Making Money
Life as a Pro Blogger
I am a professional blogger and have been for some time. What I mean by that is that I make my living and pay the bills through my online activities with my blogs. Most bloggers out there are not pro. Many would like to be and are trying to get to that point. But, what is life like when you’re actually doing it? People like Darren Rowse make their living talking about it. I just make my living doing it, but I’ll talk about it here (since it is my personal blog).
Simply put – it is a lot of frickin’ work.
I’m usually up around 7 in the morning. I check email and activities on my own sites first thing. I literally make a B-line from my bedroom to the office almost every morning. After that, I grab some breakfast and walk the dog. Sometimes I may get a little exercise, too (but not often enough). I usually start actually working around 9 AM.
I am trying to get out of the programming/consulting business, but I still have one primary client that I cannot get rid of quite yet. So, I will attend to some programming crap in the mornings. Then, it is off to check up on the tech news of the day and write about it. My fellow PCMech writer, Rich, has usually already posted a few items by this time. We make an effort to post 3-4 items per day if we can. Blogs die quickly if you don’t keep up with them.
After lunch, I’m usually working on various site enhancements to perfect the site or increase revenue. PCMech makes it’s revenue from a mix of third-party advertising, affiliate sales, online store sales and memberships. The membership program is new and is something I will go into more detail on a little later. So, the afternoon is usually about maintaining and enhancing these revenue streams by improving the site and exploring new ventures.
I usually psuedo-quit around 6:30 PM. I say psuedo-quit because I do leave my office, but I’m not done for the day. Typically I will do some work on the laptop in the evening after dinner. I do this out with my family and with the TV going. During this time, I am usually catching up on RSS feed reading (after all, a blogger has to know what people are talking about), commenting on other blogs, social media catch-up (like Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed), or doing some research on some ideas I had earlier for the business. At night, I try to also live a bit of an integrated life, spending time with my family and doing work at the same time.
So, 4 days per week, I’m pretty much “working” from morning to bedtime. It really doesn’t feel like work to me because I truly enjoy it. Friday nights is no computer time that I’ll spend with my wife and baby. Over the weekend, I may get some work done, but the family takes priority. It is my balance for having worked my ass off the rest of the week. Besides, I have a beautiful 5-month old daughter, Elyana, and nobody can tell me my blogs are more important than that – as much as I love my job.
Being a pro blogger is rewarding for the following reasons:
- I set my own schedule
- I get to write about what I love – technology and the Internet
- I can work from home
- It gives me an excuse to load up on the latest technology (it’s a business expense = nice excuse)
- I am my own boss and my income is dictated only by my ingenuity and execution of ideas. I don’t have to kiss ass to the man or climb a “career ladder”.
The drawback is that:
- It can be hard to get started. Busting into pro blogging if starting from scratch is a lot of work. The key to the whole thing is lots of eyes reading your site. And that takes time to build.
- Most people don’t understand. It can be really hard to describe what I do for a living to people who ask.
- It can seem unsecure. My wife really doesn’t get what I do. In many ways, she’d probably rather me have a 9-5 job where I get a steady paycheck and a 401K plan. Blogging isn’t like that. And, yes, it was definitely a weird feeling making my money like this when we had our little girl. After all, my little girl is depending on a blog for her food. This IS pressure. But, you can either cave to it and give in to the 9-5, or you can stick it out and make it work. I chose the latter.
The secret to making it as a pro blogger is to think outside the box. The model of “get lots of traffic, throw up ads” is a TOUGH one to start from scratch. There are MANY MILLIONS of blogs out there already. So, while I definitely say ads are one way to do it, explore other models. Information products. Affiliate sales where you use your blog posts to promote a product you believe in and can make a small commission if they buy it from you. Or as mentioned above, perhaps a membership program. Perhaps use the blog to build credibility then use it to build up an offline business.
Blogs can and do make money every day. I’m proof of that. But, it comes down to providing strong value to your readers and then finding ways to leverage that following.
Life as a problogger is fun and rewarding, but not without its stresses.
Who You Surround Yourself With
I am sitting in my hotel room over in Scottsdale, Arizona at the moment. I am here attending a Launch Masters Retreat at Harris Fellman’s pad. We’re talking internet marketing, chowing on food, working the open bar he has set up, riding around in a Hummer stretch limo and basically hanging out.
Yesterday was the first day here and one thing jumped out at me. There is SO much value in surrounding yourself with success-minded people.
Everybody here is working on a new product that they are going to sell on the Internet. We are all students of Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula and some of the guys here have had great success with product launches in the past. While I am a successful blogger and do make a living doing so, I’m a relative newbie to the business of marketing – at least properly. Any pro blogger out there who is reading this – being able to apply this type of information in conjunction with a blog is just KILLER. The model of getting paid by putting ads on a popular blog – it works, but it will only get you so far. Using your blog to market your own products is where it is at.
The number of ideas I am getting per minute here so far is stellar and it is because I am talking with a group of people who are all doing the same thing (minus the pro blogger gig, of course). This is the main reason I made the flight out here. I wanted to mastermind with some like-minded people and that is something I don’t have a chance to do super often.
Anyway, I know this is a bit of a rambling, but I wanted to share a thought. I’m working on less sleep than I usually get so I apologize if this post seems disconnected. 
Blogger Gold Rush – Is It A False Hope?
There are certainly a LOT of blogs out there. Many of those bloggers want to make money with their sites. Some actually start the blog with the express purpose of making money with it (usually a mistake). But, do they deserve it?
Louis Gray, a new Silicon Valley blogger that pretty much came from nowhere and is now considered an A-list blogger in many circles, states it point blank: Most Bloggers Don’t Deserve Any Ad Revenue. He goes on to state that, for most bloggers, the hopes of making good money with their blogs is just misguided. There are too many bloggers, and most have little to offer.
The part where Gray loses me is with:
Yet, some bloggers act as if it’s their God-given right to write, post a few ads and start raking in cash.
OK, I have certainly seen bloggers who start a blog to make money. They’re hoping for it, yes. But, I have never met anybody who does so thinking they have a God-given right to it. I think Gray is overstating his case here, perhaps just to be provacative.
He then goes onto say that bloggers are not adding any value to the web. I STRONGLY disagree with that. Look, bloggers put out content that is, hopefully, interesting. Maybe even valuable. It helps people. To say that that is not valuable would be to say that most TV shows are of no value. They are, because they provide the real estate on which to advertise.
Sure, not all bloggers are adding value. Some just add to the noise. But, that’s the way it works in almost any field. It is capitalism, and let them try.
Louis Gray Is Right AND Wrong
Gray had a good point, then went too far. What he forgets is that the most valuable commodity online is one thing: EYEBALLS. Attention. Bloggers who truly concentrate on their audience, provide value, cover things with a unique perspective, provide interesting insight and personality – THOSE bloggers attract eyeballs. And that is valuable. And those bloggers CAN make money through their blog.
Even if that blogger is talking about the same things as others, it comes down to something making them unique, be it perspective, humor, whatever.
This whole notion about bloggers demanding their fair share of the advertising pie – I think this is a made-up figure in Louis Gray’s head.
I make many thousands of dollars per month by blogging. And, yes, it is a tech blog. There are a LOT of tech blogs, no doubt. It is saturated niche. However, do I manage to attract readers? Yes. Do I get a lot of them? Yes, probably 10,000 – 15,000 unique readers daily. Is that of little value, Louis?
I think Louis is onto something, and that is a huge reality check. Yes, blogging is, well, a complete and total bitch. It is hard. It isn’t something that is going to quickly result in an influx of cash. To most, it never will. There is a LOT of competition.
But, to any prospective blogger who is thinking of getting started, I hope you do not become discouraged by Louis Gray’s rant. Just get into blogging with the right expectations. Realize that you have to stand out and that it is going to take time. Also, realize that in many cases the value of a blog is in the branding rather than ad revenue. There are, actually, much better ways to make money with a blog than by hosting ads.
So, I agree with Louis Gray. I just think he could have stated his case a little better.
Internet Marketers on "Mass Control" Like Flies on Shiznit
As a guy who is very active in Internet business, I stay in tune with what’s happening out there. Of course, I like to conduct business in the old-fashioned way – produce something that is of value to people and sell it to them. I just started PCMech EDU, for example, and while I am making money on this, I also wholeheartedly believe it is a great product.
Teaching Sells is onto something and I mean it. Online learning is an incredibly viable business model.
Well, today saw the launch of Mass Control. And I can tell you right now that I am one of the few Internet business people out there who is NOT pimping this thing. Perhaps I should, because if the quantity of marketing emails I’ve gotten lately is any indication, this guy surely is exercising MASS CONTROL over the Internet marketing industry. And the guy is making a frickin’ killing. When I saw the sales page, I seem to recall it was going for $1997. (Why do these people always end prices in 7?)
Over the last few days, I have gotten emails from:
- John Reese. Usual copywriting by John, with the usual 4-word lines in his email. He is offering to give away Traffic Secrets 2.0 to anybody who purchases Mass Control through his affiliate link,.
- Rich Schefren. Doing a joint venture teleseminar call to pimp Mass Control. Talking about getting a license to "print money". Oh, come on.
- Harris & Richard.
- Ben Shaffer. Giving away product in exchange for signing up for Mass Control through him.
It goes on and on. I am on a lot of people’s lists, so I see them all. And I haven’t seen an Internet marketing orgasm like this one in awhile. They are all trying to cash in on this.
It just goes to show you that these guys make the most money by selling crap to each other. I don’t doubt these guys make great products, but it is certainly getting to the point where these guys are all competing for attention. It is the usual marketing elites vying for attention from the rest of the people trying to make that kind of money online. And they know it.
Here’s the problem: If these guys keep sending emails like this, full of copy and hype, full of "secrets they don’t want you to know" – well, it just kills the market not only for themselves but for anybody else trying to do this. It leads to DISTRUST.
I saw a video not long ago where John Reese came out with a big, super-duper secret. That the money is in marketing to other internet marketers. In a word: DUH! What is this guy, master of the plainly obvious? If this is right up there with all the other "secrets" this guy sells, then he’s nothing but a shyster.
Google Adjusts Click Spots on Adsense – Lowers CTR
Google has made a change to the clickable spots on their Adsense ads. The change might be good for the quality of their ad network, but it is not working out well for web publishers. In fact, Google is sacrificing revenue on their own to make this change.
Usually, almost the entire space of an Adsense ad (including the white space) was clickable. As it sits now, the only clickable areas of the ad are the headline of the ad or the URL. Any clicks on the accompanying text for the ad or the white space don’t do anything. Here is a graphic (courtesy of Blogoscoped.com ) that illustrates this better than I could:
In the long run, I think this is actually a good move. Unfortunately, on the short term, it is resulting in a lot of web publishers seeing pretty noticeable drops in their click-through ratio. And a reduced CTR means you make less money from Google.
I myself am noticing the change. My CTR has dropped by an average of around 0.3%. Not exactly huge compared to some, but the overall effect is a definite decrease in revenue. Yesterday I made about $30 less than usual. It was about a 30% drop. I will be watching today to see how the trend continues.
Yet more proof that depending on any one income source (including Google) is a bad move. One small change can have definite effects on your income.
Reality TV Meets The Internet
Love it or hate it, reality TV is a new media phenomenon. It is obviously huge business for the television industry. It was only a matter of time before reality TV came online. And it has.
The Next Internet Millionaire is a new web-based reality television show. As far as I know, the show is only viewable over the internet. They are using Revver as their video host and embedding the videos into their website. The shows are incredibly well produced. Great editing. Same quality you would expect of any TV show. The show was created by Joel Comm and Eric Holmlund, with Joel hosting the show. The premise is very similar to most reality TV shows. Take 12 people and make them compete. In this case, it is taking 12 entrepreneurs and getting them to try to become a millionaire on the internet.
Joel Comm is an internet entrepreneur. He is one of these guys who goes where the buzz is. He’s written books selling “secrets” to networks like Adsense, Kontera, Chitika, etc. Without having read any of them, this strikes me as a way to cash in on the obvious by making it seem mysterious. But, hey, a lot of business people do that. Put the word “secret” in front of something and it’s liable to sell. It also seems these guys had some potential dishonesty in the works regarding Adsense templates that they ripped off from somebody else. But, I don’t know the whole story.
This reality show is, of course, a way to bring in viral traffic and to position Joel as an internet entrepreneur and to sell a coaching program. But, it’s a damn good idea. I don’t know how much viewership they have, and their site is unfortunately almost all Flash which makes it very SEO unfriendly for them. I found out about it from the Revver homepage and that’s probably about the only place they have any decent visibility.
Do I think reality TV can work on the internet? Mostly likely it can. The only obstacle is going to be viewer impatience. When people sit in front of the TV, they do so with the intention to vegetate and watch. When they are online, usually the intention is to get around – quickly. Viewer patience online is much less than on TV. Next Internet Millionaire episodes are long, the most recent being 45 minutes long. According to Revver, they have 36,000+ views on their latest episode. That’s not groundbreaking. It seems to me that for a reality TV style thing to really work online, it needs to combine the good production with shorter, videoblog style posts. In other words, post often and shorter.
Using Facebook to Improve Your Business
It has now been established that Facebook is new, different and all around cool. But, what is it’s impact in the world of internet business. Can it help you make any money?
Internet Marketers Should Take Notice
Internet marketers are all about people. Social networks, especially popular ones, have lots of people. So, yes, Facebook would be a natural fit for internet marketing. How would a marketer take advantage? Some ways may include:
- Establishing and enhancing your brand image
- Establishing and enhancing your authority in your market, a thought leader
- Using your network for market research (opinions and viewpoints, good for surveys)
- Creating a Facebook group of people of similar interest. Great for networking.
- Targeted Advertising…
Yes, according to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is working on a system to allow targeted advertising to specific networks of people with similar interest.
Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.
Eventually, it hopes to refine the system to allow it to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area.
Could this be the Adwords of the Facebook world? And we all know how much internet marketers drool over Adwords.
Money in Facebook Applications
This new growth of Facebook does, of course, open up markets for making money. Remember all the websites that popped up offering Myspace profile themes? Well, those things made money by, if nothing else, banner advertising. So, sites offering up Facebook applications are likely to serve the same role.
Also, some applications have become a bit of a commodity. In fact, Inside Facebook reports that TripAdvisor.com has just paid $3 million to the “Where I’ve Been” Facebook application. That is, by far, the largest such acquisition. There have been many smaller ones. I have even seen job postings on sites like Craigslist for Facebook app developers.
The reason is clear. Businesses are catching on to the viability and money potential of this whole social networking phenomenon, thanks to Facebook. Some of them truly get it, others are probably just getting on the buzz bandwagon. Either way, its an interesting mass migration.
Next Steps
So, how should you get started on putting Facebook to use?
- Get a profile
- Start adding friends. Think strategically. There is the “more the merrier” approach, and then there is the “those that really matter” approach. Think of both.
- Search for relevant networks and join in.
- Explore the Facebook applications that would be applicable to you and set them up.
And with that, happy networking!
Starting an Online Business Despite Information Overload
In yesterday’s newsletter, I asked for feedback from subscribers on what they wanted to see as topics covered on WebbyOnline. One reader mentioned how he wanted to start an online business but was overwhelmed by all the information out there and really didn’t know where to start. Well, that’s actually very common. The market of making money online is SO saturated that it all combines into a big noise of claims, proof and, well – crap. I had to take this into account when I decided to start blogging on WebbyOnline. There are just SO many people out there, all claiming to have the secret to making money online. I certainly did not want to be one of those people, and I certainly don’t want to appear to be competing with all that noise.
WebbyOnline is different because I cover internet business from the REAL perspective. Sure, other people do that, too. However, I think I have a knack for explaining things in plain English. My popular site, PCMechanic, took off because of my writing about seemingly complicated computer topics in a way that others could understand and apply. My aim with this site is to demystify the art and science of running a website and making money online. There are no secrets in this business. Its all there to be known. I run an internet business every day. I’m not a millionaire, but I am successful. Its a business like any other and the rules are really no different than starting an offline business.
Cut Through the Noise
So, the first thing when looking to start an online business is – yes – cut through the noise. There is just so much NOISE out there of people trying to sell the “secrets” to making money online. Let me tell you right now – its all a bunch of horseshit. At least the marketing is. Now, I’m certainly not saying that these people don’t know what they’re doing. They do, and there are many great internet marketers that make me look like I have no clue at all. But, these guys are also master copywriters, which means when you read their stuff, you are reading SALES COPY. And if you read enough sales copy, it all starts to look the same.
So, I really think the first step to getting into this yourself is to stop reading about the stories and “secrets” of others. It’s noise. It’s distraction. And it can also lead you to think you are a failure because you’re not making the money that the “big guys” are making.
So, stop the endless reading of “making money online” websites. And next…
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AuctionAds a Waste of Time
I recently decided to give AuctionAds.com a try and, so far, have found it to be a huge waste of my time. Here’s the deal: AuctionAds is a new ad service which allows you to run banners which contain live Ebay auctions. Essentially, its a banner network like Adsense, but the content of the ads are Ebay auctions. Where your revenue is supposed to come from is affiliate commissions from Ebay based on user actions. In order to run AuctionAds, you do not have to sign up to be an eBay affiliate. You simply sign up for AuctionAds and they take care of the rest.
AuctionAds sounded good when I heard about it. It is the brainchild of Jeremy Shoemaker, whose blog over at ShoeMoney is pretty well known. The guy is undoubtedly a fantastic internet marketer. He knows his stuff. I heard him on an interview with John Reese and they talked about AuctionAds at length. After listening to that interview, I decided to check it out. Signing up for the account was dead easy. Once the account was created, I was at first a little confused on how to set up the ads. I found that I had to enter my own keywords. I had to play around with those keywords in order to get any decent stuff showing up in my banners. I was picking computer related stuff because I was going to try out the ads over on the PC Mechanic Forums.
A Whopping $3.00
I ran the ads on a trial basis on my forums (one banner spot is still up there as I write this). As of now, I have served 57,607 impressions in these trial spots and have made only $3.00. The click-through ratio (CTR) is on par with what I usually achieve with Adsense, however the revenue is much lower. So, basically, I’m making about 5 cents CPM right now with AuctionAds.
Needless to say, that sucks.
Disclaimer is Warranted
Yes, I’m complaining. However, let’s be fair. There ARE people (I hear) who are making decent coin from AuctionAds. Perhaps what it comes down to is that it depends heavily on what kinds of sites you try it on. Perhaps a niche site where the people are generally already there to BUY something would work better. Running ads like this on forums is perhaps not the best test. That said, my forums are pretty highly trafficked and, yes, I DO have people who are in there looking for information on parts they are thinking of buying for their computers. So, its not a total mismatch.
What was also disappointing was the lack of information on the AuctionAds website on how to optimize your ads. Sure, they have the blog, but the site itself is overly simplistic. They don’t even provide any decent detail on how the revenue is generated. Is it by sale? By new signup? What the hell? The “How It Works” page is a total joke, basically regurgitating the obvious. It is a new service, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. But, to mature, I really think they need to make this system more automatic. Make the ad code so that it can automatically use keywords for contextually relevant ads. Supply more detailed information on how to USE the ads to actually generate some revenue. As of now, they assume the user knows too much.
I purposely tried AuctionAds from the perspective that most would use Adsense. I made a few ads and copy/pasted the code. I did not spend endless hours trying to optimize things or dynamically insert keywords or anything like that. But, most users will do the same.
The Future
I am not going to toss in the towel quite yet with AuctionAds. I just think they need some maturing before it will be a contender to Adsense for the majority of publishers. For now, the revenue sucks. At least for me. I’m going to revert to others and remove AuctionAds – for now. But, I will continue to watch what’s going on and perhaps jump back in and give it a try again later.
Blog Monetization, PayPerPost and Ebook Affiliate Saturation
Here is my introductory diatribe from this week’s WebbyOnline newsletter. To get this in your inbox each week, just subscribe in the form at the top of this site.
Oh, busy times. Busy times. As I said last week, I am putting Miraserver development into hyperdrive. And I’m feeling it now since I stayed up last night until 2AM working on it. Some of my readers may be used to this, but I’m usually hitting the hay before midnight, and I usually stop working earlier than that so that I can spend time with my wife. However, I decided the only way to get this thing done is to put the pedal to the metal. So, when I can, I am going to just stay at the desk and work until I drop. I am bound and determined to release a much needed update to Miraserver version 2 in the very near future.
I am also getting the master prepared to send off to the printers for our second DVD release over on PC Mechanic. This one covers Getting Started with Ubuntu Linux. It will walk you, video style, through getting up and running with Ubuntu, and we geared it toward people who are used to Windows. I’m excited to see how this new product does. For Windows users, Ubuntu can take a little getting used to. However, its really pretty simple. And the draw of it is, of course, that you can completely stock your computer with software without paying a dime.
In case you needed more proof that blogs work, here is a post which lists the top 10 blogs on the internet – some of them (as he says) having more circulation that major offline newspapers. The same blogger also posted his Top 7 Blog Monetization Methods. His seven? (1) Recursive affiliate income, (2) Direct ad sales, (3) Text-Link-Ads.com, (4) One-Time Affiliate Income, (5) Paid Reviews, (6) Google Adsense, (7) Misc Programs. I think these seven pretty much comprise the major ways to make money with ANY content website, not just a blog. I would add to the list, for me, e-commerce selling info products and a subscription membership service. In my experience, too, Adsense can be a good money-earner, however it is peanuts compared to what you can make generating your own income by way of e-commerce and affiliate sales. It takes a LOT of traffic, typically, to make any significant revenue from Adsense.
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
