A common myth about blogging is that you need massive amounts of traffic and RSS readers to realize any significant return on investment.

More visitors, more money, right?

If you have a thousand hits per day to your blog, you’re bound to benefit.  That’s the conventional wisdom and it’s true in most cases.

But what happens to your blog income when traffic dies?  Ah, that’s the unfortunate side of traditional blogging.

Crowds. Who need’s em?

Name a popular religion, say Islam or Hinduism and the image of huge crowds making a pilgrimage to a holy shrine comes to mind. Perhaps you think of the massive throngs that jostle against one another like swelling ocean tides in St. Peter’s Square when the Pope celebrates Mass?

Maybe the image of the huge crowds that descend on the Hajj, the largest annual pilgrimage in the world (pictured here) comes to mind.

Believers make up the crowd

Believers -devotees of the religion’s central message make up the throng.  They willingly travel great distances to pay homage to a deity or other object worthy of their devotion.  They endure hardships, life-risking peril and time away from loved ones in order to fulfill their mission.

Wouldn’t it be great if your blog inspired such devotion and dedication? Imagine it; crowds of people making the virtual pilgrimage to your blog and joining your religion.  It is possible?

Not if you run a store

If you’re relying solely on Google Adsense or other forms of direct advertising monetization to create blog income, you’re most likely caught in the traffic trap; an endless quest for more people to visit your site in hoping a good number of them will click on one of your ads.

If you sell products, your own or affiliate products, you’re still dependent on traffic for sales.

When monetization is linked to numbers of visitors, your blog is more like a store. And one only needs to look around the world right now to see how stores are suffering in time of economic downturn.

Stores don’t inspire legions of followers.  Stores don’t hold a customer’s dedication and devotion.  Only religions do that.

Religions offer escape from the traffic trap

Blog religions differ from their blog-store counterparts in numerous ways, but the most important way they differ has to do with numbers of visitors.  Sure, it’s nice to see thousand of RSS subscribers in your FeedBurner chiclet, but it’s not the most accurate metric for a blog-religion’s success.

Blog religions, by definition, have a different structure. Inherent in the structure are multiple monetization modes in which the blog can realize income. The metrics for a blog religion are also multiple.

Blog religions build loyal followings by diversifying their offerings to take advantage of both high and low traffic states.

Here are some examples to consider:

• One-on-one coaching  (consulting)- low traffic requirement
• Tele-classes (training) – moderate traffic requirement
• leverage product sales – low to moderate traffic requirement
• Advertising option – high traffic requirement

These examples illustrate how even low traffic blogs can generate income.

Blog traffic doesn’t have to define your income

Don’t get me wrong, traffic is a GOOD THING! But your blog model and the success it brings you shouldn’t be dependent solely on the amount of traffic it receives.

By structuring your blog business like a religion, you can enjoy and good income even when traffic is minimal.  We’ll look at how to do this in the next post.

What about you?

Does the success of your blog depend only on traffic?  What ways do you use to diversify your blog income that doesn’t depend on high traffic volumes?  Care to share?