Why Blog Earnings are not Passive Income (But I’m Still Blogging)
You may have noticed in a previous post on passive income that I didn’t list my blogs as residual income sources. While most of mine do bring in money, I hesitate to consider blogs as part of the passive income category, since they involve constant updating.
Blogging is not passive.
The work of a blog is ongoing — writing posts, monitoring and responding to comments, commenting on readers’ blogs, promoting a blog, and the like. The day-to-day effort is hardly passive.
But let’s say one of your blog posts, a review on a product for which you are an affiliate, remains popular months after it’s been buried in the archives, and you keep receiving affiliate sales commissions from it long after you’ve made back a decent hourly wage for the work spent writing the post. In that particular case, the income is rather passive. It could also be called somewhat passive if you earn money from it while you’re sleeping, on days you don’t work, and the like, as some will point out. And I can see that point.
But in general, if you don’t post regularly, your blog income will drop off as the search engines consider you a stale blog and regular readers unsubscribe and fall off.
So for these reasons, blogs don’t count, but I do put static websites in the passive income category, since they can literally sit for weeks and months and keep earning the same amount of money. My static sites don’t require regular work to remain lucrative.
And frankly, that’s the kind of work I prefer. I would rather write a website about home decor than a blog, would rather compete for search engine traffic rather than work to build and maintain a blog community or audience.Because when it comes down to it, I want the freedom to be able to ignore a site for a month or not add anything for a week if I am busy or temporarily bored of the topic.
So why have I started this blog?
Because I am passionate about the topic and a blog is the best medium to share my knowledge and experience on the subject, as well as network with others and learn from the many experts and more-experienced passive-income gurus on the web.
I’m not writing this blog for passive income, I’m writing it about passive income — for your sake and for mine. I’ve benefited greatly from some awesome personal finance and online writing blogs over the past few years, and I’d love to be a resource for others. I also think I will benefit from the increased motivation to meet my passive income goals, as well as from the readers who share their knowledge with me.
Are you a blogger? Do you consider any aspect of your blogging income “passive”?
I agree with you that blogs are definitely not passive income. You can’t simply let your blog sit for a month and still expect to have readers and make an income. I’m still new to blogging (started in September) but I know that I need to update my content at least a few times a week or my readership falls. I do like the fact that I can set posts to publish at a future date. I use this to my advantage when I have a little extra time to blog.
Allyson — scheduling future posts can be a lifesaver! I just need to get a stash built up for times when I’m going to be gone or too busy to update.
Yes, I can contest that blogs are not a source of passive income in the short term. I think it’s more about passion right now and hopefully the earnings will come later. I’m enjoying your new blog and will add it to my reader.
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Blogging is as passive as you make it. It is an awesome way to organize your thoughts though and hopefully help others along the way. We each have such unique life experience that alot can be gained and shared!
Brandon’s last blog post..Tips for surviving a depression!
Thank goodness you have fallen into the money is in the list crowd! Blogs are interesting – my flagship blog is for exactly the same reason as yours – partly to share some of the stuff I’ve learnt the hard way, partly as therapy ’cause I feel like if I say I can often I will LOL
I make money from my blog thru some affiliate sales but its probably the worst hourly rate I have! I also have niche blogs which get updated rarely and do OK in the search engine listings – which are the only sort of traffic I want for those as they are Adsense blogs – readers hardly ever click Adsense while searchers do
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I agree with you Maria. When ever I earn Adsense money from any of my blogs, I’m surprised. I find that my websites do a lot better. I blog because I’m passionate about my blog’s topic. It’s my warm place to rest in the online freelance writing world.
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Now I don’t deny that blog can be lucrative, and quite lucrative, I just realize they aren’t passive income sources — which is my “business” model.
I agree with Brandon in that I think blogs are as passive as you make them. When I set up my niche blogs, I’ll generally set up each blog with 6+ months worth of content so I won’t have to do anymore writing for quite some time. It is a lot of work up front so that isn’t passive (obviously), but it is passive during the months you aren’t having to update.
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I make enough money from my blogs every month to pay my mortgage, but they are definitely NOT passive. They require hours of work every week, from writing posts, to promoting, commenting on other blogs and submitting to carnivals. If you’re expecting to make money by just casually posting a few times a month, and doing nothing else – you’re going to be disappointed. If you put some time into it, you’ll be able to turn it into a nice side income from something you enjoy doing!
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I have to disagree, Maria. I have a blog that is often neglected for weeks, if not months, and it still brings in about $40-$60/month in income. Mostly through text link advertising.
I don’t know how long I could ignore it and have it produce but, for now anyway, it’s still bringing in passive income.
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Well, our blog is brand new. Our hope is that it will become an income earner for us. However, it’s definitely not passive at all! We’re putting alot of time an effort into it. Hopefully, it will pay off.
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[...] presents Why Blog Earnings are not Passive Income (But I’m Still Blogging) posted at Residual Income Web, saying, “Blogs can make money, but they aren’t passive [...]
I shut down a blog in May 2008 and slowly watched ads leave, but I still was pulling in decent income eight months later when I merged the blog with a newer one.
Yes, keep your blog up to date or it will likewise be ignored by the search engines (and advertisers) over time.
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Ironically, I started my new blog the same day that this post was published.
The blog is about early and creative retirement, which means building multiple streams of passive income is a big topic that I cover. The blog itself isn’t meant to be a stream of passive income, more like a hub for all the other streams. As the blog grows in popularity, however, it will help increase the earnings from my other streams of passive income by bringing them more attention. It is all related, though sometimes indirectly.
P.S. I just found your blog today. I like it.
Paul’s last blog post..Earnings Update: February 2009
Blogs can be as powerful as websites.
I have come across several blogs that came on top of some searches and they’re old and have not been updated for over a year! I’m sure those blogs still make a lot of money from Adsense and whatever they’re advertising. So depending on what topics or how good the content of your blog, it is a possibility that they could become passive earners.
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I’m curious about how search engines distinguish between a static content site and just some old stale blog.
I recently decided to try to gradually build up a static site of technical articles. I’m using Wordpress as a sort of content management system, so I’m afraid that it is going to look like a blog to google, etc.
This site needs to be 100% passive and not drop off the search listings if I stop adding articles.
Any thoughts?
Tom S.’s last blog post..Bidirectional PWM Motor Control
I concur with your view of blogs as not passive (though they can be a little passive). I just started a blog focused on talking about passive income and making money. There are only about 8 posts so far but check it out. I see it as a learning experience, opportunity to organize my thoughts, chance to connect with other bloggers and readers, and a place to create links to ehow articles I created on topics I am writing about in the blog as well.