Blog, Inc.

Blogging for Passion, Profit, and to Create Community

Joy Deangdeelert Cho, Meg Mateo Ilasco, Meg Mateo Ilasco

• Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781452120492
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Digital Marketing
• Index: Business

With roughly 95, 000 blogs launched worldwide every 24 hours (BlogPulse), making a fledgling site stand out isn't easy. This authoritative handbook gives creative hopefuls a leg up. Joy Cho, of the award-winning Oh Joy!, offers expert advice on starting and growing a blog, from design and finance to overcoming blogger's block, attracting readers, and more. With a foreword from Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge plus expert interviews, this book will fine-tune what the next generation of bloggers shares with the world.

CHAPTER No 06

{ MONETIZING Your BLOG }

You’re officially immersed in blog land: your traffic is increasing and you’ve become acquainted with your readers and the community your blog has created. You’re probably starting to wonder about the income-earning potential of your blog. For some, their blog is a side hobby that they are happy to have simply as a creative outlet; for others, their blog adds a bit of pocket change and supplemental income. And a growing group of bloggers are able to earn up to six figures from their full-time blogging pursuits. There’s an infinite range of possibilities as to what your blog could become and its potential earning power. In this chapter, we’ll discuss the various methods of monetizing your blog, what to charge, how to prepare a media kit for potential ad sponsors, and how to disclose any sponsored relationships to your readers.

MEASURING TRAFFIC and UNDERSTANDING ANALYTICS

Before you dive in to advertising, you’ll need to assess your traffic flow. Whether you use Google Analytics, IndexTools (Yahoo’s analytics program), or a tool that comes with your blogging platform, it’s important to have an analytics code embedded in your site so you can track your blog’s stats. Each tool will differ in the way its interface appears, but all of them provide vital information that compiles your blog’s traffic on a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. The most important stats and information include the following:

The number of unique visitors (daily or monthly) that your blog attracts tells how big your audience (or reach) is. This stat counts each person separately. For example, 2,300 unique visitors per day means that even if someone went to your site three times that day, they’d usually be counted once in your daily statistics.

The average length of time visitors spend on your site tells you whether readers are staying for a minute or ten minutes during a single visit. If readers come to your site regularly, they may take a look at new content only, while readers who are new to your site may spend some extra time perusing your archives.

The number of page views tells how many of your blog’s pages were viewed within a given time period (daily, weekly, or monthly). If someone visits your site and just reads the content on the front page, one page view would be counted, but if they go back to archived pages, each additional page is counted as a new page view. Usually monthly page views are the most important for your media kit. Installing a widget like LinkWithin can help increase your page views, as it provides thumbnails under each post that alert readers to past content they might be interested in.

The bounce rate indicates how quickly a user leaves a blog. A bounce rate under 65 percent is considered good and is worth mentioning in your media kit, as it shows that readers are staying to read your content and not clicking away too quickly.

Traffic sources indicate where your visitors are coming from, how they find you, and what sites are linking to your blog. If you see a spike in traffic one day, this section will help you figure out where the additional traffic came from, such as from another blog or your Twitter feed.

Visitor information offers more in-depth details on your readers, including where they live, what browsers they use, and what search terms they entered to land on your site. Depending on your blog and your types of sponsors, some of these details may be helpful for your media kit.

There are also more advanced stats that these tracking tools offer, depending on what you want to know, like which posts were the most viewed; but the aforementioned are the main stats about your site that advertisers will be interested in hearing about.

RSS

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a very common method that many readers use to read blogs these days. Rather than going to each site separately, they get daily updates from all their favorite blogs all in one place through this subscription-style service. So, you’ll want to make sure you provide an RSS link for them. You can also track your RSS feed’s stats by installing FeedBurner (see Resources), which gives readers a direct link to your RSS feed and allows you to track their reading behavior. Once installed, you can see not only how many people are subscribing to your site, but also how many of them click over to your blog from the feed.

THE ABCs OF SEO

As a new blog, you’re probably eager to get your site in front of new potential readers. With search engine optimization (SEO), you can increase the visibility of your blog by helping it to move higher up in Internet search engine results. While you can certainly hire SEO experts and consultants to optimize your site, most bloggers starting out don’t have the funds to go that route. Luckily, there are things you can do on your own for no cost at all. To help increase your ranking, simply take these extra steps when composing your posts or saving your image files:

^No 1 Index Your Site

Your blog host may offer an option to index your site, or add it to search engine listings, so that your blog will begin to show up on search engines as soon as you start generating content. But you can also submit your URL for inclusion in Google’s index through a simple online form. There’s no guarantee that they’ll accept it, but it’s worth submitting it to their “Add your URL to Google” page.

^No 2 Use Keyword-Rich Text When Linking

When linking to other sites, use the actual names of artists, companies, or stores in your post. For example, if you link the rubber stamp that was used for your homemade holiday cards to the Kate’s Paperie Web site, the link should say, “Rubber Stamp from Kate’s Paperie” (with the words “Kate’s Paperie” hyperlinked), as opposed to linking with a vague term like “click here,” “buy this,” or “source.” Piggyback on the power of those you link to, as users are likely to search for those key words and may find your post among the listings.

^No 3 Title and Tag with Common Phrases

Apply titles and tags to all posts, and be sure to use keywords that are popular and common. For example, search engines will read the title “vanilla ice cream recipe” more clearly and quickly than “whipped frozen treat.” Or tag your home renovation post with “kitchen” or “bedroom” instead of “dream house.” You can also use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker to find the optimal words or phrasing to use. Not only does this help with SEO and readers accessing your content more easily, but tagging also helps you self-organize your own blog by creating consistent tags for your content.

^No 4 Name Files with Short Dashes

When saving images to upload into your posts or naming the permalink for your post, use keywords separated by short dashes (instead of an underscore) so that it’s easy for a search engine to understand. For example, an image of Clinique lipstick should be labeled “clinique-lipstick.webp.” Also, make sure not to leave any spaces blank. If you have spaces between words instead of dashes and name the same image file above “clinique lipstick.webp,” it will appear as “clinique%20%lipstick.webp” on image searches, which is not very SEO friendly.

^No 5 Crosslink

The more your site is mentioned and linked to, the higher it will rise in search results. You can use this to your benefit by linking to your old posts or past stories when applicable.

^No 6 Use SEO Plug-ins and Programs

Various plug-ins can be installed on your blog to help increase its SEO potential. Some platforms, like WordPress, offer SEO plug-ins as part of your hosting package. Other tools (like Scribe) or software (like SEOmoz) are separate and will scan your posts and make suggestions about ways you can add important keywords or subtract words that are not as effective. These services vary in pricing (usually a fee from $17 to $100 per month) based on the level of help you need. Once installed on your blog, they will also monitor your stats and give you suggestions to improve your overall SEO.

INTERVIEW

No

Emily Schuman

CUPCAKES AND CASHMERE

LOS ANGELES, CA

IN NEED OF A CREATIVE OUTLET from the everyday doldrums of her advertising job, Emily Schuman started her blog, Cupcakes and Cashmere, in 2008 as a place to merge her two interests: fashion and food. The ability to think editorially came naturally to her thanks to a background in media studies and sociology and stints at Teen Vogue, Domino, and AOL. However, she wanted her blog to offer a more behind-the-scenes personality and show readers things such as a real girl’s wardrobe on a lazy Sunday or a tutorial on homemade ice-cream drumsticks. What started as a place for her to share her love of fashion and food now generates more than 8.3 million page views a month. Her self-made fashionista status has led to dream gigs including designing a bag for Coach, serving as a face for a Forever 21 advertising campaign, and being photographed by Garance Doré for Glamour. Now a full-time blogger, Emily serves as a shining example of the importance of authenticity. By only posting content she feels is the right fit, she demonstrates how originality and sincerity can lead to amazing things—like her newest book, Cupcakes and Cashmere.

How has the content of your blog changed or evolved?

When I started, fashion blogs and food blogs were mutually exclusive, and I wanted to combine both of my interests into one site. I wasn’t cooking much in the beginning, so I talked more about dining out—like a great breakfast spot or where to get sushi by the beach. On the fashion end, I’d post about new clothing lines that I thought people should know about. Since I had worked at magazines and my brain functioned editorially, the blog was a bit more editorial initially. Now I’m much more a part of my blog, as it shows a lot of my life. I think that shift to a more personal angle came from realizing that people are looking for inspiration from a real person.

A lot of your content is self-generated, including photos of your outfits or what you’re cooking. How important is unique content to the success of a blog?

For me, content that readers can’t find everywhere is really important. But you have to make sure that when you’re posting your own c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 01: Introduction to Blogging
• Chapter 02: Finding Your Voice and Niche
• Chapter 03: Powering Your Blog
• Chapter 04: Blogging Community Etiquette
• Chapter 05: Making Your Blog a Business
• Chapter 06: Monetizing Your Blog
• Chapter 07: The Next Stage of Blogging Growth
• Resources
• Index
• Acknowledgments