Over the course of your blogging and business building career, you are going to be faced with many questions. The decisions made with these questions will have a lasting impact on your future growth and expansions, so answering them correctly is vital to your bottom line.

One of the biggest things I see bloggers struggle with is money. Ironic isn’t it? The thing you are trying to make also ends up being your downfall, but how does that happen? How does money kill bloggers in the pursuit of their dream and the internet lifestyle?

Where Bloggers Fail With Money

The typical road of a blogger is a hard one. They slave over content, monetization techniques and growing their blogs to make pennies on the hour over the course of the beginning stages. Then something hits. A nice spike in traffic, a great review or a feature on another site and the income starts to flow in. Even if it is not a lot of money, there is the instant satisfaction that all of this work is not going to waste and money actually can be made online!

So what does the blogger do?

Celebrates! The blogger buys that big TV, the game console or whatever other toy they have been pining for all this time. They have earned it right?! It can’t be all work and no play!

One BIG problem.

That big TV does nothing to help grow your business or invest in your future. You just took all of your hard work and invested it in a depreciating asset that will be obsolete in 6 months. All of that hard work, those late nights and time away from your family will be absolutely worthless in less time than it took you to build that small income stream. Congratulations, you just crippled your success and you are going to have to work even harder to get it back.

What should you have done?

Looked for ways to reinvest back into you blogging and saved the excess (or paid off high interest credit cards if you have them). Building a business online is no different than any other business. You need to reinvest back into the business if you want to see future growth.

Was there a paid plugin that you needed?

Was there a design or coding project you needed done?

Do you need a better camera or piece of equipment that would benefit your blogging?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself as you start to see money coming in from your blogging. That expensive “celebration dinner” might make you feel great for an hour, but the increased revenue from reinvesting back into your blogging will pay for itself over years.

Bloggers tend to get all of the advice down on growing a community and monetizing a blog. What they fail to realize is that a business can not grow without capital and they are squandering away that capital on a bunch of stuff they really don’t need…leaving nothing for the business when you need an interview transcribed or help with a new design or logo that will increase your professional reputation online.

Personal Story: What I Bought This Week

Ok…so what spurred this thought process? With some extra income in the bank from hard work at the keyboard, it was time to reinvest in my business some. While I could have gone out and bought that new HDTV my wife and I have been looking at. I instead picked up a new camera that is going to help out my biking sites A LOT. With better high ISO quality and 7 fps shooting, this Nikon D300s will be able to catch trail side shots much better than my previous Nikon D80. (Luckily for me…a lot of my reinvesting money is on stuff I like too!)

Pictures are a huge part of the biking culture and I have been relying too much on the support of my community and friends for shots to use on the site. What I really need to do (and the reason for the purchase) is capture my own shots for the blogs. Now…armed with a Sigma 10-20 super wide and the Nikon D300s, I have zero excuse for not lugging around this heavy beast with me on rides to capture the shots I need.

As a nice side affect…photography is a hobby of mine so I get to enjoy it for personal reasons as well. Like shooting my two girls laying on a couch.

Now…does anyone have a Sigma 70-200/f2.8 they want to donate to RobbSutton.com? You can keep up to date with what I am posting on Flickr through the widget on the sidebar.

So what can you do to reinvest back into your blog and business?

Ramped Blogging – The Ultimate Blogging Guide for Beginning and Advanced Bloggers

Free 118 page eBook that takes you step by step through successful blogging!

Click here to get your copy now

I hear bloggers all the time make the excuse “there are already too many blogs about that…so I’m not going to start one”. That is a fear of competition and I am going to explain to you why that is an unhealthy fear that will keep you from success.

Before we jump straight into it…I want you to sit back for a second and think about all of the products and services you use on a daily basis that came into the market only in the last couple of years. Maybe it is your car, your favorite coffee, the computer you are staring at right now. Now, think of where you would be if that company decided that there was too much competition in that market to bring something new to the table. Doesn’t make much sense now does it? So let’s look at why competition in blogging is a good thing for you and future growth.

Want To Succeed In Blogging? Stop Being Afraid Of Competition!

Now that I have blown enough hot air, let’s get down to brass tax and take a look at why competition in blogging is a good thing for you…as the blogger looking to have a successful blog (did I say that blogging word enough times in that sentence?). Let’s assume for all of these points that we are referring to quality competition and not scraper sites or ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ blogs.

Competition Means There Is A Market

If there is a lot of competition within a give marketplace, that means there is a customer base large enough to support the ever growing offerings on the web. That’s right…that means there is still room for your blog to make its mark on the vast world wide web space. If there was not a big enough audience to support all of those blogs, they wouldn’t be there. Who wants to waste their time spinning their wheels for nothing? I don’t and neither do other successful bloggers.

Now…there is a flip side to this as well. If you find a niche were there is zero competition, do not go thinking you just found the holy grail of blogging. There is probably a reason that no one has entered that market so you will need to do some preliminary research before you go and throw everything you have at it. Is the niche too narrow? Is there not enough people online that want to read about this niche?

Beginning a new blog in a crowded market is all about finding a smaller sub-niche that has an audience, growing that blog and then expanding into other sub-niches until you have a giant monster of a resource. Find a competitive market and rock it out. There is an audience to support it because you can already see they are there!

Example: With Bike198.com, I started with mountain biking and that eventually grew into road biking, commuting by bike and an online forum. It is all about building on success and not being afraid to try.

Competition Makes You Work Harder and Smarter

There is no time to be lazy when you are working within a niche that has competition. The bar continues to rise with quality as more bloggers enter the market offering something new and exciting. While a lot of bloggers would use this as an excuse to throw in the towel or keep to their old ways, the successful bloggers use this as a challenge to continue to work harder and smarter to stay that one step in front of the competition.

Friendly competition among bloggers will force you to continue to look for ways to be more efficient in your blogging in all aspects (monetization, content production, etc.). While the other bloggers in low competition niches get to sit back and be lazy, you are forced into being a well oiled machine. Because if you aren’t…your competition will be. So welcome to the crash course in being a better blogger…having to compete with other better bloggers.

Competition Drives Innovation and Creativity

Cutthroat competition among competing brands drives innovation and creativity in the market and this is a great thing for everyone involved. It also produces more profitable blogs, products and services quality drives sales. This need to continually make more innovative content and products will drive you to make more money online and see faster blog growth.

Competition Brings Up The Entire Industry

Going hand in hand with every previous point, all of this competition brings that specific market up to a new level and…in the process…brings you up with it. Your blog becomes better faster and your competing blogs do the same. What happens when you go to expand into a new market? Your skills are already a well oiled machine ready to take on the world. So while you were fine tuning your skills in a high competition market, the others were just sitting around with old methods. You now get to come in and raise the bar.

Competing Markets = $$$

Larger audiences and a lot of competition means there is money being made. If you are looking for profitable niches, start looking where there are other blogs making money (not the MMO, blogging niche). It will take some research on your end to find them, but the payoff is huge in the long haul.

Bloggers: We Are All In This Together

Just remember, we are all in this together. Bloggers generally welcome friendly competition and we work to bring the quality of our niches up instead of try to discourage new ideas. The web is huge…and we can all have a part.

As you look at your market and where you want to head, remember that high competition also means that it might take a little bit longer to rise above the noise and make your mark. But…once you do…your mark is much more substantial than in low competing niches.

Find a way to bring something new to the table and rock it. You will be surprised at the result as readers really want to see something new and unique. Just because there are already a lot of blogs on a given subject, that does not mean you can’t make it your own and be highly successful. It just means you have to work a little bit harder for a bigger reward.

Ramped Blogging – The Ultimate Blogging Guide for Beginning and Advanced Bloggers

Free 118 page eBook that takes you step by step through successful blogging!

Click here to get your copy now

There is a lot of focus online about how to promote your blog to gain more readers through online avenues. There are guest posts, interviews, social media, blog carnivals, contests and a whole host of other ways to draw readers back to your site. While this is a necessary step in growing any blog, there are a lot of bloggers that completely ignore the off site/not plugged into a wall way to promote your blog and gain more readers with off-line promotion. For many niches, these techniques can prove to be an incredible way to get more eyes looking at your content on a regular basis…and make money doing it.

Off Site Promotion Techniques For Bloggers

The following off site promotion techniques can help you grow your blog and some of them will actually help you build up your bottom line at the same time.

Business Cards

If you are looking to make an income online, you have to treat your business seriously. Business cards are still the #1 way to pass your information along to another person while networking off-line. A well designed business card with the necessary contact information and logos will gain you credibility with new, potential readers, business partners and advertisers before they have even set eyes on your blog. Think of it as pre-qualifying by providing professional quality right off the bat.

The best part…business cards are CHEAP! I typically design my own and then head over to VistaPrint to order up enough for my needs.

T-Shirts

T-Shirts are one area that I have been building up for Bike198.com for awhile now. In some niches (like mountain biking), your readers will be t-shirt whores. They want a t-shirt for every event, catch phrase and obsession as they express their hobbies to the world through the outward expression of their clothing. Designing a t-shirt and selling it on your site with catchy phrases and graphics related to your niche will not only make you more money in your blogging, but it will make your readers a walking billboard for your site and content.

Stickers

How many stickers do you see on the back of cars as you drive down the street? What if those stickers were yours?! By giving away and selling stickers on your blog, you can once again turn your readers into viral promotion machines. How many of those stickers that you see on a daily basis are website based? A lot.

Mainstream Media

Mainstream media can be one of the biggest shots in the arm for a blog looking to expand its readership. Much like Mike at Daily Shot of Coffee did with a magazine mention, you can reach an entirely new audience that may have never landed on your page through conventional means. By pitching story ideas to magazines and newspapers or just “being found”, you can create a flood of readers to your content from off-line resources.

Networking

Off-line networking may feel like you are only reaching 5 people at a time through blogger meetups and related events to your niche, but…you need to remember…word of mouth is a powerful tool. The more positive experiences people have with you and your content, the more they spread the word like wildfire. One of the most powerful ways to network is to help out with local groups through speaking, organizing and helping. In some cases, you might even be able to sponsor an event which will result in your logo hitting banners, t-shirts and other related materials.

Off-Line Promotion Equals Increased Business

As a blogger looking to make your income online, you can not ignore off-line promotion techniques just because you can not measure the results instantaneously through stat counters. The long term affects of off-line blog promotion can increase your spread dramatically with just a little bit of effort. Your job as the blogger looking to grow your blog is to find where your potential readers are and attract them to your content and products. For many niches, your potential readers will be hanging out in off-line resources.

One of the questions I get asked a lot about successful blogging is about how crucial of a role video is going to play in blogging. There is no getting away from it…video is a large part of the future of blogging, but most bloggers are struggling to figure out where it will fit into their plan and future growth.

I used to work as a post production video editor in Atlanta, so here is my take on online video and its impact on the blogging world. Of course…these are just my opinions so you need to apply these how you see fit to your blogging, but…for the most part…these are pretty universal truths as things sit right now.

Video, Blogging and Making Sense of it All

As a blogger, video should be in your future if you are not doing it already. There are certain things that video does incredibly well that benefits a blog greatly in the long run. There is a reason that you even see bloggers just sitting in front of a camera talking. While some people might think, “wow…that is boring…there is not much going on there”, it does fill a necessary void in the social media atmosphere that can not be denied.

Now…there are also some things that blogging can not do in the current technological environment and we will take a quick look at those aspects as well.

Don’t Be Scared Of Video

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of blogging and video, if you are not utilizing video in your blogging now because you feel like it is too complicated or out of your reach…do not be scared of it.

• It is not too expensive.
• It is not too complicated.
• And you can get started today.

One of the biggest barriers of entry in video production for bloggers is that they perceive it as too expensive. For under 200 bucks, you can be up and shooting in HD with a Kodak Zi8 (that is what I use for blogging) and the software that comes with it is fine for blogging! Video in blogging is actually better the simpler it is, so if you are worried about having to produce complicated Hollywood style productions…forget about that. Simple cuts and simple titles that anyone can do is perfect for producing video for blogging and actually converts better.

So if you are letting the fear of video keep you from integrating it into your blog…do not worry. It is far simpler than you have it laid out in your head, and the cost of entry is drastically lower than it used to be several years ago.

Note: As a reference…to get the same quality output online as we do today…we used to have to spend over 5 grand. Have to love the way technology progresses these days.

What Video Does Really Well and Why You Should Use It

Ok…now that your fear of video has all but escaped you (or you are already using it), let’s take a look at what video does really well in your blogging.

1 – Social Media Traffic and Spread

With video, you get in the eyes of a completely new audience with YouTube, Vimeo and the other video sharing sites. YouTube is one of the largest sites in the world, don’t you want to tap in on some of that action?! Of course you do…but the only way is by submitting some video. By putting a simple title screen at the front and back of your video with your blog name and url, you are able to pull more potential subscribers to your blog from an outside source. You are also giving them a preview of what to expect with a personal touch.

2 – It Gets You Up Close and Personal

As I hinted to in the last point, video brings the ‘real you’ into your blog. You can put up as many pictures as you want, but until you put up some video of you talking, that personal connection is never really there. You readers want to connect with you and video is one of the best ways to do that outside of knocking on their door and shaking their hand. Video brings you into their home through a computer screen. That is worth its weight in gold as you continue to try to get that connection.

3 – Video Stimulates The Senses

Every one of your readers is stimulated in a different way. Some love reading text, others kill to look at your pictures and some will fall in love with your videos. It is your job as the blogger to stimulate as many different kinds of readers as you possibly can. By introducing video into your offerings, you are guaranteeing that you are going to connect with the readers that want to engage with that kind of content.

Example: With my product reviews on Bike198, I am able to not only show my readers what the product looks like through pictures, but how it actually works! Can you see the power with that model? I am able to bring that product into their senses using every method possible outside of them touching it themselves. Video makes that possible.

What Video Does Not Do Well and Why It’s Not the End All

Video…just like text or pictures…is not perfect. While you might think, “wow! If it is that great, I’ll just switch completely over!”, but you do need to know several things about incorporating video into your blogging before you run off to change the world.

1 – Video and Google/Other Search Engines

While video can show up on the first page in organic search engine results for high competing keywords…remember this…that search engine visitor is getting sent to YouTube and not your site. As of this point in time, Google and other search engines do not directly spider your embedded content outside of pictures and text. So when you embed that YouTube video on your blog post, Google basically doesn’t see it. That means all of those video only posts you publish are going to have a hard time ranking well unless it is on really low competing keywords.

2 – Not Everyone Can View Your Videos

A lot of your readers digest your blog at work, so if you are just putting up video, you might lose a lot of readers who can see YouTube due to it being blocked or can’t hear it because they do not want everyone around them knowing they are not working on what they are supposed to. Just having video (or just audio for that matter) can heavily decrease your target audience because of this.

3 – Yes…There Are Still People On Dial Up

I find it hard to believe too, but there are still people that live on dial up and large video files are out of their reach unless they want to wait an hour to see what you have to say.

How To Get Around Videos Shortcomings

So…given these shortcomings of video on your blog, how can you get around them and still incorporate the latest in blog gold on your blog? It is pretty simple really.

Provide Your Readers With The Complete Package

When you post a video review, video content and other related video posts, provide your readers with the complete package. In that same blog post that you want to display video, also provide a text version of the blog post that either summarizes the points in the video or directly transcribes what you were saying. This allows people who do not want (or can’t) to watch the video to digest your content in another manner. It also provides you with the text necessary for search engine spiders to see what the hell you are talking about.

Much like I do with my interviews with transcriptions, you have to keep in mind every single one of your readers when you publish a blog article by providing multiple outlets for engaging with the content.

Video is in your future as a blogger, but utilizing it correctly is your key to success.

Are you using video in your blogging?

Ramped Blogging – The Ultimate Blogging Guide for Beginning and Advanced Bloggers

Free 118 page eBook that takes you step by step through successful blogging!

Click here to get your copy now

There are certain life lessons that apply to both business and life. There are also those that you wish you could just go back in time, shake the crap out of your ‘old self’ and scream…”JUST LISTEN TO ME! I’LL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER!”. But…then again…it is the lessons we learn throughout the mistakes in our lives that really brings us success and happiness over time. So as we look at our blogging and those lessons we have learned, what is it that I should have known in grade school that know helps me tremendously in my blogging?

I Wish I Could Tell This To Myself

Back in the day, I was a pretty geeky kid growing up. I was also that kid that was obsessed with fitting in with the ‘cool crowd’. I wanted to hang out at the same places, do the same things, wear the same clothes…but the more I tried to ‘fit in’ the more I was kicked out. A funny thing happens when you focus all of your energy on being someone you are not. You get the opposite reaction that you were looking for. Up until about my junior year in high school…that was me. That geeky kid just trying to be one of the crowd.

About half way through my junior year in high school (after beating my head up against a wall since 6th grade), I finally just gave up. I found a group of friends I could connect with and started acting like me instead of a person that I thought everyone else wanted me to be. It was almost an instantaneous switch that changed my life. Now…all of those same people I wanted to be like actually wanted to hang out with me. Not because I was exactly like them, but because I was being like me.

Now…all that time and energy was being spent towards being myself and enjoying time with friends who actually gave a shit how I was doing that day…and that confidence and uniqueness attracted others. Funny how that happens.

How Does This Help Your Blogging?

Far too often, I see bloggers struggling with who they want to be online. They see someone else in their niche who is successful and they emulate that formula expecting the same results. They are no different than my confused grade school self just trying to fit in. What they forget is that blogger made it to where they are because they brought something unique and different to the table. That uniqueness bred the success…not trying to be one of the ‘cool crowd’.

Daring to be yourself and stand out from the crowd will gain you the respect and individuality that is required to be apart of the ‘cool crowd’. The weird thing…99.9% of people and bloggers go about it the exact opposite way by trying to copy someone else.

It is time to be different.

It is time to stand out from the crowd.

It is time to see success by being yourself.

It is time to stop worrying so much about what other people thing when you are probably wrong.

It is time to be you.

Through being yourself…you will find success. If you want to copycat someone else and focus on the wrong aspects of your blogging, be ready for frustration and disappointment. Blogging is about that connection between the blogger and the reader and if you are too worried about being like someone else…you will never get that connection and you will never see success. People want to connect with something unique. If you are just like someone else, they will just to read the real thing.

Direct advertising and affiliate banner management is an increasing source of income for bloggers looking to squeeze that last penny out of every pageview.

The hurdle comes when bloggers try to optimize this process into something that is easy to manage and use. While there are a lot of free options out there for Adsense and other specific categories, I needed something that was more of a complete solution for my needs as a blogger that is making money online. For that…I looked to OiO Publisher to handle all on site banner management and direct advertising sales.

What Is OiO Publisher?

From OiOPublisher.com:

OIOpublisher is an ad manager that focuses on maximising your revenue, saving you time, and keeping you in complete control of your ad space.

This php ad management script can be used to sell and serve ads on any website. It can even be used as a Wordpress plugin right out of the box!

What are the benefits?

• Complete control over your advertising, with fully automated sales
• Make money from your websites whilst saving valuable time
• Keep 100% of your revenue, forget middleman commission
• Run 3rd party ad networks alongside your own ads
• Gain exposure through our free ad marketplace

Basically, OiO Publisher promises to control all of your on site banner advertising (whether it be Adsense, Affiliate or Direct) and allow you to sell that direct advertising straight off your site. All of this is accomplished through a Wordpress plugin and some simple coding.

Review: OiO Publisher – On Site Advertising Management

When I went looking for a solution to handle all of my advertising needs on Bike198.com, I needed something that was going to be very comprehensive. I need something that is going to handle multiple forms of banner and text advertising that includes direct advertising banners, affiliate advertising banners and PPC banners like Adsense. There wasn’t anything I could find in the free Wordpress plugin market that handled all of those solutions quickly and easily. From that point, I went looking for a solution.

Note: There is one free solution that is very comprehensive (OpenX) but the Wordpress integration is less than ideal. I wanted a plug and play solution and OpenX wasn’t it.

Setup: OiO Publisher

Setup with OiO Publisher is pretty simple and straight forward. For Wordress users, you are given a plugin that you install just like you would any other. Once installed, you have an admin panel in your left sidebar that controls all of the settings and administration of OiO Publisher. OiO gives you an API key to get everything up and running correctly, so once you have that set…you are ready to setup your zones and get to work.

In the settings panel, you setup all of the zones on your site that are going to display advertising. These can be any size you need to accommodate your site and once you have these zones setup, you can insert them via the supplied widgets or insert the code into your header.php, footer.php or single.php file (the file that handles your posts). This makes it very easy to install ads in your Wordpress blog and have the OiO Publisher plugin automatically handle any changes that you make over time.

Zone setup is fairly easy. You have the option of setting up a multitude of options:

• Text Ads
• Email Ads
• Inline Ads
• Banner Ads

In this window, you also set up your price, the duration of that price and how many rows and columns you want in that specific ad space (basically complete control over everything).

Each of these ad placements offer rotation options and default ad options to fit the needs of your site. The default ad option is really a great feature as you can determine which affiliate banners and/or PPC banners like Adsense you want to rotate into the empty spots if they are not filled with direct advertising. This is also a useful tool for blogs that haven’t sold any direct advertising yet and just want to serve multiple, rotating ads for increased click throughs.

On Site Direct Advertising Sales

One of the biggest selling features of OiO Publisher is one that you may not use right away, but you will in the future. OiO Publisher allows you to integrate all direct advertising sales directly into your blog. You actually setup a sales page and sell spots from the different zones directly on your site and then use PayPal, Google Checkout or any of several different payment options to handle direct advertising subscriptions and payment automatically. It really is a hands off process and you can see the example I have from Bike198.com below.

This makes it incredibly easy for you to sell advertising space and keep it simple for your advertisers. This alone is worth its weight in gold.

Overall Thoughts: OiO Publisher for Wordpress

OiO Publisher is a very powerful tool for bloggers. It can completely handle all of your direct advertising needs on site in a way that solidifies your brand. But the true power of this plugin comes in with its ability to handle all of your other needs as well (affiliate, ppc). OiO Publisher can seamlessly integrate all of your money making advertising solutions into one controllable resource. In the long run, that pays for itself more than you can even imagine.

I actually use OiO Publisher on all of my sites now as my only solution for banner and text ad placement and that is why it is linked in my tools section.

What I Like About OiO Publisher

• Handles multiple ad types for bloggers
• Built in ad rotation with default ads
• Easy to install and integrate
• Cheap!! This thing is a steal for the features

What I Didn’t Like About OiO Publisher

• Setting up the on site sales pages does require some coding knowledge (support forum is great if you need help)
• Stat package is not as robust as I would like to see

If you are looking for a one stop shop for all of your advertising needs on your blog, you can’t go wrong with OiO Publisher.

Get $10.00 off by using the coupon code setup just for RobbSutton.com readers. Click here and apply “SAXON-198″ to get the discount.

Last night, I was asked to speak at the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup about monetizing blogs with Tom Royce (real estate and profit blogger). Monetization of blogs is a hot topic for obvious reasons as many bloggers are looking to generate extra income online through their blogging efforts. With over 120 people showing up to this bloggers meetup in Atlanta, there were a lot of attentive eyes all headed in our direction as we tried to unravel the basics of blog monetization. Here is a recap of what I went over last night.

The Truth About Making Money With Blogging

To start things off…I jumped right into the truth about making money online.

You Don’t Have to Blog About Blogging or Making Money Online

I think a lot of bloggers get tunnel vision when looking to make money online by thinking they have to start a blog on that subject as those are the only bloggers that ‘appear’ to make any money. The reality is that most of the money made online through blogging is made outside of that niche and the most profitable bloggers I know…do not blog about blogging at all. You go to their sites, make them money and leave because they provide a valuable resource but don’t talk about income.

When you are looking to make money online, you read blogs on that specific topic. Just because that is what you are reading…that does not mean it is the only way.

You Do Not Make Money Off Of Just Blogging

A lot of people make the beginning mistake thinking they can throw up articles with a couple of ads and the traffic will bring them money. That is not true! Blogging is your leverage to reach an audience. Once you have reached that audience, your resources need to generate income outside your posts through resources for people that are ready to buy. This comes in the form of affiliate revenue, your own products, etc. Blogging is leverage…not the means.

Diversification Of Income Streams

In my blogging world, I like to have as many income streams as possible (that work obviously) to keep the percentage of my income low for any one monetizing outlet. It is much easier to build up multiple smaller streams over time than it is to be 100% reliant on 1 monetization method. What if that one method you are using goes away one day?! You are sunk! If you have multiple other income streams all feeding your blog, that 1 that went away is not as big of a deal.

• Your Own Products
• PayPerClick – If payouts are high enough to warrant the screen real estate
• Affiliate Advertising
• Email Lists
• Free Products
• Direct Advertising
• Speaking Events
• Consulting
• you get the idea…

All of these are worth testing over and over again on your blog so you are not leaving any money on the table as you grow your audience and spread on the web. By diversifying the way you make money online, you can realize bigger gains that are easier to achieve.

The Biggest Mistakes I See Bloggers Make

I went into the basics of how I make money on my blogs, but I think the more important part of that conversation is the mistakes I see beginning bloggers make when they are trying to generate income from their blogging.

They Do Not Attract A Buying Audience

To make money on your blog, you have to tailor your content towards an audience that is ready to spend money. Without this…you are not going to make a dime. As you start to generate your content with the goal of making money online, you need to target a specific reader. Are you selling a product or service on your blog? Then you need to generate content that solves the problems of the person you think would be interested in your products and services. Are you promoting other products and services through affiliate advertising? Then the same rule applies…

Even if you are using PPC campaigns, you still need a reader that wants to visit an online store to purchase a product so they will actually click that link.

They Do Not Have An Email List

Aweber is cheap…stupid cheap…and it makes you more money down the road in blogging than you could ever imagine. This world still runs off of email and it is your job to capture every lead you can on your blogs. If you are not building some kind of email list, then you are not making a significant sum online. Your email list is the key into your readers lives to keep them coming back to your blog, products or services.

The example I gave last night was this: Last year I released the Ramped Riding eBook on Bike198. When I released this $10.00 eBook, I sent out an email to my thousands of newsletter subscribers. Now…do the math in your head of 10 * x,xxx = $$$. The power of your email list is the leverage you have to making money online. Without it…you are solely relying on RSS and search engine results which are both low converting avenues in your blogging.

Start your email list…provide something that will make someone want to subscribe to that email list (free eBook, extra content, etc.) and then provide valuable content to that email list on a consistent basis and you will have a money making machine.

Aweber even has a trial where you can try their service out for a buck…you can beat that.

They Beat One Method Into The Ground And Stop

Blog monetization is a never ending testing process. Just because you found something that is working ok, does not mean you stop testing…sit back and relax. There are always ways to improve conversions, there are always more methods to test. If you want to make more than just lunch money online, you need to continually test your income streams and try out new ones. Just throwing up one way of making money online and then stopping is going to keep you in the pocket change arena.

They Give Up

Blogging is an action sport. You are not going to make riches overnight and there is no easy answer. The biggest reason I see people not make money on their blogs is because they just give in and give up. The persistent and the ones that are not afraid to keep going after failing are the ones that make it in the end. If you are not willing to do that…you are not going to make anything by blogging online.

Overall…Making Money Online Is Freaking Fantastic

While I was giving this talk with Tom at the Atlanta Bloggers Meetup, my pocket kept vibrating with emails telling me about affiliate commissions and eBook sales. When it was all said and done, I made a nice profit even after dinner, valet parking, gas and my time and it had nothing to do with my talk. While I was talking about blog monetization, my blogs were still running and delivering on what I was talking about.

There were some great questions asked and I am really glad I took this opportunity. I find that when I give the most back…I get the biggest feeling of satisfaction.

Throughout the blogging industry, you constantly hear, “blog about what you are passionate about”. There is good reason for this. You will be more likely to continue blogging when you are making little money and your readership is small if you love what you are blogging about. There are bloggers that have made fortunes without this, but the success rate is higher if you are blogging with passion instead of work. However, this does bring about a hurdle that most beginning bloggers do not consider when starting their new blogs on their passions.

Are You Prepared To Make Your Passion or Hobby Work?

As much as I wish I could tell you successful blogging has zero “work” attached, that just wouldn’t be true. Yes…when you are doing what you love it does not feel like work. That is one of the most appealing things about blogging. However, there are certain aspect of blogging that are boring ass, “I thought I left this behind” work.

Until you are making enough cash to outsource the boring aspects of business owning, you are now your own accountant, email answering service, customer service, business planner and do-it-all guru. Successful blogging is not just writing about what you love. It is also managing a business that surrounds that central function.

When I am backlogged on product reviews, I have to take out extra time to ride bikes, carry more equipment and sometimes skip certain rides with friends  because I have companies that are waiting on me to deliver on my promises. There isn’t any time to sit around lazy and say…”I’ll just do it tomorrow.” I brought upon this responsibility, so it is up to me to deliver.

I know…it sounds silly actually. Damn…I have to go ride my bike today to test out cool product that everyone else drools over. But…the fact is that you have to start taking your hobby/passion seriously if you want your blog to be successful.

The good news. You are trading the set of problems you had with the 9-5 for a much higher quality set of problems with the ‘I am my own boss’ lifestyle. You are not rid of responsibilities, you just get to choose the quality of those responsibilities. You also have direct control on the outcomes and payoffs.

So…as you look forward to your blog over the next couple of years…are you prepared to make your hobby and passion work?

Sleep at computer image by Corie Howell

I first met Mike Crimmins at Daily Shot of Coffee when he purchased Ramped Reviews. Back then, Mike was just getting started with process of review blogging and was looking for a way to connect with his readers and blog about his massive love of all things coffee (as you can imagine…I can relate).

On DailyShotofCoffee.com, Mike shares his coffee experiences, opinions and reviews with his readers and he has a great growing community around that premise. As he says on his about page, “I’m not a coffee expert (yet), I just love coffee.” and that rings true throughout his blog.

What You Can Learn From Mike

Mike Crimmins has done a fantastic job at taking action steps with his blog. Having been blogging for sometime before he purchased Ramped Reviews, he was able to capitalize on what he had already learned through first hand knowledge and apply the steps laid out in Ramped Reviews to take his blog to the next level by getting in all of that coffee and equipment for review content on his blog.

From Mike:

I’ve read Ramped Reviews from cover to cover several times now, it has really been the hands on guide for helping me get products to review for Daily Shot Of Coffee. The chapter on how to write the product request letter was especially helpful and one of the key reasons that I’ve received thousands of dollars worth of equipment product to review including high end coffee makers, espresso makers and various other pieces of coffee equipment. Thanks at least in part to Ramped Reviews, I’m running out of room in my kitchen.

Ramped Blogging helped me fine tune my blog. I’ll admit that I thought I was a little too experienced for it at first, but inside of it I was able to find many things that helped me fine tune my website on a lot of different levels. The chapter on pages, I used as a guideline to add missing pages to my blog to make it more useful to my readers. The section on generating income helped me tweak some things to improve my income, while also giving me ideas on other ways to monetize. Another good read that I need to go back and look at for a second time.

Mike is doing an incredible job at capturing leads for his newsletter by providing a free eBook that gives you the recipes you need to create your own Starbucks drinks at home. With a great tagline, “Learn How To Make The $5 Coffee Shop Drinks For Less Than $2 A Cup”, Mike is growing his blog by providing a valuable resource to his readers. This newsletter will be a vital part of the blog’s future growth.

Over time, Mike is going to want to clean up the design a little bit and get more of a defined logo to centralize his brand, but the community his is building and the success he has seen so far overshadows that at this time. As the budget allows, those will be investments he is going to want to make in the future.

How Is Daily Shot Of Coffee Doing?

Well…I could throw up his stats and show you guys how great he is doing with unique visitors, pageviews, etc…but there is something else that happened recently to Mike’s blog that is much more important. It also shows the true power of blogging and reviewing products on your blog.

Mike hit one of the holy grails of blogging exposure…main stream media. Thanks to Mike’s hard work on providing quality content and reviews for his coffee loving readers, Mike’s Daily Shot of Coffee blog was linked up in a magazine…Woman’s World.

It doubled my traffic on Monday and brought me a lot more fans on Facebook and email subscribers.

You can find out more about that magazine article by clicking here.

Mike has done what a lot of bloggers don’t, he has applied the knowledge he has learned from experience and eBooks by taking action. You can get all of the advice in the world, but until you take that first action step…you are not going to get anywhere.

Now…thanks to his action…he has more product than he can physically review (didn’t pay for it either by the way) and he has a growing community built around his honesty and love of all things coffee.

You can pick up your own copy of Ramped Reviews by clicking here and…if you love coffee…click through DailyShotofCoffee.com and soak up the content.

Ramped Blogging – The Ultimate Blogging Guide for Beginning and Advanced Bloggers

Free 118 page eBook that takes you step by step through successful blogging!

Click here to get your copy now

Building a group of loyal followers to your blog is probably one of the most difficult aspects of blogging. You might be pulling plenty of one-time readers, or have a small group of loyal blog watchers, but how do you build that into a bevy of diehard fanatics? Many bloggers ponder that question as they publish posts that draw but a handful of comments, or review their daily statistics with hopeful expectations that are quickly dashed by the cruel hand of blogging reality. To help you keep a quality core of loyal readers returning to your blog, here are some tips you might find helpful.

1. Build A Community

Building a community is often easier said than done, but if you can draw likeminded and loyal readers to your blog (friends, family, co-workers, etc.) you can start a strong core of followers. Similar to the six-degrees of separation game, simply by word of mouth and friends knowing friends, this small core can often grow into a much larger group of loyal readers.

2. Invite Input

By inviting your readers’ input to various posts, you can make them feel as if their opinions are important. Not only can this build loyalty among your readers, but you might find some quite useful contributions and ideas along the way that can further your blog and posts.

3. Give Feedback

Inviting input from your readers only goes so far though. If followers continue to post comments that aren’t responded to, eventually even the most loyal of readers might hit the road in search of someone who is listening. Keep your readers feeling as if they are part of the group and that their thoughts are meaningful by providing feedback to their comments and queries.

4. Avoid Junk

There are few worse things to encounter on a blog site than a bunch of clutter and useless information. Scrolling down a page that seems to stretch endlessly through a string of posts and video clips can get old quick. By archiving old posts, keeping your clutter to a minimum, making your posts informative, and taking it easy on the videos and graphics that slow the loading of your blog’s page, you can keep loyal readers from ditching your site in favor of greener pastures.

5. Keep It Easy On The Eyes

Sure, sometimes we have a lot to say and want to get our ideas conveyed properly. However, excessively long posts can deter readers. Short posts, bolded points and topic headings, and bullet points or lists can make your blog and your ideas easier to understand to your followers.

6. Contests And Giveaways

It often doesn’t take much in the way of freebies to entice people to visit your blog. Holding weekly contests, free giveaways, and making use of similar promotional ideas can be a great way to build loyalty among your readership.

7. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

While this isn’t to say you should go posting pictures of half-nude models all over your blog, finding a picture of yourself that shows you in the best light possible might not hurt in building loyalty among your followers. Using a handsome picture of yourself that doesn’t include a spouse or child (unless it’s pertinent to the subject matter of your blog) can appeal to followers. Sure, while a personal relationship with you and one of your followers isn’t likely, how many men and women are disappointed when their favorite actor or actress gets married? The human mind works in funny ways and people thinking that you are handsome, single and available may appeal to certain readers and increase their loyalty.

8. Play The Field

When a reader invites you to check out their blog site, by doing so and responding to their invitation, you may gain their loyalty in the process. Visiting other blogs can also open up other avenues of advertising and increased traffic. You never know what networking through other blogs might bring you when it comes to loyal readership.

9. Create A Series

If you’ve written a post that turns out to be highly successful, it might be worth considering a follow up post or two along the same lines. If those posts hit with equal success, you might have stumbled across an idea that you could turn into a series of posts that will hook your readership and bring them back on a regular basis.

10. Leave Them Hanging

Sometimes a little suspense can go a long way in bringing an audience back for more. You don’t want to show your hand right off the bat. Pace yourself and your posts so that your readers want more. If you give them all the answers right away, why would they need to come back?

About the Author

Tom is a designer and writer based in the UK who works with a supplier of Epson printer ink, toner and printing accessories. You can stay up to date with his latest posts about design and art on their blog, CreativeCloud.

Image: by Steve Keys

Ramped Blogging – The Ultimate Blogging Guide for Beginning and Advanced Bloggers

Free 118 page eBook that takes you step by step through successful blogging!

Click here to get your copy now