Thank you for the comment. I agree with it.

I find it interesting that even the A bloggers who try to hammer down the message that you should write for people and not the search engines, which is self evident to any intelligent person, do their SEO very diligently but don’t seem to talk that strongly and often about that.

On Sphinn there seems to be a post almost once a week bashing SEO and the people who talk or write about it. It is a total mystery to me why.

Perhaps they are mad at people who make money doing it SEO for others and don’t always succeed in getting them to the first page of Google.

Vance

A key element of all traffic is not how much you get but how much of it is targeted to what is actually on your site. Good SEO brings highly-targeted traffic. Poor SEO will get you some traffic but may end in disaster. Again, as evidenced by your experience at the no-comment blog selling SB-eye. They wont find that reference to their company name

So, in answer to your question, it is unlikely a person will make a stable, long-term income by blogging with little regard to SEO. Decent, informative, keyword based articles mixed with your own communication style is only part of the picture.

If you want to retire from the 9-5 routine, SEO needs to be an essential component of the business plan. – Michael.
Michael Pedzotti´s last blog ..10 Steps to Internet Business Success

I couldn’t have said it better. Thanks for the great comment.

Out of so many traffic generating techniques SEO is the foundational one. All the other traffic techniques will work better and will be complemented by SEO.

Those who argue against it are missing out on free traffic and some basic knowledge.

Rather than argue bitterly to the point of ridiculing those who advocate SEO they would do better to put that energy into educating themselves.

Thanks for visiting Paul. it’s always a treat to read your comments.

Vance

I believe SEO is ESSENTIAL to making money with a Blog, unless you have the budget and know-how to Adwords. Of course there are many traffic generating techniques, but if you want to pull in lots of free traffic on a consistent basis then SEO is the method to use.

I am now building niche blogs and rely solely on SEO to get traffic to my sites. These are blogs I just set up, use plugins to automate posting content, do some backlinking, then leave them and move onto the next Blog. Once you get them ranking high in the search engines the traffic just keeps coming in day after day.

I think anyone who doesn’t use SEO techniques on their blogs is missing out on a lot of free traffic, and therefore money.

Thanks for another great post Vance, hope all is well.

Cheers,
Paul
Paul Hooper´s last blog ..How to do your Market, Product and Keyword Research

Nice to hear from you and I’m glad to know that you are back and kicking. Thanks for this comment which speaks volumes.

I both do and don’t agree that just by publishing something you’ve done some SEO.

There will likely be some keywords in any text but will they be targeted? Leaving things to chance is probably not the best SEO strategy.

Traffic is of course the key for having any chance to make money online.

It helps for traffic to be targeted in order for it to convert.

Talk soon,
Vance

Sorry for the delay in replying to your comment. I was away for 5 days and didn’t have access, nor did I want it, to the internet.

I signed up with CL close to the New Year but I forget whether it was still in 2009 or already in 2010. I’ll find out soon and also why they’d change it from 10 to 5.

Thank you for your opinion, based no doubt on experience, that getting 17% of all traffic from search engines with no SEO is not even remotely possible.

As for monetizing your blog I think it’s smart of you to think of other ways than using Adsense.

I’m interested in what you’ll be doing. I’m sure I can learn good things from you.

Once the traffic is there it’s a good thing to start to monetize.

Vance

Your comment is so far one of the best and to the point on this subject. Great to have you visit and comment here.

Thank you.

I do realize that there are people who use different methods to get traffic and they obviously do make money. But their traffic is usually a paid traffic or reciprocal traffic like JV partners promotions, ad swaps etc.

I really respect your comment because you’ve been online for a considerable length of time and speak from experience.

I look forward to your future contributory comments which are not just opinions but have facts behind them.

Vance

I share your opinion that everybody can object to anything as long as they do as they say others should be doing and as long as they object without forcing others to do what they say they (the objectors) believe in.

Stuart is obviously considering himself above everybody else and has apparently his own exclusive rules for his conduct.

Let’s not get too focused on him though since this would only enhance his self elevating and dictatorial ambitions.

He states in his blog basically that most people are stupid and only those that follow him and his weird philosophy are smart enough.

What do you think about making money blogging without SEO?

Vance