Blogging For Bucks — Can Anyone Do This?

Posted by RP

August 11, 2007

OK, I posed question in the title and I’ll give you the answer right off the bat … Yes!

Short post? No but you really can make money on line without selling sleazy eBook products, gathering email address to spam and acting like a college kid on an insult rampage … which sadly sums up what a lot of bloggers and Internet marketers act like these days.

One of the biggest reasons I decided to take this direction in the Retired Pay world blog was due to the fact that I am a senior and many of my readers are as well … and too many seniors themselves discount their most impressive assets … maturity and experience. As we travel this road together I’m going to share some “secrets” (which aren’t secrets at all) and show you many examples, good and bad … with the major goal of helping seniors find an outlet for that experience while it is still of value. The ultimate bottom line is, anyone who can string together sentences can blog, an dif they follows me very simple rules they will succeed to some degree … but people who know what they are talking about will do better.

Here’s an example for today … an online friend of mine who prefer’s to be known as Adnan. This fellow just turned 17 and is a full-time-student in the UK. I started reading his blog about a year or so ago, not long after he first went on line.

Now I don’t want today’s lesson to sound as if I’m making fun of youth or inexperience, I am not. But I’ll have to admit when I first started following this guy’s journey there certainly was a little voice inside wondering a., how long will this guy last and b., how fast can he learn?

Well take a look at the headline in his latest post … better yet, go to his blog and subscribe … right after you subscribe to this one … that big orange square with the curved line symbol, top right), $506 USD per month in a year, starting from absolute zero. I’d say he’s stuck with it and he’s learned pretty darn quick.

I’m very sure Donald Trump isn’t losing any sleep over this figure. I’m also very sure that it is about $506 per month more than most of your reading this are making from your personal efforts and experience. I’m also sure that $506 a month … about $6000 USD per year is enough to make a difference in anyone’s like … even if you’re well off.

Notice another thing about Adnan’s front page … I circled it above … subscribers. More than 660 people a day have their feed reader software check this site to get the latest blog post. I don’t think J.K. Rowling is losing much sleep over that figure either … but do 660 people listen to what you have to say on any given day? Not bloody likely.

So that’s two big lures I can think of in this “game”. The chance to honestly make non-trivial money and the chance to be heard. It takes some work … but none that can’t be learned, and it takes some dedication and patience … which us 60-plussers are always willing to tell everyone that we have in spades. Next time we’ll talk more about how to think through what you have to offer and what people want to hear.

Leave a comment to this post, write me an email at: davestarr (at) gmail (dot) com or pick up the phone and give me a call if you like what I’m doing here … if you hate what I’m doing here … or if you have suggestions or questions.

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Comments

Hey Dave.
Thanks for the awesome writeup and for the link! I’m so pleased that you’ve stuck with me throughout the past year and that I’ve proved the critics wrong!

99% of new blogs don’t get past their first 3 months, so I figured that if I was that 1%, I’d have a pretty good chance of making a little fame and fortune here and there.

Thanks again buddy and keep following!
Adnan

Comment by Adnan on August 11, 2007 @ 9:53 am

Thanks for reading and commenting, Adnan. As you can tell my blogging efforts have been fragmented and sporadic … but I’m still able to make buck What I want to do is focus on y strengths … and making money in retirement is certainly one of them. You’ve been a help and an inspiration.

One thing that it is hard to explain in this field is the true meaning of the “work” involved. It certainly is ‘work” in any dictionary sense, but it’s not “work” like digging a ditch or even slogging through a school course of studies. It’s a mindset and a dedication to get something posted, even on those days it really seems as if there’s no use in doing so, and the ability to be flexible and take the risk that others will laugh or think one a fool.

We’re all ‘fools” in some sense or another and we all have been laughed at … and will be again. But just digging in and “doing it” leads to success … the most important effort, and the one that’s most rewarding.

Comment by RP on August 19, 2007 @ 1:32 am