Monetization

Five Questions to Ask Before Becoming a Full Time Niche Blogger

Blogging is a pretty flexible career field. You can do it in the evenings before you go to bed or on weekends while you maintain a typical 9-to-5 job. You can also work on your blog full time, giving up working for other people to instead focus on making money online. Both are viable options.

Of course, the more time you devote to your blogging efforts, the more money you can make with it, no matter what your niche. There are only so many hours in the day, and if you don’t work another job, you’ll have more of those hours to devote to keyword research, social media promotion, community building, and all the other things it takes to make a blog profitable and successful.

But before you hand in your two-week notice, here are five questions to ask yourself. You don’t want to be lining up at the local soup kitchen three months from now because you don’t have a source of income.

1. Is this a good niche for monetization?

Some niches are just better than others when it comes to making money. Choosing the right niche is tricky because you want to be passionate about the topic, but you also want to stay away from niches that:

are too crowded.
have too small of an audience.
have an audience unwilling to spend much money.

It’s a balancing act. Check out your competition. Competition is good because it shows that there is money to be made in the niche, but you also want to be able to stand apart. Are you already making a little money as a part-time or hobby blogger? This is an indication that a little more effort could unlock the floodgates of cash.

2. Do I have a back up plan?

What if your blog doesn’t make enough money to support you (or what if it takes some time to get there)? Do you have a back up plan? Do you have a significant amount of money in your savings? Do you have a spouse that could support the family, even if money is tighter than normal? Do you have other blog ideas if your current blog or first blog idea doesn’t pan out? Do you have the ability to get your old job back or a similar job if you decide blogging isn’t for you? Okay, I’m cheating because these are several questions within one question…but they’re all worth thinking about. Don’t let fear paralyze you, but don’t jump into this with no plans.

3. Am I passionate and knowledgeable enough about my niche to work on it full time?

Working on a blog full time makes it feel like…well…work. While you might love your niche now, are you prepared to devote so much time and effort to it? A few years ago, I ran a video game blog with some of my friends, and part of the reason we ultimately closed it is that one of our co-founders grew to dislike how video games became work for him, rather than just being something fun to enjoy with friends. Beyond the work aspect, though, are you also knowledgeable enough to blog full-time about the topic at hand? You don’t want to run out of stuff to say a few months into it.

4. Can I create my own products?

One of the best ways to monetize is to create your own products to sell, whether these are real, physical products, books (digital or print), membership sites, or classes. If you can’t create products of your own and rely solely on advertising and affiliate promotions, you may want to take a second look at the niche you’re choosing. This alone doesn’t mean you can’t make a full time income, but your own products definitely allow you to make more of a passive income.

5. Do I have a strong base of support?

Lastly, if you don’t have a strong support system in place, finding success as a full-time blogger is a lot harder. Support is needed on two levels: perrsonal (from family and friends) and professional (from the start of your blog’s community). Of course, you want that support to grow as you continue blogging, but if you start from zero, it’s go to be a lot harder to make a full-time income. So find your tribe and find it early!

Eight Ways to Make More Money as an Affiliate

Author: elkecarvosso6

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!

The 12 New Media Days of Christmas 2011: 12 Bloggers Monetizing

Author: elkecarvosso6

During the 12 New Media Days of Christmas, we’re counting down the days until Santa comes by featuring some of the best blog posts of 2011 from awesome writers within the BlogWorld community! Skip to the end to read more posts in this holiday series and don’t forget to leave a comment if you’ve written a post about today’s topic!

To start things off this year, I wanted to highlight a topic that I know is on many of your minds: Monetization.

Monetization can mean a lot of different things – everything selling ads on your sidebar to writing your own ebooks. I’ve gathered some of my favorite posts from 2011 about monetization across a number of topic areas; check them out!

Post too long? Head to the Quick Links section for just a list of the links included in this post without all the analysis and quotes!

1. Looking for Money in the Grass by Tom Webster at BrandSavant

Tom’s story of finding a $20 bill one day as a child perfectly describes one of the biggest problems in monetization today – junk science. In other words, we’re so hungry for an answer to how to best make money online that we don’t take a moment to verify facts or test a hypothesis. Worse yet, in my opinion, is that we’re willing to do what other bloggers tell us is “best” without taking the time to understand how these actions will translate to our own monetization efforts. Writes Tom,

We mine our tweets and retweets, and discover that noon is the best time for us to post. Or we discover that more of our emails are opened on Thursdays. In short, we look at historical data, and we find a $20.00 bill. We watch webinars telling us that we are more likely to find that twenty bucks on a weekend, or after midnight, or on a boat, or with a goat. We accept the easy answer – the “what.” We don’t ask the more difficult question: the “why.”

After checking out Tom’s post, head to @webby2001 to follow him on Twitter. You can also pick up the books he’s written: Twitter Users In America, The Social Habit, The Podcast Consumer Revealed or find him as the Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for Edison Research, a company best known for providing exit polling data for U.S. presidential elections.

2. How to Make Money Online Though Blogging and Writing by Kristi Hines at Kikolani

This is a different kind of post, focusing not on making money on your own blog, but on how to make money as a writer for other blogs. This is my main source of income, so it has a special place in my heart! Kristi’s post on making money as a blogger is amazing. I’ve been freelancing since 2005, so it’s rare to come across a post that is totally original and helpful. If you’re interested in making money online this way, this is a post you want to bookmark. She even covers topics like promotion in this post. Kristi writes,

No matter how you decide to make money online through writing, the one thing that you will need to do to make a good impression with the sites you write for is promote your posts. Blog promotion isn’t just for blogging contests. Blog owners and businesses will be more likely to want more content from you if your posts are some of the most popular ones on their site.

Like I said, this is one you’ll want to bookmark if you’re interested in getting paid to write blog posts. You can also find Kristi on Twitter @kikolani, add her to your Google+ circles, and check out her ebook, Blog Post Promotion: The Ultimate Guide.

3. My First Product by David Risley at DavidRisley.com

I love it people aren’t afraid to talk about some of the mistakes they’ve made or the processes that led to the success they have now. In this post, David Risley talks about his experiences mailing out CDs loaded with ebooks and software, and how the same ideas behind this product are still relevant today.

Writes David,

I eventually stopped selling that CD because times had changed. More and more people were using high-speed internet connections. And the medium of delivery was very much turning to the Internet rather than CD.

But, it all started somewhere.

With a necessity. And with me simply providing a convenience to my readers.

You can find David on Twitter @DavidRisley or add him to your Google+ circles. He leads The Inner Circle, an exclusive members-only club, as well as offers training programs for bloggers such as 3-Day Money and Blog Masters Club.

4. 101 Ways Monetize Your Blog Without Irritating Your Readers by the Inside CRM Editors

Holy list of resources. This is a fantastic post with over 100 links and tips to help you get started making money online. I love it when a post really delivers, and this one definitely does. They writers can compiled a list here that covers a huge number of monetization methods, from RSS ads to merchandizing to sponsored posts. From the post:

Blogging is big business these days, with some bloggers reporting six-figure or even million-dollar incomes. There are a number of ways that these bloggers earn such large paychecks, and the best know how to do it in a way that won’t scare off readers. Check out 101 ways that you can earn money from your blog and learn strategies for using these tools and methods in a way that’s reader-friendly.

Inside CRM is a great resource site for marketers and sales professionals. You can find senior editor analyst Chris Bucholtz on Twitter @bucholtz.

5. Should You Monetize Your New Blog Now or Wait? by John Chow at JohnChow.com

It’s one of the most commonly-asked questions: when should a blog be monetized. As monetization master John Chow says it best, though, there’s no right or wrong way to answer that question. It depends on your blog. However, just because you can monetize right away doesn’t mean that you necessarily should. In the post, John writes,

The right answer for you depends on what your goals for the blog are. If you’re goal is just to make a few extra bucks, then you can use Google Ads from the get go. If you’re looking to build a solid and lasting blogging business that will allow you to live the Dot Com Lifestyle, then my recommendation is to wait before putting on the ads. John Chow dot Com made no money for the first eight months of its life. There were zero ads on it and no affiliate promotion of any kind.

John then goes on to explain the reasons why waiting made sense for him and why it might make sense for you as well. After reading the post, you can find John on Twitter @JohnChow and like his blog on Facebook, where you’ll find information on how to download his Ultimate Blog Profit Model ebook for free.

6. Every Tool You’ll Ever Need To Create and Launch An E-Book by Jonathan Wondrusch at By Bloggers

Dudes. This is a seriously awesome post that really does include all the information you need to know to create your own ebook. It’s a super long post, but well worth the read, even if you’ve created ebooks in the past, because it will make your ebooks better. Even better, Jonathan includes both premium and open source/free products that will help you create your next ebook, so even if you’re on a budget, this post will be beneficial for you. It’s another “must bookmark” link! From the post:

While there are a lot of amazing tools to choose from, I realize that not everyone is going to be able to dish out the money needed for the higher end ones. Mixed in with the premium products that are used in professional digital publishing, there are Open Source and free options included whenever possible.

Blogging Bootstrappers need to find a balance of keeping their expenses down, but also creating killer products. With the tools listed, there’s no reason that won’t be possible.

Jonathan is on Twitter @bybloggers and you can also like By Bloggers on Facebook. In addition, he has a free ebook available called Epic E-Book Creation, and if you sign up for his mailing list, you’ll get the Bootstrappers Toolkit, which includes the The E-Book Creation Explorer’s Guide.

7. How To Increase Sales For Your Online Store By Tracking Custom Variables by Steve and Jennifer at My Wife Quit Her Job

This post is actually a follow-up to a post they published about using analytics tracking to improve their online store. Both are worth a read if you’re interested in merchandizing. Really, though, I find that their tips and techniques for using analytics to track sales can work for a variety of monetization methods, including affiliate sales and informational product creation. There are some fantastic methods outlined in this post.

Don’t get me wrong. The default tracking of Google Analytics is extremely powerful. But if you want to get down and dirty with specific aspects of your shop, you will need more power than what is provided out of the box with Google Analytics.

By default, Google Analytics spits out too much broad based information for you to interpret correctly. In order to effectively use analytics, you must learn how to filter out only the information you need and focus on what will make you the most money.

Also available on the My Wife Quit Her Job site, you can sign up for their mailing list to receive the free mini-course How To Create A Profitable Online Store In 5 Easy Steps. You can also follow them on Twitter @mywifequit and like the blog on Facebook.

8. 10 Quick Steps to Becoming a Virtual Entrepreneur! by Chris Ducker at Virtual Business Lifestyle

No matter how you’re monetizing, you need to start thinking of yourself as a business owner. In this post, Chris goes over nine steps to get started, and his awesome community chips in with lots of comments with more tips. There’s nothing “quick” about building an online business, but in actuality, when you break it down like Chris has in this post, it doesn’t have to be such a daunting undertaking. Writes Chris,

To become successful as a virtual entrepreneur takes more than just building a few niche sites and relying on Adsense (although we do enjoy it, don’t we VBL Niche Site Project peeps!?). I’ve taken a huge journey over the last couple of years, becoming more and more virtual as time has passed. And I’ve loved every minute of it.

So, today I thought it would be a good idea to create a small selection of tips and tactics for everyone to follow, if they are not ‘quite there’ in regards to ‘going virtual’.

You can find Chris on Twitter @chriscducker. He’s the virtual CEO of the Live2Sell Group, Virtual Staff Finder, and YourWebPA. You can also find him on YouTube and get his free ebook, Saving the Day the Virtual Way, by signing up for his mailing list on the Virtual Business Lifestyle sidebar.

9. A Counterintuitive Guide to Pricing Your Best Work by Tyler Tervooren at Advanced Riskology

I’m frequently asked how I price my services, and although I think the process is different for every person, I really like the argument that Tyler makes in this post: sometimes, you should give away your very best work for free.

Writes Tyler,

The rule I try to follow:

General and insanely useful = Free

Specific and insanely useful = Paid

The very best pieces of your work that apply to a general audience should be free and if someone wants it in a format that fits their unique situation, there’s a good opportunity to ask for a sale.

Don’t fret about giving away so much for free. That’s a silly problem, and I think too many people worry about it. Instead, worry about how you can give even more of your very best work away for free. When you do that, you find hordes of people paying when you ask them to even if they can’t personally use what you’re selling; they’re so happy with what you’ve given them already, they want to support you however they can.

Trust me, everyone; this post is worth a read. I’m into making money as much as anyone, but some of the points Tyler makes in this post hit the nail right on the head. After checking out the post, you can find Tyler on Twitter @tylertervooren and like Advanced Riskology on Facebook. He also runs the Guerrilla Influence Formula e-course and has a number of other products for sale at his store.

10. The Give Me Society by C.C. Chapman at CC-Chapman.com

On the other end of the spectrum from Tyler’s blog, there’s C.C. Chapman’s post about why you shouldn’t be ashamed to charge money when you have something of value to offer. I actually don’t think the two posts are in competition with one another – they both make the point that it is okay to sometimes do work for free, while other times charging for your time. I like C.C’s assertion that we don’t have the right to judge anyone for charging for a service or product. Writes C.C.,

I’ve been seeing more and more people complaining about individuals or groups deciding to charge for some of what they create. This give ME mentality reminds me of whiney first graders who can’t always get a cookie every time they ask for one. Not only do they want fries, but they want them drowned in gravy, covered in cheese and then fed to them by a half naked waitress with a cute smile. In other words, they want it all and they want it on their terms.

After reading the post, head to Twitter to find C.C. @cc_chapman or add him to one of your Google+ circles. You can also pick up a copy of the book he co-authored with Ann Handley, Content Rules.

11. Seven Ways You Can and Should Start Charging for Your Content by David Spark at Spark Minute

So now that I’ve included two posts about whether or not you should charge for your content itself (not just monetizing your blog with ads and the like), I wanted to highlight a post that reviews the different options you have for doing so, should you decide that this is the monetization route for you. This is a fantastic post from David Spark that covers everything from creating content tiers to fabricating scarcity. In his post, David writes,

Now that people are paying for digital content, and we’re making sense of what has value. How have people successfully charged for their content, and how can you do it? Here are seven successful techniques you can use to actually charge people for consuming your content.

Not all of these techniques are going to be right for you, but there are some good ideas here that you should be considering. After checking them out, you can follow David on Twitter @dspark and find out more about his social media company, Spark Media Solutions.

12. How to Create an Affiliate Program that Doesn’t Suck by Sean Ogle at Location 180 (Guest Post for Laura Roeder)

Normally, I try to include posts from the blogger’s own site, but this was such a great guest post that I just had to share it! One of the best ways to monetize is to create your own products, whether that’s some kind of informational virtual product (like an ebook or e-course), a physical product (like a print book or t-shirts), or an event (in-person or virtual like a webinar). To help make more sales, having a good affiliate program is key. In this post, Sean talks about how to make that affiliate program attractive. Remember, the more people promoting your products, the more sales you’ll ultimately make. Writes Sean,

Just yesterday I received an email about promoting a product that said this:

“Includes an incredible affiliate offer where you can make nearly 25% off every single sale!”

The product was $47 with a 20% commission and no other incentives. I’m sorry but $9.40 just doesn’t excite me that much.

The reason most affiliate programs suck is because most owners of these programs care only about themselves. They don’t want to devote the time and money to doing it right, which results in very few sales for you, and even less money for your affiliates – which let’s face it, is the whole point.

So how do we fix this?

Check out the post for the answer to Sean’s question, and then head to Location 180 to read more of his work. You can also follow Sean on Twitter @seanogle and join his membership community Location Rebel to learn how to build a virtual business. (This guest post’s host, Laura Roeder, is on Twitter too @lkr)

Quick Links

For those of you short on time, here’s a list of the links covered in this post:

Looking for Money in the Grass by Tom Webster (@webby2001)
How to Make Money Online Though Blogging and Writing by Kristi Hines (@kikolani)
My First Product by David Risley (@DavidRisley)
101 Ways Monetize Your Blog Without Irritating Your Readers by the Inside CRM Editors
Should You Monetize Your New Blog Now or Wait? by John Chow (@JohnChow)
Every Tool You’ll Ever Need To Create and Launch An E-Book by Jonathan Wondrusch (@bybloggers)
How To Increase Sales For Your Online Store By Tracking Custom Variables by Steve and Jennifer (@mywifequit)
10 Quick Steps to Becoming a Virtual Entrepreneur! by Chris Ducker (@chriscducker)
A Counterintuitive Guide to Pricing Your Best Work by Tyler Tervooren (@tylertervooren)
The Give Me Society by C.C. Chapman (@cc_chapman)
Seven Ways You Can and Should Start Charging for Your Content by David Spark (@dspark)
How to Create an Affiliate Program that Doesn’t Suck by Sean Ogle (@seanogle)

Other posts in the 12 New Media Days of Christmas series will be linked here as they go live:

12 Bloggers Monetizing (this post)
11 Emailers List Building
10 Google+ Users a-Sharing
9 Vloggers Recording
8 Links a-Baiting
7 Community Managers a-Managing
6 Publishers a-Publishing
5 Traffic Tips
4 New Media Case Studies
3 Must-Read New Media Interviews
2 Top New Media News Stories of 2011
And a Partridge in a Pear Tree

You can also check out the all the posts from 2010 and 2011 here , and don’t forget: If you wrote a post in 2011 about today’s topic (monetization), PLEASE leave the link in a comment below to share with the community!

Must Use Self Serve Ad Networks

Author: waylonlockard0

As an affiliate marketer, or even just a blogging, the end goal is to bring new traffic to your landing pages, sites and blogs. What is changing, is how you can advertise and bring in a new flow of traffic to your target points. No longer do you have to blindly create ad campaigns on a CPM basis, and just hope for great results. The same can also be said about targeting and who will see your ad. The days of having to wait for a sales or support team to upload your ad creatives and get back to you within 24-48 hours for your first set of stats is also a thing of the past … all thanks to self serve advertising platforms.

Finally, ad networks and social networks are getting smart and letting the advertisers do the work and setup ad campaigns the way they want. Now you can target specific demographics, only target to certain countries and use a full rotation of different ad copies, all thanks to the self serve ad networks listed below.

Facebook Ads

With over 800 million users and quickly approaching the 1 billion mark, Facebook has changed the way we advertise, thanks to their amazing Facebook Ads platform. Since every one on Facebook is all about sharing information, Facebook uses that same information to allow advertisers to create ad campaigns that advertise to their exact customer match. Looking for single females in New York that love “Desperate Housewives“? In a few simple clicks you can target them all on Facebook.

Facebook allows you to create your own ad campaigns made up of headline text, a description and a 110×80 image to represent your offer. Through the Facebook Ads manager you can create a ton of ad campaigns and different ad copies, which makes it extremely for you to perform split testing. All advertising is on a CPC or CPM basis.

Plenty of Fish

Just like Facebook launched their own advertising platform, Plenty of Fish, which is the largest free dating web site in the world, soon followed up with their own self serve ad platform. Dating web sites work the same way social networks do, as in people provide detailed information about themselves, which is then used by the networks for advertising targeting.

Plenty of Fish has even more detailed information than Facebook when it comes to targeting. From pet ownership to hair color and how many children someone has, POF has become a playground for internet marketers. Through the use of a Plenty of Fish Ads Uploader you can quickly create hundreds of ad campaigns in just minutes, then weed out the best offers for further monetization and improvement. All advertising on Plenty of Fish is on a CPM basis, so make sure you work on your click through rates!

Mochi Media

Lastly we have an exciting wonderland for anyone in the gaming niche. Mochi Media is one of the largest networks out there when it comes to gaming and getting the attention of players around the world. Through their advertising platform you can target nearly any county in the world, while also selecting what type of gamers you want to connect with.

Advertising through Mochi Media is setup through a CPC or CPM basis, and will vary in price depending on what country to you target. The only creative allowed on the self serve network is the 300×250 ad size. Don’t forget to check out our Mochi Media review.

As you can see, the way advertisers are creating ad campaigns is much different from what you may be used to. If you are still buying traffic without full demographics and targeting, you need to start playing around with these self serve networks. Not only will you reach a whole new audience, but you will learn a ton about yourself and advertising in the process.

Feel free to leave any comments on your favorite self serve platforms or any that may have not been mentioned.

7 Secrets About Using Blogs to Promote Services

Author: markusbrookman

I get asked to write blog posts for a lot of clients, particularly service providers who want to attract new clients of their own. Over the years, I’ve noticed a few things that can make a world of difference in how well a blog can promote a service — secrets that aren’t immediately obvious but that are pretty easy to implement once you think about them.

Blogs make readers feel like they know you: When we read blogs, we’re reading about someone very real to us, even if we’ve never met that person and never will. Make yourself as real as possible to your readers and they’ll feel much more comfortable hiring you, despite the fact that you might really just be another stranger on the internet.
You have tons of ready made content, in the form of case studies: A blog promoting a service is one of the easiest to write because you know exactly what you’ve done for individual clients in the past and how they’ve benefited. So write up a case study of every past client you can and get it up on your blog. And, by the way, prospective clients love case studies.
As a service provider, you have to be an expert: It’s your blog and you’re the expert, so write like it. Don’t hedge your bets with ‘I think’ or ‘I expect.’ It’s tempting to run a blog as a newbie exploring a topic, but that doesn’t help you make sales. Focus on the expertise you already have.
You can’t compete on search engine traffic, and that’s okay: It’s particularly hard to rank for keywords like ‘freelancer’ or ‘consultant,’ because there are so many service providers with websites already. But you can be very competitive for prominence within a niche — you can get plenty of traffic from other sites promoting you, especially if you write posts that everyone wants to link to. That can be a benefit, letting you specialize within that niche.
You have to write in advance for your blog: Every service provider I know has hills and valleys, in terms of their work loads. When you’ve got plenty of client work, you don’t want to take any time away from it to write for your blog. You shouldn’t force it, considering that your client work needs to be top-notch. But you should make the effort to stockpile posts during the slow times in your business.
The threshold is low, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to wow readers. There are some incredibly bad blogs out there, ran by freelancers and other service providers. It’s like there’s a checklist somewhere telling people that they have to have a blog, so they throw some site together that has lots of broken pieces, typos and the like. That can make you think that as long as you avoid being that bad, you’re doing good. But you really need to wow your readers, not just beat the particularly bad blogs.
Don’t track subscribers on your blog, if your goal is to get clients. First of all, it’s the wrong metric to determine success for your blog — you want to track conversions to tell how you’re actually doing. Second, odds are good that you’re dealing with an audience who won’t subscribe that often. Instead, they’ll find you through a link or a search, read a whole bunch of posts in one day and either contact you immediately or bookmark you as someone to work with at a later date.

There are differences between every type of blog. If you’re using your blog to promote your services, you need to know those differences and act on them.

How to Avoid Scaring Advertisers Away

Author: elkecarvosso6

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:

Pick a niche and stick to it.

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.

Be prepared with stats.

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.

Offer discounts.

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

Load your site with testimonials.

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!

Why I Don’t Really Blog About Zombies: How to Pick a Great Niche

Author: elkecarvosso6

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:

I like zombies, but I’m not passionate about sharing information about them.

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.

Zombies are entertainment.

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.

I connect better with blogger than zombie lovers.

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:

Finding a topic that you passionate love
Making sure it fits into your monetization plan
Enjoying the community you’re trying to attract to your blog

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!

Ten Simple (but Costly) Blog Mistakes

Author: elkecarvosso6

Sometimes, the difference between a profitable blog and a blog that doesn’t make any money isn’t major. In fact, it can boil down to just a few simple mistakes. Of course, every blog is going to be different, with different goals and meeting different reader needs, so not every tip is right for every person. But in general, here are ten really simple mistakes to fix that could be the difference between financial success and failure:

1) Filling Prime Real Estate with Other People’s Ads

In my high school graphic design class, I learned something that I still carry with me – a person’s eye naturally moves like a giant “S” across a page. That means that you’re prime real estate is at the top right. Online, anything “above the fold” (aka, the space you can see without scrolling) is also good. What do you have filling these spaces? I see a lot of people with ads in this space. Unless the most important thing for you is to get clicks on your ads (like if your main monetization strategy is a PPC program), why are you just giving this real estate away? Fill the top right with ads for your own products or affiliate products. Sales will jump. Or, use it for mailing list sign-ups, which you can use to drive sales in the future.

Another high-value place? The very end of your posts. When people are done reading, give them something valuable to do, like sign up for your mailing list or check out your product.

2) Not Including a Search Option

If there’s no search option on your blog, people can find stuff on Google instead, right? Right…but will you be #1 in the search results? Let’s say that I remember you reviewing a product but can’t easily find the post. I can search on Google, but what might pop up is someone else’s product review or someone else mentioning that you reviewed that product.

Even for your own products, you might not come up first on Google. One of your affiliates with awesome SEO can easily beat you out, simply by optimizing their posts. While this will still sell your products, you’ll have to pay an affiliate fee whereas on your own site, it’s pure profit. Don’t risk it. Just include a search bar on your blog and you don’t have to worry about it.

3) Avoiding Affiliate Links

If you talk about products often, why would you not sign up to be an affiliate? You don’t have to link everything you mention, but Amazon affiliate links can be easily added when you mention something in a post. Share a Sale and Commission Junction are also two great places where you can find product affiliate links – I’ve used both with success, and usually these affiliate programs give a better commission than Amazon. People are taking your recommendations when purchasing a product. Why shouldn’t you earn a bit of a commission.

When someone approaches you to ask for a review, this is definitely something you should ask as well. Most people have affiliate programs for their products, and if you’re doing them the favor of reviewing their product, the least they can do is allow you to earn a commission for anything you sell.

4) Underestimating the Eagerness of Your Readers to Buy

A few months ago, I was reading a blog that I really enjoyed, so I signed up for the blogger’s mailing list. I got several emails per week from this blogger, and while they were all interesting, not a single one tried to sell me anything. So I asked the blogger…why? His response was that he didn’t want to turn off readers with sales. Now, I definitely think that some people overdo it, but your readers are your fans – they want to buy the things you recommend or products from you. It’s silly to never sell, in my opinion.

The blogger took my advice and added in a sales email about once a month (so, one every 10 – 15 emails) and is now making a boatload of money that way. To date, he’s had no one complain and sees no greater unsubscribe numbers than with non-sales emails.

5) Paying Too Much for Hosting

Shop around. Are you getting the best deal? You want to avoid a shoddy hosting plan to save money, but some companies are waaaay overpriced. Ask your connections on Twitter or Facebook. People can recommend some great hosts that might be better AND cheaper than the host you chose at random.

Even look at the hosting plans offered by your company – do you need the plan they sold you or is their a cheaper plan that would serve your needs? Companies love to upsell you, and you might be paying for stuff you don’t use. It takes about ten minutes to check out the hosting plans available and you could save a lot of money every year that way, especially if you have multiple sites.

6) Not Including Clear Contact Information

If I want to purchase an ad on your site, how do I get in touch? If I can’t find your email address or a contact form in about 20 seconds, I’m gone. Make a contact page and put it somewhere very easy to see on your site. Don’t hide it on your about page. Don’t put it half-way down your sidebar in a small font that’s lost between ads and navigation tools. I don’t understand why bloggers don’t make it easy to be contacted…unless, I guess, they don’t want to be contacted? The best blogs, in my opinion, make it idiot-proof, listing contact information in multiple easy-to-see places.

Personally, I like it even more when I see an actual advertising page for potential sponsors to learn more. Creating an advertising page on your site that’s clearly listed in the top navigation bar or footer (the two places advertisers typically check first) will tell them that you’re open to selling ad space, that you’ve actually thought about your prices (so you’re a professional), and that they’re likely to hear back quickly.

7) Being Too Humble About Your Products

Dude. You’re awesome! Your readers won’t be reading your posts or following your tweets or subscribed to your emails if they didn’t like you. Don’t be afraid to tell people about your products.

In fact, your products should be front and center! Not only that, but when you talk about your products, don’t be humble. Talk about the advantages of your product and, although you should be clear and honest if there are people who won’t benefit from the purchase, make sure you sell it. If you’re not comfortable with sales, let your fans speak for you by posting testimonials. I’m always willing to give away a free copy of my book if someone (especially someone known in my industry) is willing to write a testimonial.

8 ) Crazy Long Sales Letters with No Buy Button until the End

Long sales letters drive me nuts. I understand that they work, otherwise people wouldn’t use them. But just because they work in their current long form doesn’t mean they couldn’t be better. Don’t confuse the fact that you’re making sales with success. If you sell 1000 products on launch day, you might be jumping for joy…but what if I told you that you had the potential to make 10,000 sales? Not so exciting anymore, is it?

I’ll be one of those people who hits the back button, in many cases, if you don’t have a “buy” button near the top. I certainly want to read a little about your product, but I’m there for a blurb, not a book report, and other readers probably feel the same way. So keep your long sales letter with the buy button at the end, but put one closer to the top too for those of us who are sold already.

9) Lack of Formats

This one is specifically for those who create informational products, which is a lot of readers. If I could do one thing differently with my last product launch, it would be to offer not just a downloadable PDF file, but also multiple other formats. Some people still like print. Others will jump on board if you offer a kindle version. Heck, some people even want content broken up and sent via email over time.

If your products are expensive, I think it also make sense to offer different payment structures. Give a discount for those who can afford to buy your product outright, but make it possible to pay in small chunks for readers on a budget. You don’t want to offer so many options that things are overwhelming, but a few choices will help get your product in the hands of more readers, and it doesn’t take much effort to offer multiple options.

10) No Affiliate Program for Your Products

If you’re selling stuff, are you offering an affiliate program? If not…why not? You’ll have a virtual sales team that are only paid when they sell something if you set up even a low-payout affiliate program! I have to love beyond love a product to write a review if I’m not getting a commission. Even then, if it’s a busy week, I might not make time for it. If you have a great affiliate program, though, you’ll see a major boost in your sales, and most of those buyers will be people you never would have reached otherwise, so it’s not like you’re losing money by paying affiliates, at least most of the time. The benefits greatly outweigh the disadvantages, and best of all, it only takes a few seconds to set up an affiliate program through a company like E-junkie.

It’s your turn – what changes have you made on your blog that resulted in big jumps in profit?

Stop Thinking Like A Blogger In Order To Make Money

Author: kristalderrick

… by David Risley (BlogWorld LA Monetization track leader)

The blogger mindset is one which I like to affectionately call “the blogger hamster wheel”. It goes something like this…

Write some stuff. Then write some more stuff. Check your traffic. Send some tweets. Write more stuff. Read some other blogs and post comments. Figure out what the heck you’re gonna write. Write it. Maybe.

[sigh]

One thing you notice in there (hopefully) is this: NOWHERE in there is any money being made.

You might think the golden ticket is found simply by writing more and increasing volume, but it isn’t. The problem is compounded, too, because all those OTHER bloggers out there think the same thing. Which means there is an insane amount of written content being produced out in the blogosphere. And, in case you hadn’t noticed, it is harder than ever to get noticed.

So, what’s a blogger to do?

The “trick”, if you want to call it that, is to stop thinking like a blogger. Broaden your paradigm and start doing things that most bloggers either don’t want to do, are too lazy to do, or have some other weird reason why they won’t.

The Business Reality of Blogging

Blogging doesn ’t make money. But, you know what does? BUSINESS.

Businesses sell things. They have things to sell. They don’t just talk about it… they DO it.

So, what are YOU selling? The answer better be something along the line of info products related to your niche or affiliate marketing. It can be your own product (best) or it can be somebody else’s (almost as good). Either way, you should be selling something on your blog. And your content should be designed to attract the attention of targeted prospects and then route them into those things that you sell.

In other words, your blog is a marketing platform. Nothing more.

How To Break The Mold

Now that you’re going to be in the business of selling things related to your niche, it is time to figure out a more efficient way to get and hold people’s attention rather than just more written blog posts.

One think you may notice is that many of the successful guys out there don’t stay in a mold. They produce content, just not always written content.

So, consider the following things that most bloggers just don’t do:

Videos. This is somewhat common, but I find a lot of bloggers are scared of doing it for some reason. Why? Youtube gets some MAJOR traffic. Plus, a video holds attention better than written text.
Webinars. I can’t even BEGIN to overstate just how awesome webinars are. If you’re delivering good content, you’ve got people paying attention to your stuff for an hour or so. Beats the CRAP out of a written blog post. Not to mention you can sell things on a webinar (even affiliate products) and it typically converts seriously well.
Live Video. Engage your audience using something like UStream.tv.
Email. Many of us say “build a list”, but the truth is a lot of people don’t do it. Why, I have no idea. Its STUPID not to have a mailing list.

You might be noticing a trend there on how to break the mold.

Get out of your shell, stop focusing on written stuff all the time, get on camera, deliver awesome value, and sell things.

What Now?

I would ask you not to simply read this post and move on – doing nothing. We all know that’s what you usually do.

If you’re serious about making money with your blog, then what I just wrote in this post is a huge part of the way forward. So, stop and figure out your next move to put this stuff into action. Make a video. Find some things to sell and sell them.

Oh, and stop by the monetization track at Blogworld Expo in LA. I’ve lined up some great speakers who “get it”. If you want to engage in REAL online business, pay attention to the awesome folks in LA. You’re gonna dig it. 🙂

To get the plain-spoken truth on making money blogging, visit my blog at DavidRisley.com. Connect on Facebook.

A Beginner’s Guide to Blog Monetization Basics

Author: elkecarvosso6

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.

Monetization Methods

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!

Advertising

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.

Selling Stuff

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.

Membership Sites

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.

Using your Blog as a Platform

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.

Reviews

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.

Setting Your Advertising Prices

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.

Monetization Mistakes

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!

Giving top billing to your ads: Unless there’s a reason (like the advertising is paying extra), banner ads shouldn’t be on the prime real estate of your blog. Reserve that spot for your own stuff, like a sign-up box for your mailing list, an ad for your own products, or buttons to subscribe to your RSS feed.
Not disclosing when you’ve been paid: This isn’t just shady – it’s illegal. If something is an affiliate link or you’ve been paid to write it, the FTC requires that you let your readers know. How I understand the law (and I’m not a lawyer), this also includes your social media updates (tweets, status updates, etc). When you use an affiliate link, mark it as such! Don’t try to trick your readers. It’s just not cool.
Sending readers to your competitors: We like to think there are no competitors in blogger, but if you’re using your blog as a platform, there are other sites you just don’t want to advertise. For example, if you’re a writer and looking for clients, you don’t want to advertise for other writers on your blog sidebar! Be careful when you use advertising services such as the one offered by Google – block ads that drive potential money away.

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?

Five Questions to Ask Before Becoming a Full Time Niche Blogger

Eight Ways to Make More Money as an Affiliate

The 12 New Media Days of Christmas 2011: 12 Bloggers Monetizing

Quick Links

7 Secrets About Using Blogs to Promote Services

How to Avoid Scaring Advertisers Away

Why I Don’t Really Blog About Zombies: How to Pick a Great Niche

Ten Simple (but Costly) Blog Mistakes