The Beginning Blogger’s Bible : How to Make Money, Make a Difference, and
Make a Name Online
Copyright (c) 2008 - Stephen Palmer Book design by : CharfishDesign.com
About the Author
Stephen Palmer is a freelance writer, entrepreneur, scholar, and the New York Times
bestselling co-author of Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are
Destroying Your Prosperity.
Stephen began blogging to share his passion for liberty. His passion soon grew into
expertise in blogging, and Wordpress specifically. He created The Wordpress Coach to
share his expertise and help bloggers succeed. He offers personal coaching and other
resources that make blogging simple for the most technologically-challenged individuals. Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his wife Karina, son Alex, and daughters Libby
Table of Contents
... Introduction 6 ... Chapter 1 8 ...Who, What, Why 8
...
Who Should Blog? 9
...
What is a Blog? 9
...
Why Should You Blog? 11
... Conclusion 18 ... Additional Resources: 19 ... Chapter 2 20 ... Advertising 21 ... Affiliate Marketing 24 ... Product Sales 26 ... Donations 27 ...
Paid Blogging Sites 28
...
Sell Text Links 29
... Marketing Your Core Business Through Blogging 30
... Conclusion 31 ... Additional Resources: 33 ... Chapter 3 35 ... Steps To Choosing Your Platform 37
... Step 1: Determine Your Purposes & Goals 38
...
Step 2: Determine Your Budget 39
... Step 3: Determine Your Level of Technology Savvy 40
...
Why Choose Wordpress? 41
... Wordpress Resources 42 ... Conclusion 43 ... Additional Resources: 45 ... Chapter 4 46 ... Domain Name Registration 47
... Hosting 48 ... Design 48 ... Technical Support 50 ... Marketing 50
... My Story 51 ... Conclusion 55 ... Additional Resources: 56 ... Chapter 5 57 ... Create Value 58 ... Optimize Technicalities 59 ... Make Friends 61 ... Online 61 ... Offline 63 ... Build Community 63 ... Promote 65 ... Conclusion 67 ... Additional Resources: 67 ... Chapter 6 68 ... Challenges of Internet Publishing 68
... Specific Techniques For Effective Blog Writing 70
... Conclusion 74 ... Additional Resources: 75 ... Chapter 7 76 ... Track Statistics 77 ... How to Operate a Newsletter 79
... Utilize Images 82 ... Subscribe to RSS Feeds 83 ... Additional Resources: 83
Introduction
Time To Harness the Power
“Until recently, 'the Blogosphere' referred to a small cluster of geeks circled around a single tool. Now it refers to hundreds of millions of people using a vast warehouse of tools that allow people to behave increasingly online like they do in real life. We have entered the Age of Normalization in the Blogosphere.”
-Shel Israel, Social Media Writer & Speaker & the Co-Author of Naked Conversations
ou have the power. Above all, that’s what you should learn from this e-book. In the past, if you wanted to write a book, you needed to either get accepted by a publisher or pay for one. If you had a passion, you were limited to sharing it with your family and close friends. If your interests were unique, you were limited to networking with
people in your local area. If your family was spread out, you were limited to expensive phone calls and inconvenient letters to stay connected. Business marketing used to be confined to depersonalized, interruptive mass media.
Blogging has torn down walls and flung doors open that have been closed to all but a select few. It’s leveled the playing field and brought the power down.
Now, every writer has an immediate publishing platform, as well as the ability to market his or her book. You can broadcast your passions and interests across the globe. Your family can stay connected like never before. You can market your business through intimate permission marketing to create loyal customers.
None of this matters, however, if you don’t take advantage of it. Isn’t it time for you to harness the power of the blogosphere?
“Your family can
stay connected
Chapter 1
Who, What, Why
“The word blog is irrelevant, what’s important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.”
-Seth Godin, New York Times Bestselling Author of Purple Cow, Unleashing The
Ideavirus, and Tribes
he Information Age is a raging wildfire. Those who are unprepared and behind the times will get torched to the ground and left in the dust. Those who
understand it and harness
technology will blaze new trails and burn holes in their pockets with all their new wealth.
Blogging is one of the best ways to control the wild flames of technology to your benefit. A
blog in the 21st Century is what a horse was in the 18th Century.
Who Should Blog?
You should have a blog if any of the following describe you:
You’re a business owner You have a family
You want to increase your income You have a passion for anything
You want to make a name for yourself
You want to increase your impact and sphere of influence You have anything to say to anyone
Is there anyone imaginable that one or more of these don’t apply to?
“Blogging is getting easier and easier and some day, we'll all have blogs of one sort or another…I am not envisioning anything other than this; every single human being posting their thoughts and experiences in any number of ways to the Internet. That's where we are headed and blogging is a big part of that.”
-Fred Wilson, Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures
What is a Blog?
Imagine piling a publishing firm, TV studio, radio station, art/photography gallery, retail store, wholesale product distributor, news outlet, living room, and community hall into one tiny box that you control with your mind and fingers. Imagine stroking a few keys to reach thousands of people—or a small handful of targeted people—instantaneously. That’s a blog.
A blog can be anything you want it to be, but the simplest explanation is that it’s an outlet for you to self-publish your thoughts and interests to the world. It can be a family gathering place; a soapbox; a diary; an online scrapbook/photo gallery; a news outlet; a platform to share your passions, such as poetry, photography, a love for pets, etc.; a
community. You can do it alone or you can do it with a group of friends or business associates.
The term “blog” is a contraction of “web log.” It’s a self-managed website that facilitates adding content on an ongoing basis. Content can include text, images, videos, and podcasts (audio downloads). Content is added in the form of blog articles, or posts. Posts are displayed in reverse-chronological order; when you publish a new article all old articles are pushed down and the most recent article appears at the top of your blog page.
The beauty of a blog—and of the Internet in general—is the ability to link to other sites, articles, and resources and to interact with your readers through discussion. Unlike a book, which is the reader talking to you and only gives you access to the page in front of you, a blog is a conversational approach to sharing information. While you’re speaking to your audience, you’re linking and referring to outside resources, just as you would in a conversation. And your audience has the ability to respond and interact with you, your content, and other readers.
In short, a blog allows for connectivity and interactivity, which together comprise the Information Age currency.
Why Should You Blog?
You should blog for the following reasons:
Stay connected with family and friends.
I’ve got family in seven states, from California to Washington to Maryland. Blogging allows us to stay up to date on the events of our lives, the growth of our children, our struggles and our triumphs. It’s like the telephone on steroids. Not only can I speak with them, but I can also share pictures, videos, and audio instantaneously. It’s the next best thing to visiting with them in my living room.
Document your life.
What would you give to have the personal journals of your ancestors? What would it mean to you to get into the mind and heart of your great-great-great-great grandfather/mother? And forget about ancient history—what would it mean to read thoughts from your parents about your birth and childhood, about their struggles as young parents? What would it do for your relationships to have that kind of personal insight documented through the years? Because of blogging, my children will have access to infinitely more information about themselves and their family than I will ever have. A blog is a multi-faceted diary that will never fade and never get lost. Once you’ve published content it’s available forever, and accessible to whomever you choose. (And yes, you can keep it private.)
Establish trust and credibility.
Since it’s rare that consumers buy anything anymore without researching it on the Internet first, this is a key benefit of blogging for business owners.
This recent Yahoo! study displays stunning statistics and concludes by saying, “Consumers are using a range of online and offline resources to do research before making purchase decisions or choosing service providers. From a marketing perspective, the world is a great deal more complex than it used to be. And while traditional ‘word of mouth’ remains powerful and influential, the Internet is heavily used in the research process; so is search, in a majority of cases. In addition, websites are often a very influential factor in the ultimate choice of local contractor or service provider.”
An Opinion Research Corporation survey in 2008 discovered that a staggering “83% of
consumers use online product reviews to make purchases. In fact, 61% used online reviews, blogs and other sources of online customer feedback before purchasing a new product or service. They mainly used search engines to conduct their research. In addition, 38% of the survey respondents first consulted online product or service reviews when they began their shopping research, while 27% used the Internet when deciding between two or three products or services. Another 21% used online reviews to confirm their decision to buy a particular product or service.”
This 2005 study showed that 78% of Internet users research products and services online
before buying.
Blogging allows you to showcase your expertise on your product and/or service, like Garrett
Gunderson and I have done on the blog for our New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred
Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity. It gives your customers insights into who you are and why you do what you do. It also gives them the ability to see how you deal with negative publicity or customer complaints.
Since relatively few business owners and professionals understand the power of blogging, it gives you an edge on your competition. For example, real estate agents compete with
hundreds of other agents in their area. If you’re in the market to buy a house, the most likely place for you to start is with a Google search, for both houses and agents.
Which agent are you going to choose: the agent that you know little about because you can’t find any information about them, or the agent with massive amounts of insightful information that you can access on their blog? Are you going to choose the complete stranger, or the agent with whom you have a relative relationship?
Business and marketing have undergone massive transformations in the last 10-20 years. But the single biggest change has been the shift of control, from corporations to consumers. Prior to the Internet and blogging, corporations were largely in control. They amassed capital, created products, then bought up TV, radio, magazine, and newspaper ad space to sell those products to us. It’s what we saw, and so we bought.
The new model puts the consumer in the driver seat. Since
we have access to so much information, we’re able to research much more thoroughly before purchasing. Not only do we have more options and outlets to buy from, but also we can research them to find the best deals, identify companies that share our values, and become aware of problems/defects before we buy.
To put it in real estate terms, business used to be a seller’s market; now it’s a buyer’s market. The proliferation of information has drastically shifted the scale of influence to consumers and away from producers.
“The
new model
puts the consumer
in the
driver seat
.”
have onto customers; it’s about taking orders from them. And blogging is key to staying on the front edge of this massive wave.
“…blogging has transformed the venture business—entrepreneurs expect a level of transparency that simply didn't exist before venture investors started blogging. I can not imagine staying current in this fast moving, high tech world without using blogs and bloggers as a powerful filter of the overwhelming torrent of information we all face.”
-David Hornik, August Capital In the past, companies could bury defects and/or bad business practices under layers of advertising make-up. The Information Age is like seeing a woman without make-up—if we don’t like what we see we’re not going to buy. A business blog makes you and your business naturally beautiful, without the make-up of fancy and expensive marketing. If you do have defects and complaints, a blog allows you to respond appropriately and manage the situation on your terms.
“Blogs represent the best chance for companies to inform the conversation.”
-Richard Edelman, President and CEO, Edelman
Build relationships and community.
Seth Godin’s recent landmark book Tribes articulates this aspect of
blogging well. Seth writes, “People want connection and growth and something new. They want change…You can’t have a tribe without a leader—and you can’t be a leader without a tribe.”
tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate. Increasing the effectiveness of your “tribe” is a product of 1) transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change, 2) providing tools to allow members to tighten their communications, and 3) leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members.
A blog is one of the most powerful tools on the planet to achieve these goals.
“Blogging has gone from a cutting edge, mostly American phenomenon to a global main-stream activity generating an increasing larger share of the world's ‘user generated content’ and the sharing economy driving up the value of search and advertising worldwide. In addition to increasing in scale, bloggers continue to become increasingly diverse become both a core economic as well as social driver online.”
-Joichi Ito, CEO, Creative Commons, Venture Capitalist
The Cause of Liberty, for example, started out as my personal blog, my passionate
thoughts to the world. It has taken time, but it has slowly built into a community of loyal readers and frequent contributors. At the time of writing this I have 571 subscribers to my weekly newsletter.
To give you a frame of reference, the site was launched on January 25th, 2008 and I’ve had
an average of 670 unique visitors and 3,392 page views per month. While these aren’t record-breaking numbers, it’s certainly better than me talking to myself. It’s no longer a personal blog; it’s a community, or a “tribe,” of people with shared interests. The blog is the platform that facilitates our connections, which wouldn’t otherwise exist.
Speak your mind and share your passion.
Blogging communities exist for every topic and purpose imaginable, from art lovers to photography buffs, environmentalists to dog lovers, technology geeks to marketing gurus. In the past you may have had the excuse that your passion is such a narrow niche that no one is interested. A blog gives you access to millions of people and takes away that excuse. You’re a human being. By definition this means that you have important things to say and you have things that you care about. Don’t keep them to yourself—create value for others by blogging about them. A blog is your outlet for sharing your gifts and interests.
“Blogging continues to splinter into many different categories, providing an incredibly rich ecosystem of self expression tools and compelling content for readers. The prototypical personal blog, where a single writer simply writes their daily thoughts on their life and/or topics that interest them, will always be hugely popular. But multi-author blogs will continue to thrive as well. And a huge percentage of blogs focus on single topics of interest, from tech news to wine to knitting. Whatever it is you are interested in, it's likely to have a community of people who share that interest.”
-Michael Arrington, Founder, TechCrunch
Steer the conversation.
Have you ever been involved in a conversation where your conversant held all the cards? Have you ever attended a political debate where, in your view, the moderator did a poor job? Isn’t that frustrating?
A blog is the solution to that frustration. You no longer have to cater to existing media outlets, or suffer as you witness incompetence or injustice. All you have to do is start your
own blog, then you control the conversation. A blog is your house. You own it. You decide what gets discussed, and how. You make the rules.
Make money.
This topic will be explained in further detail in chapter 2. Suffice it to say for now that a number of viable options exist for you to monetize your blog. In fact, it’s becoming a common occurrence for people to start a blog as a hobby, then are surprised as it makes enough money for them to quit their job and blog full-time. And it’s possible for you, too.
Make a difference.
Blogging is shaping the world and every aspect of it including culture, business, media, community, family, religion, and politics and government. In the Industrial Age, almost everything was a top-down model.
For example, corporations and the media largely determined our purchasing preferences and habits. Blogging has opened up a brave new, democratic world. It’s leveled the playing field. Every individual with a computer and Internet access now has a viable voice in the conversations about everything important to us.
Drive traffic.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the art and science of making your site appear on the first few pages of a Google or other search engine search, based on key words and phrases.
For example, one website I wrote in my freelance writing practice was for Images Salon in
Tucson, Arizona. If you Google “salon” + “Tucson”, their website shows up on the first
The three primary components of SEO are 1) keyword-rich content, 2) the frequency that your site content is updated, and 3) backlinks.
Keyword-rich content refers to the words on your web pages. When a search engine explores your site, it’s looking for, among other things, specific terms to your business/ industry/niche in order to determine how relevant your website is to searches by Internet
users. For example, I wrote the content for my dad’s website Real Estate Marketplace.
Search the home page and you’ll find a variety of deliberately placed key words and phrases including six instances of the term “real estate.”
Search engines also like websites that are always being updated and added to. It tells them that it’s a happening site, that it’s being managed well, which means a greater likelihood of relevance to Internet browsers.
Backlinks refer to other websites that link to your website. The more links you have to your site, the more weight you have with search engines.
There are hundreds of ways to execute Search Engine Optimization, but blogging is one of the single best ways to do it. Search engines love blogs. Blogging continually adds new, keyword-rich content to your site. It draws visitors and conversations and secures backlinks. And it does all of this as a natural process, without you having to be technically savvy—all you have to do is blog on a regular basis.
Conclusion
Blogging is one bandwagon that you cannot afford to miss. You may be resisting starting a blog for various reasons. But resisting blogging is like a carpenter resisting using tools.
Blogging is one of the most powerful tools for thriving in the Information Age. It allows you to stay connected with the people who matter most to you, document your life, establish trust and credibility, build relationships and community, speak your mind and share your passions, steer conversations, make money, make a difference, and drive traffic to your website.
Additional Resources:
Introduction to Blogging by Wordpress
What is a Blog? by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger
Technorati “State of the Blogosphere 2008”
What is a Blog and Why Do We Need Them? by Trudy W. Schuett
Should You Blog? by Sally Falkow
10 Reasons Business Blogging is the Top Marketing and Advertising Value Proposition
Chapter 2
Show Me the Money!
“These days, when I bump into other mothers on play dates, or when I see people I haven’t seen for some time, I get asked how and what I’ve been doing lately. I pause, then tell them that I ‘blog.’ That of course, inspires a lengthy discussion about the subject of ‘blogging’; I tell them why I do it and why I’ve traded my almost 20 year-old career in technology and software development for this new-fangled activity.”
-Silicon Valley Blogger
t’s becoming a frequent phenomenon for casual bloggers to become accidental entrepreneurs. They begin sharing their passions on a blog to a handful of readers. Soon, more and more people are attracted. It dawns on the bloggers that their content has commercial viability.
They start researching and
discover ways to leverage their
blog. The money starts rolling in. They quit their job and live happily ever after.
Okay, so the “happily ever after” part may be a stretch, but this is certainly no fairytale. It doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to happen to you. It doesn’t mean that it’s easy or that it will happen overnight. But it is possible.
Before learning specific strategies for earning money by blogging, however, you need to decide if you even want to monetize your blog. For example, if your purpose is to simply have a family blog, then skip this chapter entirely. You’ve got to analyze your interests and passions and determine if monetizing your blog is appropriate for you.
If you decide that it is, then here are the main ways to earn money blogging:
Advertising
Affiliate Marketing Product Sales Donations
Paid Blogging Sites Sell Text Links
Marketing A Core Business Through Blogging
Advertising
Advertising is the most common and easiest way to make money from a blog. You can advertise on your blog in three main ways: 1) Google Adsense, 2) flat-fee banner ad space, and 3) pay-per-click banner ads.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense “automatically crawls the content of your pages and delivers ads (you can
choose both text or image ads) that are relevant to your audience and your site content— ads so well-matched, in fact, that your readers will actually find them useful.” It’s easy to set up an account, and once you have one you’re given code to insert into your site, which allows Google Ads to display anywhere you want them to on your site.
When people click on the ads, you get paid a small commission.
Adsense Pros: Easy to set up, ads are automatically generated to be relevant to your site’s
content.
Adsense Cons: Relatively small income potential, can clutter up your site if used
excessively, advertising may marginalize your particular message (which is why I don’t
Flat-Fee Banner Ads
Heavily-trafficked sites can sell banner advertising space. Pricing is determined by the amount of traffic the site receives and the size of the ad. Advertisers pay you a flat fee per week or per month.
Below, on the right had side of the image, is an example of banner ads on a popular blog
called Dosh Dosh. Note the red banner ad in the bottom right corner.
Clicking on the red advertisement takes you to this page, which makes the case for why
you should advertise on the site.
Banner Ad Pros: Great money, you get paid regardless of if the ads get clicked or not.
Banner Ad Cons: Not a great option unless you’re getting substantial traffic, can lead to
Pay-Per-Click Banner Ads
Like Google ads, pay-per-click banner ads only generate a commission when readers click
on them. Such ads are brokered through sites such as AdToll, or you can secure them
personally in the same way that flat-fee ads are secured.
The Key To Success For Advertising: Consistently deliver quality content and
market your blog well in order to drive massive amounts of traffic. If you’re getting less than 10,000 page views per month, your ad revenues will be marginal at best.
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing allows you to earn a commission by recommending and selling the products of others to your audience. It’s a revenue sharing agreement between you and online merchants. Depending on your niche and your audience, this can be one of the most powerful and lucrative ways to earn money blogging. It’s a beautiful arrangement because it eliminates the need for you to develop and market your own products.
There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing: 1) pay per click, 2) pay per sale, and 3) pay per lead.
Pay Per Click
Every time a potential customer clicks on a link on your site leading to the online merchant’s site, you receive a commission. This can be pennies or dollars depending on the product and the commission rate.
Pay Per Sale
Pay Per Lead
If a potential customer ends up on an online merchant’s site from your site, then gives the merchant information by filling out a form, you get a commission.
One of the best resources to learn about and to start affiliate marketing is Click Bank. Click
Bank is a clearinghouse for online affiliate products. Users can set up a free account, then browse through thousands of product listings to identify relevant and lucrative opportunities.
E-Junkie is also a clearinghouse of online products, as well as a provider for a host of
online commerce tools.
Affiliate Marketing Pros: High commission rates, you don’t have to develop your own
product, you can rely upon the credibility and marketing power of experts.
Affiliate Marketing Cons: Deceptive and hyped information and practices in affiliate
marketing (see this article I wrote), unscrupulous merchants can close down programs
without informing you and without paying your commissions.
The Key To Success For Affiliate Marketing:
Perform diligent research to identify products that create real value in the marketplace, rather than hyped products that aren’t much more than Internet “fluff.” Don’t try to sell things that people don’t need; find affiliate products where there is actual market demand, then market them with integrity. The best affiliate programs are the ones where you’re friends with the producer(s) and can endorse them with confidence.Product Sales
The types of products that you can sell through a blog are unlimited. You can sell e-products such as e-books, audio and video downloads, newsletters, and informational courses. The advantage of e-products is that there is no
client fulfillment, no warehousing and inventory
management, and no shipping. You set up the infrastructure one time and customers download the
products automatically. For many blogs, physical products, such as t-shirts, merchandise, books, and hard copy newsletters, can also be great sources of supplemental income.
In either case, various product store platforms exist which can be plugged into your existing
blog platform. In addition, resources such as E-Junkie provide a variety of tools and
resources to streamline and simplify your e-commerce. Café Press is also a great resource
for product sales.
Proprietary Product Pros: For blogs with a large following and a strong “tribal” brand,
products are an excellent option. They build the sense of community by giving members tangible representations of their informal membership. E-products are beautiful because of their automated, passive income-generating nature.
Proprietary Product Cons: Online retailing can be very difficult and requires a lot of
specialized training and knowledge to make it cost effective. Handling physical products is time and resource consuming and opens the door to mistakes in the storage and distribution process.
“The
types of
products
that you
can sell through a
blog are
unlimited
.”
The Key To Success For Product Sales:
Build a strong brand based on loyaltyand a distinct sense of belonging among community members. The Grateful Dead and The
Onion are two excellent examples of this.
Donations
Yet another way to earn money from your blog is to simply ask your readers to donate. Delivering quality content is what gives you the right to ask for donations. This is a particularly relevant model for non-profit oriented blogs. The Populist Party website is a great example of this. Below is a picture of the bottom of one of their blog posts. The donation button and text that you see appears at the end of every blog post.
Donation Pros: Running on donations is a great way to gauge the quality of your content;
the higher the quality the greater the likelihood readers will be to support you. It’s an excellent fit for non-profit organizations and non-commercial blogs especially.
Donation Cons: You have no guarantees that anyone will actually contribute, it may be a
turn-off for some readers.
The Key To Success For Donations:
Use this model if your message is non-profit in nature. Deliver high-quality content consistently. Don’t place ads on your site; this sends conflicting messages to your readers. Be consistent with your placement of a “Donate” button and text.Paid Blogging Sites
Many writers and bloggers leverage sites other than their own to generate income through
blogging. Many “content broker” sites exist, such as Triond and Helium, which allow you to
publish original content and get paid to do so.
The model is usually generated by Google Adsense. The sites place Google ads throughout your articles and you get a commission for every ad click within your articles. This incentivizes writers to produce a constant flow of articles; the more articles you publish the more you can earn.
Paid Blogging Site Pros: You can generate income without maintaining your own site—all
infrastructure is handled for you and you can just focus on writing, these sites generally generate a lot of traffic, if you also have your own blog you can build backlinks back to your personal site within your articles.
Paid Blogging Site Cons: Commissions are generally just pennies per click, making it very
difficult to generate enough income to be worth the time and effort.
The Key To Success For Paid Blogging Sites:
Write, write, write. And then write some more. You’ve got to generate content daily to build income from this model. This is true for any blogging model, but especially true here.Sell Text Links
Since a significant component of Search Engine Optimization is backlinks to your site, many webmasters and businesses will pay you a commission to link to their site from yours. The
emphasis in this model is on Google PageRank, which requires that your niche be relevant
to those you approach to sell this service to.
For example, let’s suppose you start a blog on health and wellness. You can approach a site
such as Health and Wellness Blog and offer to link back to their site using relevant search
terms. You write articles on the same topic, then link to relevant articles on their site for terms such as “blood sugar,” “skin care,” “nutrition,” and “exercise.” Websites such as
LinkXL and facilitate monetized linking.
Text Link Pros: It doesn’t involve much work and traffic is not a factor in these blogs. In
other words, even if you have very few visitors, the sites you link to still have incentive to pay you for links.
Text Link Cons: Fluctuating income because of your reliance upon the Google PageRank
Key To Success For Text Links:
The more specific the niche, the greater likelihood you’ll have of selling links.Marketing Your Core Business Through Blogging
If writing/blogging is not your passion, but you understand the marketing benefits, then leverage a blog to market your core business.
In my case, my Writing Captain blog markets my freelance writing services by giving
potential customers insights into my skill and expertise. I don’t monetize the blog in any other way because I don’t want to clutter up the site with ads and I don’t want to detract people from my core services.
I helped my dad, a real estate broker, set up a blog on his website to promote his agents
and their services. Michael Drew, our publicist for Killing Sacred Cows, markets his services
through Beneath the Cover, a book industry blog that he set up and manages.
Core Business Marketing Pros: It establishes trust and credibility by showcasing your
personality and expertise, it increases traffic to your website, it helps you to manage defects and complaints, it builds and strengthens relationships with your customers.
Core Business Marketing Cons: There really are no cons to marketing your business
through blogging, other than that it takes time, patience, and trust to stick with it long enough to see tangible results.
The Key To Success With Core Business Marketing Through Blogging:
Trust in the power of blogging enough to write consistently, daily if possible, and at least
about. Do whatever it takes; it will give you significant competitive advantages in the
long-term.
Conclusion
Earning income through blogging comes primarily through seven outlets: advertising, affiliate marketing, product sales, donations, paid blogging sites, selling text links, and marketing your core business.
Like anything, making blogging money is simple, but it’s not easy. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen with casual effort.
Before you even consider any of the monetizing options, get clear about why you’re starting a blog. Specifically, there are four primary reasons for starting a blog: 1) to stay connected with family and friends, 2) to share your passions and interests, 3) to market your core business (other than your blog), and 4) to make money directly from your blog.
If your reason is number one, then forget about monetizing your blog. Connect with your family and leave it at that.
If your reason is number two, the next step is to determine if your particular passions are conducive to monetizing your blog. In other words, determine if your interests are commercially viable. For example, if your passion is photography, sharing tips and resources for photographers is commercially viable and such a blog could be a great money maker. A philosophy or religious blog, on the other hand, is probably not as commercially viable, if at all.
Examples of Passion-Oriented Blogging:
The Cause of LibertyMy Growing Passion The Will 2 Learn
Cooking Is My Passion
If your reason is number three, my recommendation is to not do much, if anything at all, to monetize your blog itself. Don’t clutter up your site with ads because it will detract from your content and your purpose. Affiliate marketing and other forms of monetizing are just distractions in this case. Focus on driving interest to your business and securing clients by sharing your expertise. Don’t let your blog tail wag the dog of your core business.
Examples of Core Business Marketing Through Blogging:
Seth GodinFuture Now
Killing Sacred Cows Real Estate Marketplace Writing Captain
Manasco Marketing Made to Stick
Men With Pens (monetized)
If your reason is number four, then read this chapter again and click on every link throughout, as well as in the additional resources below, and become an expert on monetizing blogs.
Far more important than this, however, is creating actual value in the marketplace. Don’t clutter up the Internet and the world with yet another dummy site whose sole purpose is to get people to click out of it to earn paltry commissions.
Choose a topic where real market demand exists. Create energy-worthy content consistently. Post at least five articles per week. Market your blog tirelessly. Don’t get discouraged if it takes six months, or even a year, before you start seeing substantial results. The prize goes to the persistent and to those who create real value.
Examples of Blogging as a Business:
ProBloggerCopyblogger
Entrepreneur’s Journey The Digerati Life
Zen Habits Dosh Dosh
Additional Resources:
Make Money Blogging by Darren Rowse
Can You REALLY Make Money Blogging? by Darren Rowse
How To Make Money From Your Blog by Steve Pavlina
Top Bloggers & How Much They Earn By Silicon Valley Blogger
How Do Bloggers Make Money by Michael Agger
How To Make Money Blogging by Dosh Dosh
Maybe You Can’t Make Money Doing What You Love by Seth Godin
How Bloggers Make Money From Blogs by Darren Rowse
Chapter 3
Choosing the Right Platform
plat · form: (noun) a place for public discussion; forum.
-Dictionary.com
lthough it has many definitions, think of the word “platform” as a stage or venue for giving speeches and/or facilitating discussions. Think of the many types and sizes of platforms used for different purposes. A stage in a high school gym is basic and multi-purposeful. A living room is an intimate “platform” setting for a small handful of family/friends. A concert or theater stage is optimized for viewing and listening by large
groups of people. The President has access to a global media platform to broadcast his agenda.
In blogging and website creation, a platform refers to the specific software you use to create, manage, and broadcast your content. It provides administrative functionality to create, update, arrange, and publish your articles, images, videos, and audio content.
A stage consists of the front stage, which is what event attendees see, and a backstage, which facilitates everything that happens behind the curtain. A blog platform is the same. It provides a front end, which determines the look, feel, layout, and functionality of what your Internet viewers see and interact with. It also provides the “backstage” administrative dashboard, which is where you manage your content.
Currently, the most popular blogging platforms include Blogger, Wordpress, Typepad,
Movable Type, Expression Engine, Live Journal, Tripod, Square Space, BlogHarbor, and
Drupal.
For our purposes, I’m only going to highlight and compare the top three: Blogger, Wordpress, and Typepad. My purpose isn’t to exclude options; it’s to simplify the process for you. If you’re a researcher, feel free to explore each of the platforms and make your own decision. For those who want to eliminate information clutter and take advantage of my intense research, trust me when I say that those three provide any type of functionality you can ever dream of, especially Wordpress.
Blog platforms are easy-to-use, yet powerful “content management systems.” A content
management system (CMS) is, according to Wikipedia, “a computer application used to
create, edit, manage, and publish content in a consistently organized fashion.”
Powerful content management systems, such as Wordpress, allow you to build fully-functional websites for every purpose imaginable. In other words, they’re far more than just a blog platform.
Steps To Choosing Your Platform
Choosing your blog/website platform is the product of the following steps:
1. Determine your purposes and goals. 2. Determine your budget.
3. Determine your level of technology savvy and commitment to learn.
Before we examine these steps and apply them to you, you must understand the difference between hosted and stand-alone platforms.
Hosted Platforms vs. Stand-Alone Platforms
Hosted platforms are absolutely free and are easy to use for beginners, yet possess limited functionality. Being hosted means that the provider of the platform (such as Blogger or Wordpress) stores all of your information at no cost to you.
A hosted platform prevents you from using your own url, or website address. For example, anyone who sets up a blog using Blogger automatically has the extension .blogspot.com placed at the end of their preferred web address.
So if I wanted to start a “Stephen Palmer Family” blog using Blogger, my web address could
not be www.stephenpalmerfamily.com; it would have to be
www.stephenpalmerfamily.blogspot.com. If I were using Wordpress.com, my url would be www.stephenpalmerfamily.wordpress.com. This limitation carries serious disadvantages for professional bloggers.
and $25 per month, depending on the quality of the service and how much storage space you require. Third, depending on your goals and purposes, you may need to pay for the actual platform itself, as well as a custom design, if desired.
Blogger is a free, hosted platform. Wordpress provides both a free, hosted version
(Wordpress.com), as well as a stand-alone version (Wordpress.org). Typepad is a
subscription-based service, with the cheapest level being $4.95 per month or $49.50 per year.
Examples of Free, Hosted Blogs
(note the extensions on the urls)The Internet Dark Ages (Blogger)
Leadership Education Uganda (Wordpress.com)
Seth Godin (Typepad—not entirely free, but comparable for our purposes here)
Examples of Stand Alone Blogs
Boing Boing (platform unknown)
Lifehacker (platform unknown)
Michelle Malkin (Wordpress)
With this foundation, now lets examine the steps above. To save you time and hassle, I’m going to be very direct with my recommendations, without much commentary. If you’re inclined to research further, additional resources have been provided throughout this e-book.
Step 1: Determine Your Purposes & Goals
What is the main purpose of your blog? Is blogging something you’ll be doing long-term? Do you plan on putting ads on your blog, or monetizing it in any other way? Does your blog
have a professional application, or is it just a hobby? Who is your intended audience? Private groups of family and friends, or the whole world?
If you’re starting a private/family/hobby-oriented (and non-monetized) blog, then use
Blogger. It’s simple, user-friendly, and gives you all the tools you need, absolutely free. It
also provides more functionality than Wordpress.com, including the ability to edit the design of your template.
If your purposes are professional and if you intend on monetizing your blog, then use either
Wordpress.org or Typepad. You’ll want your own url without
a .blogspot.com/.wordpress.com/.typepad.com extension, as well as increased functionality and versatility.
Step 2: Determine Your Budget
If your budget is limited and your blog is for private/family/hobby use, use one of the free versions (again, I recommend Blogger). If your budget is limited to $500 or less now, yet your blog is professional in nature and your long-term goal is to monetize it, you still need to start with the right stand alone platform (I recommend Wordpress.org).
You can choose from thousands of free templates, and your only costs will be purchasing a domain name and hosting. Then, as your blog and budget grow, you can hire a designer to give you a custom design.
If you start with a free version with an extension on the url, then later decide to purchase a stand-alone domain name, you’ll have to transfer all your content to the new site, and
If your budget is $500 or more, you definitely want to go with Wordpress.org. You can choose from thousands of custom templates, both free and paid. You can hire a designer to customize your template. The right template will allow you to build a complete website for a fraction of the cost of a custom-built site, yet with the exact same functionality, if not more so.
You can set up your site as a static business website that has a blog, or with the blog being
the main feature and home page. For example, The Cause of Liberty, Real Estate
Marketplace, and Writing Captain are all sites I’ve built using Wordpress templates. I hired
designers to give me custom designs for each. They’re all set up as business sites, with a
static home page and a blog added as a secondary page. Write to Done, on the other hand,
features the blog as the home page.
Step 3: Determine Your Level of Technology Savvy
If you’re a beginner, Blogger and Wordpress.com are the easiest platforms to learn. However, your purpose and goals must be the main factors in your decision.
Just as with your budget, if your long-term goal is to monetize your blog and if you have a professional purpose, you need to start with the right platform, even if it means getting out of your comfort zone and learning some technology.
This may require teaming up with a tech-savvy individual, but it’s worth it. My friend and
partner Randy Hinton, IT genius extraordinaire and founder of Fusioncore, has been an
To conclude this section, your choices are really very simple: if you’re a beginner wanting to start a blog with very little up-front cost and for private and family purposes, go with Blogger. If you have professional purposes and a goal to monetize your blog, regardless of
your budget and/or technological knowledge, go with Wordpress.org or Typepad.
Why Choose Wordpress?
I’m personally a huge fan of Wordpress.org, for the following reasons,
among others. While not all of these benefits are unique to Wordpress, few, if any, platforms provide such a full package.
• Functionality: From flash presentations to photo galleries, Google map integration to contact forms, polls to event calendars, e-commerce to database management and email marketing, Adsense to forum integration, Wordpress has every type of website
functionality imaginable. This is provided by over 3,300 “plugins,” which are free
downloads, built by members of the community, which enhance the functionality of
your website/blog. One excellent example is this real estate listing plugin.
• Versatility/Customization: With literally thousands of templates to choose from, Wordpress allows you to build a custom website on the most user-friendly content management system on the planet. From static business sites to blogs, social networking sites to media outlets, Wordpress can do it all with ease. We began this chapter by speaking of different types of “platforms” for different purposes. Wordpress can be any platform you need it to be, whereas most blog platforms are limited to very specific functions.
• Internet Community Support: Since Wordpress is such a powerful, open-source platform, thousands of programmers across the globe are constantly creating add-on features that integrate with Wordpress.
• Categories: Categories allow you to organize your content, making for ease of searchability. Not every blog platform allows you to create and manage categories. • Search Engine Optimization: In addition to being coded to optimize SEO, Wordpress
has the most powerful SEO tools available.
• Spam Protection: With the right plugins, Wordpress kills all spam automatically, saving you time and energy.
• Money-Making Potential: Few blog platforms rival the versatility of Wordpress in terms of monetizing a blog.
Wordpress Resources
Free Templates:
Wordpress Directory Wordpress Templates Natty WP Top WP Themes WP Theme SpotPremium Templates:
WP Remix Revolution Two Wordpress Designers Thesis Theme Woo ThemesTheme Spinner iThemes
Recommended Wordpress Designers:
Men With PensWordpress Designers The Revolution Team Charfish Design
Plugins:
Wordpress Plugin Directory Plugin Resources
Miscellaneous:
Search Engine Optimization Wordpress Support Forums Lorelle on Wordpress
Vladimir Prelovac’s Blog
Randy Hinton (Tech Support)
Conclusion
You can spend tons of time researching and comparing blog and website platforms, as have
I. Or you can get straight to creating your blog. Use Blogger or Wordpress.com for private,
Wordpress.org is far more than just a blog platform. It allows you to build a fully-functional, customized website, with or without blog integration. Or, you can have your blog be the main component of the site, but still have supporting pages and resources.
You can choose from thousands of existing templates, all of which can be customized, or you can have a designer give you a custom design from the start.
In short, Wordpress.org is like building a custom website at a fraction of the cost, at with even greater functionality than you’ll get with most custom sites.
ProBlogger polled their readers to see which blog platforms they used. Here’s a picture of
the results:
It doesn’t necessarily mean that Wordpress.org is for you, but it’s definitely worked wonders for me.
The sky is the limit with blogging, and Wordpress is a rocket. Ready to get started on your blog/custom website?
Additional Resources:
Choosing a Blog Platform by Darren Rowse
Are You Using the Right Blogging Tool? by Susannah Gardner
Blog Software Comparison Chart
Starting Your Blog—Choose a Blog Platform by Alex Cohen
Blogger Versus Wordpress.com by Pulsed
Blogging Wars: Wordpress Vs. Blogger by Mert Erkal
Chapter 4
The Costs of Blogging
“Price certainly is and should be one factor in our financial decisions—just not the main basis for our buying decisions. Instead of focusing on the price of items, the overriding factor of all our financial decisions should be value. By value I mean quality and utility. When we’re considering any purchase, before we ask, ‘How much does it cost?’ our thought process should be, ‘Is this what I really want?’ ‘Does this item do everything that I want it to do?’ ‘Is it the best quality?’ ‘How long will it last?’ and other such questions.”
-Garrett Gunderson
he costs of blogging are determined by your purposes. If all you want is a place to share news, stories, and pictures with your family, then blogging can be absolutely free, aside from the time you spend at it. If this is the case for you, then skip this chapter entirely.
On the other hand, if your goal is to build a
community, draw massive traffic, and/or monetize your blog, then, like any business, it can get pricey. And like anything else, you get what you pay for.
Assuming you have professional goals for your blog, your potential costs are in the following five areas:
Domain name registration Hosting
Design
Technical Support Marketing
Domain Name Registration
Registering a domain name can be as cheap as about $10 per year. But if you do it right, you’ll probably spend $30-45 per year. The reason is because you’ll want to register your name with more than just a .com extension—you’ll also want to get variations such as .net, .org, .info, and .biz. This ensures that your site won’t get “leeched” by others.
In other words, if your website is www.iamcool.com and you fail to purchase other variations, someone else can buy www.iamcool.org and leech traffic from your site. I recommend buying as many alternative extensions as you can afford to avoid any such confusion.
You may also consider variations of your actual url. For example, when I started The Cause
of Liberty, www.causeofliberty.com had been taken. I initially registered
www.thecauseofliberty.com, but I was concerned that people would confuse one for the other. I purchased and used wwww.movingthecauseofliberty.com to avoid such confusion. Fortunately, I was able to purchase causeofliberty.com from the owner, so now all of my
other urls get redirected to www.causeofliberty.com. In other words, typing www.movingthecauseofliberty.com will take you straight to www.causeofliberty.com.
Hosting
Hosting means the digital storage of your site content on external servers, or data centers.
Hosting can be as cheap as $60 per year, and as much as $250 per year or more. Pricing depends on how much storage space you need and the level of service the hosting company provides.
I personally pay $250 a year to my friend and partner Randy Hinton, who operates a hosting service. Even though I can get it for much cheaper, the quality that he provides is worth it. While cheaper hosting companies host thousands of websites per server, Randy limits his to 100 per server, which reduces potential problems. He’s also available for top-notch customer support any time I need him. Many people leave Randy’s service for something cheaper, only to come back after experiencing horrible customer support.
Randy has agreed to host sites for those who use our coaching services at a price of $150
per year. Contact us to get this deal. Wordpress also features a number of hosting
services.
Design
A custom design is important for drawing and keeping visitors. It says that you’re professional, that you’re serious about your message. Assuming you’re using Wordpress, there are two potential costs to a custom design: 1) purchasing a premium theme/layout/ template and 2) customizing your theme.
Premium Themes
Premium themes offer enhanced functionality over free themes. For example, some of them offer sub-navigation functionality (drop down menus), which is something you won’t find on a free theme.
Premium themes can cost as little as $49 for use on one website only. Most premium theme designers offer unlimited theme usage for a higher price.
For example, when I was looking for a theme for The Cause of Liberty, I came across
Revolution Themes. At the time they were offering nine themes, which have all been
changed since then (they’re also cheaper). I could have purchased the one I wanted for that particular site for $79. Instead, I chose to spend $399 to purchase unlimited usage of all nine themes, because I knew that I would be building many more Wordpress sites.
Custom Design
You can either have a designer build you a Wordpress theme from scratch, or customize an
existing theme. I had Wordpress Designers customize two Revolution Themes for The
Cause of Liberty and Writing Captain. But any good Wordpress designer can build you one from scratch.
The key is to choose a designer who works solely with Wordpress. As I mentioned in the
previous chapter, I recommend Wordpress Designers, the Revolution Team, Men With
Pens, and Charfish Design.
A custom Wordpress design will cost you anywhere from $400 to $2,000, depending on the complexity of the design and the designer.
Technical Support
If you’re like me, you like to outsource as much technical stuff as possible to stay free to do what you do best—blog. Enough resources exist to make it possible for the layman to
navigate the technical aspects of setting up and operating a blog (start at Wordpress.org).
However, you may also consider finding a Wordpress technical expert to handle all technical aspects for you.
My trusty geek for all my sites is Randy Hinton, whom I highly recommend. He knows as
much, if not more, about Wordpress as anyone. Every time I start a new site, I just tell him what the domain name is and he sets up the site. Whenever I experience technical difficulties I give him a call and he unwinds the problem. I’ve picked up a lot throughout the process, but utilizing Randy is still a regular occurrence.
Randy has agreed to provide technical support for customers of The Wordpress Coach at the
rate of $55 per hour, which is a steal. Contact us to get access to this deal.
Marketing
Marketing is the grand daddy of all blogging expenses. You can do it on a shoestring, like I have, if you’re patient. Or, if you have the budget, you may want to do a targeted media blast to ensure high traffic right out of the gate.
Marketing is handled in far greater detail in the next chapter. For now, suffice it to say that you can spend nothing on marketing, or you can spend $5,000 per month or more on online marketing. The average professional blogger, however, probably spends about $100 to $500 per month on marketing.
My Story
You won’t care about my story, except that it will give you a tangible feel for what you can expect to spend on a professional blog.
The first website I ever started was The Cause of Liberty. I was operating with a tight budget. I initially used a really bad content management system, which will remain unnamed, before switching to Wordpress. The first template I used was free, which I
customized with the help of Randy Hinton. Here’s a picture of the free template (Violla),
followed by a picture of the template after customization:
After Customization:
That site worked for awhile, but it was built and functioned as a private blog, not as the community site that I really wanted to build. After much research I found the Revolution Themes, which allowed me to build the site as a static business site, complete with sub-navigation functionality, with the blog as just one feature of the site, rather than the main page.
As I mentioned earlier, I bought unlimited access to all nine Revolution themes for $399. I chose the basic Revolution theme, as pictured below:
I then researched and found Daved Brosche, founder of Wordpress Designers. Using the Revolution theme, he designed the site you see below for $400:
Once I had the new design in place, I was left with just marketing. Since my budget is tight for this project (it’s not a money-maker), I’ve been creative and patient with my marketing efforts.
The most important thing I focus on is simply producing quality content. I never throw up a blog post for the sake of producing content. Each article is created painstakingly. I don’t blog as frequently as I would like, but each article is high quality. I also direct the bulk of
my marketing efforts towards my newsletter subscription in order to build a permission
marketing database.
To date, my marketing expenses have included designing a newsletter ($85), sponsoring a contest ($123.22), and paying for my email marketing software ($193.80 for one year), which together total just over $400.
All other expenses, including website hosting and design, total $925, which means that in the last year I’ve spent $1,325 on The Cause of Liberty. (Keep in mind that $399 of that was on nine premium templates that I can use to build other sites.)
What has that bought me? A fully-functional, professional website, email marketing software, and a current list of 571 newsletter subscribers. The foundation has been laid and I’m poised to grow. My fixed annual costs, including hosting and email marketing software, come to $473, or $39.42 per month.
Conclusion
The costs for starting and maintaining a professional blog depend on your goals and purposes and your budget. If you want to do it right, but are operating on a tight budget, you can design and operate a professional blog for less than $1,000 up front, and about $20 per month. If you have the budget and you want to make a big initial splash, the sky is the limit.
I’ve tried to give you a functional framework for the costs you can expect, but it’s a difficult task since so many factors are involved. Keep in mind that there are no shortage of options
for starting a blog for free, or at least less than $250. A blog is easy to bootstrap while you’re building content over time.
Also keep in mind that the most important factor to your success is consistently producing
high-quality content. Seth Godin operates one of the most wildly successful blogs on the
planet on one of the most basic platforms available. He has no frills, no bells and whistles— just excellent content.
If your purposes extend beyond a simple blog, such as building a static business site or a community outlet, then a custom design is highly recommended, if not required. But remember that spending $1,500 on a custom Wordpress site is paltry compared to the $5,000-10,000 you’ll spend on a custom-built site, yet you’ll have the same, if not more, functionality.
It all depends on your purposes, your timeframe, and your budget.
Additional Resources:
How Much Does a Blog Cost? By Lorelle VanFossen
Blogging Overhead—How Much Does it Cost? by Darren Rowse
Chapter 5
How To Market Your Blog
“It breaks my heart to see blogs with great content languish in utter anonymity, devoid of comments, saddled with a seven-figure Alexa traffic ranking, and rotting in pagerank purgatory.”
-Tony Hung
ith blogging, the Field of Dreams maxim, “If you build it, they will come,” is limited at best.
Creating excellent content and
optimizing your Search Engine
Optimization efforts will bring occasional visitors over the long-term. But the Internet is a vast and complicated ocean. Passive online marketing is like being stranded on an island with no way to signal passing ships.
The only way to get found by a significant amount of visitors is to actively market your blog. There are countless ways to do this. This e-book doesn’t detail every possible way to market your blog; rather it’s intended to give you solid direction so that you can choose the marketing strategy suited to you and your purposes. In other words, I give you the big
