This is the first in what will be a series analysing some of the larger “make money online” blogs.

For many, Darren Rowse’ Problogger is the quintessential example of making money from Blogging. Problogger is well written, with good content which people want to read, is monetized well, and is well known - both on and offline.

Problogger is often used as a model by others trying to replicate Darrens success. Beginning bloggers often look at Problogger, and try and copy it.

But how much work does it take? How often is Darren posting to his blog? How much is the content is actually his own? How often is Darren reporting on stuff elsewhere? Take a look at the following chart, showing a content breakdown for the month of October:

Key Info

• While not shown on the chart, it should be mentioned that there were just under 100 posts written on ProBlogger in October.
• 46% of Darren’s content is original. I class this as anything Darren has written himself, for ProBlogger, which other websites/blogs are likely to link to.
• 36% of ProBlogger content is “reporting”. In my analysis, I determined this as anything where the focus of the entry was on something on another website/blog, such as when the focus was on external links (Speedlinking, new products, etc)
• The remaining 18% of posts in October are contributed content. These, as you might imagine, are posts written by somebody else, and posted on ProBlogger. Note that ProBlogger ran a Birthday Bash series of competitions during October, and Darren employed someone to manage these. These will have pumped the numbers up slightly for October.

What Does it Mean?

There are a couple of things you could take from this

1. Darren writes a hell of a lot, while still keeping up to date with (and letting us know) what’s going on in the wider blogosphere.
2. - or - if you’re a pessimist, over half of Darrens content comes from somewhere else.

Personally, I look at it as Darren writes a lot. No one could produce nearly 100 fully original, high-quality pieces of original content in one month, so a level of outside “help” is to be expected. The fact Darren is able to produce as much as he does dazzles me a bit, but it’s worth remembering that this is his full-time job! The average blogger who is also holding down a 9-5 should not expect to reach this level yet. There’s a reason Darren’s a Pro!