Despite what many get rich quick ebooks may say it's not easy making a living blogging, or from any type of website. The truth is that many webmasters struggle to even pay their hosting bills from advertising or sales, so why do so many blogs struggle to make money?
No specific target market. This is a big problem with general blogs as they have no real specific audience and so can't sell targeted advertising. In order for advertising to convert into sales you have know what your audience is looking for first.
Even if you are getting targeted traffic to a specific niche it still needs to be traffic with a buying purpose in mind. For example if you have a funny videos site there's really no way to make money from it because nobody visiting is expecting to make a purchase at any point, either for you or your advertisers.
It's important to create content that sells, and this goes for blogs as well as ecommerce sites. E.g. if your promoting an affiliate product in a post you really have to drive home why it's so good and why you endorse it in order for people to "believe". You can't just drop a link at the end and hope people click it out of curiosity.
I like flashy designs as much as the next person but your design should never get in the way of your sites usability. If people can't find the content they want fast then they'll be hitting the back button very soon. Use colors in the navigation that are easy to read and make sure you have a search that's easy to use. You have to push people to the pages that make you money and site design is a big part of this.
Using the wrong type of advertising is something I see again and again, even on really successful blogs. For a start advertising should always be related to the content and the sites theme. It amazes me when I see banner ads for carpet cleaner on tech news blogs, how's that ever going to convert?
So as you can probably tell earning a living blogging isn't the easiest thing to do. But there is a big market out there for webmasters who can deliver both great content and advertising in professional way. I hope these tips help.
No specific target market. This is a big problem with general blogs as they have no real specific audience and so can't sell targeted advertising. In order for advertising to convert into sales you have know what your audience is looking for first.
Even if you are getting targeted traffic to a specific niche it still needs to be traffic with a buying purpose in mind. For example if you have a funny videos site there's really no way to make money from it because nobody visiting is expecting to make a purchase at any point, either for you or your advertisers.
It's important to create content that sells, and this goes for blogs as well as ecommerce sites. E.g. if your promoting an affiliate product in a post you really have to drive home why it's so good and why you endorse it in order for people to "believe". You can't just drop a link at the end and hope people click it out of curiosity.
I like flashy designs as much as the next person but your design should never get in the way of your sites usability. If people can't find the content they want fast then they'll be hitting the back button very soon. Use colors in the navigation that are easy to read and make sure you have a search that's easy to use. You have to push people to the pages that make you money and site design is a big part of this.
Using the wrong type of advertising is something I see again and again, even on really successful blogs. For a start advertising should always be related to the content and the sites theme. It amazes me when I see banner ads for carpet cleaner on tech news blogs, how's that ever going to convert?
So as you can probably tell earning a living blogging isn't the easiest thing to do. But there is a big market out there for webmasters who can deliver both great content and advertising in professional way. I hope these tips help.
