(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 đ
Have a great day!
Thank’s For Your Tips My Friend (^_^)..he..3x
Thank you so much Eric for having time to give an honest and exhaustive view of my blog. I really appreciate it, and I will heed your recommendations. God bless you!
Always Good Stuff!
This is a call out to anyone who uses XSitePro2. Seems to take 24 hours to show up when I make a change on my website using XSitePro2 and publish it. Did not have this happen until I installed wordpress.
It has been over 24 hours since I published this time and the changes have not shown up when I view my website.
Any thoughts or any help would be appreciated.
Sorry for the newbie question that is off topic.
It should be instant. I’m wondering if perhaps it is a browser caching issue? Try clearing your browser history/cache, and you should then see the new version.
Thanks, that was it!
Firefox was set before to clear my cache every time I shut it down but I had forgotten that I had changed that setting.
I was loosing sleep over this racking my brain.
So simple but I would not have figured it out.
If I hang in attempting to do all of this it will mainly be because of you.
If you do put all of this on a DVD I will be the first in line.
CAN PLEASE SENT ME ALL THE LESSONS ON C.D.
I am planning on selling them on CD/DVD when the 100 are complete.
Hi! Eric and all of you, I was out of the picture, missing in action… for 12 days. I am back now, try to catch up I’ll be in line shortly. Talk to you soon!
Michaela
Thanks Eric for another great lesson. Placing adsense on a blog is by far the easiest way to monetize it but looks like you need a thousand or so visitors per day to make a decent earning. This is true for other affiliate ads as well?… I’m looking forward to your next lesson.
Mike from Butterfly marketing is very clever.
I m not sure whether to believe him ssaying about that package.
When he first came with the product he said 5000 copies won’t last long, and then after few days he came back and said that he had 5000 more copies left.
Common—whats the proof he sold those 5000 copies in the first place. may be he was not able to sell 5000 and comes again making a story saying that he ran out of them and ordering 5000 more.
And today he said he has around 250 left….
Anyways—do not forget that its not free at all. You will be charged shipping and also subscription fee there after.
nice info eric thx
Hi Eric,
thanks for this great video for newbies – AND for WRITING DOWN THE MAIN POINTS.
Look, I would have watched this video just from the title, but because I read your main points I figured I already know all this stuff. You just saved me from watching a 25 minute video that would have wasted my time.
While I haven’t watched that video, I now subscribed to your blog because you demonstrated that you understand my needs and respect my time.
Too many marketers don’t do that little extra step of summarizing their videos – I understand that from a marketing point, but if they want to educate and build a relationship, then your way is the best way.
Keep up the great work, Eric!
Pay per post should be a good option for a starter besides, direct monetization using Adsense and stuff… Sponsors only come up after you have an authority.
Anyway, good to see you put up these in a video !!
Eric,
I already installed WP onto my website with an extention(/). However I want to change the extention to a new name now and I’m not sure how to do this. Am I stuck with the extension I chose or how would I change it?
Best Regards,
Gary
Pingback: LESSON #38: Making Money with Blogs (Part 2) | Eric’s Tips
Its actually pretty easy to move it. you can move it to another location on your site without having to reinstall:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress
Since all you’re doing is changing the directory name and not even moving the files, you basically just have to change the URI setting in your admin panel.
This really depends on your niche and your overall business plan.
For example, if you’re in a niche where AdSense clicks are worth several dollars per click (like legal, medical, etc), then you might not need much traffic to make good money.
Or if your business plan is to build lots of blogs… you might have 100 blogs each getting a small amount of traffic each day, but each making a few dollars a day, which adds up.
The same principles would apply to affiliate links as a form of monetization.
But as you will see in the next lesson, I think there is a higher priority for a business’ primary blog.
Dude… I could give you plenty of proof if I felt it was worth the time. He’s now given away about 14,000 copies. I personally gave away several hundred of those.
Eric–I can also show you proof that I make $14000/day . Will you believe if I show you the screenshot?
I know you guys work hard and it needs lots of efforts. I have been involved with Internet since 93 and I also know what goes on…I m working on my blog also and just thinking whether to spill the real truth about all these affiliate marketing and related field. On the other hand there are so many internet users who are just beginners and have a no idea on whats going on. I can see that from the comments on your blog. I m also in the dilema..whether to spill the real honesty or just talk a lot…
Anyways–no offence to anyone…
By all means, spill the “real truth”…
In fact I think you should go to Mike’s office on long island and do an “expose” on the scam he’s running.
Eric…
Your series of training on blogs is outstanding. Very valuable info!
I have a few questions re: blogs and blogging:
[1] Are you permitted to have only one blog per domain? Or, can you have several different blogs that link back to your hub blog… all on one domain. Would each of the niche blogs just be in a directory of the main domain?
[2] You talk about pages and catagories. If you have a hub blog (ie: a personally branded blog) and several other blogs in different niches, do you set up a catagory on the hub page for all those other blogs?
[3] I notice that most of the themes that are available are written in .php. I can’t even spell .php so how do I customize my blogs?
Thanks for all you do..
Don
Nice blog Graham.
Blogging works for me in a similar way. It doesn’t hold out the hope of “making millions” in affilliate earnings – but (according to the recent problogger survey) the vast majority of bloggers make very, very little in affilliate money.
However, the vast majority of writing and guidance on blogging is all about that aspect – how to bring traffic and monetize via ads/affilliate links. Rather than how to use your blog to credentialise yourself and your services.
Ian
1) You can certainly have multiple blogs on one domain if you have a reason for it. But they would probably be worth more on separate domains. But if you have one strong domain with a good Pagerank, I could see some benefits of putting more blogs on it. It won’t give you SEO benefit from interlinking from between them though. In order to get good SEO benefit from the links, you would need to have them on seperate domains, hosted on different C-class IP’s.
2) Rather than a category, you would probably just link to the other blogs directly. OR you could simply have one blog, and use different categories within that one blog for blogging about various niche topics.
3) did you watch this one? http://www.ericstips.com/tips/lesson36/
I suppose my problem is, that my main interest is promoting ‘Quality-Driven-Businesses’ in my own area mainly. But as soon as I start writing something, it all looks a bit ‘spammy’, which is obviously what I don’t want.
I may well take your tip and out-source the job while I relax with my more diverse blogs that get no real views anyway, but allows me to let off steam đ
Thanks a bunch Eric… I thought I had watched everything closely in #36… but I missed a couple of important things. After getting my courage up, I increased the font size in the body, added the opt-in (subscribe) box and changed some stuff in the footer. Pretty good for a guy that got kicked out of the first grade for shaving!
Thank you Eric! You have been a great source of excellent content for me to learn internet marketing. I appreciate your lessons and integrity as an internet marketer. Keep it up!
sincerely,
Dr. Lenny
I liked the affiliate links section. It is a good technique. thank you
Thanks Gary
this video tutorial was very useful,anyways, I prefer direct monetizing using contextual ads(adsense,oxado)
I’m so glad this issue came up. A few weeks ago I changed my URL from my WP admin panel (I shortened it), then I was unable to access it. When I contacted Host Gator, they tried to help me find my files, but ended up erasing my database and installing a new WP site for me. I lost two months worth of content in an instant. I was so frustrated and angry. I finally had the blog looking good with some great plugins…all thanks to your lessons. So, if you have a step-by-step lesson on how to set up the directory and URL names correctly, please tell me which lesson it is so I can review it before I set up my next blog. Also, I assumed Host Gator was backing up my blog, I thought I was safe. But they only back up once a week and when they backed up my blog, it was after they erased my database. Please let people know how important it is to backup their files to their hard drives.
Also, can you explain what a “text link” is exactly?
Thanks for another fabulous lesson.
Instructions for changing wordpress directory are here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress
But my advice would be to just install it where you want it to be đ
If you use the 1-click installation you should not have to mess with changing any directory names or anything.
A text link is simply a hyperlink that you can click to go to another web page.
Thank you for that very clear and easy to understand video. Your steps are pretty valuable points. Looking forward to learning more from your post.
good lessons eric. I just started my very first website. I finally took the step and got my own domain and hosting. I still have work to do on it but I think that is coming along nicely. I really want to thank you eric becuase if it wasnt for you I dont think I would be this far and I probably would have given up by now. Im not making money yet but I am get the clicks on the affiliate items.
thanks again eric. I one day hope to help someone the way you have helped me.
is your special offer still available. my computer said that link coming off was expired.
I am still waiting for Lesson #40 for almost 1 week and nothing happened till today. Eric, please help me. Many thanks!
Eric,
Do you offer one on one coaching on the
Subject of mktg and how to become successful
At it?
If not can you recommend where I can
Learn real life mktg that works?
Eric I have not been receiving your tips through my email. I haven’t received one since lesson 39. Have you been sending them or was I in error to you receive your advise?
It’s because you are now caught up to me, as I am still working on the next lessons đ You will receive an email when it is posted.
Hi James. It’s because I was on vacation, sorry about that đ I am working on #40 now.
I am doing a limited amount of consulting:
http://www.ericholmlund.com/consulting
I am also hoping to launch a more affordable “coaching” option geared toward internet marketers by the end of this year.
verrrrrrry funnnnnnneeeeeee!!!
Yes Eric a very good point on clean looking sites.
It is quality content that works not quantity.
Great Lesson
Hi Eric,
I fell blessed, well maybe not blessed but truly lucky to be able to watch your lessons before you put them on a Cd and start selling them. These lessons have really placed my mission on track.
Eric i miss your silence…no more lessons and that is not very good. thank you very much for all your information you are the only one honest person that was able to show the backend of the internet. Can i ask for a suggestion…..I am very new on this can you please let me know if is important to have an email company or if isbetter to obtain a server and have it for ever. thank you for your response. Ceciilia
Unless you have massive resources to invest in your own email service (like if you’re a fortune 500 company), it is better to use an established service such as Aweber
The reason is because there is a ton of technical stuff involved, laws you have to comply with, and relationships you have tp build with ISP’s in order to ensure email deliverability.
The lesson 37 video isn’t working right now but no matter really. Based on what I was able to read in your notes for this lesson I have a question:
I have a blog that’s intended to help present me as an “expert” and to give me a venue for presenting affiliate products I’m comfortable getting behind. The problem is that affiliate links form ClickBank look so obviously “affiliate” (and to me, Tiny URL links are just as bad). I like one affiliate product so much, I bought a domain to use on my blog to discuss the product. The link for that domain then redirects people to my affiliate page for the product. The thing is, once the person is redirected to the affiliate page, my affiliate link still appears in the browser (not the domain name that I got specifically to promote the product and use to redirect of course).
Is there no way around this short of figuring out specific html script to put on my affiliate page which would mask the affiliate link. I’d have NO idea at all how to do something like that anyway, plusI’d really fear messing with the html would just end up with ClickBank not being able to recognize my affiliate code and my not getting my commission. But is there another method that experienced marketers use so that their affiliate id doesn’t show up in the browser?
I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
Thanks in advance. I enjoy your blog and happily refer it to others.
I wrote about this a few years ago:
I generally use PHP redirects for my affiliate links.
With clickbank, your CB ID usually still appears in the URL after the visitor lands on the vendor’s site. This can actually be remedied by the vendor on their end (by doing a silent PHP redirect of their hoplink target to another URL where the sales page resides). But in cases where it appears, I really don’t worry about it.
There are ways that you can MASK your link entirely, in which case YOUR URL stays in the visitor’s address bar even after they arrive on the vendor’s site. However, I generally don’t recommend this because it can confuse the vistors, and can tick off the affiliate program providers.
There are also other ways of doing it sneakily.. like putting your affiliate link in a FRAME, or simply embedding it on your website (cookie dropping), but those things are generally frowned on by affiliate program providers as well.
So my best advice would be to learn how to make your own PHP redirects.
Just to check â Is a âPHP redirectâ the same thing as doing a redirect via my web hosting, Host Gator (btw, I used your affiliate GetGator đ of my chosen Domain to the affiliate product page? If so, then thatâs what Iâm currently doing, and yes, the ClickBank ID still appears in the URL after the visitor lands on the vendorâs site.
So, whatâs all this I keep reading on different sites about the risk of affiliate links stolen by people looking to get other peopleâs commissions — If your affiliate link still shows up in the browser after the visitor gets to the vendor page, isnât that still a problem? Also, does software like Affiliate Cloner do more than what PHP redirects alone can provide?
Thanks very much in advance.
a PHP redirect is different from setting up a redirect within your hosting. That’s OK too, but I’ve found that sometimes the redirect setup in Cpanel has problems if there are certain characters in the URL like ? or &. So I prefer doing the PHP redirect. It’s real easy, once you set one up you can just copy it any time you want to set up another.
About affiliates stealing commissions… here’s the thing:
Commissions are not being stolen by malicious affiliates. It’s simply a matter of people deciding to order through their own affiliate link, which effectively causes you to “lose” a commission. But my philosophy is that anyone who really wants to order through their own link is going to do it regardless of how well you cloak your own link. So I personally don’t worry much about that aspect of it.
Software like Affiliate Cloner can sometimes do a better job of masking your link, so it may be worth trying if you’re worried about it. But I wouldn’t worry too much.