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Blogs aren’t good at selling two completely different types of things at once. You may not realize it, but if you’re trying to make money off of your blog, you have to sell something.Social networking is the big thing right now, where people are focused on building communities and throngs of loyal readers. You want to bring readers in, inform them on the topics they’re interested in, and have them clicking throughout your blog and all that wonderful content you’ve got. You’re building an online network of people with similar interests. Now, how do you convert that network to cash? Everyone likes to think they could take their blogging hobby and do it full time, if only…
Do you sell ads? Not very effectively, no. Most of the crowd joining social networks is going to be more experienced online. Many will use Firefox, which comes with ad-blocking software built right into it - they’ll never even see those ads. Internet Explorer is further behind, but catching up. This site focuses on a more technically involved crowd, with 90% Firefox users and only 8% Internet Explorer. However, if we look at a couple of my other sites with a different focus, I see that 70% IE and 20% Firefox might be more average. Sometimes I disable Adblock and have a look at what I’m “missing” and it sure can be a disappointing experience.
Do you sell reviews and paid links? Google is starting to take a harsh stance on these, since people are gaming the system by attempting to pass on page rank. You’re going to see big changes in these in the future, and I’d be careful about these before Google slaps you down for them.
So what do you sell? Yourself, of course. You’re selling your knowledge or name. Ads aren’t going to do it. Take John Chow, for example. What is his number one product? His dignity. If you pay him, he’ll hawk any old product you want. Even better, he’ll sell whatever you want, AND himself at the same time. Well, it’s better for him at least. The vast majority of bloggers will never make it to that level anyway.
If you can’t quite bring yourself to that, you still have options, never fear! If you bring something of value to the table, then people will pay you for that knowledge. You can sell custom themes, web design, consulting, etc. What is it that you do that someone would actually pay for? That’s where you’ll make your money. It will still take time. You won’t see success here until you’ve got a body of work that people want and need.
I don’t know if this blog will lead to any kind of commercial success, but I feel good about how I plan to get there. I won’t lie to you, I won’t distract you, and I won’t beg for donations. I know that if I bombard you with ads and hawk the “get rich quick” method of the month, you won’t stick around. Beyond that, well, we’ll see how it shakes out, won’t we? 
1 response so far ↓
1 Charlotte Real Estate // Dec 31, 2007 at 5:32 am
Exactly right– people should come to your blog because they trust you or believe in you… they are not coming for advertising.
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