Blog economy

Some of you have probably noticed that there are links to webshops on this blog. And here is a disclosure: If you click on the link, and buy something, I'm getting a commission from the purchase.

So does this mean that writing this blog is my day job? And should you also start a blog, and get rich quick?

Blog traffic

Anyone can write a blog, but to get people to actually read it takes a lot of time and effort. Here you can see the statistics for my blog:

I haven't done much in particular to attract the readers. I could have been more active on social media and so on to draw more readers, but I prefer not to be pushy.

Rather, most of the traffic comes from people using search engines. And it takes time before search engines consistently direct traffic to your blog. You should expect to write quality articles for a long time, probably at least a year, before you can expect to gain any significant traffic from search engines.

From the statistics, you can see that the traffic peaked around late 2013, and has since been in decline. This is partially due to that I don't write quite as frequently, but mostly, I think, due to more competition. Competition from fellow bloggers, but more importantly, competition from serious review sites like DPReview.

Back when I started, there was not much resources about Micro Four Thirds on the internet, and more people, relatively, came to my blog. Nowadays, more alternatives exist, and, to be frank, at a higher quality, too. But I think some readers like to see independent articles as well, and some of those find their way to my blog.

I think there are some handful of individuals who started blogging very early, and are now getting a lot of search engine hits. They probably get a lot of traffic. But for a new blogger to reach this level takes a long time. Expect to work hard on the writing for years to get many readers.

Commission

I'm using the American Amazon store for the webshop links. If anyone buys something I have linked to, I get a commission: 4% of the sales amount. For non-electronics items, the commission can be higher, around 6-7%.

For each click on a webshop link, around 2.5% actually buy something. This is called the conversion rate, the rate of clicks converted into a sale. Perhaps you think 2.5% sounds low, but this is a quite common level.

Actually, I think the level normally is a bit higher, around 3-4%. But non-American readers of my blog are less likely to buy anything from the American Amazon shop, and that brings the rate down a bit for my blog.

I could have implemented a system to direct readers to a webshop in their own country. However, to make those changes now would be extremely time consuming for me, and the reward would be fairly marginal. So I retain only the American links for now.

When someone buys something, most of the time it is something inexpensive. Like lens caps or adapter, which give me only cents in commission. Once in a while, someone will buy a lens, which earns me some tens of dollars. But it is rare.

On a monthly basis, this commission amounts to around US$70. Given that I usually spend around 20-30 hours per month on the blog, this is of course far from sufficient to pay for my time.

And here I come to my point: Bloggers should not expect to get any significant monetary reward. Only some very few bloggers reach a number of readers that makes them a normal wage. Most end up with peanuts.

If you work hard and write good articles frequently, you will end up with a fair number of readers. But breaking even, in terms of getting well paid for the work, does not come easy.

Videos

You've probably seen the ads on youtube videos. Surely, those who make the videos get rich?

The most viewed video I have made, is this one, showing the very impressive IBIS inside the Olympus OM-D E-M5 II:



This video was featured on the technology portal Gizmodo about a year ago, and has had a total of 115.000 views at this time of writing. Now, it has around 500 new views per month.

The total ad income on this video is US$50. Given that I spent around five hours creating the video, at least this gained me an ok hourly wage, didn't it?

Sort of. But this simple calculation fails to take into consideration the 100 other videos I have uploaded, which have not gained any significant income. Considering also the other videos, the hourly payment again goes down to a negligible level.

Conclusion

You should not start blogging, expecting to get paid well. Only some very few, very active bloggers can expect that. Most get paid next to nothing.

If you do start blogging, it should be out of a genuine interest in the writing. As a hobby. That is what I do.