The following post was submitted by one of ProBlogger’s Dutch readers, Bertrand, as part of the ProBlogger Case Study Series
Hello fellow bloggers, I’m glad Darren gave me the opportunity to tell you my story. Unfortanetly the blogs I maintain are Dutch, so I will describe the background, the way it came about what the strategy is.
When I started blogging 2 years ago I wanted to experience this new way of expressing myself and writing. I picked a subject which interested me and that I can talk about for a long time (this is my first tip).
So it started with a free web-log.nl account managementboek.web-log.nl (tip. 2, it doesn’t has to cost you anything).
After a year I had a lot of content, a lot of free books from publishers (my second goal with the blog to get the things I like to read for free) and with my already started personal and much more professional weblog www.blogmania.nl (based on WordPress) a great personal marketingtool.
Not much money though, not one dollar on amazon-income. (tip 3: make micro-money with a lot of public or find a sponsor, but make a choice) .
So I went to the biggest online businessbook seller in the Netherlands managementboek.nl (much like the US 800ceoread.com) and offered them the weblog as a tool to extent their customer relation (tip 4: to get the bigger money search for a strategic partner which you can offer something new with your blog, but not to far off his imagination).
So starting from March 1st experiences with businessbooks is live. It gets â≠¬ 500 every month, and probably earnings from sold books. My maintask is to start an editorial team, get them up to speed and start new themeblogs soon. So I think it’s a success. It gets attention now from the publishers, who see me as an strategic advisor and experienced blogger. New changes are on their way.
My last tip for all new bloggers: although you can read a lot about blogging (mostly on marketingsites) there is a lot to experience, try, learn and win. But be realistic, not everybody can win and not evrybody is a good writer. But you won’t know before you try and your fellowbloggers can give you advise whenever you like.
hard to say whether you are a good writer or not when its written in dutch :) anyway, i dont like the design of this 3rd blog :(
Writing well can be improved over time,
Is it just me or are both the blog designs too loud – with text on black and too much red was really hard on eyes. Even blogger’s default templates have soft touch to them, see my template for example- dark blue background but with gray fonts. It makes reading pleasurable. Don’t knw what to say about the last one.
Thanks for the advice Bertrand, interesting read.
I’m also a Dutch (but not pro-) blogger and I coincidentally e-mailed some of the Dutch bookstores today to see if we can work together, since I just started writing reviews of books.
I’ll get in touch with you after I get some responses from those stores, maybe I can contribute something at your managementboek blog.
@Jack
Agree. I also think the designs are very hard. It must be Bertrand’s personal taste.
@Martin
The third design is the original design from ManagementBoek. In my opinion this does not make this blog stand out from the website, something I would have prefered.
Well, I’m not sure what you said about “Blogging for Business” on http://www.blogmania.nl/, but its great seeing the picture of the book :)
(and your on the list for the next blogging book too).
The black-and-white them is so hard on the eyes. Well, I am not the type who likes high-contrast themes. The colors are a bit loud, I should say.
Well, I agree that blogs are very helpful to build profile and earn reputation. I’m glad that you have been quite successful with your endeavors lately. Keep it up.
I’m just getting started. Thanks for the tips.
– Bryan
thanks for sharing your first steps, but please use an editor next time you write in english because this is an awful read!
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Hello sorry for my sometimes clumsy English, hope the tips work. And about design, you are right about the black and white but the web-log software is not flexible. On teh managementboek.nl weblog a lot has to be done on that. Tips are welcome!
And that it is Dutch, you can start learning:)
Greetings Bertrand