Monetizing Blogs

[Chris]

The following was written by Jason Dowdell and appeared in his blog at MarketingShift.com


There's lots of talk these days about making money with blogs. Some of its solid information with factual research to back it up but some of it's just pure rubbish. One thing that's unclear though is how advertisers can unobtrusively and effectively get their product placed on a blog their target audience reads.

This opens up a real can of worms for ad agencies and bloggers alike. Bloggers don't want to shove ads in the face of their users because this tends to depersonalize the blog. On the other hand, most bloggers are interested in earning pennies (or even dollars) for their thoughts. So, if a product matches a blog's core audience and the blogger can personally endorse it, then it's just a matter of where to put the ad.

However, one key component of getting an ad placed on a blog is getting the attention of the blogger that runs the blog in a way that gets their attention. Many folks go about this the wrong way and Battelle is quick to point out the 'secrete blog press release submission recipe' that works on his blog. However I can't find the link to his entry (someone please email that to me if you find it).

When Submitting Stories to Bloggers, Don't Do The Following

• Don't just blatantly send a blogger a press release. I got one of those this week and it was immediately deleted.
  
  
  Don't tell them you're looking for a fastest way to make a ton of cash and ask the blogger to help you do that by mentioning your web site in their blog. I got one of those this week also.
  
  
  Don't presume anything, be up front with your request and make sure the blogger has enough information to make an informed decision about your request without having to email you back to get more info.
  
  
  Don't be unprepared. You should know all there is to know about the blogger and their blog before you contact them out of the blue.
  
  
  Don't tell the blogger they're an idiot and their writing style sucks. I got one of those a few weeks ago too. That request went straight to the 'to do" basket ;)
  
  
  Don't waste the blogger's time. Chances are their blog is something they do on the side and if they make any money on it it's not much at all. Wasting their time with silly requests will get you blacklisted faster than you can say "please link to my site".

The ad agencies that are able to mingle with the A-List bloggers in a specific vertical will have advertisers banging their doors down. Why? Because well respected bloggers can build trust in a single post. Trust is what gets you to purchase or keep looking when it comes to products. It's like when I read Wired magazine. I love going to the gadgets section and seeing what the staff has tried out the previous month. Why? Because I know they'll write an honest opinion of the products they're reviewing. That makes me much more likely to purchase the product they're showing than if I just saw it on ThinkGeek.

This also creates an interesting situation for ad agencies. They'll have to be much more selective with which clients they offer blog placement services to. I mean it has to be a perfect fit for the advertiser and their network of blogs and if its not then the ad agency runs the risk of losing all credibility with their A-List bloggers. Of course, paying the bloggers an exorbitant amount of money could remedy that but then the readers of the blog in question will be put off and not respect the blogger as much. Ah, the old catch 22.

But if any of you remember when Eric Ward started URLWire, that's exactly how his business began. He had contacts in the media that were in charge of web sites and knew Eric wouldn't give them any crappy press releases. Voila, a business model is born. It's just that now its happening with blogs and back when Eric started there was no such thing as a blog.

I predict...

• Ad agencies will seek out A-List bloggers who have strong relationships with other A-List bloggers to head up their blog placement departments.
  
  
  Someone will step up and create a blog taxonomy that shows the key players in specific blog verticals. This will identify the "people to know" if you want to succeed with your blog pr campaign.
  
  
  Large PR Firms and Ad Agencies will spin off subsidiaries dedicated to blogs to increase their relationship with bloggers and appear to be experts in blog product placement and blog pr.
  
  
  Blogs will continue to increase their focus on specific areas whether these are niche verticals or niche subject areas.

I recently had an interesting conversation with Tig over at MarketingVox and he made a statement that I can't seem to stop thinking about. He said that the ads on MarketingVox are bringing in some incredibly high conversion rates for his advertisers. More importantly, the ads on his site are reaching the point where they are becoming content.

Blog Ads Becoming Content
Now that's not something you hear every day so at first it might not make sense. What he meant was that because of the strong reputation MarketingVox has with ad agencies and media buyers: the ads placed on their are looked at by his audience as content. In other words, the ads are perceived almost as "this is a product you might not have known about but it's something you should know about if you're really in theknow". When any publisher can get their audience to perceive their ads as content then they've done something special.

Some of Wired magazine's ads do this for me in the tech industry and MIT's technology Review magazine does it for me in the research sector. It's no different than little surfer groms getting their parents to buy a Channel Islands Al Merrick board and Quicksilver board shorts because Kelly Slater is sponsored by them. It's just that we're starting to see this same effect in the blogosphere and that's incredibly enlightening for me. I mean, what some organic dairy farmer in Vermont says about organic milk can impact the dairy industry's sales... man that's cool!

[Peter (IMC)]

What is really interesting, I think, is the fact that blogs really are very basic stuff and they´re really like the internet was 10 years ago.... mostly text. (it´s just easier to get it online now) In the end what people want is,.. information.

As to ads almost turning into content,.. Turning keyword phrases into links and getting paid for it is a great way of advertising, though the chance that these "ads" get clicked may be slim. From an SEO point of view these are probably the best links you can get of course.

In my own Search engine & Marketing Blog I use Adsense. In my opinion it´s the best way of placing ads in a blog without compromising the content of the blog. When clearly marked as advertising, people will accept that and understand it´s not directly promoted by the owner of the blog. Newspapers don't get judged by their ads, but by their content, the same applies to blogs I think.

[cryptblade]

What's interesting about this whole blog development is that people are jumping on blogs already - but blogs have not yet been established - firmly that is - as even a component of business.

It looks, to me, as if business and marketing is moving towards monetizing blogs (a communication medium) while struggling to incorporate blogs as a more mainstream communication medium.

You can argue all you want about the validity of blogs and their influence, but if blogs was the word of the year according to Merriam-Webster - based on number of searches - it tells me that most people (even online) do not know what blogs are - much less read them.

WPW featured a topic asking if blogs jumped the gun on Target. I wonder if marketers and advertisers are jumping the gun on monetizing blogs. Most of them dont' understand blogs.

I'm listening to Jim Rome on ESPN right now - and he's a sarcastic, witty, semi-intelligent, but good (sometimes cantankerous) sports reporter/commentator. It occurs to me that blogs are a little like that. You can be smart and knowledgeable and quite articulate like Jim, and write your own blog on your profession, your personal interests, sports, hobbies, etc.

In fact I imagine blogs are something like Jim Rome. Who is Jim Rome? Was he a former player? I dont know - but he's entertaining to watch and fun to listen to his crack comments/thoughts. Let's extrapolate this thought. If people watch Jim for his content, how out of place would it be if he personally presented any advertising on his show?

I think blogs would suffer the same thing if the blogs are oriented towards thought. I've seen some "professional" blogs and they have books they recommend. But that's something they personally recommend and it works. But some thoughts may not work that well. Let's say someone started a sports fan blog - and endeavoured to be an online Jim Rome. Naturally, sports merchandisers, ticket brokers, etc. would love to get advertising on the site. But beyond ads placed on the left, away from the content, how can an online Jim Rome get away with promoting sports merchandise?

On the other hand, I think a blogger who starts off with an open intention to talk about products that they specifically promote or recommend, and still offer enough interesting content, would succeed. In other words, I think branding a blog is probably more important - in terms of monetizing a blog - than people might realize or think.

Seriously - if I read a blog for a specific reason, say Jim Rome's blog on sports, I'm looking to hear and be entertained by his style of thought on sports. I wont be too receptive to him actively promoting any ads - even textads will be pretty transparent.

However, if Charles Schwab started a blog and talked about investing and also recommended certain books, seminars, tapes, software, even other brokers, I would be more receptive.

But the question is, how can you start a blog specifically with commerce in mind? Right? That is the question. I think it's too early to tell. I also think marketers and advertisers are trying too hard to shape and mold this medium into advertiser-friendly, that's why they are sounding the alarm now and working so hard to make it work. I think that's dangerous and can choke the natural progression of commercializing blogs.

On a macroscale, I think it's sad that our society/culture is so bent on consumerism that we'll use almost anything for advertising, which then makes people more jaded towards marketing and advertising. Ads are like a vaccine - the more the body (consumer body) gets, the more the diseases mutate to be immune. And if there is enough aggregate in the population, the disease can quickly mutate to a stronger deadlier disease. We've already seen companies trying to sell ad space on individually owned cars. What else - clothing? Bumper stickers (surprised I havent heard that idea; maybe it's already come but people thought it too dumb they laughed it to scorn)? I say tread slowly and carefully with blog ads. Let it takes its natural course because it's still a nascent medium (despite it's length of existence) - and let it develop. There is still far too much speculation about.

[espectations]

Here are my two pence towards this topic:

I think that one need to define the reason why you have a web site, blog, forum etc.

If it is to make money, then you have to get a strategy and business plan into place and not solely depend on advertising for income. If it is to share information, earning money becomes a sideline.

It is real nice to take part in affiliate programs where one earn some bucks for referrers that actually purchase something online - at least you can pay the annual hosting or develop it all further.

But to have a blog solely for the purpose of earning money from it does not gel with me seeing that I am a content and sharing information type of person.

My clients and me are blogging to get information our to specific interest groups - earning money on the side is an added bonus.....

[dentalplans]

My eyes have really opened to the potential blogs have to generate traffic. I think it can be just as a tremendous tool for affiliate marketers to generate listings and drive traffic to advertisers. Like anything it can be exploited, but creating a nice revenue stream with blogs is definitely doable. I recently started my Jimi Hendirx Blog. I used blogger because it's free and google owns so I figured it would get ranked well if I made good original posts and titled them well. It's working well and driving some traffic to Allposters and Amazon, just because that's what I was working on at the time and it fit. So, I'm hoping some revenue will be generated! But I definitely see strong potential for Blog advertising for example, I have tried it on a limited basis before, but am going to seriously revist it.

[mlevenhagen]

Earning money in blogs, IMHO, should be incidental.

I'm kind of new to the Blog World.

I recently started a Blog just to keep my community up to date with stuff. They don't have to wait for my newsletter for news, tips, articles or whatever. And I'm free'r to talk outside of the box... I can have fun at the same time.

I felt it would be a natural extension of my website. It's a way to keep my community informed and coming back.

But being an affiliate I realized I had a special opportunity. I can thread links that are related to my topic within the text. I let it happen naturally. I write the content first then if I see an opening, I place a link.

You can write about any topic on the planet and there is probably an affiliate program you can reference and work into the text.

To me this extra channel of revenue (potentially) could afford me the opportunity to spend more time blogging. It does take time (time=money) to blog.

The readers of the Blog will decide if you get paid... if you provide good content, you'll make money.

Blogs are special. They seem to put people at ease. When you go to a website you expect to be sold. When you go to a blog, you assume you will be presented with content. The content is more honest because it's not selling you something. It's more reliable because the intention is information not sales.

Maybe their popularity exists because it's more of a one on one experience. It seems more human and less constructed.

At the same time I've popped into a Blog and left instantly. You can tell when a Blog is set up to sell (or at least I can). I know instantly I can't trust the content... unless that Blog has already established a good reputation...

I think you can push advertising as far as your audience will allow based on your credibility and importance. A new blogger should just Blog until he/she builds a good following. Otherwise, you may chase people a way. I think you need to build credibility first.

The blogger has to take each offer for advertising case by case. If done properly, it should be a seemless marriage. Each ad tightly knit to the topic.

I would take full advantage of any opportunity to make money with a Blog... when I make the A List someday:) As long as I don't distract from the purpose of the blog and let it cloud my vision...

Peter Posted

Turning keyword phrases into links and getting paid for it is a great way of advertising, though the chance that these "ads" get clicked may be slim.

I think Text links often convert better than banner links. That's why I think they are perfect in a Blog. Your not distracted with the dazzle and frazzle of banners and pop ups. A link is gently provided as they are in the first post. If it's on topic, people will click.

Now, like I said, I'm new to Blogs. But I know they have a lot of potential, especially if you can get the SEs attention. Oh and with RSS, that's whole 'nother exciting spin.

It'll be fun to watch Blogs develop!

[atwhatcost]

I'm a writer, therefore, I Blog. I Blog because I cannot not write. (I know that's poor grammar.) My Blog goes with my web site, and, strangely, has become the number one marketing tool for the web site. But, unlike most blogs, I'm not telling my opinions, telling the latest news, uncovering the emotional life of a teenager, or even working on a joint scientific project like original Blogs did. That being said, I've just gotten to the point of realizing that I can actually make money on the side with my Blog! One catch--I don't know how!

OK, technically, I do know how, since I've been approved by Adsense to promote their ads, but, still, since my Blog was started on a free service, it already has ads around it, and has no set up to include ads that I want to put on it. Is it possible for me to keep all the content that I already have on my Blog (been Blogging for about 1.5 years now) and find a place to Blog that is either free or very cheap, and allows me to include Adsense ads on it without overshadowing the Blog?

[mlevenhagen]

I use Blogger.com. You can ad adsense ads really easy. It's really flexible. You just plop code in the html. Mine as an example: www.WebofOpportunity.BlogSpot.com

I tried to ad Adsense when I first set up my blog but all it would do is feed PSAs. So I pulled it temporarly. I probably didn't have enough content off the bat. I'll also create alternate ads... or make them collapse. I was just going to put them under the blogger symbol/ under the list of posts.

You can Switch to: FTP (publishing on your ISP's server) Or SFTP (secure publishing on your ISP's server). I just decided to do it stand alone.

I've heard WordPress.org is good as well.

[mlevenhagen]

I just popped an Adsense Ad in the left column. It's actually running ads this time!

I think this approach in unobtrusive. The content isn't affected. I don't have to think about it. It's easy.

It's not in your face, "I'm trying to sell you something!" It's just revenue to support my writing habit.

And it will always, naturally, be relevant to the content...

[cryptblade]

Here's a link to ESPN's Page 2http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...simmons/041203. I like this one. Just read it. I think a perfectly good blog could be made from content like this.

This however, is a good example of a blog that can use online sports gambling link. He can use non-intrusive means, or actively promote it because it can all work. The guy is witty, funny, and entertaining.

As a previous post alluded - the commerce part of blogs, certainly in its current development, seems only feasible when 2ndary to the content in the blog.

While I think marketers/advertisers need to keep an eye out and play and experiment, I think currently, the power goes into the hands of the bloggers who care about their readers. Advertisers need to present really good stuff to advertise, make it lucrative, but realize that blogs are only another medium - not a magic bean, and really give control to bloggers. I think what you might find is more affiliate marketing type advertising and that's that.

I think there are some ways to monetize blogs but not to the extent of a full e-commerce website.

[KEVINRBECK]

I had reason to examine the page ranks of my own web site to determine which pages were more accessed or higher ranked, than others.

I noted that the older pages had a sigificant bar reading, and newer pages did not, and that there was a variation between certain content types of the differing pages.

I note that the page rank for this forum, as I respond, is `zero' and yet the ranking for Webproworld entry page is a quarter of the bar, the same as some of my own pages.

When I go to prominent sites like NineMSN Australia, Microsoft and any number of significant Internet entities as well as the US government sites I note the page ranking is 100 but when I go to large corporates where I expect rankings, they are low and even non existent.

So what does the page ranking actually mean?

Kevin R Beck
Mosaic Portal
http://users.bigpond.com/KEVINRBECK/

[Peter (IMC)]

When I go to prominent sites like NineMSN Australia, Microsoft and any number of significant Internet entities as well as the US government sites I note the page ranking is 100 but when I go to large corporates where I expect rankings, they are low and even non existent.

So what does the page ranking actually mean?

Pagerank is just a number that shows the quantity and quality of the pages that link to a page. Large coorporations often have extremely dynamic websites which results in just a few pages getting indexed. This could cause low or no PR on their internal pages. Keep in mind that large coorporations that are well known, don't depend much on search engine rankings. They depend on how well known their brand is and people generally will go directly to their sites.

It´s all about needs and some websites really don't need search engines to be found. But that´s just a few big ones,... :) Most websites do need search engines.

[atwhatcost]

mlevenhagen,
I started out Blogging in Blogger, but it tends to need quite a bit of blogging scripting knowledge that I don't have to create an above-average look to the Blog. More importantly, I couldn't figure out how to connect the Blog to the web site, so went with Bravenet, which, although easier to use, still is much less than optimal for incorporating it into the web site. (I also have yet to figure out how to add RSS to my web site in such a way that I don't need to update that too, whenever I add to my Blog.)

The main problem I thought I had (you seem to have simply ignored it with your Blog LOL) is that Google's contract says there is to be no other kind of advertising on the page, when we use AdSense. Does Goggle not count ads for the Blog we're using? And, are you without the extra ads (my old Blogger site has two more ads included by Blogger then yours does), because you pay for your Blog?

Sorry about how elemental my questions seem, but, despite Blogging for so long, I'm still new to the languages of the Internet.

[mlevenhagen]

Hi Lynn,

Isn't Blogging Fun!

I guess I'm kind of biased since I haven't tried anything else. Being the busy guy I am, if I find something that works, I'm done. If it's not broke, don't fix.

I find Blogger.com really easy to use and flexible. There is a lot of help available, it's easy to get around.

I've noticed a few formatting issues, but nothing I can't live with. It's hard to find a perfect application in this world.

"it tends to need quite a bit of blogging scripting knowledge that I don't have to create an above-average look to the Blog"

I don't know that you need a lot of scripting knowledge. I have very basic level knowledge, but I've made it work.

And as far as making it professional, you can use third-party services that provide templates for you to download and use on your blog... besides that I think Blogger.com has some decent ones. To me a Blog is more about content than aesthetics anyway... as the web should be.

"I couldn't figure out how to connect the Blog to the web site"

It is an Advanced feature, but it can be learned.

"I also have yet to figure out how to add RSS to my web site"

You may find this interesting:

Feed Burner!

I plan on doing this myself eventually, I think... among the other 5 million things I want to do:)

"Google's contract says there is to be no other kind of advertising on the page, when we use AdSense"

Per Adsense Policies:

No Google ad may be placed on any non-content-based pages...

Pages published specifically for the purpose of showing ads, whether or not the page content is relevant...

May Not Include: Excessive advertising

That's it. The way I decipher that is it doesn't say anything about not being able to promote your own products or affiliate links... You just can't have a page souly for the purpose of advertising or with excessive ad techniques. They just want to protect their image I would assume.

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong.

"(my old Blogger site has two more ads included by Blogger then yours does), because you pay for your Blog?"

I don't pay for it... Some of the best things in life are FREE!

Are you talking about the Blogger Button on the side column? Whatever's there was there when I created it.

There are other Blog Services. I guess Blogger.com's my first love. They are always the hardest to let go of:)

Hope this helps!