I have been very successful and made a lot of profit with publishing content on websites et al blogging. BUT here’s the catch, I’ve never had any major success with operating a content website.
So wherein lies the difference?
Blogging For A Business.
All of my success with blogging has came from blogging for a business. In other words, I have a business with a product and content publishing on a blog is a marketing channel. I’ve done well with this for an ecommerce business from 2008 – 2011 and with home service businesses since 2011. At one point one of my patio construction business was getting so much traffic (we were ranked top 3 for every possible information based query), that we were overwhelmed with inbound inquiries from users outside of our area. We proactively removed content to reduce the traffic.
In this scenario the content is not the whole business, rather it is one small piece. The business is still operating outside of the blog. In addition the blog also serves the purpose of informing our current clients / inquiries; it is a not solely published to capture Google traffic.
On Content Websites.
When it comes to content websites, I have not had much success. I’ve had content websites that generate a few thousand dollars per month. I’ve also flipped a content website for a small profit. So my experience here is rather vast, and not horrendous, but I’ve never seen the results that I’ve had when it comes to growing a business where the product is something other than content.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong, but going forward I’m sticking with businesses that have a product!