Lisa
Laxton
Intro
to Mass Media
April
21, 2014
Blogging
for Bucks
Are you a know it all on a particular subject? Do you have a unique hobby? Do you have an
interesting writing style that pulls people in and makes them want to read more? Are you funny or quick witted? If you
answered yes to one or more of these questions, then blogging for a living
might be a career option for you.
The internet has changed all of our lives in one way or
another. For one group of bloggers it
has become their way of making ends meet and paying the bills; it has made them
quite wealthy in fact. You might even go
so far as to say they are now filthy stinkin’ rich! There are many reasons why someone might
start a blog. Maybe you want to express
an opinion, promote or market a product or service, help others or share an
expertise on a specific subject. When
blogging first started in the early 90’s I doubt very many early bloggers
thought it was a platform that held the potential for them to make millions of
dollars from their blog. Today people
know this and it is this knowledge and/or a need to be heard causing more and
more blogs pop up each and every day.
According to Incomediary.com, following is a list of the
top 5 Money Making Blogs, who owns/operates them, their monthly income and what
their primary income source is.
1. The
Huffington Post owned by Arianna Huffington, income of $2,330,000 monthly from
pay per click.
2. Mashable
owned by Pete Cashmore, income of $560,000 monthly from Advertising Banners.
3. Perez
Hilton owned by Mario Lavandeira, income of $450,000 monthly from Advertising
Banners.
4. Techcrunch
owned by Michael Arrington, income of $450,000 monthly from Advertising
Banners.
5. Smashing
Magazine owned by Vitaly Friedman, income of $400,000 monthly from Advertising
Banners. (Dunlop)
The content of these
blogs varies widely proving that a multitude of subjects have the ability to be
successful.
So, now that you have decided you want to be a
millionaire, uhm I mean you want to start a blog, what is your next step? Deciding which format you want to use for
your blog is a good starting point. Using
Blogger, WordPress or your own URL are all potential ideas. There are many other options to choose
from. If you have an existing website
for your company, then just adding a tab for your blog to your website would be
a quick and easy way to go. Do your
research and determine which option is better suited to your goals and skill
set before you make your final decision.
Some formats are more user friendly than others and do not need a huge
amount of technical knowledge.
Once you have nailed down which format you will use it is
important to make a final decision about what the subject or topic of your blog
will be. Are you going to write about
your family home life and share the details with the world in a funny or satirical
way? Does your family face a challenge
on a daily basis like reactive associative disorder (RAD) or autism that you
could help educate other families about?
Do you have something you are passionate about? Maybe photography, religion, cooking, sports,
politics, wildlife, scrapbooking or another hobby could be a potential subject
for your blog. It could be helpful for
you to research existing blogs prior to making your final decision. If you find lots of blogs already existing
about your potential subject, then you might want to go with another idea. This research will also help you determine
what you do or don't like about what other bloggers are doing.
Now that you have determined your subject material, it is
time to get started. Designing your blog
and crafting your writing style to match your chosen topic are very important
steps. Start out with a solid simple
design that flows well. You can worry
about adding cool add-ons and widgets later.
Your design will be the first thing your readers notice and could decide
if they read anything you type at all. If
you are writing tech reviews on cutting edge new technology your visual design
needs to be sleek and techie. The use of
Crayola fonts and fuzzy bears on your background would totally conflict with
your subject. On the same note, your
writing style needs to match also. You
need to be able to speak on the same level as the audience you are trying to
reach.
With your initial design layout in place, it is time to
posting to your blog and building your fan base. For the non-techie side of this a great place
to start is social media sites. Using
Twitter to post links to your blog when you make new posts and at other times
offer snippets of information or tips and then link back to your blog. Facebook and Google + are also great places
to start promoting your blog. Reddit and
Linked In are two more of the many remaining options you can utilize. One of the keys to this type of promotion is consistency. It is critical for you to post on a consistent
regular basis in order for people to take note and remember you. According to Carol Tice, “The more often your site is updated, the more often
search-engines come back to see what's new. That helps drive up your rankings
in search -- and send more readers to your blog.” (Tice)
Once you are all set with your social media cross
promotion, it is time to start working on your search engine optimization (SEO)
and your key words. SEO and keywords and used to route traffic to your blog when someone searches for something that
is relevant to what your blog is about.
If you focus on photography, it is important that you think of every
possible tag word or key word that might be tied back to your subject. Photography could result in the following
tags: photo, photographer, photography,
photog, pictures, picture, camera, cameras, dslr, and digital camera. These are just a few of the possible words
that could be used. If you get more
specific and the subject is newborn photography, then there are even more words
that could be added.
Ok, your blog is up and running and you have been typing
your fingers to the bone bouncing from one social media site to another
commenting, tweeting and getting your name out there. You have poured your blood, sweat and tears
into building this and now you want to know “Where is the dough?” How do you start seeing an income for all
your efforts? Most bloggers first turn
to AdSense as their initial ad revenue source.
AdSense is an advertising
placement service by Google. The program is designed for website publishers who
want to display targeted text, video or image advertisements on website pages
and earn money when site visitors view or click the ads. Another popular revenue stream is the Amazon
and other affiliate programs. An affiliate program is a marketing program where you can receive
commission for helping a parent company (such as HostGator) generate sales. Sponsorships and E-book are yet two more
ideas that could be utilized to generate income. Personal appearances and speaking fees
are additional opportunities that could open up for well-known bloggers. Kelly Anderson, states
“If your blog really becomes popular,
you might be able to expand your income opportunities beyond the web and into
the real world.” (Anderson)
Starting a blog really isn't rocket science and anyone
can do it. All it takes is an idea and a
commitment to making it happen. Doing
this research might be the spur I need to get back to posting on at least one
of my blogs on a regular basis. Maybe I
will even try to add some advertising banners or AdSense and see if I can make
a little extra cash somewhere down the line!
Works
Citied
Anderson, Kelly. Mintlife.com. 23 05 2013.
Story. 22 04 2014.
Dunlop, Michael. Incomediary.com. n.d. Web
Story. 22 04 2014.
Tice, Carol. Business.tutsplus.com. 31 01 2013.
Article. 22 04 2014.
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