Why do we all blog? What are our goals in blogging, and how do we plan on bringing our blog to success? What is success? There are so many questions to ask when it comes to blog building that it becomes hard to answer them all.
But there is one question in particular I want to discuss in this post.
How does having a good reputation help me make money from my blog?
Your reputation on your blog means everything. It’s not just about making money blogging, but building your community, gaining trusted readers, attracting guest bloggers and more. But right now, I just want to focus on the question at hand: How does reputation tie into making money blogging?
First, I want to start off by sharing with you something that I have realized in the last few days…
You Won’t Make Money Blogging Without A Reputation
Have you ever really wondered why new blogs don’t make money? It’s because they aren’t known yet; they have no “rep points” or any authority over other bloggers to actually earn any real kind of income from their blog.
That’s just how it is, but as we all know that over time when we start to build this sense of trust with people who visit our blog and help those people out, it is possible that we can start to see some green coming our way. But that’s only of course if we all play our cards right and use proper monetization strategies.
Besides those basic monetization methods like selling advertisements or putting up AdSense, how much can really make? All of those income streams are limited and can even be inconsistent.
I think that unless you are a blogger with thousands and thousands of Pageviews a day, those monetization strategies will not work for you. Take it from me, I don’t even think we are ready for ads here yet and this blog has been up since December 2008.
Your Blog Doesn’t Have To Directly Make You Money…
I’m going to saying something that you have probably heard, and even learned for yourself, but making money from your blog is hard as hell. I don’t know how many of you guys make a lot of money from your blogs, but do you agree with me that if you aren’t a “famous” blogger then you probably aren’t making much money?
This is how I see a blog as a great income stream. The blog itself will be the place where you build your reputation with other people. Sooner or later, you’re bound to get some recognition from doing an outstanding job on your blog. With that recognition, money can follow right behind it.
Take Me And Blogussion For Example
When I updated the design on Blogussion, I got a pretty good response about it. That response made my reputation go up as a designer, because so many people loved the design I did for this place.
What also helped me here was the fact that I used a framework to build the theme off of called Thesis. The Thesis framework is known to be used a lot, but it is used without a lot of customizations on so many different blogs that the whole Thesis community was looking for a blog that really built a theme off of the framework that left few traces of the default look.
If you take a look at the Thesis default look, then the look here, you will find that there are really no traces or hints that I used Thesis to make this theme. With me “wowing” a few people in the Thesis community, my reputation as a Thesis user and designer has gone up which has resulted in me getting some freelance design clients, and partnering up with someone for a Thesis based service.
All of those things have earned me money, all because I built a blog where I earned a positive reputation from. I didn’t make money directly from the blog, but I did make money from it indirectly. Do you get it now? 
Building a Positive Reputation On Your Blog
So this is where the questions come up: How do you build a positive reputation on your blog? It can be tricky to do nowadays because of how much competition there is out there in just about any niche on the web.
Based off of my experience, I want to share 3 steps I took to build my reputation of “having a good blog theme.”
Step 1 — Finding What You Do Best
Take a skill you have that you are really good at and really like to do. Maybe your skill is writing great content, or maybe you code and things. Whatever you do at your blog that you are great at doing and don’t mind doing a lot, I’d say that would be something you want to build on and get even better.
I don’t have a skill!
It’s possible that if you’re new to blogging that you won’t really have much to show off. There’s nothing wrong with that, we all started off clueless too. As you go on with your blogging career, just take a particular interest in the things you like about blogging and the things you think you are good at, and see if that’s something you would classify as “your skill.”
Step 2 — Utilize/Re-utilize it on Your Blog
Now this is where you put that skill of yours to good use. The trick here is implementing it onto your blog to serve as an example for others to see. Even if you’re good at doing what everyone does at blogging (like writing) then make sure you really show that off.
If “what you do best” isn’t something you can exactly show off on your blog, I would suggest that you do something like write an E-Book about your skill explaining to others what you did to become so good at it.
Step 3 — Show It Off!
Once you have found your skill and have put it to use on your blog, I would say that it’s time to show other people how great you are. Do whatever you can do get your abilities known, even if it’s something people have already mastered.
Depending on your skill, there is a different community of people you can show it off too. You can go broad and talk about it on Social Networking websites like Twitter. Or, you can find an online community like a forum or blog that caters exclusively to people who are interested in that particular thing you can do.
Whatever you can do, there is bound to be others who may need your skills, or are interested in communicating to you about them. Get yourself out there, and let the blogosphere know about you.
Is Reputation Really the Key To Making Money Blogging?
After reading this post, what do you think about making money from your blog? Does it make sense to you that you are more likely to earn money indirectly rather then directly from your blog?
Share your thoughts with us, because I really think that this will make a great conversation here.
Photo by Bill Barber
18 Discussions
Great post! i Think people should build their reputation before they expect to earn anything. This blog is quite the work of art
Thanks Marcell, I’m glad you agree with me.
Good post as usual.
I have read in several places online over the past year that on average it’s best not to expect to make any significant money from your blog until you’ve been up and running for a year or you have at least 1000 unique visitors per day.
On my blog, I actually put up ads for free to:
1) Sites I really respect.
2) Fellow newbie bloggers where we can swap 125 x 125 pixel ads.
I believe doing this in the beginning makes your site looks like it is already attracting ads and also it does mutually drive traffic to each others blogs.
What do you guys think of this? Would you be interested in trying it out with me?
Gordie Rogers’s last blog post..10 Ways To Improve The Twitter Experience For You And Everyone Else.
I have heard all kinds of different kinds of estimations, but really I think it depends on the kind of blogger you are and the type of niche you are in.
You and I think alike Gordie, I support smaller bloggers as much as I can too. I know what it’s like starting out and trying to make your blog a success, I still am.
As for the offer, we could do link exchange. Right now, we don’t really want to put any kins of banner advertisements up here yet.
Great post, the whole reputation thing, i think applies to just about anything or anyone in business, without a good reputation, then you are pretty much dead in the water, or getting by on a wish and a pray. So building a reputation is essential, and a good reputation is of course better.
On the idea of advertising, this i think is always a tricky subject. Different people can justify or implement ads sooner then others, while still building a good reputation. While others have a different perception and work it differently. While in my case i put ads on both my blogs rather early. Mostly for the reason that i did not want to surprise anyone later by suddenly putting ads on.
I have since taken ads off one blog and left just one or two on single posts view on the other. Mostly because I found i was wasting to much time checking and tracking and trying to better optimize the ads and it is was time that i could have been doing more productive things with my blogs. Such as writing new posts.
But again good post and nice blog overall.
Joel Brown’s last blog post..Adding a revenue stream, updated
That’s actually a really good point Joel. You can even use Twitter as an example, any kinds of ads they put up people flip out about them. It makes you think that maybe Twitter should have put ads up early on in their growth. But then, you would start to think that having those ads there would slow growth.
I sound like a broken record, but I do agree that ads are really tricky.
Reputation will affect your traffic in the first place. A good reputation will draw a lot of targeted traffic to your site that can in turn become potential income.
Since I don’t have ads on my blog, beside the affiliate programs links where I get some income from; I’ve been able to make a good amount of money indirectly from my blog purely based on reputation.
As people read and appreciate and talk about the help I provide to my readers, both through my posts and on individual basis through email or direct messenger, my reputation increased enough for people to want to hire me for good projects.
My traffic exploded simply based on reputation where one person recommends another, and so on.
Reputation is something we need to take very seriously online, on a continuous basis for it is hard to gain, but very easy to lose!
Nicolas Prudhon’s last blog post..Did You Get Your Heading Tags All Wrong?
I only have affiliate links here as well, and even though the one I do have doesn’t make me that much, the design clients I have been getting have been bringing in some nice chunks of change.
It sounds like you’re well on your way though man. Your blog is growing a lot, and you definitely seem to be building respect. Keep it up!
Joel raises a very good counter point. Ads too late can be just as detrimental if not more so. Regulars readers expecting one thing can really get thrown into a tizzy with the introduction of ads…..especially if it’s a lot.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..100 Strategies Book Review FollowUp – I Name Names!
Yeah, he does. Ads are complicated when you look at them fro different points of views. :S
I find that one of the easiest ways to build reputation is to provide quality comments on blogs related to your niche. People really take notice when they see your name a few times.
I’m glad to be back and ready to comment BTW. My parents grounded me for a week LOL.
teenwebguru’s last blog post..Taking a Break
Definitely, quality comments not only makes your site looks good, but you too.
Haha, what did you do to get grounded?
I think this is very true. The best way to earn off a blog is indirectly.
If making money from a blog is your main reason for starting one, then it will be a chore to write. It won’t flow, it won’t have your character in it. And you probably won’t make much money anyway as a result!
But if you just stay true to yourself and blog about what you really enjoy, you’ll have heaps of unique content up there in no time. You’ll start to get known for what you do.
Having that higher profile is valuable, because you can use it to get other gigs – as a teacher or consultant, for instance. And of course there’s all that material you’ve accumulated, which can be sold as a book, say.
Matt Hayden’s last blog post..The first stone, etc.
Very good and interesting post.
I don’t think everyone needs a reputation. I certainly don’t have one and I earn enough ot make it worthwhile carrying on. The only thing that stops me earning more is my lethargic approach to running my blogs.
Dean Saliba’s last blog post..Follow Me On Twitter
I have had a blog for a couple of years and now want to grow my traffic and learn about promotion. I just found this blog and find it most useful and I am so impressed with your age and your knowledge and maturity in this industry. Thanks for the great advice.
Flash Your Tattoo Blog´s last blog ..Tattoo Artist – Jack Ribeiro
Well you have come to the right place to get more information on traffic. The key is to build quality resources for people to search for.
Very interesting. This is good information. Our website can use this. Thanks.
Yes true, A little bit of effort and dedication can help you earn a handsome income online.
Bankruptcy´s last blog ..Blockbuster Gets Second Extension- But May Still File Bankruptcy
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