11 Responses

1. florabrown

   May 4th, 2008 at 3:27 pm

   1

   Aaron,

   Thanks for this clarification. The key phrase is “targeted prospects” since your success is matching the right prospects to the ads you feature. No more can we just think in terms of counting on content only, although of course it’s important.

2. Suzie Cheel

   May 4th, 2008 at 4:29 pm

   2

   Good distinction about what the blog is selling ” The product they are selling is targetted traffic” I hadn’t thought of it in that light before.
   Great idea to contact advertisers on sites in your niche=

3. Lightening

   May 4th, 2008 at 6:33 pm

   3

   This is something that is only just becoming clearer in my mind. I always thought a good blog would attract many readers and therefore be a successful money making venture. It seems at times it can be the contrary. A mediocre blog that understands the value of a single niche and can rate well in search engines can do a LOT better than a good blog that doesn’t.

   *sigh* Here’s where my dilemma comes in. My interest in making money blogging arose because I’m PASSIONATE about blogging. I thought it would be fun to make a few $$ doing something I’m passionate about.

   But writing a mediocre blog simply to drive traffic through for advertisers doesn’t really inspire passion within me. So, is making money blogging something worth focusing on for me???

   I’m feeling at a bit of a cross-roads here…..

4. Aaron at FullTiltBlogging.com

   May 4th, 2008 at 8:25 pm

   4

   Flora,

   Thanks for the comment. Content is important to the ad driven blog only in the sense that it provides traffic. If the content brings in more readers either via search or other means, the blog will be more profitable because of the content.

   Suzie,

   I favor giving people who are already paying for ads on another site a free week/month ad on your site as a “trial”–it shows them just what your blog can do.

   Lightening,

   Entertaining, well-written blogs are a great way to make money. The key there is to generate enough interested readers to make the ads valuable to potential advertisers. There are many high-traffic blogs where the traffic is generated by the great writing. If you want to make money writing what you WANT to write, then do it. It may take a little longer to get big bucks, but if your writing is charistmatic and you market it well, people will read and advertisers will want to advertise.

5. Mark Mason

   May 5th, 2008 at 9:41 am

   5

   Aaron;

   Thanks for another great post.

   Have you thought much about the value of advertising versus affiliate programs? Let’s say that someone is paying $250/month for a banner that is getting them a CPC of $0.10 of great targeted traffic. If an good affiliate program is available for that same niche, it seems to me that it might be easy to make $250 in one month.

   Obviously, testing can help decide which approach is most profitable. But what other things should you consider when deciding whether to sell space or use affiliate banners?

   Thanks,
   Mark

6. Aaron at FullTiltBlogging.com

   May 5th, 2008 at 11:01 am

   6

   Mark,

   In the past I have made the case that selling ads doesn’t make sense simply because if you price the ads fairly you could make more just running ads for affiliate programs.

   In theory this is a good idea. In practice you reach a point of saturation where you don’t have the time to produce good creatives, track their performance, tweak your landing pages, etc.

   As long as selling ads is making you more money that you would be making given the time you have to put things together, it can be a good idea to sell ads. But there is another consideration.

   When you sell an ad you are selling your visitors. When someone clicks on an ad they are leaving your site and going somewhere else. They look at less of your content and they spend their dollars elsewhere.

   If your goal is to build your own brand and develop reputation and expertise with your visitors, selling ads may not be your best option.

   Which is why this is only the first in a small series of articles on this topic.

7. Mark Mason

   May 5th, 2008 at 11:43 am

   7

   Aaron;

   Excellent, and thanks for the clarification. This discussion points to a need for something that I know from my engineering career: You need to have clearly identified and measurable goals.

   If you don’t know what the longer-term goals are for your business (blog, etc), you cannot answer the questions that I pose above. Just saying you want to make money blogging is not enough. You need a real strategy to be successful in the long run.

   So, I appreciate the response, and can’t wait for the rest of the series.

   Thanks,
   Mark

8. shaners

   May 6th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

   8

   Hey Aaron, I think the biggest thing you said that hit me square between the eyes was this: “It’s amazing to me how many bloggers have great blogs with great content but absolutely no real strategy for monetizing their blog” With emphasis on strategy. For quite a few months now, Ive been looking somewhat in vain I might add for an internet business- business model. Its freaking vacant and what I did manage to find was more of the blind leading the blind. Ie people who have no idea that what they are selling is basically traffic. I got that notion I really do, it is more or less how the offline operates. Stores sell their traffic to their product merchants. well in my mind this is how it works. you’re in a mall, ok I’ll give you a perfect example of how I saw this work this weekend. We were in out fave mall, my girlfriend saw this add in the window for a free bag with the purchase of what ever it was. So of course she goes in (traffic) and gets sold something just to have the freaking bag (ugly bag by the way). So stores in the offline world are selling traffic in much the same way as blogs should be.
   Just my .o2$

9. Aaron at FullTiltBlogging.com

   May 7th, 2008 at 8:03 am

   9

   Shane,

   Good observation, but let me see if I can refine it a little.

   The MALL sells traffic. That’s why retailers are willing to pay extra to be in the mall. The stores sell their products. Yes, they buy the products from wholesalers, but the stores get paid when someone buys a product, not when they send someone somewhere else.

   Ads are about the worst way to monetize most blogs. Once I put up the next couple articles in this series I believe you will come up with some great alternatives that will make you much more money.

10. Tracy

    July 17th, 2008 at 11:48 am

    10

    Aaron,

    Even though I’m smack dab in the middle of a major move out of state, I’m endeavoring to keep up with my CRASH COURSE {which was my free bonus when I signed up as a Life Focus member} and follow the lessons one by one.

    It’s been very difficult because I don’t have the continuity to just sit for a long period of time and “work it”.

    I”m determined to sit here today for a long stretch of time and finally get a blog or two up and running.

    This article was quite helpful to me because as I’m sitting here writing out my goals and considering who my audience is I can now figure out whether I want traffic to come to “mamma” {as it were}…or to go to “papa” {advertisers to my blog}.

    I’m a mom, and I want them to come to “mama”. This is a real turning point for me because of the way you described the idea of selling advertising…which then makes the advertiser your customer. Profound! so simple and so true.

    I can now proceed. Your post was sort of like an enema for me. Figuratively speaking, of course. I was stuck and you cleared the way.

11. Aaron at FullTiltBlogging.com

    July 17th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    11

    Can we come up with a better metaphor? I don’t like the picture of my writing being enemas.

    Either way I’m glad it helped.