligence has the best chance at success. Or maybe there’s another topic I could pursue? (I just don’t want to do another blog about money.)
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I’d be interested in this type of thing… and I’d probably select Animal Intelligence as well.
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Brilliant and yet flawed. You have readers, so building an income stream will be easier than if someone (say…me) was just starting a blog and had no readers. However, I’d still be very interested in the project.
Pick the comics. Such passion there on your side and those who share your interest.
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How do you monetize a blog? Is googleads the only reliable source of income? I’ve tried to use other programs, without much luck…
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Blogging has changed, you need to build a blog with a Internet Marketers mentality, build a list, offer a products, etc..
Throw in some affiliate products, couple banners and your on your way.
But regardless how you decide to make money with a blog, you need A LOT of traffic.
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I think this would be interesting and Animal Intelligence gets my vote. I also must say that I like your staff writers and guest posts. Their posts are high quality, and it helps keep the blog fresh by introducing some different perspectives and different life’s circumstances.
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I really enjoyed reading Success Daily. It’s a hard niche to break into too, so I would love to see what you do with it.
A self-improvement can really help people change their lives, just like GRS.
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I love this idea! Having recently started a blog of our own, my husband and I would love to bring more traffic to our site. Easier said than done apparently. However, I do agree with Andrea (#2) that since you already have such a loyal following here you’re light years ahead of us “newbies.”
That being said, I still would love to see this series. There are so many things about the vagaries of blogging that I just don’t know or understand – like how in the world do you still get 6,000 visits per month at Animal Intelligence when you haven’t even posted there in a year and a half?!? Do you pay to get all of your sites to the top of the list on google? I just don’t know how it all works.
My vote goes for Success Daily first, then Animal Intelligence. Thanks! – Carrie
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Andrea and WPDK are both right: This project is going to have a flaw/advantage from the start in that I’ll be able to leverage existing readership. I’m aware of that. But that also ties into a point I’d want to make about building readership and community. When you start a blog, it’s vital to take advantage of relationships you already have.
Another option, of course, is for me to start some other site from scratch, without telling readers what it is. This would probably be less fun, but more realistic.
Also, as for passion: I’m plenty passionate about the animal topic, too.
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I would vote for Success Daily. The success niche seems to have a bunch of competition, but that area would be potentially most helpful for my life which means I and maybe others would visit it more often.
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Oh, one other note: I’m about to leave on a 100-mile bike ride, which means I’ll be away from my computer most of the day. If you’re comment isn’t appearing, it’s because it got trapped in my spamfilter. No worries. I’ll fish it out this afternoon.
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I agree that your following is large and it would skew the “behind the scenes of how a blog makes money.” With that said it would be very insightful to see real time how blogs make money. My vote is for the success daily since that the area that I like to discuss.
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It’s a great idea and it definitely has my vote, however, you already have tons of followers which will automatically give you a boost on any blog you wish to start just because you’re so awesome (and you are). I vote for either Animal Intelligence or Success Daily.
I would be very interested if you teamed up with someone new (or a few people to really get a variety), have them start a blog from scratch, don’t tell anyone their name or site and have them update on their progress each week as well. Their followers, struggles, successes and failures. That will really show the true possibilities of starting a blog for income, and maybe a more accurate picture of what works and what doesn’t.
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Would love to see how you monetize a blog. It would be very interesting. My vote is for success daily since Animal Intelligence and comics are not my thing.
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I think what everyone here really wants to know (who is interested in this topic), is how you got Get Rich Slowly to where it is today. It’s a huge blog, you’re making great coin I’m sure, and it’s turned you into an A-list blogger. It at least deserves ONE post!
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I think it is a great idea. But, if it is more for instructional purposes, I think you should start fresh with a new site. The current sites already have history. Animal Intelligence has a PageRank of 4. That’s pretty high!
For academic purposes, I would rather see you start from ground zero. Your first blog post would describe how you pick a topic to start a blog about.
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I vote for Animal Intelligence. First – I also like the topic. Second – since there’s less competition, it seems more likely to have the greatest potential for growth.
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Like I said in the previous thread… I don’t think it really matters which you choose just to get the mechanics of what to do.
sidenote: I looked at websnark the first time in forever… what happened there? Maybe he should have hired more guest writers…
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Great, so on these posts instead of 10% of the commenters posting simply to drive traffic to their own sites, it can be 100%. I actually wrote a post on my own site about this topic recently, you can find the link here… (not really).
If you’re willing to move away from personal finance towards entrepreneurialism, why not move in the opposite direction instead? Less focus on money and more on satisfaction, life experience, fulfillment. Basically, I’d much rather see the site move more towards Leo Babuta, who seems genuinely interested in helping people improve their lives than towards Chris Guillebeau, who seems to use world travels as a hook to snare people into buying “guides”, or towards Ramit Sethi, who seems to be able to sell seminar space with no real hook except the voice of a fundamentalist drill instructor (I have no idea how he makes that work, though).
I don’t want to change careers or “earn money online”, I only come to GRS for thought-provoking articles and interesting discussion.
Also, I pretty much hate the rest of the “make money online” scene, like the people who auto-follow you on twitter and then auto-unfollow you after three days if you haven’t followed them back; or in general anyone who tries to make money online by blogging about making money online. That’s not the community I associate with GRS, and I’m not going to want to keep reading GRS if that’s the sort of community it attracts in the future (I don’t mean to “threaten to leave”, I just don’t want to see a site I like start attracting a crowd I don’t).
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I wonder how many people are like me – not blog writers and not interested at all in growing a blog? It seems like posts like that belong to their own blog.
Not to worry, I can always skip articles that I’m not interested in. Just my 2 cents (and worth less!) about the topic.
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Tyler: Big ????s from me on your comment — more so than usual. Do you really think I’d delve into “make money online” stuff? That’s not what I’m about. However, there are plenty of folks who want to know how it works to make money blogging. How it really works, not how the hucksters like John Chow say it works.
I’m suggesting setting up a real blog on a real subject and exploring the pitfalls of making it an actual going concern, something viable. I’m not suggesting any sort of get-rich-quick stuff. That’s not how real blog entrepreneurs do it.
And I have to defend my man Chris G. He has no ads on his site, provides tons of free content, and doesn’t give a rat’s ass if you buy his guides. He’s the real deal. He’s not some shyster.
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Wow, Tyler K… It’s only 7am, maybe you should try hitting the sack again for another couple of hours. Majorly grumpy post.
Like #19 Sheila said, you can always skip articles you’re not interested in.
This is still a great site even if 100% of the articles don’t pertain to one single demographic. And heck, even without a blog, just from an academic standpoint it will be interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes. Even if it becomes popular with links right away rather than in the years it takes most blogs to develop a real following (is that true?) Personally I’d rather see it go a little bit in fast forward, as long as we’re informed what should realistically take longer and what signposts we should look for when making decisions about what to do next.
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What about a blog on the day to day trials and tribulations of getting healthy (Losing weight)
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I would love to see how you monetize a blog. I’ve tried unsuccessfully; I never seem to get more than $25 a year through things like Google AdSense. I’ve never figured out how to attract independent advertisers.
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I have read almost every article from GRS over the past two years, but have never commented. I must say I would love a GRS blog project-especially if it were Success Daily! I also must agree that I have learned TONS of great travel info from Chris Guillebeau without ever buying a single product from him (not that I wouldn’t consider it if I traveled abroad more often). Keep up the great work JD!
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I would love this project for two reasons. 1. I already love the Animal Intelligence site, but have been sad at so few posts there! If you chose that one, I would definitely read it. 2. A lot of people I know say I should start a blog but I haven’t been able to justify using my free time to do it. If I had instructions on how to at least make up the time doing what I enjoy then all the better.
I really can’t see J.D. turning into one of “those” kind of bloggers if you know what I mean. He’s just too genuine.
Like Nicole (#21) said, not every post is for everyone. I personally can’t stand any post by Baker, but I still check this site every day because I like the tone in general here.
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Totally off topic but…
I would love to hear how your century goes! It would give me inspiration to train for the 100 miles to nowhere next year!
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Good idea, though I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have the time or the inclination to even blog regularly, but maybe your series will change my mind. I vote for Animal Intelligence, an interest of mine as well. I was thrilled when I found out you had that blog, then disappointed that it wasn’t being updated.
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I’d love any perspective you have on this process. The free information you are willing to give us, and your own time constraints, make this your choice.
I am a big fan of Chris G. too. He never does hard sell, he has a great model, he answers his emails, his products (yes I have a couple and use them) are helpful, and more and more he shows himself as a thoughtful compassionate guy who’s got a great idea and invites us to join if we want.
I’d love any information on getting traffic and feedback from that trafffic. I have a few hundred devoted readers, but getting either comments or purchases has been difficult. Am in mid-stream of a major reorientation but need to finish the keystone book I am writing and use that as the hinge for the rest of the connections.
So all info is good info. And thanks!
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I think it would be interesting to hear how to really build a blog, and go through all the trials and tribulations along the way, unlike reading an article that simply states do these 10 things & you will have a successful blog.
Personally I have started 2 blogs and I always wish I could pick the brains of a few bloggers but never want to feel like I am trying to steal their secrets.
Your project sounds interesting because it is based on topics you are interested in, not just topics you think will make the most money.
My vote would be for the Animal Intelligence or the Success Daily.
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Yes and use the Animal Intelligence site.
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I’d love to read a series of this type of articles on getting started blogging and making it successful (and making money) all in real time. My vote would be for option #4 completely new from the ground up so we could see how you pick your topic – how you know about competition, traffic and monetization potential. Ok before I suggest this……please realize I know very little about online technology…. Because your followers here would definitely go to your new site and skew the traffic numbers, is it possible somehow for the traffic counter to match up people who visit GRS and the new site so you/it could give you a total traffic number for the new site as well as a total-minus-GRS-people number?
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Do continue to use guest posters. You have a fine current crew, and their posts give you time to produce your own, potentially longer/deeper pieces (for the right topic and with the right blend of experts giving their opinions in the piece, I’d follow you through 3000-5000 words; and you could always release 5 or 6 of these as an e-book). You can always add a new guest, one-shot or ongoing contributor, for variety.
I would also be happy if you changed nothing. Very much enjoying GRS and have for some time. And while I’m blathering, the emailed-post option is hugely useful to me and the typical way I read. (I mention b/c a friend is seeing many of his favorite blogs disappear behind an IT access wall, and few have the email option you offer.)
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I’d definitely be interested in this project and vote for Animal Intelligence first, and Success Daily second.
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I would LOVE this series! As someone who is just venturing into the blogosphere, I haven’t quite chosen a niche yet and currently just write about my own thoughts/experiences as a way to get in the habit of writing, learning the tools etc. I would love to find a niche to focus on and possibly turn it into at least a part-time if not full time opportunity. So learning from you as you go through the steps of getting your blog going would be invaluable.
I would honestly love to see you do something from scratch, because I think it is the beginning steps are the most elusive to us newbies. HOW to grow following? WHERE do you promote the blog to get the following? etc.
Thanks for taking the time to consider doing this!
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I love the idea! My vote is for the animal blog.
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Thanks so much for telling us about your burn out! We are right there. Everyday I say “I’m just going to dump this” but then I think of 10 years worth of work and I really don’t want to dump all that hard work!
We’ve sold around 200,000 of our self-published book but there are days I think “if I have to pack another book I’m going to scream!:-) (125,000 of those I didn’t pack but still
We are going to have to follow you and see what changes you made so we don’t get so burned out that I throw the computer out the window one of these days!!!
Here is my comment that I put on bloggingwithamy.com about this subject and earning if anyone who isn’t earning yet is interested in my take on blogging for a living. Tawra
First thank you sooo much for this post! I have been dying to know this because I feel like we are always spinning our wheels and getting nowhere!
How old is your blog?
Blog- 5 years
Website- 11 years
Niche?
Frugal Cooking
Frugal Living
Pageviews per month?
We had 100,000 + a month on website and blog but had to go on bedrest with my last pregnancy and now it is down to 60,000 as I haven’t been working on it much for almost 18 months.
Monthly income?
In 2008 we made $54,000 that year but…… (you knew that was coming:-) we had 3 people, my mom, husband and I all working more than 40 hours a week. In the end we averaged $3 an hour! Basically mom and I work for free and my husband is the one with the income.
In 2009 we made $60,000 and I basically quit working on it. So my husband’s hourly income went up. Mom still worked but about 20 hours a week.
Main income streams?
Sell our print books and e-books through our newsletter
Affiliate sales – e-books
Google Ads
Swagbucks
How long before you made money?
9 years!
Hours blogging (& related activities) per day?
Husband works 40 plus hours a week
I work 1-2 hours a day
mom works 2-4 hours a day
Turning point or special circumstance?
(Get your coffee or tea and have a seat!)
Mom and I both have a chronic illness and I now have 4 kids. We just don’t have the energy to spend hours and hours working. Basically mom and I do this as a hobby and just for fun (the fun is pretty gone as you will see below) and as a way to pass the time. I had originally thought this might be a fun way to make some extra money doing what I love…talking about saving money.
My husband is my tech guy and does most of the work to keep it going. He quit his job in 2006 to work full time for Living On A Dime but… (there it is again
he doesn’t like being stuck in front of the computer all day by himself in our bedroom..uh… office. He has decided to go ahead and try to get back into video production.
Now, I will say that I am totally burned out. We have spent YEARS trying to make a good income doing this and it’s just not coming. $3 an hour is NOT worth it!
We keep trying new things and it just doesn’t seem to work. A good example is we decided to switch the website over to a new WordPress template. It was supposed to be an “easy” and fairly quick move. It has turned into a 6 month nightmare and it’s still not loaded with all the info. from the old site.
We will spend HOURS ( 40 + or more) on a sale only to have it bomb an bring in $20.
Also, we spend HOURS dealing with customers. The majority of our time is spent with people who have lost e-books and order problems. I hate dealing with this stuff. I just wanted to pass my great ideas on how to save money on to people but I quickly realized that if I want to make money I am going to have to sell something and that means customers. (yes, we keep trying to find people to hire to help us out but they never seem to work, even with high recommendations)
We also spend hours dealing with ads and angry customers. We have Google ads on our site and not so great stuff will pop up. So we have to go through and find where it is (the person who saw the ad never remembers what page it was on) and then deal with the person complaining. Google’s filters aren’t that great so stuff gets through all the time that we don’t want on our site.
There are lots of other examples but you get the point.
The good part is that when the kids have a concert or we need to take off he can take off work but we do then have to make up the time missed working by working very late. We do get to take vacations but they aren’t paid and we have to again make up the time so we spend 2-3 weeks before our vacation working late to get things done while we are gone.
I know this is probably way more than you wanted to know but I want to be real. I have people ALL THE TIME ask how to start an internet business and make money at home. The truth is it is still work and a lot of it.
At this point we are trying to get the website stable and up and running again in the new template. As soon as hubby finds another job he is going to quit Living On A Dime full time and we will most likely go back to making not much money since mom and I just aren’t up to working a lot.
More days than not I just want to dump it all the stress is really starting to be too much but if our income didn’t depend on it I would enjoy just posting tips, hints and recipes as I feel like it so I’m not going to totally give up.
It’s funny because I was going to email you Amy and see what your consulting services include because we sure could use some help!
Anyway, sorry for the novel but that is what’s involved in making a full time income for us.
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I know you said you don’t want to use Get Rich as an example, but I think it would be helpful to get an idea of the upside of a blog. Knowing Get Rich made $1300 in June or whatever the number might be puts the other numbers in perspective.
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Hey,
What you could do is prove that someone could make money blogging without spending a lot of money or spending time other than the time spent writing articles. I’ve seen so many sites that say you must pay for ads and join sites like entrecard and such, disprove that, please.
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Hi — I know that I started and kept reading GRS because of two things: 1) JD’s “voice” and how personal the blog 2) how great he was at comment moderation, the comments were really good.
So, I don’t think it matters what topic is chosen for the blog experiment, but if that personal connection isn’t strong I don’t think it can work.
(I note you didn’t mention Getting Fit Slowly — I wonder if that’s an example in itself, since you’re no longer involved but it’s still going…)
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YES PLEASE! I would love to hear about blogging as a business. I am very interested in starting my own blog, for my own personal satisfaction and income generating too! (However small it may be.) However I am completely new to this arena and will have to learn every detail. Please don’t assume that anyone interested already has good knowledge on the topic. Thanks and good luck!
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I like Ashley’s idea of having other people start blogs from scratch with your guidance and post on their results. That seems as though it would be a “fairer” test of how to grow a successful blog.
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@JD concerning your comment about almost giving up on the site, and saving it by including guest writers; I had the same situation a few years back for one of my electronic music websites – I wound up opening up the monthly DJ mix I was doing to guest DJs and after that initial obstacle of losing steam, I’m back to form and passionate about it again.
cheers
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I like the idea of starting from scratch – even if it is a topic that you currently have a blog for. The best example would be a blog that starts with zero readers and zero hits.
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I already get all the self improvement stuff I could possibly need from Zen Habits so personally I’d like to see the Animal Intelligence blog. There are plenty of cutesy animal photo blogs out there but I’ve found nothing particularly intelligent or inspiring. Although I have to admit I am tickled pink every time there is a new post on Zoo Borns.
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Great idea. I think the Animal intel. is a great idea. I have been wanting to revitalize and monetize my blog for weeks now and this may be the jolt I was looking for. Can’t wait for your posts.
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I don’t mean I think you’d be posting about adwords and SEO and social media marketing constantly, J.D., but I do think this topic is going to attract that sort of readership. It seems that for every person who’s really passionate about writing for the web, you have 10 more who just want an “easy” way to make money from home. I’m worried the second group is gong to be the biggest Audience for this topic.
As for Chris G., he’s one of the people who auto-followed an unfollowed me on twitter, I don’t see why he’d do that if he didn’t want me to read his site and buy his guides. I know you like him J.D., but I’ve been unimpressed.
Pardon typos, it’s almost impossible to compose a multiple-paragraph comment on this site with an iPhone.
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@Tawra: Who do you use to print your books?
I might suggest looking into Lightning Source or Create Space. Your books will be available for sale on Amazon, and you won’t be involved in fulfillment at all.
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I’d like to see articles about other personal finance blogs, what they have done right and what they have done wrong, both in terms of money and content.
The animal intelligence blog sounds like a winner to me. It seems to me that there must be some way to monetize it. But you clearly know far more about this than I do.
Rob
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J.D., I’d be happy to contribute a guest post or two about this. I post my income numbers publicly by reader request; you can see the most recent ones on my site that my name is linked to. My blog earned just over $28,000 in June.
-Erica
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One of the most difficult things to do is once a blog has gone by the wayside would be to revive it. I maintained an investing blog for a couple of years before life took over. While I still generate essentially passive income (about $30 / month), it’s been extremely difficult trying to revive it. It’d be nice seeing your progression when you decide to revive whichever blog is chosen.
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