Turning your blog into a profitable business

by stoica
17 replies
Hello,
I need your advice, how would you turn your blog into a profitable business?
One of my ideas is selling affiliate products. Ok now let's see yours .
#blog #business #profitable #turning
  • Profile picture of the author New England Cabin
    I am new to this also, and am using affiliate products to get the job done. So far it is working well for me. There are plenty of products to chose from. just pick the ones that interest you and that you think will convert well on your blog. Best of luck to you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    Write ideas down for when you have time to type.

    Bookmark interesting content online (consider plugins for grabbing/sharing content)

    Always have some posts 'in reserve' for periods when you're too busy to spend time on your blog.

    Keep a swipe-file of interesting subjects so that when you're not feeling creative you can refer to it for ideas.

    Keep a record of all of your blog posts outside of your blog (for backup purposes and re-use elsewhere).

    Have a list of your keywords/phrases so that you're intentionally/consciously building your links properly.

    Always keep your list of places to submit your blog, bookmark your blog, share your rss etc... up to date. (outsource this if you like)


    Profile your market/niche and brainstorm related things and interests and build a list of affiliate products so that you always have something to promote.

    Advertise the space on your blog.

    Have a way to build a list/membership

    URL vs. Title: The URL of your post doesn't have to be the exact same as the title of your post. Creating a custom URL allows you to insert additional keywords which can benefit your post from a search engine perspective. Some blogging platforms such as WordPress allow you to define a custom URL for a post (also known as the post slug) whereas platforms such as Blogger construct the URL by taking the post's title word for word (it also applies a character limit for the URL). For platforms that don't allow custom naming I recommend creating a keyword rich title initially and then after posting, changing it to something enticing to draw in readers.

    Interlinking of Top Posts / Hot Topics: As a blogger you will occasionally write a post which will considerably outperform your other posts OR you will blog about a hot topic in your industry which you hope will perform well in the search engines. For both cases, a good idea is to hard code keyword rich links to these posts on your blog's side bar or in your footer so that they receive added attention from search crawlers and readers.

    Re-Ignite Past Posts: Staying on the topic of hot posts, it is often a good idea to keep the momentum rolling on popular topics by updating their content or adding 2nd and 3rd parts to the original post. What has worked well for me in the past is to create a 3 or 4 part series on a popular topic and then combine all the posts into a PDF which readers can download.

    Yahoo/Google Finance: When writing about publicly traded companies it is a good idea to mention the company's full name or even their stock symbol. Many times these types of posts get aggregated into a given company's news section of their Google/Finance page which leads to more readers coming back to your blog.

    The Importance of Variety: Offering posts which vary in length, topics, format (lists vs. news vs. opinion vs. interviews), or content type (images vs. video. vs text) can prolong the life of your readers. Mixing up your posts will keep your readers coming back rather than being bored by the same old content day after day.

    Relationships with Companies/Bloggers: It is important to have relationships with companies or their PR firms because they will potentially release information to you before it goes to the public giving you an edge on your competition. Additionally, companies can offer you access to software/services during test periods before it is officially released. Relationships with other bloggers is key because they can help you spread the word on your most potent posts as well add value to your blog by guest blogging from time to time.

    Tune in to what's being talked about and start a conversation on it yourself - ask people to comment, respond when they do.

    Tag your content, use SEO plugins, have rss feed available, email subs, blogroll your best stuff - Tweet it several times.

    track where your traffic comes from - so you can repeat what works.
    Signature

    nothing to see here.

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    • Profile picture of the author stoica
      Thank you Andy for your post, you gived me some good tips , I'll use them
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      • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
        Originally Posted by stoica View Post

        Thank you Andy for your post, you gived me some good tips , I'll use them
        You're welcome,

        I'm just paying back to the forum with information people might find useful - I've learned a lot here over the years.
        Signature

        nothing to see here.

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        • Profile picture of the author stoica
          I hope in one year I can say the same thing as you
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  • Profile picture of the author Andyhenry
    I've been a member here for almost 5 years
    Signature

    nothing to see here.

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  • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
    Build a list of subscribers..

    Your blog should have a focus, right?.. one niche..

    So collect a list of subscribers.. you can notify them of new blog posts, polls, case studies etc.. product reviews...

    But more importantly.. you can survey them to find out what they want..

    Create a follow up series for your subscribes based on the wants, needs and desires of that niche.. and then source/create products that they would be interested in..

    Make recommendations..

    I can instantly get a surge of targeted, highly responsive traffic to my blogs by broadcasting to the relevant list from that blog...

    Peace

    Jay
    Signature

    Bare Murkage.........

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    • Profile picture of the author stoica
      Ok , I think that I've chosed the hardest niche , I'm trying to promote e-marketing software, I know that this is a crazy for a beginner but I've chosed this niche because I've started working on a e-marketing suite of products and I think that a programmer should well know what his audience it's faicing with even if I'm working closely with some marketers I want to face the "problems" myself.
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  • Profile picture of the author JayXtreme
    No niche is too hard.. you just have to think of all the angles...

    get yourself a big sheet of white paper and brainstorm for an hour or so on all possible angles..

    How can your product(s) help the niche?
    What kind of people need your product?
    How will they get it and where are they currently looking for it?
    Can you add anything more to it?
    A backend upsell?


    And more.. get to brainstorming...

    Peace

    Jay
    Signature

    Bare Murkage.........

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    • Profile picture of the author stoica
      I think you did not understood me corectly, the product it's allready under development , we've spent over 1 month of focusing over the "design document". E-marketing helper will include a keyword finder, page analysis, backline analysis, niche analysis, forum poster, directory submiter, software submiter, sales letter generator, e-cover maker, banner generator.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ben_Curtis
    One super affiliate uses her blogs for product reviews and makes a tidy sum doing that, I think. Maybe that's an idea you can use.
    Best of luck,
    Ben Curtis bens-marketing-magic
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    • Profile picture of the author stoica
      that's what I'm trying to do
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  • Profile picture of the author SuzanneH
    Yaro Starak gives away a great ebook (Blog Profit Blueprint) when you sign up to his list:

    Internet Business Blog - Entrepreneurs-Journey.com by Yaro Starak

    Even if you don't sign up, his site will give you lots of ideas.

    Another great site is problogger(dot)net:

    Blog Tips to Help You Make Money Blogging - ProBlogger

    Edited to add: Since you seem interested in making affiliate sales, you should read SiteSell's "Make Your Content Pre-Sell". It's free:

    http://mycps.sitesell.com/

    Suzanne
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    • Profile picture of the author stoica
      thank you very much for the tips I'll take a look at that blogs
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      • Profile picture of the author JazzOscar
        Andy,

        Lots of good advice in your main post above!

        I'm in the trenches right now, planning to, finally, get my own blog up and running.

        A list of advices like yours comes in handy.
        Signature

        Oscar Toft

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  • Profile picture of the author cupbucket
    Banned
    The product you sell isn't as important as getting a huge and loyal fan base. That is the key to making real money with a blog!
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  • Profile picture of the author stoica
    yes but this is the hard part "getting a huge and loyal fan base" . You can have a perfect designed blog with a lot of useful posts if the people dont know it ... it equal with 0 traffic.
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