It is the latest trend that is hitting bloggers, who are blogging to make money online. They do a monthly post on the income that they earned in the past month. And income report kind of posts are published towards the beginning of a month by most bloggers. The income report is a total declassification of all the sources of income that the blogger has used. Although there are many bloggers who do this, there are also many bloggers who are hesitant to reveal all their sources of income. Make Money Online Guru John Chow is the best example of a pro-blogger who regularly reveals his monthly income – along with all the sources. So should you really share your income details with your readers?
If your blog is in the Make Money Online niche, then sharing your income details is a good idea. The Make Money Online niche is rather polluted by a lot of negative bloggers who are simply providing no value to readers. Also some blogs are more or less trying to fraud visitors. In such situations, revealing your income details to readers might seem like a good idea. The reason is that the information will seem to be coming from someone who is actually earning from what he preaches. Most Make Money Online niche blogs hardly earn any income themselves- still they go about teaching others how to make money off the internet.
Also I have noticed that revealing income details to other bloggers helps develop a lot of trust with them through the transparency. Letting your readers and peers know your sources of income simply displays the transparency that you maintain – it reflects on your personality that all your information is clean and effective.
When I see other bloggers who reveal their income details it is a source of inspiration for me. This is why you should also reveal your income details – so that countless other bloggers are also able to gain motivation from it. For doing so, you need not be earning a six-figure income; even a decent three-figure blogger can share his income details online. Since any ways most of his readers will be earning more than him. Either ways you are accomplishing the task of inspiring your readers to a better blogging career.
Sharing your sources of income and the amount earned from each source is the best way to show that you actually apply what you write. It calls your readers into your action and your content will become “expert advice”.
What do you think about sharing the income details of your blog? Let me know below.
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
On a personal note, I feel this is an unhealthy practice. I agree that making money through blogging is serious business but publicising about the same every month is a step gone further.
I know many bloggers who used to write good content, although their frequency was less, they wrote good and informative posts. Now, as many “well-to-do” blog owners have started publishing their monthly income online, this is leading to unhealthy competition and spaming.
“Inspired” by the income reports, its not surprising to come across 10 blogs writing variations on the same topic within 2 days of a NEWS breakout.
The meaning of blogging is being lost as most people are taking it as a shortcut to make money. Moreover, an after-effect is my Twitter and Facebook streams being flodded with the same posts.
This repetitive information overload and overpromotion is a bad example of how people are misinterpreting the income reports.
Hey Anil
It really depends on why you or any one else would actually want to reveal all of your income sources and the amount. For example, is John Chow doing so to show people what is truly possible or is he doing it to brag? Personally, I won’t reveal how much I make. But, that is an individual decision. Just never misrepresent your earnings as that can get you in hot water with the FTC.
Cheers
Personally I think it depends on the person. For me, I would not want to put myself out there and risk myself by telling people how much money I make or don’t make. It makes sense for John Chow post his earnings, because thats what his blog really has been centered around, but at the same time, I feel there is a danger element to posting your income like that. The danger being that there could be stalkers out there on the internet who may be jealous, and may have big eyes on the money they are making, and you never know what might happen… Off course that is something rare, but its still a relevant thought that has kept me away from doing any styles like that.
Till then,
Jean
I have followed various blogs where people show their incomes each month and the various places like Google Adsense, Text Link Ads, Click Bank etc. that drives their revenues. I find it interesting to see and it probably attracts me back just to see how they are making the income. It is something that I do on the side yet am not as willing to give up all my techniques like some of them do. I do talk technique on my blog at MakingAMillionDollars but also discuss various other personal finance topics. Making Money is just one category and most of my revenue is not from my blog, at least not yet.
It seems like an okay idea to me, as long as you’re blotting out your personal details (and paying your taxes). But I think it definitely is inspiring to see how much people make just from blogging. And it can also be helpful to see the exact sources. I agree with all the points you made above.
I used to make a couple of thousands from AdSense per month in the past but that’s no longer the case when one of my best AdSense websites had stopped ranking in Google after their algorithm updates.
However, personally I’d not reveal the income as I do not want unwanted attention ( you know how ’safe’ Malaysia is these days). Unless of course, you remain anonymous with a pen name.
Well in the extremely competitive niche of “making money online,” if you aren’t on the first page of Google, then revealing income can be critical to establishing credibility and showing that you really know what you talking about. On top of that, I’m one of those people that is really motivated by the success of others, so seeing such a thing really makes me take notice.
However, that’s not to say that it is necessary…yet. But as it becomes more commonplace it may become an expected standard. After all, you must be competitive while providing the market with what it wants.
–Alden