Blogs and forums are ideal "traffic magnets" for a website.
Your website's visitors know that they are frequently
updated, and that they are interactive, so they keep
returning to "join the conversation."
Search engines know that they are frequently updated, so
search engine spiders frequent return to re-index their
content. Properly configured blogs will "ping" the search
engines and directories each time that they are posted to,
constantly calling the search engine spiders back.
Since blogs and forums even come pre-installed in C-panel
on many hosting accounts, getting a website going can be as
simple as registering a domain name, hosting it at a host
that offers C-panel, and with just a few clicks of a
button, selecting the blogging or forum platform that you
want to use.
You can even customize the look and feel of that blog or
forum later if you want to. That way, you can literally
have a website up and running in UNDER an hour. All that
you need to do is make the blog or forum your homepage, and
your site is literally ready for the world!
The big question has always been, how do you then earn
revenue from that blog or forum. Here are some options
that I use and recommend:
1) Use your blog or forum to build a niche mailing list
that you then market to via email. Simply post a
subscription form right into the html code of the blog or
forum that invites your visitors to join your mailing
list. If they enjoy the content on your blog or forum,
many visitors will subscribe. You'll build a mailing list
fairly effortless over time.
If you're really lazy, that mailing list subscription can
be to an "evergreen" newsletter. That is, you can write,
or have written, a series of email messages that each new
subscriber gets in sequence when they sign up. Put together
52 issues that are scheduled to go out once a week, or 24
issues that are set to go out every 2 weeks, and you have a
newsletter that essentially "runs itself" for a year.
Each issue of your newsletter could contain: a simple
article, an editorial, and a product recommendation. It
doesn't have to be any more difficult than that.
I write each issue of my newsletter fresh, but do know
people who use the "evergreen model." They simple set the
autoresponder sequence to start over again when the last
issue is reached, then they periodically add new issues to
the series or revise outdated issues.
If you'd like to see how I've integrated a subscribe box
right into my blog, you can check it out at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/blog/
With a newsletter, the most often missed point is that you
DO need to sell your subscribers on signing up. You do need
to give them a compelling reason, assure them that you'll
protect their data, and instruct them on exactly how to
signup.
2) Use your blog or forum to sell affiliate products. This
can be as simple as putting graphics and product
recommendations right into your menu bar. I do that on my
blog at the url above.
On my blog, I now sell affiliate products that pay me 50 to
100% commission, and that pay me instantly. If you check
out my blog at the url above, you'll notice an animated
150 x 600 banner that advertises several products.
When a website visitor clicks on that banner and buys one
of those products I earn 100% commission, and it's
instantly deposited directly to my Paypal account. Not only
do I earn a steady stream of commissions from my blogs and
forums, but I don't have to wait on slow-paying affiliate
programs.
The banner on my blog is called "Niche Widget" and is was
added to my blog simply by copying and pasting a tiny bit
of code into the webpage. It will work on ANY blog, forum,
or webpage, even on your Faceback or YouTube (or other
social networking websites) webpages.
In fact, adding the Niche Widget to sites like Facebook or
YouTube is as simple as clicking on the Widget where it
says "Grab This Widget." This prompts you to log into any
of over a dozen social networking sites and AUTOMATICALLY
add the widget to your profile. However, that is primarily
designed to send your widget viral, and have lots of others
passing along YOUR affiliate link. To get paid you need
to click on the link that says "Make Money With It!"
What could be easier?
With Niche widget you can choose from a variety of niches
ranging from pets, to relationships, to marketing, to
food, or health, and the widget will display ads paying you
from 50 - 100% on products related to that niche. The
database has over 2000 different digital product in it.
To get the Niche Widget absolutely free, you just visit
http://Niche-Widgets.com and sign up. There are premium
accounts, but you can go with the free account if desired.
The difference is that premium accounts pay higher
commissions and pay you a percentage of sales on free
accounts when others sign up through you.
With the premium account, when someone who signs up through
you earns 50% commission, you earn 25% commission, and the
owner on Niche Widgets earns the other 25%.
I really like the system. It was earning me MORE than
Google AdSense the very first day that I installed it.
3) Google AdSense or other pay per click programs. You
register for one of these accounts, insert the code into
your page, and then you basically "sell your targeted
traffic."
The AdSense code displays related ads on your blog or
forum, and then when someone clicks on an ad, that
advertise pays Google for the traffic, and Google pays you
an undisclosed percentage of that advertiser's payment (for
each click generated).
This was at one time my favorite revenue model because it
required very little work. You simply insert the code into
your webpages, blogs, forums, etc., and then someone else
finds the advertises who pay you. However, after only a
little testing, and noticing a higher revenue stream, I AM
replacing AdSense on most of my site with Niche Widget.
You can get that again at:
4) Your own products. If you have your own products, you
can market those directly from your blog or forum just as
you do affiliate products. For example, I have both a blog
and a forum on my soul food recipes site. On both the blog
and the forum, I run an ad for a cookbook that I wrote and
sell copies of EVERYDAY.
Since I know that many of my repeat visitors already own my
cookbook, I also use to run Google AdSense ads, but now
use the Niche Widget.
The Niche Widget displays rotating ads for other cooking
related digital products... mainly cookbooks.
5) Product Reviews. It also makes perfect sense to write
reviews of products and services related to your niche and
then post those on your blogs or forums. I do that by
writing reviews and posting related articles on my blogs
and forums.
This works because the reviews, or articles, containing
niche specific keywords let the search engines know to rank
my blogs or forums highly for those keywords. This content
(these reviews) posted regularly, are what call the search
engine spiders back time after time to keep re-indexing my
sites.
I've just outlined five ways that you can monetize a blog
or forum. On many of my sites, the blog or forum is EASILY
the most visited page on the entire site. Visitors will
often visit the blog or forum on your site repeatedly, and
NEVER venture off the blog or forum to check out the other
sections of your site.
Therefore, if you do want to earn a living from your
website, it is critical that you use proven effective ways
to monetize your blogs and forums. I've just given you
FIVE that earn thousands of dollars per month for me :-)
----------------------------------------------------
Willie Crawford is an internationally-acclaimed
speaker,author, seminar and radio show host, and leading
Internet marketing expert. When not out fishing in the Gulf
of Mexico, you'll find Willie sharing his 11 1/2 years of
online marketing experience with members of The Internet
Marketing Inner Circle
Join them at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com
No comments:
Post a Comment