Don’t just blog

A writer should write. First of all; he should write. A writer that doesn’t write isn’t a writer. And a writer who isn’t a writer, isn’t at all. Writing, like breathing, is something he needs to do – each and every day.

The social media is a new buzzword. So is Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. The word “blog” is no longer cool, but an everyday word. Everyone blogs. Almost.

Two ways to make money
There is a lot going on right now in the blogosphere about how people who blog can make money doing so. This might be useful for a lot of people.
Making money by blogging can basically be done in two ways: directly and indirectly. Directly means generating an income from the blog itself. Indirectly means using the blog to make money for example by doing consultancy work, and using ones blog as a way to brand oneself.

The direct method is primarily achieved by using advertising, sponsorships, and affiliate programs on ones blog. This might be just fine, but there might be other and better alternatives; at least we should consider them, and evaluate them.
The reason why the above methods are used is because they work, and if the motivation is to make money, then it makes sense to choose a proven method. Most likely the proven and field testet method will be the fastest way to making money blogging.

What is more important than money?
However, if money is not the only thing we aim at I strongly recommend that the following alternatives are considered, and hopefully applied.
But before I explain the methods, I wish to address an important question, namely “what are we doing when we do what we do?” This might sound like a silly question, but I find it extremely important. Let me explain.

What are we really doing?
Placing an ad on our blog might be a good way to generate an income, but besides earning us money, what else is happening when we do this? Obviously a bunch of advertisers get some exposure and traffic to their site (that is what they are paying for). This essentially means that the blogger help sell whatever products the advertiser sells.

The blogger often have little or no control over what advertisers are shown on his or her blog. In this case, the blogger might help sell a product he/she do not sympathize with – and this is a problem.
Some might argue that this is an ethical question, and simply not something they can take into consideration when trying to make an income. Others might say that humans are selfish by nature, and therefore it’s pointless to even think about something like this.

Being selfish
Maybe we are selfish by nature, but firstly that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to become more altruistic, and secondly; even from a selfish point of view it makes no sense to support something we for some reason disagree with.
If we have an ecological orientation it makes little sense to advertise (in other words: help selling) a Hummer with an 8 litre V6 engine. It makes as little sense as supporting the opposing political party.
If we take this a step further we might have to take a closer look at our own sympathies, beliefs and judgments of good and bad, right and wrong. However, this is outside the scope of this article.

What do you think you are worth?
What I am proposing is a more profound awareness of what we advertise, and hereby sell, support, and in the end stand for.
One way of doing this is working with an ad network that allow you to approve which advertisers will be shown on your blog. Having this option is of course not enough in it self. Our choice should be made with an awareness of the consequences, and not driven by an ambition to make money.

Another way to achieve this, to an even higher extend, is to personally make deals with advertisers whose products and business we believe in, and can fully support. If we choose this path, sponsorships might be the way to go.

More work for nothing
It is very likely that doing this will require more work than simply having an ad network place “random” and unverified ads on our blogs, and maybe it will not increase the cash flow in any way. Luckily it takes very little self understanding to realize that doing something one truly believes in, even if it requires more work, is more than worth the effort.
After all, who would work for the opposing party? Or more specifically what kind of salary would make you do this? Or put in other words: How much is your integrity worth, how high do you value yourself?

It’s your integrity
These are important questions, questions that you should ask yourself. I am not saying; remove all ads from your blog. That would be an oversimplification, and by “definition” wrong. But I strongly recommend that you think twice, instead of uncritically adding ads on your blog, blinded by the idea of monetary gain.