Making Money With Blogs: Statistics And Trends From The State Of The Blogosphere 2008

Can you make money from blogging? The answer is an unequivocal "YES!" But if you're the average blogger, you don't want to quit your day job yet. On the bright side, though, you can buy each member of your family an iPhone. At least that is what Technorati is saying in their State of the Blogosphere report. The median annual revenue for a blogger is $6,000.

Photo credit: Mario Lopes edited by Andre Deutmeyer

Now if you're reading this and thinking, "Hey... I only make $200 annually. What am I doing wrong?" Don't worry, you're not doing anything wrong. These figures are skewed by "the top 1% of bloggers who earn $200k+" per year.

But that's not to say that you can't make a living through blogging. In fact, as soon as you hit the 100,000 unique visitors per month mark, you can call your boss and tell him he can take those TPS reports and shove them up his... well you get the picture. The average income for this group is $75,000.

So how do you join the elite ranks of the blogging profiteers? Well if you live in the US you better turn to your European or Asian brethren for advice. Europeans make, on average, 75% more from their blogs then Americans do. And Asian bloggers are sitting on a 50% margin over their American counterparts.

And if you don't advertise, you are in the minority... but just barely. According to the report 46% of bloggers don't have any sort of advertising on their blogs. While the reasons why these bloggers don't advertise may vary, it has nothing to do with lack of know-how. Bloggers will be glad to know that they "are savvy and self sufficient" according to Technorati. And "when they are ready to accept advertising they will have no problems figuring out how to best approach it for their blog."

To find out more, you can read the full Technorati report after the jump. Enjoy.

Blogging for Profit

Blogs are an increasingly attractive platform for advertisers. The majority of bloggers we surveyed have advertising on their blogs. Marketers realize that bloggers are creating high quality content and attracting growing, loyal audiences.

Bloggers with advertising are more sophisticated in terms of their use of tools, advertising platforms and even events to build reader loyalty. They also invest more resources (both time and money) in their blogs. We also analyzed the differences between the top 10% of bloggers in terms of ad revenue compared to the average blogger. Overall, this group exhibits the above behaviors but to a much higher degree.

Among the bloggers who currently do not have advertising on their site, the most common reason is lack of interest. Very few said that not knowing how to set up advertising was a barrier to accepting ads on their blog. Bloggers are savvy and self sufficient, so when they are ready to accept advertising they will have no problems figuring out how to best approach it for their blog.

The majority of bloggers have advertising or another method of revenue generation on their blogs. On average, professional and corporate bloggers are more likely to include search ads, display ads, and affiliate marketing. One in four bloggers uses three or more means of advertising.

Do you have advertising on your site, or receive cash or products through the following means?

Among bloggers who have advertising on their blogs:

• Two in three have contextual ads (such as Google AdSense).
• One-third of bloggers have affiliate advertising on their blog.
• One in five negotiate directly with advertisers.
• One in ten sell advertising through a blog ad network.

How Bloggers Manage Advertising

Ad clutter, lack of interest, and low traffic numbers are the top reasons why bloggers do not have advertising on their blogs. Among the 48% of bloggers who currently do not have advertising on their site, the most common reason is lack of interest. One in five bloggers don't feel like they have a critical mass of traffic to their blog. Other reasons that bloggers do not have any advertising on their blogs include:

Reasons why Bloggers do not have Advertising on their Blog

Other (12%) reasons why bloggers did not have any advertising on their blogs included:

• "I could only endorse something I was really passionate about that might benefit one of my causes."
• "I haven't made much from it in the past."
• "I live in a country which has impossible tax rules."

Average Annual Revenue is More than $6,000

Posting by Technorati Authority

Click above to enlarge picture

The average annual blogger revenue is more than $6,000.

However, this is skewed by the top 1% of bloggers who earn $200k+. Among active bloggers that we surveyed, the average income was $75,000 for those who had 100,000 or more unique visitors per month (some of whom had more than one million visitors each month). The median annual income for this group is significantly lower -- $22,000.

Bloggers with advertising invest an average of $1,800 annually in their blogs. U.S. bloggers earn an average of $5,000, though bloggers in Asia earn 50% more on average and European bloggers earn an average of 75% more than U.S. bloggers. High revenue bloggers skew the mean revenue. The median revenue for U.S. bloggers is $200 annually (and the median annual investment is only $50).

Bloggers Are Enjoying CPMs on Parity with Large Publishers

Posting by Technorati Authority

Active bloggers receive Cost per Mille (CPMs) for advertising on their site on par with large online media publishers (although the median is considerably lower). Some very targeted blogs are enjoying double-digit CPMs.

High Revenue Bloggers

The top 10 percent of blogger respondents earned an average of $19,000 annually.

• Three-quarters of these successful bloggers are male.
• Four in ten are self employed (twice as high as the average blogger).
• They are also more likely to be professional or corporate bloggers.

Overall, the high revenue bloggers are more sophisticated in terms of the tools that they use, their usage of readership events, and advertising platforms. They also invest far more resources (both time and money) in their blogs.

See also:

• Blog Trends And Statistics: The State Of The Blogosphere 2008 - The Technorati Report
• Blog Topics And Bloggers Motivations: State Of The Blogosphere 2008
• The Typical Blogger Profile: State Of The Blogosphere 2008
• Blogging Tools And Techniques: State Of The Blogosphere 2008

Originally written and prepared by the Technorati team and first published on September 26th 2008 as "State of the Blogosphere 2008 - Blogging For Profit". Reprinted here in full with author permission.