The King of professional blogging is probably the Australian blogger Darren Rowse. He’s one of the first people to write about professional blogging, as well as running his digital photography school blog, and being seriously involved in b5 media. When he asks a question, people take him seriously.

Recently, in response to Seth Godin, Darren wrote a post about whether there is a new breed of bloggers who are blogging primarily for the money, and whether they will or are having any success with this approach. A number of the commentators seemed to assume that anyone who is initially looking to make money from blogging (rather than starting without any income ideas) is not a *true blogger*.

One of the problems with people in general who are enthusiastic about a particular thing that they do, is that they assume that theirs is the only good way of doing it. This is especially true when it comes to money. The creation of works of art is supposed to be sullied by considerations of finance, and I guess a lot of people think of blogging that way, but there’s no reason why everyone should.

There is nothing wrong with blogging for fun, and not making money from it. There is nothing wrong with blogging for fun, and then discovering that you can make money from it. But there is also nothing wrong with starting a blog in an attempt to make money. You aren’t destined to fail just because you want an income and think you can get one. You aren’t worse for doing so.

Although I spend a lot of time blogging, I don’t blog full time. I have another job. One that I really, really enjoy. One that I’m good at. One that I would like to be involved in, even if I didn’t need the money. The fact is though, that I do need money to pay my mortgage, bills and to have some fun. And I took the job because I needed an income and, because I thought I would like it. I think that’s normal for many people when they are looking for work.

Why can’t blogging be the same? Doing something because you think you can make money at it, isn’t worse than any other reason, as long as you are actually good at the job. Suppose you want to be a hairdresser because you think you can make money doing so, as long as you can actually cut hair well, what’s the problem with your desire to make money?

Blogging can be a hobby, but it can also be a job. The best bloggers are likely to be ones that engage their audience and keep them hooked - and that can be independent of any desire (or lack) to make money.

Photo by tris via Flickr

With all the rave about niche blogging and linking only to related sites, bloggers are overlooking a powerful marketing tool. Sure, its great to get targeted niche traffic but some niches are universally appealing to most readers. Some of these universal niches include:

• Personal Finance,
• Career,
• Parenting,
• Education,
• Health and Fitness,
• Self-Improvement.
• etc.

If your blog belong to one of these niches, there’s a technique that I call “blurb exchange” that may be useful to promote your blog traffic.

What’s a blurb?

A blurb is basically a brief promotional statement designed to generate interest.

How does blurb exchange work?

Similar to link exchange, you make an arrangement with another blogger preferably in a different niche than yours. In one of your blog post, you’ll mention something about your blurb exchange partner’s blog and in return your partner will say something about your blog.

For example, let’s say I am working with someone in the education niche, I could start a blog post with something like this:

I was reading about American high school curriculum at The Education Wonks the other day and it made me think about how we should teach our children about money management in high school…

In return, The Education Wonks would write something about my blog. For example:

Recently, I came across a post at Moolanomy about teaching money management in high school, which I thought was an interesting idea…

Well, you get the idea. Essentially, a blog level link exchange with the primary purpose of driving traffic to another blog.

As far as best practice goes, the blogger could make it easier by recommending a few posts that his partner could link to. The blogger could even go as far as recommending the key phrase that should be used.

How is this beneficial?

Since universal niche blogs are appealing to most readers, this technique gives the collaborating bloggers an opportunity to gain new readers and subscribers. It is a good supplementary technique to working within the niche because you are expanding beyond your sphere of influence.

The main problem with this technique is that it takes a lot of work to find someone to work with for several reasons:

• You are not familiar with the players in other niche
• You’ll have to explain the concept persuasively to the other person

However, I think both of these could be overcome. First, I recommend using Alltop.com to find potential partners. Then you can explain the concept and point your potential partners to this post on Blogthority.

Give it a try. You won’t regret it.

This post was featured in:

• The Resource for Bloggers Carnival - 12th Edition hosted by 134u. For more information please visit the Resource for Bloggers Carnival.