Don't make these mistakes when first starting out with advertising!
[This is a part of the "Getting Started with Blog Advertising" blog series.]
The plain and simple truth is that most blogs and bloggers won’t make any money from their blogging efforts. For most people this isn’t a problem (and it shouldn’t be) but it is a significant problem if the blogger has high hopes of earning a little pocket money for their efforts.
The biggest challenge is the fact that 9 out of 10 blogs are not crafted in such a way that makes it easy to monetize and be successful simply because of this one element: Content.
But all blogs have content, right? The answer to that is a resounding “Yes!” but not all blogs have content that is both marketable and targeted for advertising let alone the right amount of traffic and market penetration to actually matter.
So how does one “fix” that problem or move in a direction so as to gently correct their blogging course so as to effectively navigate the pathway from making nothing to something? Here are a few things to consider:
Focused and Obvious Content Attracts Advertisers
I get emails daily from bloggers who, in so many words, ask me this type of question:
John, I just don’t get it – I’ve been blogging for years and my traffic is increasing year over year and yet I can’t seem to sell one single advertisement or convert any affiliate efforts. What’s the problem?
And after quickly reviewing their blogs and the content that they are publishing the problem is quite obvious: Lack of focus. They blog one day about how their goldfish died and the next day about a new piece of technology that they tried randomly on their recent flight out to New York. The next post is a silly YouTube video that they randomly found from a chain letter and the next post is a 3,000 word monster about how Barack Obama might just be the most spiritual president ever.
The Ford 'Focus' Cosworth! This image has nothing to do with the content around it, except that you read this caption!
The content is everywhere (and nowhere really). The thing to remember is that this is not necessarily a problem because a blogger is at liberty to blog about anything and everything they want to! But, it is a problem when they are trying to pay for their hosting account with a few advertisements and nothing is working.
The simple fact is that the more focused your content is and the more obvious it is that your focus is that particular type of content, the more attractive your blog will be for advertisers and potential sponsors.
Although this might be a “duh” moment for many of us the fact is that many of you are struggling with this very issue. Here are a few things you can do to make your blog more attractive to advertisers:
- Focus your content. Period. Blog more consistently about those things.
- Let your categories drive your content. Make your categories obvious to the end user and advertisers.
- Cut out the randomness of your posts. If you must blog about random stuff create a second blog or use a microblogging service like Posterous to house those types of posts.
- Blog more consistently. This does not mean blog more, just more consistently and systematically. Get a schedule for crying out loud!
The better you can execute on this the more opportunity you have for making more money because you become a much more attractive hot spot for advertisers.
Build a Better, Stronger, and More Obvious Blogging Brand
Time to make a stand, er, brand!
This is such a simple thing that when I share it with people they literally smack their foreheads and seem a bit ashamed that they didn’t think of it before.
The fact is that your visitors, especially new visitors and potential readers, have a limited attention span and you’ve got one shot at a first impression. You must capitalize on this one and only opportunity to be dead obvious about who you are and what you’re about. There is no guarantee that they will click on your ‘About‘ page, regardless of how awesome it might be!
So how do you take advantage of this one and only rare opportunity? Here are things you must consider:
1. Be Obvious
Be as obvious as you can about your brand and the content that you’re creating. Take a look at my logo and header: “Blogging for Fun and Profit.” There’s really no simpler way to express what this blog is about and there’s no guesswork involved.
Interested in learning how to have more fun while blogging and make some money while doing it? You’re in the right place! Not interested? Move along stranger!
Your logo, copy, and even design should communicate effectively and quickly what your new visitor can expect without requiring them to actually click on that ‘About’ page!
2. Don’t Use Your Name and Other Cautions
This is going to rub some people the wrong way but here it goes anyway: Seriously reconsider using your name as your blog name and URL.
What is your brand, really?
The reason I don’t use JohnSaddington.com as a blog is because it communicates nothing to anyone and requires explanation to be of any value. “John Saddington” is simply my name and in and of itself it’s relatively meaningless in that it doesn’t communicate what I’m about and what I’m trying to do.
You see, unless you’re already well-established as a personality, your name is simply not a strong “brand” out of the gate. Sure, some people have made it work and there’s always an exception to the rule, but why limit yourself, especially as a new blogger?
Here are a couple of examples that I really feel limit a new blogger (and that I personally just don’t like):
- Using the term “Live” in with your name. “JohnSaddingtonLive.com” …? What does that even mean? I assume that if you’re blogging then you are, in fact, alive and well, as opposed to being “Dead,” right? JohnSaddingtonDead.com? Please.
- Using the domain .TV if you’re not a big video blogger or into rich A/V and media. I think the .tv assumes a few things content-wise that you might not be able to execute on. Use with caution.
- Using the word “Blog” in your domain name, like “JohnSaddingtonBlog.com.” I laugh at this, and then I cry.
- Using any word that might limit you down the road. For example, “PastorJohnSaddington.com” might be a bad choice when you step down from being a Pastor next year.
- Avoid long and hard to spell (and say) domain names. If you’re too creative people might just not visit you because it takes too long to type out your blog name without misspelling it wrong every time.
There are a lot of other pet peeves but those are a few.
3. Your Subtitle and Copy Matter, A Lot
Choose your subtitle and the copy around your header and top-layer navigation with care. Again, this is a very close cousin to the first point but worth repeating, if anything.
Make it count and make it simple. Having a subtitle that reads something like this is not strategic:
John Saddington: A husband, father, loving son, blogger, starbucks addict, and Mac fan!
Wow. You just described yourself, congratulations. Sadly, it doesn’t actually tell me what you’re going to be blogging about. Maybe starbucks? Maybe Apple computers? Maybe being a dad?
Sorry. I’m lost, and I’m leaving.
Craft it carefully and wisely. Your ‘About’ page can have all of that fuddy-duddy stuff, but not your subtitle please.
So how do these three help make you more money? Because what is obvious to readers is going to be obvious to advertisers and your brand is going to communicate that the most effectively.
No business wants to partner with a weak brand, so if you have a weak brand then don’t expect to get sponsored (and paid)!
Too Many (Random) Advertisements Already
There is power in limiting the amount of advertising space available on your blog – we call this the power of exclusivity.
Nothing is exclusive when everyone is.
After having managed some of the largest websites on the planet as well as running more than my fair share of startups, I know this all too well for my own good.
I could spend 100 posts or so diving into this strategy but I’ll outline it here in a few bullet points:
- Businesses want a high ROI (Return on Investment) for their ads on your blog and any competing advertisement (or affiliate ad) lowers the potential earning power. If they see a blog with 20 spots open and all of them being filled, that’s simply not very attractive and they’ll most likely pass on your blog. You lose.
- If the business sees a mish-mash of advertisements (or in other words, a ton of very different types of advertisements showcasing many different products, services, etc.) a smart marketer interprets this in a couple of ways, the first being that the blogger doesn’t actually have an established brand and conversion rate will be low and/or the blogger has no idea what they are doing and will not be a good business play and partner for them long-term. You lose.
- If the advertiser sees too many ads at rock-bottom prices they will know that both the conversion rates are poor and that the blogger is desperate. These spots are not exclusive and instead they are risks and a waste of money. You lose.
- Pricing is no aligned correctly with traffic and surface-level engagement. Marketer takes note and either takes complete advantage of the blogger or laughs at their ignorance and passes. You lose.
And more. The fact is that your current advertisements are in direct competition with future advertisements and by “filling up” those spots with useless ones simply because you can or feel like you have to so that you might look more “professional” is outrageously stupid – who told you that, by the way?
If you’re a new blogger and have been only blogging for a few months and yet you already have 8 advertisements slots “filled” with random affiliates and other nonsense then you simply do not know what you’re doing and should stop.
Time to start over anew?
Get rid of those ads that aren’t converting anyway (am I right or am I right?) and start learning more about online advertising best practices before you embarrass yourself.
Yikes!
So Now What?
So now that you have a clear picture of why your blog doesn’t actually make any money we can begin to push the “reboot” button and start over from scratch.
Besides actually digesting some of this posts content and then doing something about it (like renaming your blog?) the next step is to discuss how to first begin advertising strategically for your blog.
We’ll discuss this in the next part of the “Getting Started with Blog Advertising” series coming soon!
[This is a part of the "Getting Started with Blog Advertising" blog series.]
John, you make some great points here. I struggled with several false starts (naming my blog byrondavis.tv ha ha, and not showing video, LOL), not being focused, putting ads on too soon, you name it. I’ve had to push the re-boot button a few times for sure! I think I am finding my voice, now. But to be honest, it takes time, either before you launch your blog or you must be willing to stop, re-access, and revise your current blog. Either way, it “pays” (pun intended) to get focused and get it right!
good perspective here byron! lots of false starts for me, too!
John, great post. I always find your content to be very informative. Just subscribed via e-mail.
sweet! thanks matt!
#trudat!
It’s funny – my name’s domain (brandonacox.com) has been in use long enough that I get really good search engine traffic, but I’m still launching a couple of new platforms so that the domain is branded better while my name’s domain will become more of a hub for promoting the other sites. It’s a confusing time-warp matrix continuum, but my point is, I agree.
you’ve been able to jump the naming hurdle because of sheer effort, hard work, and good content. great stuff!
Great post John. Lots of good information here.
Of course, Tony Morgan probably just took you off his Christmas list.
he was going to get me coal anyways.
You are the master.
I bow.
Hey John,
I love your sub-title so much that I’m borrowing and adapting it (with the permission you gave me, of course!).
But I’ve been wondering if my domain name is ideal since it’s somewhat long. It has a very specific meaning to me but I’m not sure it translates to visitors.
Long story short, Beautiful Canvas Productions spun off of BeautifulCanvas.org, which is our personal blog to chronicle life with and now after a child with a terminal disease. The basic idea is that all of our stories are part of one, much bigger story. Yet that’s not really the focus of my “productions” site.
What do you think? Since my site is focused on video, do you think using a .tv would be appropriate? Other suggestions?
BTW, seems like choosing the right domain name would be a great post topic for you.
http://tentblogger.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-choosing-the-right-and-best-domain-name-for-your-blog/
like that?
productions is a long word, for serious.
Hmmm…missed that somehow. Reading it now!
sweet! go for it!
U make me want to blog more! Awesome work John. Do keep it coming. Thanks.
sure thing mat!
Great stuff…I like your direct approach! I plan to move my blog to a different domain other than my name and use the name domain as a digital business card. I’m not convinced that my blog name is really a good brand. Any thoughts about it from your perspective? Does it communicate my purpose clearly? Would appreciate your eight-second impression and opinion.
again, i think i’ve made my point that your name might not be the best branding play, especially starting out.
agreed…my question was really concerning the blog name, not the domain name. When I migrate the blog to the new domain name, I need to be sure the blog name (which would be the basis for the domain name) is clear in communicating the theme/content. I’ll take your earlier advice in asking a few people to give me their opinion with the eight-second test.
sweet! sorry for misunderstanding.
i like eflections but if you’re going to try to penetrate the market with non-christians you’ll probably lose a lot of steam.
and, the subtitle is so christianese too.
Great point. I will think through that with the goals I am considering. At this point, I would consider this particular blog as directed primarily toward the Christian market since it has the idea of discipleship at the core. My expansion plans are to have a life-coaching blog/resource website that would need to be directed more toward a broader audience. Thanks for the ideas. Food for thought!
For serious! I agree with you on many points.
I think it is appropriate to use your name as your domain if you are an author, online personality, or media creator. This has worked for people like Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuck, Seth Godin & the list goes on. But, if you aren’t published, you aren’t a speaker, you aren’t an author, then you definitely want to brand something up other than yourself.
For me, I have many domains, and my personal blog is just my crap, although I branded myself as “Josh Caza” even though my name is Joshua Chase. Why? Because “Joshua Chase” is boring, “Caza” sounds cool. And there actually is a story behind it.
Awesome article John, looking forward to the next one in the series!
well, you forget that chris brogan, gary v, and seth godin had platforms before they started blogging (but certainly their efforts helped!).
John, I totally agree with not naming your blog with your own name. (This may be surprising for some since my blog IS my name.) Even if you can build name-recognition (which I have, somewhat), you aren’t building a liquid asset. What I mean by that is that you will never be able to sell it. Why? Because all the value is in YOU. No one is going to want to read MichaelHyatt.com if Joe Blow is writing it.
If I had to do it all over again, I would create a blog that was clear about my primary topic—leadership. I am unwilling to do this now for other strategic reasons, but I think in general your advice is dead on. Thanks.
love this. thanks for the support michael. it’s HUGE coming from you!
i’m surprised you haven’t started a second blog… yet…
Great info wow thanks so much. Do you do blog critiques?
yes! i’ve done a few here. more to come when I get the time: http://tentblogger.com/free-blog-critique-and-review/
Another great post and very practical. I can plea guilty on the URL name mistake. I used to have a blog that started to attract some traffic and create a community of commenters and then I change the field I was in and the blog lost its relevance. I am thinking in a re-start, but still need to come up with the right URL name that will reflect the contents and is based on what I do regularly.
Good job on this posts!
sure thing fernando! love to hear your thoughts about your next steps!
Thanks for the post. In many ways I wished I had started researching best practices before starting out. That said, I know some who blog not to generate income directly from the blog, but to build an intangible tribe who in turn will purchase other services at a later time (building permission). One must keep in mind the purpose of why they blog and what they want to achieve through the effort. If it’s income, that’s one reason. If it’s permission it’s another. As you state, this post is re: making $ from your blog and is right on point.
Thanks for sharing your insights. I greatly appreciate it!
sure thing steve!
permission marketing is huge, and one that is definitely of interest here.
Great post John. Had to read it couple of times. Lots of valuable information.
Trying to put it into practice now.
keep up the good work! tons of work for me to do as well.
Hi John,
I really enjoyed this article and am guilty of some of the above, mainly that I’ve branded myself with my name – but with sharon.cc – .cc for career coaching, not .tv at least! I only started blogging a few months ago and have <50 readers per day on average, so I knew not to start taking ads yet.
How many hits per day do you feel are needed to start placing ads? Do you recommend starting with adwords? Would starting with relevant companies make more sense (i.e. ALL of my blog is career coaching & job search advice – should I limit ads to related matter)?
So far from my blog publicity I've been invited for speaking engagements & to write for other venues, but would love to start directly making money from my site if it's an option.
Appreciate any advice!
sharon,
as the series suggests, i’ll be covering these topics explicitly, so stay tuned and feel free to subscribe to the blog, etc!
oh, and yes. stay as relevant to your content as possible as it relates to your advertisers and sponsors. the stronger tie the better!
John,
Good read! I watched the video about choosing the correct domain name. Any thoughts on spelling of url? For instance “nusoup.com” vs. “newsoup.com”
how about “neuesoup.com” like “www.neuemagazine.com”?
i’d probably opt to not copy that, but that’s my 2 cents.
Thanks for the tip KC
tell me the story behind newsoup.com? what does it mean?
Soup, for many is served for medicinal purposes.
The story is a combination of micro-philanthropy and education. The platform could address viable solutions to impact the next generation; much like the GOOD Everyday project.
Newsoup, or whatever it may be called, would represent bringing together tangible solutions for GOOD. Just like soup….good for the body.
love it.
John, thanks for this post. I’m personally still in the Pre-launch phase. I’ve spent the last several months considering my blog and studying others.
Question: what about your URL’s affect on “natural market” growth? In other words, are the facebook and twitter “friends” I have now more likely to transition to my blog platform if it’s directly identified with me?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Best Regards
i think this is all in how you market it. it’s quite possible that your “friends” aren’t interested in your blog but just your tweets (or just being your friend of facebook).
you have to dive a bit deeper to understand the impact.
great thoughts and considerations!
Thank you for the candid advice.
I have SO much work to do now.
Here’s something that’s starting to make me worry.
Disclaimer: I have a blog (linked above) and I see all of these areas to improve on (slowly making progress). Right now it’s basically a personal blog of random postings and while I want to spruce it up really beginning to seriously thinking about launching a separate self-hosted blog.
So here’s the issue: what if all the strategic planning and research (reading this blog, problogger.net, copyblogger.com, etc) is starting to debilitate my ability to actually launch?
Starting to feel like I have to have all this capital saved up (to pay for domain, registration, StandardTheme, plug-ins, software tools, etc) and the tentative launch date is reaching the dreaded “someday”.
Thoughts?
you must read this:
http://tentblogger.com/vision-requires-execution-for-your-blog-to-grow-and-succeed/
especially if you haven’t read it before!
launch! do it! you’ll learn more by actually doing it than by just building strategy alone. you have to do both together!
set a date to launch, regardless of how arbitrary it is and GO!
Thanks again for the advice. Thought I’d read everything on your blog, but apparently I missed this gem.
Am thinking about launching 1/1/11. We’ll see.
i’m rooting for you, BTW!
Greatly appreciate the support and encouragement. I think my biggest hurdle right now and narrowing the focus and picking a name.
Per guidelines in this post am veering away from “thatguykc.com” to something like “somewiseguy.com”. Again trying to dial in focus and categories.
Really have enjoyed the TentBlogger community and the concept of “tentblogging” is genius.
Thank you!
sweet! narrow it down!
So the question I have is (and this is a question, not a snarky snip), how does human3rror.com play in this? is that just a non-focused personal blog? what’s the focus of content over there?
By the way, I’m working up a new niche-focused blog (and that, thanks in large part to the insights here), but for now, I’ll continue to make you laugh – and then cry, at davidnormanblog.com
none taken!
human3rror was a creative brand name but is has evolved so much over the years. it’s going to change again this coming year as more of just my random thoughts and my family. the content already for the past few months have showed that to be explicit.
expect a redesign, rebrand, and more focus coming soon…. even i have work to do in this department!
Thanks John! Focused content is exactly why I started jimmy writ.es a few weeks ago.
sweet! i’ve always liked your domain.
I’m looking forward to the rest of the series, I’m learning so much here! My blog is still in the planning-phase (I’m hoping to go live on January 1st) so being the perfectionist that I am, I’m trying to prevent the mistakes you’re discussing. For me, finding a good name is the hardest part. The focus is there (though the subtitle advice was a good one, I call that a byline by the way but what’s in a name), I have a million ideas for content, now all I need is a killer name…
january 1st………! please let me know when it goes live!
I’m a freelance writer who does private projects for clients, but I also have a blog that I frequently write on. I would like to somehow mold the two together. Or do you think it would be best to have a separate website showcasing my portfolio, and then a different blog? I’ve seen it done a number of different ways, I’m just not sure what’s best.
I think combining the two would be best because it would consolidate your traffic for right now, right?
Well put up john !Many of us start blogging to earn a little pocket money, some end becoming probloggers !! and some end it soon.
that’s true! most people just start and see where it goes!
Bada-Bing!!! I was looking for ways to start including advertisements, but instead you convinced me to hold back. This really made me think about my content and strategy towards building a stronger blog. I want to control my ad space and not the other way around. Good Days!
sure thing jacob! there’s always time to advertise. don’t sweat it.