Want to Make Money? Forget Online Gimmicks. Don't Know Where to Start? Start Where You Are Standing

"Money is usually attracted, not pursued." - Jim Rohn

"The safest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it in your pocket." - Kin Hubbard

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In the last two days, I've had two people ask me about making money by blogging. Or, more specifically, one person asked me,

"Is it possible to make money blogging?" 

To this person I answered (in my usual long-winded self), "Well, I don't accept advertising on my blog now as I want to be able to write whatever I want and to say what I want. It is hard enough to always talk about those things as it is. I am always worrying about what other people might think about me when I honestly state my shortcomings, my chequered past, my failures and complaints. It's hard enough to do that as it is without having to worry about what paying people might think. So I don't have advertising now. It keeps me from having just one more worry. But you can make money blogging."

54 and still here - chequered past still here too!

The other person asked me, 

"Mike, I want to blog and make a bit of money with it. What do you suggest?"

I told him that he should just start blogging and then worry about how to make money with it after starting. I also quoted Lao-Tzu:

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step" - Lao-Tzu - The Way of Lao-tzu Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)

This is a good quote but allow me to be completely anal-retentive about it. Even though this is the popular form of this quotation, the correct translation should be:

"The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one's feet." 


Rather than emphasizing the first step, Buddhists, Taoists and Lau Tzu believed that action was something that arose naturally beginning with the act of being still. Another potential phrasing would be "Even the longest journey must begin where you stand."

I think, in today's modern language this would translate into something like, 

"Well, don't just stand there. Do something!"

Making money blogging? Hmmm... Can be done. The easiest way is to allow pop-ups click through ads on your blog. I dabbled with that long ago, but stopped it because it seemed like the algorithm was bad. Why? Well, I'd write a blog post railing on Groupon and calling it a crummy company, yet on my page, there'd be ads for Groupon. Stuff like that happened all the time. I didn't like it, so I stopped it.


Then, just the other day, I got another letter from a company overseas who wanted to pay me $150 a year to place a banner on my blog. I don't know if I want to do that or not. Far be it from me to poo-poo $150, but, in Japan, $150 isn't a lot of money and I wonder how I'm ever going to get the money anyway from a foreign company. Hell, I think the bank transfer will cost them $50-some dollars. Are they really going to pay? I wouldn't. And, do I really want an ad for some UK marketing service on my blog?


Probably not. 


Anyway, there are ways to make money from blogging... Probably not a lot at first; probably not a lot ever. But, you have to at least start somewhere.


As for me, I don't blog for money. I blog because, and I'm dead serious about this, I think  logging has helped me to become a better person.


Blogging has kept my mind working.


Blogging has helped me to become a better parent.


Blogging has taught me patience.


Blogging has made me feel good.


Blogging has helped me help other people and charities.


Blogging has helped me make friends around the world!


I think blogging has it's own rewards... Even better than money.


You should blog too. Blog about what you want to blog about. 


Everyone has a wonderful story to tell. We'd like to hear yours!