Blogging for Dollars
A Bonus Blog on Blogging
Your blog is a success. Comments and feedback are positive.Someone mentions that you should charge for all of the good information you are dispensing for free. But can you really make money from a blog? The answer is a resounding yes!
Blogging Communities
Check out www.associatedcontent.com. A friend tipped me off to this blogging community. With Associated Content and examiner.com, bloggers accept assignments, develop a following, and get paid each time someone reads the blog. Income is generated on a per-click basis, so it takes a LOT of clicks to generate significant income. The upside is exposure, and the ability to link to other sites and blogs. This is a good way to achieve that organic growth we mentioned before.
Monetize your blog
Some bloggers are absolutely against making money by selling products or services on their blogs. Others see monetization as a natural extension of their business. Check out Google’s AdSense, which places advertisements on your blog, and pays on a per-click basis.
Ask for donations
If you are blogging for a cause or charity, ask for donations to help promote it (and pay your expenses). Insert a link to PayPal in a strategic location to provide a secure way to contribute. One thing to keep in mind with donations: be upfront with your readers about what percentage of their donation goes to the cause itself.
Consider freelance writing for corporate blogs
The market is booming for writers who can help develop and maintain a voice for those who want an online presence, but are too busy to write. Freelance writers need to be savvy when it comes to negotiating corporate contracts. I came across this gem as I was looking into the “blogging for dollars” concept.
Blogging for perks
Some companies provide products or services for review. These range from something as simple as a can of soup to high end electronics. While these items aren’t bankable, it is an easy way to score cutting edge technology, free travel opportunities or other valuable services. This blog gave an easy explanation on joining affiliate programs to blog for perks.
There is a wealth of information regarding blogging for dollars, and maybe someday I will consider adding it to my product line. Checkout www.problogger.com, www.associatedcontent.com, the WM Freelance Writers Connection and Writing for Your Wealth for smart tips on using your blog to generate revenue.
Next week: Check out the product I am testing for one of my clients! Watch out as I take to the streets of NYC on an electric bicycle!
Writing your Blog AND Keeping your Reader’s Attention
Blogging about Blogging: A How-To Guide to Setting Up Your Own:
Part 3 of 3
Consider the following suggestions to find your voice and keep your reader’s attention:
Use your own experiences
People are much more interested in the human experience than research you found online. Supplement your story with internet research, but don’t start with it.
Keep each posting to less than 300 words
You’d be surprised how quickly those words add up! Internet readers have a very limited attention span. They need the information they need, when they need it, and they generally don’t have the patience to sift through a lot of dense material. Keep words simple. Think and write in terms of keywords or tags that go to the very heart of your subject.
Find your format
Bullet points are easier to get through than long paragraphs. Tables are easier to read than sentences. Put similar blog content together into categories.
Don’t over edit yourself (at first)
Allow yourself to write without judgment or preconceived ideas. Then, go back a day later and re-arrange them if you need to. Great writing needs stellar editing. For most professional writers, editing is 70% of the task.
Get committed
You reduce your credibility if you say you will update each week, then don’t. Depending on your subject matter, you may want to have a number of blogs ready to publish before your first posting. These blogs (called evergreens) should be relevant to your topic, timeless in nature and easy to drop into your blog on a moment’s notice.
Good bloggers can engage and build their readership for the long term by sharing experiences (good and bad), writing in a style and format that is easy to digest in a short amount of time and being committed to their followers. (By the way,this posting is only 294 words!)
Next week: A blogging bonus: can your blog contribute to your bottom line? We’ll show you how!
Increase Readership and Promote Your Blog for Next to Nothing
Blogging about Blogging: A How-To Guide to Setting Up Your Own:
Part 2 of 3
Just like any other product or service in your business, your blog needs promotion,too. You can use a combination of free profile-raising practices and paid advertising to get the job done.
Experts agree that most of the growth of your blog should be organic. That is, your blog grows by networking, exchanging links to other blogs, participating in blog forums, or by just commenting on blogs that are similar to yours. This capitalizes on the very nature of blogs as a medium in, and of, the World Wide Web. However, we have also discovered a few other basic techniques to increase readership and advertise your blog, while keeping your budget in check:
Distribute to friends, family and colleagues
Consider using an e-mail marketing service such as Constant Contact. Easily upload your contact list from your address book, choose a template, click send, and your contacts will know your blog is posted in real time. A limited service is available free, and there is a bonus opt-out feature that guarantees that contacts who don’t want to hear from you, never will.
Utilize public bookmarking sites and search engines
It almost sounds like a foreign language: Digg, Reddit, Fark, Diigo, Delicious, and Technorati. These sites, also called user-generated media search engines, index your blog along with others of similar content. When you join one of these sites, be very careful in choosing the keywords to describe your blog. Internet readers don’t want to waste time sifting through unusable material. Make sure that you register your blog with Google, Yahoo, etc., so that when someone is searching for information about your products or services, your blog will be there with expert answers!
Use social media sites
When you post your blog, post a link on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Accounts are free and easy to set up. Social media sites are a great way to produce that organic growth that is so important in blogging.
Advertise every time you e-mail
Consider how many times you e-mail each day, and how many times those e-mails are forwarded. You have a HUGE opportunity to promote your blog by adding a link as part of your signature line. Ten minutes of work will produce serious dividends.
Become a part of the blogging community
Keep blogs with a similar content as yours in a favorites folder. At least once a week, comment on relevant postings. Make sure you include a link to your blog in your comment signature. You’ll stay abreast of new topics, become more connected with other bloggers and acquire THEIR readers as you’re own.
Consider paying for ads
Stumble Upon, AdWords by Google and social media site ads are relatively inexpensive, and can be targeted to your exact readership. With rates starting at a penny per click, you can directly appeal to readers who have a proven interest in your content. Make sure that the site displaying your ad, the ad itself, and the landing page (the place that your readers go when they click on your ad) are all relevant to your blog.
Through organic growth, marketing e-mail services and maybe some paid advertising you can steadily increase your readership,while keeping your budget in check.
Next week: We’ll show you how to write to keep your readers attention!
Making Blog Hosting Services Work for YOU and Your Company
Blogging about Blogging: A How-To Guide to Setting Up Your Own:
Part 1 of 3
There are many companies competing for your blogging business. You’ll pay for some, while others are free. Read on to choose between the two.
If you…
- Have a limited budget and want something free
- Don’t care whether your blog domain name is customizable
- Plan to do the designing yourself
- Don’t intend to make money through advertising on your blog, and don’t mind if others try to
- Aren’t sure of your commitment level or how long you’ll keep your blog going
Then, consider this…
We looked at two free blog hosting services, Wordpress.com or Blogger.com that offer the platform, domain name and hosting for free. We created an account, set up our blog and were ready to publish content in under an hour. However, with the benefits, we also found downsides: limited gigabyte storage; generic domain names(www.valgrubbandassociates.wordpress.com); and no advertising of our own (although the service may sell advertisements that appear on your blog). Blogger.com also requires followers have a Gmail account (which we felt is a major downside to this hosting site). That said, we thought, let’s go free now and upgrade later. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? We found out that the content transition maybe time-consuming and technically challenging; hence we went in search of paid sites which offered more capabilities.
If you…
- Want a domain name that is exclusively yours (i.e. no ‘wordpress’)
- Want exclusive control of your content and presentation
- Want users to follow your blog without the requirement of a specific email account
- Want to make money through advertising (and don’t want others to advertise on your blog)
- Are tech savvy (or know someone who is), and have a specific design in mind
- Care about where search engine optimization content is credited
Then consider this…
We looked at two paid blog hosting services: webhostinghub.com and godaddy.com , which aren’t exactly expensive,but you do pay a monthly fee starting at $5-$10 per month. We wanted our own domain name (blog.valgrubbandassociates.com), and really didn’t want to require a Gmail account of our followers. By paying a small fee, you will not be limited by the free service parameters described above and will be able to credit blog content to your company website. We selected Go Daddy (full disclosure - they also host VG&A's website); however, so you're fully aware, the editing template available is rather challenging to use. We're currently considering other options as well.
As we mentioned in the beginning, there are a LOT of companies offering hosting services. We mention a couple we looked at when exploring the how-to's of blogging. To help you get started, we've compiled a Top 10 list of free and paid hosting sites illustrated in the graphic above. If you're still waffling between free vs. a paid service, bear in mind that the research we did on business blogging pointed to the need for a paid blog site in order for the business to control content, presentation and advertising.
Whether you choose to go free and live with some of the downsides, or pay and spend more time and money developing blog content, you’re now well on your way to setting up your blog and posting content!
Next week: We’ll look at how to increase readership and advertise.