Scents and Cents - Making Money With Your Blog

I can't tell you how many people think they are going to make money from blogging.  Everyone who starts a blog thinks they'll just write a few posts a day (or week!), and the readers and money from Google AdSense will start flowing in.

About two weeks into their blogging career, they find out that:

1. It takes A LOT more time than you think it will
2. It's hard to get people to find and read your blog
3. It's even harder to generate ad revenue through advertising clicks

I've worked on a bunch of blogs for myself and others. In the blogosphere as a whole, there are only a few that make any appreciable amount of money strictly through advertising.

For the rest of us that don't have 10,000 or 100,000 readers a day, blogs can be monetized by adding another dimension to a business that could or does stand on its own in and of itself. John's art business is a good example. He can run his art business stand alone. Word of mouth and good interpersonal networking can lay a foundation. But when John utilizes a blog and gives people another avenue to learn about John T Unger Studio, he opens up his business to a world wide audience and a world of potential customers.

Another way to monetize a blog is through affiliate marketing. This is a tougher row to hoe. Again, many people think they can start a blog that is nothing more than a site with affiliate ads, particularly if the sponsoring programs offer data feeds. The first thought that comes to your mind is something like this - "Hey! I can make my own online store with the data I'm provided. They give me product images, descriptive product copy, and links to purchase. All I have to do is write a little program to get all that data into TypePad..."

Let me save you some time and effort. It won't work. Maybe sometime in another post, I'll tell you why it won't work, but for now, just trust me. It won't work.

So if that method doesn't work, how do you make affiliate programs work for your blog?

The key to making any blog generate affiliate marketing revenue is to create what internet marketing guru, Bryan Eisenberg, calls a "scent trail" for visitors to your blog. Not sure what I'm talking about? 

Let's say you wanted to write a blog about Chicago architecture.  You learn about all the different nuances of the famous architects who built the city and influenced architects around the globe. You go out and take photos of the famous buildings, you come up with unique viewpoints and commentary, and you blog away! 

Over time, you build up your blog audience, and by looking through your blog's stats in TypePad, you find you're getting a couple hundred visitors a day. And since you are such a big fan of Mies van der Rohe and have written extensively on the architect, you find that many of them are are looking for information about  his work. 

You now have a "scent trail", and you now have an opportunity to sell books about Mies van der Rohe. By conveniently placing an Amazon.com affiliate ad for Mies books and books about other Chicago architectes in your sidebar, you're giving your readers the next scent to follow on their path to finding a book about this subject matter.  You then write a review about one or more of the books your Amazon ads point to, and you're on your way to monetizing your blog as well as being viewed as an authority on your subject matter.

The key is to create scent trails with good and original content, then provide an easy-to-find and use path for visitors to purchase the related goods or services.

Comments

[Posted: Apr 12, 2008 7:49:49 AM]

A couple of tips on the use of book reviews is to link to them from the sidebar of your site, great for search engines but also for readers.

I think this shows readers that you are keen to keep up with the latest on your subject, but also shows publishers you are open to receiving titles for review.

And don't be scared to put a simple Amazon affiliate text link to the book at the foot of your piece, people can easily see through a review that's trying to sell a book or one that's offering an honest opinion.

So people won't begrudge you making a few pennies if it's helped them decide on making a purchase or not.

There's a big difference in the click-through rate of a link at the foot of a piece and one in the sidebar.

[Posted: Apr 12, 2008 1:03:16 PM]

Thanks for adding, Craig.

Ad placement is important. I really like Bryan Eisenberg, who I linked to in the post. He is a firm believer in using Google Web Site Optimizer to empirically test ad placement, image placement, ad copy versions, etc.

If there were another 12 hours in a day, I'd be all over testing and probing with Optimizer. But for now, basic research and shared knowledge like yours will have to suffice.