Best way for me to monetize my site?

[ITMDB]

Hi All,

I currently have adsense setup on my blog, more for some extra earnings as I dont expect this to be the main source of income.

The reason I ask this is ive taken Google up on their "£75 free adwords clicks when you spend £25" offer. I've only set a £1 a day budget for now to see how it goes.

I have done a bit affiliate advertising on one of my posts, but I just wondered whether you think there is something I could be doing better. The blog is new so traffic is on the lower side im sure compared to some of your blogs

I haven't started this blog to earn a living from it, but it would be nice to cover the hosting costs etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(Blog link in sig)

 

[Cesar]

Create a youtube channel and create relevant content in the form of videos and seo optimized those videos with meta tags and a relevant description with your link on each of those videos, and point those links back to each relevant page on your site. You could also setup a Facebook group or page post helpful info, and don't forget to also post a link back to your site. Lastly track your links and keywords to get a measure of whats working. Its all abou the ROI. But you wont know unless you do and test. Hope this helps.

 

[professorrosado]

An IT blog should offer visitors some software and hardware solutions. Avangate, RegNow and OneNetwork should do you well with products, as well as, Amazon for IT hardware and other relevant items. Posting items closely related to the article or vice versa, would be your best strategy.

 

[rajivsinghi]

The best way to monetize your adsense you can create a video channel on YouTube and you can post relevant videos there.. This is also a best way to get it done. I am sure you will get much clicks even money...

 

[PTTed]

Hi All,

I currently have adsense setup on my blog, more for some extra earnings as I dont expect this to be the main source of income.

The reason I ask this is ive taken Google up on their "£75 free adwords clicks when you spend £25" offer. I've only set a £1 a day budget for now to see how it goes.

I have done a bit affiliate advertising on one of my posts, but I just wondered whether you think there is something I could be doing better. The blog is new so traffic is on the lower side im sure compared to some of your blogs

I haven't started this blog to earn a living from it, but it would be nice to cover the hosting costs etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(Blog link in sig)

I checked out your blog.

Based on the topics of what you are publishing about, it looks like you are just running a traditional technology blog where your primary source of traffic is intended to be search engine traffic from Google and the others.

Assuming that is the case, you will probably end up realizing that Adsense is your best monetization method. Your traffic doesn't look like it is going to be targeted well enough for you to use other methods.

When you build a blog like that, one that attracts a handful of readers who are each interested in a different topic, then you don't really have a great opportunity to monetize it with affiliate offers.

Even though your blog says it is the IT Managers Toolbox and says it is a go to resource for IT professionals, it doesn't really look like it is either of those two things to me. I happen to be an IT professional, so maybe I am your target market, maybe not. After looking at your blog I find myself asking why would I or any of my colleagues want to visit your blog? I might go there if I am googling for an answer to one of the topics you talk about and I might land there. That is a great start. But then I am going to look at your other topics and think - "well that really doesn't apply to me". And then I will leave the site probably never to return unless I happen to land on it again while googling something else. (Not saying any of this to be critical. Just telling the honest truth.)

There is nothing wrong with building a site like that. It is better than building a random blog. But it still doesn't offer much opportunity for monetization unless you can really grow your traffic or unless you can get much more precisely targeted traffic. Without those things, you will likely find Adsense is going to be your most profitable monetization method.

Have you ever thought of building a more specific more tightly targeted authority site that tries to solve an important problem for IT people? What I mean is that you would pick one problem that IT professionals face and help them solve that problem by building a blog that offers the solution. I think you should explore building a more targeted "authority site". You are most of the way there anyway.

 

[ITMDB]

ITMDB

Thankyou very much for your advice, I dont take it critically at all. Only too glad for some honest helpful opinions.

When you say create an authority blog that solves one problem. How do you create new content (blog posts) only covering one solution?

 

[PTTed]

PTTed

Glad you didn't feel offended at all :thumb:

An awful lot of the questions that people are seeking answers to on the internet require more than one explanation depending on a number of factors. For example, suppose you were an experienced web designer. And suppose your friends constantly asked you if you could explain to them about "how to build a website". You can't explain that in great detail using one blog post. You would need at least a dozen web pages that explain different parts because you don't know if they are building a blog or an ecommerce site or maybe a forum or maybe some other kind of social media site or god only knows?

So, in order to be thorough you would have to explain about a whole bunch of different topics in order for them to be able to take effective action on your advice.

Maybe that is a bad example. Let's go back to your IT example.

There are many potential areas that you could build an entire website around in the IT field. Here are some examples:

* How to start a successful computer repair business
* How to secure your company's Windows 2011 Essentials Small Business Server so that it is rock solid hacker proof
* Ultimate security guide on how to secure your company's workstations from viruses, malware and adware
* Should Your Company Move It's IT Infrastructure To The Cloud or Not?

All of those topics would require at least a handful of blog posts to adequately cover the material. So you publish one blog post for every one of the more specific topics you need to cover. And you publish those blog posts all on one blog that covers that larger topic in general.

That way, when your blog attracts traffic, the vast majority of people it attracts are all there for the same reason. They all want to learn everything you can teach them about that larger topic. That allows you to pinpoint a very precise monetization method well suited for those people. If you match the monetization method to the audience perfectly, then you get very high conversions. And you can make decent money with a relatively small amount of traffic.

That is way easier to do in my opinion, than it is to build a high traffic blog with random topics on it. If you want to chat in depth about it, hit me up at my website. Shoot me an email.

 

[Christopher II]

The go to resource for IT professionals, while catchy, is a very wide area. Try to dial in on a specific niche: one that you can take over and be #1. My recommendation is that you go for a monopoly.

[URLnf="http://keywordtool.io"]Here[/URLnf] is a really cool tool to help with niche, keywords and Google Adwords

PS: Don't let monetization drive your decision making. Allow 'how can I become the most valuable resource to my audience' drive your decisions.

 

[ITMDB]

Okay that does make more sense. Just one more question. If I were to pick a topic that can be thoroughly explained in 12 posts, what do I do after those 12 posts?

Are blogs penalised for not being updated?

 

[Christopher II]

Christopher II

1) Everyone and their mother has a blog. A good question to ask yourself is: 'How is my blog going to be different?' Once you figure that out, run with it.
2) It's not that you would be penalized, rather not favored.

 

[PTTed]

PTTed

Once you are done building the blog with however many posts it takes to make a great website, then you just stop.

You can come back from time to time and improve the site. You can rewrite a blog post or part of a blog post. You can make the site look better. You can add in a new graphic somewhere. You can rearrange things if you feel it would improve the site. Basically, you just come back to make improvements wherever you feel they should be made. Maybe you make some SEO related adjustments/improvements.

Otherwise you are basically done with it. You monetize the site. You promote the site. And you collect your profits.

If you picked a good niche and a good monetization method, then you are basically done.

If you build your blog around evergreen topics, then you are done with the site. It does not need to be updated. I have sites like the ones I just described that have ranked number on in Google for their keywords non-stop since 2010. They survived Panda. They survived Penguin. And they keep ranking number one in Google to this day with basically zero improvements and zero additional SEO work over the last 5 years.

Google does not care about updated content anywhere near as much as most people claim they do. The people who are claiming Google cares about fresh content as a ranking factor for most sites obviously have not tested it. Because if they had tested it with evergreen sites (which most sites are), then they would agree it is a non-factor.

Most topics do not require fresh content. Only certain ones do like news sensitive content. Don't write about time sensitive topics. Write about timeless topics and it won't matter at all.

 

[PTTed]

Do you want to know how little Google cares about fresh up to date content?

Go do a search for best current stock tips.

I just did that. And you know what ranks number one? [URLnf="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/5-sites-for-hot-stock-tips-1308878453575"]This article from Marketwatch which was written and published in June 2011[/URLnf]. And that is a topic where you would think they would reward fresh content.

 

[ITMDB]

Point well made

All I ever read about is how you require fresh new content. So if I start to focus my content on a more specific topic, and market it for that topic.

Thanks very much for your helpful posts.

 

[PTTed]

PTTed

You're welcome:thumb:

Until you test things for yourself, it is very easy to just "believe" something that you read about. After all, it makes sense that Google would want to reward fresher content in some cases. But that need for freshness doesn't really apply to searches with commercial intent or searches where a person is seeking factual information. And the vast majority of areas we internet marketers work in are categories where there is either commercial intent or a person seeking factual information.

Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with the business model you are following with your existing blog. If you get enough posts published on it and the posts are high quality enough and you get enough link juice to your site, then you will probably have a decent earning website just with Adsense alone and with free traffic from Google. I don't want to give you the impression that your business model won't work. It could work and it could work very well if it fits your style of how you want to do things.

I merely wanted to point out why you might find it difficult to monetize your site with something other than Google Adsense. There are more effective ways of doing things if your desire is to use some monetization method other than Google Adsense. Google Adsense also works well as a monetization method on small authority sites if the traffic is well targeted and if that traffic is in a mindset that is predisposed to clicking on advertisements. And it requires very little testing and/or maintenance to make money with.

 

[seoking]

If you have quality traffic on your site so that no need to monetize your adsense, just you have to understand where to place ads code on your site. I think it's will assist you to make extra cash:

 

[ITMDB]

Recently I have had a few people approach me to publish an article on my blog for a payment.

Is this a reasonable way to earn an income from a blog?

Presumably you an charge more for a better ranking website.

 

[PTTed]

PTTed

You can do that for some extra income. I doubt you will be able to do that for a primary income unless your site is a poor earner.

There are people on Fiverr.com who do that for their blogs. Charging five or ten dollars for a post isn't going to make you rich though. Now if you had a bunch of blogs in the same niche it might work better. That way when you get a new customer who wants to pay you to publish on one of them, then you can offer him the opportunity to publish on more blogs similar to that.

The income isn't really that passive though. You still have to chat back and forth with potential customers. And that is the annoying part if all you are trying to do is make money as passively as possible.

 

[Adam Yunker]

Hey there,

So as far as blogs and eCommerce stores go I always found the absolute best way to succeed with them is to have an opening LAUNCH. Where you have people waiting for you to open your blog so they can hop on and check out the post.

Now the question is: How do you do that?

In my experience I always build a squeeze page solely for collecting email addresses and have a lead magnet to entice them to join (usually I throw in a special small offer in my "Thankyou" page so I can make my money back quickly if I'm buying ads)

Then I create a small value based followup series that they receive once they opt-in.

After they finish the automated email series I have them automatically transferred into my weekly newsletter where I give them tips or whatever once or twice a week.

Once I have built this up I create a social media page specifically for them and promote it to them (this turns your list into a community)

Then once both of these platforms are booming and doing very well I go ahead and open the blog or eCommerce store and promote it to them.

Then I do the newsletter two times a week: 1 day is a tip and the other day is an email leading back to your newest blog post.


Hope this was helpful

Adam

 

[rf-harris]

Use google adsense and put some affiliate links in your blog.

 

[ITMDB]

ITMDB

Thanks for you comment, but I have mentioned in my OP that I am already using Adsense....