The make money online industry is full of crazy ideas and momentum swings. I see trends pop-up and die down on a regular basis. Last year it was high yield investment programs; this year it’s make money online blogs. The entire premise of this niche has never made sense to me and I am happy to report the fad is collapsing on itself; here’s why:
Most Make Money Online bloggers only actually knew how to make money online in one way….blogging. What their advice and ramblings have created is an army of clones and a subscriber base made up of make money online blogger wannabees. It’s one giant mess that is displaying the same negative qualities of a pyramid scheme.
In a pyramid scheme, existing members can only continue to profit when new members are recruited. This is because the top members of the pyramid cannot sustainably make money off the bottom of the pyramid forever; thus, a new bottom is needed. Eventually the pyramid grows large enough that no amount of new recruits can support the existing pyramid.
In the make money online blog world, the entire industry is funded by newbie make money bloggers who are now realizing there is way too much competition to gain subscribers or make money. As these bloggers quit and an increasing number of blogs are put up for sale with steadily decreasing sale prices, the pyramid begins to destruct.
Need an Example?
(The example below is purely fictional)
John Chow - (23k RSS) - Top of the Pyramid
John Cow - (1.5k RSS), Blogging Mix (500 RSS) - Mid Pyramid
Newbie1 (0 RSS), Newbie 2 (6 RSS), Newbie 3 (9 RSS), Newbie 4 (29 RSS) - Bottom of the Pyramid
- John Chow charges $500 for John Cow to Advertise on his blog.
- John Cow then charges Newbie 1 and Newbie 2 $300 each to advertise on his blog
- Newbie 1 and 2, eventually find their blog isn’t growing and quit the make money online blogging niche and unsubscribe from John Chow and John Cow.
- John Cow can no longer afford to advertise on John Chow, and sells his site.
As many of you know John Cow actually has put his blog up for sale, along with a slew of others recently (including bloggingmix.com also included in my example). It’s unfortunate, but there are some laggards who continue to overpay for established sites, only to find out quickly that their newly acquired blog is worthless. If you are still in the game, my advice is to sell before the well completely dries up.
Who Will Survive:
Survivors will be blogs with a greater purpose then just to service the make money online niche. If you look at someone like Andy Beard who is often grouped into this category, he has a focus on search engine optimization and other technical tips useful for any webmaster which will allow him to be fairly immune to the fallout. We at WhyDoWork are simply using the blog to compliment the main content. The creation of our blog was used to highlight the collective thoughts and exceptional ideas from our 30,000 members. We will continue to utilize the blog for this purpose.
Others will survive as well. I know some of the top tier bloggers have advertisers that aren’t targeted to blogs but the level of dependency of the make money online blogger remains to be seen.
What’s next?
I predict forum discussion will pick up again and users will rediscover a better way of making money online. That process involves researching the actions of many people, weighing the pros and cons of each program, product, and service and finding the niche that suits you best. When it comes to making money online, whether it be blogging, or doing surveys, one person can’t provide you with all the answers.
- Joe
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John Cow responded on 16 Apr 2008 at 6:58 am #
An entertaining article, unfortunately you seem to be missing a few things here.
Most of our advertisers are not the newbies you take as an example, but established companies that want volume in traffic and subscribers.
Besides that all, we never advertised on John Chow’s blog and we don’t charge $300 for anything. If you want to make a proper example, try using real data and not some made up stuff.
And what we don’t understand is how everyone seems to be slagging the new owner of onemansgoal.com. The least you could do is give him a few months to ‘prove’ himself of being a capable blogger, whatever that may be.
Last but not least, we’re not selling, trying to bail out or anything remotely like that. We simply do not have time to maintain the blog and had to make a decision many others would have made too.
Joe responded on 16 Apr 2008 at 7:10 am #
@COW:
Sorry to use your site as an example. I only wanted to highlight a mid tier blogger advertising on a top tier bloggers site, and a newbie blogger advertising on a mid tier bloggers site.
I definately did not use factual numbers or advertisers, when in retrospect I should have.
In either case I stand behind my premise that a large portion of the traffic and advertising in this ‘make money online blogging’ niche is supported by people wanting to be ‘make money online bloggers’. To the extent that this is true is really something I can only guess on.
Thanks for stopping by!
WhyDoWork responded on 16 Apr 2008 at 7:38 am #
@ Joe:
Moo-man makes a valid point about using real numbers, but I think Joe’s overall message is still very valid.
@ John Cow:
so I’d say you’re still a part of the hierarchy.
Small fish are working through the mid sized fish and Cow, your blog wouldn’t exist without a big fish
great insights
Trent Brownrigg responded on 16 Apr 2008 at 1:34 pm #
Very good insights Joe! And I guess great minds really do think alike. Just yesterday I wrote a guest post on this same topic over at http://www.canimakebigmoneyonline.com - but it hasn’t been published yet. I agree with pretty much everything you said.
Andy Beard responded on 16 Apr 2008 at 4:24 pm #
My final greater purpose hasn’t been fully revealed but ultimately the blog is a mean to an end rather than a pure revenue generator.
It will be interesting how things evolve. It is easier to grow subscribers targeting specific segments, and those segments typically are easier to monetize.
I look on having future partners as readers as being a greater benefit than aiming for a wider audience.
Leverage is highly important, and whilst I could also gain leverage by having 30,000 raving fans, they might not be the core audience I am looking to attract.
WhyDoWork responded on 17 Apr 2008 at 10:28 am #
@ Andy:
I agree with your mentality. Blog as a core business can be a difficult model to pull off, but blog as a means to some greater end makes things much easier when it comes time to drive focus from your blog to other aspects of your business.
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