ProBlogger: 8 Reasons You’re Losing Money On Your Blog

8 Reasons You’re Losing Money On Your Blog

Posted: 11 Jan 2017 05:00 AM PST

This is a guest contribution from Larry Alton.

You spend hours and hours of time each week on your blog, but at the end of the month, there's nothing to show for it in your bank account. In fact, after you add up all of the expenses associated with maintaining your blog, you've actually lost some money.

What's the problem? Here are some possible culprits and what you can do to overcome them.

1. You Never Researched Your Niche

While you need to be interested in the blog niche you choose, personal affinities play a minor role in blog profitability. Ultimately, it's the readers of your blog who determine whether or not you're successful. If you never researched your niche prior to launching your blog, then it's likely that your root problem is a lack of demand for the content you're producing.

"If you're committed to building a popular and profitable site, you'll have to write, read, and talk about your topic almost every day for the next several years. You'll invest thousands of hours, quite literally gambling with your time," CopyBlogger.com notes.

"The question is, how will you approach it? Will you start writing and hope someone notices you? Or will you carefully research your niche, looking for the precise angle that will make your content irresistible?"

While CopyBlogger is obviously giving advice to bloggers who are just getting started, it's never too late to consider the questions they ask "after the fact." If you never researched your niche and are merely hoping someone notices you, then consider this your answer for why you're losing money. You'll either need to scrap your blog altogether and launch a new, better researched one in the future or find a way to overhaul your current blog.

2. Your Blog Isn't a Priority

There are a lot of lazy bloggers out there. Nobody's calling you lazy, but if you're losing money on your blog, you may want to consider the possibility that you aren't ambitiously chasing success.

We've all seen article headlines that read "Here's How I Make $24,343 Per Month Blogging from Home" or "I Was Able to Quit My Job After Blogging for Two Weeks." Unfortunately, these articles are highly misleading and designed to generate clicks, not impart actual wisdom. But the negative byproduct of these headlines is that people incorrectly assume that you can make money laying on your sofa and writing a couple of blog posts each week.

Successful bloggers work hard. In fact, they work really, really hard. They often put in more hours each week than traditional salaried employees at major corporations. So, if you're only dedicating a few hours per week to blogging, you aren't making it a priority in your life. Perhaps, that's why you aren't making money.

3. You Aren't Willing to Invest Time and Money

When blogging isn't an actual priority in your life, then you fail to commit the necessary resources to make it successful. The most obvious areas where this reality shines through are time and money. We already discussed the fact that blogging takes time in the last section, so let’s turn our attention towards money.

You have to think about your blog like an investment. As the saying goes, "It takes money to make money." In other words, if you want to generate revenue, you're going to have to put up some of your own money to get the engine lubricated. (There are obviously some exceptions to this, but for the most part, you'll have to pony up some capital.)

The reason you haven't put up money is because you aren't totally confident in your blog. This goes back to pre-launch research. If you do your research and find a niche that you believe is capable of being tapped into, you'll be more than willing to invest your time and money into it.

4. You Have a "Come and Find Me" Strategy

One of the more prevalent issues surrounding unprofitable blogs is what we'll call the "Come and Get Me" strategy. In this strategy (or lack of strategy), bloggers simply publish content and then wait for visitors to stumble upon it. (Hint: This very rarely happens with blogs that aren't already established.)

You need to replace this strategy with the "Go-Getter" strategy. Under this approach, you'll proactively go out and draw people to your blog. In other words, you develop a strategic lead generation strategy that draws readers into your content. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to make this happen. Here are a few suggestions:

Use Google AdSense. "If you've got a blog, you can quickly and easily monetize it using Google AdSense," Coupon Ninja points out. "It's totally free to use, and with it, you can place small, mostly inconspicuous ads on your blog. When visitors click on an ad, you get a few cents; if your blog gets a lot of traffic, those clicks can add up quickly."

Share on social media. Social media is great because it's free. If you already have a significant following on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can disseminate new posts and encourage people to click back to the articles. You can also use targeted hashtags to reach people who don't already follow you.

Feature other bloggers. One interesting strategy is to mention other bloggers and blogs in your content. Most bloggers have Google Alerts set up for their names and will notice when you highlight them. As a result, they may share your post with their own networks (or reach out to you in the future).

These are just a few tactics. There are literally dozens of other lead generation techniques for bloggers. Research all of the opportunities and don't be afraid to get creative.

5. You Don't Have a Profit Funnel

If you want to profit from blogging, then you need a plan. Specifically, you need a profit funnel or sales funnel. This funnel provides a step-by-step plan for how you'll move individuals from blog visitor to customer.

Every blog profit funnel is different, but you should follow the basic outline of the traditional sales funnel. At the top of the funnel is awareness. At this stage, people are just discovering who you are and what your blog offers. Next, there's interest. At this point in the funnel, the individual not only knows about your blog but is interested in what you're saying. Third, comes a decision. The individual makes the decision that they are going to purchase what you're offering. And finally, there's action. The visitor follows through and makes a purchase.

The goal of a profit funnel is to move your blog visitors from awareness to action. It's not easy, but it's necessary to spend some time developing a specific plan that resonates with your audience and customers.

6. You Don't Actively Network

If you aren't actively networking with other bloggers and industry leaders, then you're missing out on a major opportunity to get your name out there and forge lasting relationships that will ultimately help you monetize your blog.

"Networking with bloggers just like yourself is of the utmost importance. Why? Because it means that you will be able to further promote your website – and they, in return, can further promote theirs," says one blogger. "Building connections and forming relationships is important when it comes to promoting yourself online, but you do have to make sure that you start off by giving them the right impression."

The issue most bloggers have is that they confuse the idea of networking with harassment. Sending out generic spam emails to a bunch of bloggers isn't networking, and tweeting at someone a dozen times in two hours isn't networking.

In order to successfully network, you need to show the other party that you're interested in who they are and what they do. You can do this by posting thoughtful comments on their posts, sharing their articles on your social media accounts, referencing their articles in your own posts, etc. Then, once you've established that you aren't just a leech looking to take advantage of someone, you can reach out directly and try to spark a relationship.

7. Your Writing is Poor

If everything else seems to be fine, then you may have to turn your attention towards the quality of your writing. While it can be difficult to accept the fact that you aren't the next Hemingway or Twain, the reality of the situation is that many bloggers simply can't produce quality content. Hire a copywriter or send some of your work to a trusted individual and ask for an honest opinion.

If you aren't a great writer, this doesn't mean all hope is lost. Blogging is equal parts writing and marketing. It helps to be a good writer, but you can always focus your attention on the marketing portion while partnering with a writer.

8. You Fail to Apply Knowledge

The final reason you're losing money on your blog is that you don't take action. You'll read an article like this that clearly exposes some of your flaws and you don't feel strongly enough to apply what you've learned.

If this article teaches you anything, you need to be calculated and strategic in everything you do. Don't merely consume content. Consume content, digest it, and then apply that energy towards actively improving your situation.

It's Time to Reverse Your Approach to Blogging

Whether you've been blogging for six months or six years, you shouldn't be losing money on your blog. If you are, then something is seriously wrong beneath the surface. Chances are, one of these eight culprits is to blame.

Reverse your approach to blogging and find out how you can start making money.

Larry Alton is an independent business consultant specializing in social media trends, business, and entrepreneurship. Follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.

The post 8 Reasons You're Losing Money On Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

ProBlogger: How Goal Setting Increases Your Productivity

How Goal Setting Increases Your Productivity

Posted: 10 Jan 2017 05:00 AM PST

By ProBlogger Expert Nicole Avery of Planning With Kids.

Back in 2013 the founder of this blog, Darren Rowse, tweeted a question asking Problogger followers to share the biggest challenge that they face as a blogger. I think the majority of us can guess what the most common challenge was. You guessed it! It was time, or more specifically: finding time to blog or having enough time to blog.

I am sure Darren could ask this question again in 2017 and he would gain a similar response. Do a quick search for "time management tips for bloggers" and you could spend days reading about tips on how to get more done in your blogging day.

While these types of time management tips can certainly help, they will only get you so far. To truly increase your productivity you need to really understand what you are working towards, that is – what is your goal?

Goal-setting is a key tool to increase productivity and there are numerous studies to show the significant impact goal setting can have. This study by Asmus, Karl,Mohnen and Reinhart found:

"even without financial incentives goal-setting improves worker performance by 12 to 15% compared to the situation where no goals were defined."

But there is more to it than just setting a goal and wishing for the best. Edwin A Locke, who is frequently referred to as one of the godfathers of goal setting, summarised 30 years of research by himself and others in a paper called Motivation through conscious goal setting, and it provides excellent advice on how we can set goals to increase our productivity.

The more difficult the goal, the greater the achievement.

When setting a goal for yourself, we have all heard the advice of making it achievable and this is something I also agree with. However it can be very easy to set a goal that is achievable and doesn't actually challenge us. Under those circumstances there is not necessarily any pressure to work as productively as we are capable of.

Setting a goal that is achievable but difficult pushes us to focus our attention on the goal, minimise distractions and look for the most efficient ways to complete our tasks. It is similar to Parkison's Law which states "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".

The more specific or explicit the goal, the more precisely performance is regulated.

To be able to impact positively on your productivity your goal needs to be specific and clear. A specific goal can be your decision-making framework; helping you determine where you allocate the time you do have available for blogging.

You may have a goal to "write an e-book in 2017" which will tick the first box in being achievable, but it needs further definition to add specificity and clarity. The goal could instead be framed as "write for the first hour of each work day to complete my e-book by June 2017".

A goal framed in this way not only tells you what your want the output to be, but it tells you how to do it. So many of us lose time each day procrastinating over what to start work on, losing precious minutes deciding what to do. With a goal like this, your decision is made for you and you can just get to work.

Commitment to goals is most critical, when goals are specific and difficult.

Stating your goal isn't enough to ensure you will work efficiently towards it, you need to be fully committed to your goal, especially if it is going to be a challenge. Your goal will need to align with your values and be something that you consider to be of worth to work on.

If you are simply choosing a goal like writing an e-book or launching a podcast because that is the current trend in the blogosphere, your commitment to it may not be strong enough to get you through the hard slog it will take to achieve your goal. We are also far more likely to procrastinate and become distracted by social media or urgent but not important tasks, if we are not committed to our chosen goal, which dramatically reduces productivity.

Goal setting is most effective when there is feedback

When you set a goal that is measurable, you will be able to obtain feedback along the way as to how you are progressing. Setting up a tracking and review process so you can monitor the feedback can motivate you to alter your work practices as needed.

In the example of writing an e-book, creating a simple spreadsheet to track how many words you write in each one-hour session and dot point notes on the quality, surroundings, mood of the session etc, can help you track how productive you have been.

You can use trends observed through this to increase your productivity. You may see that your best sessions occur when you work offline, with headphones on and coffee in hand. Replicating your best working conditions each day would be one easy way to increase your output.

Goals stimulate planning

Planning isn't something that comes naturally to all bloggers, but if you have set yourself a challenging goal, there is a consequential pull to start planning how you will achieve it. With a plan in had to act upon, you will always be more productive than running blind.

Breaking down a sizeable project into work duration chunks will prevent the feeling of overwhelm that can come with a challenge goal. If you have allocated time on an hourly basis to your goal like in this example, break the work down into hourly chunks. This can become your plan you work to each day, saving you time as you know exactly what task you have to complete in your allotted time.

Have you set a goal for 2017?

The post How Goal Setting Increases Your Productivity appeared first on ProBlogger.

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