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Successful, Profitable Blogging Is Not Rocket Science [mapped]

January 17, 2011 By 5 Comments

Successful, Profitable Blogging

So I was just sitting back the other day thinking about what actually makes a blog successful from a monetary standpoint. There are a lot of blogs that have traffic, subscribers and plenty of Facebook fans, but they barely make enough to cover the bills because they are expecting the money to come from non-monetized resources (or at least ones that do not monetize well).

I created this mind map to show you exactly how I look at my blogs from a monetary and business view. It basically starts from the bottom and works up, so let’s run through it.

As with any business, your leads are your most valuable asset. When you funnel quality, qualified leads into your blog, you are creating an asset that has the ability make money on a higher percentage than the shotgun affect of trying to get as many as you can at once. This is done by utilizing several sources, and it is up to your testing to see which one works out best for you. By creating quality, relevant content on and off your blog, you attract readers (leads) to your site. You also bring them in from various social media outlets as you continue to try to grow your blog.

The biggest problem I see with most blogs looking to make a dime online is they stop there. They expect this traffic to make money on its own and continue to spin their wheels trying to make ends meet.

It is up to you, as the blogger to capture these quality leads in a format that is conducive to generating income. As you can see from the green area of the mindmap, there are several ways to capture these quality leads that come onto your blog. A lot of bloggers try to strictly rely on rss through feed reader and email to satisfy their lead capture needs, but from personal experience in multiple niches, I can tell you that the #1 converter for quality leads is a newsletter (I use Aweber) and a lightbox hover like PopUp Domination to capture those leads.

Captured My Quality Leads…Now What?

Again, you are not done once you hit this stage in the process. A large number of quality leads is great, but if you do nothing with them…they are just costing you money and you are still spinning your wheels.

By providing quality products, recommending quality products and implementing other monetization techniques…you can keep the quality high on your blog and generate revenue off of it at the same time.

There is no right or wrong answer to this part of the equation, but I can tell you from experience that the monetization methods that the most effort typically yeild the biggest returns. When you take the time to create a product or membership site that your readers actually need to solve their problem, you are going to see higher revenues off of lower quantities. If you create an in-depth product review with pictures, video and text and post it on your blog and email it to your newsletter subscribers, you will get higher sales conversions. If you plan on throwing up Google Adsense and affiliate banners, you can guess which way that is going to go….pennies…

As you can see, this is not rocket science. It is up to you as the blogger to provide quality that attracts leads to your blog, capture those leads and then convert them to dollars.

You can click on the image above and share it with whoever you would like, just don’t edit the image at all. We are all in this together!

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Do You Want To REALLY Know How To Make Over 6 Figures Blogging?

December 27, 2010 By 3 Comments

There are a lot of bloggers that claim to make money online. For every single one of those “6 figure bloggers”, I am almost positive that about 80% of those are faking it in the hopes that their perception of wealth online will lead to eventual income. It is the environment we work in with the blogging/make money online niche and it is often up to you guys to figure out who is blowing hot air and who is actually making enough money online to talk on the subject.

6 Figure Blogging

Six figures is a number that is thrown around pretty regularly in the blogging world as a benchmark to hit with your blog. Once you hit that number, you are seen as having “made it” in blogging even though you could have been making a full-time income for quite awhile.

The truth about six figure blogging is that you are living very comfortably (if you are living within your means) and generally all of that work starts to pay off huge dividends as it is much easier to grow at that point time. Six figures a year is a lot of money to most people in this world and wouldn’t you love to be able to make that kind of income doing what you love from the comfort of your own home writing your own ticket in life??

How Do YOU Make 6 Figures Online?

Surprisingly enough…most people and bloggers try to over-complicate the process of making process of making a big income with their blogs and they start to listen to these “gurus” who probably have zero clue on how to get the job done correctly. While I could go into a huge dissertation on how 6 figure incomes are actually made online, a friend of mine and fellow blogger David Risley has already done that for you with 6 Figure Blogger Blueprint…and guess what…it’s free!!!

I do not normally promote other bloggers free reports, but Risley’s eBook on making 6 figures online is dead on and easy to understand. Better yet…David has not only done this once…but twice with two of his blogs earning over 6 figures online and he does it outside of the blogging/MMO niche as well as within this market.

You can download his free eBook here: 6 Figure Blogger Blueprint

You will even notice a testimonial by me on the landing page and that is a sign of how much I truly believe in the content. If you are serious about taking your hobby full-time or just want to generate more income with your blog, this is a must read so download it today.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , ,

My Small Mistake That Cost Me Big Money On My Blog

November 29, 2010 By 7 Comments

This past week, I made a mistake that cost me money. The funny thing is that it was not a huge mistake by any means…just a small oversight that was caused by not taking that extra couple of seconds to make sure everything was in line and ready to go.

This story starts with Black Friday. Like I pointed out in an earlier post, I take great care in timing my Black Friday promotions so that my cookie will be recorded within affiliate programs when my readers start buying their products online (read how I do this here). By planning ahead and timing my articles correctly along with timing an email to my newsletter subscribers through Aweber, I am able to capitalize on large buying days and sales throughout the year. That is…of course…minus this one mistake.

First: My Small Mistake

Just before Black Friday, I wanted an email to go out to my newsletter subscribers on Bike198.com that they were already used to that provided value and contained my affiliate links to setup for Black Friday. I had timed everything perfectly so that a blog broadcast email was going to hit on Thanksgiving morning just in time to record the Amazon cookie for the next 24 hour period of buying.

The blog broadcast feature in Aweber is the source of my highest traffic days and those emails see the best open rates out of anything I send out. It was the perfect way to promote my articles and Black Friday deals. I used a method that I have previously outlined on this blog (article: Are you leaving serious money on the table?) and edited above and below my blog broadcast feature through Aweber to include reminders to check out the Black Friday deals on Amazon and the largest online bike retailer JensonUSA as you can see below.

Formatting HTML Email in Aweber

As you can see by the screenshot above, everything was set and ready to go. However, I only linked my affiliate account to the links you see underlined and left the brand names of the online retailers untouched and unlinked. Not giving it a second thought, everything looked good to go at first glance and I set the email to blast out to my newsletter subscribers.

The Mistake That Cost Me Big Money

As the email when out, I started tracking clicks, open rates and responses on the blog just as I would with any other broadcast email. When I went into my email inbox to delete all of the “out of office” responses and check for any reader responses, I noticed something strange.

Email As It Showed Up In Email Program

As you can see in the screenshot above, the Amazon and JensonUSA links are linked to the online sites, but they are not linked via my affiliate link…they are linked to the respective homepages! Worse yet…they are the first two links in the email!

What I forgot as I was drafting up my email for release was that most email applications will automatically link anything with a .com, .net or .org within the email body. This means that anything you put with an ending will not give you credit for the referral and subsequently not give you any affiliate sales. My readers clicked on those links, bought items from the online stores and I did not receive commission all because I put the .com ending on the brand names in the email without linking them up with my affiliate link.

So…like I alluded to earlier…stupid small mistake that ended up costing me a large sum of money. Did readers still click on the other links and purchase? Of course, but the amount of income I brought in during this 48 hour period would have been higher if I would have taken one more step and made sure everything was in line.

I write this article hoping that it helps other bloggers out there but it is also done for a self reminder to slow down to dot my eyes and cross my t’s. Is it the end of the world? Absolutely not…what I learned from this little mistake has me better setup for the future and hopefully my experience can help you guys not make the same mistake.

So as Miles Davis says…”Do not fear mistakes. There are none.” We learn from our experiences and apply that knowledge to the future.

Products Mentioned: Aweber and I use PopUpDomination to grow my newsletter subscriber list.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The Biggest Shopping Week Of The Year: Are you cashing in?

November 22, 2010 By 7 Comments

The biggest, most extreme shopping day of the year is upon us…Black Friday. The day of long lines, early openings and crazy deals are all part of the deal as shoppers all over the world are looking to cash in on the busiest day for retails stores of the year. As an affiliate, this day marks the first of a 30 day hammer of trying to cash in on online shopping and pick up your percentage. If you are not preparing for this largest revenue time for bloggers while holiday shoppers look to decrease their stress by buying online, you are behind the 8 ball and are leaving a ton of money on the table.

There is an art to making sure your the one that gets credit for the sale on this ever illustrious day, so let’s take an in depth look at what I am doing and hopefully it will help you out with your blog.

The Black Art Of Black Friday

While this is the biggest shopping day of the year, it does require a bit of planning on the blogger’s end if you want to be the one watching your affiliate sales rise while you lay in bed sleeping when everyone else is shopping. During this week, you are going to need to take a serious look at how you are positioning yourself with the largest online retailers and their cookie recording. For example, Amazon has a 24 hour cookie, so when you send a shopper from your website to Amazon, anything they buy within the next 24 hour period gives you a commission, so after that all bets are off. Other online retailers have 30 day cookies or even as high as 60 days, so know who you are dealing with as you plan your content and affiliate promotions.

On Bike198, my largest black Friday participant is going to be Amazon.com, so I need to make sure that my referrals are recorded within that 24 hour period when purchases are at their highest. Since the cookie period is short, it requires more careful planning than if it was longer.

The Days Leading Up To Black Friday

In the days leading up to Black Friday, I make sure the content on my blog is heavily skewed towards product reviews and articles that lean themselves more towards product based links that I can point towards Amazon.com and other online retailers participating in Black Friday. This way, I can insure that my cookies are getting recorded for the longer duration affiliate programs and it gets me a head start for the push in the hours leading up to the largest shopping day of the year. If you are planning on just spamming links in the final hours without any real planning, do not expect great results.

Some great ideas for articles are:

  • Reviews of hot products for this holiday season.
  • Buying guides related to your niche highlighting different products.
  • Informational articles that are complimented with product links (ex: I do riding tips that include equipment suggestions).
  • Comparison articles.

All of these types of articles are very product based in nature and naturally lead themselves to linking to products, but they are also a source of high-quality content that attracts readers to your blog. By hitting both birds with one stone, you are able to build the confidence and trust in your content while also preparing to cash in on the affiliate revenue.

The Hours Leading Up To Black Friday

With the longer cookie affiliate programs, the work you did on articles leading up to this week will already be reaping benefits, but what do you do for the shorter 24 hour cookies that are going to require immediate action? There is a ace in the hole that you hold as the blogger that is going to exponentially increase your income during this shopping day and you don’t even know it…

Just like with any product launch or affiliate promotion, your newsletter subscriber list is your largest asset you have in blogging (mine is serviced by Aweber). About 12 hours before Black Friday, I send out an email to my list highlighting the best reviews, buying guides and other product related content to my readers. The 12 hour window gives them enough time to open the email, click on the links and get that cookie recorded for the next 12 hours when shopping is going to be the highest online for the entire year. By providing this value in a way that greatly benefits my success rate during this shopping experience, I am able to continue to gain trust, provide quality and do this without my readers thinking I am spamming them in an attempt to make more money online. The reality…I am not spamming them…I am just continuing to deliver what I promised but timing it in a way that increases the bottom line for my blog.

So on Black Friday, I am sleeping in and watching my blogs make money while other people are out shopping. Through the careful planning of content and the release of one email, I am able to cash in on the biggest shopping day of the year. What are you doing to prepare?

Filed Under: Content, Generating Cash

Tearing Down The Fear Of Selling Physical Products: The Art Of The Pre-Sale

November 17, 2010 By 2 Comments

One of the more popular ways to make money blogging is to offer something for sale on your site. Typically, bloggers look towards digital products like eBooks and coaching programs as their first jump into the sell your own products realm, but physical products are not outside the list of options when you are looking to grow your business.

One of the biggest hurdles bloggers run into when they are looking to expand into physical products is high upfront cost of development, minimum orders and carrying inventory for fast shipping. This is a real fear as you can watch your income causally sit in your home office just stagnant…and that is never a good thing. When you are looking to jump into the world of soft goods (t-shirts, hats, etc.) or niche products, there are ways to get rid of your fears and tackle the obstacles in front of  you in a way that promotes growth and provides another resource to your readers.

As with most things on Blogging Labs, I am going to show you how I launched a new t-shirt line on Bike198 without using a single bit of operating capital (my cash) and was able to stock all inventory in the process.

Gauging Product Interest

As with any product you are going to release on your blog, you are going to want to gauge the interest of your readers to see if what you are about to release has any actual value to them. If they are not going to buy it, there is no reason to move forward and you need to find something your audience is actually willing to spend money on. This goes for any product including digital ones.

For the t-shirt line, I already knew that my audience likes to buy shirts related to the sport of mountain biking. There are companies that are completely dedicated to it so I had to find my niche in the sea of shirts to set myself apart. I decided to attack the sub-niches of mountain biking as riders are pretty passionate about their gear and trails. The first on the chopping block was “29ers Size Does Matter” and for those of you that don’t already know…29ers have a larger wheel size than typical 26″ bikes that we are all used to.

29er Size Does Matter T-Shirt

It had been a good review product week, so I sold a part on eBay and paid my product designer Adam Allen (adam-allen.com) to draw up the concept. He provided me with the initial comps and I went to my email list, Facebook page and Twitter account to start gauging interest on the shirt. While I did have to front the money for the design, I still didn’t want to go to the market with something that people didn’t want to buy. Luckily, interest in the shirt was great so we needed to move forward to the pre-sale process after I got the pricing nailed down with a friend of mine that owns a t-shirt printing company (scrappymusic.com).

The Art Of The Pre-Sale

A pre-sale can serve multiple purposes for bloggers. For example, you are releasing a coaching program and you want the forum to look active to new members, you can have a pre-sale to get your program populated before the launch. In my case, I needed to raise the funds necessary to complete the first order that would fulfill the orders for the pre-sale, give me stock to sell from and to get me the best price possible by being able to order in large quantities. Since I already knew the shirts were going to sell based off the interest I received from my readers and other riders, it was time to move forward and make the jump.

The Hook: How To Get Early Adopters

When you are asking a reader/customer to buy on a pre-sale, you are asking them to deal with longer lead times and uncertainty as they have zero testimonials or proof from others before they buy. Because of this, you need to have some added value for your customer for participating in the pre-sale process to encourage sales. In my case, I offered the shirt at $5 dollars less than the regular price during the week of the pre-sale. This gave a discount to my readers for buying early and helping me get together the necessary funds to make the order.

You can also throw in bonuses, free items and other hooks to get your readers to jump on the bandwagon early.

Time Is Running Out

With any pre-sale, there needs to be a sense of urgency. You are on a time-line to get the project or product live in its final form, so allowing a pre-sale to go on for too long can have a negative affect on earnings and overall perception from other readers or customers. For my t-shirt release, I set the pre-sale for one working week (starting Monday and ending on that Saturday). This also allowed me to add in the lead time for the actual order to let my customers know exactly when they could expect the shirts to ship. The sense of urgency and the definite shipping date calms any wonder on whether or not they are really going to get their shirt in the mail.

Leveraging Your Blogging Assets

At the beginning of the pre-sale process, I emailed my newsletter subscriber list through Aweber, I hit up my Facebook page, I tweeted and I sent out press releases to the major sites and forums in my niche. I even contacted manufacturers of 29ers and asked them to post about their shirt in their social media outlets announcing the pre-sale and the discount for ordering early. As you could probably guess already, my newsletter subscribers were my highest converting into sales (another reason you should start a newsletter with Aweber today if you haven’t already).

By leveraging my assets that my blog has built over time, I was able to draw readers and potential customers to my sales page and have them complete an order during the pre-order process. At the end of the week, I had enough sales to cover all of my costs including stock…so the order was placed and we are off to the races.

The Pre-Sale Timeline

What you have just read is my step by step process of the pre-sale, but there is also a defined time line that you need to be aware of when you are going to release a product in this manner. A pre-sale has an interesting component to it that affects how you react with your readers. Your “pre-sale week” or however long you choose it to be is going to see the following order process…

  • Day One: First initial order swarm
  • Day Two – Day Before The Last Day: The trickling in effect (lower quantity per day than day 1)
  • Last Day: Ending process order swarm

Your readers that order on day one are looking to get their order in fast so they don’t forget. They know they are going to order it anyway so they might as well get it off their mind and do it now. The readers that trickle in during the middle part of your launch process are typically ones that saw the email at work and had to wait until they got home or just saw the email at that point in time. Your readers that order on the last day at the last minute probably saw and read your first email, but they wanted to wait until the last day to place their order because they are lazy or they didn’t want their money tied up for an extended period of time without anything to show for it.

Because there are a large quantity of people in the “last day” part of the process, it is vital that you send out a second email to your subscribers, followers, etc. 24 hours before the pre-sale ends. That gives your email enough time to hit their inbox and allows your reader adequate time to order it online. You have no idea how many responses I get from readers thanking me for sending that last email because they had forgotten about the pre-sale end date. Your product is not the most important thing going on in the lives of your readers, so a casual reminder at the end of the week is a very effective closing tool.

Selling Physical Products On Your Blog

As you can see by this process, I was able to release a t-shirt that is the start of a complete line without having to put it on a credit card, pull funds from the bank or use personal income to fund the process. By simply selling a piece of review product and launching an effective pre-sale process, I was able to get everything accomplished and cover all initial costs. Now, my blog has another asset to sell that also promotes my brand. When you are looking at what your readers want to buy, do not rule out physical products as they can provide you with additional income, but…more importantly…they can jump start your credibility within your niche with a huge promotional tool.

You can buy the t-shirts here.

Filed Under: Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Interviews With Bloggers That Are Actually Valuable

November 15, 2010 By 4 Comments

The latest trend in the blogging world has been to incorporate interviews in your content generation. I for one believe we have a lot to learn from those related minds around us and that is why I include interviews on all of my sites as they generate interesting content for readers. However, in the mmo/blogging niche, the interviews seem to center around the same cookie cutter questions (trust me…I have done the same interview about a dozen times at least) which makes them boring as hell. How many times can I be asked “how do you make money online?”?!!!

Awhile back, I was interviewed by Srini about diversifying income streams online and it was a refreshing conversation. I didn’t feel like I was getting asked the same questions I have been asked a thousand times…it was an organic conversation on what it really takes to be successful online. I was one of the first they interview on BlogcastFM.com and now they have an astounding list of over 100 bloggers they have interviewed on numerous subjects.

To help compile all of this incredible content into something that is useful that you can take action on, Srini and Sid (founders of Blogcastfm) have put together a premium coaching program based off of their massive amount of success breading content and BlogcastFM premium was born…

Within the doors of BlogcastFM you get:

“BlogcastFM Premium gets you access to 12 expert interviews a month, coupled with actionable worksheets and mindmaps to give you the advanced training you need to take your blog to the next level fast.”

  • Experts From Different Fields. We bring in experts who have succeeded across the board – so you don’t just hear what’s worked for one person, or one exceptional case. You get advice, techniques and strategies that have been successful for many people, in a variety of niches.
  • Frequently Published Training – Updated Every Week.  We’re constantly bringing you new content so you know what’s working in blogging today – not what used to work five years ago.  We bring back experts when they have new information to share with us, but we also focus on getting timeless advice and techniques you can use as well.
  • Expert Audio Interviews coupled with Killer Documents.  By combining audio training with actionable notes, you’re going to get the absolute most out of every expert we bring on. We also organize everything discussed into detailed mind maps for you – so you never miss a single technique or strategy.

I would love to spell out just everything you get in one blog post (I have have a membership so I have seen the content), but there is honestly so much actionable content within the doors it is crazy. Right off the bat you get modules based off of Adam Baker (Man Vs Debt), Dave Navarro (Launch Coach), Scott Stratten (UnMarketing), Yaro Starak (Entrepreneurs Journey), Michael Martine (Remarkablogger) and others with at least 12 new ones hitting every week. Next up to bat is my friend David Risley so that should be a great one to check out.

It isn’t very often that I promote coaching programs like this because I truly believe there are very few out there that are worth anything. However, after having interacted and worked with these guys in the past and having seen first hand what they have done with this program, I definitely recommend it for bloggers of all skill levels whether you are making money online already or just looking to get started. I for one am excited about what they have in store for the future and I will actually be taking action on their content and worksheets as well. There is always something I can learn from others to improve my business.

Their introductory price is going to end on Thursday November 19th, so check it out now while the going is hot.

Check out BlogcastFM and the full list of features by clicking here.

By the way…word on the street is that my module will be going live sometime in the future as well.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Which One Of These 7 Monetization Strategies Is Best For Your Blog?

November 10, 2010 By 8 Comments

The world of making money online through generating content on a blog is not an easy one at times. While there are more options to bloggers than ever to generate revenue that can either be great supplemental income or the full enchilada for their family, the process of making that income a reality is a bumpy road filled with learning experiences. When you start to look objectively at your blog to dissect how it is going to generate income, it requires an outside look in completely independent of daily, weekly or monthly content generation. When I am looking to increase my blogs monetary value, there are several things I look at before I even think about implementing any new strategies and these are some basic questions.

  • Is my content attracting an audience that is ready to spend money?
    (Releated Reading: 2 Groups That Are 99% of Your Blog’s Income)
  • Am I generating content that has the possibility of making money on its own?
  • What are the problems that my readers need solved that I haven’t addressed yet?
  • What is my successful competition doing well that I am not?
  • How much traffic do I have and what is my monthly growth?

Once I have answered these questions, I can start searching for different revenue generating avenues for my blog, but if you do not even know your own audience and content, you are just going to be a hamster in a wheel…spinning really fast but going no where.

7 Basic Monetization Strategies for Bloggers

When it comes to blogging, there are 7 basic groups of monetization strategies that you can start applying today to make more money online.

  1. Selling Your Own Products – Selling either physical (soft goods, products, etc.) or digital (ebooks, recordings, reports, software, themes, plugins, etc.) is a great way to increase your bottom line and market your blog at the same time. For most bloggers, the look towards selling digital products is the first step into selling something of your own through your blog. With a low cost of entry…in most cases just your knowledge and time…you can release a digital product and enjoy very high profits which allow for high percentage affiliate programs to get it to spread like wildfire. For example, Ramped Blogging and Ramped Reviews both carry an affiliate program that pays out 65% and cost me nothing but my time and knowledge to develop.
  2. Selling Community Services – In recent years, the sale of memberships, coaching programs and premium content has gained a lot of traction in the blogging world as more affordable software for delivering these programs as become available and the “I can do that too!” idea has spread. One of the biggest advantages of these types of programs over digital products is the recursive income over the one time sale.
  3. Affiliate Marketing – When you suggest a product to your readers and get a percentage of that sale, you are participating in affiliate marketing. There is not a single market out there that does not carry at least a couple of affiliate marketing programs for retailers and other products that can have commissions ranging from 4% all the way up to 75% of the sale in some cases. This is typically the 2nd place bloggers start when they look to make more money with their blogs.
  4. Advertising – Just like with a magazine, your blog has a lot of physical real estate that can be sold. Whether it is through pay-per-click campaigns like Google Adsense or selling spots for a monthly fee, you are turning your empty white space into dollars by generating clicks or impressions. The more you have…the more you get.
  5. Professional Services – Many blogs (like this one) offer consulting or speaking services for a price. If you have built up a solid reputation in your niche to the point people really value your point of view, you can charge for that time.
  6. Selling/Flipping Blogs – There are companies and individuals out there that want a blog but need to have an audience right away or do not want to hassle with the beginning start up. On the flip side, there are bloggers that specialize in starting up blogs just to sell them off for profit. When these two needs meet, you get the art of blog flipping.
  7. Non-Measurable Benefits – For many bloggers online, they are not looking to be the next biggest thing in their niche. However, they are looking to get a new job, increase awareness of their photography or art or even just looking to make connections online. When these needs result in a positive outcome (like getting a new, higher paying job), that is an immeasurable, monetary benefit to blogging. While it may not fit next to the “how much money I made with Adsense” column of your spreadsheet, it does have a drastic influence on your life in a monetary sense.

There are always new and inventive ways to generate income online, but these 7 basic strategies are the most common and cover the complete gamut at this time.

Which One Of These 7 Monetization Strategies Is Best For My Blog?

As you look at each of these 7 strategies in pursuit of making more money online, which one is best for your blog? As much as I wish I had the easy answer for you (hoping I would say “that one!” weren’t you…), the solution to that question is not that easy on the surface. It really boils down to the answers you have from the questions at the beginning of this article.

Ideally, I like to mix as many monetization strategies that will operate successfully on my blogs. With each of my strategies taking up a smaller percentage of the big picture, I am able to handle swings in reader preferences and changes in the market much easier than blogs that rely solely on one or two methods. What happens to the blogs that rely on one affiliate program for the majority of their income when that program goes away (which I have had happen)? With Bike198:

  • I sell direct advertising space.
  • Have PPC campaigns like Adense.
  • Sell digital products (Ramped Riding).
  • Sell physical products (Bike198 kits and t-shirt line).
  • Refer products through affiliate marketing (reviews and suggestions through my active newsletter).

All of these methods are tested over and over again to increase results and to continue adding to my bottom line, so as you look at your blog…you need to ask more questions…

  • Do I have enough traffic to make any income through PPC?
  • What is the biggest issue I could solve with a digital product?
  • Is there another product or service that my readers would find useful that has an affiliate program?
  • Do have have the buying audience and capital to release a physical product and what do my readers want to buy?

After you answer those questions for yourself, you can start hammering away at making more money per month on your blog. Typically, bloggers look towards advertising and affiliate marketing techniques as their first jump into making money online. They are the easiest to implement and can have instant results. As you move up the effort chain to creating your own products and selling coaching programs and services, the risk and monetary benefit is higher with the added developmental time and work.

The best monetization strategy for your blog is the one that you have tested and it works. There will be bloggers that will tell you how you should do things, but at the end of the day…whatever performs the best on your blog is what you should be doing. You should then continually test and add over time to keep the snowball effect going. There are many ways bloggers can make money online, it just takes an objective look at your internet real estate and the willingness to step outside of the box and try something new. Most of your ideas will probably fail miserably, but the few that win will win big and the lessons you learn from the failures will prepare you for the next big win.

Side note…a blog without an active newsletter is a blog that is deciding to make very little money. Check out this series on why you need a newsletter on your blog to find out why…1 Thing Your Blog Can’t Live Without.

Which one of these monetization strategies have you found success with on your blog?

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Underground Blogging Secrets: Extracting Money From Your Blog

October 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

With the ultimate goal of pulling monetary value out of your content, you have to figure out how to extract dollars out of words. While we drive traffic to our blogs to get more eyes on our content, if you really want to make it online full-time, you have to build up a digital empire by applying underground blogging secrets that extract money out of your content.

We watch bloggers everyday do it wrong. They post up content, promote it on Twitter and Facebook, sit back and wait for a social media traffic spike and then rinse and repeat. Meanwhile, they keep checking their stats and wondering…”why am I not making any money?”

You are not making any money because content publishing on its own is not a monetization effort. Have you ever looked at a blog and wondered, “how the hell does this site make so much money?!” It is because 90% of all of the income made online (unless you have as much traffic as Perez Hilton and…if you are reading this post…you aren’t) is actually made off-site. If you are really planning on making money in your blogging, you have to realize that your blog content is the means of attracting more readers and your off-site marketing and promotion is your means of monetizing those readers.

So what can you include in your digital empire to actually generate income? While there are dozens of ways to generate revenue…here are the big three.

  1. It’s All In The List – The word email list makes most people flinch up and run for the hills. However, it is still the #1 resource online for generating income. Before you start thinking you have to be an email spammer to make money, that is actually the complete opposite from the truth. Your email list is your means to build up trust and respect with your readers…not spam the crap out of them. Your email list is a collection of your loyal minions that help you grow your business past the couple bucks a day stage. With that respect…comes responsibility to continue delivering the goods (both free and paid).
  2. Your Own Products – When you sell a product (eBooks, tangible goods, services), you income is generated outside of your normal blog content. By providing valuable resources and goods, you further solidify your reputation online and…through that…you create repeat business. The big question you have to ask yourself is…”what do my readers want to spend their money on in my niche?” Once you find the answer to that question, it is up to you to provide the solution.
  3. Exposure – The online world is growing rapidly. With major print productions looking to online resources as a way to evolve and grow, more readers are looking to digital resources over typical print. This opens a huge door for entrepreneurs looking to make it big as you no longer have to compete with the high, up-front capital investment required for print. With enough traffic (and email newsletter subscribers), you are able to provide exposure for companies in your niche for advertising. However, this requires you to step outside of the online world and go after the advertising dollars. If you are planning on putting up an “advertise with us” and sit back and wait for the offers…you are going to be consistently waiting. You have to be willing to put yourself out there, step outside the box and cold contact potential advertisers.

The key to success online is through diversification. If you can take one thing from vastly successful corporations, it is that diversification is the one thing that keeps a profit driven company consistent over the longhaul. By constantly evolving and adding in different methods of income generation, you are able to weather storms with ease.

What would happen if your primary income stream went away tomorrow?

The scary question that most bloggers never ask themselves. With as many viable income streams as you can manage coming into your digital empire, you are able to consistently grow and not worry about disastrous situations. You just keep rolling on…expanding and growing while others falter.

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash Tagged With: , , , , ,

"Content Is King" Are you really buying that load of shit?!

September 30, 2010 By 2 Comments

If you are constantly buying into the concept of “content is king” that gets pushed on bloggers around the world, you are buying a used car with sand dust in the gas tank. This same tired out line has been played out beyond belief in the blogging world.

Content is not king…content is the product.

When you are looking to create your successful blog online, consistent and quality content is the given product that is required in blogging, but…just like with every industry…there is a massive amount of sub-par crap that can greatly outperform your “pilar articles” and “high quality list posts” because the bloggers behind that content have already realized the huge secret to successful blogging that really isn’t a secret.

Successful promotion is king…content comes in a far off second.

It’s true…go ahead and marinate on that one for a bit. Have you ever read a highly successful website and thought there is a lot better content out there? Better yet…have you seen sub-par, worthless products get huge launches and massive sales? You even see it in the retail world! The #1 main reason a blog, company or product makes it in the marketplace is because of calculated and successful promotion…not because it is providing over the top quality.

So Why Promotion Over Quality?

Now…there are cases where enormous quality creates enough press to warrant high dollars and fame, but those cases are extremely rare. The high quality cases for blogs and products that you have seen or read are actually the by-product of having the double whammy…quality content and successful promotion.

Quality “content is king” content is absolutely nothing without new eyes digesting it and then spreading it out to others. Without this promotion, your articles and products do not get past the development stage. They are just words on a page or items on a shelf that no one knows about…or even cares to.

Next time you hear someone say “content is king”, you need to think of it as a used car salesman selling you a big steaming load of crap. Content is not king…the promotion of that content is far superior if you are looking to create a successful blog.

How Do I Get My Content In Front Of A Massive Amount Of Eyes?

Now…there are also bloggers out there that are going to tell you the “top 5 ways to get more traffic” or how you need to find traffic on your blog. First, anyone that tells me there is only 1 (or 5 ways to do things) are typically people that I discount their opinion greatly. One of the things that you need to realize in blogging is that all niches are different. There is never one top way of doing things as your readers are going to interact and spread content online differently dependent upon subject matter so taking advice like that can be dangerous and detrimental to your growth.

Proper testing of different promotion methods are the only way to find out what works in your niche.

That said…there is one theory that will greatly reduce your learning curve when looking for promotion techniques that will work well for your blog. It is one simple task that every blogger should be doing…

Find your target audience (and be specific) and then research how that specific target audience communicates and spreads content online.

Not every niche is going to know what RSS is…or use Stumbleupon…or even know how to use Twitter. It is up to you to find out how they communicate and how they like to digest content and then provide those methods. On top of that…you need to find methods that force call to actions (newsletter sign-ups, content spreading, etc.) like contests, giveaways and other viral content monsters.

There is no “one size fits all solution” for all bloggers and “content is not king”. It is up to you…as the blogger…to promote your products and content in a method that your audience will absorb to truly be successful. Hey…no one who was ever successful online used a cookie cutter tagline. They worked hard for it. That means you have to as well. Ramp it up!

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Extending Beyond Your Blog: Stop The Fear Of The Real World

September 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In the blogging world, there is a ton of focus on social media, content and online promotion techniques. While all of this is fantastic information that can grow your blog and income over time…at some point, you are going to want to extend your blogging that you are running as a business into an area that many bloggers are scared to death of…the outside world.

Yes…creating your own digital products and promoting others is great and highly lucrative as a blogger…watching the cash roll in off of direct advertising and PPC campaigns can create great recursive income…but what happens when you want to step beyond that? What do you do when you want to expand your business into the lives of your readers? When you do want to stop being just a “blog” and start being serious competition for brick and mortar companies and publishing firms? You are sitting on one of the biggest launching platforms on the market…so it is time to take advantage.

Stop The Fear Of The Real World Products

The first thing you have to do as a blogger is get rid of the fear of the “real world”. Yes, creating products outside of digital goods takes a lot of time, research and effort, but the feedback and results can extend past your wildest dreams. The trick…find something that you can tackle and work with easily without taking on too steep of an upfront cost.

The nice thing about digital goods is the only cost of entry is basically your time. While you can get expensive with designers, coders and ghost writers, most successful digital products are made in the home office of the blogger. With real world products, you have to rely on manufacturers or other companies to work with you to make the dream happen. For this to ramp up…you need some cash to get the ball rolling before you can make your first dollar. This…on its own…scares away most bloggers from even trying.

The #1 thing you need to realize about stepping into real world product lines…you can raise the money upfront to get rid of the capital generating fear.

By having pre-sale deals (offering a discount for getting in on the first order), you can raise the money necessary to create your first order for just about any product you want to sell. Not only are you giving your readers a great price (that you still make a percentage profit on) but you do not have to step into your earnings to put in the cash for the first order. By removing this fear of money loss, you can make your first step into real world product markets.

How To Enter The Real World Product Market

When you are looking to expand your corner of the web into the daily lives of individuals in your niche, you need to start looking at what they are buying that you can provide outside of the digital world. In the beginning, you are going to want to locate markets with lower cost of entry points to get your feet wet. As with all things on RobbSutton.com, I find that the best way to show is through my own personal experience, so let’s take a look at what I am doing with Bike198.com to give you an idea on where to start looking.

In the biking community, I started looking for avenues in which I could not only promote my brand, but do so while also creating and fostering community. The natural progression given these parameters was to step into soft goods. Now…soft goods (t-shirts, etc.) is one of the #1 ways bloggers start the transition into real world market places because of the low cost of entry and the ability to promote your brand at the same time.

My first step into soft goods happened at the beginning of the month with the release of the Bike198 cycling jersey’s and shorts. To create buzz and a willingness to participate on the behalf of my readers, I also worked with the Livestrong Foundation and half of the profits of the kit sales are going to get donated for cancer research. I didn’t want it to be just another “website kit” so by incorporating the Livestrong Foundation, we are able to make it something bigger.

Bike198 Kits

Luckily, I have a friend of mine that is a kick ass designer that offered to help with the project (regularjoe), so the end result is incredible. The pre-sale process went great and we were able to meet the minimum order requirements easily to get the process started and get some kits in to take pictures for promotional materials.

The next step, start up the t-shirt line that I have had in my head for a long time.

Fringe Benefits Of Real World Product Sales For The Blogger

Now…the monetary side of releasing your own products is an easy concept to get your head around. You sell the product, pay your costs and keep the profit. But…the real benefit to releasing physical products into the marketplace is much harder to measure.

  • What do you think happens when riders wear a Bike198 jersey or t-shirt and hit the trail? They spread the Bike198 brand to new riders and potential readers.
  • What happens when their picture is taken and posted on a forum? Same result on a bigger scale…
  • What happens when cycle sells more t-shirts and jersey’s? The results multiply like crazy…

By creating products that your readers want to buy, you are strengthening your brand into something much bigger than just a blog. You are also strengthening the overall trust in your brand to deliver the goods because you are now perceived as more than just a blogger releasing your ideas. You are now a trusted source that has grown into a profitable product company. Through this…you get to watch your corner of the web grow exponentially over time at a much faster rate.

Yes…the income generation of the physical product is important and measurable, but the most important aspect of releasing physical products as a blogger is what they do to strengthen your brand presence outside of just your words.

How can you expand past your blog? What are your readers willing to spend their money on outside of your digital products? What do you need to do to make that dream a reality? These are the questions you need to ask yourself as you move forward in your blogging.

Image by Reinante El Pintor de Fuego

Filed Under: Blogging, Generating Cash, Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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