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Home » The Famous Blog » Why Don’t Bloggers Make that Much Money?

Why Don’t Bloggers Make that Much Money?

January 11, 2012 - Last Modified: January 11, 2012 by Murray Newlands

Personal Branding

Bloggers would make a lot more money if they were half as good at business as they are at writing. Many of them are great writers but simply don’t know how to use their personal brand to market themselves to employers and clients.

What is personal branding, anyway?

Most people hear personal branding and have a vague idea that it’s “How I talk about myself” or “What people think of me.” But if you really want to sit down and start understanding personal branding, how it works, and what you should do about it, the first thing to do is get a solid, not general, understanding of what it is.

That said, defining “personal branding” can be tricky. There are plenty of “experts” out there who will characterize personal branding in plenty of different ways. As a relatively new idea that is changing and growing even as we define it, the specifics of the definition of personal branding will continue to evolve as the ways that a personal brand forms, exists and changes.

You vs. Everyone Else

Personal branding is all about presenting the essence of what makes you stand out, but one of the challenges is that it’s not just you who is talking about you. Everyone you are associated with also has something to say about you, your work, and your reputation. It’s important to understand that all of that is, in fact, part of your personal branding.

Businesses are still figuring out what to do with the amount of consumer information on the Internet, from product reviews and blog posts, to social media posts and forum conversations. Just as the key aspect of branding in today’s digital world is the sum of everyone’s perspectives, digital and word of mouth, not just what a company says about itself, so too is your personal brand a combination of not just what you say about yourself, but what others say about you.

Many sources of information

When branding started in the Mad Men era at the middle of the century, the main conduit was mass-media like radio, television and print. The messages were broadcast to consumers, and that was essentially the final word about the product on a large scale. When Coca-Cola advertised itself as “refreshing,” or Folgers said its coffee had “better flavor,” there was nowhere to go to see other opinions, aside from talking with your friends and family.

In today’s media world, a simple Google search will help you determine if the claims in an advertisement hold up when consumers actually try the product.

The same is true for personal branding. What other people say about you is also part of your personal brand. In the age of the Internet, potential employers, clients or your competition will look up your name and reputation on the Internet, and they won’t just find what you say about yourself, they will also find what others say about you.

Control your brand

You may hear the mantra that businesses no longer fully “own their brand.” What that means for a business is that the conversation about their brand shapes what that brand is. Your personal branding efforts are open to the effects of what other people say, and any conversation about you on the Internet is therefore part of your personal branding efforts.

This doesn’t mean that personal branding is out of your control: you are still responsible for setting the tone, managing your reputation, and taking part in that ongoing conversation about you. What it means is that when you consider how the essence of what sets you apart is presented on the Internet, what others are saying about you is part of that responsibility.

Don’t stop here

The Internet has loads of information on personal branding, and a lot of it’s pretty good. But if you really want to get serious about making money blogging, read a few good books on personal branding and watch my video:

[vimeo id=34813843 width=630 height=360]

What is Personal Branding?
by Jim Kukral & Murray Newlands

This is a guest post by Murray Newlands. Murray is the CEO and Founder of Influence People, a San Francisco-based online marketing and blogger outreach consulting firm. Jim Kukral and Murray Newlands recently wrote What is Personal Branding? How to Create a Memorable & Powerful Brand that Sells YOU! to help people learn how to market themselves.

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Filed Under: Blogging, Business, How To Blog

About Murray Newlands

Follow @MurrayNewlands

Murray Newlands is a successful social media consultant that runs the international marketing media agency Influence People, based in downtown San Francisco, and has a proven track record consistently delivering desired results to his clients.

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{ 21 Responses }

  1. Saket Jajodia says:
    I am not able to watch the video as it is asking to enter the password.. :( BTW Thanks Murray for this infos..!! :)
  2. Ankur says:
    Ok, I will be straight and frank. I agree with what most people said in comments. Bloggers actually do not concentrate on making money primarily with their blog. Its more about passion of writing and loving what you do. With time and experience, your blog start becoming more pro, good traffic. Now comes the twist, you implement adsense and monetize. If you are not getting good amount of traffic or money, you frustrate. After all you have to pay for hosting and you are devoting your time to it. You WANT PEOPLE TO READ IT. All those passions stuff loose significance. Trust me, it happens. If it didn't happen to you, trust me it will one day unless you are getting good income out of it. Nevertheless, a Blogger moves on and still writes :)
  3. Abhi Balani says:
    Really, after a long try I have started talking about myself (sometimes) in my posts. I'll work on it.
  4. rahul says:
    I have never considered blogging as way to earn money it's about passion and expressing yourself to peoples you may know or may not know.
    • Murray Newlands says:
      I guess I should have qualified my position by saying that if you're not interested in making money (as many bloggers aren't) then you can use personal branding to increase your readership but don't have to do it to make more money.
  5. David Sneen says:
    Three years ago, I decided I was going to work hard to create a good blog that people would want to see. Oh, I needed social media, so I worked hard to create a strong Twitter account. According to the personal formula I made three short years ago; I should be rolling in cash! What I have learned since then is that there is a vast array of social media resources. One has to pick and choose which resources to use. Which ones will help me promote my brand to the most people? Getting that positive recognition from personal branding is vital to success. You talked of the origins of the term and the use of it in major brands. I liked your twist, Murray, to refer the reader to more resources rather than to try to define personal branding. It is a term like "jump," that has many definitions.
  6. Harsh says:
    Oh no blogging since a whole year and I didn't hear about such word ..."personal branding"..that's totally new to me, but this video helps a lot...will learn more about this on web.
  7. Kimberly Gauthier says:
    How funny! This is what I'm working on now. Having started my third blog, I thought having a solid personal brand would tie my blogs together. Thanks for the post!
  8. Dean Saliba says:
    In my eyes it is down to three things: 1. Bloggers don't put in as much effort to earn any decent money. 2. The niche they have picked is one nobody cares about. 3. They are terrible writers.
    • Murray Newlands says:
      Hahaha, that's definitely true a lot of the time. You can't really write well if you don't know how to speak the language you're writing in, and a lot of companies these days try to "save" money by outsourcing their writing to third-world countries.
  9. Lennart Heleander says:
    There are so many different reasons why blogs do not make money. Poor business knowledge, can not cope with the jungle of all the different ways to advertise, and last but not least - there are many unscrupulous companies who cheat blogs on the money when it's time for payment.
  10. Dave Lucas says:
    It's not all about money, at least not for everyone! But PERSONAL BRANDING IS ESSENTIAL! Yes, I'm shouting it from the top of my keyboard-lungs! WHO do you think of when I say "PINK" - if you're a blogger, you think XiaXue. Most other folks think of rapper Nicki Minaj. You take something: a color, a logo, an image, and integrate it into your internet personality so people can "see you coming from miles away" and you make it so they'll WANT to see what your take is on whatever it is you are lending your keyboard-voice to!
    • Murray Newlands says:
      Personal branding's essential when it's a product where you are your brand. So, if you're an author, then your name is literally your brand. The same applies to job applications.
  11. RebeccaB says:
    So true! so true! I really want to see the video but I have some problems with it. Do you have any youtube version of this?
  12. Tushar says:
    I believe I did a good job in branding myself as a unique blogger with my previous blog. I got few mentions and they all were in good vein. Personal branding required huge amount of hard work and at no moment, you can be complacent. Because as soon as you become relaxed, somebody will pull you behind and take your place. It is a fierce competition out there
    • Hesham Zebida says:
      Tushar , it would make more sense if someone else is telling this about you, not you telling about yourself!
  13. Sefati says:
    I think blogging should not be the only source or revenue but it should be a method to promote your your business, products, or services. For example I blog to promote my SEO consulting business and I suggest all my clients to blog to promote their products and services. That is how bloggers can make a ton of money.
  14. Benin says:
    Hey Murray, very well thought out post, that you've got there. And I think you're right ppl should definitely pay more attention to their brands. What's sad is that most people don't even know that they have a brand. On that note here's a bit of a rhetorical question for you... But first lemme' say this. As hard as it is to believe did you know that there are a lot of ppl who are still not online! As a matter of fact I've met two such people within the last couple weeks. They were frantically waving their hands and shaking their head sideways like-"NO, I'M NOT EVER GETTING ON FACEBOOK or TWITTER!" (Sorry for the excessive caps just trying to carry their emotion across). In fact I have a brother whose a college professor who til this day swears that his not being on anything besides email makes him some sort of folk hero. Here's what I'm getting at...When we hear these stories of ppl not being online we assume that these folks are the weird exception. But then when you think about it, you realize that the earth has nearly 7 billion ppl on it, right? Well out of that 7 billion we, the internet savvy, are actually the minority. So what about those folks who have never seen the internet ...Do they have brands? I'll let you answer but here's where I'm going...A brand, whether online or offline, is nothing more than a promise that tells other ppl what to expect from you. That being said do you think that before a person can really focus in on how they present their brand online that they need to first make sure that they take care of the basics - such as doing what they say they will do and/or keeping it real with their peers? Would be curious to hear your response. Thanks for addressing this topic too!
    • Murray Newlands says:
      These people have offline brands, but unless there's something about them online (like an article) then they don't have an online brand. This makes it harder to project an appealing brand to people who will look them up online, like potential employers.
  15. AstroGremlin says:
    Murray, you make some good points. The concept of "brand" is definitely evolving with the decentralization of advertising from Madison Avenue to anyone with a Twitter account. What used to be called "word of mouth" is now mainstream, and managing that process is a changing landscape.
  16. Elizabeth says:
    Hey Murray, This is so true, Many blogger tend to run with their passion and write like crazy but don't really know how to leverage their brand and their business. Personal branding is an important part of your business but I think there are many bloggers out there that don't fully understand it. We need someone like you to help us understand. Nice Post :-) Liz

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