(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!
Wow Eric…that was a GREAT lesson. I never knew how important blogs could be for marketing until recently. Can’t wait to start putting all this into action…thank you!
🙂
Ps: By the way Eric, I just completed my first website through xSitepro(very first website period for that matter). I know it’s not perfect but any feedback would be much appreciated.One of the automation systems I promote in the membership area is your Push Button Marketer and also set my auto responder confirmation to PBM. Hopefuly it gets some traffic as well as business for you…oh ya, and me…lol 🙂
http://www.InstantTrafficPaysites.com
cool thanks. It looks good, did you make your own header?
Love your lessons. Lots of details. I’m actually editing my blog as you go through this lesson.
I have your RSS on my blog. Very helpful Tips.
Thanks Eric. You should charge for this information.
Blogging playing important role in the marketing. It’s allow two ways communication and build the relationship with your customers. Money is in the relationship you build with your customers.
To Your Success
Bryan Hee
Thanks for the awesome information once again Eric, Just to add Gary, Xsitepro is a great tool for building websites thats what I use for my sites as well
Thanks Eric as always you are teaching as a great master!
Recently i wrote an article and need opinions from some readers. Please just go to http://alfonsoruizbiz.com
God Bless,
Thanks for another great video Eric.
Strangely enough, my main blog that’s associated with the business I’m trying to ‘drive’ at the moment is the one I find most difficult to write content for.
I have other free blogs covering ‘personal interests’ and I have no problem there.
Would one of your future blogging videos include a method, or methods ‘you’ might use to get your brain into gear and clear writers block. (Or maybe you don’t get it) 🙂
Pete.
Pingback: How To Make Money Blogging By Eric Holmlund
Good stuff. Like Gary Vaynerchuck, my blog makes me plenty of money and it has NO advertising and only very occasionally an affiliate link or an Amazon advert. All of the income I get from my blog is because it shows off my “expertise” in my subject area. Companies then see I know what I’m talking about (hopefully…!) and they then pay me for advice. That makes me much more money than advertising has ever done for me.
Hi Eric,
These lessons get better and better. Did you say that there will be 100 when you’re done?
I’ve spent too much time looking at templates and trying to place ads on my site. Thanks for reminding us that it’s important to build traffic first before going to crazy with ads. I think we’re all to impatient especially me.
Nice tease at the end of the video. So how does Gary Vanerchuck make money
Eric,
Another great lesson.
A couple of questions.
1) Static site in the root directory and blog in a folder OR
wordpress in root directory with static pages in folder
which is preferable, and I want to have uniform look both for static pages and wordpress blog.
2) I want to create a static page as home page. Create more pages and do product review or comparison review of products.
The landing pages where I send traffic through PPC, will not have distractions like nav bar. Otherthan that those will have the same content as other static pages in the site.
I guess I need to put robots.txt to avoid duplicate content penalty too.
Then have wordpress blog where I can keep adding articles or posts like a regular blog.
How to do this?
Thanks
Eric, I followed your link to Mike Filsaime’s Butterfly marketing. I have been trying to contact his company to cancel his newsletter with no success. When I go to login at his website, it says I am not in his database. That is very interesting because he keeps sending me emails at the same address.If this guy is a friend of yours, I suggest you get better friends, this is a scam.I would like you to post this to warn others.
Thanx Eric, another informative lesson, as usual. I got knocked out for a while from the ice storms we had. But thanx to you I’m back at it. Thanx for all your help. Without it I would have been totally lost. Still proves my newbie status, I’m afraid.
Eventually, I want to add links to your site but I will need to go back and look at that lesson where you mentioned it. I’ll get there. See what I’ve done so far – http://1159online.com
Very Interesting as always !! I too am trying my hand at blogging and would love it if you visit my blog. Your comments would be warmly welcomed !!
http://iblog.at/marianne/
It’s not a scam. You can cancel by email, phone or helpdesk. You can call to cancel future issues and payments by simply calling +1 (631) 615-4597 at anytime 24 hours a day / 7 days a week.
Anyway I didn’t promote it because of the newsletter. As I showed in my bonus video, I promoted because of Butterfly Marketing, and because of how much it has helped my business.
Those who avoid Butterfly Marketing because they’re afraid it’s a scam will miss out on a great tool that they have the opportunity to pick up for free.
Loved the range of income options and the specific examples Eric. Sometimes it is hard to understand until I see a business model in action. By the way, I love the “Eric’s Tips” business model. I understand that you use affiliate promotions to fund this, so whenever I need a product or service, I check to see if you are promoting it. I also try to steer others to your links. It truly is win-win… I buy what I need and get great advice/education for “free”.
Question. How is this working for you?
Colin
I also took up Eric’s offer and ordered The Butterfly Marketing Course. Have not received it yet. You can try cancelling by calling 613 615 4597 or going to his helpdeask at thecustomerhelpdesk.com
It may be that it’s just to early to cancel as all the products have not shipped yet.
I hope this helps.
Eric, I hope this info is correct
I probably will not be covering writer’s block, but there are quite a few helpful articles on the internet.
Sometimes it just takes perseverance and discipline to break through the writer’s block. There are times where I don’t feel like writing for Eric’s tips, and I struggle to finish a post. But then I’ll hit a breakthrough and the words will flow again.
On the other hand, this is one major advantage of choosing a niche that you’re really passionate about and can talk about easily. If your topic doesn’t excite you, it could be a problem.
One way around that problem could be to hire someone or partner with someone who is able to provide the content. This works especially well in niches where you are not the expert. For example, suppose your niche is horse health, but you know nothing about horses. You could partner with a horse expert, and have them write for you, and lend credibility to your business. In return, they receive a percent of the profits, and the opportunity to share their knowledge with the world.
Thanks for the shout out Neil 🙂
Very cool, glad to hear it!
Thanks, I keep trying to make them better 😉
Yes, my goal is 100.
Thanks Eric for another great lesson. I would really appreciate it if you could find the time to take a look at my blog and see how I can improve on it, including its monetization.
Thanks once again, I always look forward to your lessons.
It depends on your overall strategy for your site. If you’re selling an info-product on your site (like the example of Vince DelMonte in the video), then it may be advantageous to put the sales page or squeeze page on the home page, and put your blog in its own directory.
But if it’s mainly a product review site, I would put WP in the root directory, as I’ve done on my site.
There are actually certain themes (and perhaps a plugin) that will enable you to remove the sidebar from any WP page simply by checking a box. So you might not need to double up on those. Otherwise, yes you could use robots.txt, but if you only have 2 instances of the review on your site, I don’t think it will be a big problem for the SE’s.
Nope(not entirely)…I did some of it with xHeader,animation factory,and snagit. A friend of mine finished it off with some of the graphic accents(like the gold mouse & flying money)
Thanks Colin 🙂 It’s working well. It’s a lot of work when you are the main content provider, which is actually something I’ve heard Gary Vaynerchuk talk about as well. But it’s worth it if it’s something you enjoy. The only thing I don’t like is how much time it takes. Yes the affiliate promos are essentially funding it. I could live off it of I wanted to. But once these lessons are done, I can also turn them into a product that I can sell in various formats. So I’m basically putting in the work now on something that will bring in income for years.
Thanks Eric!
Started my new niche blogging business and hope to become successful with it.
I also am starting a new biz custom designing blogs & headers.
Hi Eric
Another well explained video lesson!
I’ve got my first site up, and need to add links to it – so I’m looking forward to the next lesson.I will use a blog to bring traffic to the site (I hope!).I’m still pondering about using autoresponder software on my site?
Thanks for the lessons – they’re great!
regards
Graham in UK
Thanks. I just looked at your blog…
First, I think you’re doing a lot of things correctly. I like like how you’re building a list by giving away the ebook.
I also like how it’s very focused on the success theme.
The text in your header graphic is redundant. You only need to state the 3 points once, but you have them each twice.
The adsense link units are nicely integrated, but I question their value for monetization.
My main concern is with your personal branding, as it relates to your target market.
If you are targeting business opportunity seekers in general, particularly the USA, then I would recommend not branding yourself or anything on your site as being Nigerian. Do NOT take this the wrong way… I’m speaking purely from a business standpoint. The fact is that the biggest thing you need to create with this type of blog is TRUST, and you will have a major strike against you for being Nigerian.
On the other hand, if you are targeting mainly a Nigerian audience (and I would imagine a few other African nations would be compatible), then I would recommend going all out with your personal brand. You have the opportunity to brand yourself as the honest Nigerian marketer with integrity, who provides excellent value, and really set yourself apart as a Nigerian guru.
One other thing I noticed is I had a hard time getting to your home page from the interior pages. I would link the header to your home page.
I probably will some day 😉
Everyone should use an autoresponder service to build their list. I use and recommend Aweber. It should be a part of your blog, but I’m not covering it in this blogging module, because I’ll be doing an in-depth module on list building.
I believe you it is not a scam but it is impossible to cancel subscription at this time.
I have called the phone # which tells you to go to cancelmetoday.com but that does not work and it asks for all my credit card info again even though I have been billed for shipping.
I tried their help beck and that has produced no response or help.
I am hoping that it will be corrected soon but it is a pain and way to time consuming so far.
Yep, I agree with you 100% Richard…it’s an awesome tool. By the way,I checked your site out and looks Great!
Will that be pretty soon?
I was going to attempt it on my own but if that is not to far in the future, I will wait.
Thanks Mark
After attempting to get Butterfly Marketing and being totally frustrated, I am so grateful how you handle things and how you deal with me here either in this format or even with your helpdesk response.
Thanks again, your help is much appreciated.
Mark
Hi Eric, great video, awesome information. Do you do one on one coaching? If you don’t and you decide to start let me know. If you have one in place just let me know how to get into it.
Love your trainings. God Bless you.
Hi Gary, your site looks good. Nice graphics. Did you you do that. It looks nice and neat. Pretty good for your first site.
I went ahead and tried it to see if that was the case, and I had no problem cancelling. See:
http://ericstips.com/bfmcancel/
I do not doubt that it didn’t work for you, but it’s not intentional on their part or anything like that. They’ll get it taken care of.
I just tested it, and you should be able to cancel.
http://ericstips.com/bfmcancel/
If not, I would suggest be patient with the helpdesk.
Powerful tips Eric, clearly demonstrated tips. Will put them to use on my blog, thanks.
Terrance Charles
http://www.twitter.com/TerranceCharles
Very insightful lesson, Eric! I’m in the last stages of redesigning my current website (targetting large families), and I never thought about doing my own domain blog till now. I started 5 other free blogs (inorder to get links), but felt overwhelmed with updating all 5 with slightly differing material each time. Perhaps I should give up that idea, and just stick with my own blog? What do you recommend? Thanks for the super lessons!
I’m actually covering product creation before list building, so it will be a while yet. You could get started on your own. Aweber has plenty of tutorials for the basic stuff.
I do offer one on one consulting:
http://www.ericholmlund.com/consulting
But within the next year I’m planning on doing a group coaching which would be more affordable.
If the reason for the 5 free blogs is to get links, that’s exactly the type of task you can outsource easily. Someone overseas could easily take your main content, change it, and use it to formulate blog posts for the “feeder” blogs.
In the mean time, I’d say that’s fairly low priority. There are easier ways to get links.
I’m currently testing out a service called Traffic Sage and so far it’s going well. They have two programs:
$497/month (this is the one I’m testing)
$297/month (you can see it if you try leaving the page)
I’d focus on making the one blog as good as possible. I like the cheaper by the half dozen theme. Are you an Above Rubies subscriber?
Thanks for taking the time to record that. I did everything you said but nothing to cancel on the cancel page.
When I bought it, it was when 10,000 other people were trying. I will wait and see, hopefully they will straighten it up soon.
Thanks Mark
Hi Eric,
Another informative lesson.
Now,Blogging becomes an inevitable part of every business.
In my opinion,content is the king for monetization.
Gary is driving traffic to his winelibrary site through his blog.
Looking forward for the next lesson.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks,
Kannan
Great Eric
Honestly this is the most sensible
course i have got from a guru.
Not filled with hype, nothing to
please and everything to educate.
Sincerely
This is good stuff. I don’t know how you can bring yourself to hype all those windbag affiliate offers when the reality is so much simpler.
Thanks Eric.
thanks Alec I’ll take that as a compliment coming from you 😉
As usual, can only say, Wow!