How to M a k e Mo n e y B l o g g i n g | C ry s ta l Pa i n e
How to M a k e Mo n e y B l o g g i n g | C ry s ta l Pa i n e
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How to M a k e Mo n e y B l o g g i n g | C ry s ta l Pa i n e
Table of Contents
5 Necessary Traits of Successful Bloggers......................... 4
5 Ways to Set Your Blog Up for Success............................. 6
5 Tips for Writing Top-Notch Content........................... 10
10 Ways to Build & Increase Your Readership..................13
5 Tips for Maximizing Your Earnings
with Affiliate Advertising..................................................22
5 Tips for Selling More Sidebar Ads................................. 26
The Pros and Cons of Joining an Ad Network.............. 30
5 Ways to Use Your Blog as a Springboard
to Earn Additional Income ............................................... 34
About the Author................................................................ 40
Say Goodbye to Survival Mode............................................41
How to M a k e Mo n e y B l o g g i n g | C ry s ta l Pa i n e
5 Necessary Traits of
Successful Bloggers
One of the questions most often emailed to me is, “How do you make
money blogging?”
The short answer is—it’s easier and harder than you may think.
It’s easy because it requires very little cash outlay up-front, you don’t need
a degree or certification, the field is wide open, and the profit margins are
high.
On the other hand, setting up a successful blog that makes a part-time or
full-time income will only be the result of massive amounts of effort, determination, consistency, and perseverance.
If you want to be a successful blogger, here are five qualities you must possess.
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1. Successful Bloggers Are Marathoners,
Not Sprinters.
Anyone can be a successful blogger, but unless you’re already a celebrity,
there’s no such thing as overnight blogging success. It takes hard work,
sweat, and more hard work. It may be a few months before you ever see a
penny from your hours of labor invested into your blog.
2. Successful Bloggers Have Incredible Passion.
If you don’t think you could write three posts per week for the next two
years on your chosen blog topic, you need to choose either a different
topic or a different work-at-home idea.
3. Successful Bloggers Are Self-Starters.
It’s great to learn from others, but if you want to be spoon-fed, you won’t
succeed. Roll up your sleeves, start digging and researching. Read books
on blogging, read articles on blogging, read blogs on blogging, watch bloggers who are successfully blogging, and do your own experimentation.
4. Successful Bloggers Are Creative.
In a market that is already saturated, fresh and unique voices and approaches are those that will stand head and shoulders above the rest. How
are you going to be different from all the other bloggers in your niche?
5. Successful Bloggers Are Consistent.
Readers come back when they can count on you having regularly-updated
content. It’s much better to post three times per week every week, than to
post thirty times one week every few months.
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5 Ways to Set Your Blog Up
for Success
1. Pick a Great Name for Your Blog.
Your blog name should encompass your blog’s mission and should clearly
articulate your blog’s purpose. Don’t hurry through the process of picking a name; it’s your brand and you want to make sure you love it and it’s
something you’re going to love for years to come.
Take a week or two to consider potential names. Ask a few trusted
friends to give their input. Toss around ideas, and when you land upon
ones you like, check to see if the domain name (the www website address)
is available on GoDaddy.com before jumping ahead and settling on any
one name.
Important note: Blog names can be federally trademarked. This means
that an individual or company owns the federal rights to a particular name
or phrase. It cannot be used by others or you will be subject to fines and
required to discontinue using the name. To be safe, search thoroughly
online to make sure no one is using the name you come up with or a very
similar variation of it.
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2. Purchase the Domain Name and All Variations.
As soon as you land on the blog name you love and have double-checked
that no one is using it, buy the domain name immediately. It usually costs
around $10 to $20 per year for this and it’s worth every penny to have
your own domain name for your blog.
I always purchase domain names from GoDaddy.com just because that’s
what I’ve always done. However, if you are planning to set up your blog
through Blogger (see point 3 below), it’s much, much easier if you purchase the domain name directly through Blogger rather than through a
separate domain name service because the domain will be automatically
set to point to your Blogger blog. You won’t have to go through the process
to manually input the code yourself to point the domain to your blog.
I also suggest, if you want to think long-term and hope to turn your blog
into a successful business, that you purchase all variations of your domain
name. That way, you don’t have to worry about someone else setting up a
site with a domain name very similar to yours.
3. Choose the Right Blog Platform from the Get-Go.
Not too long ago I was asked “What is the one thing you wish you had
done differently when setting up your blog.”
I immediately replied, “I wish I had started with WordPress*.”
I started with Blogger because that was pretty much the only blogging
platform in existence at the time. I moved to TypePad when the Blogger
SPAM bots marked my blog as SPAM in 2008 and I was locked out of my
Blogger blog for 10 days.
Near the end of 2009, my blog outgrew TypePad and I was forced to
switch to WordPress. Making the leap from TypePad to WordPress was
daunting and tedious. We had to move thousands of posts and hundreds
*Referring to self-hosted Wordpress that can be downloaded at Wordpress.org, not the free,
hosted version of Wordpress at Wordpress.com
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of thousands of comments. There were all sorts of glitches and it was a big
learning curve.
Truth be told, though it was a major headache, it was one of the best blogging moves I’ve ever made. WordPress has allowed me to have a much
more organized blog and offer many features I couldn’t with TypePad and
Blogger.
So if I were to suggest a blog platform, I’d highly recommend WordPress.
It’s more expensive, but it gives you many more options than other platforms offer. Plus, you don’t have to worry about your blog getting locked
or outgrowing TypePad.
Another big perk of WordPress is that it has much more sophisticated
SEO capabilities (i.e. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and basically refers to optimizing your site so it comes up high in search engines.
People will find you a lot more easily if you come up on the first page
or two of Google rather than page 133!). I don’t do a lot for SEO at this
point, but I’m all about doing small things to help improve where MoneySavingMom.com shows up when you search for “money-saving blogs”
or “grocery budget.” WordPress makes it extremely simple to accomplish
this.
4. Hire a Designer.
Back in the “olden” days when there weren’t many blogs, if you had great
content and updated regularly, you’d have a good number of readers—
even if you had a basic, free Blogger blog design. Today, because there are
so many more blogs, great content is paramount, but a nice design and
ease-of-use is also very important. If people find your blog design dull or
your layout disorganized, they are much more apt just to go find another
blog.
Now please don’t let this discourage you. You don’t need a fancy-schmancy
blog with lots of bells and whistles. A simple, clean design that is easy to
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navigate can make a world of difference. And paying someone to set this
up for you may be worth the money.
If you can’t afford a designer, at least consider paying to have someone
design your header, and then take the time to learn some basic HTML so
you can tweak your sidebar.
5. Plan Your Posts Ahead of Time.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a new blog advertised and been all
excited to check it out, only to find there were a whopping three posts on
it! If you want people to stick around, you need to have depth and series
and a variety of posts.
Before you open your doors to the public, go ahead and post 10 to 15
posts, plus plan out and write another 15 to have in queue to post after
you start advertising your blog. Not only will this allow you to get your
feet wet and get accustomed to blogging before you have a real live audience, it also provides some great content for people to check out when
they visit your blog.
I love Google calendar for planning out post series long-term. I also have
recently begun printing out a monthly calendar to pencil in specific posts
for each day. This gives me accountability, inspiration, and organization—
well, at least it’s better than my former blog-by-the-seat-of-my-pants routine!
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5 Tips for Writing
Top-Notch Content
1. Be You.
One of the greatest hindrances to successful blogging is trying to be someone else. You are not someone else. You will never be someone else. You
are you!
You are unique and one-of-a-kind. You have amazing gifts and talents that
many people don’t. You have a perspective on life that no one else in the
whole wide world does because no one else is you.
Learn from other bloggers, but figure out who you are, and be you.
2. Be Confident.
It’s easy to become discouraged and to feel completely inadequate when
you see other bloggers who seem to have more creativity, a cuter blog, a
more-frequently-updated blog, more traffic, more comments, more Facebook followers, and on and on it goes. You can spend so much time wor-
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rying about not measuring up that you completely lose sight of what you
have to offer as a blogger.
As I used to tell a dear friend of mine who often felt incompetent as a blogger (and who has now gone on to create a wildly successful blog), “Don’t
be mouse-y!” Any time spent sitting and sulking about your lack of ability,
or worrying about what people will think of you, is time that is wasted.
3. Be Engaging.
Interact with your readers and respond to their comments and emails as
much as you can. Ask your readers for their advice and input and listen
to what they have to say. Your readers want to know that you value them.
And you should, because without them, you’d have no audience to write
for!
Don’t be afraid to try new things—even if they fail. Don’t always post the
same things in the same way. Throw in some off-topic posts, photos or
videos every now and then. Occasional surprises and unexpected posts will
help keep things exciting.
4. Be Real.
Readers aren’t looking for perfectionism; they are looking for realness. We
all make mistakes and we all have our areas we struggle with. Don’t try to
pretend that you have all your ducks in an alphabetized row.
Be honest, be open, and be vulnerable (when appropriate). People will
connect with authenticity, but they will run from hypocrisy.
5. Be a Perfectionist.
This might seem to fly in the face of being real, but I’m not talking about
being perfect as a person, but about being thorough and detailed as a blogger. Frequent typos and blatant grammar errors are irritating.
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Sloppiness will never get you far. Always proofread your posts at least
twice before publishing them. Constantly seek to improve as a writer.
Read books and blogs written by good writers. Critique your writing and
ask others to do the same.
Please, please, please do not use massive paragraphs without paragraph
breaks. This is one of the easiest ways to turn people off from reading your
blog. Blog paragraphs should be no more than a few lines long so that
people can read them easily on a computer screen.
Three more don’ts: Don’t center the text. Don’t use exclamation points,
all caps or ellipses excessively. Don’t use multiple fonts.
Use subheadings in articles that are longer than a few paragraphs.
Include graphics and/or photos on most posts. And did I mention how
important it is to proofread your posts before hitting publish?
Bonus Point: Be Careful!
If you share something in a public forum like your blog, you can never
completely take it back. Always assume everyone in the whole world
may read what you write.
Don’t use names, photos, or other identifying information without
thinking carefully about the potential ramifications. It’s better to be
safe than sorry.
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10 Ways to Build & Increase
Your Readership
1. Produce Consistent, Quality Content.
People visit a blog more often if they know they can count on it being updated regularly. Consistently commit to post at least three times each week
and you’ll be well on your way to building your readership.
2. Make It Very Simple for People to Subscribe.
If someone subscribes to your blog’s feed or email newsletter, they are
much more likely to remember your blog on a regular basis.
Make it very obvious on your blog’s sidebar how to subscribe, and occasionally remind your readers of the ease and benefits of subscribing (giving
a little something away as a reward for subscribing doesn’t hurt either!)
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3. Comment on Other Blogs.
A great way to encourage people to check out your own blog is to leave
interesting comments on other blogs. If people like your comment, they
are very likely to click on your name and wander over to your blog.
Please do make sure your comment adds value to the discussion though.
Don’t just say “great post!” and then leave your link. Comments that sound
like an infomercial for your blog or that serve no purpose other than to
try and get people to click over to your blog are not something bloggers or
blog readers appreciate.
Amy has some great tips on how to effectively make use of your time
when commenting on other blogs.
4. Write Guest Posts.
Many, many blogs (including this one!) readily accept well-written, relevant guest posts, and it’s one of the most effective ways to introduce your
blog and your writing style to a new audience. As an added benefit, if the
blog you guest post for has a lot of traffic and ranks high in search engines,
having a link or two to your blog on that blog will increase your search
engine rankings too.
When submitting a guest post, make sure that it follows that blog’s guest
post guidelines, and carefully proofread it before you send it (you wouldn’t
believe how many guest posts submissions we receive that are riddled with
glaring typos!). If it gets rejected, don’t take it personally. I’ve rejected
many fabulous guest posts over the years, usually because I felt they were
better suited for a different audience than mine. Submit it to another blog
for consideration instead.
5. Participate in Weekly Memes.
Blog memes are the weekly link-up opportunities many blogs host, such
as Works-For-Me Wednesday. There are thousands of different memes
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out there, and this provides a great opportunity to get new visitors to your
blog.
I recommend that you try participating in one to two different memes
each week when you’re first starting out. Track your traffic after you participate to see which ones are most successful and bring the most visitors.
And just my personal opinion here: don’t link up to 25 different memes in
one post. It looks tacky and I believe it waters down your post’s effectiveness.
6. Host Giveaways.
Readers love giveaways. It’s a way to generate buzz for your site, give something back to your readers, and get additional traffic by linking up to giveaway link-ups (ours goes up every Monday afternoon).
If there’s one thing I want to encourage with giveaways, it’s this: don’t
overdo it and don’t make people jump through a bunch of hoops to
enter. Okay, that was two things, but I think they are both vital for giveaway success.
Giveaways are great—in moderation. Unless your blog is primarily a product review blog, any more than 10–20% of a ratio of giveaways to regular
posts is probably too much. And make it simple for people to enter. I
promise your readers will appreciate it.
As a side note: be honest in your reviews if you’re including them with
a product. If you didn’t love something, there’s no need to gush up and
down about it.
Your readers appreciate honesty and forthrightness. Show pros and cons.
But, as I’ve learned the hard way, if you only have critical things to say
about a product, it’s probably better to skip the giveaway altogether since
most companies aren’t really excited about sponsoring a giveaway where
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the blogger just posts a very negative review of the product.
Many new bloggers think you must have a big blog or super secret sources
in order to host giveaways on your blog. But guess what! There is no super
secret society one must be admitted to in order to run giveaways. Nor do
you need to have substantial traffic.
No matter the size of your blog, there are thousands of companies who
would love to offer a giveaway to your readers. Seriously. And once you get
started with giveaways, you’ll likely quickly find that there are many more
opportunities than you have time and space for!
How Do You Start Offering Giveaways?
(1) Give Something of Your Own Away.
When I was very new to blogging and didn’t know any better, I often paid
for my own giveaways. In fact, I often gave away products that I personally
owned and no longer needed.
While this is not the ideal, it is an excellent way to “get your feet wet”
when it comes to giveaways. When you approach a company regarding
running a giveaway (see next point), you’ll likely have better success in
procuring a giveaway if you can show them that you’ve successfully run
giveaways in the past.
If you use Swagbucks (and if you don’t, what are you waiting for?!), you
might consider giving away a gift card you’ve earned through them. That
way, it doesn’t cost you actual money out of pocket. And readers love gift
card giveaways.
(2) Approach Companies and Ask If They’ll Run a Giveaway.
If you don’t have companies beating your door down to request that you
do a giveaway with them, start getting proactive! Have a product or website that you love, write and ask them if they’d consider running a giveaway
on your blog. It’s that easy!
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Be professional, be concise, and make sure to clearly explain how running
a giveaway on your blog would be a win for their company. I’d recommend
that you share your blog stats with them, link to a recent giveaway you’ve
run, and share why you feel their product or website is well-suited to your
blog’s audience. In addition, I’d state upfront two ideas you have for a
giveaway but also convey that you’re open to other ideas they might have.
(3) Ask for a Contact From Another Blogger Who Has Run a
Giveaway.
Has one of your blogging friends run a giveaway with a company that you
think would also be a great fit for your blog? Ask them if they’d be willing
to pass along their contact at that company to you.
Now, please don’t abuse this idea! Most bloggers are happy to share their
contacts with you, but don’t expect or demand that they must share all
their contacts with you as most bloggers work hard to establish relationships with PR and Advertising companies. But if they are willing to share,
this can be a great way to get a direct contact for a person at a company or
PR Agency which is likely interested in running giveaways on blogs.
(4) Respond to a Press Release With a Giveaway Pitch.
Once you’ve been blogging for a little while, you’ll often begin to receive
press releases about new products from companies and PR Agencies. If
you’re interested in the product and think it would be a great fit for your
blog’s audience, consider writing back and pitching a giveaway. Companies are sending out a press release to garner buzz for their product, so
they’ll often bite on a giveaway pitch.
7. Interact on Facebook and Twitter.
A year and a half ago, my husband suggested I set up a Facebook Page.
I wasn’t too sure if it was worth it, but I went ahead and did it. I was
shocked at how much traffic it generated from the start and how many
people signed up as fans!
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The beautiful thing about a Facebook Page is that when someone interacts
on your page, it shows up on their personal page. Many people have told
me they originally found my blog through a friend on Facebook.
In addition, my Facebook Page is one of the highest generators of traffic
to my blog each month. Needless to say, I’m listening more carefully when
my husband suggests I add something to my blog.
A successful Facebook page doesn’t sit dormant. It should be updated at
least once a day, preferably a few times per day. Post links to all your blog
posts, share posts from the archives and throw in the occasional picture or
real-time funny story, quote or question. The more you interact with your
fans, the better.
By the way, I recommend posting your links manually on Facebook, instead of using an auto-post set up. Not only does this cause you to see if
people are commenting or leaving questions, but this also shows up more
readily in people’s feeds (auto-post tends to bury posts so people never see
them).
8. Link Liberally to Other Bloggers.
Want to know one way to have people find your blog? Link to their blog!
Most bloggers track their stats and incoming links and will click over to
see if someone has linked to them. They might just end up linking back to
you if they like what they see.
Now I’m not advocating a “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” sort
of mentality here, but I know that some bloggers are so scared they might
lose traffic if they link to another blog. I’ve found the exact opposite to be
true.
If you find a great blog or blog post that you think your readers would
love, share it on your blog or Facebook Page! Don’t keep a good thing to
yourself.
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9. Network with Other Bloggers.
Back when I first starting blogging, if you blogged semi-consistently and
were even remotely interesting, you had no problem getting readers. Nowadays, there are so many more blogs and it’s a lot harder to build your
readership. One of the key components—aside from so many of the other
things we’ve discussed in this series—is to network with other bloggers.
I’ve learned everything I know about blogging from more experienced
and wiser people. They’ve given me counsel, they’ve taught me things I
would have never figured out on my own, they’ve encouraged me when I
was feeling burnt out or discouraged, and they’ve challenged me to better
myself as a blogger and writer.
Find bloggers you can connect with (either online or in your local area)
to bounce ideas off of, to keep each other accountable and to share new
things you’re learning or experimenting. These friendships can be invaluable—and it’s also nice to spend time with people who “get” what this
whole blogging thing is about!
Partner with other bloggers to create series (see Honoring the Man They
Call Daddy for an example), team up with other bloggers to raise awareness about issues you care about and guest post on each other’s blogs. Always be looking for ways to join forces with other bloggers in a way that
will benefit your readers—and theirs as well.
10. Create a Community.
Finally, if you want to build your readership, you need to be there for
them. Don’t just write a post and then disappear and let readers talk
amongst themselves in the comments. Respond to questions asked and
interact with your readers on a regular basis. In fact, when you are first
starting out, you might to try to respond to all comments left. It encourages people to stick around and it makes them feel a part of a community.
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Even if you can’t respond to every comment, whatever you do, don’t just
show up to respond to commenters. As Jon Acuff says, “If you only respond to jerks on your blog, eventually you’ll create a blog that only jerks
read.” It’s totally okay to explain yourself to those who misunderstood
your post or are offended, but it’s much more important to respond to the
faithful, encouraging commenters. They care much more deeply about
you than a fly-by-night nasty anonymous commenter ever does.
In addition, listen to your readers: ask for their advice, welcome their input, and let them know how much you appreciate them.
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A Word of Caution
People always ask me, “How do you do it all?” I think the important
thing to remember is that I’ve slowly added new things—Facebook,
Twitter, email newsletter, etc. If I had tried to set it all up all at once, I
would have been completely overwhelmed.
Pace yourself when setting up a blog. Challenge yourself to try new
things little by little, don’t go and implement everything all at once. Pick
one or two things to focus on for the next few months. Set goals for each
month, break these goals down into weekly goals, and then work on
them for 10–15 minutes each day. Over time, it will likely start to become old hat and you can add new goals and experiment with new ideas.
However, remember to compare yourself with yourself only. There
will always be another blogger doing a better job of this or that or the
other. Don’t let it discourage you. Look at the progress you are making
towards your goals—even if it seems very slow and miniscule—and be
encouraged by that.
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5 Tips for Maximizing
Your Earnings with
Affiliate Advertising
Now that we’ve laid a good foundation for successful blogging, we’re ready
to dive into those income-earning streams. The first—and easiest—is affiliate marketing.
For those who may have never heard the term of affiliate marketing before,
it’s basically when you are paid to promote another person’s product, coupon, deal, or website. It’s typically CPA advertising—which means that
you only get paid per action. In other words, a reader must take some
form of action (purchase something, click through your link and sign up
for something, download a coupon or ebook, etc.)
You sign up for an affiliate program (I’ll share some of my favorites in a
little bit), you promote your unique affiliate link that the company gives
you, and then you are paid if your readers buy the item or sign up for the
item.
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For instance, I promoted Amy’s Tell Your Time ebook recently. She has
an affiliate program that offers 50% of the sales to the affiliate. Since the
ebook is on sale for $2, I earn $1 for every person who clicks through my
affiliate link and makes a purchase. So, if 100 people buy the ebook, I’ll
make $100 in affiliate earnings.
In many cases, people have to make a purchase in order for you to earn
money as an affiliate. However, there are also hundreds of other options
that require no purchase. To give you an example, I’m an affiliate for Coupons.com, RedPlum, and SmartSource. If I post a great coupon that is
on any of these sites, I earn anywhere from $0.02 to $0.80 per coupon
printed (I have different agreements with each network and some pay per
coupon printed, others pay a flat fee per print session per user per day).
As you can imagine, since one of the key focuses of MoneySavingMom.
com happens to be using coupons, the affiliate money earned from coupons printed is one of the highest revenue earners. However, it is a win-win
situation, because I’m sharing a great deal with you, it’s hopefully helping
you save money and get a great deal, and then we both benefit from it.
With that background in place, here are my top five tips for maximizing
affiliate advertising.
1. Don’t Compromise Your Values for a
Quick Buck.
Affiliate marketing can be an incredible income stream for bloggers, but
there are some definite pitfalls to be wary of. You want to be very careful
that you don’t just give something a great review or post about something
because you’re earning something for promoting it.
I always stop and ask myself before posting something that includes an
affiliate link, “Would I post about this if I were not earning a referral fee
from it?”
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2. Promote Affiliate Links in Your Posts Instead
of Your Sidebar.
I’ve found that it’s much more effective to weave affiliate links into your
posts, rather than to just put affiliate links on the sidebar. If you’re already
going to be writing about a site or product, check to see if they have an
affiliate program so you can use your referral link.
3. Experiment, Experiment, Experiment.
It takes awhile to learn what works when it comes to affiliate links. Don’t
give up if you try it a few times and it doesn’t work or result in any sales or
click-thrus. Keep testing things out, tweaking your approaches, and learning what works for your audience.
4. Be Up-front and Honest.
In the last few months, I started denoting all posts that contain an affiliate link with a simple note at the bottom letting you know that the post
contains an affiliate link. This way, you know exactly what you’re getting
here and when I’m getting something in return. Not only have I received
a lot of positive feedback from you all about this change, it also helps to
keep me accountable in what I post to make sure I truly am following my
policy to have your best interests in mind.
5. Remember That Less Is More.
A few strategically placed affiliate links are almost always going to be more
effective than hundreds of affiliate links all over the place. It’s better to wait
and only promote affiliate links that really fit within your blog’s mission
and purpose than to post every other affiliate deal and opportunity that
arises.
Your readers trust your endorsement more if it’s not something you give
as often. If you don’t feel comfortable with something, don’t promote it.
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My Current Top-Earning Affiliates
(listed in order of their average earnings from the past few months):
Logical Media
Living Social
MySavings
Commission Junction
ShareASale
Panthera Network
Coupon-printing
Coupons.com
RedPlum
SmartSource
Coupon Network
Amazon
Amazon.com would be higher up on the list, but Amazon recently bumped
my affiliate earnings to a flat-rate of 0.8% on all sales, no matter how
many items affiliate sales I have in a month. Their reasoning was that I am
sending too many low-profit sales to them so they had to change the terms
of my affiliate agreement.
There are also many other miscellaneous programs I am an affiliate for
that occasionally will have a really great deal or offer bumping them up to
higher on the list.
If you’re interested in joining any affiliate programs, Amy has a great list
of many different affiliates.
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5 Tips for Selling
More Sidebar Ads
Last week, we talked about how to maximize your affiliate earnings. Today, we’re delving into a another way to make money blogging—by selling
sidebar ads.
While selling sidebar ads yourself does require more work and effort, it
can really pay off in the long run. Plus, it’s a great option for blogs in every
genre. And if you don’t want to use an advertising network because you
don’t have as much control over the ads they run (we’ll talk more about
advertising networks soon), selling sidebar ads yourself allows you to have
complete control over what is running on your blog at all times.
Here are five tips to help you sell more sidebar ads:
1. Make It Obvious.
You know the number one reason most people don’t sell as many sidebar
ads as they’d like to sell? Because they aren’t making it very obvious and
conspicuous that they even offer advertising in the first place!
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Most people aren’t going to take the time to dig through your site and try
to figure out how to advertise on it. In fact, some people will never even
realize there’s an option to advertise unless you clearly let them know you
have advertising spots for sale.
Put an advertise tab in your header that links to your advertising page.
This page should include details on your traffic (advertisers typically want
to know pageviews and unique visitors), your demographics, a few details
on your site, advertising options, advertising prices, and testimonials from
former (or current) advertisers. You could do an elaborate downloadable
media kit like Michael Hyatt has, or just stick with a simple page like
Life as MOM has.
Whatever you do, make a compelling case for why someone should advertise on your site. Don’t be bashful; a potential advertiser needs to know
clearly why advertising on your site is going to be a great thing for their
business.
2. Run a Half-Priced Special.
If you’re just getting started offering sidebar ads, get things off with a
bang by offering a half-priced special on your sidebar advertising. Write
up a post highlighting this special pricing and approach companies you’ve
worked with to run giveaways in the past letting them know you are offering a limited-time advertising special.
With some effort and enthusiasm, you should be able to get at least a few
advertisers to bite. And once you have a few signed up to advertise, you’ll
find it’s usually easier to find more advertisers—especially if you make it
obvious that you offer advertising (see point 1).
3. Offer Discount Packages.
It’s great to start out with selling simple sidebar ads, but people will be
much more interested in all-inclusive discounted advertising packages.
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For instance, instead of just selling a sidebar ad for $25 per month, offer
a three-month package that includes a sidebar ad, a post write-up about
the company, a giveaway from the company, and a text link in your email
feed—all for the discounted price of $150 total.
If you want to take this idea a step further, put together three different
package levels at three different pricing points. A potential advertiser
might not want to pay for your top-tier advertising package that’s $500,
but they will be more apt to go for the $150 package versus just paying
$25 for a simple sidebar ad.
You can also offer discounts for advertisers who purchase three months’
or six months’ of advertising at a time. Not only will the discount appeal
to them, it will save you time and effort in having to go out and secure
another advertiser for that slot every month!
4. Throw in Some Extras.
You know how fast food restaurants always try to upsell you? Well, you
can do the same thing with your sidebar advertising—only you can do it
for free! Think of other options you could throw in to seal the deal such
as: a free mention of the company on Facebook, a free mention on Twitter, and/or a free mention in a blog post when they purchase a sidebar ad.
5. Keep Your Advertising Spots Filled—Even If
They Aren’t Sold.
Want to know one of my biggest sidebar advertising pet peeves? When
people have a big blank box on the sidebar that, instead of being an ad,
says “Advertise Here”.
This screams, “My advertising space isn’t valuable enough for people to
want to buy so I instead have this big blank box!” That’s not the message
you probably want to convey to potential advertisers.
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Put the advertise tab in your header that links to your advertising information page and link to this in a small text link underneath your advertising
spots, but don’t have a big blank box. If you don’t fill all your advertising
spots every month, either replace the empty spots with an affiliate ad or
give a free ad to a friend.
How Much Should You Charge?
How you price your advertising will depend upon many factors—your
blog’s traffic, your blogging niche, where the ad will be placed, how many
ad spots you are selling, and the demand. I always encourage people to
start out with lowball prices and gradually move up from there.
Advertising is usually priced per thousand pageviews (CPM), so I suggest starting with $0.50 – $1 per thousand pageviews and working up
from there. This means that if your blog currently gets 10,000 pageviews
per month, you could start out charging something like $10 per month
for a small 250Г—250 sidebar ad that is located near the middle of your
sidebar or higher. As your traffic increases and the demand for sidebar
advertising increases, you can slowly raise this price.
I’d suggest selling no more than six to eight sidebar ads maximum. If
you have too many ads running, their value decreases. It’s easier for you
and better for the advertiser if you have a few higher-paying, larger ads on
the sidebar than a bunch of small ads all over the place.
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The Pros and Cons of
Joining an Ad Network
We’ve talked about affiliate marketing and private advertising as ways to
make money blogging. Another income stream to add to your blog is to
join an ad network.
Ad networks are basically advertising brokers. You offer the advertising
space on your blog and they try to sell the space for you. If they sell the
space, they take a cut of the sale (usually 40-50%).
Some people love using an ad network. Others haven’t had such great experiences. Here are a few of my thoughts on the pros and cons of joining
an ad network.
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The Pros
1. Ad Networks Require Little Effort
Instead of private advertising where you have to do all the legwork of selling the ad and setting up the ad, when you join an ad network, you do
nothing but sign a contract, put some HTML code on your sidebar, and
then get checks.
2. Ad Networks Usually Earn You More Than
Private Advertising or Affiliate Ads Do
How much you make with an advertising network will vary widely. I’ve
heard of people making as low as $1-$2 CPM (per thousand pageviews)
or as much as $15 to $20 per CPM.
However, remember how I said last week that you could charge $0.50 to
$1 per CPM for selling private advertising? Well, that’s very much on the
low end for ad networks. From what I’ve researched, most people make
$2-$4 CPM on average with most ad networks. If you’re just starting out
selling private advertising and haven’t had enough demand to warrant raising the price, you will very likely make more with an ad network than you
will with private ads.
3. Ad Networks Often Sell More Than Just Ads
While the revenue from sidebar advertising can be good, the revenue from
other advertising opportunities is usually much better. I don’t accept sponsored posts, but I have done a few underwritten post series (such as my
Christmas Gift Guide & Giveaways series).
My Christmas series paid very well and I never would have gotten that opportunity had my ad network not made the phone calls and coordinated
the details to close that deal. Since they are working with multiple bloggers, they are able to attract advertisers with big advertising budgets–something I’m not usually able to do on my own.
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The Cons
1. Ad Networks Give You Less Control
I shied away from joining an ad network for a number of years because I
wanted to have control over what ads showed on my sidebar. Every single
ad network I talked to was unwilling to let me have control over what ads
showed on my sidebar.
I finally discovered that Federated Media would give me a say and joined
their ad network early last year. While some unapproved ads have slipped
through the cracks on occasion (due to hiccups with their ad placement
system), they have been exceptional about removing any campaigns immediately if I request it. From what I’ve heard, most ad networks are not
always so compliant.
2. Ad Networks Can Be Difficult to Get In With
It took me a number of months and persistence, plus a kind friend giving
me a shoe-in, before I was able to get in with Federated Media. The best
ad networks often have a long waiting list and few openings.
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Things to Consider Before Joining
An Ad Network
c Will they offer you a guaranteed CPM rate? Most ad networks that
are actively “courting” bloggers are new or struggling. They’ll make you all
sorts of great-sounding promises, but very few are willing to back those up
with a guarantee in writing. If an ad network will only guarantee you pay
of around $2 or less per CPM on average, you will probably do better to
just stick with using Google Adsense on your sidebar.
c What are the terms of the contract? Is it an exclusive agreement that
would bar you from being able to run private ads or affiliate ads? If so,
don’t agree to it. How do you get out of the contract? Have these details in
writing ahead of time so you don’t get stuck in some bad situation.
c Will you have control over the ads they run? If you run a blog
on healthful eating, you probably don’t want McDonald’s Big Mac ads
running on your sidebar. Sending mixed messages to your readership is a
quick way to lose your integrity. Make sure that the ad network promises
in writing to remove ads you deem to be inappropriate for your blog.
c What do other bloggers in the network think of it? One of the best
ways to determine whether or not a network is right for you is to go find
other bloggers who are a part of the network and ask them how it is working out for them. You might find that what the ad network reps promised
you on the phone is entirely the opposite of what bloggers in their network
are actually experiencing. Firsthand knowledge is priceless and could save
you a huge headache.
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5 Ways to Use Your
Blog as a Springboard to
Earn Additional Income
Not only are there many ways to earn income directly from blogging, but
blogging also opens up a host of other ways to earn money indirectly. Here
are five ways I’ve used my blog as a springboard to earn additional income.
1. Teach an Online Class.
I taught my first online course back in 2006–way back when I was just
learning about online marketing and blogging and really didn’t have much
of a clue what I was doing. That first class was successful, so I taught another and another and another. Not only did I learn so much through
teaching (and hopefully imparted some helpful information to my students!), but it was a great source of side income to supplement our family
during a lean season.
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With just a few simple tools, you can teach video or audio courses online.
Or, you can put together a package with video and/or audio plus a course
handbook like Carrie’s Grocery University.
Consider what are your areas of expertise and what questions you are asked
most as a blogger and then see if there’s a way you can turn these ideas into
a marketable online class. Offer the class very inexpensively the first time
around as you learn the ropes, ask other bloggers to promote the class for
you (you could write a guest post for a few blogs on a relevant topic and
then link to your class in your bio), and make sure to include testimonials from those who have gone through the class on your sales page.
2. Write an Ebook.
Writing and selling ebooks is one market that is untapped by many, many
bloggers–and there’s tremendous potential to earn a few hundred (or even
a few thousand dollars!) each year by selling ebooks.
In the early days of blogging, selling ebooks was the bread and butter of
our business. As our business has grown and our income has increased,
I’ve moved away from selling ebooks, but I’d still highly recommend this
to other bloggers–especially if you don’t mind dealing with the occasional
difficult customer service issue.
There are a few things you must know about successfully selling ebooks,
though:
You need to write on a relevant, practical topic. The best-selling ebooks
are those that tell you how to make money, save money, lose weight, cook
better, get organized, or somehow practically improve your life. Unfortunately, an ebook comprised of poems is probably not going to sell well.
Your cover and sales page are everything. You can write a killer ebook,
but if your cover is cheesy and your sales page is pathetic, it probably won’t
sell. Hire a designer to do your cover (it’s worth the expense, I promise!),
and make sure that your sales page has a clear-cut call to action, includes
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specific details on why someone should buy your book, and has testimonies to back up your claims.
You must exhaust every marketing possibility. People need to see things
again and again and again in order to consider buying. Write guest posts,
get every blogger possible to review your ebook, run ebook giveaways on
dozens of blogs, and find every other creative free way to get your ebook
out there.
If you are planning to write an ebook, I heartily recommend Sarah Mae’s
ebook, How to Market and Sell Your Ebook. It’s packed with helpful
information and advice and is worth every penny. Also, be sure to read her
article on how to sell $20,000 worth of your next ebook.
Two weeks ago, we talked about teaching an online class and writing an
ebook as two ways to earn money indirectly through blogging. Here are
three additional ideas:
3. Accept Speaking Engagements.
If you love public speaking (or want to grow to love it!), you can make a
fairly good side income through accepting public speaking engagements.
If you don’t have people beating a path to your door offering to fly you to
their event and pay you to speak, never fear, you just need to work on getting your name out there and building up a reputation as a highly soughtafter speaker.
Depending upon your blog’s topic, you could offer to speak at local events
for free in order to build your portfolio. Or, you could offer a class through
your local community center for a small fee per sign-up. If the class is well
received, you could offer it on a regular basis or teach the same class in
nearby towns, as well.
If you hope to be asked to do more speaking opportunities, you could
set up a page on your blog that outlines details on what speaking engage-
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ments you accept, past speaking experience, testimonials, future speaking
engagements, and how people can contact you about possibly speaking at
their event.
As an added bonus, speaking engagements can put your name and blog
name in front of dozens or even hundreds of people who haven’t heard of
you or your blog before, helping to grow your blog and widen your audience.
4. Become a Freelance Writer.
Blogging has opened up a few doors of opportunity for me to have extra
paid writing gigs on occasion. It’s been a great experience, as well as extra
cash flow. While it’s been a long time since I’ve sought out such opportunities, I know that there are many available–especially if you are a gifted
writer.
If you want to do more freelance writing and are having trouble finding
opportunities, contact small local parenting magazines across the nation.
Many of these accept articles and pay up to $25 per article. Best of all,
since these are local and state publications, they don’t ask for exclusive
rights. So, hypothetically, you could spend a few hours on one article and
pitch it to 100 different small publications. If even 10 of them run it, you
could make $250 off it. That’s certainly nothing to sneeze at!
Again, in most publications that you write for, you can include a bio with
a link to your site. You might not get a lot of traffic from it, but it will
more than likely send at least a few new visitors to your blog.
5. Offer Consulting Services.
Many companies are taking notice of bloggers and realizing that we are
much more adept at online marketing and social media than they. They
want to know how they, too, can grow their business through blogging
and social media. As a result, there are numerous companies who are more
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than willing to pay bloggers to give them tips and pointers–or even to take
over their social media presence for them.
Consulting jobs pay well–often upwards of $50 or more per hour—but
they are more difficult to get. Usually they are the result of networking and
pre-established relationships.
My biggest tip is that you don’t sell yourself short or work for free. Sometimes companies expect bloggers to offer consulting services for free, just
because, well, you’re a blogger. If a company comes to you and asks for
advice on something that’s going to require more than 15 minutes of your
time to help with, write back and let them know you are more than glad
to consider helping them and your fees are $XX per hour (charge at least
$20 to $25 per hour, if not more, to make it worth your time).
Your time is valuable and, unless it’s a ministry or nonprofit or some other
company that you have strong ties to, don’t give them free handouts. This
only hurts all bloggers when companies have the idea that they can get
hours of consulting services from bloggers without paying. They wouldn’t
expect to hire a consulting firm without paying them, so they also shouldn’t
expect the same or similar services from bloggers without paying.
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Bonus Point: Write a Book.
As I’ve dipped my toe into the world of book publishing this year, I’ve
learned many lessons. One of which is that getting your book published
is not as hard as many may think. If you’ve built up a strong blog audience, have a social media presence, are passionate about your subject, and
are a decent writer, you can likely get a book deal.
However, don’t do what I did and just accept whatever book deal a publisher offers you. I learned that the hard way. While my publisher has
been excellent to work with, I wish I would have gotten my agent first
before signing the book deal. There were a lot of little things I knew
nothing about and having an agent to help me chart these never-beforenavigated waters would have been invaluable, as well as saving me some
headaches and hassles later. But oh well, live and learn right?
My advice? Come up with some winning book ideas and then get
a great agent. You’ll not only have an advocate and a go-between for
pitching your book idea to publishers, but you’ll have someone to hold
your hand and cheer you on through the process.
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About the Author
Crystal Paine is a child of God, wife, homeschooling mom of three, and speaker. She
founded MoneySavingMom.com, a site
that has since grown to become one of the
most popular blogs on the web, currently
averaging 1.5 million readers per month.
Her new book, Say Goodbye to Survival
Mode, was written to challenge women in
any season of life to wisely manage their time and resources and live life
on purpose.
For more information on upcoming titles by Crystal Paine, please visit
www.crystalpaine.com.
For more information on Crystal’s services as a speaker or business consultant, please email Brian Scheer with The Frontline Group, or call Brian
at (615) 614-8652.
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