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.
