Internet Marketers and Bloggers are often seen as two very different types of online entrepreneurs. In this guest post David Risley looks at these two worlds and suggests some middle ground.
One of the questions I get very often when I tell people what I do for a living is this: How do you make money blogging? The readers of ProBlogger have a fairly good understanding of the answer to that question.
However, Darren’s latest poll clearly shows that the majority of bloggers out there are clearly not generating a full-time income. What is the difference between the blogger making serious money and those who are not?
Well, let us look at the stereotype of what a blogger does. A blogger writes. We write great posts, generate a lot of powerful content and then hit the "Publish" button. Stereotypically, then, we’d get paid by generating a lot of attention, getting lots of traffic, then monetizing our sites via various forms of online advertising.
This method of problogging is long and tedious. Many new bloggers become frustrated because it seemingly takes so long to generate enough traffic to make any serious money.
If we look at the most successful bloggers out there, you’ll find a common trait: They are MARKETERS, too.
Two Different Worlds
Herein, we are combining the often thought separate world of blogging and traditional internet marketing. In my experience in dealing both with bloggers and internet marketers, I have found that these two worlds often seem to be separate. The blogger is all about building traffic through publishing lots of really great content for free. The internet marketer jumps right into how to monetize traffic immediately. The blogger is all about the page views. The marketer thinks about qualified leads which he can then convert into a sale.
I have been to gatherings of internet marketers. Many times, they simply don’t GET blogging. In fact, they’re right on the verge of seeing the blog as a waste of time. Perhaps they have a blog, but they’ll use it as a tool in their product launch strategy. Once the product is launched, the blog is all but forgotten. Many internet marketers are only just now catching on with social media.
On the other hand, many bloggers often have a bit of an adverse reaction to internet marketers. They may think that marketers are spammers or that they’ll do literally anything to make a buck. They think of pop-ups, long-form sales letters and lots of hype. Sure enough, the world of internet marketing has lots of these kinds of tactics.
I’ve had my feet in both worlds. I understand the paradigm of both. What I have observed is that the most successful bloggers out there are able to successfully bridge the gap, take the best of both worlds, and turn that knowledge into a little online empire.
The Best of Both
The simple truth is this: The most successful bloggers out there are great writers who employ solid marketing skills on their sites.
In fact, most of the really successful bloggers out there spend time studying the most successful online marketers. I have personally studied the works of people like Frank Kern, John Reese, Jeff Walker, Eben Pagan and many other names which frequent the circles of internet marketing. I make a point to learn about internet marketing tactics. I am also a member of an internet marketing mastermind group. I would venture to say that these are things that a majority of bloggers don’t do.
The principle of creating lots of quality content will always remain true as a blogger. Making real money as a blogger means you need to SELL things. In order to sell things, you need to know how to market them. There is no more potent weapon than being able to build a loyal following in your market as a blogger and then be able to competently sell something to that audience.
You don’t necessarily need many thousands of page views every day to make respectable money online as a blogger. You can make good money with a blog which pulls in significantly less than that. The secret is to know marketing. Know your sales funnel. Know conversion tactics. Then put that knowledge to work to treat your incoming blog readers as sales leads. Like it or not, if your blog is your business, your readers are LEADS.
When a lead (a reader) arrives on your blog, you want them to read your content. You also want to convert the lead into something – a newsletter subscription or a sale. The answer depends on your particular audience and your market. Direct your reader into what you want them to do and place particular effort on improving the conversion rate.
What Do You Think?
Like Darren, I also make a six figure yearly income through my blogs. I do this in various ways, but I most definitely have gotten benefit through consistent learning of internet marketing strategies.
For many bloggers, this may be a paradigm shift. In addition to looking at your blog as a source of great content for your audience, you can look at it as a lead generator for something which makes you money.
Is this a view you already share? Do you find the world of internet marketing to be disrelated to blogging? Do you already spend time learning about marketing?
“David Risley is a pro blogger who generates six figures per year in his blogging business. David Risley dot com is a pull-no-punches tale of his life as an Internet entrepreneur and problogger.”
