While blogging can be automated (eventually), you shouldn’t expect income to be
passive from the get-go. You’ll have to
work at it, especially when you are launching your blog and building a platform
that you want to be recognized in your market.
When I first started blogging I was spending 30-50 hours a month creating
content, converting visitors into email subscribers, and selling products and
services (none of which I created myself – I focused entirely on affiliate
marketing. More on that later).
While I eventually outsourced most of my
content to skilled writers, I still spend time evaluating advertising options,
reviewing products that I can promote, building my mailing list and creating ad
campaigns to boost traffic and keep my blogs in the forefront.
While you can delegate many tasks to a team, such as content creation and even
marketing, you will want to be directly involved in the initial building phase. This
is your brand, after all. You need to make sure every piece of content has your
voice, carries your message and represents your business in the best possible
way.
No one will ever be as careful and
professional with building your blog as you will be, right? So, dig your heels
in and commit to spending the first few months building your blog from the
ground floor up. Then, and only then, should you begin to create a team that
will help you manage your blog and eventually, expand into other avenues with
other niche-based blogs (if you choose to do that).
Again, in no way is blogging a hands-free method of making money during the INITIAL
stages. You must be prepared to put in some time and effort if you truly want
to succeed.
But the good news? Your hard work will pay off.
The 5-Step Formula
While there are countless reports and
articles that overcomplicated the process of making money with blogging, here’s
a basic overview of how it’s done:
1: Create a blog and register a memorable
domain. Avoid remotely hosted options. You need to be in full control of your
website so you can take advantage of all the different revenue options with no
limitations (or other people’s advertisements).
2: Write (or outsource) killer content that
will generate traffic and drive visitors in. This content needs to be extremely
high-quality, targeted and informative. All meat, no veggies.
3:
Convert your visitors into email subscribers so you can build your list.
A newsletter is key in
building a successful blog online. Scratch
that; a newsletter is essential
to be successful in nearly ANY
market online. You will never make as much money without one.
4: Communicate with those subscribers
regularly so your lists don’t run cold. Build rapport and trust. Nurture relationships with your market. This is where you can build a recognized
brand as an authority in your market and set yourself apart from the competition
(especially those bloggers who aren’t doing this!).
5:
Sell products and services to your audience via your blog and through
your newly cultivated newsletter.
Sounds easy enough, right? It is. But it
will take time. Let’s dig into each of these steps a bit deeper so you better
understand how it works.
CREATING YOUR BLOG
This report is focused on how to make money with your blog, so I won’t go into detail
about building the platform. Just know that you should always choose a
memorable domain that is targeted to your market and that you set up a
professional hosting account that houses your blog. Don’t use a free host or a remotely hosted
option like Blogger.
CREATING CONTENT FOR YOUR BLOG
The type of content you create will depend on your target audience, but every
piece of content should always be informative and the juiciest, most relevant
topic you can come up with.
Your content will be what drives in traffic and keeps visitors returning to
your blog. It needs to establish your blog as an informative source of content
in your market so make sure you spend extra time crafting compelling content
(or outsource to experienced writers who know your market inside and out).
Insider Tip: An easy way to
provide extra value on your website is by using a plugin like www.PostGopher.com that will turn your
article content into PDF files that your visitors can save to their computers.
This lets them read it at a later time, keeping their attention and increasing
your chances that they will digest your content.
BUILD AND CONVERT
CUSTOMERS
You need to always be working towards building your list. This is a process you can set up on autopilot
by using on-site opt in forms that capture visitor’s information and add them
to your mailing list. Plugins like www.OptinMonster.com make it easy to add
visitor’s to your mailing lists.
Offer an incentive to those who join your
lists such as providing them with a special report not available anywhere else
on your blog, or special offers and discounts on products and services. Always over-deliver, and start off easy.
Don’t inundate your subscribers with paid offers right away – build rapport
with them first and let them know you are looking out for their best interests.
Then, set up autoresponder campaigns that
will broadcast different valuable offers and freebies to your subscribers over
time. I personally set up an introduction/welcome email to go out to my
subscribers as soon as they join my list.
Then, 2-3 days later, I have another
automated email go out that offers a free special report on my niche. Then, a
week later, I begin to condition them to open my emails because they know
they’ll receive value by doing so. Another free offer, a special discount code
or a special infographic based on what my visitors are most interested in.
It’s not until 7-12 days later before I begin to actively sell, and I do so as
passively as possible. Rather than bold, in-your-face offers, I work WITH them
by providing valuable resources or tools that I believe will help them or
improve their lives in some way.
When subscribers feel that you are a friend
who is looking out for them, rather than a marketer whose only interest is in
making money, they will respond accordingly.
So, don’t be a pushy email marketer – be a professional blogger with a
pulse on your market and one who is willing to go the distance for your
visitor’s (and potential customers).
Earn their trust and respect.
And finally, sell products and services
like no one’s business! This is when
you’ll start to make money with your blog and as you do, you’ll see what your
visitors are responding to so you can fine-tune your system and begin to tailor
both your email campaigns and the content on your blog, around what they are
most interested in.
Which brings us to the meat of this report:
HOW to make money.
What products or services should you sell? How can you turn free content into
profit? How can you use your blog as a lead
generation tool that will make money steadily?
I’ll show you how in the next chapter.
Top Money Maker
One of the most
important aspects to building a profitable blog is deciding what form of
monetization will work best for your market.
There are many different options available to you so figuring out which one to
start with (and ultimately, gauging what format your visitors are more likely
to respond to) is quite often the trickiest part in the process.
So, let’s break it down for you so that you can create a surefire system that
will have you earning money in no time at all, while avoiding the
under-performing options that so many people fall victim to.
DEFINE YOUR OBJECTIVE:
You may start a blog simply because you’re interested in writing content for
your niche market. Perhaps you have a lot of information to share and you enjoy
helping others. Great! But, you still need to define your blog’s
objective.
Is your blog designed
around attracting visitors with useful free content that you can then turn into
a lead?
Are you planning to use your blog to provide a free offer in exchange for an
email address to build targeted mailing lists?
If so, then your blog is a lead
generation mechanism and that is your objective.
The point of creating a blog isn’t just to make money by directly selling
products and services, either with your own offers or via affiliate marketing
offers. Your blog should also be a lead
generation tool, a way to tap into your market, and build authority in your
niche.
So, how should you
begin to monetize your blog?
Affiliate Marketing!
Even if you have a product or service of your own, if you are new to your niche
and aren’t established as a product developer, you should begin by creating
compelling content for your blog and monetizing that content with established
products and services from business owners that offer affiliate marketing
options.
You can then siphon
credibility from these established professionals, and better yet, you can let
them do most of the work!
With affiliate marketing, you aren’t stuck in support desks wading through
emails from customers who need help.
You aren’t working on graphic designers, promotional material and media kits in
order to provide tools for promoters to use.
You aren’t working on updating products, chasing down and repairing issues or
bugs in your software.
As an affiliate, you have one job to do: Sell
the product and make money!
Affiliate marketing is
hands down, the smartest strategy.
Need more convincing?
Affiliate marketers can set up profitable blogs faster than anyone else because
you are not spending months investing time and money creating products. You can
choose from hundreds of high-yielding products and feature them on your blog
with a few clicks.
Affiliate marketers can generate an income that is almost purely passive. You
aren’t involved in support, development or updates leaving you free to create
content, build your email lists and evaluate products from developers that will
make you the most money possible.
And affiliate marketing can also introduce you to hot selling products, giving
you ideas for your OWN product later on down the road once your blog is
established and you’re generating steady traffic! You’ll know exactly what kind
of products sell without having to extensively test your own products,
minimizing the risk of failure.
It’s a win-win situation.
The only exception to this rule is if you are a service provider. If you make
money offering consulting, selling real estate or any other type of service,
you will want to start offering those services on your blog from the
beginning. But if you are not a service
provider, affiliate marketing is the ONE monetization strategy you should focus
on.
Not: Google Adwords, not paid advertising, and not product
development – at least not in the initial stages. Affiliate marketing is where it’s at.
Sell High, Earn Higher
If you’re thinking, “What kind of affiliate products should I sell?”, we’re on the same
page. That is the only thing you should be concerned about when choosing how
to monetize your blog.
The key to success is not to
go after cheap markets. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that it’s better to
sell a $10 product because more people will likely buy it. It’s neither true, nor
logical. In fact, you’ll make things harder on you and you’ll have to work that
much more to generate a decent income every month.
Instead, do what the pro bloggers do: start with higher-end affiliate products
($77 and up) and work your way down. Not only will you make more money, you
won’t have to sell nearly as many copies in order to do so!
The only way a lower front-end product works is if you have a solid backend of
higher priced products. In publishing,
authors call this first product (book 1 in their series), a lost leader. You are basically selling at a price point
low enough to qualify buyers (instead of freebie seekers), while enticing them
into buying your backend products that are higher priced. That’s where you make
your money.
In affiliate marketing, the only way that
selling a low priced front-end offer makes sense if you have a series of
high-priced back end offers up for grabs. When just starting out in blogging
(and in affiliate marketing), it’s much easier to go for gold and promote
higher priced offers on your front end while you cut your teeth on the process.
In addition, as you promote affiliate offers and build up your email lists
you’ll be able to easily launch your own product later on at a higher price
because you’ve cultivated groups of subscribers that are comfortable paying
higher prices!
And remember, the one metric above all others is the number in your mailing
list. Don’t worry about RSS feed
subscribers – that is no longer worth considering – just focus on building your
newsletters because that will be the true predictor of how much money your blog
will make.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
How can you find the best affiliate products for your blog?
The easiest solution is by joining the Chitika advertising network here: https://chitika.com/publishers
While there are many different advertising
networks (and I will share some other money-makers with you in just a bit),
Chitika is one of the leading advertising networks online.
Here are others I have used. These are all fantastic resources for new blogs:
LinkShare: *Rakuten Marketing:
https://www.linkshare.com/
One of the largest affiliate networks
online with over 10 million affiliate partnerships. You’ll have no shortage of
product and service options to choose from.
Commission Junction:
http://www.cj.com/
This is the one I started with so many years ago (I even have a wooden train
whistle they sent their first wave of affiliates!), and I continue to use them
today. Very trustworthy, reliable
advertising network.
ShareASale:
https://www.shareasale.com/
One of the most popular advertising networks with over 3,000 merchants
participating so you’ll find a ton of products to promote.
Amazon Affiliate Program:
https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/
While the pay ratio is lower than many other networks, they offer you the
ability to sell products from a highly recognized brand – plus access to their
full inventory of products. I recommend
testing out a handful of products when you first start blogging as they are
exceptionally easy to get started with.
I’ll include some of the other advertising
networks that I’ve used at the end of this report in the resources section. For
now, join those four networks and scan their inventory for a handful of
products that are relevant to your niche and what you feel your visitors would
be most interested in.
Then, create your content. If you are on
a tight budget and plan to outsource most of the work, spend the majority of
your dollars on content development. This
is how you’ll stand out from other blogs in your market, capture the attention
of your audience and encourage repeat traffic.
If you do nothing else, spend time (or money) creating the highest
quality KILLER content possible.
Not sure what to write about?
Research the top 10 blogs in your niche market. Look at what they are writing
about, what kinds of headlines and titles they are using. Which articles
receive the highest number of likes and comments? Write down everything you find, creating a
swipe file of information that will help you create the kind of content those
in your market are most interested in.
Take your time with this! If you aren’t sure what kind of content your visitors
want most, you really need to spend some time researching before you begin. It
doesn’t take long. Spend an hour or two scanning popular blogs and you’ll
quickly have a list of possible ideas.
Remember, all you really need to start
blogging is 2-3 high-quality articles.
Or, flip the script and offer your visitors a combination of content
types including Infographics, articles, or a video.
And always set up your mailing list opt-in
box before you start driving traffic to your blog.
If
you want an affordable option that is also user-friendly, check out http://www.MailerLite.com or http://www.MailChimp.com and then integrate
an opt-in form application such as LeadPages.net or OptinMonster.com to
streamline the process.
Recap:
· Create 2-5 pieces of
killer content in the form of articles, Infographics or videos.
· Invest in a mailing
list service and set up your introduction/welcome email. No selling in the
first 2-3 emails.
· Offer them ONE free
thing: a report, a free download, or something else that’ll appeal to your
market.
· Integrate 1-3 affiliate
products into your blog content and into your mailing list newsletters.
· When you can afford
to, purchase a mailing list opt-in plugin that will capture leads.
You can go without this just by incorporating your mailing list sign up code
into your blog itself, but honestly, applications such as OptinMonster.com are
a lot more professional as they not only will automatically create the pop up
boxes or on-site forms, but you can also customize it so that the forms appear
based on user activity (such as how many times the visitor has been there,
where the visitor is on your website, etc.).
· Evaluate affiliate
products regularly from within the affiliate networks. Keep a pulse on your market, constantly
visiting established blogs in your niche in order to stay up to date with the
type of content that is getting a lot of attention as well as the kind of
products that are selling.
· Generate traffic!
Engage potential visitors through social media, create ad campaigns with Google
Content Display network, utilize forums and communities within your niche to
introduce your blog and maximize exposure.
I want you to start selling today. Don’t make the mistake
that so many rookie bloggers make and believe that you should first build up
your subscriber list to 1,000 before you start selling. Don’t worry about having “enough” content on
your blog.
Begin by posting 2-3 highly informative posts on your blog that will appeal to
your target audience and choose 1-3 affiliate products to promote. Divide that up and feature one product for
every 2-3 articles on your blog, with the other affiliate offers being sent out
to your newsletter subscribers.
The key is not to be
pushy. Provide valuable content that
will attract visitors and integrate an affiliate offer or two within your blogs
structure. That way you aren’t shoving
it in their faces but rather reminding them of a useful tool or service that
will help them in some way.
It’s hard to stay motivated as a blogger if
you aren’t making money so by kick starting your efforts immediately, rather
than trying to perfect everything, you’ll see results that much faster. You’ll also be able to generate revenue that
can go into building your team, hiring writers and marketers.
Once you have cashed that first check or
accepted that first payment into Paypal for your affiliate sales, trust me; you’ll
be hooked.
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