Full Time Blogger - Looking to make a living online!

I’ve been on a bit of a anti-commenting binge recently, mainly with the amount of spam coming through - Akismet deals with a good percentage, but I really reached the point where I had to have a commenting policy for all the “Keyword Links” being set by people on variety of my blogs.

These people add their comment invariably just to get a one-way link to their site for SEO purposes - what they forget is that quite often it’s permanent as Maki quite rightly reminds them.

The behaviors this has introduced to get these links are not always healthy for your long term brand management (yes, you yourself are a brand!):

• Only commenting on doFollow blogs (not necessarily a bad thing - it is a form of community!)
• Being the first to comment, but commenting with something completely irrelevant.

Maki explains that it’s not just about getting a link to your site, it’s about opening a dialogue with the author and their readers. People with short term goals tend to cut and paste the same response, or say something irrelevant let me give you an example:

One comment I had this week complained about having to read my blog - quite simply, don’t bother if you’re not interested. Clearly they weren’t interested because their name was something irrelevant like “Bahama Holidays”. Needless to say I deleted it!

I’ll leave you with Maki’s final comment on this:

Think long-term, think relationships and think about getting repeat benefits.

I’ve got to be honest, I’ve not been particularly involved with blogging recently…

Why?

I’ve recently moved house… DIY is not my favourite passion, but when someone has painted AROUND the wardrobes you really (I mean really) don’t have much of a choice!!

So… What’s this post about?

I only really want to post when I’ve found something really, really interesting (if you want to find out what I find interesting, why not subscribe?) and plus I’ve got to the point recently where I’ve avoided all the “WebGuru’s” and “Interent Marketer’s” in my feed reader.

Alright, I know these guru’s are (allegedly) making a fortune from blogging, but most of them are regurgitating the same things:

• Twitter
  I still fail to see how twitter is going to allow me to give up working for a living (I mean who wants to know everytime I scratch myself? - for the minority that do, simply let me know and I’ll give you a call as and when?!?).
• Web 2.0 / Social Networking
  I’ve got a Wordpress Theme (I’ve just bought another one from Chris Pearson that I’ll probably migrate onto this blog soon once i’ve customised it). I will be upgrading to Wordpress 2.5 once I’ve had more of a play with it on one of my niche blogs (and no, I still don’t like it that much - I’ll get used to it I’m sure!).
• The Something for Nothing Brigade
  I also completely agree with Alan Johnson, who made a guest post recently, Instant Riches? Pah! - Not going to happen! You have to put some work in, and so many people don’t want to. A millionnaire overnight for just three clicks of the mouse??

Now the first good thing I came across….

After all that negativity I did find something quite refreshing my Google Reader, a Q&A from Shoemoney . He doesn’t read books, he tells people to write good quality content, doesn’t build email lists, and admits it took him 7 years to make his first $1,000 in a month (he also comes clean on the rumour surrounding his incredibly large penis) - but he is honest and he does make money out of blogging, check him out!

I’ll be back soon as I plough through my Google Reader trying to pull out some of the good stuff from the rubbish!

It’s not often what I read in my Google Reader and on the BBC News site combine to make me think about something and read both of the articles twice!

You might think this story is funny,  in that a Lonely Planet writer did not even visit one of the countries he wrote about (although Lonely Planet are quick to ensure they have reviewed his contributions and have found no inaccuracies).

Mr Kohnstamm revealed this whilst publicising his new book “Do Travel Writers Go To Hell?”, in which he talks about his travels around South America selling drugs and enjoying casual sex, sometimes in places he was writing about!

So what does that all have to do with stuff that I’m reading in Google Reader (not my normal subject matter I hear you say!), Andy Beard posted some interesting points in his (extremely long but) imaginatively titled post, UK Consumer Protection Unfair Trading Regulations That Might Affect Advertising, Links, Affiliates & Product Launches , he makes some fine points about:

• Sales letters that may close at a given price after a set period of time (I for one would be glad to see the back of them!!).
• Affiliates making clear that you are promoting a product for monetary gain, without clearly labeling it as an ‘Advertising Feature’ or ‘Advertorial’.
• Calling something free when you have to make another purchase to actually get it free (all those bonuses!)
• Giving the impression that you are something else (are you just an average guy making a fortune or is there a whole team of “you”).
• Misleading stats (make sure that stats package is accurate if you’re reporting those figures!).

This is amongst other things, that could affect marketers and how honest they are, testimonials, split pricing, delivering real proof and, above all, disclosure!

Read the guidance on the new regulations here, note that it only appears to cover “trader” to consumer regulations (and not business to business transactions).

Whilst Andy is concerned he might be reading too much into this document, Tim Nash has produced a guide to legal notices that you almost certainly should follow - I’m writing mine as we speak!

You may remember a while back we discussed the ability to use a Wordpress plugin to find Flick Photos for your blog.

I emphasised that your blog contains adverts, that you should probably consider it commercial and only use images allowed for commercial purposes (to be on the safe side), if you felt I was being a little over the top here with my level of caution, you may find it useful to read Josh’s post about Creative Commons.

I’m catching up a little in my feed reader at the moment, and stumbled across this post by Darren @ ProBlogger, check out Hunter Nuttall’s free PDF ebook (that’s free with no subscription, no junk mail  - FREE)  on The Zen of Blogging

A welcome addition to my coffee!

Anybody that follows what I’ve been upto recently will be familiar with David Allen’s Book - Getting Things Done.

I’ve been a bit lapse recently but seem to be getting somewhere with it now. I need to put a bit more of a concerned effort in. I think I’ve motivated my other half to give David Allen’s technique a go as well having watched David Allen’s Google Techtalk:

Interestingly one of the things David says really early on is that the older you are the more likely you are to want to use the whole system, the younger you are the more like you are to just the tips and tricks… Either way it’s a system I’m going to do my damnedest to adopt in one form or another!!!Some further reading on this:

• I quite enjoyed 96iantSteps 10 minute GTD Crash Course, this almost borders on the crash course I gave my wife on the subject last month!
• If like me your ToDo lists have really only referred to the here and now, with things that are current and need addressing at least in the next week or so you’ll really benefit from doing this kind of “collection” or “RAM” Dump.
• Inbox Zero was how I found out about GTD, after introducing a colleague to Inbox Zero he trundled off to find David Allen and couldn’t recommend the book more highly. You can actually see how much less stressed he is!
  • Read how Chris Brogan tamed his inbox.
  • You may find (if you use Gmail and Firefox) the GTDInbox extension useful.
• If you find yourself struggling to adapt to a failing GTD system which you’ve implemented, you may want to Reboot Your GTD System. The problem may not actually be the system it may be it’s owner! (that’s you!)
• Not so much the GTD System, more a case of what can you use to get things done: Michael Gray delves into the tools that he uses.

My question to you - how do you get things done - if you had to give somebody one top tip to get through days and their work life easier - what would it be?

Knowing your Readers, is so, so important…. As I said in my last post you should consider all of your website readers/subscribers to be clients of yours. If clients don’t get what they want they go elsewhere!

I recently made a guest post for Easy Wordpress along similar lines where I said:

Of course you know who reads your blog - it’s:

• 22 people in Google Reader,
• 32 people using Firefox Live Bookmarks,
• 90 people on Technorati,
• and another 30 get it delivered on Feedburner email…

I’ll ask the question again… Do you know WHO reads your blog?
The answer is probably no, unless they comment regularly.

I genuinely believe this, most people won’t know who is reading their site - they’ll just be a bunch of statistics - but are they the right statistics?

Do you know if they keep coming back because they enjoy what you write, or because they’ve accidently set your blog as their homepage?

But getting them to talk and interact is a whole different ball game, as I said in my post - you need to make it easy for them to comment and make it worthwhile as well!

Misti @ Pureblogging recognises this as well, and gives some excellent methods for getting to know your readers. Starting with just asking them!!

A worthwhile read about getting to know your readers!

I’ve been out of the blogging loop for while, with moving house, decorating and the like. The only blogging I’ve really done in recent weeks is for one of my niche blogs that has a seasonal feel to it for most of the year.

So I’m back and I thought I’d have a dig through my Google Reader, I have 640 starred items (and 1000+ unread items) in there, dating back as far as May 2007! I’m currently debating whether I should just share an RSS feed of things that I star or share - whether I should just unstar the lot, or whether I should start to have some themed posts around some of them.

What would you do? Unless anyone gives me a better idea expect to see some really “linky” posts in the near future across all of my blogs!!!

If you follow my personal blog, you’ll be aware that I’ve been keen to get a plugin that will allow me to insert Flickr photo’s to my blog posts, this all started when I read Skellie’s guide to using Incredible Flickr Images using images licensed under the Creative Commons license.

photo credit: NUCO

I wasn’t the only one and there were some half solutions around in the form of:

• J @ The Glass is Too Big’s prototype.
• EmoRate’s Photo Comment Tool.

Then Michael posted about Photo Dropper, it’s a fantastic tool that does exactly what I need.

For example, let’s have a look for elephants:

photo credit: exfordy

And a fox using a computer:

photo credit: Rob Lee

See, it’s great - that all took 2 - 3 seconds.

But Wait!

ProPhotographer posted a comment on Anne’s blog (where we’ve been discussing the plugin), about how this plugin could spell a whole host of trouble for Wordpress publishers who are less aware!

If you are using this plugin, you should make yourself aware of a few things in ProPhotographer’s post, because you’ll have no comeback on the plugin if you get into any copyright trouble - their disclaimer covers them.

I’d do a couple of things: Check the box that says you’re going to use the images commercially, because I agree with ProPhotographer - if you’ve got any ads on your site - that’s possibly commercial! ProPhotographer doesn’t say it explicitly but avoid: Street photography where the models will not have signed release forms. Trademarks and Logo’s. Pictures of People.

photo credit: laihiu

Is your blog commercial?

If it’s running adverts it could probably be described as commercial in my opinion at least, but ProPhotogapher does point out that:

That said, magazines are classed in the stock world as “Editiorial use” and you don’t need releases for editorial (supporting articles) use. Most blog images just illustrate the concept or message behind the post (like the ones I have inserted) so even though I have ads running - the posts are actually editorial comment.

The problem will come on those blogs specifically designed to sell something. A lot of webmasters are using Wordpress nowadays as its easier to get to grips with, and get a site up and running, than learning HTML from scratch. On these sites the choice of image will be crucial. Like I suggested; a site selling ringtomnes and featuring an unreleased image of a recognisable teenager on a phone would be hard pressed to say the image is not endorsing their product.

The big bottom line is:

If you use an image in a commercial context featuring a person, or a piece of property that needs a release for commercial use and you don’t have one then you’re a law-suit waiting to happen.

Remember that people!!

Why you should think about Affiliate Marketing!

I personally have always believed in affiliate marketing and one of the market leaders Yaro was the reason I started this blog. It’s been a quiet launch - soft if you like, and you’ll have noticed down the side (at the moment at least - if you’re reading this in a couple of months time the theme may have changed!), we’ve got a bit of Adsense. However a post by Sugarrae (The Lazy SEO Vs. The Lazy Monetizer) made me think about this some more…….

Sugarrae classifies some sites as being on “website welfare” where:

Google will give you a handout for sitting on your ass and not working to monetize the site yourself.

Photo: luismi1985

I run several types of site, I’ve tried to classify them here:

1. Company
   One site is a fully fledged company in its own right. I wouldn’t let Adsense near it - which probably tells you that I agree with a lot of what Sugarrae says!
2. Affiliate Sites
   I’ve got one or two of these - one of them is particularly “seasonal” it’s quiet at the minute, but when in season it’s ridiculously busy. These are the properly monetized sites that Sugarrae is talking about!
3. Newsy Niche Adsense
   A couple of the others are “newsy”, I’m not sure what I could promote in the way of affiliate marketing on those - so they’re kind of Adsense based for a reason, what’s on them changes on a daily basis and they don’t have particularly associated products - the odd DVD or book maybe? They’re not in my opinion “website welfare”, because I have to work on them to get the context sensitive ads in.
4. “Made for Adsense” / “Website Welfare”
   In the early days I built a couple of “made for Adsense” sites, some of them are really atrocious and I just renew the domain names. But I do get Sugarrae’s point - I will change them in the near future, they’re just not a priority at the moment - these are definite “Webmaster Welfare”.

Can “Made for Adsense” / “Website Welfare” Site Make Money?

Of course they can!

The scary part of the above is that one of the “Made for Adsense” sites is bad - really, really bad. You want to know how bad? I didn’t even bother to change the logo - so instead of a logo at the top it still says “Upload your logo here” - now that is really bad! What’s scary about it? It makes money - and regularly makes this money!!

But they don’t make a lot, and they require regular traffic, and lots of it!

You’ll often find that a client (any visitor to your site should really be considered a client!), clicks an Adsense link, goes away to the site they really want (which is being advertised) and never returns to your site - hence you require a continuous stream of new clients. Compare this to the Newsy Adsense sites, they have regular readers who login every day to see if there’s more news, or even subscribe to the feed so they always know what’s been added to the site! Keep the content good and hold their interest they’ll become clients for life, add to you clients daily and soon you’ll have a large group of clients, get them to interact and suddenly you’ve got yourself a little community around your chosen subject!

So why don’t I make more “Made for Adsense” sites, if they make money?

This is a tough call, I could have an army of 300 sites like this, all bringing in 20 pence per day in Adsense, or a monetized site like my seasonal one which can comfortably make a couple of hundred pounds per month “in-season”. Wouldn’t that be nice? There’s kind of a moral ethic too, I take a bit of pride in making the net a better place (that probably sounds a bit flimsy here, but what I mean is I want people to enjoy the sites I put up and get something out of it!).

The halfway house is the “Newsy Niche Adsense” sites, they are about areas that are genuinely of interest to me - so I’m reading the news about them, know about the products and can talk confidently about them for hours. Writing for them is easy, however - you can’t have many of them, it can really eat into your time - and you could easily lose your passion!

Is this how everyone feels?

Mark @ MeAndMyDrum has been pondering between a few affiliate networks and the contextual-style ads of Google Adsense recently. Luckily one of the leading Internet Marketers - Garry Conn, dropped him a few notes on the subject in the comments section of the post - these are definitely worth a read! Garry’s sites I believe are much like my newsy sites, I don’t believe he auto-generates them (he may tell me different!) - he says:

By default, Adsense is the easiest way for me to make money online. It doesn’t require me to apply any kind of sales tactics, it doesn’t require me to do anything special. I just write what I write and because Google Adsense is so full of advertisers, 9 out of 10 times, I’ll have ads that match my content perfectly.

With that being said, Adsense doesn’t make a lot. It takes traffic. Traffic is a huge challenge for anyone.

He goes on to discuss a few affiliate networks and what success he’s had with them!

Steve @ PureBlogging has been discussing something similar recently - how some bloggers are in it for the Long Term and others the Short Term, building a site quickly - stuffing it with advertising and then selling it because those ads made lots of money in a single month - this certainly isn’t my idea of growing a site. But he does provide a good example of possible income from collaborative blogging. I’ll be contacting Steve to discuss this.

Do you have any views on this? What sort of sites do you prefer to see on the net, and to write yourself?