B³H³ Blog Network

Is every blog that’s out there on the Internet a potential pot of gold waiting for the owner to realize it and slap some ads on it? 

No.  If only it were that simple!

The truth is that there’s a huge gulf between a blog that’s got the potential of making a few bucks a month and a blog that’s capable of earning some serious cash.  The trick is to be able to tell the difference between these three types and come up with a blog that’s better positioned for generating revenue.  In this post I am going to look at how to tell the difference between topics that have little hope of making money and those that stand a chance.

The key factor to running is successful blog is to have high levels of traffic.  If you’re looking for the magic bullet, the golden key, the genie in the lamp, then this is it.  It’s so simple that people overlook it and get caught up looking for some gimmicky trick that will substitute for having lots and lots of people visiting the site.

High traffic means lot of eyes on the page.  Lots of eyes on the page translates into more clicks on ads.  More clicks on ads means more money in your pocket.  It really is that simple.

Starting from the principle that it’s high traffic that dictates whether a blog will be suited to making money or not, let’s look at what separates a blog that has good potential from one that has very little.

If a blog needs a lot of visitors to make money then the main question that you should have is “where do these visitors come from?”  It is safe to say that, unless you have money to spend on an ad campaign or you already have a high traffic website you can leverage, then most of your visitors are going to have to come to your site from a search engine.  This means your visitors will have sat in front of their computers, fired up a web browser and carried out a search using their favorite search engine (which, statistically, is probably going to be Google, Yahoo! or MSN) and clicked on a link to your site. 

What you need to do is:

1. To work on getting the keywords that people search for into your site (by discussing these topics)
2. Appear at, or close to, the top of the list of pages returned by the search engine

In this article I’m not going to look at ways that you can do either of the steps above (that’s for future articles) but thinking along these lines will help you to figure out why some blogs are better suited to having high traffic levels than others.

Let’s take two examples:

• A personal journal blog
• A blog about kites

Are people more likely to search on keywords that appear in a personal journal or a blog about kites?  Well, straight away, it’s apparent that the kite blog is going to be rich in keywords relating to kites, while the personal blog is going to be unfocused in its scope.

Which topic are people most likely to search on?  Well, I don’t know how big the market for kites it but I bet that its a lot bigger than the pool of people interested in reading other people’s journals.  Even if there was a huge demand for new personal journals to read, the web is so loaded with this kind of blog that the chances someone would find your blog over another is small.  There are fewer sites that discuss kites so you have to do less work (note that I said less work, not no work!) to get noticed.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some personal journals that receive a lot of attention, but unless you have a very unique angle (for example, you’re an astronaut) then I’d say that it’s near impossible to make any real money from journal blogs.

There’s another key difference between the kite blog and the journal blog.  People who search for kite related keywords are likely to be looking for something to buy than are people who want to read someone else’s journal.  You have to do less work to get people to click on ads if they have money burning a hole in their pocket and are already looking to spend it!

If you are searching for a niche market then a good place to start is to think about the sorts of things you search for on the Internet.  Pay close attention to searches where you are looking for help in buying something or to look for choices - any one of these might harbor a niche that’s waiting to be exploited!  If you’ve searched for something, then chances are other people are going to be interested in that topic too.

It seems that everyone wants to make money from a blog nowadays (it’s a .com craze for the masses) and Steve Pavlina has posted what I think is an excellent article on how to make money from blogging.

This article by Steve is a monster article (like most articles he writes) and having read it a few times I think that it can be summarized in one line:

          To make money from your blog you need to be confident!

Let’s examine what I mean by this. 

The Confidence to Get Started

First off, Steve raises the point “Do you actually want to monetize your blog?”  This is the first step in making money from your blog - to decide that you want to!  Sounds simple enough but I’m amazed how many people I’ve come across who want to make money from their blog (and many actually have a viable platform) but who never take the step of actually doing it.  What’s stopping them?

Simple.  A lack of confidence. 

It’s amazing how many “reasons” (another word for excuses) that people will come up with.  If you want to be someone who earns money from your blog then you need to put all these “reasons” on one side and get on with it. 

Get started!

The Confidence to Do it Right

If you are going to monetize your blog then you’re going to have to approach it with confidence.  Most ad schemes work off of people actually clicking on an ad and then you getting paid for that click.  This means that ads need to be displayed prominently.  They need to be seen to be clicked on. 

It’s easy to spot someone who had the confidence to get started but who then didn’t have the confidence to do it right because the ads will be there but they will be small, and difficult to see.

If you’re going to put ads on your site then place them in areas where they are going to be seen and be clicked on (more on this in a later post).  Yes, they are bound to annoy a small percentage of your readership who frequented your blog before you put ads on it but they are going to feel that way whether you put them in an effective spot or not (and by the way, this is why it’s a good idea to get ads on your site from day one - your visitors get used to them right from the start).

Be Confident with Technology

A key factor to being able to successfully monetize a blog is being good with technology.  If you have your heart set on making money from blogging then, unless you are going to pay someone else to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to technology, you’re going to have to do it yourself. 

Two key success factors here are:

• Learn to use a search engines effectively - this way you can find what you need to learn quicker.
• Experiment like crazy - practice what you learn.  If you don’t want to risk messing up your blog then install a private copy that you can use as a testbed.

The Confidence to Continue

Most people don’t make money from their blog because they don’t stick with it for long enough.  In fact, many give up just at the time when they could, if they stuck with it a few weeks longer, have started to reap the rewards of their hard work.

If you’re serious about turning a blog into a revenue generator then you’re in it for the long haul.  Unless you are super-lucky or have super connections then expect to spend the first few weeks or months talking to yourself in your blog.  Once you get past that stage you then have the much longer stage in front of you.  This is where you’ll be gaining enough visitors so that you start getting clicks on your ads.  Again, unless you are super-lucky, don’t expect any real action for the first 6 - 12 months. 

I told you you were in it for the long haul!

Have Fun!

Finally, a stage that doesn’t demand much confidence - remember to have fun!  One of the key factors in making a successful income from blogging is to enjoy yourself.  If you don’t enjoy the process of creating a post then chances are the reader will pick up on this and not enjoy the experience of reading it. 

Remember - Enjoy the process!  If there are days when you don’t feel like blogging then don’t.  Take a break and come back to it fresh.  Your blog and your readers will thank you for it!