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Regular readers should agree that on Sundays I don’t talk about saving money, investment or getting ahead. I do talk on subjects other than those. I share random thoughts on Sundays.
This week, let’s talk about things that kept me busy for last couple of days. I was researching about monetization of blogs. The best practices, latest trends and more specifically-how to increase earning. Yeah shameless, you may think. Those who just rolled their eyes, please consider this, a blog can’t get successful if it’s economically weak. There are certain exceptions, alright, but generally if a blogger does not keep earning money, the blog dies eventually and slowly.
Many bloggers do not show ad on their blogs but, they sell their products, books, courses, lectures for money. They use their blogs to grow a follower base to promote their money making products. Zen Habits is the best example of this type.
So, here’s my pitch for monetization, your blogger SB needs to earn money from this blog or the charm of blogging may die, tomorrow or the day after. If you love reading me you don’t want that, right? A constant source of income brings continuous improvements in a blog. The blog attracts staff writers to fill in for the days main blogger gets caught on by life. Get Rich Slowly is perfect example of that. Perhaps when I keep earning more money you start seeing new posts here every day.
I’ll never give priority to earning than writing better content, I have a day job for that. Every day I feel more passionate about writing better than the previous day. But, money is an energy that keep bloggers running. I felt the need of researching about monetization, as I feel I am missing on something. Lower ranking blogs in personal finance domain, having half of my visitors earn a few times more than what I am earn. What I am missing?
Below are the reasons why my blog earning is low so far
1. I never formally replied to an ad inquiry. Any kind of external mailing tool including Gmail is banned at my work. Given lack of time and not-so-friendly typing feature of iPhone, my usual answers were of two lines. Turning many ad buyers off.
2. I never built a list of ad seekers. I replied the ad seekers mails and after a few days, deleted those emails to keep my blog mail box clean and clutter free. I never bothered to keep their emails for rainy days. As internet marketers say – money is in the list. I missed a list so far.
3. I was laid back, I never actively sought ad buyers. Except for my advertisement page I didn’t have anything to entice ad buyers. I always waited for buyers to initiate contact first.
4. I didn’t know buyers look beyond page rank. The Page Authority (PA) and to be more accurate, Domain Authority (DA) are the new benchmarks. Only money in small amount (for SEO) can be earned by having a better Page Rank. The real advertisement money comes in to the pages with higher PA and blogs with higher DA. Sellers of product and services do put most of their money on sites with higher DA and PA these days. I have slept on Page Rank pillow so far.
5. My blog looked ugly and lacked speed. The most efficient SEO technique is to make your site faster. Google admits it and so is the internet marketeers. Google assigns a huge weight on the page load speed in their internal page ranking system which ranks and orders our search results. My banner, side bar looked as ugly as it could. Putting many advertisers away.
6. I was rude to the guest post seekers. The mails I receive everyday asking me to accept their quality guest post with a commercial/business links, so far went only in my trash or got a one liner reply that with the link, it will cost $xxx. More than 95% didn’t reply and I ended up removing those emails later on. I didn’t realize these guest post seekers are SEO marketeers who would likely to pay for advertisements at a later time. I never saved their emails for future solicitation.
7. I don’t much talk about reader numbers and when I do I attach Google Analytics screens rather than typing them in. Many bots employed by SEO marketers search for in-line texts to gain knowledge about actual ranks and traffic visits. because, even the best SEO tools can only give them an estimate of traffic, rather than the actual number. I usually put those traffic numbers once a month and I didn’t even put an update for December. Ad seekers, so far, had no clue that I receive monthly 20,000 page views on this blog with 68% new visits. In other way, roughly it means, I have more than 400 regular blog readers.
At this time neither Adsense, nor affiliate links can bring serious money for me, all they can do now is to annoy readers and occupy real estate space. So I am keeping them out from missed opportunities list. I hardly lost any money by not putting them up.
What I am doing to increase my earning? It’s something I may reveal next week, the post has gotten really big already. And I need time to check the success of my strategy, before that there’s no point in sharing something which may not work.
Buyers, to makes things easy for you – if you are looking for advertisement/links on this blog, you can enter your email address below. I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Fellow bloggers, if you can share about your experience about what you did right and what went wrong for you in terms on monetization feel free to share here.
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A blog does need to earn money to keep going!
One thing I will caution you against is charging for guest posts. Quality guest posts are a BENEFIT to you. They help you offer more content to your readers, and often with different ideas than what you are posting yourself. If you were to hire the writer of a guest post to provide the exact same content, you would PAY them for the article. Instead, they’re offering you an article for free (often in exchange for one link back to their own website or blog. This does not minimize the benefits to you!)Guest posts can bring your website traffic, because most guest post authors are going to help promote the content on your site… and it didn’t cost you anything but a few minutes to read and publish the guest writer’s article.
Not only all of that, but Google frowns upon sites that charge for links; which is essentially what charging to publish a guest post is – so you might end up hurting your positioning in the search engine.
Debbie, there are two separate things, a guest post and a sponsored post. A guest post is always free on my site. I term ‘guest post’ as a post written by a fellow blogger. A sponsored post on other hand is written for either advertising for the sponsor or for increasing back link profile for the sponsor’s website.
Pardon me but, I haven’t seen any sponsored post offer so far that is absolutely impossible to write for me. I haven’t gotten a single sponsored post offer that provided a radically refreshing content.
Now I have a question for you, when you write a guest post with a commercial link in it, is your main agenda to provide quality content or increasing back link profiles?
Those writers talks about general theme of personal finance and then at the end add a link to a particular insurance or service. If they really care about giving benefits to the readers they would not do it. This is where Google should frown upon.
So does that mean you feel an article a writer provides for a guest post can not be both informative and useful to your readers and also include a link to another site? It is possible that a guest writer can provide exceptional content while still helping another site with a back link.
And let’s not forget, you could also provide useful content for other sites, and get a link back to your own blog. That doesn’t mean you would write a useless article. In fact, you would want to write a QUALITY article, to encourage readers to come to your blog and check out what else you have to say. When you post on another blog or website, you are reaching new potential readers for your own blog, establishing yourself as an expert in the industry, and helping the OTHER blog/website owner by creating additional quality content for their site at the same time.
I don’t understand the negativity you seem to have surrounding guest posting. If you receive an article that is “junk” or low quality, by all means, don’t publish it. But to refuse all guest article requests simply because they ask to include a link to another site is probably not your best strategy overall for increasing your own site’s profile and your position among other personal finance sites.
Again re iterating, I always welcome posts from fellow bloggers, promoting their blogs, I in fact urge bloggers to send those guest posts, they are always free.
With all due respect, if you permit a store to operate from your property, would you not charge? Does Walmart not charge McDonald or redbox? Does Target offer space for free to pizza hut or Starbucks? It s a symbiosis but, for a cost. Why should it be different on web real estate.
There’s no negativity, I want to emphasize that bloggers should not give free lunch to businesses. If you get value, you need to pay.
To use your example.. it’s true that if a Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s takes up residence inside a Walmart, they’ll pay Walmart rent for the space. But Walmart gets the rent, and not free products like coffee and donuts, right? That’s their arrangement.
As an owner of web real estate, you get a free article in exchange for providing a link. And again, I’m talking about quality articles, so it is a benefit to you & your readers, just as much as the link benefits the other site. I just think everyone succeeds when we’re more willing to help one another. In general. Not just in guest blogging 🙂
I recognize and support the need for all bloggers to make money and monetize their sites, I just don’t think charging for guest posts (whether from a blogger or a website owner) is the answer.
I do look forward to your upcoming post on ideas for monetizing though, and hope you offer some insight into which methods end up working for you.
I agree, if I come across a real quality sponsored post, perhaps I would publish it for free. Sadly I haven’t received any in almost one year of blogging.
Yes I’d definitely provide an update on the steps I have started taking. And thanks for putting so much time here 🙂
I’ve been thinking about the differences between guest posts and sponsored posts a lot lately too and I’ve come to the conclusion that 99% of all guest posts are in fact sponsored posts.
What you are calling fellow bloggers promoting their blogs are in fact sponsored posts. How many of those blogs are monetized in some way (Adsense, sponsored links, selling a product, affiliate links)? Probably 99% of them. Just because they are bloggers rather than businesses doesn’t mean their promotional posts aren’t sponsored.
Would you accept a guest post from Wisebread? Last I checked they were a part of Killer Aces Media and are definitely looking to make a profit from the blog.
If you are looking to make money from your blog I don’t think it makes sense to compartmentalize the outgoing links in guest posts and say “this is acceptable and this is not”. Rather judge the posts based on the quality of the writing irrespective of the outgoing links. If the post provides value to your readers and follows your guest post guidelines then I think it is a win-win.
I see, you have good points. I would still stick to my policy. If a post is offered by a fellow blogger I know, it will be readily accepted and queued up. If I think the link inserted for SEO purpose only, not trying to get visitors, I will ask for compensation. Discretion is mine.
I know folks at Wisebread. For that matter I did accept guest post from Money Crasher for free. I knew them, or they first tried building relationship with me before offering guest posts. Wisebread is a blog and so in MC, if they link to their home page or blog posts I have no reservation to accept them as blogger’s guest post.
Again I understand my readers better than any other person, so my discretion will be final. I sincerely hope you employ the same strategy on your blog too. The sponsored posters receive money from businesses for putting links on authority blogs and sites. What’s wrong in expecting a part of that?
Nothing at all wrong with that, share the wealth right? I just think that even the monetized blogs are “getting paid” when they guest post. They still receive the links (valuable even if not SEO optimized) and the traffic to a site that relies on some form of monetization. In fact, the bloggers may be getting the better deal because they don’t just get paid once for placing the link.
At the end of the day the decision is up to each individual blogger and I agree that discretion needs to be employed in healthy doses when deciding what to accept and reject. Even though I argue that the guest posts of bloggers and businesses are similar, I still get the feeling inside that a business looking to guest post is not much different than selling text links in your sidebar. Caveat viator.
My work is showcased all over the web, as I have written thousands of articles for clients as well as my own roster of sites. Yes, thousands as I have been at this since 2007.
I’m skilled, talented, all of the above – and as of right now have chosen to offer a service that is quite in demand. I have my clients and am doing quite well.
I also write for one off sites. This is America – land of the free and home of the brave. I’m not dictating what you should do with your time and talent, don’t tell me.
Whoa! What did I tell you to do? The only thing I told to entire SEO world is stop arguing about payment requirements on your well-written posts when my blog is in question. As a blog owner I have every rights to tell you that. Even if you’re world’s best writer.
I’ll jump in on this one as well. When someone approaches me for a guest post and they are linking to a commercial site, I won’t accept it. It would be different if it linked to a personal blog owned by the writer. But when the writer is being paid to get links for a company, I’ll be darned if I’m going to give away that link for free.
I don’t care how high the quality is; people read my blog because they enjoy the quality of writing I already provide on my own. If I accept a guest post, it’s either because I’m helping out a fellow blogger or because there’s something in it for me. Period.
Bloggers make money or attempt to make money, with their blogs. By definition, I guess that would make all blogs commercial in nature. 🙂
Nothing wrong with helping out website owners, the same way you would a fellow blogger. Some website owners are exactly like bloggers in that the only revenue they earn from their website is through paid ads, but because their website doesn’t look like a “blog” they’re immediately ignored for guest post requests.
That’s interesting, Debbie. After looking back at our email correspondence from July, you were looking for a link for Card Wisdom in a “guest post.” Card Wisdom is nothing but a link farm owned by Jeffrey Weber. Are you claiming to own that site?
THAT is the difference. When you are including links to sites that aren’t yours, that is not out of the goodness of your heart. It’s because you’ve been hired to trick people into accepting the posts for free. If you’re getting paid, why shouldn’t other people? If you were linking to a site that you actually owned and operated, I’d look at it differently.
No, I don’t own 99% of the sites I write for. But I do make 100% of my income from my writing business. Instead of starting and running my own blog, I took a different route with my business, and I help other people provide content for their sites.
Some of my services include writing articles for my clients and offering them as guest posts on other sites. Sometimes I write and distribute articles to article directories. Sometimes I write articles in my own name; sometimes I ghostwrite and my clients can put their name on the article.
Either way, there is no “tricking” involved in what I do, Andrea. If I contact you or anyone else and ask if you’d like an article to publish on your site, I will tell you I’d like to do it in exchange for a link to a site (and I even include the site in the email so that bloggers and site owners can make their decision). I personally don’t see why it matters who I’m writing for that day; whether it’s my own site or a client’s site.
Some of my clients WILL agree to pay the host blog if they consider it a sponsored post, but the problem we run into are blog owners with very little traffic and influence who try to charge hundreds of dollars in exchange for posting a single article with a link. Or a blogger who will post the article in exchange for $50 or so, post it for 30 or 60 days and then remove the link (and keep the article on the site forever). It’s just not a good use of marketing dollars.
If you are writing for a client’s site, you are getting paid. When you are getting paid, we will charge rental. Feel free to open a blog and link to your blog post to avoid cost. Again, if your blog is for soul purpose of promoting businesses (as per post accepting blog owner’s discretion) you will require to pay.
If a blogger removes the link prior to contract end date, punish it by circulating bad words. But, let’s not talk about those unethical bloggers. The bloggers I know and the particular one you are responding to is not that type.
I think you trick when you receive payment from your clients for link and you try to put on our blogs for free. If you say you don’t receive payments from sites you link to in your write-ups, then what you say makes sense, is it the case? If not, then you have to pay for doing business on our premises.
While, in general, I agree with your point, I do see a flip side. In my own blog posts, I will frequently link to other blogs, and occasionally to commercial services that I recommend if I think relevant. In such a case, I would be supporting them because I thought they were the best for the topic at hand. E.g, in today’s post, I linked to a Facebook page for a coupon, a Facebook app to help get better mileage out of that coupon, and a marketing company whose owner I quoted.
If I were writing a guest post for somebody, I wouldn’t change my writing style. Although, if I did link to a commercial resource in a guest post, I would probably give a head’s up to the blog’s owner and explain why it was included… and that I wasn’t being paid for it.
SB,
Of course I get paid to write for my clients, it wouldn’t be a business if I didn’t earn income.
It’s always fine for a blogger to deny a guest post, under any circumstances. It’s your blog. Do what you want 🙂 My original point, from my first comment, was just that you shouldn’t assume every guest post request is junk and offers no value to your site. That you may not want to respond immediately with “I’ll post it for $100” or whatever the fee may be. I just don’t feel that is the best way to make money with your blog.
I’m going to chime in quickly to say that if a blog owner thinks that a couple links in a guest post are worth more than the value that the blog owner will get from the article itself, then charging for the article and thus making it a “sponsored post” is a business decision that the blog owner must make.
I’m going to end commenting on this with the following, as I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing from me by now 🙂
There is a difference between sponsored posts and guests posts. A “sponsored post” is very specifically an article that a blog owner posts on his or her own site in return for compensation. So when you charge someone in return for posting an article, it becomes a sponsored post. There are some FTC rules about including proper disclosures for sponsored posts: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html
Here is an article on the subject that you may find useful:
http://michaelhyatt.com/five-ways-to-comply-with-the-new-ftc-guidelines-for-bloggers.html
A “guest post” would be a post by somebody other than the blog owner (or their paid staff writers who regularly post to the blog) where the blog owner is not receiving compensation. They are featuring an article by a guest writer, making it a guest post. Usually, the guest post is written by a blogger or freelance writer for the very specific purpose of getting a link or two back to their site or the site that they are writing for.
So SB- did you think this post would generate so many page views and comments? Congrats 🙂
But you didn’t do the work, so why should you get paid? Your remuneration is the FREE content you get from accepting guest posts on your site.
I do this for a living, so this is why I am speaking out on the matter.
If my “job” is to seek out sites that accept guest posts because someone with deeper pockets than me, hired me to this for them. Why should YOU get paid?
Either you accept guest articles or you don’t. There should not be two different rules – one for those who write their own content and those who hire someone to write it for them.
That’s a double standard.
If you want to charge for guest posts, then by all means – go ahead. My point is don’t have two rules for the same thing.
Guest posts by a blogger – FREE
Guest posts by a company – NOT FREE
Why? The reward for you…is the content. This is an article that was written solely for your site and is a good article. You’re getting content for free. That is your payment.
End of rant.
p.s. If someone offers to pay me for an article ad on my site, I am not going to turn this down. But for me to say, well did you write the article yourself? No, OK then I must charge. This is silly.
@Missy – I don’t hold anything against you as the writer of the content. It’s the companies that infuriate me. They have advertising budgets, but they don’t want to use them. Instead they put you in the position of fighting to find sites that accept your work. It really isn’t fair, because the quality of your work isn’t a consideration like it should be.
That said, I earn my living as a writer as well. Only I earn money from writing assignments that provide a place to showcase my work instead of forcing me to beg for guest posts. There is better money (and less hassle) in writing for a site that publishes your content instead of asking you to sneak in backlinks when bloggers don’t want them.
My advice: If you want to be in a position where your writing (minus the commercial links) is highlighted and welcomed, start a personal site showcasing your work and link to it instead. You would get a much more favorable response that way, and people would find your talent and pay you for what you do best – writing, not haggling with bloggers.
The difference for me between an article ad and a sidebar text ad is that in return for this ad – I get FREE content. My blog is continually updated and for no charge.
As the owner, I get to decide exactly what goes on my site. Why would I decide to create some ridiculous rule where someone who has hired someone to write for them would not be a welcome guest on my site, but if they took the time and effort to write it themselves – it makes it onto my glorious blog.
What baloney!
Who am I (or who are you) to dictate what someone else should do with their money? I have many sites and if I could afford to hire someone to write and place guest articles for me, I would. If the person I hired came to me and said, well no one wants to accept my guest article because YOU didn’t write it. Because I was hired, that would drive me nuts because it makes no sense whatsoever.
Who cares who wrote the article. If the article is good, the site being linked to is good – who cares who wrote the actual article?
There’s a lot of hypocrisy and I think it boils down to jealousy. When a a blog owner finds out an article being sent to them is perhaps a paid guest post, they act like they don’t like it. When really they want a cut. They want a piece of the pie. That’s hypocrisy of the highest kind.
I’ve had a few blog owners tell me they wont accept a guest article if I got paid for writing and submitting it. Yet, they will turn around and say – I charge for that. Well, hello.
Either you accept guest articles or you don’t. Who writes the article, should not alter anything.
But that’s exactly the point. Many of the guest posts I receive are NOT good and neither are the sites they link to. I’m not saying anything about your writing specifically; just speaking in general terms. If an article is some generic, 400-word “how to save money” post that my teenage son could write, I don’t want to post it. When it links to a low-quality site that offers nothing to my readers, I don’t want it. Reputable companies who want to advertise their products are willing and able to pay for that advertising. When a company tries to get it for free, we get upset. I don’t think that makes bloggers jealous; it just means we want REAL quality posts from REAL sites. And most of the time (maybe not always), that’s not what we get.
@Andrea – You are making way too many assumptions. I am not begging for anything, I offer a service and in return for that service I get paid.
I don’t know what you do for a living, but if you were an accountant and you were actively looking for clients or clients were coming to you looking for your services, and you do their taxes is this you….begging. I don’t think so.
As a site owner, I also seek out guest posts for my own sites and I do not consider this begging on my part. I ask a blogger one time if they accept guest posts, if yes – I submit my idea and so on. There’s no begging involved.
When you mention that you want REAL articles from REAL sites, what you’re really saying is I want REAL money accompanied with this request. Lol.
I hear ya.
It’s your site and you’re entitled to charge for whatever you want. But do make this clear front the get go and do not hold me (or someone else) up to some ridiculous standard not applied across the board. Blogger vs. Company.
My six cents. Thanks!!!
I think begging was used just as an anecdote, not in real sense. Missy as I see it. Can’t talk about other blogger, but, I don’t lack posts. I can write 4 posts a week and I post 4 days a week. And I do it well, I think. Saying that, If you want me to publish your well written post, it’s basically no service to me. If I don’t publish your quality and value added guest post, I will publish my own quality and value added post.
So by accepting your post I am doing a favor to you, no added benefit to me. Hence the money..not clear yet?
SB is simply talking about those requests that are made only for the purposes of a backlink. If you blog for more than a few months, it is easy to tell the difference. If they don’t want a link to their own author/blogger site, it is a dead giveaway that the article was not written to help anyone. That is not to say that all of those articles are bad, just most of them.
Have you thought about having someone negotiate paid ads on your behalf, for a commission? This can allow you to focus on the writing without having to worry about the details.
John, thanks for your support.
Yes I know about them and I have that service.
I do need to make it easier for advertisers to reach me. On one blog, I don’t even have my email address up. It also needs a better design (using default 2011 theme ATM), but that’s a job for this summer after I’ve moved and have home internet up and running again.
Why should you wait till summer? Time is an important essence in almost every thing. Thanks Edward I love reading your comments.
Part of it is, I don’t yet have a fully formed idea of what I want the new design to look like. The experience I had with my food blog is that it is much easier know what you want and then do it, then start and change directions 20 times.
Also, there is the little issue of internet access. In two weeks, my roommate moves out and is taking his Comcast account with him. A month later, we move out and hole up in a hotel for 6 weeks until we can close on a house (or probably condo). It may not be summer before I can get to work on that and my many other side projects, but the year will still be pretty close to half over.
There is too much involved for some of us to handle everything blogging requires. I can write, and I can handle many of the appearance/backend issues of my WordPress install, but that’s pretty much where I draw the line.
When it comes to the advertising side, I take my own advice and outsource that job to Crystal at BITFS. She is great when it comes to communicating with advertisers both incoming as well as initiating the contact. You should definitely get in touch with her and let her work her magic while you concentrate on the things you do best. I’ve said it on her blog and I’ll say it here for you SB and anyone else who desires their blog to be monetized better–next to making the site more aesthetically pleasing for readers, hiring Crystal was the best decision I have made when it comes to my site.
Thanks Eric! Yes that option is always open.
I do the same and it is a huge time saver. Plus she gets deals I wouldn’t have otherwise because of her networks. I definitely recommend her services.
She’s always in my mind 🙂
SB, you are getting yourself on a very shaky ground here. Money should NEVER be a motivation or a concern when you are building your blog. Really how old is your blog? Some of the bloggers had to blog for more than a year to start making ANY money. What keeps you going? Really? Money? Your readers? Writing process and self-expression? Recognition? If money is the answer, then you might be setting yourself for a failure. Don’t do it! Your blog has so much to offer. Hang in there and everything will come in time.
The reasons I think you are grossly misjudging here.
1. Monetizing can be achieved any time, doesn’t depend on blog age. If some bloggers had to wait for more than one year, then its a short coming on their part.
2. I am not suggesting money is my only motivation, no way. Its a state of mind, a blogger can be successful blogger if he/she monetize well. Its one of the important aspect, I never suggested it’s the main one.
3. If the blogger can’t self earn extra money, what the heck he’s doing by writing about earning extra money?
4. I am not looking for money by any means, else you could have seen Adsense, affiliate and infolinks all around, isn’t it?
Please go over the above points and re assess your statements. Don’t worry, not a bit, I’ll be around for long term.
I’ve had “guest bloggers” lie and say they were just writing to build a portfolio, I agree and they send me a post filled with links to sites they don’t own or operate but are being paid to generate backlinks.
Bloggers work really hard to build a credible blog with a good Google PR and a solid relationship with our readers. Guest blogging can be a win-win situation, especially to help out fellow writers/bloggers- but making it a fair collaboration is important.
Since you typically don’t get the fake “guest blogger” requests until you’re established or have a good following and page rank, it’s sadly obvious that many folks are using that credibility to their advantage to establish back links and drive traffic and promote. Since that’s the case, compensation can be MORE fair for both parties involved.
I also want to note that I’m not accusing anyone of being a fake- but in my mind “guest bloggers” are BLOGGERS not PR or media reps. Using the term “guest blogger” in my mind refers to someone with a blog that will only be linking to that blog and does not receive compensation for the links they insert in the post.
They lie most of the time. They claim they work for the company and send mails through some domain which clearly suggests their nature of work. It works the following way.
I have a company which sells insurance product. I want to rank higher in related search, I hired a SEO company. Analysts researched and found out 20 sites and blogs with links that can be used to push my ranking. Depending on budget I set up, the SEO company would distribute that as (an example)
5 – links for $2000
5 – links for $1000
5 – links for $500
5 – links for free
It becomes a problem for you if you fall in those bottom 5. They try to convince you its a quality article you should accept as free. And how mean you are by not doing it.
I think you deserve to earn money from all of your efforts! Good luck going forward.
hahah, that the answer I was looking for! 🙂 I am earning, point is how to improve that earning..
Hey, SB, this is a really interesting post because I’ve spent the last couple of days doing the same type of research. Some of it, like you said, is shameless and personally a little cold to me – but then I think to myself that this is a business, and like all businesses, it needs to have a reason to run. When you’re an entrepreneur and this is your living, you have to treat monetization as a business. Post spinning, SEO companies to provide back links – all of that becomes necessary to build your little empire – if that’s what your ultimate goal is.
I don’t know if I want to build an empire that way. I monetize my blog, of course, because I’m unemployed and this is my “job” at the moment, but to go through the hoops that pro-bloggers go through…I’ll have to see where my blog takes me. In the end, I’m still a girl with an English degree who dreamed of being a writer based purely on the merits of my writing. I’m not sure how far toward the business end my avarice can take me from my little dream fantasy. I think for me it will be all about finding a nice middle ground.
Only English is not sufficient for blogging success. You realized, its a business, and to be successful in it, you need to put a lot of other things in apart from writing.
Don’t leave blogging even if you get a day job. If you love sharing your thoughts, you’ll continue with it.
SB, I used to have a very successful blog, successsoul.com. In fact, I had back to back seven articles that went to the front page of Digg in late 2008. I was getting traffic in excess of 500,000 page views. But, I never knew how to make dime out of that traffic. In the end, I closed the blog as my businesses require mote attention. I still regret that decision as I had over 4000 subscribers and PR rank of 4 in just eight months since launching my blog in February of 2008. Well, life is full of lessons — some are sweet and some are sour. 🙂
I checked your blog and really impressed. Why don’t you join yakezie and get benefited? The biggest positive I received there is an urge to continue. You’ll never quit once you join. By your writing quality, I am sure you’ll see tons of visitors once again.
SB,
Thanks for the encouragement. I certainly will join yakenzie soon. I am in process of changing blog theme. Once I finish in next 4-5 days, I will join the network. I’ve already been participating in with my comments. Thanks for the friendship. I love you blog and its content as well.
Shilpan
Those reasons you mentioned are VERY interesting to me, these are completely new to me!
Hi,
I would like to address #6 guest posters. If you have an established and ranked blog you will get offers from various website owners, marketers and the like looking to place an ad or article for a fee. Don’t discount this group. I get offers on an almost weekly basis now from the various blogs I own which are all ranked and established. I set the parameters, rates and decide who gets in and who doesn’t cut it.
Do not be afraid to accept payment for an ad or article on your site, go to any big name magazine website and see if you can open an article or slide without having to stop and see their ad first. Just the other day, I was on a big name site about to read an interesting article when an ad came on the screen first, do you think someone paid to be there? YES, they did.
Think of your site or blog as a virtual or online magazine. Do you not see about 5 pages worth of ads on Cosmo, Esquire, Mens Journal, Details, etc before you get to the content? Yes, you do and you always will. Even if they all go digital in the future, which many will. You will see ads.
It’s called business.
Cheers,
Missy
You got a good site and deserve to be rewarded. Right now I enjoy being able to express my opinions and think that I am helping others, but money would be a bit of a nice incentive as well.
I am getting rewarded, every month. Its an incentive alright. But its also return on investment of time and mind on blogging. That’s how I see it.
I’m definitely interested in hearing what you have to share in your post next week. For me, it took almost a year before I saw a consistent amount in adsense month after month. I don’t do link ads, but I know others who make a lot with it.
Well, it may not come out this week end. Unless I see those methods producing return I prefer not to give bad advice. Thanks for your interest. I don’t use adsense yet. Interested to know if you get Google check every month..
Wanting to make money on your blog is perfectly fine. At almost every one I read, they seem to be doing it. As I’ve often heard, you should get paid for what you do well. My blog is still pretty yound, and I think my Google Adsense total is up to a total of about $5. As soon as I figure out how to make some money at blogging, I’ll let you know.
I see a lot of ads on your blog..what are they affiliate and adsense? For a nascent blog those actually more repel visitors rather than earning clicks. Thanks for your comment. Blogging becomes easier when you join a blogger community. Everything including earning money becomes easier. Think about joining a blogging group.
Thanks for visiting! The ads are mostly Adsense and a few from Flex Offers. Before I started my blog, I made a list of which blogs had them and which didn’t. I felt like what I am displaying currently was a good middle of the road. But as you expressed – perhaps not. I have also considered joining a blogging community. Your comment only encourages me to do so.
Don’t wait any further. Yakezie is a place where every one is welcomed.
I’m so new to this that I never really consider making money (and this weekend when I publish my numbers it will be obvious why… Im a new blogger with small numbers). Great tips, though. Thank you. BTW – where can we learn more detail about each? could you perhaps run a story on DA?
I think many bloggers who are complaining about not making money from blogging is that they are not producing such blogs in which readers are interested in like they are not looking towards those topics which solves different kind of problem, new product reviews, new updates and things like that. I have seen bloggers that only discuss something which they like not those things which others like. So, I want to say that we all must read this post carefully and try to understand the taste of the readers. Thanks for making such a nice and informative post.