How to make sales from your blog and earn profit?
I got this odd question from a person in Gainesville who apparently have some blog. He was like how do you make sales from your blog and earn profit? I am sure when you enter the blogging industry, you have the same questions. Heck I had the same question. And I learned the answer by observing other top bloggers. There were few things that I found that were noticeable.
Consistency
All the top bloggers are consistent. If they are writing one post a day, then they will have one post every day. They just don’t decide not to post on weekends because not enough users reply. I was at Izeafest 08, and John Chow made a very good point. That he has been writing 2.8 posts a day from the start. Meaning one day he would make 2, or someday he would write 3. Basically the idea was that he would have a new post every day. And if he have more then he would post more. But you got to be consistent. Some people have issues such as well I was on a trip. Which is understandable, but for the most part you can avoid it. I mean I took a 3 day trip. I made sure for the two days I had the post, and one day I slacked. But the other two days I had the post for which is better than 0. All you have to do is schedule posts. But the key is you have to be consistent to show the readers that you actually care about them.
Personality and Voice
I don’t know if you really notice, but a lot of top bloggers, I will say almost all speak in first person. The reason for that is no body want to sit on their ass and watch some snob tell them what to do. I mean seriously while psychology shows that people who are smarter are usually liked more, but people who pretend to be Mr. Know It All are not very well liked. So you have to have your own personality in the blog. People like people who they can relate to. Show them that you are not one of those scammers when you are selling a product.
Honest Feedback
There are some blogs that just talk about positive while others that are very honest. I mean I have reviewed sites where I have highlighted bad parts of the site, and I have reviewed sites like Store Stacker which I found very good, so I didn’t write anything bad. But the idea is not good and bad. But the idea is being honest in your review. So always be honest. Don’t try to be a suck up. As one of the better speakers that I have listened to said: “Only suck ups like suck ups, and I am sure you are not one of them” – Merlin Mann
Add Value
There are bunch of blogs that are there just for the heck of it. People just like to blabber, but you want to stand out. So add some value. Share some knowledge, tutorials, tips that you have learned over your experience. That is the only way people would give you authority, and think of you as a credible person.
Credibility and Authority is one of the main things that I noticed you need. And you can obtain that by doing the things that I mentioned above. Then simply embed links in your post. So if you recommend one hosting service, then keep recommending that one and be consistent. Unless something bad happens with that company. Because that way you make more sales. I know my main source of income is CJ and a lot of those are hosting sales. Just embed the links in related content on your posts.
Hey, I am Syed Balkhi, The guy who is behind Balkhis Inc. I entered the industry back in 2002 not knowing a single thing. I barely spoke English at that time. In the past six years, my language barrier has been eliminated. Aside from English, now I also speak html, and php. Along with the languages I have also managed to master a few arts. Art of web-designing started when I first entered. Messing around with photoshop, I learned how to create my first web design. Now I founded a web designing firm Uzzz Productions. After running numerous amount of websites in various niche, I have mastered the art of web-development. Now I am compiling a resource of what I already know, and what I am learning on this blog. This resource is to help me if I ever need a guide to look back to, and it is help my fellow webmasters.
I agree that consistency is a key point to build authority and readership. If you write a post once a day, your readers will get used to read a new post every day and you kind of create a routine with a lot of them which is important. By not being consistent you are breaking that routine and some are destabilized fairly easily by a routine change!
The biggest thing that we lack on with our blog is consistency. It is hard to keep up with all of the other things we have going on from day to day.
Quality and consistency are two of the hardest things to deliver when it comes to blogging, but you’re 100% right … it’s the way to get people interested and more importantly supporting your site.
I agree with consistancy but don’t think that it has to be every day. Every day is probably better, but I typically do 3 posts a week on M-W-T and post them early in the morning.
I love the ability to schedule posts and currently am scheduled through the end of 2008.
Consistency is probably my biggest problem, since I can’t know how much work I will have to do in the coming days or anything like that – I just have to take it as it comes
I agree that consistency is important and since my blog is new and I need to post more. That will help but the question was “How to Make Sales with a Blog and Earn Profit” I think most people are looking for good content and added value as you say.
Once you have the trust of the reader they are more likely to buy from you
exactly. That is why the more credible you become the better your sales are and the more you profit.
I think being inconsistency is what I’m good at. Well, I don’t write an avg. 2.8 post per day. I write because I feel the need to write and not because I’m yet to write anything today.
You have made some excellent points here. Personally I think adding value to your audience is one of the key factors that rings the cash register.
Yan
I feel the same way – if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it
I think that you have to be consistent no matter what. If you can’t write 1 post / day then cut it down. Maybe one other post a day. If you can’t do that then maybe one post a week. But you have to follow a schedule so your readers know what to expect.
I can’t stress enough the importance of providing great value, and over deliver on your blog…
[...] How to make sales from your blog and earn profit [...]
Great post Syed!! I do not post everyday, because my posts take me some time to write, I prefer to write less high quality, detailed step-by-step posts than more quicker posts, this works for me.
I agree with consistancy but to write everyday I have problem with idea, about what to write.
good tips and advice.
thanks a lot
This is a great post and really makes a lot of sense Syed. I will agree that being consistent is a great thing, and there are times when I’m not. For a while I was posting daily, then I started not posting on weekends, opting for 3-4 posts a week.
My readership hasn’t fallen off but I still feel the need to maintain a consistent schedule. I also like how you spoke on using the same hosting company when recommending, instead of jumping all around….that definitely is a good thing to do.
Great post as usual man.
hi great post!! lack of consistency in our blog . It is hard to keep up
Great post ya!!
Value addition in terms of good and consistent content. And yes, needless to mention, uniqueness of the content also matters a lot. You need to make your blog quite interactive and interesting, so that people would want to visit back.
That’s a very helpful post, thanks. I haven’t been very consistent with my blogs in the past, but am setting a target to post each day for November
What comes to me is what is the best way to earn profit from blog. I have another blog with PR=3 now, but it earns so little money. What I’m asking is what the best way to make money. Ad network, review, affiliate? Can you specify in a more details? Thanks.
I agree with the points you raised; I especially agree with the one that you need to lend your own personality or voice to your blog to make it stand out and give it distinction.
[...] Calling all bloggers who haven’t had much success in monetizing their blogs. Get these tips from Balkhis when he gives you his recipe in How to make sales from your blog and earn profit. [...]