What would you do in my situation?

[bizarizona]

Hi all,

I'm a writer, and I have a decent-sized audience for my Blogspot blog.

I get about 2,500 - 2,750 unique hits a day to the main page from bookmarks and about 3,000 unique hits to my older stuff from Google searches, with random spikes in the 15,000- 50,000 range when one of my posts gets posted on Digg or Fark or Reddit, etc.

It's a personal blog, and the majority of the content is "I went to the store today, and they were out of Dr. Pepper Cherry, and I spent two hours driving around town..." However, I do post random article-y type posts about writing or crooked literary agents or things that get picked up by humor-related link sites, etc.

Google loves me. If I post something with the word "weird" in the title, the post will be on the front page of Google's results fairly quickly. I've been chosen as Google's blog of the day, and I have many, many links pointing to my blog.

I have no ads whatsoever on the blog except a simple link to Amazon to buy my books. I don't even have an Amazon affiliate link, though that's about to change.

I would like to start generating at least a residual income from this, but I also don't want to overwhelm my readers with ads.

I am a complete, utter n00b when it comes to this marketing stuff. I've been reading many posts here, and I'm amazed at what many of you have accomplished. However, my traffic isn't really targeted to an industry, and if you look at the keywords people use to get to my blog, you'll see 500 different search phrases for the last 500 hits.

So if you were me... you woke up in my body and you saw you had access to this blog, what are the first few things you'd do?

Thanks!

[cmbwealth]

Put on some adsense. Placed properly it would be unobtrusive and generate some income.

Mark

[InternetMarketingCenter]

Adsense, but not nonsense adsense. It needs to be useful to the post topic, not random. Make sure you limit where the adsense gathers context, or people will get some really crazy ads that don't compel them to click.

[bizarizona]

Thanks. I know blogspot makes it easy to put Adsense on the blog, but I guess I have to spend some time reading through to figure out how to optimize it, etc.

However, it seems the majority of the advertisers on the keywords I would want to advertise (Writing, etc.,) are the same scammers I'm usually whining about.

[jim01223]

Putting some adsense matching with blog topics or close to it. So that earning become little easier.

[TheRookie]

I could do so much in a situation like that, you are in great position. I wouldn't screw with the blog itself that much as I wouldn't want to affect its pr or google liking ability. Nice word huh. Do you post alot of links to other sites in your blog and still have the rankings with google? What is the name of your blog, I could give you a ton of ideas..

[Tyrus Antas]

A single affiliate link below every post would probably do very good. But that's a short term strategic. You need to think long-term and come up with a way to monetize that audience. Is there any reason in particular that makes your blog interesting? Can you create a newsletter and then a product around the topic?

Tyrus

[Shakul]

Hello,

You gets around say 6000 hits per day.

Say, if 2% clicks on the ads, then total clicks per day = 120

Say, you are getting paid like 15 cents per click.

Then you will make like $18 per day. At most, you may reach $40 to $50 per day with adsense with proper placements.

So, you will make like $1500 per month.

How about selling the blog?

Regards
Shakul

[Steve Sanchez]

Who do think your target audience is? Are you the younger generation? They like ringtones, celebrity gossip etc.

Adsense will generate you a nice little income with all of your visitors.

Perhaps you should put a survey on your blog to see what interests your visitors have. Then you can start targeting them with an occassional affiliate offer.

Sounds like you've accomplished the hard part already.

Good Luck.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by bizarizona

I have a decent-sized audience for my Blogspot blog.

As everyone does, you say "my blog", but did you know that if it's hosted at Blogspot, you don't actually own it - they do? And you are subject to all their terms of service and all their whims and interpretations of them.

There's a conspiracy among Wordpress enthusiasts to misinform people that what they need, in order to avoid any problems from this, is to switch to self-hosted Wordpress. This is wrong. All you really need to do is switch to self-hosted Blogger instead (which will be a lot easier for you!). But if you're planning to derive a real income from your blog, you do need to start out by owning and controlling it yourself, you know, and avoiding the potential for accidents.

Originally Posted by bizarizona

if you were me... you woke up in my body and you saw you had access to this blog, what are the first few things you'd do?

1. Get some techie person to move it to a self-hosted domain for me.

2. Think seriously about developing some real income from it, by doing some affiliate marketing, and start learning what I need to know, to plan that.

The one thing I would definitely not look at, at all, is Adsense. For more than 99% of people who use it, it's a way to earn pennies while giving people ways to leave your blog rather than staying there. But that's just me.

[TheRookie]

In the meantime, adsense would probably be ok, the nice part is you can just put it in and it should blend in ok, what do you care about ctr or anything at this point you aren't getting anything so something is better than nothing. I would approach it differently, since you said if you put the keyword weird in the title it gets listed top in google fast. Probably for a short time though but its like an ezinearticle is that right. They get listed high in google then fade away. You are in great position to promote some other sites that you do piggybacking off your blog. This is why my earlier question about links to other sites is important because if you do link to other sites and google doesn't drop you down you could do things like the example below.

Example.
make a site separate from your blog, different ip and different domain owner (or private domain) Say its on hairloss. Its a full site for hairloss. post some ezinearticles, get a few backlinks etc. wait a couple weeks just doing 5 mins a day seo on that site. All the while doing the same stuff you normally do on your main blog. Then Do a hairloss blurb on your main blog pointing to the hairloss site.

The amount of traffic to your blog will be huge sending traffic and pr to the hairloss site. Hair loss is really high paying so your blog wont make money but the hair loss site will.. Get it.

The problem with changing your current blog is you might affect the rankings, its pr or whatever. You could litely monetize it, but in order to not hurt it you should use its power to promote other niche sites that you make.

[bizarizona]

Thanks for all the replies.

The majority of the front end visitors to my blog visit because they're there for me. I am a writer, and I have a few novels published. The people who visit are my fans. The commodity I'm trying to keep them interested in is me. I can't "sell" the blog because once I'm gone, the blog's purpose is gone. Ha.

My income comes from my day job and writing books. As you may or may not know, writing fiction isn't very lucrative unless you're above mid-list, and I am not. That's why I want to make at least a little bit of money off the blog itself. However, I have no desire to change the focus of the blog or change anything regarding the content. I'm looking for unobtrusive strategies to monetize it without irritating my readers.

I do have a self-hosted domain, but the blog isn't integrated, and we've decided to keep it that way at least for now.

I have no real desire to move from Blogspot because I like Blogspot.

[Tyrus Antas]

Originally Posted by alexa_s

1. Get some techie person to move it to a self-hosted domain for me.

I agree with this. But you need to make sure you find the right person to do it. Screw it up and you might just lose all link juice and visitors.

Tyrus

[bizarizona]

Oh, and my demographic is late teens to early thirties. 50/50 male to female, and they're interested in both writing and science fiction.

[Tyrus Antas]

Originally Posted by bizarizona

Oh, and my demographic is late teens to early thirties. 50/50 male to female, and they're interested in both writing and science fiction.

"Transform your writing skills in a money making machine by creating your own website in 6 easy steps."

Tyrus

[WritingMadwoman]

Are your books self-published? If so, you could further promote them by running special contests or summer sales, etc. Just to help boost sales. Unless most of your visitors already own them.

Another option: why not review books that your readers would enjoy or get value from somehow? You could share your thoughts on both fiction and non-fiction books, then include an affiliate link at the bottom, plus highlight favorites in the sidebar, etc. Those sales may not pay very much, but you could also supplement with higher priced writing courses, etc.

For that matter, do you have an information product in you? Would people pay to learn from you? Whether about writing fiction, getting published, etc? Would they buy audio versions of your print books?

As you said, your visitors are there because of you, so give them more of what they want - your insights, your ideas, your experience, etc.

Personally I wouldn't bother with Adsense on this type of blog. The clicks are bound to pay very little (except like you said for those scams you want to avoid promoting). Are there any clickbank or paydotcom products that your visitors may be interested in? Like writing instruction, blogging, marketing, traffic generation (if they have their own sites or are writers themselves, etc).

Just a few ideas, hope they help!

Wendy

[Quang Van]

Text-link-ads, can give you recurring $$ for text link ads...

It's a personal blog, so maybe selling it isn't idle...

Putting up CPA, CPC ads might be a good idea.

I suggest you think of a business idea (niche), funnel all your traffic into an opt-in box on your new website, and start an online business.

[Frank Donovan]

Hi Bizarizona

I find that Adsense really pays off if you choose your site layout and keyword selection in advance, so I wouldn't particularly recommend tacking it on to your site at the moment.

And, IMO, a Blogger blog is fine for what you are doing. Google seems to be treating you well.

You have a relatively large, dedicated following who are into science fiction. If I were you, I'd get some funky, sci-fi related T-shirts and other merchandise created at: CafePress: Custom t-shirts plus unique gifts and offer them either direct from your site or link to your own Cafe Press storefront.

If you get this right, not only will you monetize the blog, but you'd probably increase your credibility and standing amongst your readership.


Good luck,


Frank

[InternetMarketingIQ]

I'd get everything backed up and moved to another platform that you actually own and control. Then over time I'd ween my blog away from Blogspot.

[bizarizona]

Thanks again, everybody.

Writingmadwoman... No, my books aren't self-published. They're published with a commercial house. I do like the review idea. I do that already, but I usually don't link anywhere useful afterward. My reviews tend to be a bit snarky and/or about movies rather than other books or products.

The cafepress idea is great, though I don't own the rights to what people would want, which is the cover art to the books. I imagine I may be able to rustle up something. I do know another author who sells cafepress stuff on his site, though I don't know how well it does. I also know an author who flat-out asks for donations, and she gets them, too. But I don't think my crowd would be big on that.

[Alexa Smith]

The two things that come to mind, given your audience, are being an Amazon affiliate (again, not much money in it) and linking to - and maybe even reviewing? - little-known books in the same genre which you feel happy recommending, and maybe becoming an affiliate for a writing course such as Jerry Cleaver's Immediate Fiction, on the grounds that some readers are interested in becoming writers?

[ExRat]

Hi,

Whatever it is that they're enjoying on your blog, can you take the best of it, package it into some kind of freebie product (like an ebook), and offer them this, in addition to regularly providing more of it in exchange for them signing up to your email mailing list?

In the meantime, work hard (surveys, comments, requests in your posts, research) to work out what they want & need/you could sell them, and then use the list to do precisely that.

[SullyUI]

Build a list with a free giveaway along the interests of the blog readers, adsense, and CPA offers.

[TheRookie]

Your an author so have an amazon section for contextual ads or something books will pop up, adsense is also great and very inobtrusive.

With that many people to your site you should be able to sell a few ad spots on a monthly basis as well, Wish I could see your blog Id give you a better idea.

[digidoodles]

Well you've accomplished one thing...you piqued my interest. Now I want to read it. Ha.

[dndoseller]

Put AdSense above the fold front and center - text only.

Large rectangle is proven again and again to get the highest CTR.

Putting it on the side bar will get you way, way less income.

[Hereandthere]

Originally Posted by alexa_s

... The one thing I would definitely not look at, at all, is Adsense. For more than 99% of people who use it, it's a way to earn pennies while giving people ways to leave your blog rather than staying there. But that's just me.

Me too. I like the idea of affiliate links at the end of posts.

And do be sure you are backing up your blog, if there is any chance blogger would pull the plug, as they sometimes do.

[Darth Executor]

Originally Posted by dndoseller

Put AdSense above the fold front and center - text only.

Large rectangle is proven again and again to get the highest CTR.

Putting it on the side bar will get you way, way less income.

This is true. It's also likely to piss off your regular readers.

[kmjbrown]

I would include a single text ad that is relevant to the content of the page and also include the Adsenes ads as well.