Nov 07 2007
Regular Readers: Good for the Ego But Not for the Bank Account
Before I start I just want to say to my regular readers that I love ya, really I do! I appreciate your comments, love to see my RSS numbers increasing, I get a warm fuzzy feeling as my number of visitors slowly climbs and I generally just love writing and feeling as though people appreciate it.
But… I’m afraid your commitment doesn’t pay my bills.
It’s the drive-by, wham bam thank you ma’am traffic that I’m after. Not for this blog, but for my other sites. Things rarely change on most of my sites and therefore people don’t tend to return. They type something into Google, my page comes up, they click on the link, have a look around, and then leave me feeling used and abused.
But… they often leave in ways that pad my bank account.
To make any money I need to attract people who are looking for something other than my daily post; the ones who find my site through a click of Google and then head off in search of more information, possibly never to be seen again. People who find my sites through search engines are, funnily enough, usually searching for something. If they find it on my site that’s great and if the thing they’re searching for results in an affiliate sale then that’s even better! If they can’t find the information they’re after then off they’ll go to another site and this could lead to an Adsense click.
That’s not to say that blogs don’t get search engine traffic because they do, but blogs generally rely on repeat visits and networking to pad out their daily stats. Because of this, a high number of daily visitors doesn’t equate to a high level of earnings the way it does on a standard website.
If you’re hoping to make money with your blog then optimising your site for the search engines and targeting search traffic is key. Spending time on MyBlogLog, commenting on other blogs, posting on forums with your link in the signature and all that time consuming stuff is good for getting people to visit your site, but these people tend to be curious folks with time to kill, not people who are in the frame of mind to buy something or click on an ad.
So in other words, money wise, I would rather have 100 visitors a day to my websites then 1000 visitors a day to this blog, even if it was monetised. But then again, 1000 readers a day would be nice…
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I've been travelling since January 2008 living off earnings from the web. Follow me as I bum around Asia and beyond, getting up to mischief and working online as I go. 
i guess if you get a regular following, you could plug useful sites and try to get sales from there, but you’re spot on with the analysis really - i’d rather have 100 visitors arrive from searching google because they’re interested in a product, than have 1000 visitors keep coming back because they’re after a free yet interesting read!
It’s funny, I came to the conclusion yesterday that blogging is blo*dy hard work! And it seems that you have to put in zillions of hours before you can expect to make a decent living. The writing is easy, but the networking part and reading/commenting on other people’s blogs just eats into time like there’s no tomorrow. And finding the balance is certainly a task.
I came to the conclusion that I HAVE to keep in mind that my blog is for fun/tracking my progress and that my other sites are my bread and butter. I’ve hardly scratched the surface and still I’m amazed at how time consuming blogging is. So I agree, focusing on income generating traffic is a priority over blog readership traffic is key.
My conclusion is that blogging for me is a nice way to meet other likeminded folk, but I need to let go of any delusions that I’ll make money from it any time soon!
The internet is an ocean made up of millions of servers and computers. All activity online is caused by human needs that in turn are directed by human emotions. Search engines are ocean currents that direct this traffic of human emotions. Along these currents migrate the money fishes, in the form of credit cards held by the human surfing. Sometimes the card is empty and then this part of the current is void of fish. But often around the beginning of each month the money fishes migrate from deeper waters to the surfer. Then if the bait is good enough/the content (or sales copy) is enticing enough, the money fishes will bite.
Well, that’s nonsense enough. What I think you could do with your return visitors is create many pages with affiliate links. F. eks. set up a book club where you recommend books available from amazon. Another page where you recommend software like photoshop, dreamweaver etc. Third, travel insurance and general insurance. Recomended hotels. Anything you imagine your audience might need or be willing to pay for. You shouldn’t push the goods on the main page but let everybody know that the links exist. So that one day when a return visitor is reading your post s/he might remember that s/he was looking around for a camera/book on css/php or something else!?!
You’re right I think - but I’m sure its a blog/website split or a returning readers who will just read for the sake of it compared to, as you say someone searching for something who will probably come either from a search engine or a relevant forum.
I don’t know…oops…I was halfway down through my comment, and I must have lost it. It certainly is time-consuming, mind-boggling, physically exhausting, and all the -ings! As I have started saying, I’m grateful for all the posts that made me aware there is more to monitizing the website than Adsense.
Amazingly enough, my husband and I seemed to have been hallucinating since this weekend. He started seeing a car banner ad that was flashed on our website, which of course made me wonder how it could happen. At another occasion I saw the ebay one myself…more confusion…and 2 days later I saw an American Express ad stayed for a few minutes, then the ebay ads on the other 3 web pages. Of course, we couldn’t understand the whole enchilada! So, we decided checking out their Affiliate Programs, and we signed up. What next? Now, (this is the next day) we checked again and there’s only one ebay ad left–on the Feature page.
Last night since we were into the AP thing, we also checked out Amazon.com and filled out the info form where my husband got an immediate confirmation of the Affiliate membership. He got ambitious and tried the slideshow widget of the 6 related drum books that he personally owned–as a starting point. He finished his $.02 review, played around with the bacground, etc…and wham! “The browser encountered an error…” not one happy camper, time to hit the sack! Persistence…early morning, tried again from scratch…made it to ‘copy’ to the website (keep fingers crossed), paste–not the slide show we expected, just bunch of codes…but time to go to work. Tonight coming home, still can’t figure out…might as well email CS for help! And wait…
Hi Kirsty…
You’re right - blogging is rewarding in other ways for most of us “non pro’s” who earn peanuts from it but it is blimmin’ hard work.
As far as monetisation goes however, it depends on the strategy you use and whilst the “wham bam” type visitors pay you for clicking on stuff to leave your site, there are other different strategies whch can help monetise your blog leveraging a loyal following.
Leo Babauta from Zen Habits has just done this very successfully with the launch of his ebook - seems like he’s made a killing from his loyal readership. I did/am doing something similar on my blog too with my book. Wouldn’t quite say I’d “made a killing” yet but c. $1,000 and counting isn’t too shabby!
If you can’t face writing a book then you can always create one from the best content on your blog using sites like Blurb.com
Judging by all of the comments you are getting people are enjoying your writing. A loyal crowd of readers can be very profitable, like when a new advertising or affiliate opportunity opens up. If you write an honest review of it, people will sign up under you. Failing that just sell the blog for a few grand after a couple of months.
http://www.45n5.com/permalink/shylockblogging-another-make-money-online-blog-sol.html
Another point is that most of the popular blogs I used to enjoy reading are now written by “guest bloggers”.
Yep I agree totally that there are opportunities to sell and recommend things to regular readers but I don’t have anything to sell and recommendations would mean having to stay on top of the internet/travel world and I’m too lazy to do that.
I’m with you Internet Mama, I see blogging more as a fun thing to do to get my thoughts in order and meet people. I don’t doubt that blogging can be lucrative but for me, right now, I’d rather do it as a hobby type thing.
Hi!
A friend sent me your link and i want to thank you for the advice. I have had a blog for 2+ years now while I travel around the world and am slowly finally trying to figure out how to monetize.
Just want to thank you for some of your posts…that will help guide me!
happy travels to you!
Lisa
www.llworldtour.com