Be Your Own Boss

Darren the ProBlogger gave a link today to an article from Chris Garrett titled Can Anyone Make Money From Blogging?

The comments at both blogs are insightful, but I think some people forget some of the realities of any business model — time * time.

There are two completely separate aspects of time when it comes to getting into business for yourself: the time barrier to entering a market, and the time needed to cultivate and build your customer base. Blogging is no different, but blogging also has a success ratio that doesn’t break my time versus time rule.

The easier it is to enter a market (barrier to entry), the more people will try to get in that market. Blogging is so simple to enter (5 minutes at any blog network), but my time * time equation still holds truth. You can start writing in minutes, but so can anyone else. Just like being in a band only brings success to a rare few, the same is true of blogging.

Blogging for dollars is no different than any other business — you need long term time to succeed. I really get frustrated by anyone that says you can make easy money at anything — you can’t. Every business of mine that has succeeded took 18-36 months of very hard work to get to the level of success that I deemed worthwhile for the time I invested. Becoming successful means continuing this hard level of work to stay successful. Blogging is no different, and I think the 18-36 month level holds true here. Sure, there are some lucky few who become overnight successes, but the percentage of overnight successes is so small that I would consider it near impossible to try to be that person.

If you start writing online today, don’t expect to see a steady stream even in the first year. Journalism of any sort is a job that can take a lifetime to become successful, and the entire time that you are writing, you will see more and more people dive in and cover the same topics you’re covering. While this makes the market more adaptive to social change, it also means that added competition will put downward pressure on your income, and it will happen often.

That is when determination will win in the long run — a market is governed by the laws of supply and demand. When a topic has only a few people covering it and only a few people interested in it (low supply of writers, low demand of readers), the income won’t be very good. Yet over time, the demand of readers can pick up (low supply of writers, high demand of readers) which can give you a great income. The big problem with this supply/demand ratio is that it quickly turns into a high supply of writers and a high demand of readers, which pushes your income down again, even if you’re accomplished and popular.

Over time, the high quantity of writers will wither away because of the drop in income. Those who stick around though might find themselves back to the low supply of writers/high demand of readers ratio again (good income), which will cause the market to provide another burst of new writers covering the same topic.

This situation is no different than any other business model. If a grocery store is succeeding in your area, expect another to open. This temporarily affects the income of the first grocer, but over time they either both survive or one will fail — rarely do we see everyone in a market give up. You’ll see it with gas stations, fast food chains, plumbers and insurance brokers — the market is very adaptive to what the consumer wants, but it can change very quickly.

If you’re sitting and waiting for the right time, it will never come. If you’re hoping to see a quick income and you can’t commit years to your business, you will likely fail and be frustrated enough to never try entrepreneurship again.

The article linked above talks about the changes that can happen in your life (emergencies, family, paying job commitments, etc) that can put a damper on your desire to write. This is where I believe it is important to write as much as possible during the times you’re not busy, but don’t publish everything right away. Just as it is wise to save 10-20% of your income for the future, you should save that much or more of your written word for the days when you can’t “pay the bills” of blogging, which is paid in articles.

Those busy points of our lives is also why it is wise to join a network of bloggers — you’ll be giving up some income bursts for a more stable rate of returning readers. I’m in the process of bringing on a few extra writers to start covering some of my topics for just that reason, plus it helps to have some differing opinions from time to time. Most people can’t spend 1 hour a week writing, and that is ok — if you have 10 such people, you can have a successful site (but you might only earn 10% of what you’d make if you could spend 10 hours a week or more on a consistent basis). I’m blessed that I have more time than most to try to stay on top of my topics, but even I find those days when I’m sitting in a cafe in the middle of a foreign country with no Internet, no cell and no way to update my sites. My “blackout of February 2006″ was 3 weeks of being in Europe and Asia with absolutely zero access to the web, and it drastically affected my traffic for months after.

If you’re thinking of blogging-for-dollars, start today. Don’t worry about advertising, income or traffic, worry about building a history of articles and a savings account of articles to publish on the days that you’re not able to. Over time, months and years, a focused writer should have no problem gaining a readership base, even a marginal one, that can help pay a few bills every month. The worst thing you can do is try to mimic the success of others — focus on your own abilities and opportunities, and ignore the winners and losers out there. You don’t know what they’re investing time-wise, and you have no idea what they’ve really done to build that success.

To succeed at any business requires time * times (time to enter the market and time to build a relationship with your readers). If either of those numbers is zero, your income will be zero, too.

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