BlogWorldExpo 08: Making Money Online with a Blog
This was also commonly referred to as the “Super Bloggers” panel. The members consisted, in total, of:
- Jim Kukral, JimKukral.com (Moderator)
- John Chow, JohnChow.com
- Zac Johnson, ZacJohnson.com
- Darren Rowse, ProBlogger.net
- Brian Clark, CopyBlogger.com
- Jeremy Schoemaker, Shoemoney.com
Jeremy was late due to some quality Vegas partying, but once he did arrive he had some quality things to say. They all did, really, but I especially enjoyed Darren & Brian’s takes as I had never heard them speak before and I’d heard John & Zac.
Bullet Point Review!
- Jim asked what their number #1 money maker on their blog was:
- John Chow: Switching from an ad network to direct advertising sales using the OIO Publisher Direct plugin.
- Zac Johnson: Direct ad sales
- Darren Rowse: Recommended affiliate products.
- Brian Clark: Launching a membership site & selling WordPress themes.
- Selling any old crap decreases content value; sell things you actually believe in.
- Bloggers just want to write, not sell, so plugins are useful.
- Write about something that’s interesting or else it’s not sustainable.
- Revenue: 1. Direct Ad Sales 2. Affiliate Programs 3. AdSense.
- BC: Selling things (information, membership, etc) instead of advertising makes more money.
- A couple of years ago readers would complain about ads, but now they’re accepted as par for the course.
- The amount of money to be made in “non-sexy” niches is ridiculous.
- Start with what your readers want to buy, not what you want to sell.
- Offer incentives to sign up for your newsletter – 3x the money to be made with subscriptions.
- Newsletters vs. RSS – it’s way more beneficial to get people onto your email list.
- Aweber – BlogBroadcast tools count is included in RSS subscribers & sends an automatic newsletter with your blog posts.
- Many people still have no idea what RSS is, so offer delivery by email too.
- Blogs don’t have to look monetized.
- Sell yourself using consulting.
Points brought up during the Q&A
- Wait until 100 or 1000 readers to bother displaying RSS numbers on the blog.
- RSS subscriber count is powerful for branding and can be factored into ad prices.
- JC: Rule of thumb when setting an ad price – what is the ECPM for that same spot on an ad network? Double that. Offer the ad to run for a month at a time or a quarter, depending on price.
- Condense your header – big headers take up valuable space.
- How much traffic do they see through search? DR sees about 40% to ProBlogger and 60% to Digital Photography School.
- Chitika is a good ad network with powerful blog widgets for contextual, relevant ads.
- Write for your users, not Google. Search traffic is just a bonus.
- It’s a tricky line to keep your editorial integrity and still sell stuff, so don’t sell willy-nilly.
- Build a business – get repeat customers, loyal readers.
- What percentage of the time do they work? A LOT – you have to bust your ass, this isn’t a get rich quick scheme.
- Always look deeply at a product & only recommend valuable things.
- Announce it
- Talk about the product info, merchant or manufacturers information.
- Share testimonials of readers.
- Review your experience with it.
- Credibility is key with sharing information.
- Endorse, review products.
- Sell advertising in newsletters, lots of merchants love that.
- Establish yourself as an expert.
- Remember that Teaching Sells!
This was a very informative panel, and a great way to kick off the sessions. The room was packed, and I especially liked Jim’s approach to using Twitter to get questions for the audience. With a tech set crowd like bloggers, it was highly effective and a great panel for sure.
Read MoreOnline Marketing Glossary: Cookie
Cookie:
- Small file stored on a visitor’s computer that records information. For affiliate programs, cookies have two functions: to keep track of what a customer purchases and to track which affiliate was responsible for generating the sale and is owed a commission.
The vast majority of affiliate programs use cookies. When a visitor clicks on an ad, a cookie is placed on their computer that says where they came from. When they make a sale, the cookie fires off information to the merchant to tell them who the credit should go to. Cookies have a shelf life and often expire after 90 or 180 days. This allows the cookie to fire off information about the referring website for up to that amount of days if they come back and make their sale later. This also applies when generating leads.
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Spamdexing
Spamdexing:
- Also called search engine spamming. It combines techniques employed by some Web marketers and designers to fool a search engine’s spider and indexing programs to ensure that their website always appears at or near the top of the list of search engine results.
I’m sure you’ve come across this without realizing it. You go to Google and search for something relatively common and the SERP has listings near the top that, upon clicking them, you find have nothing to do with what you’re looking for.
This is because the marketers behind that website (usually laden with affiliate links and poor or scrapped content) have gamed the system and used these tactics.
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Online Marketing Glossary: Lead Generation
Lead Generation:
- Websites that generate leads for products or services offered by another company. On a lead generation site, the visitor completes a contact form to get more information about a product or service. The submitted contact form is counted as a lead.
While it’s easier on some levels to generate a lead than a sale since no money is involved initially on the consumer’s end, leads are trickier nuts to crack. Merchants often must batch lead payments due to the inevitable scrubs, dupes, and just bad leads.
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
Me, Director of Affiliate Marketing?
Yep, that’s right. As of last week I’ve resigned from PsPrint and I’m now the Director of Affiliate Marketing with New Edge Media, an awesome media agency out of Dallas, TX. I was recently in Dallas right after attending CJU and Blog World Expo to meet some coworkers, get set up, and get the ball rolling on our projects.
I’d point you to the website for my excellent new employer, however they’re so busy working their tails off for clients that the site isn’t ready yet! So for now you’ll just have to take my word that we rock :).
Dallas was a great new experience, as I’d only ever touched down in Texas on layovers on my way to the East coast. I’m so glad that I rented a car and opted for the Garmin navigational device – it was very cool to drive around the city after work was over just exploring and seeing what there was to see. I did have my very awesome boss Brandy drive me through the infamous Grassy Knoll where JFK was assassinated…it’s fairly unimpressive for such a significant place. There is a modest plaque on the ground inset into the grass, but she had to shut up my rambles before I missed that we were driving through.
So I tell you this, dear reader, so you’ll perhaps forgive me for slacking on my reports from CJU and Blog World Expo. I’ll get on that right away, if you’ll have me 🙂
Read MoreOnline Marketing Glossary: Feeds
Feeds:
- A Web document that is a shortened or updated version of a webpage created for syndication. Usually served at user request, through subscription; also includes ad feeds to shopping engines and paid-inclusion ad models. Ad feeds are usually in eXtensible markup language (XML) or rich site summary format.
There are great tools out there for affiliates to utilize data feeds put out by merchants to create their own customized online shops. Pop Shops and GoldenCAn are the two big ones.
____
Glossary Definition From ABC’s of Online Marketing by Alexandra Wharton, Issue 22, Revenue Magazine
