10 Minute Blog Tips: Where to Invest Your Energy
August 17, 2007 | By Chris Garrett | Filed Under Features, Guides and Tutorials
Today I have been thinking about blog monetization. Over on my blog I wrote about if blogging is a good way to make money, here I would like to talk about the real trick to earning money from blogging.
The secret to earning money from blogs might seem strange to you but I am confident others who have achieved some measure of success would agree with me. What separates the winners from those who struggle?
With monetized blogging the secret to success is to invest your energy not in the monetization, but in your audience. Your audience is the entirety of your long term success.
Yes, through search engine tricks and spam you can make some money without considering your reader, but that is short lived. Focus in your audiences interests and needs, then tweak your monetization methods with your reader in mind. It might mean overlooking some income methods, and “leaving money on the table”, but your subscribers experience is paramount.
Only happy readers come back and recommend your blog to others.
If you keep building and serving a loyal audience top of mind, your readers will reward you will repeat visits, referrals and a growing blog asset. That folks is the best investment you can make.
About the author: Chris is a professional blogger and internet marketing consultant. As well as Chris' blog tips at The Blog Herald you can read more of his blogging tips, internet marketing advice and copywriting articles over at chrisg.com and make sure you sign up for the Authority Blogger newsletter.
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[…] Added: I just posted over at The Blog Herald a highly related article about where to place your time and energy. […]
It really is as simple as that.
Blog for your own benefit — you’ll make a few bucks a day.
Blog selflessly — if you’re good enough, you could go pro.
Yup, in two lines you said what my post was aiming at :)
I’ve seen a lot of good blogs though that without understanding the tricks of the trade, get nowhere except for a small circle of friends who really like it.
So I agree that at the end of the day it’s about the content of the blog, but if you really want to go pro, it’s not as simple as just blogging selflessly because let’s face it, a lot of people do and they’re not making zilch.
More importantly, if you want to make money, you need to work at getting the word out about your blog and put in the time doing so.
http://www.entrepreneur.com.sg
SG Entrepreneur those who blog selflessly but don’t make a zilch do not monetize their blogs effectively. No body is saying don’t make money off your blog. It’s just that the more you care about your readers, the more long-term benefits you get in terms of making money.
Yes Mohsin is spot on, it is a case of where you put your focus. You need to promote your content and tweak your monetization, etc but the priority must be reader experience to succeed long term
ChrisG: I have a serious question for you. I have posted this same question at a few other big time blogs, and have not received any response, maybe you will.
My blogs category is “vegetarianism” but i’m having trouble picking a “niche” within that category. There are so many different angles i could go with it, but which do i choose? I love shoes, so essentially i could go in that direction, as in a “vegetarian shoes/footwear” blog but is it as simple as that? Or what methodology should i use for picking my niche.
I would appreciate any thoughts.
Missy.
I would like to add that my question ties-in to your post, as i can’t monetize or promote fully my blog until the content part of it is in order. So until i figure out that part, i know monetization for me would be wasted time and energy.
I’m anxious to see what Chris has to answer, but in my opinion, “vegetarian” is a niche. Do you need to narrow it down even further?
I’d say start blogging and see what excites you within that “niche”. Then that will become your specialty within that niche.
As Chris so beautifully says, think of your audience, but I always say that you need to first blog for “you” to make the blogger and writer in you happy, which will attract an audience looking for “you”. Your niche develops as you develop.
What say you, Chris?
Thanxs for the reply Lorelle, i appreciate it. I think that one could go further into the category as there is alot of niches within vegetarianism, i find myself with too many options at times. lol. Maybe it is a personality thing, but i think it would help me (as a blogger) if i did narrow it down further. I have been angling towards vegetarian footwear as a possible niche, and posted on this tonite at my blog. Let’s see what kind of comments and feedback i get from readers/visitors.
Would love to hear from Chris, also.
Missy.
i wanna be a proffesional blogger… but how?
Mohsin/Chris: I was responding to the concluding statement in the article:
“If you keep building and serving a loyal audience top of mind, your readers will reward you will repeat visits, referrals and a growing blog asset. That folks is the best investment you can make.”
I DISAGREE that that is “best investment” you can make precisely because there are a lot of people who only have that in mind, never work on the monetization part and then whine that they make no money whatsoever.
IMHO, understanding how the web works (first), coupled with great content (with the readership in mind), is the best investment you can make.
http://www.entrepreneur.com.sg
The core of what you do needs to be about the audience. Reaching the audience is part of that. Promotion on its own won’t cut it, neither will good content. You have to create what your audience wants/needs and deliver it in a way that connects with them. A youtube video will work for one niche, digg another, while another might prefer a facebook application. Audience+You+Content+Promotion = Success.
So the vegetarian example. What do you see that vegetarians need that you can uniquely deliver? Rather think in terms of niches and subniches, what is it that you have to offer that will make a compelling and unique resource? Shoes sounds interesting, it has something. Does it excite you? Do people ask to hear more when you mention it?
Take strobist.com as an example. It’s a niche of a niche of a niche, but why it works is because A) the audience is fascinated and B) he is uniquely placed to deliver.
We all have a story to tell, what is yours? :)
Hey, Chris: Thanxs for your reply.
What is my story? What is unique about me? (in terms of vegetarianism), well i am also a Latina and this is another niche (if you will) that i think might be unused or unexpressed within the online vegetarian world. But to get back to my original idea on vegetarian shoes, i wrote a reader survey post on my blog, asking for feedback on my intended/proposed change and i did receive some feedback. Also i posted on Blog Catalog where i have relationships with a few bloggers who read my blog. The response was mixed, with yes! do shoes and others with mix-it-up abit, don’t just do shoes.
To me, sometimes, it’s like what comes first? The audience or the content? You’re saying the audience will dictate the content, i’m saying well how do i know which audience i have, to deliver the content they want/need? As a new blogger, that is hard to decipher.
thoughts?
[…] This post was inspired by the following articles. Is Blogging a Good Way to Make Money and 10 Minute Blog Tips: Where to Invest Your Energy. […]
[…] 10 Minute Blog Tips: Where to Invest Your Energy : The Blog Herald10 Minute Blog Tips: Where to Invest Your Energy. August 17, 2007 | By Chris Garrett | Filed Under Guides and Tutorials , Features. Today I have been thinking about blog monetization. […]