Why Do 99% of Bloggers Fail?

Let’s face it: Blogging is not easy. Just like any other profession with a low barrier of entry, the success rate is exceptionally low. Approximately 1% (I am probably overestimating this) of bloggers make enough money to make their time worth it and only 1% of those will ever earn enough money to make the million mark. Giving up yet? Do you have what it takes to be in that group? I don’t mean to discourage people with this information, but you should go through a reality check before you quit your day job.

So what causes the majority of bloggers to fail? Allow me to address a few basic reasons why.

Lack of Passion
“I have the passion to make money out of my blog, isn’t that passion?” It is not! You need to be passionate about what you write and whom you are trying to help. Success in blogging does not come overnight. Passion is the only thing which will keep you going long enough to make the leap from being a failure to a success. You have to be able to provide original and creative content to keep your readers engaged. A lot of research and thought has to go into what you write.

Lack of Patience
Every successful blogger would agree that the hardest part of succeeding with a blog is getting your first 500 subscribers. The main reason behind that being: It takes a lot of time. Most people who are “testing the waters” in the blogging world give up before they reach this mark purely because it is not immediately worth their effort. Little do they realize that the effort you put in now will not only get you 500 subscribers, but it will keep providing you with them over time. I started a blog on how to run facebook applications on the Google AppEngine (If you don’t know what that is, it doesn’t really matter. The topic is not important.) about a year and half ago. I gave up on the blog after 2 months since I barely had 200 views a day. When I was just browsing through my old projects a couple of weeks ago, I realized it was still getting around 200 views a day. That’s still not a lot – but I was surprised at how many views I was getting even though I did absolutely no work on it for a year! Blogging pays off in monthly installments, but you have to put in all the work up front.

Lack of Intelligence
I have passion, valuable content, and I have been patient for a year now, why am I still not a millionaire? All I have to say is: Tough luck buddy! Not everyone is meant to be a blogger. On top of good content, you need skills to bring the content to an appropriate audience (other than your grandparents, uncles and aunts). You need to learn all there is to marketing your blog, your brand, and your content. Intelligence might be too strong a word here, but I feel that this is the most important thing a future blogger needs to hear.

Hopefully, I haven’t scared all of you potential bloggers away. Blogging is not easy. You have to respect the profession and put in hard work before expecting results. Luckily, there are blogs like these to guide you and make sure you don’t repeat the mistakes we have made.

I am Aswinkumar (Aswin) Rajendiran, author of My Tech Interviews. My Tech Interviews focuses on preparing people for software interviews and for those not in the interview mood, helps them keep their technical skills sharp and shiny. Please feel free to email me at support@mytechinterviews.com if you want to talk about things or you just want to yell at me. I would greatly appreciate any comments. Thanks, Kovich, for letting me do a guest post on your blog. Good Luck.