Open Forum: Maximizing Your Site’s Income
Dynamite Profits: Profit From Your Passions
Capitalizing on our website’s traffic and success and generating a real source of revenue can be tricky and confusing.
On one side of the equation is our desire to pack our websites with pay-per-click ads, affiliate ads and paid posts to suck in as much cash as possible. But on the other side of the equation is our desire to create an experience for our users that is as high quality and as fun as possible.
I’ve learned that the wisest men are those that surround themselves with people smarter than themselves. American presidents surround themselves with a cabinet of well qualified men and women to advise them. Corporate CEO’s bring in consultants to streamline their business design and maximize their successes.
Today I’m looking to you. You get to be the consultant. You get to advise me and everyone else reading here what you think is the best way to increase profits while maintaining a positive user experience.
Use the comments section of this post as a forum to post your thoughts, experiences and opinions on this subject. Share your own ideas or discuss your opinion about what others have shared. Let’s hash it out together and come up with the best practices for maximizing our site’s revenue potential.
A week or so from now I’ll compile all of our knowledge into an income strategy guide and publish it on here for everyone to see.
I’ll see you in the comments.
Nicholas Cardot
Nick uses his blog Site Sketch 101 to express his passion for helping bloggers and webmasters connect with real people through brilliant designs, unique content, and genuine creativity. Nicholas Cardot has 199 post(s) at Site Sketch 101
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James Rose said:
Over at ContestedFooty we focus on Affiliate advertising.
We only have the one at any time though as we don’t want to flood our site with ads.
I have found if you get to know one product particularly well, you get to know how to link to it more effectively.
We are always looking at other options and when we get made good offers to switch we really weigh up our options- the new offer has to have a lot going for it to cause a switch as the old one is already integrated in our site.
Beyond that we have adsense in our feed and a unit or two on the site which we feel is important for more than the money it generates (minimal) as it also gives us a gauge of the value of ads on our site.
I think the take home message I’m trying to get across is it is important to experiment and work out what methods work for your site as each site has different variables, such as the niche it is in, that will have an impact on what proves to be the best option.
Ron Boracay said:
Direct advertisers that is targeted with your blog niche will add more income as well as more benefits for your visitor. Its a win win win situation. For you, for your visitor and for the advertiser as well.
Affiliate advertising also works well as long as they are targeted or as long as your visitors can also benefit from them.
akira07 said:
Umm..anyway this blog is not a niche blog. This blog is blog resource. Blog resource is not niche because it’s contain wide aspect such plug-in, template, traffic, seo, monetizing, etc…
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
akira07 –> Actually this is still a particular niche. I have a broad scope but it is still limited. You won’t see me posting tips about cats or kite flying. Only about blogging and what I think will make a blog more successful.
akira07 said:
Maybe we have different meaning about niche
. I treat niche as a “small market which not fully-satisfied with excisting condition”.
But if it’s blog resource, i think the market already satisfied enough, because blog resource blog is not only 1 or 2 but a lot.
Nice, for me, f.e is something like : “Syberian Husky Healthcare” or “Herbal Cigarette” (which have a market, but the site who write about that topic is a less)
Ron Boracay said:
This is still a Niche akira. You just said it, its a blog resource that pertains in blogging tips.
Andrew said:
I’ll use a more philosophical approach in answering this before I make any direct remarks.
We hear it all the time but this is a time tested and proven theory.
TRUST!
Your president only fills his cabinet and acts upon advice of the people he trusts. If not for trust there is no basis for which to listen to their advice.
This is true for any form of marketing or sales. Once you have established a relationship based on trust then those you wish you to take your advice (buy the products you endorse) will act upon your advice. Usually they will act for 2 reasons.
1. Because your endorsed product provides and answer or a solution to their problem.
2. Simply because they trust that you would only endorse and recommend that product because it is in their best interest.
Trust, beyond anything else is what is needed to increase your profits.
Why are car salesmen so aggressive? Because no one trusts them and in order to make the sale they must use aggressive tactics. The guy or gal who can build trust will sell far more cars than the aggressive person.
But subtly placed advertising can also add to your position when that advertising is enticing and relevant to the on page content.
This is the very reason that Adsense/Adwords has been such a success. They have gone to great lengths to match the advertising to the on page content and when coupled with that trust relationship, users are more inclined to click on that ad is it relevant and appealing and your site is one of authority and in good standing with your readers.
However sometimes it does not always work and this is the reason that making money with adsense is not quite as easy as people like to think it is. For example right now as I write this comment I’m seeing an ad for mortgage reduction experts.
The advertising is irrelevant and provides to incentive for me to click on it. However as the engine learns more about what is on the page this ad should change.
Banner advertising is another option that can help or harm you. Over do it and you look too aggressive. Under do it and you a losing great opportunities but above all, it always comes back to trust.
If it looks salesy then it probably is no one wants to be sold to.
Create buyers instead of being a salesman. The most successful sales people are those who customers buy from them rather than people who are sold to.
James Rose said:
Thats good quality advice and it is proven within the online community when you look at examples such as Darren Rowse and Chris Brogan.
As an aside I forgot to mention that if you use affiliate advertising and your site is one of the bigger ones in its niche, don’t be afraid to shop around and ask for more than the stock standard agreement- more often than not those who do are rewarded for it.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
James Rose –> I’ve never thought about that. As I grow, then I think I will start trying that.
Rish said:
That’s right. I also remembered when one of my friends shared to me that since she was the number one in a particular niche among the blogs in the Philippines, she actually dared a big company to increase her advertising income per month. That’s just reliable enough and that’s how it works.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> I like those ideas. You are definitely right about the different dynamics that can be created in a relationship between the buyer and seller. If they believe that you are genuinely looking out for their best interests then you will be much more successful than if they think you are just trying to make a buck.
Andrew said:
Another thing that I forgot to mention (I’m not sure how I overlooked it) is that you have no opt in form.
You have already built a great relationship with many of your readers and no doubt will continue to.
If you can provide something of value to persuade your readers to opt-in you will have another avenue to further build that trust with them.
This ultimately provides a more private and personal opportunity to market your endorsed products and make recommendations to them.
When it comes to monetizing your site, the list is king.
However I’ll stand by my previous statement and say the I am the king and the list is my minion.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> You are the king! All hail the king! LOL.
What do you mean by opt-in? Opt-in to what?
Andrew said:
A mailing list. Making money online, no matter if it’s tradition IM or blogging you need a list to really be able to capitalize on those relationships that you build.
Go to my blog and on the right side in the Affiliate Toolbox you’ll see 2 of the best email marketing systems around. The most important factor of any email system is deliverability and the two I promote on my site have the highest deliverability rates.
If you use the banners on my site they will take you directly to a free trial so that you can test it out first.
Sat Chen said:
Hailing the king LOL . Building trust with others is also one of the most improtant thing a blog has to do
akira07 said:
Opt-in is good idea. The strategy to make people to opt-in f.e giving away e-book, software, etc..But too bad, based on research, fact tells that mostly opt-in list is purposed just to get the freebies (which offered when their see the opt-in form)
Andrew said:
Well it’s working for an entire industry and has done for many years now so I guess the data really doesn’t add up to a whole lot.
Ron Boracay said:
Akira, where did you get those stats and where did you read that having an opt-in that builds a list of very targeted audience is a bad idea?
That is the greatest thing or resource a blogger can have.
akira07 said:
I never said that it’s bad idea, but sometime opt-in list is not effective. I’m forgot where i read it, but the data is showing that the convertion rate of opt-in list who become buyer is so low. And the prediction is because, people just fill the opt-in form to download the freebies offered.
Ron Boracay said:
Ok, its clear now, you are just saying, sometimes, conversion is low from your optin list or from the people who opt-in to your mailing list.
Its a matter of how targeted and how you deliver well your sales tactic.
Bruce Teague said:
I’d say it’s all about the positive user experience. You get enough traffic and build authority then you can find ways to make money with out annoying ads. If you build up traffic and spam them then their experience goes down and they leave. You may see greater profit at first, but when they’re annoyed by it they stop coming because they see that the money is more important to you than their experience… there goes your cash stream. That seems like common sense, but apparently not to everybody.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Bruce Teague –> I agree with you. How would you rate the advertisement/user experience balance here at Site Sketch 101?
Bruce Teague said:
I would rate it high. I’m aware of the ads, which is good for you, but they aren’t so obtrusive that they hurt my experience.
I know user experience is important to you because you refuse to sell out to the more profitable text ads. You’re doing well Nick. As if it wasn’t obvious
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Bruce Teague –> Thanks Bruce. I appreciate the feedback but don’t ever be afraid to let me know if you think something needs improved on.
Sat Chen said:
Where is the advertisement because I can’t see anything. Do you use firefox or internet explorer.
akira07 said:
Sat chen > on the sidebar, there is 4 125×125 ads under “Wordpress themes” word. That’s advertisement.
Sat Chen said:
LOL I know what advertisement is but I can’t see anything. All I see is do follow comments and poll.
akira07 said:
Dunno why, maybe it’s your browser problem? Try to re-install it or use another browser.
Beside do follow comment text and poll, there is top commentator list, article from other blogger, advertisement, and internet friend link on the sidebar.
Ron Boracay said:
I Agree with that Bruce!
Although we can see and its evident that Nick do serve ads here, they aren’t distracting users to Nick’s articles.
Nick even choose image ads over the text ads so it will blend well with his blog. Ain’t that really cool?
HelpfulAdvisor said:
I think all the points above are extremely valid. I would like to add that I believe there is a time to advertise, and that is after you’ve built a site that offers good quality content that is juicy to human readers, and the search engines alike. SiteSketch101 is a great example as having done that.
To that end, after you’ve built traffic, and established trust and authority as Andrew, Bruce, James and Ron have said, then it would be time for specific and targeted advertising perhaps via article marketing. Sidebar ads are great, too, if they’re relevant to your site.
But, I think you get more meat when you article market the products you wholeheartedly believe in.
In one book I’m reading, several people have followed this very advice and are making well over six figures with their niche sites. The book advocates as a general rule of thumb that when daily unique visits hit around 100 or so, then it would be a good time to monetize.
I am a fan of the approach of direct endorsements as a user and believer in the products you promote. This is because people are looking to you as the expert. If the expert endorses something from the heart, then it must be good. As well, there would need to be reasons behind the endorsement, or else it would become shallow and you would lose your credibility.
An example on your site was the article about the reasons one would benefit from a subscription to ElegantThemes.com. There is benefit to the reader, and you believe in the quality and the value someone would get out of it if they joined. That is sincere, and more of that would work well with other strategic affiliations.
My two cents…
-Jay
Andrew said:
Jay, if I can just say that article marketing is an effective way to drive targeted traffic to an offer. It can also be used to drive traffic to your blog.
However driving traffic to a blog such as this and then hoping that they take a look at your ad and then click, and then finally purchase may be a bit of a long shot.
It works great for a blog that is more of a review site but for a site like this I personally think that a good quality list would help to monetize far more effectively.
Article marketing for this particular blog would be effective for driving traffic but I’d have reservations about the idea that it would work to directly monetize the site.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> I think that I’ll start that up and give people the first two chapters of my book if they sign up. Then maybe the taste of the book will help them have a greater desire to come back and want the rest of the book. It will help me to build up a list of people who want it.
Andrew said:
and that is the perfect scenario Nick. You build a list of targeted prospects. As you build new products, of become an affiliate for other products you can now directly market to that targeted list of people.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> I like that concept very much. I will definitely be putting it into practice in the near future.
Andrew said:
Nick you could start building your list right now. You don’t need to have a product to market in order to start building a list in fact the opposite is true. You need the list before you have the product. Be creative and think of ways to connect with your subscribers and you can build upon those relationships immediately. Pre-sell, Pre-sell!
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the email link (the sketch icon in the upper right of each page) but I have over 130 email subscribers on my list so far. I’m using feedburner for it, but when I launch a product or anything I will close down my feedburner email service and import all of my email addresses into aweber, mailchimp, or some other service like that.
Andrew said:
Nooooo! That would breach the CANSPAM act!
Feed email subscriptions are very different to opt-ins. The subscribers to your feed – by email – have only granted permission to recieve your feed not your marketing email.
You need a whole other list for that. I haven’t personally used mail chimp but make sure you really do your research.
Like I said deliverability is what its all about and Aweber is way in front in that respect. Next in line is iContact.
Also they use a double opt-in by default so your ass is covered against any CANSPAM complaint that may ever come up.
Ron Boracay said:
Wow, I learned a lot in here with you Andrew and Nick’s conversation.
Does the CANSPAM thing only covers US residents/publishers/bloggers?
Arisu said:
Nick>>
If you do, you have to be very careful choosing your email list plataform, gmail and yahoo have some very stupid policies about email marketing (for example, to get pass hotmail barriers you need a certification -that they SELL, of course- to make sure your emails reach your audience, sometimes it doesn´t matter if the person signed up for your newsletter he might not get it, not even in the spam folder).
If you have a shared server, and some other user gets banned for spam, then all the people using that server for sending email, gets banned.
PHPlist was a good option for email lists, but it ain´t supported anymore. Now at the office we use the one provided by the company that runs our server.
Andrew said:
I’d have to disagree with that. I track all my email marketing and I don’t get bounces nor complaints.
Aweber and iContact have the highest deliverability rates in the industry. I’m not sure where you’re getting your info from but it sounds a bit bogus to me.
Arisu said:
For they to have the highest delivery rates, then they probably have hotmail´s certification. Wich is viable to buy for some email marketing companies, but not all of them have it -some of them don´t even know they need to have it-.
That´s why some email don´t even gets to the spam folder, but so many viagra trash manages to be there.
I think that´s information ain´t “fake” cause I got it from an email marketing course that the office paid, plus that would explain:
+ many of my favorite newsletters being send to the spam folder
+ some sites asking you to sign up with yahoo or gmail cause hotmail doesn´t deliver theirs (wich I know is the case of a successful blogger wich newsletter I get in my yahoo account).
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu –> If I switch over to that, then I will probably be using Aweber. I’ve heard really good reviews about them. They also have the option to let me publish my articles through email via the RSS to Email function.
Andrew said:
Yes Nick the blog broadcast feature is a great way to get list subscribers who forget about your blog to come back again.
Now if I could just work out how to format it so that it would automagically pick up the last 10 posts and load that into the email template.
ZXT said:
Keep on going guys, this is turning to be a very good exchange of views on ads on our blogs.
Chuck Miller said:
While it’s not a monetizer directly, I just came across Wibiya (http://www.wibiya.com/). Has anyone had experience with the traffic generating service/app?
akira07 said:
Never heard about wibiya yet… I’m looking for the testimonial by googling it but i found nothing and it’s make me doubt about that site
Ron Boracay said:
Seems so new to me. Not to many blog mentions and alike. But a promising site.
Are you the owner or a user of this one?
If you are a user, then please give us more insights.
Arisu said:
I agree completely with Andrew is all about trust.
If your readers trust in you, then you can sell your own stuff through your blog or affiliated products or recomend this book or this item in Amazon and get them to buy it. I think trust is the major asset for a blogger, so you must be careful of what are you offering them.
On the esthetic side, tiny and pretty is more clickable than huge and ugly -and a lot of ads together look like one and ugly thing- Presentation is really meaningful to people, if you don´t spend any time in your ad or banner, I don´t think you put that much effort in your product.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Arisu –> That is a good point. If the ad doesn’t look professional then people will view the product as unprofessional.
Arisu said:
Yeah, I think that is something to consider when choosing what ads to put in your site. And the profit you make with a blog also depends on the efficiency of your ads.
Andrew said:
That is all very true, but placement is also important.
For instance the only time anyone actually sees the in post ad is at the point that they are ready to comment.
Now you have a tug-o-war happening.
Do I click an ad that is appealing to me and forget about commenting or do I comment and forget about the ad (resulting in no revenue).
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> You’re exactly right. I have five things at the bottom of every post.
1. Subscription options.
2. Related Posts
3. Social Bookmarking Options
4. Advertising
5. Commenting
If participate in any one of those 5 activities then I’ll be pretty happy!
Andrew said:
Nick that could also be preventing them from doing any of the 5.
Think of Times Square. How on earth can anyone concentrate with all those signs and bill boards. Right?
So what you’ve done is create too many options and it’s actually more likely that the visitor won’t do any of the 5.
You should instead try to focus on a single call to action. This is the beginning of the sales funnel.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> Yes but I’ve also noticed that stores in the mall do better than stores by themselves. I’ve found that some have no interest in commenting but they will tweet out all of my articles. Others won’t ever interact but they will want to subscribe and take in the material. I think that it’s important to cater to each type of personality.
Andrew said:
OK you win that round but not the bout. See this post is about monetizing as opposed to interaction on your site.
When you want to monetize, the sales funnel needs to be uncomplicated with a powerful call to action and 2 choices.
Follow the funnel or bail out.
Arisu said:
Andrew>>
Well, if the content and the community are interesting enough for the reader to come back, then there´s a great chance they´ll do more than one thing -in different posts maybe-.
So, once again, content is king ^^
And of course, it depends on who is reading your blog… if readers are very sociable people with a compulsion for clicking things, then the more you give them to click, the happiest they´ll be
Me, for example, have a compulsion for commenting, facebooking and digg things -since I just discovered Digg- so I´ll do those 3 if you give me the option to do it. And I´ll click adds I think are well done with blogging/web development subjects.
Andrew said:
As I said to Nick, we are not discussing site interaction we are discussing monetization strategies and sales funnels.
It’s been proven time and time again that the best sales funnel doesn’t provide any other option than to either respond to the call to action or bail out.
Therefore if you want to increase you income give less options and implement a call to action and tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do.
Judith said:
Offer unique quality content that is of value to your target market and that reflects your sparkling personality and distinct point of view. You ARE your site/Blog!
Ron Boracay said:
I love your comment Judith. We are the product, we must think that our blogs reflects the personality of its owners. So see to it that you sell yourself effectively and morally.
Andrew said:
Great advice Judith. It’s that old sales/marketing idea that people don’t buy your products, they buy a piece of you.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
What services have you found that bring in the best revenue, are the easiest to use and don’t negate user’s experience? Adsense? Clicksor? Anything else?
Bruce Teague said:
Well so far I’ve made 1’s of dollars on my site so I’m not sure I can comment to that. You didn’t mention Chitika which I know is profitable on problogger. If I ever get traffic I’ll start looking into ads more.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Bruce Teague –> I’ll have to do some research on Chitika because I’m not that familiar with it.
Andrew said:
Chitika is a similar program to adsense. Targeted advertising however most people find that the advertising is better and the CPC’s are higher.
ProBlogger makes a good deal of income from it because of the traffic volume and many people seem to forget that massive part of the whole equation.
ZXT said:
Do you run Chitika on your blog Andrew? Do you think its more clickable than adsense?
Andrew said:
Not yet but I have considered switching over to it since adsense does have it’s drawbacks and at times Google can be a bit painful to deal with. Sometimes they refuse to pay on legitimate clicks claiming that it’s click fraud but provide no detailed evidence of why they determine those clicks to be fraud. For instance, my feed was running adsense, received a number of clicks but I did not get paid for any of them. I still wonder how click fraud can be determined from a feed. I would assume that if a person has subscribed to my feed and clicked on an ad in that feed then nothing could necessarily be fraudulent about that click.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> If they receive several clicks from the same IP then I think they count that as fraud. So maybe someone clicked an ad inside on of your feeds a whole bunch of times and Google didn’t like it.
Andrew said:
I considered that but it’s only reporting 1 lonely click from the feed so while I accept what your saying could be correct, I’m not certain that is the case.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> That would definitely eliminate that possibility.
ZXT said:
Like I’ve said on my another post, my friend thats earning for more than 2 years in Adsense got his account suspended without any explanation. Google never mentioned illegal clicks or anything, just “risk to our advertisers” was the reason.
Mukund said:
Yes!! You are right! Google has been very harsh sometimes and that is why I don’t run Google ads on my blog. Google Adsense will work only for established blogs but when it comes to small scale, I am sure, there are many bitter experiences with respect to Google Adsense!!
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> I’ve heard of a lot of bad experiences with it. I’m trying to diversify my income stream now with Chitika, Adsense, and lots of affiliates.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> Right. Traffic is definitely the most vital issue in terms of monetization. But once we begin building traffic we also need to stop every once in a while and assess which methods will help as maximize the financial effects of our traffic.
Andrew said:
That’s so true, and that’s where building a list comes into it.
I love your idea of offering the first 2 chapters of your book.
That’s a great incentive for your readers to subscribe.
Mukund said:
Yes!! Accept with Andrew! But I prefer the whole book as an incentive instead! Lol! Anyway, I use LinkWorth in my blog and I feel it is more effective. Even ProBlogger advertises and recommends LinkWorth. So, you definitely need to try out LinkWorth. It might work well for blogs like you!!!
Andrew said:
With all due respect Mukund, this is exactly the reason for only offering the first 2 chapters for free.
The person who does not subscribe because they expect the entire book for free, likely won’t become a buyer.
Giving the entire book for free doesn’t provide any incentive for anyone on the list to buy either, so it’s not an effective list to market to.
The best list to have is one of people who are interested enough in a sneak peak offer knowing full well that to get the rest of the information will cost money. This group of people, by subscribing, has inadvertently sent a message that ‘yes I am ready to but as long as you can show me something of value with your first 2 chapters’.
Mukund said:
Hmmm!! Yeah!! I get it now! So you mean to say show them 2 attractive chapters and make him subscribe! I have one doubt Andrew. What if the reader feels the entire book is not that worthy except the first two chapters?
Andrew said:
If the reader finds the first two chapters useful and then decides the rest of the book is no good then either they really didn’t like the first two chapters or they just didn’t really want to pay for the book.
Either way it’s not a customer you’d really want anyway.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> I believe that if I write it in such a way that makes it worth writing then when they read those first two chapters then it will be exactly what is necessary to let them see the high quality product that they will be getting.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> I want to give away as much as I can to help people, but I also want to begin developing an income. I don’t think that it’s dishonest to create a product and sell it at a small fee.
Andrew said:
That’s the way Nick. The law of reciprocation is a powerful tool for any marketer.
If you haven’t already have a read of a book called
Influence: The psychology of persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini.
There is so much in there that still applies to today’s internet marketers.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> I just signed up for an account with them and I’ll be waiting for my account to get approved. After that I’ll check through it and see what kind of options they have to offer.
Ron Boracay said:
Chitika can be highly effective on a high traffic site right? And it can be also integrated with adsense.
akira07 said:
Nick >> personally, i’m not recommend adsense as monetizing way. Adsense is already fulfilled by many publisher (which mean, your competitor). And also, for site sketch101, which the topic is about blog, adsense ads is not HPK.
Another reason is, adsense nowadays is giving us low rates of every ads clicked by visitor.
More reason, i fear about “fraud-click”
King Sidharth said:
Well since Site Sketch 101 is building a very friendly environment. Nick, I feel at home .. err site.LOL
You can launch some paid programs like webinars or something which can bring in revenue. Remember to keep some free ones to keep new people interested.
Or team up with your own readers in their own new venture where you guide and invest and they work their dream?
Well these are some ideas which I am going to use myself.
Don’t know if it’s of any use.
Andrew said:
Those are great points and great ideas, particularly webinars and teleconferences. People seem to love them.
The most effective way to use them though is to provide a fee conference, teach people something of real value, and have some type of pitch at the end for your product that is related to what they have just learned and expands upon that education.
King Sidharth said:
Indeed! I am myself a big fan of free webinars and podcasts. They build a trust (as you pointed out earlier) and then you can sell your product.
Hey Nick, Have you considered writing a book? I love the way Leo (ZenHabits) blogs and then writes a book. Also he gives, other bloggers, a chance to sell his book and earn income from affiliation.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
King Sidharth –> If I do something like that then I will definitely give others the option to earn commissions on selling any of my products here. Why not spread the love around?
King Sidharth said:
Awesome! Can’t wait XD
akira07 said:
You’re talking about opening reseller system? That would be great idea. I’m waiting for it.
Hope the commision rate is high
Sat Chen said:
Hope you do that. You should do something like the affiliate program of nick from elegantthemes. Count me in
ZXT said:
I honestly think that your ads here are not intrusive in a way that it gives less exposure to visitors.
Maybe putting another one after the article or in between comments will make people click on it. I think only text ads like adsense is applicable otherise it wouldn’t blend with the blog format.
Andrew said:
I’m not sure I’d agree. Say for example Nick integrated an affiliate offer in context to the site as a whole rather than the article. For instance ‘Become a Blogger’ by Yaro Starak, or perhaps something related to design.
The ad may be static, and may not be directly related to the varying post topics but they would be in context to the site as a whole.
ZXT said:
Yes but for adsense and the likes it should match the topic or the article. So the ads that will show is relevant to whatever we are talking about or the blog article.
Andrew said:
Yes but that’s simply because that’s how adsense is designed to work. It’s contextual advertising.
But that’s not the only way to advertise, it’s just the most popular because most people want a quick fix and adsense provides it.
Take a look at problogger for example. Every single post and every feed update has an ad promoting his book.
The same thing at entrepreneurs journey. Every post has an ad for the free report.
You have to get creative and find new ways to promote your product without alienating your audience.
In this case if nick was to promote his own ebook, with 2 chapters for free, via an opt in list, what better way to do it than to have an ad for it on each page.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
akira07 said:
Sorry but personally i need to agree with andrew, even the ads is related and relevam, but placing it between comment will make our comfortability is disturbed.
Mukund said:
I recommend Nick to read ProBlogger when it comes to making money with blog. But when it comes to me, I would say affliate sales will be the best method to make money when your blog is on the initial stage. Once you have established your blog, say 1000 visitors per day or more, then I highly recommend you to go for Direct sales.
Andrew said:
Mukund I think you might be confusing some of these terms. Affiliate sales is in fact a form of direct sales. Whereas advertising like adsense or chikita is an indirect sale.
In either scenario, the volume of traffic will be relative to the value of revenue.
As traffic builds so do clicks on ads, and so do direct affiliate sales or sales for any of your own products. However affiliate promotions are far more effective when direct response marketing via an opt in list.
Mukund said:
Hmmm!! Yes!! Pretty confused! I meant to say indirect sales only. That is Adsense and other stuff. But I don’t recommend adsense personally because of tough experiences with them. Especially blogs that receieve a less amount of traffic.
I would like to have your opinion Andrew, on Text Ads(Like Text Link Ads or LinkWorth). I feel that is more effective method of earning money for newbies. What you think about them?
Andrew said:
My opinion varies depending on the blog, the audience, the niche, and your purpose.
If you’re looking to build a long term relationship then I’d stay right away from them.
If you’re looking to stay in the good books with Google I’d stay away from them. Google hates text link ads.
If you’re looking to build an adsense site then it only makes sense to include them.
If you building a scraper site, don’t even talk to me.
but might as well use them.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> Ha ha. Don’t even talk to me either. My passion is create an army of bloggers who create unique content and genuinely connect with people. I hate scrapers.
Ron Boracay said:
Adsense is the most popular and I think, easiest to implement money making thing. And if used correctly and you have done all your efforts to your sites, then you can earn highly with them.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> I study problogger like a hawk. I read and reread articles that come out of that site. I want the same success that he knows and even more. And I’m determined to achieve it and to take as many people with me as possible.
ZXT said:
What can you say about John Chow’s blog Nick? Is it at par or better than Problogger in your opinion?
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
ZXT –> They are both pretty powerful but I follow problogger a lot more than John Chow. I should probably follow both, I suppose.
Andrew said:
Given the success that John Chow has had in the blogosphere it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on what he has to say.
Although since I gave him a bit of a serve on his blog, I tend not to comment there anymore. But I still get some traffic from his site because I did speak out.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> What do you mean that you served him? I’m not familiar with that term.
Andrew said:
LOL that’s aussie for, I spoke up and told him how it is. At least from my perspective anyway.
eg: He’s spent years promoting himself as the evil blogger, going against Google in every way, then when he caved in and decided to follow the rules so that he could get back into the Google index I told he was weak as piss.
ZXT said:
He has the tendency to do that. Like when he created his Twitter site and promoted it on his blog saying everyone who registered there including him has to follow everyone on the list or else they will be banned and no followers will be given. But then he just unfollowed 55k individuals and I think 99 percent are from his Twitter site. I think thats pretty unfair.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
ZXT –> I see. I didn’t know that he did that. I only discovered John Chow a few months ago so I’m not really that familiar with this practices yet.
Mukund said:
Even I follow Problogger on a regular basis. But not as much as you do, you take a lot of efforts and implement many tips in your blog which is quite clearly seen from the growth rate of your blog. Where as, I am pretty lazy but I have started implementing few techniques that he does. I hope your dreams come true! All the best Nick! We will always be there for you to support and we always need your support too!!
Mukund said:
May be for a site that provides tips on blogging to other bloggers. Say some thing like sitesketch but, I am not sure if it will recieve the same traffic that site sketch does. So, let me know what is better?
I am planning to shift to an own domain and that is why I am asking your opinion Andrew. You mean to say Google Adsense will work well? I fear it won’t at the initial stage. Will it?
Andrew said:
It’s really your choice. I use adsense and it goes along ok. It won’t make me a millionaire but it’s paying out.
You really have to test these things and see what your visitors respond to. Text ads can work, adsense can work, in fact any type of advertising can work but it takes time to test things out.
Things like the type of ads: text or image, ad placement:in post, sidebar, footer, feeds. Making money online is a constant game of testing new things, tracking the results, analysing what works best and implementing it.
Then once all that’s done, you do it again but differently. There is no easy answer. You have to try for yourself and test, test, test and test some more.
Mukund said:
Hmmm!! Same comment I got my fellow blogger. You are correct! I accept with what you said! We need to test things on our blog! But, how long will I test? More over, how do I find whether that particular site will pay me? How do I trust them? That is basically my question. When the Big G (Google) himself is not trustworthy, how do I go about the others? It really hurts when I get kicked out of the program just before the payment. Have you had any bitter experiences like that?
Andrew said:
No I’ve never been kicked out of a program but then I tend not to break the rules.
As far as testing goes you really need to make those decisions yourself. You might find that one week of data is enough. Then again you might decide you need 4 weeks of data.
It’s a personal preference. There is no secret recipe.
Mukund said:
Hmmmm!! Happy Andrew I think! Any way thanks for those tips! I should test a lot of programs now, I think.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Mukund –> The thing is, in my opinion, it’s nearly impossible to effectively make money on a website that has little or no people visiting it. You would probably be better at this focusing on building readers and connecting with people. Then when your readership is bigger start optimizing your profit strategy. I only focus on my profit strategy a couple of days each month. The rest of the month I spend focusing on connections and content.
akira07 said:
But don’t think high traffic is high sales. I ever find there is a low traffic site but the sales is good, do you know why? Because the traffic is very targetted.
That’s mean, when your blog writing about niche f.e “Shampoo for siberian husky”, the visitor is the one who looking for it, so the convertion rate is high.
Andrew said:
I think you’ve missed the point that Nick is making.
Even with your example, if the site is only getting 100 visitors a week and an industry wide conversion rate of 3% then you’ve made a massive 3 whole sales.
So as you can see low traffic volume means low income opportunity no matter how targeted your traffic is.
Ron Boracay said:
Its a matter of what strategy you use and what kind of blog or niche you will pursue.
I agree what Andrew just said, any advertising means or offers can work wonders. Just go after what suits you or whats work best with your site.
ZXT said:
Yes I think testing could be time consuming but there’s no other way around.
Andrew if you can give us some ballpark figure of your adsense stats that would be nice and helpful to newbie bloggers like me.
Say whats the % of page impressions vs clicks and whats the average amount per click.
Mukund said:
Yeah! Even I would like to get the stats about your site! More over, please do let me know the list of programs that you recommend? I mean a list of programs that can be tried out. Say Adsense, Chitika, LinkWorth and other craps… A small list would be very helpful!!
ZXT said:
I just put adsense to my blog just to try it out. I have no experience woth other form of advertisement. Usually I only get my information from friends who uses other form of advertising.
Andrew said:
Just spend some time with different placements and ad types. Whatever seem to get the most clicks wins.
What I found was that a 200×200 in the top right of a post got a good number clicks. But that won’t work for every site.
I also decided to remove it because I didn’t like the way it impeded the post itself.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> Exactly. They really do impede the article. My 250×250 at the top of the sidebar is my best performing ad on this site. It gets quite a few click-throughs.
ZXT said:
Thanks for the advice, I might follow your ad placement and size and see how it goes.
Andrew said:
Mukund I don’t like to make recommendations like that simply because one system might work out great for me and not so well for whereas another system might work in reverse.
It’s best to just try out different things and whatever works for you best is the one to stick with.
Andrew said:
ZXT, I’m not really comfortable releasing that kind of info, but more importantly there are some strict guidelines Google has about releasing that info and I’m not entirely sure what they are.
Generally speaking though, your revenue will just be a few cents a day in the beginning but as traffic numbers improve so does your earnings.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> I forgot all about that. I’ve been posting my earnings every month on here. Is that against their terms of service?
Andrew said:
I really couldn’t tell you what they do and don’t allow. Those T&C’s are just too much to read so I don’t publish anything at all just to be safe.
I think you’re allowed to published a total amount earned (I see that all the time) but not stats like EPC and eCPC.
ZXT said:
I didn’t see any thing about that in T&C plus I also checked Adsense forum and didn’t find anything about disclosing your earnings but its also possible that I just missed it.
Andrew said:
As I mentioned to Nick I think you can disclose your total monthly earnings but not CPC, eCPC or EPC data.
It’s in there somewhere. I’ve come across a number of people who have had accounts banned because of disclosing that info.
ZXT said:
Oh I see. I never heard of people getting banned because they disclosed their stats. Maybe I just missed it on terms and condition, I will look into it again.
Anyways thanks for letting me know.
Ron Boracay said:
I think you must re read their TOS and Guidelines regarding those “disclosing adsense stats information”.
Its a quick way for google to ban your account once they learned that you showed it to others and made it available for viewing online.
ZXT said:
I guess you and Andrew are right. I didn’t find it at Google but I saw a couple of Adsense articles saying that same thing. So yes maybe you can only show your earnings but not the other stats.
ZXT said:
No problem Andrew. I just asked because I want to know how much one’s blog with heavy traffic earns on adsense with good placement and seo.
Andrew said:
Well the best answer to that question will be found at shoemoney.com. Jeremy Shoemacker recieved a $10K+ cheque from adsense. He even shows a photo of him holding it.
Now that’s a pay day.
Ron Boracay said:
I think those percentages of clicks/ctr’s are forbidden to bring in public as per google adsense tos.?
Anyway, I am sure, Andrew do have above 5% of those stats.
Sat Chen said:
I can’t use adsense because I am not 18
. What a bummer .
Andrew said:
Unfortunately that is going to exclude you from almost all programs. What about asking your parents to work with you and set up the programs for you.
Have you heard of Carl Ocab? He started blogging and making money online when he was 12 years old. He’s about 15 or 16 now and make a very healthy income online with the help of his dad.
Rish said:
I’ve heard about Carl Ocab and he really made sound in the blogosphere, especially here in the Philippines since he is a Pinoy.
I just wish I’ll have that same luck and favors. I am under 18 too, but if you are a business-minded person,then age won’t matter. Actually, it is my great conviction that being determined as early as a teenager is a positive way in bringing the best in you in terms of money making.
ZXT said:
Actually I think he started when he was 13 BUT I’ve read quite a few blogs that he’s not the one writing or blogging on his site. It was hi dad because the wordings and construction of sentences are too perfect for a 13 year old kid.
Now he’s about 16 and maybe he learned the tricks of the trade already.
Andrew said:
Yeah I’ve read that too but the videos speak for themselves. It definitely is not his Dad standing in front of that crowd of businessmen giving a presentation on blogging.
Even if his dad was helping him, I don’t see anything wrong with that if it helped him. If my 12yo decided to start a blog (which he has actually discussed with me) I’d certainly be helping him with his writing.
Ron Boracay said:
Carl Ocab is a blogging idol here in the Philippines. It doesn’t matter if his dad started the venture or his dad help him out. What matters most is, that name of Carl made an impact on the blogging world at his very young age.
ZXT said:
The video was just recent (this year) and like what I’ve said he must have learned already from his dad. But when “he” started his blog, he was just 13 then and “he” made everyone believe that he’s the one blogging.
Anyways, good for him as I don’t expect anyone telling the whole truth on the internet. They got a great idea and it worked.
Sat Chen said:
Who is Carl Ocab never heard of him before. What his website? Yea, I was planning on using my dads (of course with his permission
) That’s what I am doing for paypal anyway.
Andrew said:
carlocab . com
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Sat Chen –> You’re not 18? How old are you. Plus that is good anyways. That gives you an advantage over us because you can focus on building readers and traffic instead of getting distracted with Adsense.
akira07 said:
Oh so you’re not 18 yet? I just wanna advice you…
I have many friend which register to adsense even their are not 18yo yet. Their are using fake data. In the end, google know about it and blacklist them.
(Blacklist mean, even my friend already 18yo, their can’t join adsense again).
So, just follow google rules.
In the case you’re still want to play adsense, i think andrew opinion about using your dad name and data (of course with permission from your dad) is the best choice.
Hopeful said:
Thanks for the reply. Anyway I agree with this statement “wisest men are those that surround themselves with people smarter than themselves”. In fact I want myself to be surrounded with those people smarter than me.
ZXT said:
I guess that’s the best approach but if you need to monetize your blog, you need to balance the article and your ads.
Like what Andrew been saying, what works on this site may or may not work on another blog.
But basic rules still stay the same. Ads must not be intrusive and ads should be limited so it will not saturate your whole blog.
Gumnduamb said:
How many Twitter followers is needed to get lots of traffic and business to your site?
Nicholas Cardot said:
Gumnduamb –> A lot. A recent study found that on average you will get about .5% to 2% of clicks per followers. So if you have 1,000 followers, you might get 5-20 clicks on that link. I think that the ratio might actually be just a bit lower.
Mukund said:
Haha!! Pretty intelligent Andrew! May be!! You are right! They never liked to pay for the book. Please do reply for the other comment posted below andrew. I would love to hear your view about that! Also, please let me know what is that opt in list?
Andrew said:
An opt-in list are the forms you fill in on websites to receive say a newsletter or a free ebook or some other offer.
It’s the modern form of direct response marketing. Once upon a time it was done with snail mail. These days marketers use email lists.
If you opt in to my own list on my blog for example, I send out a monthly free PLR product. It might be an ebook you can rebrand and sell as your own, or it might be a peice of software. Through out the month I’ll also send 1 or 2 offers for high quality products that I have usually bought and used myself and recommend to the people on my list. On top of that I’ll occasionally send out other tid bits of information like blogging tips, make money tips and provide free and valuable information to my list subscribers that I don’t offer on my blog.
So if you want free products, reports, and great deals on great products to help you build you online business, head over to my blog and subscribe to my list.
Mukund said:
Oh!! That was pretty clear! Thanks for that Andrew! The incentives you provide in your blog are amazing. May be in the future, I will subscribe to that, simply because I don’t get much time to sit with my PC now.
ZXT said:
Okay I’m sold. I just subscribed to your email list.
Arisu said:
I´m sold too
But I don´t see your newsletter suscription button XD
However, the start your blog from scratch series looks awesome
Andrew said:
LOL I was just being a smart ass but do feel free to opt in at any time.
Mukund said:
Yeah! Sure!! I know you are pretty intelligent Andrew! What ever, I value your opinions a lot!!
Andrew said:
Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. I wasn’t being rude by the way, it was just a joke.
I just wanted to clear that up in case your though I meant something bad about you.
Mukund said:
Na!! I never took them hard! I knew that was a joke! And you are pretty great Andrew! You came from no where and now, you are in the top 5. You are definitely a tough competitor for this contest!!
Andrew said:
Welcome aboard. You got in at a good time. Next freebie will be sent out in a few days.
Nicholas Z. Cardot said:
Andrew –> Thanks for the recommendation. I’ll definitely check that out.
Andrew said:
Do you need my Amazon link?
Andrew said:
Arisu we are doing some site upgrades right at the moment so the form is not currently available. Keep checking back and it will be there soon.
Arisu said:
Andrew>>
Oh, ok, thanks for the quick answer!
Andrew said:
If you see something (like adsense) on every blog that should be a clear sign that, if used properly, and creatively, that it works.
If it didn’t work do you think your would see it on all those sites?
Ron Boracay said:
I think you are pushing the Less Is More thing in terms of making money or monetizing a certain blog. It doesn’t apply or it wasn’t so effective with everybody. So, again, its a case to case scenario.
Ron Boracay said:
Exactly, it was just like a common sense thing. If its there and stay’s there for a long time, then probably, it is working and working a lot.
If its there for few days and it was removed or replaced by other thing, then probably, it doesn’t work for that place.
ZXT said:
I don’t think you can tell if the ads is working or not by replacing it within a few days. Like what’ve been discussed before, it will take at least months before you can tell if the ad is working, the placement, the type of ad.
If you take it out in a week, then you won’t get the correct stat.
Ron Boracay said:
Yep, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to see the real result of a certain ads optimization.
And, of course, the kind or quality of traffic plays into the analytical data of what ads are doing great and what ads are not doing good.
If you got a good quality traffic, I think, ads will convert well.