[Making Money] Making money off a blog
- Thread starter Kaebs
- Start date
Glider said:
I have Analytics set up and know how to disavow links.
My main site has 50% returning visitors. Google is less than 25% of my traffic to D&P. Twitter is my second source of referral traffic.
Google could delist me tomorrow and I'd still drive traffic.
Multiple sources of traffic. I still have my list (50% open rate, 18% click rate), Twitter, podcast, and now YouTube. On December 1st I'll have Amazon. (I could also post on web forums.)
A blog is just a start. Ultimately each of us has to be our own media company - blog, podcast, youtube, amazon ebooks, etc.
Each form of media works in unison to increase awareness and drive traffic.
MikeCF said:
Mike,
Would you mind linking to a few of these income generating posts?
(or, telling me the titles so I can go find them on your blog)
I'm curious to see which of your posts are most popular and profitable.
Thanks
***
Now, I'm going to study this post:
MikeCF said:
Goodluck disavowing links if I send 100k viagra and payday loan backlinks to your site. It would be impossible to fix.
Great work diversifying the traffic though less than 25% from google is great, so not relaly a problem for you, but guys starting out could get wiped out early. You seem to be well past that threshold.
Great work diversifying the traffic though less than 25% from google is great, so not relaly a problem for you, but guys starting out could get wiped out early. You seem to be well past that threshold.
Glider said:
Yes, it happened to a friend of mine. He is in the sex business. His site is still up.
The Google penalty lasted a year. Again, his site is still operational and he made plenty of money off of his site despite the penalty.
Why is anyone going to pay for 100K backlinks to take out a site? That is the shadiest of practices and is reserved for the dirty stuff on the interest - porn, ED drugs, car insurance, payday loans, and other shit.
If you want to bring up fear, people could hack your site, DDOS, steal your domain, and do all sorts of attacks.
All of those activities are federal crimes, and unless there is real money involved, people are not going to engage in that criminality. In fact, someone with a personal vendetta would be more likely to break the law to harm your site than a business competitor.
How often does that stuff happen to regular guys doing their thing on the Internet?
I don't like Internet Marketing because it full of people talking bullshit and nonsense.
I've had people in Internet Marketing tell me I HAD to be on Facebook for my site would die. I HAD to or I'd be RUINED.
I was only recently put on Facebook. Big deal. My site was fine.
You know what's the best marketing?
Why are you at this forum? Answer that and you'll see.
Roosh does fuck-all Internet Marketing. He's created great content for several years.
Then build up readers who wanted to talk. Hence this forum.
Then leveraged forum contributors to start a site Return of Kings.
How big is ROK?
Roosh does 0 Internet Marketing.
I've had people in Internet Marketing tell me I HAD to be on Facebook for my site would die. I HAD to or I'd be RUINED.
I was only recently put on Facebook. Big deal. My site was fine.
You know what's the best marketing?
Why are you at this forum? Answer that and you'll see.
Roosh does fuck-all Internet Marketing. He's created great content for several years.
Then build up readers who wanted to talk. Hence this forum.
Then leveraged forum contributors to start a site Return of Kings.
How big is ROK?
Roosh does 0 Internet Marketing.
Giovonny said:
The sidebar lists the 10 most popular posts and pages.
http://fit-juice.com/
It's straightforward. Write content people want to read. People go on to Google to find this content. Then they find your site.
If you already have an audience for one topic and have trust, you can branch off into other areas. Then your current guys look into the new topic. They buy stuff based on your reviews and word because you have trust. You also do SEO because guys with blogs link to you.
Then sell them a product based on the content you write about. (I could do juicing ebooks and recipes) or get in between the transaction (affiliate marketing). For example, the juicer reviews, blender reviews, etc. get me money every month.
Sure there's more to it than that, but fancy Internet Marketing bullshit means nothing until there is solid content.
Once you have content and are a trusted authority, the marketing stuff is just some nice flash.
But talk to an Internet Marketer and they will mention the bullshit and gimmicks instead of content.
That's a quick way to burn out.
Plus, by the time guys buy traffic....The profit is not what they make it out to be, that's for sure.
Ask an Internet Marketer to do a screen cap of earnings and watch them run scared. They hate it when people ask for some proof.
MikeCF said:
That simply isn't true.
Providing content is internet marketing 101.
So is email lists and you will notice Roosh has a signup for a list on his blog.
Roosh pushing people to share his videos or sign up for his youtube channel is internet marketing.
Getting facebook likes on ROK articles is internet marketing.
Roosh started doing more of a launch style for his new books with bonuses which is also marketing.
It sounds like you have a very narrow view of internet marketing and that is understandable because it is mainly associated with biz op bullshit these days but all of this is still what is considered internet marketing.
Like it or not, most of the stuff you wrote about is considered internet marketing.
MikeCF said:
Are you talking profit margins or actual profits in hand?
I'm a little confused to be honest. I can see how your profit margin would be bigger per transaction doing a blog compared to buying traffic.
I would gladly take a lower profit margin to make more sales. Buying traffic allows you to scale big time. Lower profit margin but much more sales.
Plus, if you have a deep product line then you can increase your lifetime customer value which will increase profit margins over the long haul.
How can you scale blogging? I don't blog nor do I do any SEO stuff so I don't know much about it.
"Internet marketing" is not actually the umbrella term but a niche term.
Online Marketing is the main industry, under that you have Search Marketing (SEO and SEM), PPC (Adwords, Bing, Facebook, etc), Coversion Optimization (Google Analytics, Visual Website Optimizer), Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing and several other fields.
Affiliate Marketing is a commission based online sales model, nothing else, used by the biggest and smallest brands in the world. "Affiliate marketers" can use any of the skills above to drive traffic. A skilled affiliate marketer is essentially an online marketing specialist working on commission.
Internet Marketing is a sub-niche, selling mainly info products or being affiliate for info products mainly through email. It is in the big perspective of online and affiliate marketing, a very small and insignificant niche.
Mistaking internet marketing for online marketing and therefore not learning the skills is a shame.
Online Marketing is the main industry, under that you have Search Marketing (SEO and SEM), PPC (Adwords, Bing, Facebook, etc), Coversion Optimization (Google Analytics, Visual Website Optimizer), Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing and several other fields.
Affiliate Marketing is a commission based online sales model, nothing else, used by the biggest and smallest brands in the world. "Affiliate marketers" can use any of the skills above to drive traffic. A skilled affiliate marketer is essentially an online marketing specialist working on commission.
Internet Marketing is a sub-niche, selling mainly info products or being affiliate for info products mainly through email. It is in the big perspective of online and affiliate marketing, a very small and insignificant niche.
Mistaking internet marketing for online marketing and therefore not learning the skills is a shame.
berserk said:
Ah, maybe that is where the disconnect is. I look at the internet as just another channel for marketing and distribution.
When I got into it, over 8+years ago, we just called it internet marketing.
Maybe that has changed since.
Kitsune
Pelican
worldwidetraveler said:
Yeah, but that's clearly just arguing semantics. I told my mother the other night I was writing a new book - that's marketing too.
MikeCF is referring to internet marketing as in, "If I go to an internet marketing company, what would they do for me?" People pay huge money to SEO companies.. and if I spent 1k a month for them to tell me "Write good posts and put a "like" button on them" they wouldn't be getting my 1k the next month.
MikeCF is referring to organic traffic building versus inorganic traffic building. It's perfectly doable, and despite what Glider says above, you aren't going to be wiped out overnight by an Xrumer blast of 100k porn links. Google is more sophisticated than that. A friend of mine issued a challenge once on the very subject to a bunch of blackhatters. He said, "Blast my site with as many bad links as you want." That site stayed indexed. Pre-Panda, Pre-Penguin, Post-Panda and Post-Penguin. That site is still up and still doing well, because despite the algorithms making mistakes, generally they work perfectly fine.
Sure, someone could probably get a two month old spam site deindexed. But who is going to do that anyway? I don't trawl the net for new sites that are in my niche so I can blast them with scat porn, because I've got to actually work on my sites in that time. Suggesting that someone doesn't start a site because they'll get deindexed by an internet marketer is like saying, "don't go to bars because jerks will beat you up at closing time."
That said, blogging is hard work and there's a lot of survivor bias. I think a real issue is having something to say, and a novel way to say it. The funniest example I can think of in recent times was a post that Victor Pride did. I don't know Victor in any capacity, but people vouch for him being a helpful fellow. He posted saying, "I'll critique your blog idea and help make it happen."
He received hundreds of comments. Great.
Except loads of them were like, "Yeah man. I'm going to start a site about working out, motivation and I'm gonna monetize it with an ebook about how to get disciplined."
I mean, I must have read two dozen of these comments. These guys were asking for help to compete with the guy who was helping them. That's not finding a niche market or bringing something new to the table. You can guarantee that if that guy starts a blog there'll be three posts on it and a link to buy his book, "28 days of discipline!" or "Roman Warrior Fitness."
To have a more indepth look at that, Victor Pride's company is called "Superdrive Publishing." Put in a Google Search for "Superdrive Publishing" with the quotes. You'll see loads of sites where guys couldn't even be bothered to write their own terms and conditions. They've literally copy and pasted Victor's, leaving his company name in. Most of them have site names like, "Bold and Adventurous" and "Brave and Determined" and shit like that. You've never going to get an audience if you can't even be bothered to write your own material.
Most guys are at a place (especially in the manosphere) where they don't actually have anything to say, and they aren't mature enough to say it.
Thats the sole issue with blogging. All other issues stem from it.
As an example, MikeCF blogged about everyone doing blog carnivals. It's a great idea. Everyone has their own niche. One guy might be doing "Juicing for men" one guy "Juicing for women" and another guy "Healthy chicken recipes for bodybuilders." They all link to each other, each has a new perspective and so on. It's an evergreen SEO technique.
So I started looking through websites of the web. I'm desperately trying to find new material for these blog roundups, because they're fantastic for traffic. My weekly roundups are the top viewed pages on my site (aside from the key pages,) because people retweet, share, and otherwise visit their own links and links of people they follow.
The problem I have though (and bear in mind, I'm no blogging superstar) is that guys aren't thinking about the fact that their site needs to be well made and well named. Nobody is going to link to "5 reasons my life sucks" or any of those negative posts. I can't link to sites which are clear "Buy this thing from Amazon" and nothign else posts, or posts that are spelled wrong, because it ruins my own credibility. And a big thing for manosphere types is that there are rampant stupidly named sites. I'm not going to link to a site called "QUIT PORN GET SLUTS" or "My Journey to Being a Pussy Slayer" because even if I agree with the post I want to link, it's just the sort of thing that'll put readers off. Those same posts coming from "Pornfreelife" or "Gentleman Player" or something would get the link.
So some practical advice:
Name your site well. If you can't say it out loud in public or tell your mom, you probably should reconsider. Branding is the most obvious and elusive part of the whole thing.
Write it well. You'll make typos, but correct them when you see them. Don't be afraid to change a page after you've published it.
You can circumvent most traffic problems by actually having a unique thing to say. My personal recommendation is to take a hobby or interest and work on it for hundreds of hours until you've learned so many tricks and shortcuts that you're the only person in the world who has actually worked something out. This can be really mundane, but if you have the answer, people will share it. For instance, I can see if you're a guitarist, you could have a guitar blog. "25 Songs You NEED to Play To Get Girls" is not going to get you traffic. What will?
"How to never lose a plectrum again." (Use blu-tack)
"How to make new guitar strings keep their tune completely."
"How to stop dust collecting on those bits of the guitar you can't get in to clean."
^ I don't have a guitar blog, know those would get traffic. Why? Because they are things that if you were to hang out with guitarists, they'd bitch about. They're the sort of things that a guitarist would be sat in front of his computer and think, "Hey man, how can I do that?" They're the sort of posts that they'd then facebook to their friends.
They're also infinitely more helpful and nuanced than "check out this new Fender guitar by clicking my amazon link!" and "My journey to becoming a rock star GOD."
Kitsune said:
No, it isn't semantics at all.
It isn't a coincidence that there are buttons people can click on ROK articles that automatically shows on viewers facebook news feeds so their friends see what has been liked.
Hardly semantics but a planned marketing strategy to get content shared, to get more eyeballs and thus more sales in the end.
Same as promoting a new book or discounts of existing books through twitter, facebook, this forum, blogs and email lists.
Like I said, it sounds like some of you guys have a very narrow view of what internet marketing is.
Kitsune
Pelican
worldwidetraveler said:
Alright then... "semantics" was a poor semantic choice on my end.
MikeCF is clearly talking about using content as the main driver of traffic. This leads to organic link sharing. Other than that, on-site SEO keeps the pages per visitor high. He is saying that his strategy is great.
He is saying that buying links is bad, as is trying to inorganically game the system in any way. He's then saying that Roosh and RoK are using his system as opposed to the inorganic system.
Is it all marketing? Well, yeah, technically. But if I told my mother that I was going to release a book next month, that's technically marketing too. Realistically though, I'm not a marketer if I tell my friends that my book is coming out soon. Guys who wear tapout T shirts aren't marketers when they wear the brand. Those are both planned strategies to get more interest in the product too.
Kitsune said:
Content has always been the main driver of traffic on the internet. That is why people pay attention to Keywords.
Buying links isn't internet marketing. It's trying to game search engines. I understand your point and for long term viability I think the way Roosh does it will work long term without having to worry so much about search engine changes.
Make no mistake, he is still doing internet marketing.
No, telling your mom isn't marketing. I'm not sure what you are trying to get at.
Roosh has a optin box for an email list on his blog.
Roosh has buttons on his articles that allow people to easily share his content.
Roosh asks for people to subscribe and share his content knowing he will make more money with more views.
Roosh uses social media, blogs and forums to sell his books.
Roosh has his own brand with shirts and mugs.
How is that comparable to telling your mom?
jamaicabound
Pelican
What's your guys opinion on adsense? I know its gone downhill, is it still even worth using? I don't have much luck with it but curious if others do. The one other thing that botheres me about adsense is they have not only a strict TOS but also super vague there's really no determining factor of whats family or workplace safe and what will get your account shutdown forever, oftentimes it's very trivial things.
I know alot of you guys have great blogs but probably stuff that would violate adsense TOS if there's any mention of sex or heck you may even get people complaining for anything guy related but just curiuos if you don't go the adsense route whats the best way to go selling your own ebook or prodcut or other pay per action affiliates or ?
I know alot of you guys have great blogs but probably stuff that would violate adsense TOS if there's any mention of sex or heck you may even get people complaining for anything guy related but just curiuos if you don't go the adsense route whats the best way to go selling your own ebook or prodcut or other pay per action affiliates or ?