The path of a blogger, from beginner to professional is usually along the lines of starting as a hobby, discovering the world of monetization and attempting to make a business from your hobby. It’s an ideal situation which can be achieved with enough determination and motivation.
There is one hurdle that many serious bloggers get caught on and that’s accepting any offers that come your way. This may sound strange but the only way you’ll ever make a real business from your blogging endeavours is to turn down offers.
Managing resources
Your blog will only succeed as a business if you can manage your time and resources properly. Most bloggers work alone so any time spent designing, developing, researching, blogging and networking is a balance. Too much of one will lead to not enough of another. It’s a fairly straight forward principle and it’s something bloggers soon get used to as they try to build their empire.
You pay peanuts… You get monkeys
No doubt the first offers you get will be from PR agencies and content distribution companies. Some of which have very little interest in just what influence and traffic you have. There are rather alarming number of PR agencies just trying to improve their client’s search engine rankings through link sales and advertising. While advertising isn’t a bad thing (the big sites do it so why shouldn’t the little guy?) you’ll often find the companies that approach you are only willing to pay you peanuts. I’ve even had companies approach me telling me how generous they are that they’re giving me content for free! (I’ll rant about those another time).
While the lure of a few dollars may be tempting (It’s a couple of free beers right?!) Do some math. If this was your business model how many links would you have accept per week? How many advertorials would your site need to publish every week to make any decent money? More importantly how much of your precious time will it take to prepare, update and administer a transaction with anyone wanting advertising? Remember this includes invoicing, retrieving payment, updating your site, maybe formatting the advertorial and administering when the advertorial is removed (remember all advertising should be subscription based).
Be selective
Ultimately everything you do regarding your site will make you money. Whether it’s designing, developing, maintaining, blogging or networking, all of your hard work can lead to business opportunities. Accepting those bad-value offers means less time doing all those things that can lead to a real business opportunity, so turning them down wont lose you anything. Selecting the right business partnerships are what will make you money.
Forging longer term relationships with respectable companies and PR agencies that understand bloggers is what you’re really looking for. Understanding what your hard work is worth is a very important step in monetizing your blog. If you spend all your time working to earn $10 a month for an advertorial you’ll miss out on better opportunities that may come your way.
Keep it simple
Don’t worry if all this talk of “business” and “monetization” scares you. Remember you’re an independent blogger so you can make your blog as serious as you want it to be. The important thing is to value it and make sure others value your time and resources.
There is one hurdle that many serious bloggers get caught on and that’s accepting any offers that come your way. This may sound strange but the only way you’ll ever make a real business from your blogging endeavours is to turn down offers.
Managing resources
Your blog will only succeed as a business if you can manage your time and resources properly. Most bloggers work alone so any time spent designing, developing, researching, blogging and networking is a balance. Too much of one will lead to not enough of another. It’s a fairly straight forward principle and it’s something bloggers soon get used to as they try to build their empire.
You pay peanuts… You get monkeys
No doubt the first offers you get will be from PR agencies and content distribution companies. Some of which have very little interest in just what influence and traffic you have. There are rather alarming number of PR agencies just trying to improve their client’s search engine rankings through link sales and advertising. While advertising isn’t a bad thing (the big sites do it so why shouldn’t the little guy?) you’ll often find the companies that approach you are only willing to pay you peanuts. I’ve even had companies approach me telling me how generous they are that they’re giving me content for free! (I’ll rant about those another time).
While the lure of a few dollars may be tempting (It’s a couple of free beers right?!) Do some math. If this was your business model how many links would you have accept per week? How many advertorials would your site need to publish every week to make any decent money? More importantly how much of your precious time will it take to prepare, update and administer a transaction with anyone wanting advertising? Remember this includes invoicing, retrieving payment, updating your site, maybe formatting the advertorial and administering when the advertorial is removed (remember all advertising should be subscription based).
Be selective
Ultimately everything you do regarding your site will make you money. Whether it’s designing, developing, maintaining, blogging or networking, all of your hard work can lead to business opportunities. Accepting those bad-value offers means less time doing all those things that can lead to a real business opportunity, so turning them down wont lose you anything. Selecting the right business partnerships are what will make you money.
Forging longer term relationships with respectable companies and PR agencies that understand bloggers is what you’re really looking for. Understanding what your hard work is worth is a very important step in monetizing your blog. If you spend all your time working to earn $10 a month for an advertorial you’ll miss out on better opportunities that may come your way.
Keep it simple
Don’t worry if all this talk of “business” and “monetization” scares you. Remember you’re an independent blogger so you can make your blog as serious as you want it to be. The important thing is to value it and make sure others value your time and resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment