Where Bloggers Fail With Money and A Story

by Robb Sutton

Over the course of your blogging and business building career, you are going to be faced with many questions. The decisions made with these questions will have a lasting impact on your future growth and expansions, so answering them correctly is vital to your bottom line.

One of the biggest things I see bloggers struggle with is money. Ironic isn’t it? The thing you are trying to make also ends up being your downfall, but how does that happen? How does money kill bloggers in the pursuit of their dream and the internet lifestyle?

Where Bloggers Fail With Money

The typical road of a blogger is a hard one. They slave over content, monetization techniques and growing their blogs to make pennies on the hour over the course of the beginning stages. Then something hits. A nice spike in traffic, a great review or a feature on another site and the income starts to flow in. Even if it is not a lot of money, there is the instant satisfaction that all of this work is not going to waste and money actually can be made online!

So what does the blogger do?

Celebrates! The blogger buys that big TV, the game console or whatever other toy they have been pining for all this time. They have earned it right?! It can’t be all work and no play!

One BIG problem.

That big TV does nothing to help grow your business or invest in your future. You just took all of your hard work and invested it in a depreciating asset that will be obsolete in 6 months. All of that hard work, those late nights and time away from your family will be absolutely worthless in less time than it took you to build that small income stream. Congratulations, you just crippled your success and you are going to have to work even harder to get it back.

What should you have done?

Looked for ways to reinvest back into you blogging and saved the excess (or paid off high interest credit cards if you have them). Building a business online is no different than any other business. You need to reinvest back into the business if you want to see future growth.

Was there a paid plugin that you needed?

Was there a design or coding project you needed done?

Do you need a better camera or piece of equipment that would benefit your blogging?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself as you start to see money coming in from your blogging. That expensive “celebration dinner” might make you feel great for an hour, but the increased revenue from reinvesting back into your blogging will pay for itself over years.

Bloggers tend to get all of the advice down on growing a community and monetizing a blog. What they fail to realize is that a business can not grow without capital and they are squandering away that capital on a bunch of stuff they really don’t need…leaving nothing for the business when you need an interview transcribed or help with a new design or logo that will increase your professional reputation online.

Personal Story: What I Bought This Week

Ok…so what spurred this thought process? With some extra income in the bank from hard work at the keyboard, it was time to reinvest in my business some. While I could have gone out and bought that new HDTV my wife and I have been looking at. I instead picked up a new camera that is going to help out my biking sites A LOT. With better high ISO quality and 7 fps shooting, this Nikon D300s will be able to catch trail side shots much better than my previous Nikon D80. (Luckily for me…a lot of my reinvesting money is on stuff I like too!)

Nikon D300s DSLR with Super Wide Lens

Pictures are a huge part of the biking culture and I have been relying too much on the support of my community and friends for shots to use on the site. What I really need to do (and the reason for the purchase) is capture my own shots for the blogs. Now…armed with a Sigma 10-20 super wide and the Nikon D300s, I have zero excuse for not lugging around this heavy beast with me on rides to capture the shots I need.

As a nice side affect…photography is a hobby of mine so I get to enjoy it for personal reasons as well. Like shooting my two girls laying on a couch.

My Two Girls Shot with Nikon D300s

Now…does anyone have a Sigma 70-200/f2.8 they want to donate to RobbSutton.com? 😉 You can keep up to date with what I am posting on Flickr through the widget on the sidebar.

So what can you do to reinvest back into your blog and business?

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13 comments

Peter van Veen March 12, 2010 - 8:55 am

Hi Rob,

Nice article and sooo true…

You’ve made a good decision with the Nikon D300s, I’m looking for that one too. Actually, I’m earning money with my blog for this nice one. I already own the Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 and I love it!

Keep up the good work,

Peter

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Robb Sutton March 14, 2010 - 8:06 am

What are you shooting with now? I was on the D80 and I shoot a lot of action shots in tree cover, so the fast 7 fps of the D300S made sense for my needs. Also, look at the D90. Pretty much same sensor, HD vid capture…you just don’t get the wicked fast speed of the D300s (I love just holding down the shutter on this thing…it makes me laugh every time. Sounds like a machine gun).

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Peter van Veen March 18, 2010 - 4:04 pm

Currently shooting with a Nikon D50, my first DSLR. Nice one, but not really fast… I want to make the step to a semi pro camera now.

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Jack | Online Marketing Blog March 12, 2010 - 1:19 pm

I am so glad I read this post because I would have been that person with a brand new TV!

Although there’s nothing wrong about spoiling yourself from all your hard work, I do agree you have to reinvest back into your business.

There are many ways you can do this:

1. Start a ppc campaign with Adwords
2. Hire people for directory submissions (hated doing this!!!)
3. Better design layout, etc.

Thanks for the tip Robb!

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Robb Sutton March 14, 2010 - 8:04 am

There are a ton of ways you can reinvest your money back into your business depending on niche and target audience. That money reinvested will multiply with time.

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DJ March 12, 2010 - 2:44 pm

The first thing I will be buying with my new found earnings is monthly hosting service and a professional theme. I know these are the basics, but I have a strict policy of only using money made online to fund new online businesses. So 10 bucks a month and a one time $100 theme fee may not sound like a lot, and in reality it is not, but my plan is to expand by reinvestment only. That way, I have exactly zero liability and risk.

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Robb Sutton March 14, 2010 - 8:03 am

DJ,

That is the perfect route to go. Get things looking clean and keep the site reliable. It is all about content after that.

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Maren Kate March 12, 2010 - 8:06 pm

I so want that camera! Jealous 🙂 Good stuff, I need to be better with money as well and focus more on controlling and it earning it the right way.

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Robb Sutton March 14, 2010 - 8:03 am

I have had fun playing with this one for sure! Picked up a couple of new flashes as well. Photography is an addictive disease!

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zazo March 12, 2010 - 11:54 pm

Once again a nice post Robb. As new to blogging I don’t count myself into big earning bloggers but yes when first time I got paid I thought to purchase a better theme for my blog but finally decided to gift a gold bracelet to my sister on her wedding. I don’t know if it was a wrong decision professionally, but I don’t want to lose that only opportunity to make my sister feel special, as she is always special for me.

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Robb Sutton March 14, 2010 - 8:02 am

Part of that reinvesting is reinvesting in the people that help you get there. Rock on!

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zazo March 22, 2010 - 7:43 am

That’s right Robb, I thought same and did it without even thinking of that premium theme I wish to buy.

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innocriss March 13, 2010 - 9:41 pm

Thanks Robb, i was still contemplating on which camera to purchase,but now i think i will go for the Nikon D300. Reinvesting has always been my thing and i give priority to the things i like most.

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