(Part 1 in a series of 2)
Throughout the previous four lessons, we went through the process of installing, configuring, and customizing a WordPress blog.
Today I want to give you some perspective in regard to making money with blogs (you don’t have to be using WordPress)…
(Watch this video…)
Main points:
-Web traffic (from SEO, links from other blogs, etc)
-Additional income stream (via direct monetization with AdSense, paid ads, affiliate links, etc)
-Authority/Influence/Positioning (see lesson #38)
1) Splogging
-provides little or no value to the visitor
-games the search engines
-often automated, mass produced
-NOT recommended
2) Be a paid blogger
-Freelancer route
-Pay per post route
-OK, but would be better to focus on building a business
3) Direct monetization
– contextual ads (ie. AdSense)
– Affiliate links (ie. product reviews)
– tip jar/donation link
– paid placement ads/sponsors (ie. display ads and text links*)
(see video for examples of each… pros, cons, etc.)
*Be careful about selling text links, as Google may penalize sites that buy or sell them.
-Comparison of John Chow, Shoemoney, and Problogger
-What is Gary Vaynerchuk doing differently?
Action steps:
1) Decide if you’re going to integrate a blog into your business.
2) Decide which method of direct monetization fits best with your blog.
Remember, I’ll be covering the most important points in the next lesson. If you’re starting a new blog, wait until you’ve seen the next lesson before going all out on it.
As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below 🙂
Have a great day!
thanks for some more great info…
Hi Eric, this lesson was helpful. A coach that I was talking to from Thrive said…”add a blog to your site because it keeps people ON your site…after all, people who hang around the barbershop at some point WILL get a haircut!!”
How true! I have been trying to setup my company website to be the blog , and originally I had the idea that I wanted to blog about something my main topic but link to all my other sites…Do you think that’s a good idea?
I guess I will hear in the next lesson!
Yeah I think it’s a good idea. And remember, the key to keeping someone on the site reading your blog is providing stuff that they really want to read. A blog on it’s own is not enough. It needs to be compelling. Most people want to read something with personality, and they are drawn to controversy.
Eric, Wow, another great lesson. I’m just paying attention and taking it all in at this point. I will take action when I learn more and feel like I know what I’m doing is correct! Thanks for your expertise…..
Hi Eric
It was the most interesting lesson I ever had.
Regards
Buren
Hi Eric, lesson 37. interesting you should mention Vince Delmonte.I have promoted a website and blog with his product,but unlike
Vince who makes thousands i have not made a dime.My both sites have been sitting with rankings of 1,2,3 on each site with millions
of viewers per month for at least 3 months but still no sales
regards
jim
That is interesting Jim. With millions of viewers per month (Assuming those are real visitors), you should be making at least tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars per month. If not, then the sites need to be monetized in a better way for the traffic that you’re getting.
I don’t think the problem lies with Vince’s product, because it’s a fact that MOST of his sales come from affiliates (see the clickbank marketplace).
If you’re talking about search rank of #1,2,3 but not actually getting the traffic, then you may need to hone in on different keywords, or else use a different method of getting traffic instead of SEO.
But again, if you ARE getting the traffic then I would keep doing what you’re doing but figure out a better way of monetizing that traffic.
Hello Eric… again, this was a great lesson. I will bookmark this one, because I really have to see that again. Thank you so much…!!!
All the best,
Arne
every day i go thriough your lessons its just like an adventure.awesome great tips and help and mostly new great stuff you can not get anywhere else.its purely Eric’s original stuff. Nice Work.
Erick, your lessons are the best and easiest to understand I have been engrosed in each lesson to date, getting ready to build my web based blog. I had a problem with lesson 37 video it stops when it gets to the clickbank info about six pack abs am I the only one with this problem. Regards Jack
Thanks. Please try these solutions:
Hi Eric,
Love your videos. Very valuable information in them. However, I tried to listen to lesson #37 and for some reason it does not play and I wouldn’t want to miss it. Any suggestions? Thanks
Have you tried the solutions from the link in the comment above yours?
Cheers Eric I found that one interesting, especially the blog/site comparisions between the market leaders. I had heard of the wine man but never saw his site! And you could be right about his income.
It very astonishing, and I have useful information from it.
Thank you Eric.
http://siragsoft.com
Hi Eric,
I just purchase a PLR product with very detail and great grahic showing entire process from searching for niche to creating and launching an e-book successfully in the forum. Now I need to tweak it slightly to sell.
I have HG reseller account purchased through you but yet to start an information product business. This will be my first attempt.
Now the website.Can you advice whether I should purchase the Butterfly Marketing or the Socrate Theme from you for the WP platform. Which is better for me the novice?
Actually you don’t need to purchase either of them.
Butterfly Marketing would mainly be useful if you wanted to make your website a membership website (see lesson #32). And the Butterfly script itself is now free: Butterfly script
Socrates is a great WP theme for anyone who wants to monetize a blog. However, it sounds like you’re mainly going to be selling a product, rather than blogging. So you could simply use WP for free (see lessons 33-36). You can download some free WP sales page templates from me here: http://www.ericstips.com/EasyWpSalesPages.zip
Hi, Erik good lesson. you went to the point of the lesson in defining the different ways to blog that would benefit a business.thanks again for the lesson. i really appreciate your tips.
Hi Eric,
I have the same problem with Jack & Eileen above. I have no problem downloading all your past videos, but for today lesson, it just stop when you mentioned about the Click Bank, the same situation with Jack. what a coincidence?
This time it took too long to download and it can’t completely downloaded. I have no problem with the text lesson just below the video.
I have an updated flash player, but with your advice, I tried to re-install flash player but can’t download it either. Can you help me with my problem? Thank you.
Hi Eric,
It’s taking too long to load lesson#37 and can’t finish loading, just got black screen.
I have no problem viewing all past lessons. Tried re-install flash player can’t load it either.
Have cleaned all cookies and history. Retrieving emails also slow. Help!
I am using firefox with my mac.
Due to the problem re-installing the flash player, and retrieving emails, I think you are dealing with a computer issue not related to my videos. There are so many possibilities ranging from a virus, to a software program on your computer trying to update itself and tying up the resources. I would recommend rebooting your computer, make sure there are no unecessary programs running in the background, etc.
It should work, as I’ve tested it and 1000’s of others have watched it. But sometimes certain browsers on certain computers produce glitches that I cannot explain. Perhaps try pausing the video shortly before it gets to the place where it gets stuck. And then drag the slider button slightly past that place so that you skip over it.
The problem with blogging is that free information does not have much value and there is very little loyalty these days. What bloggers should be able to do is charge for access (like 50 cents per post) and provide very specific niche driven advice on targeted topics.
Hi Eric. Would you recommend monetizing your blog in all of these ways at once? Wouldn’t a great strategy be to put up some ad-sense ads, some affiliate links and possibly getting some income through paid blogging?
I do not recommend starting with all of them at once. Here are two paradigms…
1) If you’re very good at SEO and/or other free traffic generation and you know you’re able to get plenty of free traffic to your blog, then by all means use as many forms of monetization as possible.
2) If you have a new blog not yet getting much traffic (and particularly if you intend to grow a natural, repeat readership) then I recommend avoiding ALL monetization as much as possible until your readership is established. The idea is that you want people to trust you and return to your blog and keep coming back for the content. And that can be difficult to establish if they feel like you’re just trying to make money from it.
Hey Eric…thanks a ton for all your lessons.
In the current lesson you’ve mentioned google hates text links, but if I have NOFOLLOW links
do you still think i might land in trouble???
Hello Vats,
That should be fine! I believe that Yahoo still may follow, even with the NOFOLLOW tags. So, you may want to keep that in mind!
Excellent explanation of how to monetize a blog! Can’t wait for part two!
Somehow I missed Lesson #34, could you please have it emailed to me.
thanks
Dennis
You can get it here:
thanks!
Eric,
This is an awsome video tutorial full of valuable marketing information and blogging ideas. You’re such a talented person.Making hard topics so simple and interesting to understand. Thank you for your selfless contribution
Thanks Eric
Im learning alot!
Bobby
All I can do is thank you. Your program has been a bit of a lifeline that was very much needed. And since I talk to you during the lessons, feel free to charge a therapists fee. My cat agrees with everything I say, I am pretty sure. So, I will call it successful. Do you take rolled coins? smb ~:O}
Hi Eric,
Thanks for taking the trouble to explain so patiently. Actually, I am just waiting for that hot topic – how to get traffic.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for helping us to fill in the missing pieces in this big internet marketing puzzle. Your lessons are FULL of the keys that other internet coaches leave out. My husband and I are thoroughly enjoying every lesson. Thanks again
Hey Eric, I dont know if u are replying these comments after 2 years of the video post.
If I have a website say http://www.genericname.com and I created the matter inside related to a product which was not successful. Can I delete all the matter and use the website afresh(from product selling to Information centre)
Yes you can, in fact it can be an advantage to use an “aged” domain as it may have a better chance of being quickly ranked by Google, especially if it has some back links. However, you would NOT want to use the domain if you previously used black hat or spammy techniques to promote it.
You said in your notes above, “Why would you want to incorporate a blog into your business?
-Web traffic (from SEO, links from other blogs, etc)” Did I miss something because I did not hear you address this in the video? You talked about using ads, but then none of the ad methods seemed to be what you would use as a way to build your business using a blog. Will the real answer come later?
Hello Ken,
Yes, much more is covered in the following video:
Eric thanks ,has been a very important lesson for me, is time to define what options make, greetings Jorge
I would like to know if you could help me find somewhere to learn Java Script for my brother?He does not believe money can be made on line,so in a month or two when I start making money online I will show him that a person can be their own boss with the right knowledge.So if you could help me find somewhere he could learn this type of programming or what is the newest kind of programming I would appriciate it.I would look myself but with my knowledge of trying to find something on the Search Engine and your knowledge I might not ever find anything,but I know you could.If you don’t want to thats fine since this is not about your lessons. Thanks From Texas
Hello Bill,
Here’s one place he could start:
http://www.learnjavaonline.org/
Click bank is not paying those from third world countries why ?
if not please verify me !
Hello Filbert,
What country are you from? There might be some alternative affiliate networks available to you.
We’ve heard success stories from nearly every country.
We recommend that you view the following inspiring article and user comments:
This can help you when there are business restrictions that must be overcome in your country.
Mr. Eric, Good day,
I read that the hosting company (HostGator) gets the Web site on the Internet, Google, Bing etc. What is the function of the Autoresponder Aweber, to customers, that surf the Web, and get to my web site. These prospective customers wants to make a purchase. Who writes the content for the search engine, Google, Bing.
I have an account at Click Bank as an affiliate. Please explain how it all ties in together.
Hello Ameena,
Aweber is used for building your customer list, or potential buyer list.
Here is the link to Eric’s lesson called, Introduction to List Building:
Thankyou Eric for bringing this up. It is something that was bothering me. I don’t have spammy marketers mind, but those small ads make a blog look like a Chows blog..without a readers 🙁
Thankyou for offering this quality content, I can learn from and share with others.
Hello Eric, I appreciate your kind gesture. However, I have little or no knowledge of blogging and internet marketing. So, please kindly advise me on what to do, how do I get started; teach me all I need to know so that I may empower myself and in return give back to my society. Chris from Nigeria. Thanks!
Hello Chris,
We’ve heard success stories from nearly every country, but I don’t know any marketers from your country personally.
We recommend that you view the following inspiring article and user comments:
This can help you when there are business restrictions that must be overcome in your country.
cant get lesson #37 video to start. Lesson #36 ran great. My computer is clean, dell went through it earlier today and cleaned up all the goo. wasa matta?
In the near future I’m going to update these videos to a newer format which will have better compatibility. In the mean time, I would suggest trying a different browser such as Firefox or Chrome. Thanks
use it for self branding to get leads for direct sales
Hi Eric,
I definitely as a blog on my website but know I have to learn how to write good content as I know it’s an Art.
Can you tell me if you have some recommendation to become a better writer?
Kindly.
Marc
Read a lot of well-written material, and write a lot 🙂
Take a class at a local community college.
This is great Eric and i have never come across or known this.
If i may ask, i have build several opt-in pages in Sendlane and want to post them to traffic sides in social media, how is it done? I have posted direct but it has no returns. Like in FB, where should i put the opt-in page URL for it to be seen buy many as an ad?
For it to be seen as an ad in FB, you would need to pay for advertising. But you can post any URL in your FB feed. Just make it relevant to your audience, and you should get some clicks.