Earn Money with Affiliate Marketing

Tonight was call-in number 4 for Gather Success’ Blogger Reality Show.  Our challenge for the last week as centered around affiliate marketing, we were to promote, market, and ideally make a sale of Atomic Blogging 3.0 system.    At least one challenger had a sale.

I did not even attempt this challenge.  Last week was crazy busy with non-IM type of stuff.  So of course I did not get any points awarded.

Speaking of points,  Alvin made some good ones on how to choose your affiliates.  For the purpose of the call he used Clickbank as a good example of an affiliate directory.  Here is a step by step process on how to find a good affiliate:

1. If you don’t already have an account set up go to Clickbank.com and set one up.  It’s easy and its quick

2. To select a product click on Marketplace.  It seems that many of the challengers are in the make online income niche, which is very competitive and even though Alvin makes good money in that niche, his suggestion is that it is much easier to make money promoting affiliates that are not in the  blogging for money business.  The competition is significantly less

3. Clickbank is really good at giving statistical information on the affiliate program.  One of the statistics that Alvin likes to look at is the gravity.  Gravity tells you how popular a product is so the higher the number, the more popular or demand there is for it.  There are several factors that contribute to the popularity of an affiliate program:- collateral support such as banners, sales page and ongoing marketing  including but not restricted to emails.

   -  conversion
   -  commission

4. After selecting a program, check out the sales page and any other promotional material the affiliate publisher is offering.

5. Where do all the screenshots come from?

6. Transaction records

7. Be sure the product has testimonials

8. Get your link, button or banner and test it.

9. Try the buy button to see whether it works or not

10. Check the bottom of the page to make sure that the affiliate link is the same as your Clickbank ID.  If its not then don’t promote this product.  Go through the process with another.

From the submissions it seems that many of us have our own challenge with affiliate marketing.  How many times have you been told to promote a big ticket item because the amount of time and effort spent is  the same as for a small ticket item but the financial rewards are much greater even if you sell far less.

That might work if you already have your affiliate marketing chops down pat.  You really need to build your affiliate marketing muscles before going for the big game.  Alvin’s suggestion is to challenge yourself with small weekly goals, something like “… I am going to earn US$200 this week selling product XYZ  at $20 each…” and then set your whole campaign up for the week.  See what results you get at the end of the week.  Make small adjustments to the campaign for week 2.

Track everything.  You may hit your $200 mark the first week, maybe not.  The thing is now you have a goal and a method and as you continue to improve your marketing skills, the sales will begin to come in.  This takes practice.  As you get better you can start marketing higher priced products.

Affiliate marketing when mastered  is an easy  way to earn an online income.

Intuitively the answer would be the paddles dipping in still waters.  The image lingers on as if I had just experienced it yesterday, as if an artist had taken a brush and forever etched the memory into my subconscious mind, to be recalled at will upon my pleasure.  It was magical.  Just the two of us in one canoe on a lake hidden away in the Rockies.   The sun warmed the treetops for just a few  minutes before dropping out of sight, the sudden darkening of the skies and the feeling of the forest closing in, shivers up my spine as  from the distance came the distinctive came call of the loon thus breaking the silence of the approaching darkness.

I love it. This experience.  It is both magical and mystical.

That boy Carlos is at it again.  On this week’s Sunday Shorts he talks about living a life of collecting experiences not things and threw out a challenge to his readers to write about some of their experiences and the feelings that go with those experiences.  I decided to step up to the challenge and scribble a post here on Blog Income.

I didn’t have to think long to recall that moment and the thrill of experiencing it.

The older you get the more such experiences you have – I have a vault of them.

The first time I was awarded a medal for scholastic achievement.  The mother superior pinning the medal on my uniform.  The pride in my parent’s eyes that evening.  The photo for posterity.

Going horseback riding in the mountains over loose gravel trails with hundred foot drop-offs praying like I’ve never prayed before asking for the horse to be more sure footed than its stumbles then looking back to see how my friend was faring and seeing her face with eyes tightly shut! Another horse ride, this time galloping on the sands of an open beach.   Same animal, different experience.

The birth of each of my children – the boy so beautiful, the girl so lusty of voice.  Tears of joy and sometimes sorrow in sharing their own growing up experiences,  now that is an experience in progress ..lol..

Freezing and knowing what it is to feel the blood run cold as I gingerly  stepped from one set of straight up stairs to another – no platform to aid the manoeuvre –  and inadvertently looked down to the waters hundreds of feet below the Sydney Harbor Bridge.  The momentary hardening of my grip on the handrail and the slight delay before steeling my nerves and continuing the climb to the top of the bridge.

Australia again.  A flock of emus, about twenty of them grazing in a meadow just feet away from the road suddenly taking flight as we emerged from the car.  The sight was majestic.  These seemingly ungainly birds pranced away with such grace, their feathers flouncing like that of a ballerina’s costume,; indeed it was a dance choreographed in the wilds by mother nature herself.

Scores of others.  Captaining the basketball team to a championship trophy, watching a black bear cross a patch of clearing just feet away from where we were seated on a mountain ledge, seeing the Folies Bergere in Vegas and the girls perform at the Lido Caberet in Paris – now that’s enough to make any girl feel envious!

But back to the canoe.  That is a thing.  But for as long as I had it, I loved it.  And there are other things that I will never part with, the handmade Christmas decorations that my children made in grade school, photos, a small wood Ainu carving of a bear that my best friend gave me, a pearl necklace from my parents and lots of other “things.”  And I’ve always wanted a Mercedes SL550 (used to be SL 500) which I have yet to get, but when I do, it too will give me pleasure.

So it really does depend.  Precious things can be as pleasurable as experiences.  But the exercise really got me thinking.  The things that are precious to us are those that are associated with pleasant experiences.  Experiences often cost money.  I recently read that as boomeers are approaching retirement the things that they look for are experiences, travel is not so much a week or two on the beach but more likely visiting places that are off the beaten track, such as visiting the Antartic, booking the Tsar’s  New Year’s Eve Ball in St. Petersburg, Russia; cycling tours, hiking in the Patagonias, and so on.  Still others are going back to school – doing their masters or PHDs, or taking up painting.  Some take up blogging for money!

The thing is that no matter what your age,  live life to its fullest.  Each day cannot be an adventure but it can be a life lived well.

In fact I was just visiting over there this morning, and was keying away my comment to his post and question What’s more important to you: Quantity, or Quality?” when my flying fingers hit the wrong key and voila!  The whole comment vanished.

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

Thoughts were running away and the comment was in danger of gulp! Becoming a post … which is why I decided to tackle Pat’s question here and well,  make it a post.

Pat is a master at posting thought provoking content and this was no exception.  The devil has a wicked streak of bent humor and easily bounces from seemingly complete irrelevance to “… right on, that hits the nail on the head …”  AHA moment for the reader.  So bananas to you Pat!

The question at hand quality vs quantity deals with blog content vs frequency of posting, i.e. which do you subscribe to.   Predictably most of the commenters  opted for quality which is both admirable and intuitive to our “better, inner” selves.

Pat’s own answer to this question is “It depends”

I agree with the “it depends” and have a few thoughts of my own.

#1. QUALITY
The first thought that comes to mind is that quality to some degree is subjective, particularly when it comes to writing.  What might be quality to one person may be just recycled drib drab to another.  So to some degree quality, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

Some might point to style, or correctness of grammar and spelling as constituting quality, yet, I have read some really good stuff on some blogs where English is definitely a struggle but the info was good, grammatical, spelling errors et al and conversely where the spelling and grammar were stellar but the content was not.   And then throw style into the mix … you want to talk subjective?

Another spread in perception of quality would be determined by the demographics of your readership.  A blog who’s readership tends to be in the 34-45 age bracket – apparently Blog Income -  may not be considered quality by say the early twenties crowd.   You can get your blog demographics from Alexa.

#2 QUANTITY
The argument for posting quantity is driven by the attract search engine traffic crowd.  The more fresh content on the blog, the more frequently the bots crawl the site, the higher the ranking, the more traffic the search engines send your way.

“Screw the search engines” said one commenter.

OK.

If you blog purely for the joy of blogging and have nary a thought of earning an online income, by all means post as the moment moves you and let the reader decide whether that is a quality post or not and worthy of a return visit to your blog.  That of course presumes that you do indeed have a reader.  An established blog hopefully does, a brand new one is just whistling Dixie.

Exceptions abound of course – Glen Allsopp at Viper Chill immediately comes to mind as he seems to break every rule in blogging:  infrequent posting, long articles, free of monetization(at least  on his Viper Chill blog – he does extraordinarily well with his online business) and that domain name certainly doesn’t scream “blogging”  but damn!  The content is to kill for and his followers boarder on being cult fanatics  and the numbers just keep growing and growing.

If on the other hand you are blogging for money then you cannot ignore the engines – they are the lifeline to your earning an online income and frequency of posting should be part of your blog income business plan.   I can tell you from experience that how often you post is how pretty the search engines will play with you.

Daily posting draws daily traffic, some of which is return and some new, but more importantly there seems to be a spill over effect.  The more new traffic that comes to your blog, the greater the chance that your return traffic also begins to gain traction.

I stop at the 2 to 3 times daily though.  There are bloggers who do that, and do so successfully but my thought here is that the post does not have the benefit of time exposure and I wonder if multiple daily posts enjoy a significant return of visitor metric.

#3 : QUALITY & QUANTITY
The perfectionist in us cries out “Both!  Both” but I can tell you, it just ain’t a gonna happen!  Even the uber bloggers who do indeed post daily, have off days … and many of them have staff!

If you are a part time blogger holding down a 9-5, posting daily may be a stretch, yet if you can do it, its the best way to get your blog off the ground.  Many new bloggers bust their keesters for the first three months to gain traffic and ranking, then scale back a bit to say 3 times a week.  At this point they have established a presence and a readership and can concentrate more on quality.

So as with the bananananananas … you need to read Pat’s post … the answer is:  IT DEPENDS!

Huh!!!

Read on:

“Don’t ignore the fries,”

Those were the words I was hearing on the phone.   My friend Nelson called me this morning and we chatted away.  He’d just returned from Hong Kong and we were doing a bit of catch up as he asked me about business.   He always does.   I told him about my progress in internet marketing.

“Has it replaced your network marketing income yet?” he wanted to know.

The answer was no and a further confession that the network marketing business wasn’t getting much attention these days, in spite of being the primary source of income for me.

He then took the time to tell me about MacDonalds, how they keep introducing new items to their menu, how they experiment with eggs and salads and coffee and even different types of burgers.

“But” he said “They don’t ignore the fries”

Meaning that the fries are a profitable staple item and they don’t fool around with them – in other words the fries always get attention at MacDonalds.

Nelson and I go back a long way – back to the days when I was still in Corporate and so was he.  He was the local big honcho for a major insurance company and I was an executive with a Fortune 50.  Often we shared the elevator on the way up to the floor of  our respective offices, down for lunch or when just calling it a day.  We became friends.

Years later we started a new Toastmaster club – one that met on Saturday mornings.  Neither of us had any toastmaster experience.  Each of us felt it was a good personal development for the coming year – and well, why would we want to join a club when we could start one?  We were told that no one would come to a toastmaster meeting on a Saturday morning.  The maverick in me was being tested.    Nelson was unflappable.  We went ahead.   Not only did they come but they came from as far away as an hour’s drive away!  Today it is one of the most successful clubs here in Vancouver and until recently it was the only toastmaster club that met on a Saturday morning in all of British Columbia.

Over  the years we each went through some good times and bad.  It is that same unflappable demeanor that took that Saturday morning club to success that helped Nelson weather some real tough challenges.   Sometimes I feel that my decision to become an internet marketer is akin to the decision to start a toastmaster club on a Saturday morning.  The probabilities of success are not exactly a given but the maverick in me is still alive and well.

Nelson is never short on advice.  I respect what he has to say.  I hope that at  times I return the favor.  He wasn’t telling me  anything I did not already know.  We joked about it.  He too likes to try out new things and told me that the penny dropped when he was filling out his tax return… the biggest contributor to his bottom line is still his insurance business.

In marketing you learn that even though you want to add a new product, a new source of revenue, you never do so at the expense of an income producing item. The only time an income contributing item is up for discussion is when the new product has replaced the income of the old one.

This is true in anything we do in business.  If your desire is to earn an online income because you want to escape the tedium of the 9-5, don’t even think of throwing in the towel and going full time without first building a strong and viable online business.   Build it up on a part time basis while being the best employee that you can be.  Block time.  Work it.  It won’t happen overnight – guaranteed – but you will begin to see increments of progress and one day there it is, an online income equal to that of your employment!

Along the way you will be making many decisions.  What affiliate products to promote.  Which ones to continue with, which ones to drop.  What marketing channels to use.  Which ones to increase, which ones to stop.  Whether to develop your own product.  How to joint venture.  As you navigate through the intricacies of business  don’t forget to ask yourself the question:  what is my french fries?

It is when your online income  equals that of your employment that you will have an enviable choice to make:  whether to stay as an employee and continue  your internet marketing on a part time basis, or to become a full blown entrepreneur.  You might surprise yourself and find that the job you hate isn’t so hateful after all.  It’s amazing how people see things differently when faced with a choice driven not by need, but by success.

But until then, don’t ignore the fries!

As I was doing my blog rounds this morning, I came across a comment on Website In A Weekend The topic of the day’s post was on being “done” with something … you know, like a plumber goes and does his job and at the end its done.  No more planning, continuity, fine tuning etc.  The comment that got my attention was this one:

That’s why I like doing dishes. when they’re done they’re done…clean, dry, and warm.

Carlos is a wicked blogger. He’s brand new to the game – or at least his blog Conscious One is and he knows a thing or two about life… but Carlos, darling, sweetheart, have you never heard of that old and now hackneyed saying “a woman’s work is never done?”  … back in the oooolllldddd days, men would not be caught dead anywhere near a sink let alone doing the dishes!  I know, times have changed.

That comment brought up an image of residual.  You know how we all want to have a residual income where you get paid over and over and over for doing something once.  Authors and movie stars come to mind as the obvious candidates – they get money dropping down to their bottom line every time a book sells or a movie is viewed, at least while the royalty legal is in effect.  A residual or passive income is what blogging for money is about.

But residual dishwashing?

Yeah, yeah, yeah!   I know you don’t get paid over and over and over for doing the dishes once, in fact unless you are the dishwasher at a restaurant you don’t get even a measly dinero for your effort no matter how often the dirty deed is done.   No, what I am thinking here is that doing dishes is like residual work – you get them done and put away nicely into the cupboard and like magic, there they are again, all dirty and smudged with sauces or residues of a meal, and they need to get washed again!

I have noticed in our household – all two of us, so I know who the culprit is and it is not I – that not only do the dishes need daily attention, but they even have this nasty habit of just collecting in the sink!  Huh?  I mean, how hard is it to put them in the dishwasher?  OK … ongoing domestic issue which I won’t get into here.  Ohhh, and while on the subject, once they do get into the dishwasher and get all suddsed up, scrubbed clean and dried who is it that eventually empties them and puts them into their nice little spaces in the cupboards?  Hmmm?  Hmmm?  It is not he I guarantee.  Oh, slightly off topic here, not meaning for this to become a rant (just don’t get my hackles up) or air my laundry in the blogosphere.

In fact this kind of residual work is the least rewarding – at least it is to me.  The results are fleeting at best.  Hardly the sort of motivational material that the feel good gurus go mining for.

Same thing with cleaning.  Vacuum.  Damp mop the floors.  Clean the bathroom!  Oh the list is endless.  Now I know, that there are actually women out there who claim to love to clean house.  There may even be such men, but I have never met one while I have heard with my very own ears, these most strangest and foreign of words “… I love cleaning my house….” drop from the lips of a woman.  More than once!  Yes.  Honest.  I have heard these very words even from friends.

There is something wrong with this statement.  Upon hearing that one of my own circle loves to clean, of course I immediately step up to the plate and offer her more happiness – my own house for her to clean.  You would think that anyone who LOVES to clean would jump at the opportunity to do more of what she loves so I really don’t understand the why of the painfully withered look that I am subjected to with nary a word of explanation for the contorted muscles on her face.

Now take doing the laundry … puhleeze, someone?  The laundry basket is a perpetual source of clothing, surely it can’t be just ours, I mean there is only the two of us and since my wardrobe takes me from morn to noon to night there isn’t a whole lot of changing going on (such are the blessings of a stay at home blogger) – obviously it is HE!  AGAIN!

And they say that women are clotheshorses!  Weeelll…. ok, in my previous corporate life I had a vereeee nice closet filled with clothes destined for certain “jobs” but that may be a post for another day. But with a Blog Income Life business, drop dead gorgeous suits, silky blouses and shirts, soft hand tooled leather shoes don’t draw traffic to your site (not to mention that the paycheck hasn’t reached the point of supporting  …  oh but the Armani suits!  Hmmm….. be still my beating heart, do not apply for that executive position that a certain well connected friend mentioned.  Remember the commute, the corporate politics, the quotas, the backstabbing, the deadlines, yes, take a deep breath, feet firmly planted on the ground,  aaahhh, I am over it.

Armani?  Did I hear Armani?

Shush!

Oh. Off topic again!

Carlos my darling, you are delusional.  Dishes never get “done”

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

Valentina

I hadn’t defragged my computer for some time … I know, it is a task that should be performed regularly and frequently.  You can imagine how surprised I was then when a message popped up saying I had only 2% space left on my hard disk!  No wonder it was running so slowly, and I was putting it down to its aging status.

Panic gripped me.  Ice water ran through my veins.  The heart pumped faster.  Incredulously I looked at the message again.  How could this be?

Quickly I set about going through the files on my computer.  Surprise, surprise.  After what seemed like hours of tossing out old files I only managed to free it up to 6%.  Clearly there is plenty more tossing to do.

Why the panic?  The first image that played like a looping YouTube video was that my computer was on the brink of a crash and all for want of timely, scheduled maintenance.  The mere thought sent shivers up my spine.  Visions of rushing the machine to the local Geek Store and leaving it in the ICU care loomed large and clear, or worse yet, having to call out a paratechie to pay a house call!  Either/or images of winged dollars leaving my bank account floated overhead.

Blogging for money is a serious business;  it is important that your tools are kept in tip top shape and that means keeping your computer running on full steam.  I was just on the verge of downloading some more material, but something nagged at me and told me I should defrag.

Good thing, that nagging feeling. Not having use of my computer for a day at best – that would be in the case of the paratechie coming to my house – or, as it happened once before, up to a week being revived at the Geek Store is not a good business practice.  First, time is irrecoverable;  second, nasty dent to the bank balance, and third, the stress factor would have sent blood pressure through the roof.   There is also the not so subtle message that with so little space you are restricting your own potential.

As I was tossing out old files, some that went as far back as 2006, I was tempted to start reading some of them, or view the videos.  Quickly I purged the mere thought of it.  Were some good things sent to the circular bin?  No doubt. But if I have not made use of them in almost 4 years, chances are that I am not going to miss them.

If you are like me, downloading stuff and filing it for later attention your computer may be choking too.  The techies can skip this as of course this would never happen to you, but to the rest of the techno challenged world, the first thing you need to do is to check on the wellbeing of your computer.  To the uninitiated go to All Programs, click on Accessories, then Systems Tools and then Disk Cleanup.  After the cleanup has been performed repeat this path only this time instead of Disc Cleanup, click on Disk Defragmenter and let the system go to work.

After this experience I am going to scope out the various services available that allow you to store valuable information out there in cyber space.  There are both free and for fee options. Using such a service will not only free up valuable space on my computer, but have a side benefit of being able to access the needed info from any computer no matter where I am.  What that means is that the next time I travel, I will be able to leave the mother ship laptop at home and take a lightweight mini sized one instead.

The health of your computer does indeed have everything to do with your blog income – do the basic maintenance yourself and once a year, take it over to the local Geek Store for its annual checkup.

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

Valentina

]]> http://www.blogincomelife.com/clear-the-clutter-for-expansion/feed/ 2 http://www.blogincomelife.com/five-internet-marketing-trends-for-2010/ http://www.blogincomelife.com/five-internet-marketing-trends-for-2010/#comments Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:20:05 +0000 Valentina http://www.blogincomelife.com/?p=558 Blogging for money is a business and goes beyond fresh daily content on your blog.  Latching on early to trends is a sure way to grow your blog income. Taking full advantage of those trends may actually require an investment – the hard dollar type.  Here are some of my random thoughts on the internet, blogging and trends.

We are fortunate that in the world of the internet you can actually start a business with the most affordable investment currency of all:  time.  But time is helped along immensely when it’s given tools to work with and good tools often come with a price tag.

To that end, I’ve been watching to see if I can spot some trends that are happening in the blog world and which tools might best aid you and me in our blog income business.   I base my observations from the daily offers that flood my inbox, newsletters and other blogs on blogging. Here are five of the most obvious trends I have noted:

1.  Pre-built Niche Sites:
This is not a new trend but it seems to be the business model of the year and still picking up speed.  There are variables but essentially what you buy into is a researched niche that has income potential.  For a fee the supplier will set up a site, fill it with content, monetize it for you and run it on their platform which includes access to their proprietary software program loaded with SEO.  The initial cost is usually around the $250 – $450 mark and then there is an ongoing monthly fee of about $97.  It is important to remember that although this is a “done for you” system, it is not a done for you business.  Once it is all set up, you need to work at it on an ongoing basis.

2. Membership Programs:
Again not a new model but as with pre-built niche sites this one seems to be gathering steam.  Usually this is a continuity program after you have bought the main course/system.  The premise behind membership programs is that the author/expert of the main product will continue to give important business building secrets to those who opt in for the membership option.  This can be in the form of newsletters, password protected entry to new online material as well as the opportunity to interact with your colleagues on password protected forums.  The cost of belonging to membership programs swings wildly, from as low as $1.95 to typically $97 per month.  Financial membership programs are significantly higher.

3.  Software Programs:
Seems to me like this one is a biggie.  There are plenty of good “systems” courses  available on the market to help you get started in internet marketing.  The challenge we all face once we have our online business up and running is to implement efficiencies, to spend less time in the business and bank more money.  One solution is software programs.  I personally know of several high profiled internet marketing gurus who are in the throes of developing software that cuts time while increasing performance.

Unlike systems for success, software for success takes much longer to develop, often years.  I think that the new year will usher in many software program launches – newer versions of existing ones or something completely new.  Typically, access to software programs is either a one time purchase or via a membership monthly fee.  Again the fees vary.

Some software programs are released while still in beta.  The advantage is that these are offered at an introductory price.  If you like what the program does then you can purchase or subscribe at the initial price which is bound to increase as the product progresses.   Purchases typically include all upgrades, while subscription based programs are locked in at the introductory price.

4. Big Sites:
I am beginning to see hints that we’re going to see more and more big sites.  As niche sites are going to become increasingly competitive due to the daily thousands who flock to their computers and the internet with the purpose of making an online income, the big site will take on a newly prominent profile and importance.

Big companies already have these and those with the capital will be able to throw these up in little to no time.  What this means for people like you and me though, is that we will have to rely on that good old currency called time and put in a lot of sweat equity to boot.  Suggestion: continue with your small niche marketing, and start a long term project with a big site in mind.

Ewen Chia who does offer built-for-you niche sites also alludes to selecting more competitive topics and marketing the living daylights out of them.  John Reese too has some strong thoughts and ideas on this very topic.  Do I smell “launch?”  You bet I do.

5. Good Content:
The concept of purely publishing search engine directed content on your blog is passé.  Well written, informative content is going to win hands down every time over keyword stuffed content with little thought of its value to the reader.  Those bots are getting smarter all the time and may even penalize you for obvious keyword stuffing with no redeeming value to your readers.

I am sure there are other trends out there.  What have you spotted in your daily rounds on the internet world?  What trends are you planning to implement into your blog income business? Post your thoughts and comments below.

To Your Awesome Blog Income Life!

Valentina

Are trends cheesy?

Sundays are catch up mornings for me.  Typically it’s the time I spend catching up on the little things in my e.box, you know non blog income items flagged but not urgent, jokes, Facebook and Twitter announcements of new followers or invites to become friends – ok, the last two could be Blog Income items, but you get the idea, it’s not a blogging for money day.

I give myself two hours – what doesn’t get attended to suffers the fate of the delete key. I give myself another hour to go over my Google Reader and read up on items of interest that I may have I missed on my daily scan of this service.  After that it’s a day off.  Today, maybe dim sum in Richmond and then a walk by the bay – yes, even in the rain.

The first item that caught my eye this morning was a post by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.  I don’t know how I missed this earlier.  I am a raving fan of his.  It is an article on story posts on his blog.  His observation is that over the years the posts that told stories were the most popular. That is not surprising as stories engage the reader.  It is that rule we learned in sales:  facts tell stories sell.  You can read the full article here

The post got me thinking.  I prefer writing stories over technical reports and have enormous admiration for those who can present good, clear facts without much froufrou and still keep the reader engaged.  I had such a challenge this week.

Recently I was invited to author a chapter for an upcoming book.  It was on a subject I know well but the publisher asked for a slightly different twist on it.  For weeks I had the devil of a time trying to manipulate the information in such a way that it would mesh with the new angle.  Writer’s block loomed large as deadline date drew closer.  What to do.  What I had in my computer was dull and boring even to me.  How could I expect others to read it. How could I let the publisher down?

Then I had an idea.  What if I approached the angle from a storyline?  I phoned the publisher and told him what I had in mind.  I can tell you his response wasn’t exactly extatic.  “Sure” he said tentatively “send me a few paragraphs and the rest of the content in point format.  I did.

Suddenly my creative juices began to flow.  I finished the chapter in two days.  Had it reviewed by a friend who said she was galvanized every step of the way. Submitted it just under the wire.

Haven’t heard back from the publisher yet.  I think he’ll like it.  If not it’s not a bad piece of work and I can certainly put it to use in some other way.

Stories are easier to write, at least for me and for most people.  When you think about it blogs started with stories, that’s what a journal is, it is the daily story of something, often that of a personal experience.  The next time you are faced with writer’s block dig deep into your own experiences and fish out those that have a connection with the topic on which you write, guaranteed, your fingers will start flying over your keypad and you’ll be one step closer to an awesome blog income life!

Happy Blogging!

Valentina
Blogging for some good cheese.

What with all the hullabaloo on money and banks these days, I decided to attend a seminar on wealth creation. To get us thinking in the right direction, the speaker started off by telling us about the rule of 72.  You’ve probably heard about this but just as a refresher, the rule of 72 estimates the length of time it will take you to double your money at a given compound interest rate by dividing that rate into 72, so, if your interest is 12%, you divide that into 72 and the answer is that it will take about 6 years to double your money.

The interesting thing with this rule is that once you begin to double your money it begins to take on a snowball effect as each year thereafter is a rolling 6 years.  That’s when your money begins to grow at increasing rates of speed.

It struck me then that a blog is much the same.

Never mind the paltry interest rates banks pay us today.  Just stay with me.  The more frequently you make deposits into your bank, the better the balance.  The better the bank balance, the more interest accrued each year which means more money.  The early deposits are the most powerful even though they may be smaller than later ones.  The early deposits are the ones that gather most steam.

That’s what got me thinking that a blog is just like a bank – your bank!  The most basic fundamental of a blog is posts, consider them as deposits or investments of time and talent.

The more frequent your posts, the more notice your blog will get from the search engines which in turn means more traffic which then turns into conversions or sales.  Its hard work at the beginning and at times may seem that you are standing still maybe even going backwards.  Eventually consistent effort begins to pay off: traffic increases, visitors begin to post comments, your blog begins to gain credibility which means more traffic.  It’s a numbers game from there on – more traffic, more conversions be they Adsense, affiliate or sponsored ads.

Just like the example that our seminar presenter gave us on money doubling every so many years, your blog results will be more significant if the hard work is put in at the beginning and by beginning I mean it could be a year, two or three.  From there on as your results multiply, the amount of time and attention given to the blog can be reduced somewhat and still bring you growing results.

Here is what I really like about this, the investment/deposit is your time.  Everyone has  the same amount of time.  How you use it determines how you live.   Carve out some time, take it away from watching TV and put it towards growing your blog income. It’s the best kind of return on investment that I can think of.

Life gets good.

Happy Blogging!

Valentina
Blogging is the big cheese!

]]> http://www.blogincomelife.com/the-bank-of-blog-income/feed/ 2 http://www.blogincomelife.com/ftc-and-blog-income-disclosure/ http://www.blogincomelife.com/ftc-and-blog-income-disclosure/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:05:13 +0000 Valentina http://www.blogincomelife.com/?p=353 Well hold on to your horses and smack those bots that visit your blog.  If you have a blog that is meant to make an income, listen up, this is important.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has laid down the law as to what can and cannot be claimed on the internet and if “claims” are made, a disclosure statement needs to accompany it. Furthermore, if we stand to make a financial gain from any content on our blog including advertising, affiliate promotions, links and anchor text that may take the reader to a “sales page” where they then purchase a product, a disclosure needs to be made.   This takes effect December 01, 2009.

To put this into perspective lets take this new law outside of the internet; it would be the same as if magazines and newspapers would have to put a disclosure clause somewhere on each of their publications that they get reimbursement for all the ads that appear on their pages. Golly, gee, whiz!  You mean that these publications are in the publishing game to make money?

I suspect that this new law came into being because of the bleating of the “I want to get rich quick” crowd, those who want to get rich quick without lifting a finger and when it doesn’t happen, they cry foul!   Bull dung!

This new law is just another example of the creeping molly coddling of our society.  It is there to “protect” the unwary from falling prey to promises of riches and presumes that the average human is unable to make a logical decision – ok, they may have a point there as time and time again, someone is left holding an empty bank account after replying to that infamous Nigerian letter and it’s morphed offspring of lottery wins and the hapless soldier who found a stash of moolah while serving in Iraq/Afghanistan/pick a country and needs help to get it out of there –   and we the sheeples genuflect on bended knee and say it is good!

OK … this blog is not meant to be a commentary on human behavior … !!!  Lets get back on track.

What we have to do.

If your are blogging for money, if  there is the remotest possibility that your blog will make you some money, you need to post a disclosure.  You can get one done for you for free at  Disclosure Policy.  Just log on, answer the questions, and voila! your disclosure statement is done for you.  Post it on your blog.  I just published mine on the Contact Page of this blog.

Happy Blogging!

Valentina
Blogger for money …
… it’s all about the cheese.