How I Used Bad Headlines & Jedi Mind Tricks To Become a Billionaire Blogger

Editor’s Note: This is what you call an evergreen post meaning it is timeless. It first ran several years ago but people read it because so many bloggers want to make money from blogging. It is tied into with the sentiments in Are Your Posts Authentically Sterile?

Some of you have asked if I write posts that aren’t snarky comments about blogging. For you I offer An Uncertain Certainty, The Best Thing My Father Ever Said To Me and Grandpa.

Every now and then I like to write posts that poke fun at other bloggers who try to fill our heads full of rules and regulations about how we should blog and what doesn’t work.

Rules and I don’t always get along very well and not just because I am insouciant and given to whims of fancy where I dream about defenenstrating those who irritate me.

It is because here in the magical world of social media there aren’t many rules at all other than “be nice to others” and “sustain your effort.” Ok, that is not entirely true nor does that provide a good explanation for how to make a buck while blogging.

But unlike other bloggers I don’t lie to you and claim to be making tons of cash doing this. Yeah, I am calling out all sorts of people with this post and suggesting they put their money where their mouths arr- open the books and prove you are making real money because I don’t believe it.

My Old Kitchen

The picture up above is of the new kitchen we put in my old house. I loved that kitchen and when we moved I was disappointed to say goodbye.

The kitchen is the heart of the home and that one was special. The funds that I used to pay for the remodeling came from my pocket and were not from blogging.

Ad sales paid for most of it, online ad sales. Yep, once upon a time I sold online advertising for a living so I know a thing or two about this business.

Some of you are trying to fool the good people of the blogosphere into buying your special blend of BS but more than a few of us recognize it. Some of you won’t last much longer because your cash flow is about gone.

Sadly that doesn’t describe all of you because you have alternate sources, like your spouse/savings or daytime job to pay for your snake oil sales.

I Am Just Writing

I haven’t given out names because I don’t want a flame war and it is possible I am wrong about some people. But that is ok because I really am just writing because I find in joy in it.

Not just joy in the journey but joy in the moments and minutes where I figure out which letters go where and what words work best. That joy is why you keep seeing these posts show up in your feed/reader/inbox.

It is part of why I don’t always feel the need to spend lots of time writing headlines. Jayme blogged about bad headlines and shared how sometimes I use sexual innuendo to drive traffic to my posts.

I suppose that is true, but what is also true is that if headlines are foreplay I rush through it.

Don’t get me wrong, headlines can be fun to write and not just the innuendo kind. I rather enjoy trying to come up with something more clever.

But time constraints dictate how I work and I never have all day to just sit around and play here so I have to get to the writing. I have to get to the words on the page bit so I push through the headlines.

People Don’t Read

I also know that many people don’t read. They skim the headline and make a split second decision about whether they are going to click their way into the blog to read that amazing post we just wrote.

The benefit of writing good headlines is that you have a better chance to generate traffic that way than by just throwing mud at the wall.

My method isn’t based on traffic. It is based on getting to write so that I can experience the joy of the journey. These words speak to me and I can’t get enough of their soft caress.

And after all these years I have learned/proven that people will read my posts. It may take longer to generate the larger traffic numbers but the community we are building is really solid and that is worth a lot.

Billion Dollar Blogger

Maybe one day I will be the first billion dollar blogger and maybe I won’t, doesn’t much matter to me as long as I am still having fun.

Ok, that is not entirely true either, a billion dollars would be nice but the joy this job generates is substantial.

What about you?

• Saved: Blogging, Narishkeit