Yesterday I got into it a bit with a blogger, George, who writes one of my top 5 favorite blogs. Many months ago he added credit card affiliate links to his website. Since then he will with some frequency complain about readers not clicking on his links. While I enjoy the blog, it drives me nuts when he bitches about his readers. Sometimes I can’t help myself and I register my complaints. Below is the twitter exchange, in part.
@FlyerTalkerinA2 barf.
— MilesPointsReselling (@pdxtraveltips) November 5, 2015
@pdxtraveltips Barf every day for almost three weeks when I see this, barf with me then. Thanks for the "support" pic.twitter.com/A4yxCqexg1
— George (@FlyerTalkerinA2) November 5, 2015
YOU are the kind of reader who does big damage to us who bust our ass to post daily and provide a quality blog https://t.co/gagKDTrQy0
— George (@FlyerTalkerinA2) November 5, 2015
You can go on twitter and read the entire exchange I didn’t post it all because it was long. This last tweet, however, is what makes me borderline irate (I had a bit of a twitter rant after that, sorry). Being contemptuous towards readers who don’t click your links is something I just don’t understand. You can tell by reading George’s blog and his tweets that it very much bothers him that his readers don’t “support” his blog.
While I get George’s frustration, it is misplaced. The reality of blogging is that there different types of traffic and some types are more profitable than others. George’s blog is heavy on people who come directly to the blog to read it’s content. That traffic can be very profitable but it requires a lot of volume. George does not have that volume.
If you don’t have a lot of volume the most profitable traffic is organic. That is people who are looking for something and come to your site via search engine. They click links and that is where the money is. My Portland Travel Tips blog during peak tourist season makes about $100 – $150 per month. Not a lot but considering that is from 400 daily readers that is pretty damn good. Why? Because 90% of the traffic is organic and those readers are clicking links.
Why stop writing on a profitable blog? I write this blog because I wanted to do something new. I enjoy reselling as an avenue to meet minimum spends and make money. Pretty soon it will be the only MS game in town. I doubt this blog will ever be profitable because the design of this blog is me journaling what I am doing. The readers who are following along will make money by repeating what I am doing. Are they likely to click on links? No. Do I care? No. Will I blame readers and tell them titans win if you don’t support me? No.
So blog because you want to blog. If you like blogging and you like the content of the blog, be proud of it. Be proud people actually care to read what you write. Just, please, don’t hold your readers in contempt because they don’t “click your links.”