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Diversify Your Income Streams: The Nexus Tax and Bloggers

June 30, 2011 By 12 Comments

Yesterday, I received an email from one of the companies that I am an affiliate with that should have a lot of bloggers incredibly nervous.

With the impending passing of the California Budget which includes an Affiliate Nexus provision we have begun the process of removing all publishers located in the State of California.  From what we understand the Governor needs to sign the bill by July 1st and that when he does it will become effective immediately, if the Governor does not sign the bill all publishers will be reinstated to our program.

This is not something new. North Carolina and Illinois have also passed similar laws that allow for taxes to negate the money that companies use to pay affiliates. As a result, companies like Amazon.com have pulled their affiliate programs from these states because those programs are no longer profitable for the company and the bloggers.

For the bloggers that were depending on these commissions to support the bulk of their income stream, they are now without cash!

Diversifying Income Streams For Long Lasting Growth

I think I have probably told this to every blogger I run into and mentioned it in every presentation I have ever done…if you want to be successful over the long haul, you have to diversify your income streams. Business changes from day to day. What was great today could be gone tomorrow.

You have to ask yourself one simple question. If my #1 source of income was gone tomorrow…what would I have left?

If you answer is nothing, you are in a lot of trouble as a law like this…or some companies choice to leave the market completely…could leave you broke and penniless.

Successful companies are successful because they continue to grow and expand. As market conditions change, the economy does its thing and people’s tastes adapt to times, there are going to be periods in which certain areas that generate income for your business are up and down. When you diversify into multiple, related areas, you are able to handle the swings. When one is down, another one may be up. If one goes away completely, you are able to make up the difference in other areas instead of starting back from square one.

As a blogger, you have a lot of areas outside of just affiliate revenue that you can diversify into to keep your ability to go the distance healthy.

  1. Make Your Own Products and Services (eBooks, consulting, membership sites, physical products)
  2. Sell Direct Advertising
  3. Pay Per Click and Pay Per Impression Advertising (Adsense, Contextual, etc)

By jumping into different income options and expanding your offerings, you are taking the steps to insure that your blog is always generating income. Perhaps the best and longest lasting of these would be to create your own products and services that not only make you money…but strengthen your brand name at the same time.

Not Every Income Stream Is Right For You

Now…with this said. Not all of these areas will work for your blog. Just because you want to diversify, that does not mean to keep things going that do not work. In some markets, PPC/PPM advertising payouts are horrible and not worth the screen real estate. Choose what you implement carefully and test how they perform on your blog before deciding whether or not it is worth the effort and space.

And…like most things in life…this too can change so you have to be willing to test out income producing assets of your blog even if they might not have worked well in the past. With new knowledge and new market conditions, they could be a viable option now when they weren’t before.

Do Your Market Research

What is working for your competition? Is that an option for you? What are they not doing that might work in your market that you could capitialize on and set the bar?

These are all questions you should be asking yourself as you look for unique ways to produce income. While it is always good to look at what your competition is doing to make money on their own websites, sometimes it is even better to try what they are not doing as you might have found a hidden gem in your industry. It is always a good idea to keep tabs on the people around you for ideas.

How I Diversify On My Blogs

All of this theory is great, but how do we implement it in practice. On Bike198.com, I diversify my income streams with the following assets:

  1. Direct Advertising
  2. Sale of Review Products
  3. Affiliate Advertising
  4. CPC Advertising (2 banners)
  5. My Own Products (Ramped Riding eBook, 29er T-Shirt, Riding Kits)

As you can see, there is a lot to pull from to generate income. All of these avenues produce consistently month over month.

How do you diversify your income streams on your blog?

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

Where Bloggers Go Wrong And Why They Are Broke And Penniless

February 24, 2011 By 19 Comments

There is one fundamental reason why 99% of bloggers never make enough money from their blogs to live off of…and it is incredibly simple.

This past week has been an interesting one filled with conversation. After a post about paid subscription models in blogging and how that could change in the future, there was a ton of conversation around paid content online and whether or not it would work within current audiences. Honestly, it created a great conversation that got me thinking about how I want to structure my blogging in the future.

But…it also brought out one very sore thumb in the blogging world that is the reason most bloggers will never make the big time. So where do they go wrong? Like a horse with blinders on…

They are too busy thinking like a blogger instead of like a business owner.

Blogging in itself was built on the foundation of online journaling. There wasn’t any true monetary platform until these online journals started getting traffic that was rising above corporate websites. Through some growing pains, the art of blogging and the world of capitalism figured out how to leverage this traffic into dollars through various forms of advertising and promotion. But…at its heart…most bloggers still think like the bloggers of old. The only difference now is that some of them are at least covering their costs and putting a little bit extra in their pocket at the end of the month.

When I brought up the idea of paid content in blogging, one of the biggest excuses that it wouldn’t work is because big media (magazines, newspapers, etc.) has a lot more resources to hire writers, photographers and other assets to create more value that the individual blogger can not accomplish. While they are true in that on a low level…they are forgetting one key thing that will keep them broke.

What if the paid model opened up the resources to accomplish those things?

I am not saying this is the answer or the only way to do things, but it illustrates a great point within the blogging world. When you take the money you make online and reinvest it into growth of your business, you are no longer the sole blogger trying to make it. You are applying fundamental business models to your online empire to insure future growth and more money. However, if you are not able to think outside the “blogging box”, you will never get past just being able to pay for your hosting and a night out to dinner a week.

When you look at your blogging, you have to start thinking about growth and future income outside of just affiliate promotions and banner ads. You have to start developing areas of your blog with future growth in mind and not just how you can make an extra 5 bucks today. You have to be open to new ideas and willing to test these ideas.

If you keep thinking like a blogger…you will never be more than a blogger.

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

Will Blog Readers Accept A Paid Subscription Magazine Model?

February 22, 2011 By 29 Comments

An interesting article by David Risley titled, “Is Blogging Broken? Is The Future Of Blogging Paid Access?” stirred up some ideas I have had for a long time and generated some conversation sparked by DR and I on Twitter and Facebook. The reality is that this is not a new idea by any means. Several large bloggers including Gary Vaynerchuk have already said it is coming and there are premium, paid sections of many popular sites that produce exclusive content for a price.

The question becomes…can the blogger use this same model and apply it to blog content?

The Blurred Line: Magazines and Blogs

As we move forward with online publishing, the line between blog and online magazine is continuing to get blurred even more than in the past. Magazines are starting to look towards digital delivery and online publishing as their only way to expand business and bloggers are looking outside of traditional blogging to add more value for their readers. I wouldn’t consider Bike198 a blog in the truest definition of the word…it has really become a free online magazine.

Even my favorite magazine, Bike, is delivered to my iPad via Zinio…so where does the line cross between magazines and blogs these days anyway? One side is getting a fee for their content while the other is giving away everything for free.

Bloggers And The Free Concept

Bloggers learned a long time ago that by giving away the farm for free, you are able to grow your audience faster. With more traffic, pageviews and subscribers…you were able to command more money via direct advertising and generate more money with affiliate sales. It is the simple law of numbers…with more targeted eyes you get more money.

However, this has created one big problem within blogging…everything is free.

With the over saturation of bloggers all trying to compete for the same eyes and the readers looking for quality content but hit with an extreme amount of free content, eBooks and other free online hooks…readers have very little in the way of distinction between quality and quantity in their search for online content. In my opinion, bloggers take the “give away the farm” mentality a little bit too much to heart, so with more bloggers entering the market on a daily basis…there is a massive over saturation of content.

What does this do to the blogger?

You become a hamster in a wheel generating massive amount of content and products for free without seeing any real return. You are told it takes a lot of work and to be patient, but the competition out there is so much harder these days that you could literally spend years giving away everything for nothing. Eventually, you give up and look to other forms of income generation as that one obviously didn’t pan out.

So when do you draw the line and jump ship to a paid content model?

Reactions In and Outside of Blogging

Before we jump straight into what I think…lets take a look at a couple of reactions on the web yesterday when I posted the question to Facebook and David and I hit up Twitter.

My Facebook Comment to People Outside of Blogging:

“There have been some interesting rumblings around the blogging world about going to more “magazine style” formats. ie. subscription models. What do you think about monthly, paid subscription models to online content?”

Some of the better responses:

I’ve been wondering when blogs are going to take on a more magazine look/feel as well. I’d be more than happy to pay for content, if its good and does one of two things. Entertains me or makes me some money! Just my two cents.

Nothing personal, but I don’t think I’d pay for blog content. While many (including yours) are very informative for some things, a lot of the content may not apply to me. I think blogs are less viable as a subscription service, as now they are competing with magazines, books, etc, that have a lot more resources to provide content.

Of course, that’s just my opinion, and I’m not a huge blog reader (only 5-10 that I routinely read).

I’ve never been able to get into blogs- either reading or following. This is just a random thought, but I wonder if that applies to a great percentage of people who went through most of their formative years without internet/email. I was a senior in college before I had an email acct, and it was infrequently used at best. (Maybe we were behind the times, but we’re talking early 90′s.) I still prefer a hard copy, old-school magazine for lots of things. Okay, I’m definitely old. :) More randomness: I subscribe to two photography websites that have everything from forums to mini-blogs. I use them mostly for the interaction with other photogs from all over the world. I doubt I’d continue to pay for them if they went to a strictly blog format with no forums and classifieds and stuff. Maybe future generations will pay for blogs without giving it a second thought…?

if they incorporated rich media and it was well organized and flashy like the magazines I would pay for specific ones

I think there’s already a ton of this out there that is similar. For example ESPN has the Insider and many newspapers have online content that is subscriber only. Almost all major magazines deliver substantial free content and many of them put their printed content online for free after awhile.

I think for it to work, the user would have to feel like they are getting some very exclusive, well developed content. It would have to go far beyond the “expert with an opinion” content that most blogs deliver. Even then, I am skeptical that it would work well. I know that I wouldn’t do it. There is too much free content to choose from and that’s not going to change any time soon.

The magazines don’t seem to be doing a terribly good job at it with falling subscriptions and struggles with finding an online model that works. I don’t see loan bloggers who typically put out less than a magazines worth of content a month can take a broken model and find success with it. Where there is a will there is a way I suppose.

Mine and David’s line on Twitter (inside the blogging world):

“Question: What would your reaction be to a high quality blog that switched from free to paid content? (2 to 3 bucks a month)”

@gracejudson: It completely depend on the *relevance* of the content – not just the quality. If I was consistently using the content – maybe.

@ericabiz: You’re way undervaluing it at $2-3/month. I wouldn’t subscribe because I would assume the info isn’t valuable…(when asked if 9-10 dollars would be enough) At least. I pay $30/mo for Doberman Dan’s. And he stopped blogging to do that, too :)

@Murlu: I think when people quite literally tell you they’d pay for what you just publish – you’re on to something :D

@nhangen: they would be a goner.

@christiantjr: my initial question would be “can I get the same quality elsewhere for free?”

As you can see by the responses, they vary all over the map from basically a “hell no” to you are not even charging enough.

The Law of Numbers and Blogging Income

For a long time, the law of numbers has played a drastic affect on blog income. The more numbers you have, the more money you made. However, what if I were to tell you that you could cut your traffic and subscribers down to a 1/4 of what they are now and you will make 5 times the income? My bet…99% of you would not do it because you are conditioned to the free/high traffic model.

When you are looking at going to a paid subscription model, you are basically doing just that. As much as you would like to think that all of your readers are grasping onto your words like the gospel…that just isn’t the truth. If you were to hit the switch to a paid content model today, my guess is that 10 – 25% of your readership would participate and you would lose the rest, but if your income went up 5 fold…it would be worth it. That is when bloggers think like bloggers and not business owners. They would rather keep the large numbers at lower income than lower numbers at higher income.

The scary part…you have to hit the switch on the whole idea before you will know if it will work or not. It takes that leap of faith and testing.

Your Readers Are Already Paying For Content…Why Not Your Blog?

The reality of your situation when you are looking at moving to a paid subscription format is that you are going to have to compete with bloggers that are still giving away quality content for free. That is not going to change, so how do you battle this fierce competition?

It all comes down to the perceived value of the deliverable.

Readers are already paying for content on a daily basis. From eBooks to members only sections of websites, readers are not only paying for content…but they are paying more than you would charge as a subscription! Why is this? The perceived value of eBook content is higher than that of a blog. Every day, I sell eBooks that contain content not found on my blog that helps my readers achieve their goals. Whether it is becoming a better mountain biker or getting in free stuff to review on your blog, that content sells consistently and provides value to my customers.

Switching to a paid subscription model would be no different…except…you would have to change the delivery method. I do not think…at this time…just access to your blog can be a paid for commodity. You would have to change the deliverable of your content to something that is email driven or a PDF magazine that contains your content plus a better design that online publishing can not provide. This way you are giving more value to your customers outside of just hitting the publish button several times a week.

Just like with ESPN and other newspaper websites, you would still need to provide regular, free content on your blog to attract new readers, but the meat and potatoes would be delivered off site to your paid subscribers.

Blogging for free…even if you enjoy the hell out of it…can not live for forever. Eventually life gets in the way and you will have to cut down on your online time unless it is providing a specific value (in this case…money). As blogging continues to grow and adapt, it will have to find a way to generate income outside of the law of numbers game.

Paid subscription models might be the answer, but we will not know until the switch is hit. At that time, will the paid models be able to withstand the competition of free? My personal opinion is that question really comes down to the quality of branding, content and perceived value.

What do you think?

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

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: , , , , , , ,

4 Tips To Insure Your Success In 2011 and Beyond

January 5, 2011 By 6 Comments

With 2010 behind us and 2011 up and running, everyone is looking to improve this year over last. For many of you, you might be looking to make 2011 your breakout year as you take your dream and make it a reality. It is possible, you just have to keep you mindset on the right path to success and that makes the sky the limit for what you can accomplish over the next 12 months.

#1 – This Is Not A Backup Plan

Your future is too important to treat your business as a backup plan. I hear far too many bloggers and small online business owners say, “It makes me some side cash and hopefully…one day…it will be full time.” One day never comes with that attitude…it will always be side income instead of your profession.

Owning your own business (online or not) is dependent on a correct mindset from the very beginning. Do I believe in working a 9-5 until you can replace the income with your blogging? Absolutely. I even suggest working both if you can pull it for as long as you can balance the needs of your lifestyle (before you have kids, etc.), but if you expect to make it big with the mindset of small…you are sorely mistaken. You have to jump into your life headfirst as if there was no other option. You want to be full-time with your dream and that is the goal from day one. Will it provide side income in the meantime? Yes it will, but you will spend the side income on stuff you don’t need with a bad business mindset instead of putting it where it belongs…back into your business for growth.

Start 2011 with the mindset that you are going to make it big in 2011. It is not if or hopefully…it is when and that is dependent upon you.

#2 – Form Efficient Working Habits

We waste a TON of time. It’s true. Even those of us that think we are incredibly efficient still waste a lot of time.

In 2011, you need to figure out how you can efficiently work to get the most out of every minute you are in front of that computer or networking. I personally use tools like Evernote, Google Calendars and scheduling posts to make sure I am running at full steam at all times. Just recently, I used my need for efficiency as an excuse with my wife to pick up an iPad. While my intentions were to just get an iPad, I actually found that my efficiency level increased during meetings and on the go as I had a way to get ideas down on paper easier and a way to edit plans/invoices and other documents during crucial meetings.

My efficient working habits are not going to be the same as yours in most cases but you need to find out how you can make the most out of the time you have. There are going to be things that come up to derail your plans, so having everything in place and planned will be crucial to your success in 2011.

#3 – Watch The Trends

If someone would have told you to ignore Digg 3 years ago, would you believe them? What if they told you Facebook was going to be more powerful than Google 2 years ago?

The web is still finding its way. Its users are still figuring out how they want to share and find information online. Ironically, 2010 marked the year of consumers (yes…your content is a consumable) going back to their roots of personally recommending products, services and other items through social media outlets like Facebook. How many people looking to buy a vacuum cleaner online hit up Facebook first to ask their friends what they are using before they searched Google? Online word of mouth is building up steam quickly, so capitalizing on that trend can bring you some serious growth by not wasting time on old, tired out methods.

However, just because it is the trend that is working today…that does not necessarily mean it will the the trend of tomorrow. It is up to you to watch out for the next Facebook or Twitter. Will there be another flood of social media like those two created? Probably not…but what if the next flood is something that is branded outside of social media?

In 2011, you need to watch the trends and test theories to see what works for your audience and your business. You never know…you could find a secret goldmine.

#4 – Stay Positive And Have Fun

2010 in many ways was the year of negativity and polarizing opinions. Personally, I stopped watching the news as it was just depressing. At the end of the day, we are all dealt the same hand of cards. It is up to us to make the most we can of this one life we have, and if we are going to live it miserable and negative…there isn’t much point.

Your success this year will completely depend on your outlook on life. Are there things going on in this world that you don’t agree with? Yes. Are there people in your life that just get on your nerves? Yes. Is that going to change? No…but you can change how you interact and look at the world. By staying positive and having fun with your life, you will attract other positive people and things. If you make the conscious decision to be negative and angry, you are going to attract nothing but negative and angry people or things.

If you only do one thing that will help your business this year…it should be to have fun with it. The rest will fall in line naturally.

Filed Under: Blogging, Lifestyle Design 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: , , , , ,

Riding The Big Wave Of Blog Traffic: 8 Ways To Go Big or Go Home

July 8, 2010 By 8 Comments

Watching trends is just a part of blogging. With information changing as fast as it does online, if you are not paying attention to what is going on around you, you might as well get used to being left in the dust.

In every niche, there is going to be an event or time of the year that you are going to have to be on your A game. Big name print publications are even looking to blogging as a way of providing real time information and updates for their readers, so where do you fit in as the blogger and how can you capitalize on trends in your niche to cash in big? Let’s take a look at my example and how you can apply it to your blogging.

Covering Real Time Events In Your Niche

As you can probably imagine, things are pretty busy over at the road biking side of Bike198.com this week. With the largest cycling event of the year taking place with the 2010 Tour de France, it is a jam packed 3 weeks of Tour results, information and coverage. As a blogger, I need to position myself as a reliable, return resource to capture the benefits of the largest event of the year without actually being in France. This is not always an easy thing to accomplish even if you have a vast amount of resources. As you can see by this traffic graph from Google Analytics…things are going pretty good so far.

Road Bike198.com Tour de France Traffic

So what can you do to get a 68% traffic increase on your blog and rake in the cash from this new traffic at the same time?

8 Ways To Go Big Or Go Home

So…you want to cover something big in your niche or ride the trend wave, what do you need to get done to enjoy the benefits of a drastic traffic increase over a period of time? Here are some tips to help you cash in on the increase and keep a larger percentage of those new readers as your blog moves forward.

#1 – Have Your Blog Prepared – Monetization and Conversion Items

You are going to see a sharp wave in traffic like the graph you see above, so you are not going to have much time to change and edit your blog. You need to have all of your conversion items and monetization strategies in place before the wave starts. About a week before you start your coverage, you need to make sure you have everything in place. During this time period, your main focus is going to be on delivering the content goods and not on blog design or monetization strategies. By planning ahead, you can cash in even bigger.

Money Making Note: It is also a good idea to throw in 1 or 2 extra monetization strategies for this time period. It will bring in extra income for your blog at a time when readers will not be as sensitive to the idea. Even this big publications are inserting a couple more ads here and there to cash in.

#2 – Credit External Sources

Since I can’t be in France to take my own pictures, I have to rely on the pictures and other resources of the people on the field. Because of this, you have to be extra careful about using pictures and make sure you credit the photographer and organization responsible for the shot. Unless you want to really piss people off to the point they will never work with you again, go overboard on giving credit where credit is due.

#3 – Integrate In Other Content Types

Your goal during this process should be to increase traffic to your blog but also to convert that traffic into regular readers. One of the best ways to do that is to mix in other content types with your coverage to show new readers what they can expect on your blog. Ideally, you want to mix in more pillar type articles to really feature your best of the best. For example, on Road.Bike198.com, I am mixing in in-depth how to articles and product reviews…my two “showcase” article types that convert the highest on that blog.

#4 – Be Prepared To Work Longer Hours

Right now is one of my busiest blogging times of the year, to even scrape together the precious minutes to put together this article took some planning. When you are covering realtime events or a growing trend in your niche, you need to be prepared to work longer hours than you are used to. There is time to research (or stay glued to the TV for hours in my case), write articles and stay on top of what everyone else is covering in your niche as well. All of this has to be done at the same time you are still mixing in your regular content. Tired yet?

#5 – Partner With Other Media Sources

One of the best ways you can lighten the load and have higher quality content during these periods of mass blogging is to partner with higher profile media outlets for content. For the Tour, I got together with the crew at Bicycling to use pictures, interviews and Tour stage explanations on my blog crediting back to Bicycling. This cuts down on my research time and provides Bicycling magazine with more vistors to their online real estate. It is a win/win for the both of us.

#6 – Bring Something Different To The Table

Everyone and their mom is providing the same cookie cutter information on whatever you are trying to cover. By bringing something a little bit different to the table in terms of related content, you can improve the stickiness of your blog during this time period. Since my readers are used to riding tips and product reviews, I am going to mix in articles related to the Tour from those two categories. This will differentiate my blog coverage from the typical news media coverage and bring readers back to Bike198.com.

#7 – Test, Test and Test Again

Unfortunately, the preparation you made at the beginning of the process might not be converting. If your monetization strategies or conversion items are not doing well during this time period, you need to put in the extra hours to get it right. This is your one and only shot at this, so make sure all of the extra effort isn’t going wasted.

#8 – Pre-Write and Plan Content

Do you have other blogs or already know what you want to mix in during your coverage? Pre-writing and scheduling content the weekend before you are covering a large event is the best way to lighten the load during periods of high blogging stress. If you have other blogs that are going to take up precious time needed to continue your coverage, schedule those posts ahead of time or get in some guest posts to lighten the load. The worst thing you could do for yourself is sacrifice your hard work in other areas just because your focus as shifted temporarily.

Stressed Yet?! It’s better than you think…

While this may seem like a stressful time in a bloggers life, it can also be one of the most rewarding. During times of extreme blogging, you can make the biggest gains and get over that plateau of traffic and earnings that you have been hopelessly sitting on for months. If you put in the extra effort with content and planning, you will see the increases and enjoy the fruits of your extra labor for years to come. You just have to go after it! Do large spikes due to special events last for forever? Of course not, you are going to see a decrease in traffic after the event is complete, but the idea here is to leave with more traffic and conversions than you came in with. If I am seeing a 68% traffic increase during the Tour de France, I would expect to retain a 20% increase on the backend with new readers and subscribers.

And remember…as the blogger, you have the unique ability to adapt and change on the fly unlike the big print publications.

Wave Image by mikebaird

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

The Top 12 Success Killers In Blogging (with Solutions!)

June 23, 2010 By 17 Comments

We all want to be successful. As we pine away at producing content into the wee hours of the night, we do not hit that publish button hoping that no one will read what we have to say so that we can make $0.00 per hour…we hope that it takes off like a viral masterpiece so we can enjoy the fruits of our labor! However, there are certain aspects of blogging that can completely derail your goal and keep you in the “could have been” pile for years to come. It is important that you address each of these success killers in your blogging to insure that you can be more efficient and keep the snowball effect rolling. Otherwise…you are just going to be spinning the wheels of disappointment.

Top 12 Success Killers In Blogging

So let’s jump straight into it. Here are the top 12 success killers in blogging. If you do not get these items in check, you might as well pack up the laptop now and give up. These are not in any particular order as I find each of these items just as important as the rest.

1. Facebook, Twitter and other Social Media

Yes…social media is a fantastic way to bring in traffic to your blog and establish yourself as an expert in your niche. But…social media is also an addiction that can rob you of precious minutes throughout the day that could be used for actual productivity. If you want to really see how rampant this addiction is in today’s society, just take look at how much your friends that don’t own blogs spend on Facebook and Twitter!

Solution: You can use tools like HootSuite and MarketMeTweet to schedule tweets that also update your Facebook accounts and pages. It is also a good idea to block off a small portion of time during the day to focus on social media and then close those apps to cut down on distraction while you work.

2. Your Email Inbox

If you are anything like me, that 3 (or 40 in some cases) that is in a red circle on my email app drives me crazy. I just can’t not open it up and read it! Your email can drown you as a blogger. We all want to answer our emails in a timely fashion, but if we are spending the day answering one email at a time, we are disrupting work flow and concentration on our goals.

Solution: Just like with social media, block off a period of time each day to handle your email. During the rest of the time, close your email app or window to prevent the urge to jump into it every 5 minutes.

3. Not Tracking Statistics

Watched statistics increase. Any business owner will tell you that is just a natural part of the business building process. As you start to watch your metrics and earnings, you will see trends that can help you in the future as you try to increase income and productivity. How do you know what you need to improve if you are not sure what isn’t performing well? You don’t, so watching and tracking statistics is vital to success.

Solution: Luckily for bloggers, there are a ton of free and paid tools to make this happen. For web stats, you can use Google Analytics, Mint or CrazyEgg. For the monetary side of things, I typically like to just use Excel to track earnings and trends.

4. Procrastination

“I’ll just do that tomorrow.” I can not even begin to tell you how many blogs that one line has killed. Procrastination is a hard thing to combat when you do not have a boss leaning over your shoulder asking when a project is going to be completed. Being your own boss means that you actually have to be your own boss.

Solution: Set time lines and checklists and then stick to them! By writing things down and mapping out your day/week/month/year, you make yourself accountable. You are the only one that can get the job done and no one else cares (well maybe your readers) if you do or not. So get on it and get organized.

5. Low Self Worth

You started a blog or business because you wanted to make something better for yourself. You also started it with the belief that you were actually capable of completing that goal. With time, after a couple of trolls hit your site or you do not see success right away, you start to think that maybe you aren’t good enough or it just isn’t in the cards for you. One of the worst thing an aspiring full-time blogger can do is to start lowering their self worth by not believing in themselves. Confidence is required for success.

Solution: To keep the motivation and confidence rolling, celebrate the small successes. Did you have more subscribers today? Make your first 50 bucks? Celebrate these small successes that will lead up to large ones. You will be surprised what that can do for your blogging morale.

6. Unrealistic Expectations

A lot of bloggers jump into the scene with unbelievable, unrealistic expectations about blogging as an income. Blogging is not a get rich quick scheme. If you are looking to make money fast online, take a look at pure affiliate marketing or some other form of faster income generation because blogging is about building a real business over time. If you are expecting to start a blog and be full-time in 6 months, you are just going to be disappointed and give up at the 6 month mark.

Solution: Set real, obtainable, honest goals for yourself and then start chipping off those goals one by one. The addition of small, completed goals equal the large payoff over time.

7. Not Setting Goals

Are you just winging it hoping for the best? Do you even know where you are headed? If you are not setting goals, you are just wandering in the wasteland of the Internet with the hope that something is going to hit one day. Successful business planning is centered around setting and achieving goals. Without that…you are just a blind man in a maze.

Solution: Set long-term and short-term goals. The short-term goals should add up to the long-term over time. Track these goals and cross them off as you compete them.

8. No Defined Purpose

How many blogs have you gone to that do not seem to have a defined purpose. They start off with a specific niche and then start talking about blogging, their life or some other random subject that has nothing to do with their original intent. The by-product of this behavior? The blogger starts to lose their audience, credibility and success.

Solution: Pick a niche and rock it out. No one wants to hear about blogging on your gardening blog. They want to hear about gardening! As time progresses, you can expand into other related subject matters (like tree growing), but you need to keep it related. You can kill your blog by going off topic frequently.

9. Bad Promotion Strategies

The “build it and they will come” mentality to blogging is gone. Unfortunately, there is just too much mess on the Internet today to rise above the noise without some kind of self-promotion. In today’s world of successful blogging, you have to be a marketer as much as you are a blogger to get your name out there.

Solution: Find the promotion strategies that work best in your niche. There is no “one size fits all” solution here so you are going to have to test guest posting, forums, social media and other outlets to see what works best in your niche…and then keep testing.

10. No Monetization Strategy

As I wrote in a recent article “Are you writing articles that actually have the ability to make money?“, there are a lot of bloggers that assume that traffic equals income. So…they keep writing, day in and day out, to find they are increasing their community but they are not making a dime doing it. You have to actually have a monetization strategy in your blogging to generate income. It is that simple.

Solution: Test, test and retest different methods. Whether it is PPC campaigns, having your own product, affiliate marketing, direct advertising, membership sites or a combination of all of those methods. You need to take an honest look at how your content is actually going to generate income and then test those methods to death to see what works the best on your blog.

Bonus Hint: If you do not have an email newsletter (I use Aweber), you are not going to make a significant income online. Quite possibly the biggest mistake you can make as a blogger from a monetization and growth standpoint is not starting an email newsletter from the very beginning.

11. Not Treating Your Blog Like A Business

Blogging for income is not a hobby, it is a business. If you treat your blog as a hobby…it will only ever be a hobby. You have to treat your blogging as a business if you ever want to be successful.

Solution: Treat your blog as a business by tracking expenses, income and filing the appropriate taxes. My blogs are actually under a LLC as well. When you start implementing some of these solutions and planning goals for your blogging, you are stepping into the serious end of the business. Take yourself and your business seriously if you really want to make it.

12. Sub-Par Copycat Content

Saw someone else making money on their blog and decided to do the same thing? Or did you start a making money online blog without having actually ever generated a penny online? Blogging is all about over-the-top quality content. The “go on this journey with me” content strategy does not work. Blogging is still and will always be about connecting with readers through high-quality content.

Solution: The trick to producing incredible content is writing about a subject matter in which you are passionate about or have a lot of knowledge. Your readers are going to be able to see through a fake, so by writing on these subjects, you are being honest and providing quality. Once you have done that, get on a posting schedule that works for you and allows great content…then stick to that posting schedule.

There you have it! The top 12 success killers in blogging. Are you doing anything on the list?!


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

The Secret To Blogging Success Is No Secret: Niche Blog Marketing

June 21, 2010 By 9 Comments

If you are starting a new blog or trying to torque some success out of your current one, there is one thing that will always hold true. Without anyone actually reading your words, you are not going to see success in blogging. With all of the competition today on the net, many beginning and experienced bloggers find difficulty in rising above the noise so their voice can be heard. This frustration level can be alleviated greatly, but it takes looking at blogging in a new light by mimicking the experience of large companies and corporations. That’s right…the success in blogging is actually found through copying actions of that brick and mortar world. It should also not surprise you that 99.9% of successful bloggers do this simple fact…so let’s get rolling.

It’s A Law Of Numbers That You Need To Win

When Hyundai originally entered the North American automobile market, they were not the same company you see today. Knowing full well that they would not be able to compete in the largest automobile market in the world with a “me too” product (luxury sedan, suv, etc.), Hyundai took a different approach. Hyundai carved out a niche market in the US by providing an extremely affordable, new car with a blistering good warranty program.

By providing a car that was not currently available in the market, Hyundai was able to weasel their way into the US auto market by creating a niche product that consumers wanted to buy.

After a couple of years of making a name for themselves, Hyundai turned into the automobile company you see today through expansion into other niche market areas like the SUV, luxury sedan and affordable sport coupe. As we look at this short case study, what do you think would have happened to Hyundai if they came to the market with their current lineup right off the bat? They would have been laughed straight out of the market by companies with larger brand presence, gigantic marketing dollars and a stable reputation amongst consumers.

Hyundai saw the automobile market as a law of numbers. They needed to build a reputation within the market by providing something new and then…through expansion…they could take on the other sectors with a strong brand presence.

Niche Marketing + Expansion = Blogging Success

The #1 mistake (I know…I say that a lot!) I see beginning bloggers make is trying to take on too much at once. New bloggers look at experienced bloggers that are seeing a lot of success within a given subject matter and think…

Wow…I am really into that subject too! I’ll start a blog that covers all of those areas and see if I can make it!

When they take this route…they fail 99% of the time.

Why? Because they forget that their favorite successful blog is not 1 day old. That successful blog has been built over time and has expanded its topic offerings over time to promote growth. When you start in a small niche market (ex. basketball shoes instead of all things basketball), you are able to do several things that can guarantee you early success that you can build off of.

  1. You are competing on a much smaller field (greater success in long-tail keywords in search engines).
  2. You build a reputation as an expert in your field by providing quality content to that smaller audience (growing subscribers and traffic).
  3. You open up the opportunity to expand into other areas (ex. basketball goals).
  4. You attract more links in through niche content (builds authority in search engines).
  5. You open up the opportunity to make money with niche products.

Overtime, as you continue to add to your content offerings, you can find yourself several years down the road competing with the monsters in your niche with news, editorials and product reviews! But it does not come overnight and it does not come by taking on the world all at once.

The trick is to have a defined topic focus that you can write on for at least a year (don’t go rambling off topic unless you want to lose subscribers) and then start to look into your options for expansion down the future as it relates to your niche. With this constant business development and focus, you will see success over time.

When you start that first post of your new blog or hit that one year anniversary, remember one thing.

Blogs are an ever evolving process. What you are blogging about today will expand and change with the times. Your success is dependent upon the management of that expansion that complements your current offerings to provide your current readers with more content and attract new readers through that new content.

Image by mugley

Filed Under: Blogging, Content, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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