There are times when I’m maybe a little harsh on the lifestyle blogging community, but more than anything it’s a Judge Judy kind of tough love. What I really want is for people to grasp the concept that just because some people (who happen to be exceptional writers) are able to make money being lifestyle bloggers, doesn’t mean everyone can. However there are steps everyone can take to make their blog more attractive to advertisers, and increase the likelihood that they will turn a profit from their blog.Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president had this to say about television advertising:
We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive, we’re in the business of connecting with consumers.
Like television stations too many bloggers and blogging advocates think advertisers owe them a living, this is especially true of bloggers on webmaster welfare using google adsense. Few bloggers give any thought to what an advertiser is looking for on a blog, and what they can do to make their blogs more attractive to the people who actually spend the advertising dollars.
During the last economic downturn when a lot of people where home, unemployed, and under-employed blogging flourished. As the number of layoff’s climbs higher I suspect blogging is going to change again, and it will be just as violent an upheaval.
Newspapers are dying, slowly but surely people are switching away from dead tree dinosaur media. There will never be a world without newspapers, but print newspapers will play a smaller role in every-one’s lives, and people consume more of their information in distributed forms. Reporters and writers will start shifting to the web, squeezing out bloggers who are popular solely because of their legacy status. Hobby bloggers who do it out of love, and not because it’s a business, will still exist, but unless your are a top tier author, the only way you will be profitable is to offer a space that an advertiser wants to pay to be in.
You can go the display advertising route or the affiliate marketing path, or if you’re really clever, evolve and use both. Whichever way you go, now isn’t the time to sit on the fence, paralyzed with fear, embrace your passion, and find a way to make it profitable.
Reminds me I really need to get to work on my new theme cause it looks kinda old and clunky round here.
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{ 7 comments }
Great post MG. Don’t forget “lead generation” as another possible income stream. Combining lead gen, affiliate programs and Adsense is the Trifecta of blog monetization!
I lump lead gen in with affiliate marketing in my mind, but yes its another blogger need to consider
Excellent post, but I tend to disagree a little…the writers from those newspapers (and magazines) will do well for a while,
unfortunately…most are not entrepreneurs and many will fall by the wayside especially those who go to work to live off
the corporate teet. I’ve seen a ton of these ‘writers’ from Southern Progress (Souther Living, Cooking Light, etc.) They may be able
to write extremely well, but putting the effort into run a business and all the extra junk that goes along with that is not something
they want mess with. Example: Fake Steve Jobs blog – great writing and hilarious, but now defunct. (not a failure by the way -
he sells the book and I am sure gets speaking engagements)
That however is an opportunity for what those large newspapers need to become. A corporate branding/marketing network that
subcontracts/manages the business end of all the best blogs (or what they would refer to profitable properties). It’s like what
radio became. Two words…Clear Channel – not to say that this is a good thing though, these huge consolidation companies
end up ruining the purity of the media with their overgeneralizations of what the customer wants.
These new corporations could then be in charge of taking care of all the business BS that writers don’t want to deal with…Hopefully it should
head in this direction, writers could stay self employed and have full control over content, the corporation would cherry pick
who they wanted to help manage. I see Gwaker Media being the start of this sort of, but they actually own those properties.
Unfortunately for these dinosaurs they would have to get out of the editorial business, it could be a service they provide, but
it won’t be as involved as it is now. From a liability standpoint this seems like a way better position for them to be in
anyway. If the blog writer is irresponsible via slander or misrepresentation, they are the ones that take the heat and not the
corporate network.
I do agree though that hobby bloggers will always do well as long as they have a decent job on the side or are motivated enough
to handle the business end. Many will do well if they end up consolidating their best work into ‘Best Of’ books and sell those
as passive income sources.
Yes, newspapers will not go away but they will get a whole lot smaller share as the once had. A lot of newspaper companies these days are on their chapter 11.
Newspaper companies in the third world countries are still doing good and have even better revenues.
I agree with newspapers being a dying breed, especially here where everyone has a mobile device now that can easily grant them internet access.
Is it just adsense or contextual ads in general that take exception to?
When the ads are well matched to the content (they aren’t always) and the advertisers landing page is relevant to their ad (again – not always) They can actually work pretty good for users.
I use them on several sites with varying degrees of success which is clearly related to the subject matter and the kind of traffic. Maybe I could do better with different monetization – maybe I will – but contextual ads seem to be a good way to earn while I build content and traffic. I would hate to lose it.
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