Online, you can be successful no matter what your age – and we have the proof! Check out this infographic showing some of the top young entrepreneurs who’ve become millionaires through their work online:
Editor’s note: These online entrepreneurs make me motivated to work harder. I love a good success story! But your role models don’t have to be millionaires. Whose online success story motivates you? Leave a comment with the name of the online entrepreneur who inspires you!
When I first started blogging, I did so on a freelance basis, providing content for clients rather than running my own blogs. Today, I have a foot in both camps, but the majority of income has always been from my freelance work.
Initially, I was paid pennies for my work, but eventually I learned how to make an actual living in this industry. Zac Johnson wrote a great post about how to create content that clients will reward, but it takes more than killer content to be an in-demand freelance blogger. Here are five skills to master if you want to make more money blogging for others:
As someone who has hired freelancers as well as being a freelancer herself, I can confirm that reliability is at least as important as actual writing talent. At one point, I had anywhere from eight to twelve people working under me, and there were always at least ten unreliable people who would disappear without a word for every one legitimate worker.
Do your job. Do it on time, and do it well. Stay in close communication with your client, and don’t leave them hanging. Most clients reward freelancers who they don’t have to chase. It sounds simple enough, but you’d be amazed how rare this is in the freelance world.
Flexibility is a trait admired in most industries, but clients respond best to this trait when paired with availability. In other words, it’s not enough to be flexible with the content you’re writing so you fit the client’s needs, but you also need to have a flexible schedule to finish changes quickly or take on extra projects. Sometimes, bloggers have to burn the midnight oil, so if you’re a 9-to-5-only type of person, it will be hard to command the big bucks. Clients want to know that when there’s a breaking story, you’re on it.
You might be hired for your skills as a writer, but clients will pay you more if you’re also a savvy networker. Building your social media followings means that posts you share reach a wider audience, and while it may not be in your contract that you have to tweet about new clients post, doing this at least occasionally is a smart professional move. Not only does this allow you to showcase your work, but it also helps you drive traffic to your clients’ blogs – which means you’re a more valuable commodity.
Networking skills go beyond getting others to like your Facebook posts, though. Clients also like to work with freelancers who can make connections. When they’re looking for a new editor, do you know someone perfect for the job? Can you connect your client with a new investor? Can you bring business into the company not only in your content marketing efforts, but also by introducing your clients to potential customers? If you bring in more money for a client, there will be a trickle-down effect to you.
As Zac mentioned in his post, clients will pay more for content that really brings in the big numbers. However, the “if you build it, they will come” approach doesn’t always work. In other words, it takes more than killer content to drive traffic to your blog (or in this case, your clients’ blogs).
So, you have two options: you can put your nose to the grindstone and set them up for success with the best content possible, leaving the rest of the work to them, or you can tell your clients when you see ways for them to improve. I’m a fan of speaking up, since it means more money in your pocket!
If your clients truly need a consultant, you need to work out a contract with them so you’re paid fairly, but offering simple tips for free is a great way to become more valuable as a writer. Can you recommend a great plugin that will help them attract more readers? Is there something about their blog design that is a little off and causing high bounce rates? Would a different blogging schedule give them more bang for their buck? Speak up, and as their traffic increases due to your advice, you can ask for a higher pay rate per post.
Lastly, almost all clients want freelancers who can work independently. You will come across the occasionally obsessive micro-manager, but most of the time, your job as a blogger is just a very small cog in the machine of a business. They don’t have time to answer 17 emails a day from you. Be careful not to overstep your boundaries by making decisions without asking the client, but take the initiative to solve your own problems whenever possible. If you’re an independent worker who is (going back to point #1) extremely reliable, the client will trust you, and in the freelance world, trust equals money.
I don’t want this post to downplay the importance of providing quality content for your clients, which should always be your biggest goal. These are just five ways to go even further with the service you’re providing. Definitely check out the blog track at NMX this January, paying special attention to sessions about content production. The skills these speakers will teach you about creating content for your own blog can, and should, be applied to creating content for your clients’ blogs as well.
If you’re a blogger or podcaster wondering how in the world others in your field have caught the attention of major sponsors, you aren’t alone. Working with brands can take your content monetization to the next level, but sponsors don’t just materialize out of thin air and offer you cash for your blog or podcast – at least, not most of the time.
I get email questions about sponsorships at least once or twice a week: How do I find brands who want to sponsor me? Should I work with such-and-such a brand or will it make my fans angry? What can I do to make more money working with sponsors?
I’m not going to sugar-coat things; working with brands can sometimes be a challenge. Many brands don’t fully understanding blogging and podcasting, so you often have to be an educator as much as a salesperson. Our ebook is all about helping you learn these skills so you can be successful when working with brands.
Let me give you a little sneak preview of the ebook with a quick FAQ about sponsorship!
Brands want to advertise their products and build their communities, and they can do so by working with influential bloggers and podcasters. This can be in the form of advertising, or you can work more in an ambassador type of relationship. Sponsorship is not right for every blogger or podcaster, but there are so many different options for sponsorship deals that you should definitely consider the options before writing it off completely.
Depending on your type of content and niche, you can offer anything from banner ads on your sidebar to travel sponsorship deals where a company will pay to send you to a trade show. Other common sponsorship options include spoken ads (like commercials) , sponsored posts, sponsored social media messages, and wallpaper sponsorship.
The best case scenario is a sponsor emailing you with interest in working out a deal. This will never happen, however, if you’re unattractive to sponsors. You have to have quality content, decent traffic numbers, and a media kit. It can also help to create an advertising page and use language on your blog or in your show notes that will help sponsors find you when they’re searching for opportunities.
You might be sitting around and waiting by the phone for a pretty long time. Instead, take matters into your own hands! Our ebook goes over five great techniques you can test out in order to find sponsorship deals instead of just waiting for them to happen. Be proactive!
In every niche, there are certain brands you want to avoid. It’s important to evaluate every potential sponsor, rather than just saying yes every time money is offered. There are several types of sponsorship deals you should avoid at all costs – and when you say no, you can definitely do so in a way that doesn’t burn any bridges, so you can potentially work with the sponsor in the future on a different deal.
That’s a huge question, and the answer depends on several factors, including your traffic, the type of sponsorship, and your niche. Our free ebook covers this question in much more detail, along with some step-by-step options for setting prices.
Are you offering package deals? Have you reminded brands already working with you about their sponsorship options? Have you created a relationship that will last long-term? Yes, you can make hundreds or even thousands of dollars per month with a single sponsor if you’re smart about it!
We’re facing an online epidemic; content creators are saying thank you to the wrong people.
It’s a natural reaction to thank any leader in your niche who shares your content via social media or recommends you in a post. If Chris Brogan, for example, retweets your link, you’re probably going to see some traffic and get some new subscribers. I’m not advocating that you stop thanking these people. In fact, a “thank you” is part of what makes people want to share your content again in the future.
The problem is, often we forget to thank the people who really matter.
“But Allison,” you might be thinking, “Chris Brogan (or insert the name of the leader in your niche) is who matters!”
Not really. (Sorry, Chris!)
Chris Brogan matters for countless reasons. He’s not a leader in his niche for no reason, after all. The leaders in your niche have also likely achieved this status for a reason – they’ve been around for a long time, they pioneered in the new media industry, they give great advice, etc. They matter because you can look to them for advice, innovation, and education. They matter because they can be role models for you as a content creator.
But sometimes we’re too star-struck about the ways they do matter that we don’t realize there are also ways they don’t matter.
That big-name guru-expert-ninja-rockstar leader in your niche doesn’t matter because in all likelihood, this is not a member of your target audience. If you podcast about fashion, someone who is a leader in the fashion industry probably already knows all of the ten tips to choosing the perfect little black dress that you talked about in your last episode. Or, if you have a marketing blog, that leader in your niche you look up to probably doesn’t need the free ebook about branding you’re promoting.
In other words, they aren’t the people who are ever going to become your customers.
So why do niche leaders share your content? Because they have a similar audience who is hungry for what you’re dishing out. They send lots of traffic your way – and those people are your target audience members. It’s worth saying thank you! But you should care more about saying thank you to the people who will be your customers someday – or those who already are.
Continuing to use Chris Brogan as an example, let’s say Chris does take a moment to promote something you write, sending lots of traffic your way. Some of those people sign up to your mailing list, and some even buy one of your products.
Are you thanking these people? Because it didn’t cost Chris Brogan anything to send a tweet. It barely even “cost” him any time. But John Doe who spent $97 of his hard-earned money to buy one of your products? If Chris deserves a thank you, John certainly does as well.
Similarly, we should be thanking people who send us emails. This is one of the biggest gripes I have: content creators act annoyed when fans send them emails. I reply to every email I get (or at least I try – sometimes the occasional email falls through the cracks), and I’m happy to do so. Because if I’m getting emails, it means people are responding to what I’m writing online. Even better, people who feel strongly enough to actually send an email are more likely to buy something from me in the future. These people are the backbone of a community. You should be vociferously thanking them for taking the time to email you. It’s like fan mail. How cool is that?
Lastly, are you thanking the people who buy your products? I don’t just mean in a canned automatically-sent email that they get when they make a purchase. I mean a real email or even a blog post that thanks people for supporting you.
Online, I see people sucking up to the “gurus” in their niches, and it always makes me laugh a little. Come on, do you really think that your behind-kissing isn’t totally transparent. If all you’re trying to do is leverage your relationships with people online, you’re doing it wrong. Build relationships because you genuinely like people, not because you want them to do something for you in the future.
And if you want to actually make money online, you’re focusing on the wrong people altogether by butt-kissing the big names in your niche. Suck up to the people actually spending money with you. You don’t have to stop thanking leaders for supporting you, but if you’re ignoring the people handing you money, you’re doing it wrong.
If you enjoyed this blog post, subscribe to our RSS feed to get notifications via email or your favorite feed reader whenever new posts are published.
Every month, I make a few hundred dollars in affiliate sales as a blogger, and those who focus on this form of monetization make even more. When I first started selling products as an affiliate, I was lucky to make a few bucks a month with Amazon. Lots of bloggers have given brilliant advice about working as an affiliate, but today I wanted to talk about some tips that worked for me to increase affiliate sales. You can make a few changes to increase passive sales, like me, or you can really run with these tips to make a full-time income with affiliate sales.
1. Capitalize on search terms bringing people to your blog.
Stats come in handy if you’re looking to make a little more money as an affiliate. Check out the search terms that are bringing the most people to your site, and think about what those people are looking to purchase. For example, if people are coming to your food blog using the term “cupcake advice,” try linking to your favorite cupcake tins or decorating products on your sidebar through a well-placed banner.
2. Write reviews.
Lots of bloggers work with brands to review products, but you can really capitalize on these posts by includigoodng affiliate links to purchase at the end of your review. In addition, you can include links to related products, which is an especially good option if you didn’t like the product – link to other items a reader can consider instead.
3. Sweeten the pot on a new product.
This is an especially good tip for informational products, which are often launched with tons of affiliates in the same community. Why should a reader buy from you and not one of the countless other bloggers out there promoting the same new product? Sweeten the pot! For example, maybe if the sale is through you’ll site you’ll send a free copy of one of your ebooks.
4. Don’t be afraid to email you list.
If you try to sell to your list every two days, you’re probably going to see a large unsubscribe rate. However, if you never send out a sales email, you’re not making the most of a great opportunity to connect with people who want to buy what you’re selling. You can use emails to sell affiliate products just like you can use them to sell regular products. I send out a sales-related email about every other month, typically for a product that’s discounted for some reason.
5. Take advantage of buying seasons.
There are certain times of year when everyone is buying, regardless of niche – right before Christmas and Valentine’s Day, for example. In addition, specific products sell well during specific times of the year (for example, right now, weight loss products are hot since everyone’s trying to keep their resolutions). When you talk about products on your blog, using affiliate links of course, time your posts well.
6. Choose affiliate programs wisely.
Sometimes making more money as an affiliate is as easy as signing up for different programs. Some products are available from multiple companies and, thus, are available through multiple affiliate programs. Amazon has just about everything, but the percentage you’ll earn per sale is lower. Other affiliate programs may be more limited, but offer a larger percentage. Compare rates before you insert links, and consider going back through older posts that still receive a lot of traffic to replace links to better affiliate programs.
7. Compare products.
Readers love to learn about products relevant to them, but reviews aren’t your only option. You can also compare products, especially if there are two or three brands all selling similar items. Comparing them is great for search engine traffic, since lots of people look up “vs.” advice before they buy something.
8. Switch the locations of your banners and links.
It really is that simple sometimes. Affiliate links are great to place within posts and emails, but you can also make sales with banners and links on your site. Sometimes, just moving a button above the fold or to the end of a post or somewhere else makes a ton of difference. For example, I saw my sales increase when I added a product carousal to the end of posts on one of the blogs I run. Previously, I had the carousal on the sidebar and it barely got any attention at all. So do some split testing to find out what works.
Now it’s your turn: If you’re an affiliate, what changes have you made that have given you a boost in sales? Leave a comment with your best tip!
See what I did with the title? Because it’s Halloween??? I’m so clever…
Advertising isn’t the right profit route for every blog. In fact, if you’re selling products and services of your own, adding advertising to your sidebar or posts can actually take away from your income potential. But for some bloggers, it’s a great choice. I regularly sell $500+ per month in advertising on my anonymous blog, even though I’m not actively looking for sponsors. I know bloggers who make thousands by selling banner ads – and you don’t have to have millions of hits to make it happen. Here are a few tips to help you become more attractive to advertisers – and how to avoid scaring them away:
Having a clear niche helps you more easily define your audience, and advertisers really love to know stats about your readers. Having a specific audience helps you find niche-specific advertisers. For example, if you write a blog about bird-watching, a great potential advertiser is a company that sells binoculars. If you just write a blog about your life in general, they wouldn’t be as relevant to your readers, even if some of them are bird-watchers. The more niche-y you are, the easier it is to find smaller, specific companies who are a perfect fit for your readership.
It scares potential new advertisers to not know your stats. Every company has to justify how they spend their advertising money, and not everyone has the money (or time or ambition) to do a few months of testing. Be prepared with stats from a trusted source (like Google Analytics). Your Alexa rating matters, but the more you can tell potential advertisers, the better.
Long-term advertising especially worries companies, since they can’t foresee the future. So, sweeten the pot a little. I offer a pretty good discount for advertisers who pay a year in advance – and probably half of them take me up on that offer. It can calm the nerves a little because not only are they taking less of a financial risk, but it also shows that you’re confident that you’ll still be around 12 months from now. Blogs tend to come and go pretty quickly, so offering the year contract for advertisers tells them you’re serious about the continued success of your blog.
If you’re not willing to offer a discount, at least offer multiple price options. That way, if
Of course you’re going to say that advertising on your site is a good idea. It’s your site. Testimonials can help strengthen your case. If others are willing to speak out about how good their results were with an advertisement on your site, the move is less risky for potential advertisers. Often, if you’re willing to ask, advertisers who are happy with their results are more than willing to provide you with testimonials.
I don’t have tons of experience working with advertisers. So, I hope that if you do work with them or are an advertiser yourself, leave a comment with some tips of your own!
I have way too much fun with zombify photo tools...
Zombies are a five billion dollar industry. Five. BILLION. I’m not making this up. 24/7 Wall Street estimates that zombie movies, video games, novels, comics, merchandise, events, music, art, and more all combined to add $5.74 billion to the economy – so really, it is close to six billion dollars than five. Zombies are trendy, but in a growing cult kind of way that suggests that this isn’t some kind of passing pop culture love affair.
So, when it came time for me to develop a direction for my new blog, the idea was simple. I wanted to blog about zombies.
Yet I don’t really blog about zombies. My site, Blog Zombies, is actually about blogging. It’s just zomie-themed, which means I use a lot of metaphors and fun games that involve the undead to teach others about blogging. I love zombies. I love blogging. It seemed like a natural direction for me.
But I already blog about blogging as part of my job here on the BlogWorld blog. So why not just blog about zombies?
Zombies are rad. They’re popular and fun. I love anything zombie-related. They just don’t make a good blog niche. For me. Picking your niche is super important, and is part of the reason your blog might be failing or find success. Let me give you a few reasons why I chose a zombie-themed blog about blogging, not a zombie-themed blog about zombies:
Zombie-related stuff fall into the “hobby” category, and while I’m always ready to watch Dawn of the Dead or dress in a zombie costume, it’s not what I would call a passion. Some zombie enthusiasts spend every single day engulfed in zombie culture. I don’t. I’m not an expert, and it’s much easier to monetize your expertise. Because I’m not as passionate about this topic as many people, I don’t really feel as qualified to blog about it, at least in a professional sense. Someday, I may get the itch to start a hobby blog about zombies, but when it comes to business, a blog that you hope is profitable, passion is important. I’m super passionate about the topic of blogging, so that’s the best fit for me.
You can certainly make money from an entertainment blog. Lots of people earn affiliate and ad income blogging about celebrities, movies, music, and more. It’s a different mindset from the start, though. People don’t need entertainment. They need things like good health and a liveable income. It’s much easier to make money, especially with informational products like I enjoy creating, when you blog about things people need, not entertainment topics. Like I said, you can certainly make money blogging about entertainment topics; it’s just a different process, and I’m more comfortable with another type of plan.
Part of monetizing a blog well is understanding and liking your audience. Nothing against zombie lovers. I love a lot of zombie fans like myself. But with a topic like that, you’re also going to deal with the worst of the worst online. You deal with a ton of trolls, attacks, and other negativity. When your target market is other bloggers…well, you still run the chance of dealing with immature people, but these are generally people on the fringes of what is otherwise a great community that I’ve come to love. In general, I would rather go to dinner with a group of randomly-selected bloggers than a group of randomly-selected zombie fans. You might feel differently, and that’s okay – but the point stands that you should choose the community that is most attractive to you.
So, in review, picking a niche for your next professional blog is about:
Zombies are awesome, just not for me at this point. I think the niche I’ve chosen for Blog Zombies is awesome! Now it’s your turn: Give us your best niche-picking tip by leaving a comment!
I’ve already written A Beginner’s Guide to Twitter Basics and A Beginner’s Guide to SEO Basics, and someone much smarter than me wrote about podcasting basics, so today I wanted ton continue this theme and write about monetization. Now, there are people who write entire blogs about monetization, so believe me when I say that this is a quick overview. If you’re new to blogging, though, this post can help you figure out how to make money from your blog.
Bloggers who want to make money from their blogs have five main choices for monetization. Under each of these categories, you have multiple options as well, so I’m going to list as many as I can. The great thing about blogging is that bloggers are always finding new and innovative ways to make money!
First and foremost, you can monetize your blog with advertising. Advertising comes in two main forms: selling ads directly for a flat fee and PPC ads where you’re paid a very small amount every time someone clicks on the ad. You can also add advertising to videos and podcasts with commercials, the same way a TV show or radio show sells advertisement time.
Advertising is also available in the form of posts. Someone can pay you to sponsor a post or even write an entire post on your site, though FTC rules mean you have to disclose when you’re paid for something like this. If the post isn’t high quality, it can also hurt you blog, so take this into consideration.
You can use your blog to convince your readers to buy stuff. Working as an affiliate is the easiest way to get started doing this – basically, you’re selling other people’s products, and in exchange, you’ll get a cut of the money. Amazon is my favorite affiliate program for general stuff since they have just about everything, but you can also be an affiliate for an individual product, such as the latest ebook your favorite blogger releases. If you can’t find affiliate program information on their website, just shoot them an email and ask if one is available.
To make more money, you can sell your own products. Informational products (like ebooks and courses) are most popular for bloggers since you can create them with little overhead cost, but you can also sell products like t-shirts and mugs.
If you create great content, you might want to charge people to read it. To do this, you’ll sell a membership to the site, where people will pay on a monthly basis to access your content. Another form of a “membership site” is a subscription to content via email. Membership sites often focus on the community aspect and include forums, profiles, and more.
This is a more indirect way to monetize your blog. Instead of actually getting money from your readers, you use your blog as a platform to make money. For example, you could use your blog to land a book deal or become a paid public speaker. You can also use it to find clients. For example, if you’re a financial professional, you could advertise your services on your free blog.
Product reviews are a bit controversial in the blogging world, since some bloggers think you deserve more than free products for the work you do to review a product. The choice is up to you, though. I think it depends on what you’re reviewing. If someone is willing to give you a car, for example, I think that’s a pretty sweet deal! A company that send you free potato chips? Maybe not so much. It also depends if you want to support the company because you have a personal connection or because you think your readers need to know about a product.
Some companies will not only send you free stuff to review, but will also pay you a set amount to write the review, so it’s kind of like a paid post. Remember that you have to disclose everything if you’re reviewing a product that you received for free or were paid to review.
One of the questions I hear over and over again is this: how much should I charge? It’s not a question that can easily be answered, unfortunately. Heck, even big companies have trouble setting prices. Just look at Netflix if you want an example of a company having a hard time feeling out their market.
Let’s start by talking about advertising. I think the key here is finding a price that is fair for those buying from you without being so cheap that you cheat yourself out of the money you could be making. Basically, you want to set advertising prices based on traffic. So, it depends on how big you are – and don’t be afraid to raise your rates as you grow.
In my opinion, no one can say it better than what Daniel Scocco has said in his guest post for the Problogger blog. Whenever someone asks me how much to charge, I said them to that post. It’s also how I set my own advertising prices.
Every blogger goes about monetizing in a different way, and that’s one of the best things about blogging; there are no right or wrong methods! Well, almost. There are a few things I think almost all bloggers should avoid when monetizing. Don’t make these mistakes!
Like I said, there are entire blogs just about how to make money with your blog. This isn’t in the least the end-all post about the topic. But for beginners out there, I hope this will get you started.
And I hope you’ll share a link to your favorite blog about making money online! My favorite resource is David Risley’s blog (hey, there’s a reason he’s BlogWorld’s monetization track leader!) – what are your favorites?
Brilliant Bloggers is a weekly series here at BlogWorld where we look at the best posts from around the web all surrounding a specific topic. Every week, we’ll feature three of the most brilliant bloggers out there, along with a huge link of more resources where you can learn about the topic. You can see more Brilliant Blogger posts or learn how to submit your link for an upcoming edition here.
Affiliate programs are great for making a little extra money with your blog, and for some people, they’re major money makers. I’ve personally used Amazon’s program with some success, and you can also consider working with individuals to promote their products (for example, I have an affiliate program for my Freelance Writing ebook). Affiliate programs are often most closely associated with Internet marketers, but they can work for all bloggers, whether you blog about making money online or parenting or gardening or sports or anything in between. Today, I’ve got some great advice for you on this topic from some truly brilliant bloggers!
20 Tips I Used To Make $90,336.65 With Amazon by Chris Guthrie
Who doesn’t want to make nearly six figures as an Amazon affiliate? I met Chris randomly for a few minutes at BlogWorld 2010 while making a video about the event, and afterward, I looked up his site – and was so glad I did! To call Chris brilliant is an understatement. This post about his success on Amazon is a great place to start, but don’t be afraid to explore – there’s a lot of gold on his blog. After checking out the site, make sure you follow him on Twitter @ChrisGuthrie.
Are You Practicing “Spray And Pray” Affiliate Marketing? by David Risley
Many bloggers don’t find success as affiliates because they just send out a message (spray) and hope that some people bite (pray). In this post, David talks about the problem with this approach and better ways to make money with affiliate programs than just crossing your fingers that someone will click your link and make a purchase. After you check out the post, don’t forget to follow David on Twitter @davidrisley.
8 Principles for Effective Affiliate Marketing on a Blog by Pat Flynn
I love this post from Pat Flynn because it isn’t the typical “here’s how to rank high on Google for a search term and add affiliate links” post. While that can be a great approach, it’s not going to work for every blogger. Pat’s post instead gives advice on how to be successful as an affiliate with a site full of awesome content. Check it out and then follow Pat on Twitter @patflynn.
Did I miss your post or a post by someone you know about affiliate programs? Unintentional! Help me out by leaving a comment below with the link!
I’d love to include a link to your post next week – and if you head to the Brilliant Blogger Schedule, you can see even more upcoming posts. We all have something to learn from one another, so please don’t be shy! Head to the schedule today to learn how to submit your post so I won’t miss it.
Recent Comments