Am I an Internet Marketer?

A few days ago, I was at a local Internet Marketing meet-up. We have several big time internet marketers in this area and one of them came to this meeting.  Since I had met this guy before at an out of town conference and even had dinner with him one night, I consider him a casual friend. As we were talking, I was telling him about my relatively new blog Bloggy Doggies and I proudly told him that after having the blog up for 6 weeks, I was getting 200-250 visitors a day & about 30 subscribers. He asked me how much money I was making from it and I had to admit, very little. Maybe a few cents  in adsense, but that was it. He got a weird look on his face and  when I asked him “What?”, he said, ‘I don’t know what to tell you Cathy, I’m usually making money by the time I consistently get 50 visitors a day’.

I really didn’t think much about it at the time but on the way home, the ramifications of his statement finally hit me. I must be a horrible internet marketer.  Why am I even doing this? I obviously don’t know what I’m doing. What’s the point? Maybe I should just give up on all this stuff and go get a job working the night shift at Walmart. I felt very discouraged and ready to give up.

By the time I got home, I knew I needed to write a blog post for the  next day but I didn’t want to even look at the blog that up to that point, had been my passion. I threw up a couple of funny pictures and called it a night.

The next morning, things seemed a little clearer. I was able to see why he is making money and I am not. His blogs are set up to promote his products. That is their sole purpose. Bloggy Doggies isn’t. Yes, I have Amazon & adsense on there, and a few affiliate links but I don’t actively promote anything. My blog’s purpose is to entertain and inform on a topic I’m passionate about.

Yes, I would love to make money with it, at the very least, enough to pay for my time and expenses.  So now the question is, if I really want to monetize it, how can I? I’m not a high pressure sale kind of gal like most internet marketers but apparently the subtle approach doesn’t work. Should I just keep it like it is since it’s my passion and focus on something else that I can better monetize? I’m not sure but that’s the way I’m leaning. These are the things I am wrestling with.  I’m open to any words of wisdom.

Ok, today’s tip is a great blogging resource! Carrie Lauth of Natural Moms Talk Radio has written a wonderful resource called 100Blogging Tips . You can find it over at Profitable Mommy Blogging