Please Note:
This article is part of an ongoing series where I sum up my years of blogging experience into several in-depth articles. You can read them here.
I was with my friends the other day discussing blogging and its huge earning potential. At first, they got excited and then slowly started to build up piles of questions and doubts about it. Which I thought was quite normal at the moment as many people here don’t yet have a clear idea of what real online-based work is. I am talking about real full-time jobs, not those fishy typing or data entry gigs that we often see online.
For them, making money from blogging was too good to be true. They were just enjoying the whole discussion, and that’s it. At that very moment, I asked myself one thing. Why do they intentionally not want to explore this great opportunity of a lifetime?
In this post, I just want to talk about this. I want to address the actual reasons behind this mentality. I knew blogging has become very mature in western countries, and I could easily recommend it to any of my friends, but that question raised a couple of concerns in my mind.
Later, when I began to research, I found out that many people in India consider blogging to be much harder than in western English-speaking countries. Then I started to dig deeper into the matter, and found out the primary reasons why most Indians hesitate to take blogging as a serious business opportunity.
However, I don’t mean that blogging is not profitable here; rather it’s quite the opposite. Blogging is very profitable in India. And there are a lot of people here who are actually earning a lot of money, anything between $100 and $10,000+ per month.
But still, it’s in its emerging stage right now. Blogging as a profession is catching up very fast in India, but the concept of making money through blogging is not fully understood by newcomers. Even seasoned freelancers and content writers don’t bother taking a look at it. Heck, I also ignored blogging for a long time.
How Did Blogging Become A Profitable Business?
Blogging simply means writing on a topic and self-publishing it online. If there is one profession that has benefited the most from the invention of the internet, it is writers.
Before the internet era, writers had to go out and find the right publisher to publish their work. It was a pain in the butt. Now that’s not the case anymore. You can self-publish your writing on your website. As the internet grows over time, it has started to give writers a wide range of opportunities to make money through their writing.
Slowly, producing text-based online content has become very popular, and everyone has started calling it blogging. Now it is treated more like a business than anything else. A blog could not make money on its own, but businesses do.
Is Making Money Through Blogging Easier In India?
Nope, absolutely not. I want to be honest here. I have been a blogger for a very long time, and I know what it takes to be a blogger in India. It’s not easy at all. You have to take care of a lot of things before you can see any noticeable traffic increase in your Google Analytics. Earlier in 2008, most of the bloggers from India used to write articles on either technology or making money online topics.
Today, these topics have become so saturated and overloaded with content that they’re no longer a go-to topic for new bloggers. Bloggers now have to dig deeper and go out of the box to find a profitable niche that is both in demand and profitable. That is not an easy task to do. Many bloggers simply fail at this, and so does their career in blogging. There are many reasons responsible for this.
Blogging without knowledge
Blogging requires skills like any other profession, and surely no-one is born with knowledge. Unlike any conventional educational institute, there is nothing where one could go to learn how to do blogging. Therefore, they must find information and learn on their own.
It is somewhat difficult and time-consuming in India. Although there are many courses available on the internet, most of them are not as good as conventional education.
Weak In English Writing Skill
There are thousands of spoken languages in India. English is one of them, but only about 5% of the total Indian population can speak fluent English. When it comes to writing great, useful articles for a blog, then the percentage drops again.
I also fall into that category. My English speaking skills were not fluent, nor was my writing for that matter. I have improved my English over time by reading more articles and books. No one can teach you English grammar. The more you read, the more you will improve at it.
Family Pressure Is Crazy High
This is also a key factor, which is why many bloggers just quit before they could see the light of success. From our childhood, it was told to us that you should always pursue a government job.
If you express your feelings of becoming a businessman, then there will be an immense force coming from the family to not go in that direction. Instead, they will encourage us to do a job because of its financial stability. Moreover, society’s attitude toward blogging is not encouraging at all.
I agree that a job can provide a sense of financial stability in life, but think for a moment. Can doing a job give you a sense of financial freedom? The freedom where you don’t have to think about money again? If this is relatable, that’s what I am talking about.
Wasting Time On Finding Low-Paying Jobs
In India, everyone follows the thumb rule of grading and getting a job fast. If you don’t find a job, go hunt for one. This has become so normal that even students don’t consider the opportunities they have other than the boring, low-paying jobs.
I am not against having a job for a living. But, the work culture for those low-paying jobs is what I don’t like. The unemployment rate in India is a serious problem, which makes it even harder to find a good job. Still, they don’t have the courage to explore other possible opportunities available in the market.
A new, inexperienced blogger could easily start making over $100 within 8 months of starting their blog if they work hard on it. But they don’t give it a shit. Instead, they waste 1-2 years looking for a low-paying job.
Afraid Of Failure
There’s always a kind of phobia, at least in the starting phase before seeing any noticeable financial return on investment. The feelings of an uncertain future lead us to anxiety and depression.
I am not discouraging you, but it’s the truth. The responsibility of taking blogging as a career cannot be handled by everyone. The risk of failure is obviously there to horrify many of the newcomers even before they can start blogging properly.
Before you read further, let me clarify that 7 out of 10 bloggers will fail. Not because it’s super complex, but because it demands strong dedication and hard work. Therefore, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. You can not be successful until you are serious about it. Now for the sake of motivation, let’s talk about:
The Requirements For Becoming A Successful Blogger
Can Blogging Be A Good Career Option For Indians?
Well, the obvious answer is yes. I first started blogging when I was in high school. The year was 2010. Although I stopped blogging after one year because I put my full time and energy into developing Android apps back then. I am still here in 2019. I have opened this blog again.
It has been many years since I used to do blogging. A lot has changed in the blogging industry. Back then, ranking any article was quite easy, and the competition was also not as high as what we are seeing right now.
Becoming a professional blogger was not something everyone could do and be successful at. It really takes a long time to see a blog give any result. It requires a lot of skill, a lot of knowledge, and a lot of time to turn your blogging passion into a full-time profession.
There are a lot of opportunities for blogging if one goes hard for it. In India, blogging has always been seen to follow an upward trend, so it’s safe to say that choosing to blog as one’s career option is very much possible.
How Much Could an Indian Blogger Earn By Blogging?
An Indian-based blog can make anything between $100 and $6,000 a month. If you operate multiple blogs, then the earnings will increase by multiple times. Many famous bloggers from India earn something from $20,000 to even $30,000 a month.
It is growing very rapidly, with a 15% increase every year. Much of the growth is being driven by the availability of low-cost internet, courtesy of JIO.now also started promoting regional content, so starting a blog in Hindi or other local languages is now possible.
For a general idea, if you start blogging in 2021, then you can expect to make in the range of $500 to $1000 per month after 2 years of hard work. Although this will be determined primarily by the competition in the niche and the amount of content you can publish on the site.
Top Indian Bloggers’ Earnings
Now, let’s talk about the big boys of the Indian blogging community.
Final Thoughts
So the thing is, blogging is a wonderful profession. However, it is hard and takes a lot of time to generate any results. I am not demotivated, but only 80% of all bloggers will fail within their first 6 months of blogging. Not because it’s hard, but because of the lack of their patience. So, be prepared for a long, bumpy ride ahead, and best of luck.
