Is Blogging Still Really Profitable in 2020? [YES – but only if you do this]

Have you considered starting a blog, but been pushing it off?

Yeah… I totally did that too. I didn’t believe that it would be worth my time and effort.

You hear about all these bloggers who launched their site in 2009, 2012, or even 2014. But, you don’t hear about too many that started this year and saw instant success.

There’s no question that blogging was profitable, but the question is it STILL profitable today? A lot of things have changed up the online game, from social networks to smartphones, and maybe, just maybe, blogging has fallen by the wayside.

I’m here to unequivocally tell you that YES – blogging is still really profitable. You can make very good money without investing a tremendous amount of time. However, I’m gonna be real with you. It’s not profitable for everyone.

This type of blog is really, really profitable…

There are special types of blogs that make more money than others. They all have one thing in common… they are all educational blogs.

Whether it’s fashion, food, or fitness, the blog exists to teach a group of readers something about a topic. It’s meant to show them how to do something, or accomplish a goal in their life.

Some of these blog niches include:

  • Fashion
  • Food
  • Fitness
  • Business
  • Spirituality
  • Parenting
  • DIY and home decor
  • Organization, productivity, etc.
  • Financial management

As long as you are educating readers and bringing them quality tips, advice, and tutorials, you’re in warm waters. It’s easy to start a profitable blog with this mission in mind. You’ll also be able to monetize it fairly simply.

But – if you venture into the more treacherous waters, the entertainment industry, then you got your work cut out for you. Blogging goes from being straightforward to being a mysterious viral formula that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

You might see a spike of traffic from Facebook one week, when your funny or witty post goes viral. Then, the next month, your blog is a ghost town. No one is reading, commenting, or subscribing. All of that advertisement income is down to $0.

That’s because it’s super hard to write an entertaining blog that consistently commands attention. You gotta always be publishing articles (like news networks) and they aren’t guaranteed to get views.

What no one tells you – why it’s profitable over time

Now a days, marketers and sales people throw around that term “profitable” without actually thinking about the meaning behind the world.

When something is PROFITABLE, it’s worth doing because you will get a good return on the investment of your time or money.

The restaurant business is NOT very profitable because after adding in the cost of the food, workers, permits, real estate, and marketing, the owners are not left with much left over. They gotta sell a heck of a lot of food and drinks in order to make any kind of money at all.

A little known secret about the restaurant business is that the margins on drinks like wine, beer, or your beloved cocktail are HUGE. They’ll make more profit selling liquor than on the actual food.

Blogging is freakin’ profitable because you can spend an hour or two writing an article and it can continue to get traffic over a series of weeks, months, and even years.

Take, for example, one article that I published on this blog which has gotten traffic for the last several years and continues to earn me income.

The time that you spend on your blog will pay you back handsomely over time. If you set it up right, it can turn into a cash-generating machine that fuels your lifestyle, or at the very least, adds some extra income each month to your bank account.

I’ve put together a free 7-day course for you that will show you EXACTLY how to set up this type of blog. I’ll walk you step-by-step through the entire process and even give you homework assignments to keep you accountable.

It’s a simple as joining my free program. You’ll launch your blog in no time.

Why am I sharing this with you?

I wasn’t always a “full-time blogger” as they say. When I launched my first serious blog, I was a junior in college, living in Washington, DC.

It was a frigid fall day. Thanksgiving was just around the corner. I was hunched over at a tiny desk in my even tinier dorm room, working on my laptop.

I don’t remember much, but I do remember the greasy taste of a $0.99 7-Eleven pizza slice. I know, right? Yuck!

At the time, I didn’t have any kind of income to speak of, let alone money to eat out.

Looking back, I can’t help but laughing. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

I read somewhere online that you can “make money blogging,” and I decided to try it out and see what happened. After all, what did I have to lose?

The idea sounded kind of ludicrous.

How can you actually earn an income by publishing blog posts online?

My parents always warned me against the idea of “quick riches” or promises that were “too good to be true.” As you might imagine, I was very skeptical. I had my doubts.

However, up until that time in my life, I’d been following an academic career track that was supposed to lead me to “success”, only it wasn’t.

I wasn’t happy. I was MISERABLE.

Little did I know that within a year, this tiny, minute decision to finally “launch” a blog would lead to:

  • Millions of website visitors
  • Thousands of social media followers
  • Heck of a lot of subscribers
  • A thriving career as a blogger

Since that time, I’ve been cited by major media publications like Forbes, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and more.

I’ve been invited to speak all over the world and I’ve even given talks at NYU events and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Great things start small. None of us have everything figured out. I had to learn as I went, and I made a ton of mistakes along the way.

I’m sharing this knowledge with you because I wish it was shared with me. I’ll show you the reason behind all of my results. It’s something that you can easily replicate.

How long will it take you to do all of this?

Imagine what it will be like when your entire life is different. No more 9 to 5 job. No more reporting to a boss. Finally, you’ll get to do something that you LOVE and get paid for it.

I was willing to do ANYTHING to make a vision like that happen. I’d be willing to invest years if it took me that long. Thankfully, it only took me a year to go full-time as a blogger.

The good news is that you can see success in a relatively short period of time. For some bloggers, that means six months. For others, that might mean a year.

It comes down to your work ethic, strategy, and how frequently you post good articles. It’s really that simple. More quality articles means more ways that people can find you online.

So – what’s it gonna cost ya?

Just like setting up a restaurant which will one day become a cash-cow, there is a cost to setting up a blog. I’ve outlined the exact costs in great depth in another article. Suffice it to say, it’s very little.

The biggest expense is going to be right when you’re getting started, and that’s the blog hosting. WordPress blogs must be hosted with a professional hosting company. It’s the hosting company’s job to handle the traffic, server load, and make sure your site stays up and running at all times.

Thankfully, it’s not that costly at all. In fact, I’ll share with you exactly how much.

Forget to do this ONE thing, and you’ll fail

I’d be lying to your face if I didn’t bring this up. It’s not pretty, but it’s the truth. The ugly truth.

We live in a time of half-hearted passion. Self-esteem is at an all time low. No one is following through on the promises they’ve made to themselves, whether it’s to get fit, go back to school, or start a blog.

I’ve seen so many students begin with wide-eyed hopes and enthusiasm. They follow my training, get their site set up quickly, and they even start to publish articles. But, they don’t keep publishing them.

In the early days of your blog, you need to publish articles regularly and consistently in order to attract an audience. It’s a law of the blogverse. There’s no getting around it. Those that FAIL to publish will end up going the way of the dinosaur. Their blog will become extinct.

Blogging is only profitable for those that are willing to put in the work to grow their blog when it’s in the early stages. If that’s not you, it doesn’t mean that you’re weak. It just means that you need some accountability in your life.

Some writers are very disciplined. Others aren’t. I don’t judge. There’s nothing wrong with needing a little help. That’s why I , which help keep you accountable (especially when you’re just a beginner).

You can take a second to join my newsletter and stay up to date with new content that I have coming out to help keep you on track.