making money blogging
DESCRIPTION
A 40min cradle-to-grave presentation on how to pick a topic for a blog, fill it with good content, and monetize it.TRANSCRIPT
Making Money Blogging by Matthew Haughey
Making money blogging is a real challenge
We all have blogs and many here would love to do it full-time
Finding an audience — and beyond that — finding revenue amid the sea of millions of blogs seems impossible
Stake out your place and make the hard work pay off
Follow your passion, find your audience, and gain revenue
Find your passion
“The most important thing is to do something you love, whatever that is. It goes back to the definition of a good job, which is, if you could afford to, would you do the same work for free? If you would, you've got a great job -- if not, what the heck are you doing? -- you're going to be dead a long time. We're in a field that allows you to look forward to that work, not watch the clock, be creative, and even get paid for it. I've often thought I make a living from my hobby.” -- David Carson
MetaFilter and PVRblog
What are you passionate about?
You have hobbies, right?
Passion doesn't feel like work
You'll need passion for the long, thankless hours
The democratic web
Fakery will get you nowhere.Don't just do it to make a buck.
Start small, avoid creating a network
Stephanie Quilao’s story
The paradox of love (also works with money)
Find your audience
Content.Is. King.
Just say no to SEO
The road to success is long and takes a lot of hard work.
Be patient. Stick with it.
Ideas for content
Time spent doing research=dozens of posts
Review products
Google news alerts
You can interviewanyone if you just ask
Mine the forums, deliver the gold
Op/Ed beats news any day
Find the Money
Some numbers
Text Ads
Google is easy
Google is flexible. You should be too.
Typical adsense use on a blog
Don't overdo it.
Image ads
Blogads is easy
Eventually, larger networks are better
Don't overdo it
Diversify: Affiliates, Jobs, etc
“We’re all one greasemonkey script away from poverty”
Amazon Affiliates is easy
Monthly/Annual subscriptions, memberships, or swag
Lots of people get hired because of their blog
Companies you blog about will need business bloggers
Can you find a topic, gain an audience, and stick with it?
Generating revenue from your slice of the blogosphere is a challenge
Follow your passion, find your audience, and gain revenue
Hard work on a topic you love can pay off.
Pro Blogging: a lot of work, a lot of fun, perhaps a lot of money