good discussion, as for as money is concerned you have to dominate the niche by your rich content, so keep yourself updated with your content, that is the only way to dominate the market, hope it will help
Ya, you are missing a lot. It's like saying open a store, sell products and make money. If you don't promote your products, your store will be closed very soon.
Your choice of keywords are important as well.Otherwise you won't rank well in the search engines and you will get less traffic.
There are a lot of passionate, but, broke bloggers out there. I believe that having a plan about making money, or, having a "making money" attitude is not only the best way, but, essential unless you are just hoping to get lucky. Hope is not a strategy for success.