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BlogWorld Expo Recap and A Bonus!

May 31, 2011 By 3 Comments

As many of you already know, last week was BlogWorld Expo East in New York City and I was invited to come talk about review blogging and how to capitalize on current buying trends to turn that into blogging profits. To be honest, I was a little bit nervous! I have presented in conferences before in the professional business to business world, but this was my first time jumping into the bloggers trade show arena. I was stoked for the opportunity and at the end of the day…everything went perfectly.

Speakers I Attended At BlogWorld East

Conferences like BlogWorld are a great chance to listen to varying opinions and suggestions of other successful bloggers and marketers throughout the industry. There were a couple on the list that I knew I was going to want to hear and since I arrived in the Big Apple on Monday and my talk wasn’t until Thursday, I had the time to network and hear others.

Lewis Howes – Webinars

For those of you that don’t know Lewis, he has quickly become the king of webinars in the industry (he also happens to know a ton about LinkedIn if you are interested in that as well). You can dig into his content at LewisHowes.com, but his talk was on “How to Turn Your Blogging Passion into a 6 Figure Business with Webinars”…and he isn’t kidding. In the first quarter of this year…he has cleared over $250k by doing webinars. I don’t know about you…but I think that is insane and you can see why I wanted to hear what he had to say.

This ex pro football player took himself from living in his sisters basement to killing it online by doing webinars. His first LinkedIn promotion ended up netting over $8k for an hours worth of work! Those are concrete results showing that the environment is changing for promoting digital and physical products online. My main interest in hearing him talk was to get the nuts and bolts on how to get this going on my end as I have been looking for a way to more personally interact with my online friends/audiences.

Lewis didn’t disappoint and there was a ton of great information included. I’ll be starting something up really soon.

Johnny B Truant – Radical Transparency

Johnny is one of those guys I have been quietly watching for some time. Honestly, I really respect how he presents himself online and how he is able to act like himself and attract raving fans at the same time. When I saw he would be doing a talk on this at BlogWorld, it was on my list of must do’s.

Out of all of the presentations at BlogWorld East this year, Johnny’s was the one that got me thinking the most. The way he brings himself into his content and his relationship with his readers is nothing short of amazing (and a lot of the time…hilarious). I think we find ourselves trying to get too “professional” with our tone and talk online, and Johnny is the in your face reminder that blog readers want to connect with bloggers…not some boring cardboard cutout. The more honest you are with your readers and bring as much of you to the table as you can…the more response you will get and the more success you will see.

Far too often, I try to be Mr. Business on here when I should let go a lot more. I don’t wear a suit to my office…I am sitting in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with my dogs at my feet…and that is a good thing! Radical transparency is just that…being yourself at all cost and letting people connect with who you really are…not who you think they want to connect with. This one hour session will hopefully radically change how I speak online.

You can check out Johnny’s site here: The Internet Made Awesome

Syed Balkhi, John Chow and Zac Johnson

As you saw from an earlier post with David Risley’s intro of these three, there is never a dull moment when you get Syed and Chow together. While their talk was monetizing outside of banner ads, it was basically information that anyone already making a sum of money online knows. Things like why you need a newsletter and setting up a sales funnel were main topics in the conversation. Syed also highlighted the need to teach people how to use tools and complete things in your respective niche to create value and increase affiliate commissions (which I completely agree with). Zac illustrated how diversifying income streams can also open up your possibilities.

Again, all information I implement on my blogs and if you are not doing it now…you need to start today if you actually want to make any money online. It was fun hanging out with the guys over the course of the week and they even made me work “honk if you are horny” into my talk due to some horns they got from the book expo that was upstairs…yes…they literally said “honk if you are horny” on the horns themselves.

Here are the links so you can check them out for yourselves. John Chow (johnchow.com), Syed Balkhi (WPBeginner.com), Zac Johnson (zacjohnson.com) and David Risley (davidrisley.com)

Shane Ketterman – Rapid Success and Google’s Strong Hand

Shane is a newcomer to the block that has made HUGE strides in a very short period of time. After 7 months of blogging on his iPad blog (now sold), we was getting over 12,000 visitors a day and making thousands of dollars by capitalizing on events and teaching people how to use their new tablets.

The story is really a cool one as he went through the process and how he dealt with this rapid success. Unfortunately, he also got hit hard by the Panda update from Google (from what I can guess by what he was saying…the content scrapers are what did him in…not his content. He was writing five 1,000 word posts a day of unique content which is just insane!).

So there are two main things you need to take away from Shane (@rewirebusiness).

  1. Never put all of your eggs in one basket. Google traffic and Adsense can go away quickly if that is all you are relying on.
  2. Have a newsletter!! If Shane would have started a newsletter from day 1, he could have kept things rolling much better with a database of people that wanted his content.

When it was all said and done, Shane made out pretty good on the sale. It would have been much better without the Panda hit, but he is onto new things and I am excited to see what comes out of it.

Networking…Networking…Wait…

Outside of hearing some great speakers, BlogWorld was also a great time to put faces with names of people that I talk to online all of the time. I wouldn’t call it networking…I call it solidifying friendships. It was great to be able to hang out with everyone and I am looking forward to doing it again soon.

Unfortunately I will not be making it to LA for BlogWorld West as I will be neck deep in having our first baby around that time. If that isn’t a good excuse to miss…I don’t know what is! Our first child, Daniel Merrill Sutton is due October 25th..so we will be just a little bit busy! ;)

Oh yeah…the Bonus!

Some of you probably scrolled all the way down to the bottom of this page before you read anything above. That’s ok…I do it to! Just make sure you scroll back up at some point. There is some good stuff up there from some great bloggers and internet people.

Anyways, I am going to be annoucing the bonus in my newsletter this week, so if you are not already subscribed, click here…enter your info…claim your free eBook and watch out for a very cool announcement on something I am going to do for you and do it for free this week. I’m stoked and there will be a lot of value to it…so stay on the edge of your chair for this one.

In case you missed it…click here —> Blogging Labs Newsletter and Free Problogging Is Dead eBook! and then watch out for a killer free deal this week.

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

Three Ways You Can Build A Great Online Brand

November 2, 2010 By 3 Comments

The following article on building an online brand is a guest post by Vik Tantry from There Is Money Everywhere dot com. Online branding is essential to success in blogging as you strive to set yourself apart from the rest of the noise.

A few weeks ago, I received an e-mail from a fellow blogger. He was frustrated because he had been blogging for more than a year and hadn’t achieved any real traction. He wanted to understand what he could be doing better. It’s never easy to build a brand, but there are definitely things you can do to help. Here are three tips to help you on your way to a stellar online brand:

Tip #1: Be Credible

Explain why people should listen to you

A good example is Jim Cramer from Mad Money. Although he is highly entertaining, he makes sure that people know about his prestigious investment background: top of his class at Harvard, investment banker at Goldman Sachs, and manager of a profitable hedge fund. I doubt he’d be as successful if he didn’t advertise these impeccable credentials

What if you aren’t a proven expert? That’s ok, but be sure to admit that you are willing to learn. Pat from Smart Passive Income does this very effectively. He is very upfront about the fact that he is learning how to make money online, and is extremely transparent with his process. This level of honesty has taken him exceptionally far and will continue to serve him well as he builds his user base.

Demonstrate value time and again

Glen Allsopp at Viperchill has some of the most detailed, thoughtful articles on web marketing. While most content on the web is only 300-500 words, Glenn typically writes long, rich posts that are anywhere from 1500-3000 words long. In just over a year, he’s built up a tremendous following and many of his posts are seen as “authoritative guides” on various topics.

Tip #2: Be Likeable

Stay positive

S^%t happens, but people will like you all the more if you can take it in stride. An exceptional example of this is Pat Flynn over at Smart Passive Income. In 2008, Pat was laid off from his job at an architecture firm. Instead of getting down on himself, he took it as an opportunity to build his own business and grow his personal brand. Around the world, thousands of readers (including yours truly) listened to his story and took inspiration from his outlook on life. Today, Pat’s blog is a major brand in the “making money online” space.

Be Responsive

There is no bigger turn-off than apathy. If you come across like you don’t care, people won’t care about you. The opposite is also true. If you go out of your way to respond to people, they are much more likely to keep your on the radar.

Be Humble

Neil Patel from QuickSprout is one of the more successful entrepreneurs at his age. He’s accomplished more at 25 than most people do in a lifetime. And yet, he never misses an opportunity to tell people that he’s not that smart and he’s actually made a lot of mistakes. He’s always willing to learn and never comes across like he’s “above” other people. This humility is par t of the reason that he has one of the most successful blogs in the world.

Tell a story about your past

Many successful “gurus” come from humble origins. Robert Kiyosaki was homeless in 1985, living out of his car. Real estate guru Dean Graziosi was raised by a single mother who made $90 a week. These “rags to riches” stories are inspiring and contribute heavily to your personal brand.

Tip #3: Be Funny

Humor sells. It also has a lot of value in drawing in people’s attention. Ramit Sethi at I Will Teach You To Be Rich does a masterful job of integrating humor within a traditionally boring topic: personal finance. His lighthearted, witty approach brought in a younger audience that was curious about personal finance but couldn’t get through the boring material.

But be careful: being funny isn’t the same as being mean. If you constantly poke fun at others, you risk coming across like a jerk. A better approach is to poke fun at yourself; things that you do wrong, mistakes you’ve made, etc. If you are going to make fun of others, try to use fake names to protect their identity.

Have you had success using these techniques? Please share in the comments.

Vik Tantry blogs about making money online to lead a better life at theresmoneyeverywhere.com.

Image by Mike Chen aka Metalman

Filed Under: Blogging, The Web, Tutorials/How To Tagged With: , , , ,

Keeping Your Uniqueness Amongst The Sea Of Bland

September 8, 2010 By 1 Comment

Before blogging hit the mainstream and WordPress made it easier to publish articles than making macaroni and cheese, the few bloggers that took on the expensive hosting costs and DIY approach to website building had very little competition in the blogging world. With a small amount of competition, rising above the noise was an easy process because there wasn’t much of it!

Fast forward to today’s blogging world and everyone from top level news sites to stay at home mom’s have a website or blog to express their views and try to stand out to generate some sort of income online. For those bloggers looking to step into the realm of profitable blogging, the outlook could look bleak as you pine away at ways to bring a unique voice to the world of “me too” copycats looking to make a quick buck.

So how do we do it?

How do we stay unique to who we are in our writing but find a way to rise above the rest at the same time?! Luckily…if you watch successful blogs that have grown to power over recent years…the uniqueness is what drives growth, so here are some tips to being a bright light amongst burnt out bulbs.

Tips On How To Keep Your Uniqueness And Grow Your Online Presence

So here we are…with thousands of blogs started each day looking for our corner of the web to call home. How do we keep our uniqueness while growing our online presence at the same time?

  • Passion Breeds Unique Attraction – While you can be successful in blogging without passion on your subject matter. I have found that bloggers that are passionate have a larger chance for success because more of their uniqueness shines through in their content and they possess the willingness to push forward and write even when no one is listening. Blogging is not the easiest way to build a reputation and business online. Whether you are looking to a blog to generate free leads for your business or you want to become the next “problogger” in your niche, blogging is a long road of constant dedication that is made easier through a love of what you do and your readers will be drawn to that passion in your writing.
  • Practice Makes Perfect…Or At Least Close To It - When was the last time you read your blog posts from your first month of blogging…or year for that matter?! Sometimes I take a look back and think, “wow…I really wrote that and people listened?!” Unique writing that portrays your voice to readers who do not know you personally takes time and practice. Many times, you are not even sure what your unique voice is until you experiment with different styled posts or writing methods. You aren’t going to get it perfectly right away, but your willingness to step outside of the box and try new things is what will get you to the promised land when words just seem to flow that connect with your readers.
  • Look For Like Minded Bloggers and Readers – Just being unique and having quality content is not going to make your light the brightest. Blogging, social media and other online activities are made successful through the collaboration with others. This will require you to step outside of your comfort zone and actively seek out like minded individuals in your niche to collaborate with. By visiting online forums, guest posting, commenting on other blogs, responding on Twitter and cold emailing other people in your niche, you are able to pull new readers to your content and convert those new readers into regular subscribers. If you plan on the “if you build it they will come” technique, you are going to fail.
  • Do Not Be Afraid To Put Your Real Self Out There - The web does not want the next Brian Clark, John Chow or Darren Rowse. Those guys already exist. The web wants the next you! Forget about copying other successful bloggers in your niche as potential readers will see right through you. You can not be afraid to be yourself and put yourself out there for the masses to see. Your unique angles, attitude and personality is ultimately what is going to draw people to your content.

Quite possibly the best thing about blogging in my eyes is the ability to make money from an art form where you get to express yourself and your thoughts with other people around the world. When you try to be “the next big thing” by copying the views and voice of other successful bloggers in your niche, you are setting yourself up for failure. Get yourself out there and bring your unique voice and brand to the table. Blog readers genuinely want to connect with unique bloggers. That is going to be your strength and that is going to be what ultimately grows your online empire.

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

What Is Your Blog Design Doing For You?

May 19, 2010 By 13 Comments

Blog and website design can be a tricky animal for bloggers that do not come from the design or marketing world. Your blog design is your digital business card that creates a snap judgment, first impression on new and existing readers, but…more importantly (and the most overlooked)…your blog design is your medium to convert readers into affiliate income, newsletter subscribers, rss subscribers and viral content spreaders. Is your blog design doing everything it can to insure that the function of your site is performing the necessary tasks? Or is it just what you like to look at on a daily basis?

What Is Your Blog Design Doing For You?

As you look into your own design to make tweaks or redesign it completely, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What is my blog design doing for me well now?
  2. What isn’t working in my design now?
  3. What do I want my design to do?

While these are simplistic questions with more complicated answers, they get you to the meat and potatoes of any design tweak or rework. There are plenty more questions you need to be asking, but this will get you started on the right track.

1. What Is My Blog Design Doing For Me Well Now?

What aspects of your blog seem to be performing well now? Are you getting a lot of comments? Are you seeing people retweet your articles? Maybe your newsletter and rss numbers are climbing. You need to take an objective look at your existing metrics to see what your readers are interacting well with now and what can be tweaked to increase those conversions.

Many times, simple changes in placement, wording or color can make drastic increases in conversions, so testing out different methods can prove to build upon already positive results. This essential testing through the use of monitoring your statistics and metrics can mean the difference between a successful blog design and one that is leaving things on the table.

2. What Isn’t Working In My Design Now

Do you have elements that are not converting well? Are there items within your design that are not doing anything at all?! If your design is not performing in certain areas, they either need to be reworked to trashed completely. Your screen real-estate is extremely valuable and limited. The last thing you want is a low converting element distracting your readers from more important high converting, business building elements in your design.

One of the biggest mistakes I see bloggers make is adding in too many low converting, non-business building functions into their blog designs.

If that new, super cool widget does not build your business, it needs to go. Do not clutter up your blog design by adding in the latest and greatest of everything. Your design needs to be based off a foundation of function…not what you think is cool that week.

3. What Do I Want My Design To Do?

This is the #1 most important question you need to ask yourself when you are looking at adding design elements or redesigning your blog. It is also the #1 question that 99.9% of bloggers fail to look at as they go through designing processes.

What are the major functions in your blog that need to convert for you to be successful?

  • Do you need to feature your newsletter sign up and free gift?
  • Do you need to have your articles spread through specific social media outlets?
  • Do you need your readers to dive deeper into your content?
  • Do you need to sell more eBooks?

Ask yourself the questions that need answers. Once you have those answers, you can tailor the elements of your design and blog experience around what is going to make you successful in the long run. If you need more newsletter sign-ups, then you probably need to feature that sign-up predominantly on the homepage and in an action section of your post pages (single.php). If you need to get your articles in front of the Reddit audience, you will need to have a share button for that specific social media site at the bottom of your posts.

How Can I Make The Blog Design Process Easier?

While this may seem like a lot to digest at once, you can make life much easier on yourself by following a couple of tips.

1. Use The Tools Available

With free analytics like Google Analytics and paid versions that create heat maps like Crazy Egg, you can find out what your readers are currently clicking on when they visit your blog. Crazy Egg takes it one step further to show you were their mouses are hovering as…statistically…the mouse pointer follows the eyes of most readers.

Tools like these will give you insight into what is working and what is not. They will also give you the ability to test out new placement and other ideas to see what converts better over time.

2. Start Off On The Right Foot

By starting off with a premium theme like the ones from WooThemes, you can cut out 70% of the work. There are plenty of free themes on the market, but the coding is typically subpar and it takes a TON of time to find one that fits the needs of your site. By ponying up and purchasing a premium theme, you can almost get away with doing nothing for awhile as many of the core features that are needed in blogging are built in.

3. Don’t Panic

Go into the design process with the mindset that you are there to make things better. Find excitement in the process and try to to get too overwhelmed as you dive into all that is blog design. Remember…you do not need thousands of dollars to create a quality, high converting blog design, you just need to ask the right questions…

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

The Internet Lifestyle Is About Freedom, Not Free Time

April 29, 2010 By 30 Comments

I think there is a common misconception out there that making money online and the “internet lifestyle” is all about working 2 hours a day and goofing off doing whatever the hell you want the rest of the time. If you want to be successful in the long run and in life…that couldn’t be any farther from the truth. The Internet Lifestyle is more about freedom than free time and since I started making money online…my free time is no different than during “corporate life”.

What Making Money Online Means To You

Stick with me here for a second as this may change how you feel about your blogging.

Making money online is your key to choices.

I was talking to a fellow blogger/freelancer the other day that had his time cut out at his job in half. Now…if you have ever had that happen to you (I have…it sucks), you feel pretty helpless at the moment as you have to go home to your loved ones and explain that things are going to be tight for awhile. Luckily, this blogger/freelancer is able to lighten the load by doing side projects that come about through his work online.

On top of that…this blogger was hit with a decision. Do I look for another part time job, a new full time job or really make a run at my dream? Now, the answer to this question is a needs based question that is different for everyone so I am not going to sit here and pretend that I have the answer, but…the interesting part about this scenario is that this particular blogger now has more choices than ever before. It is no longer “I am at the mercy of others”. Instead, it is “what can I do for myself to make this situation better?”

The Reality About Blogging And Making Money Online

The reality about making money online is the vast majority of bloggers will never hit the big time and make 6 figures a year writing about what they love. I wish everyone did…but like everything in life there is only so much room at the top and there are only so many people that are capable of the discipline it takes to run a 6 or 7 figure business.

But this should not get you discouraged.

By supplementing your household income by doing something you love online, you can open up a whole new world of choices that would have never even been an option before!

  • You will no longer be tied to that job you hate 100%. You can have the choice to search out a better paying, more enjoyable place of employment while you supplement your income with blogging.
  • You can get the toys (for free if you read Ramped Reviews!) that you used to not be able to afford on your regular salary.
  • You can take your wife/girlfriend/kids out to dinner more often.
  • You can go on better vacations.

The list is limitless and it is all possible through your efforts online. There is a lot of focus on “full-time income” through blogging and that full-time income for many bloggers is completely different. I know a lot of bloggers that make a full-time income online and still have jobs. Why do they still have jobs? Well…2 salaries is a pretty cool thing if you can swing it don’t you think? What if they really like their job (yes…there are actually people out there like that)?!

As you look at your blogging, make your goals for the future big. If you want to make a real run at it and become a full-time blogger, I do not want this article to discourage you from that goal. Hit it full swing and go after it. The point I do want to get across is to try not to focus on the thousands of articles online all focusing on the “Internet Lifestyle” and start looking at how your blogging can start to free up choices in your own life. Who knows…by focusing on choices…you just might end up managing a 6 figure business online…

What has your blogging let your choose?

Image by PotironLight

Filed Under: Blogging, Lifestyle Design Tagged With: , , , , ,

Monetizing Your Blog and Making Money Online

March 4, 2010 By 20 Comments

Last night, I was asked to speak at the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup about monetizing blogs with Tom Royce (real estate and profit blogger). Monetization of blogs is a hot topic for obvious reasons as many bloggers are looking to generate extra income online through their blogging efforts. With over 120 people showing up to this bloggers meetup in Atlanta, there were a lot of attentive eyes all headed in our direction as we tried to unravel the basics of blog monetization. Here is a recap of what I went over last night.

The Truth About Making Money With Blogging

To start things off…I jumped right into the truth about making money online.

You Don’t Have to Blog About Blogging or Making Money Online

I think a lot of bloggers get tunnel vision when looking to make money online by thinking they have to start a blog on that subject as those are the only bloggers that ‘appear’ to make any money. The reality is that most of the money made online through blogging is made outside of that niche and the most profitable bloggers I know…do not blog about blogging at all. You go to their sites, make them money and leave because they provide a valuable resource but don’t talk about income.

When you are looking to make money online, you read blogs on that specific topic. Just because that is what you are reading…that does not mean it is the only way.

You Do Not Make Money Off Of Just Blogging

A lot of people make the beginning mistake thinking they can throw up articles with a couple of ads and the traffic will bring them money. That is not true! Blogging is your leverage to reach an audience. Once you have reached that audience, your resources need to generate income outside your posts through resources for people that are ready to buy. This comes in the form of affiliate revenue, your own products, etc. Blogging is leverage…not the means.

Diversification Of Income Streams

In my blogging world, I like to have as many income streams as possible (that work obviously) to keep the percentage of my income low for any one monetizing outlet. It is much easier to build up multiple smaller streams over time than it is to be 100% reliant on 1 monetization method. What if that one method you are using goes away one day?! You are sunk! If you have multiple other income streams all feeding your blog, that 1 that went away is not as big of a deal.

  • Your Own Products
  • PayPerClick – If payouts are high enough to warrant the screen real estate
  • Affiliate Advertising
  • Email Lists
  • Free Products
  • Direct Advertising
  • Speaking Events
  • Consulting
  • you get the idea…

All of these are worth testing over and over again on your blog so you are not leaving any money on the table as you grow your audience and spread on the web. By diversifying the way you make money online, you can realize bigger gains that are easier to achieve.

The Biggest Mistakes I See Bloggers Make

I went into the basics of how I make money on my blogs, but I think the more important part of that conversation is the mistakes I see beginning bloggers make when they are trying to generate income from their blogging.

They Do Not Attract A Buying Audience

To make money on your blog, you have to tailor your content towards an audience that is ready to spend money. Without this…you are not going to make a dime. As you start to generate your content with the goal of making money online, you need to target a specific reader. Are you selling a product or service on your blog? Then you need to generate content that solves the problems of the person you think would be interested in your products and services. Are you promoting other products and services through affiliate advertising? Then the same rule applies…

Even if you are using PPC campaigns, you still need a reader that wants to visit an online store to purchase a product so they will actually click that link.

They Do Not Have An Email List

Aweber is cheap…stupid cheap…and it makes you more money down the road in blogging than you could ever imagine. This world still runs off of email and it is your job to capture every lead you can on your blogs. If you are not building some kind of email list, then you are not making a significant sum online. Your email list is the key into your readers lives to keep them coming back to your blog, products or services.

The example I gave last night was this: Last year I released the Ramped Riding eBook on Bike198. When I released this $10.00 eBook, I sent out an email to my thousands of newsletter subscribers. Now…do the math in your head of 10 * x,xxx = $$$. The power of your email list is the leverage you have to making money online. Without it…you are solely relying on RSS and search engine results which are both low converting avenues in your blogging.

Start your email list…provide something that will make someone want to subscribe to that email list (free eBook, extra content, etc.) and then provide valuable content to that email list on a consistent basis and you will have a money making machine.

Aweber even has a trial where you can try their service out for a buck…you can beat that.

They Beat One Method Into The Ground And Stop

Blog monetization is a never ending testing process. Just because you found something that is working ok, does not mean you stop testing…sit back and relax. There are always ways to improve conversions, there are always more methods to test. If you want to make more than just lunch money online, you need to continually test your income streams and try out new ones. Just throwing up one way of making money online and then stopping is going to keep you in the pocket change arena.

They Give Up

Blogging is an action sport. You are not going to make riches overnight and there is no easy answer. The biggest reason I see people not make money on their blogs is because they just give in and give up. The persistent and the ones that are not afraid to keep going after failing are the ones that make it in the end. If you are not willing to do that…you are not going to make anything by blogging online.

Overall…Making Money Online Is Freaking Fantastic

While I was giving this talk with Tom at the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup, my pocket kept vibrating with emails telling me about affiliate commissions and eBook sales. When it was all said and done, I made a nice profit even after dinner, valet parking, gas and my time and it had nothing to do with my talk. While I was talking about blog monetization, my blogs were still running and delivering on what I was talking about.

There were some great questions asked and I am really glad I took this opportunity. I find that when I give the most back…I get the biggest feeling of satisfaction.

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

Blogging and Money – The Ugly Truth

February 12, 2010 By 13 Comments

Ok…both David Risley and Nathan Hangen have weighed in. Here are my .02 sense on blogging and making money online. You got a hint of this with ‘Problogging Is Dead‘ (free download…no opt in…hit it up!) where I showed you what it means to be a blogger that makes their full-time income online. It isn’t as easy as throwing up content and getting subscribers. Real, successful, money making blogs are much more complicated than that and based off of traditional business models that breed success. So…as others are weighing in on the blogging niche and where blogging is as far as generating income online, where do I stand and what do I think?

The Harsh Truth About Making Money Online

Everyone is not capable of making money online. If you are not prepared to own a real business that you are going to be 100% accountable for, you are not ready to make your living full-time online. There is no 2 hour work day. There is no income on autopilot. Anyone who tells you any differently…is trying to sell you something. Bloggers that make 100% of their income online are not bloggers. They are business owners that make money by leveraging blogging to attract clients, customers and consumers of their products, services and advertising.

There are business owners who feel like they only work 2 hours a day, but that is because they love what they do…not because they are actually working 2 hours a day.

A blogger is an individual who likes to get their thoughts out online as a hobby and could care less if they make a single dime. It is for fun and they enjoy doing it. More power to them as they are finding a way to express themselves…but with that attitude about online production, they will never make a full time income online.

I see a lot of bloggers that want to make money online, but they bring the employee mentality to their blogging. If you are going to own your own business, your mind does not shut off at 5pm. You do not have a set schedule you can adhere to.

As a business owner, you have more flexibility with your time but you gain that by taking all of the risk and investment. It does not come for free.

Making money online is exactly like making money in the brick and mortar world…the only difference is the low cost of entry attracts a lot of eager “bloggers” all looking to make it big. So what happens? We get a lot of blogs about blogging written by bloggers whose only blog is their blog about blogging (wow…that sentence got repetitive). The “take the journey with me as I figure out how to make money online by copying someone else’s winning formula and regurgitating it in my own words just to give up before my blog hits its first anniversary because I am not making any money because I have zero f’in clue what I am doing” is worn out and is done every 5 seconds in the blogging world. Did I mention that it fails miserably every time?

Most of the massively successful blogs online you never hear about because they don’t have a blog about blogging. A lot of times, they have a terrible design, a pitiful Alexa ranking and they are killing it with a massive amount of traffic and converting that traffic into income streams.

Here at RobbSutton.com, I try to keep any blogging tips directly sourced from how I have success on Bike198.com. The only reason I even started this site was to answer the multiple questions I was receiving about Bike198.com and product reviews/blogging. With that…I saw a need and I filled it with this site and Ramped Reviews. What I found was that I really like helping bloggers like I help cyclist on Bike198.com. So…I run both sites in my business under that presumption…I help people become better at what they want to be good at (my wife hate’s it when I end a sentence with at). It’s the basic principle of business expansion…

So How Do You Make Money Online?

Like I said before, you have to treat it like a real business and stop thinking like an employee. You have to start thinking of ways that you can generate real income and then attract the readers that will need that resource.

Look…all of the controversial posts and pure opinion stuff is fun. It generates a lot of comments, it creates traffic to your blog, but it also attracts a crowd that is critical and ready to rip your ideas/products apart without even laying eyes on it. If you are trying to make money online, is that the kind of reader you want scouring your pages?

Please do not take this the wrong way, but I do not need cheerleaders telling me how great I am in the comments of my posts…I need bloggers and cyclists that I can help accomplish goals. By helping you achieve your goals and dreams, I am able to achieve mine. Successful businesses help more than they receive. Think of it this way…the more your customer sells, the more they buy from you. If your customers (readers/subscribers/members) are not selling more, your business model is going to dry up quickly.

A lot of people would look at Bike198.com and think…that isn’t a lot of comments…this blog must not make much money. But the truth is that the cycling audience is not big on commenting…they are big on buying a hell of a lot of gear. It’s an obsession, so they **ahem** we scour the web looking for more information on the gear we want. Once we find the information we need…we buy! I know what my audience wants…I deliver what they want (honesty about products and tips on how to become a better rider)…and I make money doing that.

Find a profitable need, find the audience and then provide something that offers real value to that audience. There are many ways to generate this income from physical goods to informational goods to coaching. It is up to you to find out what works and what doesn’t. If your idea does not work, you learn from it and apply that knowledge to the next until you find a winning formula.

Stop beating your head against a wall wondering why your incredible articles are not making you any money. Unless you are a freelance writer, you are never going to make money off of just words. Even then, the freelance writers are making money off of the jobs they pull end due to their blogging and not the blog articles themselves. See the leverage?

I know a lot of this sounds harsh and makes some online entrepreneurs (maybe even me included) seem like they are solely focused on money. That isn’t true…they make money by helping people online. To help people, you have to gain their trust and make that connection, but you have to be making it with a person that is willing to consume what you are offering.

Also, there is ‘only right way’ of making money online through blogging. The only right way is whatever way puts money in your pocket on a consistent basis. You can click from blogging blog to blogging blog listening to the way they want you to do things. Some will say eBooks are dead, some will say Adsense is dead, others will say affiliate marketing is a waste of time…the reality is that you need to find the way that works with your audience and light it up! After that…test new ways and continue to diversify! If someone you are listening to is so close minded that they can only think  of one way of doing things…they are probably not the person to listen to anymore.

You can be a blogger or a business owner…it is your choice and it all starts with your mindset…

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The Problogging Mindset – Living The Dream

October 19, 2009 By 8 Comments

Last week, I mentioned that I am going to start giving some tips on how to run your blog like a business that can bring in full time income. While many will tell you that it is not possible and a pipe dream to make money online through blogging, I am here to tell you that it is not only possible…but you can do it…if you get into blogging with the correct mindset.

I was having a conversation with Michael over at Vitaminisgood.com over the weekend about branding and social media. Over the course of our conversation, the topic came up of my post on 6 Figure Blogging – Is it still possible for new bloggers? where I introduced this idea of publishing tips on the web to becoming a full-time income blogger. As we dove into the depths of full time blogging, we started thinking about why so many blogs fail to ever make a significant income online. [Read more...]

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Interview on IncomeDiary.com – Review Blogging and Making Money Online

August 18, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Over the weekend, I did a recorded interview that you can find on IncomeDiary.com with Michael Dunlop. Michael, the owner of Retireat21.com, IncomeDiary.com and WebDesignDev.com, is a young entrepreneur that has made it big making money online.

During the interview, we covered a lot information regarding review blogging, successful mindsets and making money online. You can find the transcript and audio file by clicking below. When you get a chance, stop by Michael’s sites and take a look…they have some great content that you can really soak up and start taking action on today.

IncomeDiary.com

Robb Sutton Interview – How To Get $100,000’s Worth Of Products To Review On Your Blog

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The Dot Com Lifestyle

April 22, 2009 By 4 Comments

I hear a lot of talk online and in other social media avenues about the “dot com lifestyle”. While everyone will try to convince you that their version of this lifestyle is the best…the central idea behind it is the same. The dot com lifestyle means that you can do what you want, when you want to as it relates to making money and living your life. Online revenue models and business generation is a fairly easy concept to grasp and apply. The beauty of the internet is the ability to run your business from anywhere on the planet while creating your own hours.

One of the inherent problems with the dream of the dot com lifestyle is that there are many people in this world who aren’t willing to work! For some reason, many people’s thought of the dot com lifestyle is that all working is done and you are officially retired! Great! If only it was that easy!!! The truth is that dot com lifestyle people are extremely efficient and actually work incredibly hard while they are working.

[Read more...]

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