Setting Realistic Profit Goals

As you can guess from the title, and from reading many of the posts, the focus of this blog is on how to profit from blogging. The techniques mentioned could really be used by anyone, but are mostly focused on people who are interested in internet marketing.

I've had a couple of people email me asking how much they can make from blogging. There is no hard and fast answer to a question like that.

After all, how much you can make from blogging depends on a multitude of factors. Will there be "blogging millionaires" in the near future? Probably. Will you or I be one of them? Probably not.

Those of us who've been around internet marketing for a while know that most of the profit from affiliate programs goes to the "super affiliates" who are among the top 5% or so of marketers, and reap 70, 80, or even 90% of the profits seen by the entire group of affliates in a given program.

My guess is that profits from blogging will be distributed a bit more evenly, but still weighted heavily to a relatively small number of "super bloggers".

What is a "super blogger"? As I use the term, I mean someone who has a particularly popular, very widely read blog. Most of them have probably been around several years to develop that kind of following. They have highly regarded, very frequently updated content, and tons of incoming links.

Those bloggers are in a position to recommend a product or service and get quite a few people to act on their recommendation, in the same way that "super affiliates" have either a very popular web site, or a very large emailing list, or both.

Don't be discouraged, however, as there are simple ways to earn some money from your blog, and if you keep at it, you should see a slow but sure increase in profits as time goes on.

As I've mentioned in many of these posts, using display ads on the title sidebar of your blog is a simple way to bring in some revenue. Gently weaving affiliate links into your posts is another way to do it. Some people also use text ads, such as AdSense, embedded within the content of their blog posts.

If you've developed a list of email addresses from your blog, you could send out occasional tasteful "product announcments" using various affiliate links.

If you happen to have a very informative (and hopefully popular) blog, you might want to consider compiling some of your best posts into an ebook that you could sell.

My own experience is that my profits have started to rise quite a bit in recent months, and the timing coincides with when I started blogging.

Can I document a direct connection between blogging and the increased sales? Nope.

Is it just serendipity and coincidence? Possibly. Do I believe that it is just coincidence? Personally, no, but as I said above, I can't prove it.

I'm seeing sales from programs that I haven't been able to draw much income from before, and I've seen a nice inflow from having implemented Google's AdSense on a number of my sites and blogs.

I can't really explain the increased sales, other than to attribute them to the increases in traffic and search engine exposure that my blogs provide through links to my websites. However, since I don't do any tracking of precisely how a site visitor ended up on my sales page or affiliate link, I can't prove it to myself or anyone else.

Will I get rich from blogging? Nice fantasy, but I doubt it. But I truly believe that it is responsible for a slow but steady increase in profits for my online businesses, and I expect that trend to continue.

As I see it, the single best way to make money from blogging is to develop a blog that appeals to a large audience, or to a small but fervently passionate niche audience, such as hobbyists. Take the time to research, develop and post really good content, publicize your blog, and tastefully recommend products, as well as using the "ad space" your blog template provides you.

Can I guarantee your results? Of course not. Will the method make you some money? I'd be willing to bet that it will. How much money? That all depends on how well you write, the niche that you choose, how much money your readers have to spend on products, the kinds of products that are available in that niche, and ultimately on you finding traffic to your blog, and then cultivating loyalty amonst your readers.

Personally, I think you have to be willing to start small, and focus on those slow but steady increases. You might make nothing for a while, and then begin to see a few dollars a day trickle in, and then a few more, until it builds up to something decent.

As with all internet businesses, I also think that most of us would be wise to try to develop multiple streams of income, rather than just one. I can think of several top affiliate marketers who state that they only make a few hundred dollars per month from their web sites. But they may have ten, twenty, thirty, or more of those websites, each bringing in a small portion of their total income.

Most of us probably can't make a full-time income from blogging. Most of us probably can't even make a decent half-time income from it. But if you look at it as one of several tools in your arsenal, and make it one of several streams of income that you develop, I personally believe it can be a money-maker for lots of people, in particular someone who already has, or develops, a web site that sells products or services, either directly or through affiliate links.



Happy Blogging!

Using Blogs to Sell a Product or Service Online

Can you think of an easier way to start an internet business than with a blog? I can't!

Many experts agree that unless you already have, or can create, some sort of unique product to sell online, (and even if you have one), your best strategy for starting an online business is with a newsletter.

They suggest this because it gives you an opportunity to build a mailing list, and establish credibility with a group of people who will eventually become your customers.

Once you have established your credibility, it will be much easier to promote your own or other people's products to your "list".

If somebody stumbles upon your sales site for your product, they may like the product, but hesitate to buy, simply because you are a stranger to them. On the other hand, if they've been reading your free newsletter for a while, they should have a sense of knowing and trusting you.

These same principles apply to a blog, which is even easier to produce and distribute than is an online newsletter. By the way, more and more people are converting their newsletters to blog format, to get the best of both worlds.

When you establish a readership to your blog, you are gaining credibility with them. You can use the blog to give out some good, free, solid information about your area of expertise.

Over time, after you have established yourself, you can begin to weave some affliate links into your blog. I do that in this blog, occasionally reminding people about my blogging guide ebook.

You have to be subtle about including those links in your blog, because people will be turned off in a hurry if they perceive your blog as nothing more than a glorified "sales pitch".

Give out good, solid information in your blog, however, and people not only won't mind you occasionally recommending a product. They'll welcome it, since they have come to perceive you as a trusted source of information and recommendations.

It doesn't matter what kind of product or service you're trying to sell online -- a blog can help you. Even if you just want to promote some products through affiliate links, a blog is the way to go.

Just be sure your blog is primarily a source of information, and not a "hard sell", and you'll be pleasantly surprised with the results! Learn more about using Blogs and RSS to sell online.

Happy Blogging!

John.

Using Blogs to Increase Link Popularity

Most of us have seen the comments and claims regarding the ability of blogs to increase your link popularity. Just how is it done? Maybe this will help you understand ...

Before going into the details, let's understand our terms. "Link Popularity" refers to the number of incoming links a blog or website has. It is one of the major determinants of "page rank" (using the term generically), which in turn contributes to how well a website or page does in the search engine results.

So how do you use blogs to increase your link popularity?

First of all, bloggers can benefit one another by exchanging links with blogs that have similar content and themes. Both blogs get increased link popularity as a result.

Second, blog directories abound. At last count, I was aware of more than one hundred blog directories. Every one you list your blog in gives a boost to the link popularity of your blog.

Third, blogs tend to be search engine magnets. Because of the frequent updates, tightly "themed" content, and lack of graphics, they are ideal "spider food". Combining that with the incoming links from other blogs and blog directories, blogs tend to get higher page rank than do conventional websites.

My own experience has been that it is as or more easy to get decent Page Rank for a blog than for a traditional, static website. Once that has been accomplished, you can "transfer" some of that PR to your main website.

This is done in several ways. One is to maintain a static link on the template of your blog, so that it appears on every page. Additionally, you can use the individual posts in your blog to do some "deep linking" to some of the interior pages of another website, giving them a PR "boost" in the process.

Ordinarily, most links go to the home page of a site, but unless that site is very carefully structured, that PR doesn't "spread" to all of the interior pages. By linking from your blog to those interior pages, you give them link popularity and PR they wouldn't ordinarily get.

I go into more detail in my recently published blogging guide. I've also got a number of links and articles posted in the "private" area of that site that is open only to purchasers of the ebook.

If you do nothing else, exchange links with other bloggers, and list your blog in the major blog directories. You'll be amazed at the results ...

Happy Blogging!

John