Does Your Make Money Online Blog Make Money?
Make Money Online Blogs = Annoying?
I read a great post the other day. It was talking about blogs in the make money online niche and how some of these blogs sell too much while others don’t sell enough. It was an interesting post to me – I totally enjoyed it. That is, until MY name came into the conversation!
Do Make Money Online Blogs Annoy You?
The author of the post I am referring to was talking about a blog that belongs to a friend of his. While the author really likes the person who ran the make money online blog in question, he also doesn’t approve of how his friend is running his blog.
Why?
Simply because he feels that the blog owner is trying to SELL more than he is trying to HELP.
Worse yet, according the post author, is that his friend is using every blog post as an attempt to sell something…. anything.
“How it upsets me to see how he is attempting to lure people into purchasing products that — and without any hope — falsely claim that they help people learn or perform in a way that will enable them to make money online.”
It made me stop for a moment… and made me really think about make money online blogs…
Are we “Make Money Online Bloggers” wrong for trying to make sales from our blog posts? Are we doing a disservice to those that read our blogs? On the flip side, are we (the bloggers) doing ourselves a disservice by not trying to sell enough thru our blog posts?
I think this is a very interesting topic….one that should be discussed.
Why Make Money Online Blogs Make Money…and why they don’t
After some thought, I realized that there is a balance that a make money online blog reaches. When I first started this blog, I had this concept that all I need to do is make a post about some random product and I would make sales.
Well, ya see…. that does NOT work.
But then I flipped to the extreme opposite of that a few months later – I decided I wanted each of my blog posts to help as many people as I could possibly reach. I wanted the ultimate goal of each post to be that each person who read it felt better than they did when they got here.
FEEL Better? Have I Lost My Mind?
Now WHY in the world would someone who blogs about ways to make money online have any sort of goal that relates to how someone FEELS after reading it? Shouldn’t I focus on teaching and giving away my knowledge.. and selling stuff?
Yes…and no.
Yes, I DO teach things I know…things I have learned (because you see, I was once new, too…lol). But, when you learn something, or something “clicks” in your mind, don’t you FEEL better? I know I sure do!
Sometimes, I focus completely on how I think a lot of you are feeling. Working online at home can be lonely and sometimes it can be frustrating as you are trying to get your head around things. I know from my own experience, that at times, I don’t care what knowledge someone has – I just want someone to tell me that I WILL get this… that this DOES work.
And I want that “someone” to be someone I trust.
Trust
Isn’t amazing that somehow, in this HUGE wild, wild web we work on, that we come across people from all corners of the Earth that we TRUST. People we have never met, but for some reason, we trust their knowledge, their words of encouragement, and their recommendations.
How does this happen? Seriously. It’s hard enough in the “real world” to find folks we really trust – how do we end up trusting someone we have never even looked in the eye?
Just like in the “real world”, trust is EARNED online.
If your make money online blog is NOT making money – perhaps you need to evaluate the trust your readers have in you.
Trust = More Sales?
Does having the trust of your readers mean you can sell more stuff online? Well, in my opinion, yes…and no.
How’s that for a non-answer? haha!
When your readers trust you, respect your knowledge AND respect your accomplishments, they naturally want to know what YOU know. For me, this was a huge hurdle to jump. I found that people emailed me WANTING to know the products I’ve used and read…. what I use now…what I’ve tried.
What an honor!
I make no secret of the fact that when I started all this “hi-honey-I’m-gonna-make-money-online” stuff that I was a frickin’ IDIOT. I knew nothing…made ALL the newbie mistakes and blunders. It seemed the only way I could manage to CREATE something online was to BREAK it first! (well, I’m still that way a little…. OK – a LOT….lol!!)
I’m not ashamed of that – not even a little bit. Each of you needs to hear from someone who was once a total num-nut when it came to all this stuff….and we each need to hear that it DOES get better. It CAN be done. Sorry for this next part, BUT…
You Need To Hear That You CAN Change Your Life.
And there is one little quirky woman in Atlanta Georgia who totally believes in YOU. She knows it is possible – she has done it and she wants YOU to do it, too! She knows you CAN.
I think there are some blogs you just feel good being on…and feel better when you leave. I find I feel that way on the blog I was reading the post on that I was talking about earlier.
Who Do Make Money Online Bloggers Trust?
Ever wonder, who do the make money online bloggers trust? If we’re teaching things to others, well, we better not be new. We better know what we are talking about, right? So who do WE trust?
Garry Conn is a fellow blogger that got my attention from the git-go. As most of you know, I was invited to do a guest post on his blog not too long ago.
He is not only a good guy, but does REALLY well with niche blogs and he totally kicks a$$ with AdSense earnings. The more I read of his, the more I realized that I wanted to know what he knows.
No, I NEEDED to know what he knows…now!
(And I got to learn a good-sized chunk of what he knows yesterday 🙂 I’ll tell you about that in a bit)
Garry was the one who wrote the post that brought this whole topic to my mind. What’s funny tho, is that the comments that followed his post were even MORE interesting to me.
The comments start off with another wonderful blogger, Mark Mason , making a comment fearing that Garry was talking about HIS blog (gee Mark, got a guilty complex? LOL!)
Garry comes back in his reply comment and reveals that no, it was NOT Mark’s blog he was referring to in the post. In fact, the blog in question was actually owned by a WOMAN.
OMG! Oh $#%%^$, a WOMAN?!?!?!?! Was Garry talking about MY blog here at PotPieGirl.com????
(Gee, Jen, got a guilty complex? hahahahahhahahaha!)
Was PotPieGirl.com The Offending Blog?
But then I kept reading Garrys follow-up comment. No, he wasn’t talking about me – nor did he reveal the offending blog in question – but….. my name DID get mentioned.
Y’all….just read what he said about lil’ ol PotPieGirl:
“I’d like to take this moment to direct people to Jennifer’s site, PotPieGirl.com. Now, in my opinion, this lady has class. Jennifer (aka PotPieGirl) in my strong opinion is someone who I would personally recommend that anyone follow who wants to clearly start from the ground up and learn the true and honest business, of INTERNET MARKETING.
She breaks barriers in this business and has also proven that Internet marketing can and should be a business that is based and founded on a trust relationship among followers and readers. She is a lot like me — in female form of course. The line of difference between her and myself is that she is more into Internet marketing, while I am more into building my own internal private network of niche sites.
Earlier, when I published her guest post here on my blog it generated explosive results in sales. It also allowed our two separate networks to fuse a connection. Many of my readers were able to connect with her readers and vice versa. That one guest post on my blog, I believe created quite a few new friendships among the community. And in my opinion, that’s what it’s all about.”
I can’t begin to tell you how absolutely blown away I was. Speechless…. tears… the whole she-bang. I know, I know… I’m such a GIRL! haha!
Getting Traffic TO Your Make Money Online Blog Via Trust
Ya know, someone recently asked in a forum what the BEST traffic was to get online. There were answers of social networks and organic traffic and all the other standard stuff.
My answer was the same answer I had while in business in the “real world”… The absolute best traffic to get is traffic generated by word of mouth.
Online… Offline… it’s still all about people. Behind every forum thread, every blog post, every comment and every email is a real, live PERSON. Once you begin to focus on the people and helping them… earning their trust because you are trustworthy… they naturally give you permission to market to them. No, not any ol’ latest-and-greatest guru product, but the things YOU use – the things YOU know – the things YOU genuinely recommend. The money is just a natural side-effect of this trust relationship.
I Want To Thank Garry Conn
Yes, I want to stand up tall here on my little soap box and thank Garry Conn for such genuine and touching words about ME.
But… I need to thank him TWICE. Remember how I said that he was one of those bloggers that I wanted….no, I NEEDED to know what HE knows? Yeah, well he let loose with some of it yesterday.
Garry makes niche blogs – and not only does he do that VERY well, he also teaches others how to do it very well and very unselfishly. I have the utmost respect for that.
So, yesterday when he popped off with the fact that he made a 60-minute video that lets you literally watch over his shoulder as he makes one of his special niche blogs with WordPress, well buddy, I was ALLLLLL over it. I didn’t hesitate for even a second.
Now, I make a LOT of niche blogs with WordPress. I think my current count is somewhere around 70 or so individual niche blogs. I also teach others for free how to get started using WordPress to build their own niche blogs at 6StepNicheSites.com. But I jumped on that video like I’d jump on a brownie if it was anywhere in my proximity =)
It was AWESOME. One of the best things I have bought online video-wise. In fact, I spent an hour or two building one of these niche blogs today….and I have 4 more lined up to build tomorrow.
How To Build a Niche Blog
If you are even a little bit into building niche sites with WordPress, I strongly recommend this video from Garry Conn. He takes you from start to finish…literally. From watching him pick a domain name, editing his theme, how he monetizes….the whole thing.
If I had to stop everything and pick just ONE business model to make money online – I would pick niche blogs. Owning your own websites is the key to long-term passive and residual income. My goal is to get as many of my readers to owning their own sites as possible. Yes, many of us will start off with One Week Marketing because if you are like I was – no money in the cookie jar to pay for domain names and stuff AND I didn’t know ANYTHING about making money online- but One Week Marketing will get you to where you CAN afford to do that and to where you DO know plenty to get you to owning and building your own sites.
If you’re already there and creating niche blogs- watch Garry’s video. There is a free 10-minute intro video that will help you decide if this is something you want to learn or not.
As Garry says in the video, if you don’t want it, no hard feelings. We are sharing and offering knowledge. that’s all – And yes, he will prove how much he makes with these niche blogs, too =)
Ok, that’s PLENTY out of me tonight. I can’t believe I just typed ANOTHER 2000+ word post. Thankfully, niche blogs do NOT require this much rambling….lol!
Man, when you start writing, you WRITE! lol
Definitely a good question to ponder, though. I’ve often questioned the same thing on my own blog, and basically here’s what I came up with . . .
If I promote products THAT I’VE USED and that have helped me achieve success, or augment my productivity and/or profitability in some way, then I’m not trying to take advantage of anyone – in fact, I’m using affiliate links the way they were intended . . . to RECOMMEND!
I also have backed it up by taking the time to point out products that I thought fell short . . . although after the conversation with you a while back about staying out of the negative stuff, I’ve since tried to do that (with the exception of mailing AGAINST the Arbitrage Conspiracy lol).
But at the end of the day I believe, and I’m sure you know, that value wins, and if you don’t provide value, you’ll soon find yourself without any readership to click on those fancy affiliate links. 🙂
Chris
Chris Kellums last blog post..StomperNet Formula Five Review – In Greater Depth…
Chris –
WELL SAID! And I agree…. at the end of the day, did we provide value? Did we help? Inspire? Motivate?
Or, did we just type some words and toss in an affiliate link?
As always, I appreciate your input!!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
PS – Perhaps I should put a warning at the beginning of my posts: WARNING! This post exceeds 1,000 words! LOL!!!! I like to type long posts less frequently. I’d prefer people stop by every other day or so, get a nice break while they read, and then get back to work. We’re changing lives here!
So funny, two days ago I cleaned up my RSS subscriptions. From about 20 or so, only 6 made the cut. The 6 I kept were those that I ‘felt good about’, as you say. They were the ones that I would get excited about when I see a new post pop up.
I got rid of some that I used to LOVE, but as of late seem to want nothing more than to sell me every little thing. The blogs that excite me are the ones that are SUPER helpful, with innovative NEW ideas.
Example: Jennifer’s way of doing keyword research opened my eyes, it was awesome! A different blog post from another blog just before the cleansing was something along the lines of 3 things to add to your articles. Lame and rehashed crap I’ve read a million times.
Needless to say, potpiegirl.com and Garry Conn’s blogs made the cut. Keep up it!
Nate – I made the cut?!??!?! Holy WOW! Thank you!
Now THAT is a compliment!!!
And as I always say…
Flattery will get you EVERYWHERE! lol!
Thanks for reading AND for commenting, Nate!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Thank you, Jennifer, for letting us know about Garry’s video. I just had to have it after watching the intro video and I’m excited to learn what Garry knows. 🙂
I didn’t know about Garry before your guest post on his blog – and I’ve quickly become a fan of his. You are both the “real deal”.
For anyone reading this – you’ve gotta watch Garry’s intro video and if you do, watch the WHOLE thing. There’s a few great nuggets of info thrown in there and Garry really sweetens the pot at the end.
Hi Jen,
Just took a look at the video site, does he show you how to get traffic too? Is there any marketing info in the videos.
I think getting the site up is not the hard part, but getting people to get there!
Thanks,
Jackie
Jackie Lees last blog post..What Kind of Blog are You Building?
Wendy – Yes the “pot sweetener” sure is SWEET! Garry WAY over-delivers. (this is a hint… this is WAY more than just a video)
Jackie – Garry’s niche blogs are long-tail/seo traffic. I made one yeterday. It’s already indexed and ranking for the longtail terms I am targeting.
Naturally, I will build a few links, but a lot are not necessary. These are deal blogs – shopping blogs kinda/sorta.
I know that’s not a real answer to your question….lol… sorry! These blogs are the kind that you don’t have to bust butt to get traffic to. For long-term passive income, this is a great niche blog model.
Just my two cents =)
Thanks for reading!
Jennifer
~PotPieGirl
Hi Jennifer,
Wow… you could have turned this into an eBook, as like most all of your article. Excellent, excellent quality, and writing that always comes from the heart.
I am very glad that I had the opportunity to meet you and also meet your wonderful readers here. It was actually pretty surreal to witness how much of a wonderful following of readers you have. That become evident when they all flocked over to my blog to leave a comment on your guest post.
That guest post was great because it creating a very nice connection between your blog and mine and it allows both of our network of readers to pass through and build new relationships from.
Keep up the amazing work. This one blog out of millions does indeed have a huge impact on the blogosphere and it makes a significant difference. The community wouldn’t be the same without you.
Thanks for your comments about building a community, and trust. An interesting thing is happening with one of my info blogs that I created using your 6 Step Method… It’s taken on a life of its’ own! I didn’t expect it, and it’s really fun! I started out making a very generic site, (the blue book value of campers) and then my love for a little tiny bit of the niche started to take over, vintage trailers. Slowly, and not by plan, most of the work on this previously generic site had turned into a connection point for people that love vintage trailers. I joined a Yahoo Group about Vintage Campers, and when anyone wants an event promoted I put up a blog post, or when they find a cool vintage camper video or neat vintage trailer calendar I put a post, and we’re building a connection! It’s great! And it’s doing well with the income. Thanks Jennifer for not only showing the technical aspect of how to build an adsense revenue generating site, but how to put the love in to it that will draw a community.
Penny Goulds last blog post..Vintage Trailer Restoration Tips
It’s validating to know that I found you Jennifer, then Garry found you [or you found him] and that he LOVES you. I started following him when you first posted about him. He knows what he’s doing and he respects you for the same reasons I do…which means my goals and intent is right on track.
It’s been slow for me to earn success. It’s an uphill battle everyday but I keep at it by following you and Garry. I’ll buy his video soon. I’m still digesting WordPress Goldmine.
Thanks for all you do!
Denton in AZ
p.s. You said “num-nuts”!
Hi Denton,
I just swung by for one more visit real quick to see if there were any updates and read your comment. Now I can’t base too much on just reading one comment, but from the sounds of things… it looks like you are totally going about things the right way.
Many people just throw down and put everything they got into a project blindly. To me, it seems like you are taking your time and investing efforts towards learning. That is the key.
While it is also ok to learn from mistakes, I never threw the keys at my 16 year old daughter and said, “here… go drive!”
Mistakes do and will happen with driving; however, those mistakes are made due to simple trial and error. However, driving a car without any form of teaching is suicide. And so is trying to make money online.
The key is aligning yourself with people who you can trust. Unfortunately, doing so can be tricky. Who can you trust? Who can you turn to for answers? Oh, it is all such a tricky business to learn.
At any rate, you are totally in excellent hands with Jennifer. And if you’re now reading my blog, that is super cool. I am more than happy to help you too.
Keep up the great work, keep your chin up, and soon you’ll see that this uphill battle quickly will turn into a down hill sled ride that’ll make your mind explode.
Play your cards right… and I mean every card, and you’ll do fine. If you play the wrong hand every once in awhile, that’s ok too, as long as you know why the hand was bad and as long as the bad hand doesn’t cost you a lot of money.
Wow Jen, that was truly a long ramble 🙂 Going from whether you should push a sale hard to a video from Garry *lol*
Anyway I’m glad that you pointed me in Garry’s direction as I have been trying to find more people making money using Adsense (I’m so tired of all the affiliate marketing that is going around).
So now I’ve signed up for Garry’s RSS and will probably go buy his 1 hour video as well… because you’re one of the people online that I have never met but still trust 😉
Mikaels last blog post..How to Make a Claim with VPI Pet Insurance
You said “trust is earned online”………….yep, that about sums it all up!
Great post., Jennifer!
Candices last blog post..Can I Really Generate Income From Home?
Hi Jennifer and Garry,
Like Garry said this post could easily be included in one of your ebooks, Jennifer.
Your question raises the consciousness of the average blogger and helps me to really consider what I want to post about on my own blog. Am I giving information that anyone is interested in and will they come back to visit because they feel it’s worth their while?
Right now I’m at the stage in my IM career that I’m paying close attention to the 80/20 rule and focusing on developing relationships with other bloggers as well as my readers instead of trying to make any sales.
Look forward to visiting with you both,
Theresa
Theresa Mayhews last blog post..Alex Jeffreys: Gary Simpson Wants to Know if You’re For or Against Him?
I must admit I started a make money online blog about a year ago and it failed to make any money, so I abandoned it and let the domain name expire.
This is certainly a difficult niche to succeed in, so well done PotPieGirl for your success!!!
Gary
This has made me think more about how I can improve my blog and offer some quality information or advice rather than just trying to sell.
Thank You Jennifer for helping me to have a better understanding and how to help others more.
Chrissys last blog post..Online Income Legitimate Business Opportunity
I really liked your post. I am a full time problogger , and I really like helping others. It is not all about money. I quit full time job and become a problogger. I feel much better now. I am sure there are people like me; who wants to break their own prison and earn their living from blogging. Thus I am a role model for them. My motto is “Losing others trust is much more important than short term benefits”
Problogger Make Money Online With Bloggings last blog post..Speeding Links For Search For Blogging Readers – Week 16
VRy interesting to read it 😛 😀
Quite a lot of very intersting points, here.
I have 2 “money making” blogs that have never made a cent.
I think it’s the ‘trust’ thing.
I know that I can’t trust anyone selling IM products (definitely no offence intended) so why should they trust me?
It’s also hard to establish anything if nobody makes any comments on your blog.
This may be due to the fact that my blogs are ‘all business’. There isn’t, and never will be, anything personal. Nothing ‘personal’ ever happens to me. LOL
I’ve started ignoring them, after 8 months with no reaction whatsoever, and am now installing a plugin that will post an article a day, from somewhere, and I won’t have to waste time on them anymore.
The main ingredient, I feel, is personality. If you’re not “a larger than life social person” you’ll never do any good.
I much prefer sitting in the dark, wearing black. LOL
Absolutely “hate” the thought of meeting anyone new.
Keep an eye out at all the seminars, I’m the one that’s not there.
See ya
@ Beachcomber, that is so sad but there is also a lot of truth in what you write. If you don’t like other people they are not going to like you back. 😉
/Mikael
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