Ask HN: How to you monetize a tech blog? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to you monetize a tech blog?

#51

Post by zamnos » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 5:37 PM UTC

wil421 wrote: post #19

criley2 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I long for the days of the pre-internet where everyone agreed writing was worth paying for. The worst thing the internet had done to society is convince us that writing isn't worth paying for. The amount of writers (journalists, novelists, etc) who have abandoned the profession these past 30 years is heartbreaking. But just as every newspaper and magazine has learned: the internet means writing is free.

The old internet was full of hobbyists and passionate people who wanted to share their knowledge. There’s nothing wrong with paying for a real news outlet with real journalists, I pay for PBS. Everyone is trying to make a buck and it’s harder to find passionate blogs that aren’t gaming Google’s SEO to show 100 ads. Even with woodworking or gardening I found everyone wants you to buy their videos, plans, or swag.

Yeah but everyone's looking to make a buck because it means they can spend more time on a topic they're so passionate they started a blog on the topic. Don't let money ruin things for you. Just because Ms Green Thumb is selling merch for her blog she started about gardening because she'd really like to be able to quit her job and do gardening full time. Those branded hats shouldn't automatically impugn the passion she has for gardening, it's just this attitude that money ruins everything when it shouldn't. well, not automatically anyway. But she'd rather be gardening than putting up with Tom, her kinda creepy boss at the accounting firm she's at. Going viral and selling merch is her only real way out of that. That or a lottery ticket.

Re: Ask HN: How to you monetize a tech blog?

#52

Post by thomashabets2 » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 5:42 PM UTC

mrprogrammerguy wrote: post #47

thomashabets2 wrote: post #41

I used to have ads. Partly because why not get a little money, and partly for the more direct fun of turning something fun on my own time into actual money that can buy the proverbial coffee. (also partly because I started working for a company that makes most of its money from ads) But then I realized that why am I making my fun little hobby product (the blog) worse, by putting shit on it, that I wouldn't want to se…

"I felt too disgusted to hold any of it. Holding it would mean being part of the problem." Lol what problem. If people don't wanna see adds, surely they can just use a good adblocker.

Yes, "doesn't everyone use adblocker?". Possibly. Maybe that's why I didn't get more money. I certainly use an adblocker. But there's clearly some subset of people who will see the ads. Some company policy bans adblockers. Or someone's using a public computer to do some browsing.

Or they're browsing on a phone. There are fewer adblock solutions for phones, to the point where adoption is basically nonexistant (I don't have data to back this up).

So seeing as how I dislike ads, why would I subject anybody else to them, if the money it gives me is insignificant to me?

It's the golden rule. Don't do unto others what you wouldn't want done to you.

Re: Ask HN: How to you monetize a tech blog?

#53

Post by dools » Fri, Mar 31, 2023, 8:05 PM UTC

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #37

dools wrote: post #9

Monetising content happens in a handful of ways: 1) ads on the site or via email 2) subscriptions 3) build a rep via the blog then sell high value consulting and/or build an agency around it 4) affiliate links or lead generation I think that’s all there is. So the list of possible options is pretty small. One thing I will say is that whatever you think you might do, start building an email list today.

I keep thinking that some relatively-simple plugin is going to be made which allows for easy, instantaneous, irreversible access to news/blog articles — obviously a centralized issuer could accomplish this, or preferably a blockchain that isn't so slow nor expensive to utilize — and provides some privacy from data aggregation. One of many reasons I don't PAY for news websites (let alone blogs) is because there is not…

Inkl is news aggregation like this but then inkl would know what you’re reading