When it comes to a lifestyle-friendly business, bloggingappears to have it all. You get to work from home, focus on a topic of interest and share your creative talents. But can you really earn a living as a blogger? And if so, what’s the best way to get started?

To help answer those questions, I recently spent two days at BlogHer15, the world’s largest conference for women bloggers (and a few brave men). And I came away with some smart tips from the experts that can help prospective and current bloggers interested in making money from full-time or part-time work.

I went to BlogHer out of both a personal and a professional interest. I blog at Next Avenue and on my own site, MyLifestylecareer.com, which is about profiting from your passions in semi-retirement.

BlogHer Conferences Are Worth Checking Out

This year’s BlogHer event, held in New York City, featured successful bloggers including celebs such as Gwyneth Paltrow (founder of the popular Goop.com),  workshops on branding, social media and monetization and a whole lot of networking. BlogHer puts on one heck of a show and if you’re serious about learning more about blogging, I highly recommend you check out some of its upcoming conferences.

But now back to my initial question: Can you earn a living as a blogger?

Well, maybe.

But first, the bad news. According to the 2015 Women’s Blogging Industry and Business Annual Report — a survey of thousands of bloggers by iBlog magazine — very few bloggers earn much. In fact:

• Only 11% of respondents earned more than $30,000
• 68% earned less than $5,000
• And 57% made less than $2,500That said, some bloggers earn six-figure incomes and 6% of respondents indicated they make over $60,000 annually.