I think if we took a survey of all the bloggers out there in the blogosphere as well as those that are considering becoming a citizen of the blogosphere, what is the number 1 question you had, Id be surprised if the most common one isn't how much money can I make blogging?. I admit that this was the foremost one in my mind, along with lots of others. So you've probably done what I have done already and gone out to the top ranking blogs and tried to find out how much they are making. Some publish their earnings, others don't (how un-nice of them!).

Is there an answer to this question? I guess it could be similar to how long is a piece of string?. Your money making ability is dependent on so many things. I know thats not the answer you want to hear but its true. Its dependent on the following factors:

1. The money making ability of the niche subject you've chosen - i.e. is there things that people will spend money on in this niche. Its no good having a highly ranked blog about octopus tentacles drying, for example, if there is nothing that people will want to spend money on (I'm yet to find an eBook about Octopus Tentacle Drying);

2. How much competition in your niche. This impacts your money making ability because if there are other competitors offering the same products or listing the same ads, then this will have a direct impact on how much money you can make on your own blog;

3. How good you'll be at capturing the hearts and minds of the visitors to your blog so as to get them to buy stuff or click on links;

4. The products that you are promoting or the ads that you have listed.

5. Obviously how good you are at generating traffic to your site.

Plus many other things.

I think as a very general rule of thumb, if you have a popular blog with some decent traffic coming in each month and you are promoting some good products, you should work at a monthly income of around the $US10k/mth which should take about 12 months to get to that level. Obviously some months may be higher, and others maybe lower.