Blogging for fun and profit (or just profit)

I recently posted in a thread about blogging for profit. I decided I'd cut and paste the same post here with some slight editing since it is out of context.

Check out Who's There? which is one of the seminal works of viral marketing. Also look at 26 Steps to 15k a Day, which is more about content sites but the advice applies to blogs as well.

In summary, yes you can make good money from blogging or content but it's a lot of work and the day you stop working at it is the day your income dries up. It's not a "I'll post now and then on random topics and retire to the Bahamas" thing.

Affiliate marketing is a better way to make money than ads. AdSense (and the other ad programs) are awfully fickle and your income is likely to fluctuate wildly. I saw a guy on a forum who wanted to put up a site about surfing and wondered if AdSense would pull in some money. It was suggested that he would make more money if he added a section where he gave capsule reviews of surfing movies (fictional, documentary, or both) and put in Amazon links to them. If you blog on a subject you can tie to product sales, you'll be better off.