Sunday, October 24, 2010

5 Ways to Monetize Your Blog Without Selling Out

Last week at Blog World Expo, I had conversations with literally hundreds of bloggers about their blogging.

It was interesting to see some of the themes that emerged as bloggers shared their challenges, problems and fears.

One of the recurring conversations that I had revolved around bloggers’ fear of being seen as sell-outs by readers when they started to monetize their blogs.

On numerous occasions this past week I’ve chatted with bloggers who’ve been so scared of the potential reader reaction that it stopped them from adding any form of monetization to their blogs. In some cases, this meant the bloggers were no longer able to sustain what they do financially.

Here’s a summary of some of the reflections I had to those expressing this fear.

1. Be clear about your goals and values.

Perhaps one of the best things a blogger can do in this area is to know where it is they’re headed—or at least where they want to move to with their blogs. Just as important is to have a clear understanding of your values.

Give some thought to these factors, and you’ll be in a strong position to make some good decisions about the strategies and methods you’ll use to reach your goals. You’ll also be in a good place to do some self-monitoring to keep yourself from selling out.

Filter people’s reactions through the framework of your own values and goals, and you’ll hopefully be able to tell whether there’s truth in what they’re saying.

2. Provide value to readers.

I remember the first time I released an ebook on Digital Photography School. I was very nervous about launching it, because I didn’t know how readers would react. I remember hitting the Publish button on the launch post, and expecting a backlash from readers emailing to express how insulted that they were that I’d try to sell them anything.

But the backlash didn’t come.

Instead, I started receiving emails from readers thanking me for the ebook. The lesson I learned was that if you provide something of value to people—something that will matter to them, and help them overcome a problem—they’re often only too happy to buy it.

Not only should your product be valuable, but the interaction you have with your readers in the lead-up to its launch should be valuable too. Among the emails I received that day were messages from readers saying that they’d never bought anything online before. Yet, based on the past interactions that I’d had with them and helped them, they’d felt compelled to buy my ebook.

3. Communicate your reasoning for the charge.

I hope I’m not sounding like I’ve never had negative feedback about releasing a product. At times there have been readers who’ve expressed feelings of resentment or disappointment when I’ve released products.

In these instances, my main approach is to attempt to share my backstory of the product’s release. For example, I remember the first time I put ads on my first blog. By no means was this a play to become rich; I was just trying to make my blog break even.

One particular reader started a campaign against me, and accused me of selling out. My response was simply to email him with my story. I communicated how my blog was costing me money each month and that as a newly married guy working numerous part time jobs and trying to provide free valuable information to readers, I needed to find a way for the site to break even. On hearing the story the reader’s attitude was turned around.

Similarly, when I launched the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog ebook, I told the story of how my readers had pretty much demanded that I turn the original series of blog posts into a PDF, and indicated that they’d pay for the content in that format. In doing so I was able to communicate how the idea wasn’t even mine—in fact, it came from reader need.

I also think sometimes people need to be reminded that behind a blog is a real person who needs to find a way to sustain it. In most cases, when you share that information, I think people understand your need to monetize your blog.

4. Monitor your own motivations.

Being in any kind of business will undoubtedly lead you into situations where you’re presented with opportunities to sell out. The reality is that it can be tempting at times.

I remember an instance two years back where I was offered a five-figure sum for a series of tweets promoting a product—a product I’d never used and never would have recommended myself. The catch was that the tweets had to be positive, they’d be written by someone else, and I couldn’t include a disclaimer stating that I was being paid to tweet them.

The situation was certainly tempting on some levels: over $10,000 for a few Tweets!? I could have paid for a new car, or a year or two of my kids’ education with those tweets. But ultimately I knew that it was just a quick cash grab. I wasn’t willing to go there because it didn’t fit with my values, and the motivations I felt for doing it weren’t healthy ones.

5. Be accountable to others.

The last thing I’d add on this topic is that it can be worthwhile to have others who you can bounce these issues off. Sometimes, as  individuals, we can lose a little perspective on the realities of monetization, and the voices of others can draw us back to good decisions.

I regularly bounce the opportunities that I’m offered off a small group of people—family, friends, and fellow bloggers. In a sense it’s a little advisory board (although it’s certainly not that formal!) that I give permission to ask me tough questions, and help me stay on course to achieving the goals and values I mentioned above.

There have been a number of instances over the years when these people have pulled me back from making decisions that, upon reflection, would have seen me sell out.

In a similar way. I think it’s also wise to listen to what a wider group of people are saying to you. And that wider group is your readers. While there will almost always be someone who has a negative reaction to your approach (you can’t please everyone), there’ll be times when there’s a wider feeling among your readers that you really need to hear. At these times, it’s worth going back to your core motivations, and seeing if the wisdom of the crowd is something you need to pay attention to.

How do you stop yourself from selling out on your blog?

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

5 Common Blog Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Your company or small business needs a blog. You know that because it is now a necessity to have an online presence to expand your customer base and promote your brand. And blogs are incredibly easy to start, anyone can do it, but do you know how to use it to its maximum effectiveness? Or more importantly, will you avoid the pitfalls so many other business bloggers fall into to prove your internet savvy and distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack? Here are 5 common blog mistakes business bloggers make all to often and some tips on to avoid them.

1. Using A Blog Hosted by a Third-Party. Do not use a blog from, say, wordpress.com, where your domain name will be yourbusiness.wordpress.com and where Wordpress will own all your content. First, these blogs offer much less flexibility in design; secondly, demonstrate a lack of web savvy; and third, will make your blog harder to find. Instead, add a blog onto your website (which you should have already...) using the code readily available at Wordpress.org. Your blog should be an extension of your website, not a separate entity altogether.

2. Writing Your Posts Like Academic Essays. Writing blog posts requires a different kind of writing and mindset. Be less formal -- speak to your readers -- and have some personality to show there's a person, and not a company, behind these posts. The best part about blogs is that they encourage discussion, so write in a way that your readers (and potential customers) will want to comment. Respond to this feedback as well, both literally by responding to pertinent comments and in how your business runs. That said, do NOT neglect proper grammar or spelling, and do not stray far from blogging about business-related topics. Pictures from the company picnic are fine, sure, but do not turn your business blog into a personal diary or a collection of YouTube videos you thought were funny.

3. Just Promoting Your Company or Product. This will be the biggest turn-off to readers. A little promotion is of course necessary, but don't overdo it; use your blog to connect instead. Write about going-ons in your industry and become a trusted (and oft-visited) expert. Talk about new advances or trends. Link to other articles or bloggers in the hopes they'll link back to you. Use your blog as a hub for your other social media, like Facebook and Twitter.

4. Not Posting Often Enough. If you are starting a blog for your small company or business, you need to commit to it. Blogging is certainly a game of quality over quantity, but something still needs to be posted regularly, otherwise, readers will lose interest. Just like any other obligation at the workplace, schedule time to write posts and set deadlines for when they need to be published. Even just a half hour to an hour twice a week will be sufficient for creating content that will help build your readership and keep your current readers paying attention.

5. Assigning Blogging Duties to One Person. It's great that you've found a hip, young staff member up on social media to head up your blog, but do not put one person solely in charge of creating material. Assign duties just occasionally to various members of staff. It will help keep content varied with different voices contributing, allow other aspects of the business to be represented, and give more of a human face to your business -- it's not just one person running everything, right? Most importantly your blog should be an extension of your business; allow those who make your business happen to extend themselves as well.

Joseph Gustav is a guest blogger for An Apple a Day and a writer on the subject of medical transcription training for the Guide to Health Education.

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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Have Corporate Blogs Really Caught On Yet?

We see report after report after report of the acceptance or the non-acceptance of corporate blogging as a marketing tool. Often the measurement is done based on the activities of the Fortune 50 or 500 which I find a little puzzling since they are likely to have the most difficult environment to truly blog based on rules and regulations that keep public companies from themselves regarding the financial side of the ledger.

eMarketer, however, is taking another stab at looking at this part of the online marketing world and sees the following from data that apparently goes beyond just the big boys. (Note – The full report is from eMarketer and is for sale on their site and MP receives no compensation from eMarketer).

Honestly, that is still a pretty low percentage in my estimation considering the potential value of a blog (if done correctly, kept up and truly utilized which is what keeps most away from the practice to begin with). Even with the prediction of 43% of companies utilizing the technique by 2012 it seems low but that’s just me.

What else did they uncover about blogs? The usual funny stuff that shows just how lame traditional media can be when it cries foul around their online counterparts / competition then turns around and relies on it for information for their ‘profession’.

Here is a chart showing how journalists use the online space (I think the correlation to the blogging info above is that they use blogs as sources but that’s just a guess). There is quite a dependency on all things online for these folks including ones, like Wikipedia, that are notorious for their content being factual vs. fictional (although maybe the truth is setting in since their dependence is down from last year).

So is corporate blogging set to become more commonplace? Will there be a time when over 50% of the companies are using blogs to their benefit? Is the importance of corporate blogs overplayed? Should companies at least be blogging so they can feed journalists the information they want to see published since they are increasingly being used for sources anyway?

You tell us. You’re the experts after all. Thanks.

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BlogWorld Expo 2010 – Done and Gone, Still Reeling from the Feeling

Having some Fruit Loops with Human Cereal Bowl Ted Murphy at BlogWorld Expo 2010

I just got home yesterday morning 5:45am and then did my full time job before I even got a chance to get home and visit the family. I’m running all my travel plans by my wife in the future so I don’t go and do a red eye before a day of work ever again. I was destroyed that day. But why? Because of BlogWorld & New Media Expo. It kicked my butt up and down the Vegas strip. But in a good way.

I’ve attended every BlogWorld convention that has been held. Each one elevates the attendee experience to great levels of awesome. This year started off with a fantastic keynote by Scott Stratten. I was pumped from that moment on and never stopped running from session to session throughout the weekend. I was even running around like crazy up to the moment that I got to my own session called Content You Care About. Here is the presentation with the links to all of the resources that I talked about in my session.

If you ‘d rather download that you can do so by downloading my session as an ebook. Through this session and speaking again at a conference I learned a few cool things.

1. Always have your presentation on a spare flash drive in case it is not pre-loaded on the laptop as it was supposed to be.

2. Google Presentations is decent for making presentations, ebooks and slideshows. Very simple interface. It can also save your session as a powerpoint set.

3. Practice your session, things will go smoother if you do.

4. Smile when you present, you are there to have a great time and give people great information on things that you enjoy so smile about that.

5. Attend as much as you can, push yourself. I totally spaced on a few sessions where I should have attended.

6. Participate in PhotoWalks, if there isn’t one already then organize one because it is a great way to meet more people and also to get into photos yourself.

7. The greatest thing is being there. Get to an industry event, they are a must. Make sure you get photographed while there too.

TechKaraoke at The Pearl with Murray Newlands!
Me with Murray Newlands

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Does Sex Matter When Scoring Online?

image of man and woman arm wrestling

During one of our recent Third Tribe Q & A sessions, Chris Brogan made a comment about sex that really got my attention.

I should probably clarify that I don’t mean sex as in “Are you getting any?”

I mean sex as in male vs. female, and how that influences our behavior, our thinking, and the potential of our blogs.

Assuming we all have equal opportunity from the start, is one sex more likely to succeed in blogging than the other?

Do men have a natural advantage over women — or women over men?

In other words, does sex matter?

Chris was responding to a woman about to launch a service business but hesitant to do so because she had no formal “qualifications.” Personal experience, yes. The ability to help her clients, yes. But not the kind of “qualifications” worthy of quotation marks.

This was Chris’s response, in a nutshell:

There’s a really fascinating gender thing where women worry that they’re not qualified. And men [on the other hand] always just blatantly rush in and say ‘yeah sure I could do that’ — even if they have no real related skill. If they think they have a sense of the skill, they’ll do it.

The reason Chris’s answer about sex got my attention is that I recently wrote an ebook on reinventing yourself.

I had no reservations whatsoever about writing as an authority on the subject — even though I do not have a psychology degree or any similarly validating credentials. I have successfully reinvented myself on several occasions, so I assumed my real life results would be experience enough.

Apparently the fact that I had no reservations about publishing the book despite my lack of third-party validation makes me more like a man than a woman.

I just double-checked … I am definitely a woman

It’s not the first time I’ve heard something like “you’re more like a dude than a girl.” Most of the people who have said this to me are men, so I’m going to assume it was meant as a compliment.

The point is there is a difference in male and female characteristics. Some traits are much more likely to be found in women, and some in men.

Which brings me back to my original question:

When it comes to blogging and the potential for success, does sex matter?

I’m going to say yes.

And no.

Girls will be boys and boys will be girls

Interesting that both these articles highlighting male traits are written by women. On the other hand …

  • Brian Clark writes that being a good listener will lead to “supernatural success.” I’m going to put “listening” in the feminine column.
  • Jon Morrow teaches you need to make friends. Women are good at that.
  • And Chris Garrett promotes longterm relationships and empathy. I’m not even gonna touch that.

Study the smartest advice coming from both sexes and you’ll see that both “masculine” and “feminine” traits are vital to your success as a blogger, writer, marketer, and businessperson.

Obviously, you don’t need to change any of your plumbing. And you don’t need a personality transplant.

When I met them recently at Blogworld, I noticed that Sonia can be an assertive, analytical businesswoman and still wear pink shoes. And despite his tendency to listen more than he talks, Brian strikes me as a logical, problem-solving guy who doesn’t second-guess his own authority.

Success doesn’t belong to one sex

The bottom line is this: Sure, sex matters.

It matters in the sense that, generally speaking, some skills tend to come more naturally to men and others tend come more naturally to women.

The best of the best seem to suggest that success as a blogger doesn’t depend on your sex. (Good thing, because that’s pretty complicated to change.) It depends on your ability to cross over and develop a balanced skill set — one that includes both the typical masculine strengths and feminine sensibilities.

You just need to be willing to learn from the other team.

Which makes me feel a whole lot better about being a “girl who’s more like a dude.”

And saves me tons of money on therapy.

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How to Create a Memorable Business Card

After you leave a conference or meet with anyone that might lead to future business, your business card is the gateway for future contact and how you will be remembered. It’s important to have an exciting, professional and creative business card. The majority of business cards that are collected after a conference are thrown into a box and never looked at again. However, if you make a killer business card, you and your business are that much more likely to be remembered. Here are a few ideas and notes to remember for your next business card design.

1.) Use Your Real Picture or Memorable Logo
Personally, I have the big Zac Johnson cartoon guy on all of my business cards. It’s actually become quite a recognizable logo/symbol over the years. For anyone that doesn’t have a memorable mascot or logo, I would highly recommend adding your picture to your business card. I know when I come back from a conference and look over my business cards, I will see a few and remember the name, but not the face to go with it. Having your face on your business card makes it impossible for anyone to forget who you are!

2.) Add Social Networking Links
No longer is it about adding your full company mailing address, but instead what your social networking links and tags are. It’s becoming a must to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn urls. My favorite method of online contact is through AIM and EMAIL, so don’t forget those as well.

3.) What’s On Your Back?
Having a solid white background on your business card is just plain and lazy. Why pass up on the opportunity to grab even more attention and creativity to your business. Over the years I’ve used the back of my business cards to show different site properties that I own. I’ve also seen other business cards have calendars, fun designs, funny athlete stats and note pad lines. Add anything you like, and don’t be scared to get creative… do something original and get even more attention for yourself and your brand.

4.) Size Matters
When you are collecting business cards at a conference, you may find that your little stack of business cards aren’t stacking so perfectly. This is because people are getting more creative with their business cards and making them in a wide variation of sizes. Sure, it’s plenty annoying when you are trying to stack all of your collected cards, but they definitely stand out from the rest and grab your attention.

5.) Paper, Plastic… Metal!
You can simple, creative or very plan with your card design, but one of the best ways to get noticed is to have high quality business cards made out of metal or plastic. These cards can run a few dollars each, but will leave a lasting impression that will make others want to show your cards to their friends. If cost is an issue for you, only hand out these premium type of cards to your best potential contacts, and hand out your regular cards to everyone else.

Whether you are designing your next business cards, brochures, company flyers or anything, make sure that you take the time to make your work stand out and be more than just another business card tossed into a box after an event.

Feel free to share your business card design in the comments section, or talk about some of the coolest business card designs you’ve received over the years.

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Monday, October 18, 2010

There’s No Room for Spin On Good Content

I just finished reading an article by Aaron Schoenberger that makes a convincing case against article spinning. I couldn’t agree with him more that spinning articles is what’s been called the ‘easier softer way’ in other arenas and there are several reasons why you can’t replace spun articles with original fresh content. Following is a list of just a few of them.

  • Spinning old articles is a cheap way out and sooner or later your readers will catch on and lose respect. If you’re just going for seo mileage, then you might be able to get away with it for awhile but remember the old argument that seo is only part of what you need for a complete package. Try as people might by replacing and alternating words in the text, there’s no real way to replace the kind of new ideas that appeal to readers and prospective clients alike. Article spinning gets by copyscape but the same ideas are still reused.
  • Mistakes happen. Remember that no one wants to get penalized for duplicate or plagiarized content even if it’s an honest mistake. When you consider all the energy it takes to write fresh content and then compare it to the amount needed for spinning and the care needed to do that correctly, the best way is clearly writing the fresh stuff. Of course, there are those who don’t have time for either so the ROI that comes with hiring a good content writer (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) is well worth it.

A further article I just finished reading by Peggy Tee brings up another interesting point. Namely, good writers are hard to find. She writes many writing services rely on fast turnaround and that leads to low quality. You need to be especially wary of writing services that use templates. You want nothing to do with those as originality isn’t about tweaking the information on a template to suit your business. Individual content writers with their own websites are the ones that can put a little personal touch into what they do so you get the best results.

In one big way, using an article spinning service falls under the same category as using a writing service in that you’ve detached yourself from the personal touch a content writer can provide.

It’s important to remember when you’re looking for any kind of web content that you don’t rush into things and buy something as a quick fix for your seo needs. Getting an individual content writer is the way to go because you’ll be able to discuss the terms and even the tone and content on a personal level. When you find one of these writers who also knows a little bit about seo and what kind of Internet marketing campaign will get you the best results for your content, you’ll be affording your readers a pleasurable and informative experience when they read the content that’s been designed specifically for your business, and getting the seo boost you need.

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