ProBlogger: 5 Advanced Techniques I Use To Make Money On My Blog

5 Advanced Techniques I Use To Make Money On My Blog

Posted: 10 Mar 2015 07:00 AM PDT

This is a guest contribution from blogger Erin Bender from Travel With Bender.

Similar to the background story of many bloggers, my blog was born into this world because a friend asked me to write one.

In 2012 I commenced a worldwide open-ended nomadic adventure with my husband and two children, and blogging seemed like a great idea. A blog was the perfect vehicle to share our stories to everyone I cared about back at home without the need for endless repetition.

It wasn't until I met another blogger a few months later that she revealed to me a secret. A secret so potent that I may be strung up for revealing it now. But I have to. I can't stay silent.

You can make money from your blog. Gasp!

And so for the past three years I have experimented with multiple strategies all stemming from this one spark. Today I want to share with you a taste of the wealth and knowledge I've gained.

So buckle up. This is one ride you are going to want to bookmark.

Before I get started: my blog is focused on travel, but these same strategies can work for most industries: technology, fashion, food, finance, kids and more.

These particular strategies I'm sharing are not the typical steps most newbies read about, such as monetizing with AdSense, or the Amazon affiliate program. You really need a lot of traffic to make a decent income from AdSense. I'm talking about making a full-time income without needing hundreds of thousands of visitors each month.

The starting point to monetizing your blog is your audience. Few people will give you money just because you're awesome (wouldn't that be cool!). They will do it because you have a decent sized (and relevant) audience and you know how to wield your influence. So once you have built your followers on social media, newsletters subscribers and regular visitors, how do you turn those into an income stream month after month?

5 Advanced Techniques I Use To Make Money On My Blog

1. Content Creation: When A Brand Asks You To Write For Them

Content creation takes place in many forms from freelance article writing, to video blogging, to expert guides, and more. Perhaps you didn't think about reaching out to those promotion partners you're working with. Take travel for example – a free press trip as a source of fresh new content on your own blog is great, but when you can also create valuable content for the brand's blog or magazine, then that's when you can ask for payment.

Sometimes the brand may be hard to convince up front. However once they see your own blog post, go back to them again. If they've loved your work and you've developed a strong rapport, often they will be want you to write for their publication.

2. Photography: Offering A Brand Your Images

So this may not be for everyone, but if you are taking killer shots then you should be working it. Offer the brand you're working a fixed package upfront, which includes 5 or 10 royalty-free images. If you have examples of photos other people have already purchased from you then the sales pitch is much easier.

Most brands are in constant need of high quality photography of their product, service or destination, and your offer can make their life easier. If your forte is in video, then this same approach applies to video editing too.

3. Product Reviews: When A Brand Wants You To Be Honest

Payment for product reviews is not about buying a good review.

So let me start with a few cautions – to make your life easier, choose products you already know or think you will love. Keep reviews honest. Let the brand know of any complications or negatives upfront to see if they have a response and offer to publish those responses alongside the negatives you're highlighting. Then ask for payment.

You are not being paid for your gushing assessment; you are asking payment for the exposure you are providing to their product or service.

We generally maintain a minimum value threshold for product reviews, and if there is an item value under that amount then we require payment. Think about all the work it took to grow your social media following and now you are receiving delayed payment for that hard work.

4. Competitions: When A Brand Wants To Give Stuff Away

Running a competition is a smart technique for generating new social followers and making your readers feel great, but it takes a lot of time. Time to set it up, promote it each day, and pick a winner. Time you could be paid for.

Similar to the product reviews, there may be a minimum payment threshold of items to give away, but if that is not met, ask for payment. The brand has approached you, because they want to reach your audience that you have worked so hard to build. Don't feel like it's worth anything less than what you are asking.

If you're not sure where to start, take a look at Gleam, it makes setting up a competition a breeze.

5. Brand Ambassador: When Long Term Relationships Take The Next Step

When we started our nomadic journey I purchased travel insurance. I then reached out to them after a year and suggested writing for their website. We worked like that for another year. After two years they approached me to expand the relationship, which we built into a brand ambassadorship.

A brand ambassador role can encompass many tasks, but the main task is to promote the brand you've partnered with so you want to make sure it's a product or service you believe in, and one that is a tight fit for your audience.

Tasks might include writing about them occasionally within your regular blog posts, writing for their blog, social media promotion, competitions, event attendance and more. Some ambassadorships are in exchange for products, others may generate a monetary compensation. Each arrangement is unique and requires negotiation to achieve a win-win situation.

I sincerely hope I am still alive after revealing these secrets of the trade. If you dare to share, what ways are you make money from your blog?

Erin has been travelling with her husband and two children since May 2012. It's an open-ended, unplanned, round-the-world trip discovering amazing places for families. They have stayed in hostels and 5 star luxury resorts, travelled on scooters and cruise liners, danced with leprechauns and cuddled tigers. Nothing is out of bounds or out of reach for this remarkable Australian family. You can find unique family travel insights at her award-winning travel blog, follow her on Facebook, Pinterest or catch her tweeting on Twitter.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

5 Advanced Techniques I Use To Make Money On My Blog

Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

The Evolution of Conferences Over The Last Decade

Posted: 10 Mar 2015 08:08 AM PDT

In 2003 I started making money online. I was stunned the first day I made a dollar on the internet with Google AdSense. Amazing. I was hooked and joined various internet forums to connect with others and learn more about making money on the internet.

On Sep 19, 2004 (yes I just looked it up) I joined the Digital Point forums. I had probably lurked around months before that but thats the date I joined and started interacting with the community. It was awesome.

I started the shoemoney.com blog and shared what I was doing to make money. It got rapid readership.

Fast forward almost a year and I am crushing it with Google AdSense. Six figures a month.

And then one day I got the dreaded “your Google Adsense account has been suspended”. My heart stopped. So I asked on Digital Point what happens when this happened to you? Most of the responses were “you’re screwed” but the more insightful people, that knew I was doing this on the up and up told me there was a conference coming up called Search Engine Strategies in San Francisco and a lot of the “shot callers” from Google Adsense would be there. They said there is nothing like a face to face talk with them.

So I went. The night before the conference started I met with several Digital Point members. That was super cool.

I was blown away by the event but more importantly the speakers. I attended every session and made a book of notes.

Its funny reflecting on this now but I was so star struck with the speakers. These guys were my idols at the time. I had been reading their blogs and listening to all their radio shows on webmasterradio.fm.

A really cool, and surprising thing was that a few people recognized me and said they read my blog and enjoyed the content.

At this event I happened to pass by Jenn Slegg of JenSense.com (the Google AdSense blogger) and she was having lunch by her self. I approached her explained who I was and that I needed help in that my account had been suspended. When she was done she took me to the Google Booth and introduced me to a key person. Right then and there my account was reinstated. Whew.

By the next couple events I was now good friends with most of the speakers. Talking with them on instant messengers and what not. Some of them even making money with. I became part of the crew. By my 3rd event I was now a speaker.

I started attending another event at that time called Pubcon.

Between the speakers and digital point people we became a pretty tight nit crew attending all the events.

All of us were very social people. Sure we would roll everywhere together but we also picked up a lot of people (some would call them groupies) and took them with us. We would show up to exclusive Microsoft, Google, Yahoo or whatever conferences where only a few of us were on the guest list with like 50 people and say, “Hey its all of us or none of us”. That was always interesting. LOL.

This trend continued until about 2007ish. I think the big turning point was when Danny Sullivan left the Search Engine Strategies events as the founder (or whatever his title was) and started the SMX events. The crew was somewhat torn on which events to follow. Also at that time ad-tech and Affiliate Summit started to get a hold in the Internet Marketing Industry.

I fell in love with Affiliate Summit. All the other shows I attended prior were so focused on SEO… and that was never my thing. I always thought it was bullshit and a house of cards. But I won’t digress into that lol.

The point though is that there were now so many shows that I rarely caught any of the old crew. I spoke at every event I attended but mostly was bombarded by attendees and I never went to the sessions. After all most of the speakers I could reach out to at anytime and talk if I wanted to.

Also a lot of the conferences that I started with were now sponsored with the giants in the industry. Ebay, Google, Yahoo, etc etc. That sponsorship money was huge and so the focus on speakers became less about bringing in regular people doing stuff and more about big name speakers from these companies that were now talking about best practices and theories but in reality they knew jack shit about actually generating income online. This was the beginning of the fall of SEO conference. Not just for me but for everyone. There was just little value and take aways from these shows. They became so corporatey.

For me the shows were more about the people attending and the networking that took place. Affiliate Summit and LeadsCon were now my primary shows.

And it stayed that way for the next 6 years. During that time my business(s) and business model changed a lot. I had started numerous companies and even dabbled in creating my own information/training products. I was doing business with people all over the board. Affiliate items, general business stuff, venture capital people, I mean geez you name it. Probably the biggest thing is I was actually attending the conferences now to get business and build contacts primarily…. and not just party with industry friends until the sun comes up.

In 2014 I attended and spoke at the Ungagged Conference in Las Vegas. Like I said above I haven’t attended sessions at a conference for almost a decade but I filled up a few pages on this one attending them. They billed the show as “Ungagged” meaning the speakers were going to really show what is working. Black/Gray/White hat all allowed. The Black Hat side of people making money online is VERY discouraged at all other shows I have ever spoken at. So this one really peaked my interest.

The Ungagged show was awesome. I was VERY impressed with the speakers and how forthcoming they were with showing exactly what is working and showing live sites and campaigns. For me, personally, this is the most actionable value from any show I have gotten to date.

A month ago I was invited to speak at the DigitalMarketer Traffic and Conversion Conference.. This was unbelieveable. I am going to do a indepth post on this conference by itself soon but imagine a conference that was centered around a company that has sub companies in very different verticals with different teams. And in each of those teams were different people… And they all presented which worked for those companies and how they grow them. There were other speakers but that was amazing. Like I said I will go more into this conference soon.

The Traffic and Conversion show though blew me away with the attendees. I ran into people I have not seen in years. Everywhere I went I was like “Hey wow what are you doing here?”. and I am talking people from all walks of life. My old school friends from digital point, VC people, old school SEO people and a TON of affiliate people. That surprised me as much as the content of the show.

For me Affiliate Summit, Ungagged, and T&C are the shows I will be attending. Reminds me off the old days where I got value… instead of just giving value. That might sound selfish but hey…