making money from a growing blog...

23 replies
My blog has over eight thousand page views and 30 comments so far. I post to it practically every day and am playing with the idea of making money from it. So my question is.....

Is it advisable to wait until the blog is more established before offering items such as ebooks, etc.?
#blog #growing #making #money
  • Profile picture of the author NatesMarketing
    Why wait?

    You can sell to people without "selling." You can blog like you normally do, and make suggestions of products with your affiliate links.

    You don't have to "open a store" on your site to start selling.
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by webwriter View Post

    My blog has over eight thousand page views and 30 comments so far.
    LOL, from my first glance at the first line of your post I thought you were about to say that your blog has over 8,000 pages! :p

    8,000 page-views, and 30 comments ... yes, this sounds better.

    Originally Posted by webwriter View Post

    Is it advisable to wait until the blog is more established before offering items such as ebooks, etc.?
    I don't see why you should wait, really?

    The important thing (especially if you want to sell/promote anything other than AdSense clicks) is to have a prominently incentivized opt-in, so you can build a list and not lose most of your traffic.

    I sell e-books from all my blogs, and my sales come from communications with my list subscribers, establishing credibility with them, and the fact that they trust my recommendations.

    Even the people who click on an affiliate link on one of my websites and buy a product that way have almost always got to that link, on that page, by being sent to it by a link in an email I've sent them, not just from visiting the site. (Of course, they've been to the site at least once before, when they originally opted in and subscribed to my list).

    I'd have very, very few sales without my lists. Those are the primary assets of my affiliate marketing business. The main purpose of all my main websites is to build my list.

    Without your list, you can't keep people returning to your site (and very, very few people buy anything at their first visit to a site - with the possible exception of things like a book or CD from Amazon - and even then, sometimes not).

    Without your list, you can't make repeat sales of other items to people with whom you've built a trust-based relationship, and that's where most of the long-term money is, in affiliate marketing.

    There are a few hundred threads in this forum with titles like "What's The One Thing You'd Do Differently If You Were Starting Again Tomorrow?". Take a look through a small sample of them, and you'll find that one of the things they all have in common is that they're full of replies from long-established, successful Warriors almost all of whom give the same answer: the thing they'd do differently, with what they know now but didn't know when they started, is "start to build a list on day 1". There are reasons for that.

    This thread will help you: Without Building a List, How Consistent is Your Income from Affiliate Marketing
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  • Profile picture of the author betterwtveter
    I would find CPA or affiliate products related to my blog niche and write articles about those products and teach my readers how those products will solve their problems. I do well getting sales that way.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gary Clucas
      If you can create your own products, then set up a membership site, easiest way I have ever found of producing an income from a minimal amount of visitors and outlay.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbsmith
    Alexa is spot on, think of the next stage in your sales funnel...before you move from the first date to closing the deal, set up a few dates along the way...meaning you can offer them something valuable (report, tool, video series, an interview, etc...) to capture their email address and come up with an email follow-up campaign.

    The benefit of this is that you can then market different things to your list (as well as giving them ongoing value) - ebooks, courses, tangible products, eventually your own products, etc...

    Build your LIST, connect with your list, take care of your list and they will take care of you.

    Jeff
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewStark
    What niche are you writing about?

    Building a list will really help you get repeat traffic, and then sticking related adverts into the sidebar should make you some sales without taking away from the content.

    If you change your message and start writing about products you may lose your audience, so keep up the posting and try the soft side of advertising.
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    • Profile picture of the author JensSteyaert
      I think most blogs make most money within their content with links to CPA or affiliate offers. The key s not to make it look like you are promoting something, which is an artform in itself.

      For adsense i suggest you drive some more traffic to your blog. With that amount of pageviews you wouldn't be making much.

      Also don't forget to give away a freebie on your blog and build a list. Write them something they are interested in and add another offer in dsguise each week, that's also good for some extra income to begin with, and can turn out to be very profitable eventually!
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  • Profile picture of the author MartinPlatt
    No, you can certainly make money out of it right away...

    Get people used to that fact.

    Some people might be scared away, but that's okay, as they were probably never going to make you money in the first place...
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    Martin Platt
    martin-platt.com

    Stuck with earning commissions online? Get this get this uncensored affiliate marketing guide for free (sold as coaching for $4,997)

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  • Profile picture of the author Alex Greene
    As Alexa suggested, building a list is very important if you want to generate sales from your pages and keep those visitors to visit your site again and again. Try with adsense first while you create your own products. This is my personal idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author armix
    Don't complicate your mind. Do it NOW!!! There's no need to wait.
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  • Profile picture of the author AdscendTony
    Originally Posted by webwriter View Post

    My blog has over eight thousand page views and 30 comments so far. I post to it practically every day and am playing with the idea of making money from it. So my question is.....

    Is it advisable to wait until the blog is more established before offering items such as ebooks, etc.?
    You can use content locking to generate some revenue while your blog grows. That will also allow you to keep your products free. Have you looked into content locking?
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    • Profile picture of the author writeaway
      Originally Posted by AdscendTony View Post

      You can use content locking to generate some revenue while your blog grows. That will also allow you to keep your products free. Have you looked into content locking?
      What content locking products are available out there?
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  • Profile picture of the author Eric R
    What did you set up the blog for? If it was to provide good quality content to you readers, great, start collecting e-mail addresses, grow your list and provide them with even better content and sometimes they are going to pay for it. You don't have to be selling all the time, monetise your blog with related affiliate products and adsense, develop your growing list, get your autoresponder set up and plan your strategy.
    The number of emails you send depends on yourself and recommend products that are going to benefit your readers.
    Provide valuable content to them and they will stick around.
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  • Profile picture of the author Edman15
    You can Make Money Reviewing Products.

    There are some websites which connect both advertisers and bloggers including SocialSpark, ReviewMe, PayPerPost, SponsoredReviews.
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  • Profile picture of the author iArticles
    Banned
    There is absolutely NO REASON to wait. You are just delaying your chance to start earning. Go for it right now!
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  • Profile picture of the author davegarcia939
    Originally Posted by webwriter View Post

    My blog has over eight thousand page views and 30 comments so far. I post to it practically every day and am playing with the idea of making money from it. So my question is.....

    Is it advisable to wait until the blog is more established before offering items such as ebooks, etc.?
    Every single visitor is important to me so I won't wait for "more establishment"
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  • Profile picture of the author ThorBorwick
    Originally Posted by webwriter View Post

    My blog has over eight thousand page views and 30 comments so far. I post to it practically every day and am playing with the idea of making money from it. So my question is.....

    Is it advisable to wait until the blog is more established before offering items such as ebooks, etc.?
    No,don`t wait.
    I assume when you say offering an e-book,you mean in exchange for their e-mail adress. I think you are afraid that your readers will consider it as spam if you send them e-mails. Don`t be. Deliever the same quality content in the e-mails as you do in your blog.Just don`t bomb them with affiliateoffers and you`ll be fine.

    ALWAYS capture your leads!
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  • Profile picture of the author dbrwn
    Are you building a list? Do you ahve some sort of squeeze page set up on your blog where you're collecting subscribers? I would definitely start with that first. However, yes, you can start selling e-books and other information products straight from your blog. There's nothing wrong with doing that.

    However, I would really focus on building a list of subscribers because that's where the money lies. You can put up the product onto your blog and then mention it to your list and drive the list traffic to that particular blog post where the product is, and if they're ready to buy, then they will purchase the product.

    Does that answer your question? Do you see the importance of list building here?
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  • Profile picture of the author BloggerDeen
    Why don't you try adsense, even if nothing is working adsense works pretty well.
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  • Profile picture of the author debra leroy
    Banned
    These are pretty impressive numbers.
    I would say affiliate links are a good idea. And yes, I think you are ready to move on.
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  • Profile picture of the author fastcooler
    Don't wait! Start now to monetize your blog! Some results will come early.
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  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    Do you have page rank? If so, you can sell guest posts
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