effectiveness of blogging

Like anything, it can bring great returns if you put in a lot of effort. Focus, a popular subject, regular updates, quality content and all the other stuff everyone goes on about are vital, of course. Most people get into blogging because they read some rubbish like "Blogging to the bank" rather than the far more realistic "ProBlogger" book. They expect thousands of visitors for five minutes' work and don't want to commit to running their blog like a business. In real terms, yes - a blog can be a great way to make money. But it's like any other self-employment: you need something unique (or at least interesting), a lot of marketing and consistent work to make it more than Just Another Web Site. That's the down-side, in a way. The up-side is that it's a lot more fun than many other online jobs, you get to do what you want with your blog and it has a lot of secondary purposes, like networking, attracting clients and so on. It can also be the hub of a very profitable business if you're doing affiliate marketing, selling your own ebooks or other such activities. For the record, I don't monetise my blog at all, so it doesn't make any money directly. It's brought me a couple of client requests and a lot of useful contacts with other freelancers who may push work my way some time.