18 replies
Do you write to sell?

I remember when blogs arrived on the scene. I also remember arguing with, at the time, one of the biggest names in a certain online sector, that blogs had big potential. I believe his response was something like, "What? You're going to write a daily diary, or something? Who the hell's interested in that?" Funny thing is, he has a blog now. Anyway - enough digression. Point is: when it comes to blogging, do you write to sell?

This is what I mean...

I see a lot of bloggers in this general vicinity. And being a work-junkie, I'll often go take a peek. Like osmosis, you accumulate a lot of good information from the aforementioned "peeking." Mostly, and no offense, you learn what not to do; sometimes, though, you pick up a little nugget of gold. (Digressing again.) The biggest mistake I see, and this is on a daily basis, is where bloggers will write to write, but not write to sell.

Let's say we have 2 bloggers.

Blogger 1 writes passionately about his subject. We learn an awful lot and, oh daddy, do we tune in to all his posts.

Blogger 2 writes passionately, too, but he also writes to sell. Although each post is just as informative and clever as Blogger 1, each post also cleverly promotes a product. Do we mind? Not at all. Even writers have to eat!

So - while this advice may be blatantly obvious to some (it should be to all) - I'd like to suggest you write to sell, not write to write. Imagine having 1,000 posts where you did it. Now imagine 1,000 posts where you didn't. I know which blog I'd prefer to own.

Coffee break over. I'm off!

GRM
#sell #write
  • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
    Of course, you also have the other side of the coin. Blogger 3 thinks his blog is only for posting badly written "product reviews" multiple times a day, and praying to the Google gods for favors.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
      Originally Posted by JohnMcCabe View Post

      Of course, you also have the other side of the coin. Blogger 3 thinks his blog is only for posting badly written "product reviews" multiple times a day, and praying to the Google gods for favors.
      If we have a 3-sided coin, yes.

      You're quite right, though.

      Blogger 3 produces an endless stream of product reviews. This is, without question, the worst approach to blogging.

      The trick is to give well-informed, honest information, but never to forget why you're writing in the first place. To sell. Yes, you may have ad banners, but these days ad banners are virtually subliminal. If you're writing about how to put together a winning dating profile, it makes sense to mention where you can put the information into practice - Dating Site X.

      GRM
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      • Profile picture of the author kilgore
        Mostly, I agree -- but it all comes down to the expectations of the audience regarding the type of information your providing and your relationship to that information. Personally, I think that there actually are some Type 1 Bloggers that are better served by not "writing to sell". Those are the ones whose audiences expect objectivity and authenticity and that may see commercial plugs as contrary to that. That said, being a Type 1 Blogger is a tough way to make a living -- ad money certainly isn't what it used to be for solo bloggers and there's a lot more competition for what little there is.

        I'll also say that you don't need to be "clever" in how you promote a product. In fact I wonder if you should be "clever" at all -- in my experience transparency is the key to building trust and authority, both of which are key to getting people to both read and buy your recommendations. Thus, when we do a blog post about something like "The Top 10 Polka Albums for People Who Have Nightmares about the Accordion", we put a little note at the bottom of the page that if they like our site and our suggestions, they can buy the albums using our affiliate links to support us. It turns a negative situation ("These guys are just trying to sell me some crappy music") to something positive ("I like their recommendations and since it doesn't cost me anything additional, I might as well purchase using their links.")
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        • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
          Originally Posted by kilgore View Post

          Mostly, I agree -- but it all comes down to the expectations of the audience regarding the type of information your providing and your relationship to that information. Personally, I think that there actually are some Type 1 Bloggers that are better served by not "writing to sell". Those are the ones whose audiences expect objectivity and authenticity and that may see commercial plugs as contrary to that. That said, being a Type 1 Blogger is a tough way to make a living -- ad money certainly isn't what it used to be for solo bloggers and there's a lot more competition for what little there is.

          I'll also say that you don't need to be "clever" in how you promote a product. In fact I wonder if you should be "clever" at all -- in my experience transparency is the key to building trust and authority, both of which are key to getting people to both read and buy your recommendations. Thus, when we do a blog post about something like "The Top 10 Polka Albums for People Who Have Nightmares about the Accordion", we put a little note at the bottom of the page that if they like our site and our suggestions, they can buy the albums using our affiliate links to support us. It turns a negative situation ("These guys are just trying to sell me some crappy music") to something positive ("I like their recommendations and since it doesn't cost me anything additional, I might as well purchase using their links.")
          Likewise, I agree with most of what you say.

          But...

          Do not misconstrue my use of "clever" to mean deceptive. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who knows me, or has ever read my MMO site, will know that I'm passionate about honesty and transparency. By "clever" I mean: using plugs in such a way that enhances the information, does not detract from the information, and plugs delivered in an honest, ethical, transparent manner.

          Think about it.

          Let's say I'm writing an article on how I format my screenplays using Final Draft.

          Do I:

          A) Rely on readers clicking the Final Draft Ad Banner in the widgets; or do I

          B) Link to Final Draft in my article?

          B, right?

          So...

          This is not about brainlessly writing product reviews, or hammering your readers with affiliate offers, or writing for the God of Google.

          This is about being a clever writer. Specifically: a clever affiliate blogger.

          GRM
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        • Profile picture of the author Barry Cross
          I write to give value as I have great knowledge & experience to help people within that niche. Not a pushy salesperson but do enough to make the income I need, reinvest & grow my business at a pace I am comfortable with.

          Cheers
          Barry
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          • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
            Originally Posted by Barry Cross View Post

            I write to give value as I have great knowledge & experience to help people within that niche. Not a pushy salesperson but do enough to make the income I need, reinvest & grow my business at a pace I am comfortable with.

            Cheers
            Barry
            You're missing the point, Barry.

            Read what I've said up top.

            This isn't about being a pushy salesperson.

            This is about doing everything a writer SHOULD be doing - one of which being to add as much value as possible - but ALSO keeping in mind that you run an affiliate blog and you earn money - wait for it - from affiliate income.

            If you can deliver the best type of information AND monetize it without DETRACTING from it, then you are writing right, right?

            GRM
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  • Profile picture of the author OnTheRun
    If by "writing to sell" you mean writing with passion, while having in mind the goal of optimizing your website so you'd earn something from it, then I've been doing it for years.
    I did have a personal blog at one point, when blogs were coming out as popular, but it was really a waste of time, no one cared about my daily rants, they cared about leaving their link along with a comment
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
      Originally Posted by OnTheRun View Post

      If by "writing to sell" you mean writing with passion, while having in mind the goal of optimizing your website so you'd earn something from it, then I've been doing it for years.
      I did have a personal blog at one point, when blogs were coming out as popular, but it was really a waste of time, no one cared about my daily rants, they cared about leaving their link along with a comment
      Not exactly, no.

      Making money from a blog is a science - but unlike rocket science, it's one that is easily mastered.

      John brings up optimizing for search engines. Totally correct. You should be optimizing for traffic and for sales. And not just traffic derived from search; more importantly, you should be optimizing for viral traffic.

      Let's say you have a blog in the job-seeker market. You'll deliver information related to writing resumes, interviews, and so forth.

      Now, you could write a post about how to write a killer resume. No monetization. Just information. People read the article, they share it on FB, G+, etc, and a small proportion - small, small, small - may see your ad banners and go clicky-clicky.

      On the other hand - in that same article - you could mention the software that you use to format your resumes. (Just an example - I use open source software for writing on a pc, Open Office.) You've now written to sell. People can easily ignore the plug and still equally benefit from the information, BUT you've increased your chances of earning money.

      I've had articles go viral and receive 2,000,000 views in the space of a month. Can you imagine how I'd have felt if they weren't - in some way - monetized?

      GRM
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  • Profile picture of the author KelvinN
    Lots of people reading things on the internet get instantly turned-off at the sight of a salespage or advertisement, especially if it's in an article or blog post on a website they actually enjoy reading for entertainment. This sucks for two reasons:
    1. Viewers will conclude you're in it for the money
    2. If the viewers were interested in your content, then you've lost a lot of potential sales

    I think lots of internet marketing are completely terrible strategies. And that 2% of people who bought your product out of 1000 you sent to your salespage, is only a very small number compared to what you could have done if you had the mind of a true "entrepreneur".

    Being the standard marketer/internet marketer guy trying to sell his product and leaving an impression that the main aspect of your content is to make money isn't a great idea.

    I personally think creating awesome trustworthy content and engaging with your community is the best way to go. What I'm trying to say is; don't monetize all of your content, only monetize the content to the viewers/users that you already know have viewed lots of your content before. This does 3 things:

    1. New viewers won't be "turned-off"
    2. New viewers will stay and be more persuaded into purchasing your services
    3. And of course they aren't going to leave if you monetize your content once in a while

    Hmm.. now that I think of it...it might not be a bad idea to monetize all your content at the end of it, as long as you give the person 95% of the information they were looking for.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
      Originally Posted by KelvinN View Post

      Hmm.. now that I think of it...it might not be a bad idea to monetize all your content at the end of it, as long as you give the person 95% of the information they were looking for.
      That's it.

      Let me give you an example.

      I have one site in the college humor niche. I write some of the articles, but most are submitted by staff or freelancers. The articles cover a range of topics - if it's funny, topical, informative, we'll have it. The majority of articles don't promote a thing. We get so much traffic, there's no need, and the subject-matter - more importantly - doesn't warrant a plug.

      BUT... That is not an AFFILIATE blog.

      Now, compare that to an affiliate blog. Say, again, in the job-seeker market.

      As an affiliate blogger, if you're not writing to sell, then you're writing to write. And that's just wrong.

      The trick is to use your head, to be clever. A lot of people - even marketers - actually think trying to make money is somehow dirty. Well, to hell with that. in the words of Lawrence Garfield (I'm paraphrasing): It's a game. And the person who dies with the most money wins. When I run a blog (not Get Rich Methods, I should add, which isn't a blog), I don't write to amuse myself, to pass the time, I write to win the freaking game. And unless you work 15 hours a day too, and bust your butt, you're not going to beat me.

      So!

      Point is: If you run an affiliate blog

      1. Give honest information.
      2. Deliver it well.
      3. Provide useful plugs than ENHANCE the information but are not required to USE the information.

      Hey - before I finish: Don't think I'm preaching to you or giving you a hard time. I found your post truly excellent. I've just had a few coffees and I'm passionate about the subject!

      GRM
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      • Profile picture of the author KelvinN
        Originally Posted by Get Rich Methods View Post

        That's it.

        Let me give you an example.

        I have one site in the college humor niche. I write some of the articles, but most are submitted by staff or freelancers. The articles cover a range of topics - if it's funny, topical, informative, we'll have it. The majority of articles don't promote a thing. We get so much traffic, there's no need, and the subject-matter - more importantly - doesn't warrant a plug.

        BUT... That is not an AFFILIATE blog.

        Now, compare that to an affiliate blog. Say, again, in the job-seeker market.

        As an affiliate blogger, if you're not writing to sell, then you're writing to write. And that's just wrong.

        The trick is to use your head, to be clever. A lot of people - even marketers - actually think trying to make money is somehow dirty. Well, to hell with that. in the words of Lawrence Garfield (I'm paraphrasing): It's a game. And the person who dies with the most money wins. When I run a blog (not Get Rich Methods, I should add, which isn't a blog), I don't write to amuse myself, to pass the time, I write to win the freaking game. And unless you work 15 hours a day too, and bust your butt, you're not going to beat me.

        So!

        Point is: If you run an affiliate blog

        1. Give honest information.
        2. Deliver it well.
        3. Provide useful plugs than ENHANCE the information but are not required to USE the information.

        Hey - before I finish: Don't think I'm preaching to you or giving you a hard time. I found your post truly excellent. I've just had a few coffees and I'm passionate about the subject!

        GRM
        All good! I'm only learning. I'm a new internet marketer and I'm glad someone experienced like you gave me some tips, I'm keeping these in mind for today

        What you said is very true and indeed many people think of making money online as some scummy job only because we're not working a 9-5 job at $25 an hour. I'd rather be my own boss, with my own hours, and most importantly my own set amount of money I strive to make.

        I've been interested in writing good content for niche sites for a long time now, for some reason I just never got to it. Obviously I need to learn a lot more so I can write luring content for maximum profit. I'll definitely use your tips for writing though, thanks

        I'm passionate about this too...but to be honest I'm still sort of a noob.
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        • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
          Originally Posted by KelvinN View Post

          All good! I'm only learning. I'm a new internet marketer and I'm glad someone experienced like you gave me some tips, I'm keeping these in mind for today

          What you said is very true and indeed many people think of making money online as some scummy job only because we're not working a 9-5 job at $25 an hour. I'd rather be my own boss, with my own hours, and most importantly my own set amount of money I strive to make.

          I've been interested in writing good content for niche sites for a long time now, for some reason I just never got to it. Obviously I need to learn a lot more so I can write luring content for maximum profit. I'll definitely use your tips for writing though, thanks

          I'm passionate about this too...but to be honest I'm still sort of a noob.
          Thanks, Kelvin.

          I'm not saying my philosophy is right. Just because I think it is, doesn't make it so. But I do appreciate you considering what I have to say, though. I spend the best part of my day involved in content marketing and content production (not in that order, ha) - I run a team that covers various websites, too - and I got into blogging from the get-go. The system works well for me. As mentioned, you just need to be clever. Having read your other posts, I see you get that; others haven't quite grasped it yet (no names). If a plug doesn't hurt the content, then I say plug away - providing you run an affiliate blog. It makes sense. When I look at the traffic I receive and the income from my blogs, I'd hate to think how it would be different if I'd chosen to use the Blogger 1 approach. It's only a small part of what I do, but the loss of that cash cow would - well - in a word: suck.

          GRM
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  • Profile picture of the author seeqer
    For some reason the thank you button does not appear for me today, so I will say THANKS GET RICH METHODS.

    I am still struggling about making a blog post because I am a perfectionnist and I used so suck so badly at writing reviews. I am getting alot better.

    Your posts give me ideas and help me better my game.
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    • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
      Originally Posted by seeqer View Post

      For some reason the thank you button does not appear for me today, so I will say THANKS GET RICH METHODS.

      I am still struggling about making a blog post because I am a perfectionnist and I used so suck so badly at writing reviews. I am getting alot better.

      Your posts give me ideas and help me better my game.
      Haha, no worries about the thanks button. Your kind reply was way better anyway.

      I hope I've helped, then, in some small way.

      All the best, buddy.

      GRM
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    Actually, I had made the transition on a few of our higher traffic blogs from write for traffic to write to sell years ago, but what really made the BIG difference is when I started to write to ACTION - that action being either a very low-cost intro product or list signup. From there, get to capture their attention and repeatedly write to sell.

    Within 1-year I had very responsive lists of over 15,000 subscribers in some very competitive niches and that continues to grow substantially even today...each of these lists convert at well over $1 a subscriber - all from our blogs (actually one list does more than $3 a sub) . That's more than double what we used to convert trying to sell directly from the blog.

    It took some time to figure out how to up the conversions to lists and low-cost offers, have to say that one stumped us for quite a few months. Always room for improvement, but we are much more comfortable today with our conversions.

    Jeff
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    • Profile picture of the author proserve
      Originally Posted by jbsmith View Post

      Actually, I had made the transition on a few of our higher traffic blogs from write for traffic to write to sell years ago, but what really made the BIG difference is when I started to write to ACTION - that action being either a very low-cost intro product or list signup. From there, get to capture their attention and repeatedly write to sell.

      .... Always room for improvement, but we are much more comfortable today with our conversions.

      Jeff
      I know what you mean. I've done plenty of writing for traffic, but the writing-for-and-action concept is the real thing that matters.

      It is copywriting 101-- get a small commitment, bigger commitments are just natural.

      If people knew how powerful a personal AND specific contact can be with a entry level prospect.... Most marketers are trying their hardest to not have any "real" contact with their clients- putting up "support" sites and the like. I'll say no more.

      Proserve
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      If you start out with a mistaken premise, it is impossible to reach your goal.
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  • Profile picture of the author shmol
    I know I am late to this, but, Mr. Addams, (you were kind enough to answer my PM--Thank you for that!)

    If may ask a question, for clarification purposes, when you talk about writing to sell, is this what you mean.

    For sake of example, we will say I wrote a post titled.

    7 Little Used Recovery Methods all Natural Bodybuilder Need to Know

    After giving them all seven methods, at the end of the post I would say.

    If you have been looking for a great tasting post-workout product that will help take your recovery to the next level then you should check out--then leave a link here.

    Would this be what you are talking about.

    Thank you,

    Marvin
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  • Profile picture of the author Sobhana123
    Sell is first and foremost a transaction by the seller and buyer. It is good purchase.

    ISO in Oman
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