How to really monetise your blog

In my previous blog “6 steps closer to monetising your blog” I said that you need:
1. Patience
2. Resilience.
3. A great imagination.
4. Knowledge.
5. The discipline to learn.
6. Multiple Income streams?

Today I am going to tell you about the next 6 items you need:

1. Products that sell well.
2. A great mailing list.
3. An easy to use e-mail marketing system.
4. To be seen on the first page of Google.
5. A membership site with real value.
6. Private advertisers.

It is very difficult to find a product that sells - the Internet has spawned an enormous amount of “get rich quick” schemes. Some are great but some are…quite honestly, a mis-representation.
My rule of thumb is…if it sounds too good to be true then it is too good to be true!

I am sure that some people actually do make a lot of money from these businesses but they usually have a large infrastructure behind them.

When they say stuff like, “make money while you sleep” it does ring alarm bells for me!
In saying that, a busy blog site with the right money making products can actually make money for you while you sleep but you need to work very hard when you’re awake to get it!

I have made a pact with myself, I will only sell products that I firmly believe in, like my Bloggers Workbook. This course actually helped me to change my hobby blog into a great
business.
So my advice to you is to only sell the stuff that you would use yourself, that way you have more conviction in your sales pitch.

The mailing list is your life’s blood. Always have a sign up box on your website. If you can give something away as a sweetener then that is even better. Make sure that it is something worth having.
I would like to E-SHOUT an important point at you….do not abuse your mailing list. If they have signed up to receive a newsletter then that is what you should send them. Your marketing can be inside your newsletter.
If thay have signed up to a general mailing list then you have a little more freedom but the content of anything you send to them should be, value, value, value, a subtle sales pitch, then more value.

There are many marketing systems out there, the one I use is Aweber, I find them the easiest to use and one of the cheapest. There are many more like IContact, Constant Contact, Getresponse.
The marketing sytem works by allowing you to set up e-mail campaigns. So when your visitor registers to be added to your mailing list it automatically generates an e-mail from your
marketing system to ask them to confirm their subscription, (they call, this opting in). Once they have confirmed then the massages that you will have previously set up will arrive into
their inbox either daily, weekly monthly or what ever days you have chosen.
It’s as simple as that!
The beauty of this system is that any new subscriber, no matter when they join, will receive the first message and then the second and so on.
You can actually configure your sign up box within the system too!

Try AWeber Email Marketing Risk-Free

We would all love to be seen on the first pages of the search engines and if you are selling something unique then you will probably be there after a couple of days. But there are many
thousands of blogging sites out there, all trying to get to the top spots so the competition is fearce for us.
My answer for you is to do what you do best…blogs, blogs, blogs and more blogs.
When you write your blog on your website you need to also upload it to the best networking sites as well, sites like EZines, Ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
There is an easy way to do this. Make sure that you have social bookmarking share buttons at the bottom of your blog. Once in situe on your website it can be sent out across the web in no time at all.
Here is a screanshot of Google today, notice how my last blog, “6 steps closer to monetising your blog”, has actually got three….not just one spot, on the front page of Google and that’s not paying a penny in advertising. If you’re having trouble seeing this then try searching, “How to monetise your blog”.
Clever eh!

A membership site
You can provide products, a course or service…these are good if you want members to pay on a monthly basis thus generating a residual income for you. See ours here!
You have a choice how you sell it.
You can have a free membership that will help you to generate a mailing list of a captive audience.
Or you can have a “Join now for $1 or first month FREE offer”.

What ever the offering there is one thing that is paramount….give them a risk free call to action!

Think of all the things that would be going through your head at that moment before you joined.

Will this instigate spam?
Is there a catch?
If I don’t like it, can I have my money back?
Can I hear from someone who has used this?
Do I trust this person?
Will my hair fall out?
Will my………

At this point you need to think of everything they are likely to say to themselves and address that problem…such as money back guarantees, full contact details of the vendor, testimonials
of satisfied customers, no spam etc.etc.
If you get it right, a membership can build and build to make you some serious money that you can actually earn while you sleep.

Private Advertisers are those elusive companies who may be prepared to pay you a nice tidy sum to have their banners all over your blog.
Be-careful, what you gain in money you could lose in loyal readers.
Although it always amazes me how people think that us bloggers are doing this out of the goodness of our hearts, we stay up all hours researching and writing all for no financial remuneration…get real guys… as they say, “The baker puts bread on your table, not to feed your family but to feed his own“.

Pat Sutton – Official Blog http://www.PatSutton.com