Alison Garwood Jones

People sometimes ask me, “Do you make money from your blog?”

“Indirectly,” I say.

I have no advertisers flashing in the sidebars. And in the two years I’ve been blogging no one has offered. While the houses of Chanel and Dior flock to beauty blogs, there are no obvious products you can throw at a forum on human nature. Worry beads, maybe. Or stress balls, pet rocks and marker sets (I could use some new markers …).

Here’s how it works: I make money when editors e-mail me, offer me assignments and add in their sign off, “I’ve been reading your blog!” They end up assigning me things that suit my voice and my interests — just like screenwriters write scripts with certain actors in mind — and that saves me a lot of time and expense pulling together pitches that might never fly.

As Penelope Trunk, one of my favourite bloggers, writes,

“Don’t get sidetracked by snake oil salesmen telling you that you should make money from your blog.” Rather, learn how to blog so you can write your way towards the career you want. “And learn how to blog to get the life you want. So you can go to art museums in the middle of the day and so you can think about things that are more fun to think about than how to stay employed.”

People are drawn to good conversationalists and interesting thinkers, so become one! And post what you want to be known for.