Blog monetising: how to bat it out of the ballpark

March 22, 2012 By 4 Comments

Blog monetising, how to bat it out of the ballpark

Sarah Arrow is the Queen of Blogging!  Having started Birds-on-the-Blog just a few years ago, it’s turned into an award winning, highly ranked busy blog platform.  Sarah’s agreed to share some of her expertise with you – learn and enjoy!

Every internet guru will tell you to monetise your blog, but few will tell you how. The reason for not telling you the “how” is so you can be sold a service or product later down the relationship. So here’s the deal; I’m going to tell you how to monetise your blog and if you think that you can do it, you can say thanks by sharing this post. Shall we shake on it?

Let’s get started then.

Determine who your ideal customer / read is.

No matter how much traffic your blog gets, if each post or page isn’t a love letter to your ideal customer (aka ideal reader) then your page will not convert the way you would like it to. If it converts at all. The love letter mentioned above has to talk directly to your ideal reader. The blog post has to demonstrate that you understand her wants, her needs, her deepest fears and most frequent dreams.

When your blog posts do this you may see an uptake in social sharing, and conversation taking place elsewhere. Slowly it will come and take place on your blog. Keep an eye on where most of your social activity comes from – this is where your ideal reader hangs out and targeted sharing in these locations will generate better results.

Have something to sell (and make it obvious).

Do you have a product to sell? Silly question? Sometimes you want to monetise your blog traffic but you have nothing to sell. It’s not the end of the world, you can use Adsense and other programs. But. You will make more money by selling your ideal customer a product to solve her problems than you will being paid pennies to sell her someone else’s product.

Of course, you can endorse and recommend products from other people that solve your ideal reader’s problem. This is known as being an affiliate for that product. The best affiliates try and use the product and then can advise their ideal customer if this products will resolve their burning issues. Reviews of these products work well and good, honest well balanced reviews convert far better than product reviews that are full of hype and not targeted correctly.

If you have built a rapport, and a community, selling a product just for the money and not trying it can back fire badly on you. Honesty in a product review or recommendation will build trust further. That’s far more valuable long term than an extra $10 dollars short term.

If you have brand with core values, only review and recommend products that sit in harmony with the brand. Don’t send conflicting messages.

Build your email list.

Yes, I know… this isn’t how you thought this post would be going is it? But stick with it, I’m sharing practical advice that actually works and earns money, not washy-washy it-worked-ten-years-ago-so-it-must-still-work- now advice. Back to email lists. Join AWeber, join MailChimp, get an email opt-in form and ask people to stay in touch with you.

Share your best information with your email list. Make these people your best friends. They are your ideal readers who have made a commitment to you. Honor that commitment and treat them well. For every email you send that asks something, send another email that gives something. If you send more gifts compared to asks you’ll start to get to know what gets your emails read and what doesn’t. This is valuable information. It’s priceless as it indicates what your readers are interested in and you can adapt this information accordingly.

Have a call to action.

Your blog posts need a call to action. Don’t think of it as selling, but guiding your reader what to do next. Your call to action doesn’t have to be in the post, it can be in the header (works well for service based businesses). The call to action can be in the sidebar. It can be almost anywhere you want it to be, just make sure you have one.

Monetise your existing blog posts.

Look over your stats. See what posts are getting the most traffic and add a call to action. That call to action might be to subscribe to your newsletter. It might be to pick up the phone and give you a call. Vary and test multiple calls to action on your existing highly traffick’d posts and see what works. If something converts well on one post, try it on another. See what your ideal reader likes and responds too. If you find you are generating the wrong kind of leads go back to point one – see who you are writing for.

If you find a certain post is getting a lot of traffic, see if there is an affiliate product you can associate with the post. If you write about insurance find an insurance broker with an affiliate scheme and see if that converts for you. If you are a shop, see if an upsell works for you. If you are a software developer see if a complete how-to guide works for you and your ideal reader.

At the very least, a high traffic post on your blog should ask the reader to subscribe to your blog and it’s newsletter if they like what they see.

Additional blog monetisation methods.

  • Adsense.

Above I mention Adsense. For some people Google Adsense is a great way to monetise their blog. It works best for niche blogs with hyper targeted content. If you are a business bloggger, you might not want to advertise a competing business. It is one of the easiest, fastest ways to monetise you blog, but it isn’t always the best way to monetise for you and your business.

  • Banner ads

Determine what you are offering the ad buyer.

  • Is it exposure?
  • Is it click-throughs?
  • Is the ad compatible with your site?

Some bloggers think that offering banner advertising in their header and their sidebar is a cool way to make lots of money. If you affiliate for products, that’s valuable real estate lost to a monthly fee paying advertiser. If you sell three affiliate products and earn £140 in commission, selling that space for £40 a month isn’t sound business practice.

If you sell your own products, make sure your products are advertised in the best converting ad positions unless your payout is higher for other products.

Remember to let people know that you are now accepting banner advertising on your site and let your email list know as well. Invite them to forward the email to people they know who may be interested in advertising with you.

Add a page spelling out what an advertiser can expect. They’ll want to know traffic, your reader demographics and how to get in touch with you.

  • Directories and community boards / membership forum

If your blog serves a particular community or niche, then a directory might be a monetising opportunity for you. Again, if it is in direct competition with your main business, then you may choose not to do it.

Another option may be to have a community board or membership forum. Think twice before you jump onto this bandwagon. It takes time to grow and nurture a membership site. You will need to have a technical person on hand and you will need to stoke activity on a daily basis. This is hard work. Sure, it pays off but if you are not prepared to do the work you have two options; pay someone to do it or Joint Venture with someone and play to both your strengths.

Blog monetising is not easy, it takes persistence and it takes hard work but it can be done in almost every blog niche. Want to know more? Ask a question in the comments section.

Sarah

Sarah Arrow is the managing editor of internationally renowned Birds on the Blog, twice listed by Forbes as one the top websites for women in the world. In her day job she blogs about very unsexy transportation issues in her role as communications director of a UK same day courier company. She’s also the co-author of Zero to Blogger.

 

Filed Under: Guest bloggers Tagged With: , ,

The simple approach to marketing

March 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Firstly, let’s get something straight – marketing is not selling, but selling is part of the marketing process!  In VERY simple terms marketing is finding a need and then fulfilling it.  However, there’s quite a bit more to it than that in reality!

This blog is a quick and dirty approach to marketing for the small business owner who quails in horror at the idea of spending days working on a comprehensive marketing strategy and tactics.  It can be relatively straightforward.

Step one:  What does your ideal client look like?  What size of business do they have?  What industry are they in?  What turnover do they have?  How many staff do they employ?  Who are their customers?  Use your best client as a template to draw upon.

Step two:  Does this profile indicate a particular niche of business types?  For instance, is your ideal client a company with at least 50 staff in a service industry?  Are they in a particular type of business – e.g. retail, motor dealership, cleaning services?  Or they in a particular field of expertise e.g. Finance managers, HR professionals, Facilities managers? When you’ve thought about this you should have at least one niche – maybe 3 or 4.

Step three:  Where do the people in this niche ‘hang out’?  Would you find them in a professional networking group, at a gym, online, offline?

Step four:  How could you get access to the place they’re at?  Join online or offline networking groups?  Do a free webinar, seminar, free information, etc?  Today there’s almost always some kind of online group (usually several) where your target audience, or at least some of them, chat, whether that’s Linked In, Facebook, Twitter or industry forums.

Step five:  Get involved, offer information, answer questions, quietly become an authority on your subject in relation to their business.  Give away information and be generous with your expertise.

This isn’t a comprehensive marketing strategy, but it’s a really good start and will raise your profile and people’s awareness.  It’s not a quick fix, this takes time so don’t expect a flood of people demanding your services, but, when they want what you’re offering there you are right in their field of vision, having demonstrated your expertise – who else will they ask?

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If you want more help you’ll find lots of useful documents in the Treasure Chest – and most of them are FREE!

Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: , ,

Publishing the hard way – 10 things I wish I had known before I became a Publisher

March 14, 2012 By 2 Comments

Jo Parfitt is a cracking editor and taught me most of what I know about editing books – what she doesn’t know about creating, writing, editing and publishing is not worth knowing.  This is her advice on publishing a book.

I have written 28 books and had them published every which way.  I’ve been published by the big guys (Macmillan, Octopus), published by the small guys (Zodiac, Bookshaker) and run my own publishing company since 1997 (Summertime Publishing).

I have published my own books, offer both paid for and traditional publishing services to authors and have published over 50 books ‘not by me’ as a result. Thanks to the rapid advances in technology and such things as Print on Demand, online bookstores, Kindle and iPad, my learning curve has been exponential.  Luckily I also recognise that the best ways to learn is by my mistakes.

I am happy to share with you ten things I learned the hard way.  I hope that they will stop you from making the same mistakes.

  1. Everyone needs an editor.  You cannot proof read your own books; no, not even if you are a really good writer.
  2. You do judge a book by its cover.  Yes it is worth paying an expert to design yours!
  3.  Know your genre.  If you know where your book will sit in a library or bookstore you will find it easier to sell.
  4. Bookstores do not like Print on Demand books.  The wholesalers don’t like dealing with the small guys and the small guys don’t like dealing with the wholesalers. They want 60% discount to hold your book in stock so it can be very hard to make a living from bookstores unless you print a few thousand copies at a time which will allow you to give the wholesalers that 60%.
  5. If you want to sell your book online via POD, it means you don’t need to hold stock, the book is printed and posted each time someone orders it.  All you do is collect the profit.  The downside is that the unit price of printing each book is a little higher.
  6. Converting the PDF of your print ready book to Kindle is not expensive (I pay 25cents a page).  So if you are going to produce a physical book it is a no-brainer to do it for Kindle too.
  7. The best way to make money from a book is to sell it at the ‘back of the room’, directly to your audience or students.  It makes sense – no bookstore takes a commission.
  8. You need to start blogging and building a following a year before your book comes out.  Ideally your blog and your website should share the same title as your book.
  9. One of the best ways to market your book, apart from social media of course, is to write and place articles in print and digital publications.  Learn to write useful, objective articles in your specialist topic and you will effectively earn yourself free advertising!
  10.  Consider finding a sponsor or advertisers for your book.  Consider branding certain editions for your clients and selling them 100s at a time. You only make a few quid from selling a single book. So find ways to sell 100s at a time instead.

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Jo Parfitt is owner of Summertime Publishing and she offers a complete mentoring service for new authors from ‘brainwave to bookshelf’.  She specialises in personal development and expatriate titles and her books can be seen at www.expatbookshop.com.  Visit the Tool Vault at www.joparfitt.com and help yourself to free gifts.

Filed Under: Guest bloggers, Uncategorized, Writing a book Tagged With: ,
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