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- How to Promote Your Blog to the Media
This guest post is by Dan Kaufman of Mediasurvival.
Most bloggers don't promote themselves to the mass media … and I can understand why. It's daunting to put yourself out there by pitching to professionals who work in a cutthroat industry where they receive—and reject—pitches on a daily basis. And yet, having been a newspaper and magazine editor and journalist for over 17 years (and a proud blogger for three years), I know that it's still worth trying.
You see, even though your typical editor receives an avalanche of pitches a day, the reality is that most of these aren't targeted toward the specific publication. When an editor receives an intelligent pitch from someone who understands and knows their publication well, however, they usually pay attention.
Copyright Pavel Losevsky - Fotolia.com
Furthermore, the mass media churns through a staggering amount of stories and perpetually needs more to feed the beast. With a 24/7 news cycle and multiple platforms (from online and the iPad to print) that all need content, editors need a lot of story ideas—which is where you come in. As such, I'm going to give some tips on how to get your blog mentioned in the media:
Look for an angle
You can pitch an idea to the media in one of two ways: either through a press release, where you mention a story idea that you think the publication's journalists would be interested in writing about, or by writing a story for them yourself as a freelancer.
Regardless of which option you choose, you need to be flexible with story ideas and think about what forms a story can take. Don't just send a press release saying that you have a blog. Instead, think about whhich angles are genuinely of interest to a reader.
For example, if you're an accountant who, after a trip to Mexico, has become so passionate about tequila that you created a blog and ebook filled with cocktail recipes and started importing unusual brands of tequila, then that's interesting. Contact the careers section of your local paper to see if they'd be interested in running a profile on you (many careers sections run profiles on people who have had a career change or have an interesting job).
Or you can pitch a feature to the travel section since your story isn't one you see every day—and many travel sections run stories written by readers. Or you can pitch to the food section since the tequilas are unusual, or you can pitch to a small business magazine, some of which are desperate for profiles on unusual businesses and start-ups.
Remember that each story can be covered in many different ways and editors are usually interested in trends, human-interest stories, an unknown fact, something unusual or some research that hasn't been previously published.
Do not spam
You need to choose your publications wisely. Instead of carpet-bombing a huge number of them with the same press release or pitch—and I realize this is tempting—focus on finding publications that would actually be receptive. After being an editor for so long I now only pitch carefully to individual publications that I've taken the time to read and understand. I know that it's more effective in the long run.
For example, if you can find a local angle then pitch to your community paper. If there's an emotive angle then maybe try a tabloid, or a magazine that publishes a lot of reader stories. Think about niche magazines and trade publications as well as the bigger names. The smaller the publication, the less staffed they are—and often the more in need of copy and ideas.
Labour over your words
If you're a good enough writer then a freelance story can be a great way to get your blog mentioned in the media (for example, if you write an opinion piece for a paper then they'll often write a short bio of who's writing the story underneath).
However, nine out of ten freelance stories get rejected purely because they're not well-written (from my experience of being the editor who had to do the rejecting!). As such, you have to put the effort in to write and rewrite the article until you think it's perfect—if you're not willing to put that effort in then be prepared for rejection. The nine out of ten stories that do get rejected are usually written by people who probably said to themselves "I'm a decent writer and this is good enough" (for more writing tips, you can check out this ProBlogger article, which I wrote).
Cut to the chase
If you do send a press release then cut the preamble and say immediately why your blog/project/campaign/idea is of interest. Editors are so time-poor and deal with so many pitches that it drives them nuts to have to read four paragraphs of small talk and fluff before coming to the heart of the matter.
You should also always leave your full contact details on the release.
Don't expect a link back
Keep in mind that the mainstream media don't understand the idea of linking back to you. They just don't (at least for the most part). They may print your website address in print and on online but they often won't activate the link.
While this isn't great from an SEO point of view, you shouldn't let it put you off too much—after all, you're still getting great promotion to a different audience you wouldn't normally reach. Hopefully more newspapers and magazines will eventually learn from us bloggers that active links are an important part of how the web works.
What are your stories?
If I had to pick the most important tip from this post, it's that you need to find an angle—be it a trend, a human-interest story, something unusual or an unknown fact—to sell an idea to the media. As such, I'd be interested to know whether you're going to pitch a story—and what your angle will be. And, if you've already pitched a story, tell us how you did it. We'd love to hear any of your experiences or tips in the comments below.
Dan Kaufman is the author of Dealing with Grumpy Editors, an ebook from http://mediasurvival.com that looks at how to write press releases and what the common mistakes are when pitching to editors. He worked at The Sydney Morning Herald for over 11 years, primarily as an editor, in addition to editing magazines prior to that. He now also runs Bar Zine.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
How to Promote Your Blog to the Media
Переслать - From Blogging To ProBlogging in 6 Months
This guest post is by Ivan Walsh.
How long does it take to set up a profitable online business? One thing I learned since starting my first site in 1997 is that the more preparation you do, the more likely you are to succeed.
Something that made a big impression on me when I first starting reading ProBlogger was the
six-month challenge Darren’s wife gave him. This made me re-think what I was doing with my blogs. Instead of blogging as fast as I could, I sat down and developed a six-month plan with the specific aim of monetizing my
blogs.Let's look at how I managed to monetize my technical writing blog in six months—along with some of the issues we had to overcome.
Month 1. Develop a monetization plan
What this means is before you start any coding, writing, or design work, ask yourself how the blog will make money. Try to be as honest with yourself as you can.
Earlier in my career, I worked with IBM. One exercise we'd do when starting new projects was to identify the costs, expenses, and net profit. Net profit is the real profit you make, for example, when you've taken away web hosting fees, software licenses, training, design work and, of course, your own time. You can do something similar for your blog.
Here's what I did:
- Identified Revenue Streams: I explored different ways to earn revenue for the site. The simplest way to do this is to analyze your competitors and record how they monetize their sites in an Excel spreadsheet. For tech writing blogs, this was mostly around services, education tools, direct advertising, Google Adsense, and books. Remember some areas are more lucrative then others, so factor this into your planning.
- Establish goals: Identify different ways you could leverage these on your site. For example, how much traffic would you need to generate 100 USD per week? Or, how many books do you need to sell on Amazon to make $50?
- Set baselines: If you're starting from scratch, your baseline is zero. However, if you're already selling some advertising, for example $30 per week, record this so it doesn't influence your end of quarter reports.
- Target dates: Give yourself specific targets for each month. Be realistic. I chose not to use Google Ads for example as technical writing is very niche and my target readers tended to ignore these. Also, I wanted to focus on 'evergreen' post posts rather than daily news updates, which attracts passing traffic.
- Set up a budget: If you believe in your site's business model, set aside some money (even $25 a week) to run Google Adwords / Facebook ad campaigns. The advantages of doing this are that you'll learn how to run ad campaigns,you'll raise your profile faster, and you'll see very quickly if anyone is interested in your site. Look at it as a 'pilot test' for your blog. If they are interested, run more campaigns!
Tip: don't link to your homepage in the ad campaigns, rather link to a specific landing page and tweak it based on the results.
While it's tempting to run past this phase, take your time and do it right. Spend as much time as possible working out how you can make money from the blog. Don't forget to explore avenues such as email listings, developing digital products, ebooks, and co-branding with other bloggers.
And ask a trusted friend—one who’s not afraid to tell you what you need to hear, if necessary—to look at the numbers and see if it makes sense. Remember, you're going to commit to this for the next six months so check, verify, improve as much as possible.
Month 2. Implementation
You’ve now decided which products to add to your site.
Why not services? While I could have made money providing services (e.g. writing technical documents), I wanted to avoid this as it's hard to scale services and I didn't want to do more work in the evenings. In other words, while there are only x number of hours in the day to write, you can sell products online 24/7.
The implementation phase works as follows:
- Partner Programs: Sign up to affiliate programs that match your readers' interests and your areas of expertise, and have a good track record. I used CJ.com to get started but then shifted to other more niche sites as I found them.
- Cost/benefit analysis: Explore the pros and cons of different offerings, for example, while it's easy to setup with Amazon and start offering books online, look at the profit margin (6-8%) and the number of books you'll need to sell to earn $100 (it's about $1,250). Also, look at the buying patterns of your target customers. I found that technical writers took a lot of time researching books before making a purchase and often left to competitor sites to check prices. Ideally, you want to target customers who are more likely to make “impulse buys” or offer products that are very hard to resist.
- Focus on three products: One mistake when you start out is to offer all things to all people. Try to avoid this. Don't be a generalist, be a specialist. Offer three products on the site and build your content, marketing and networking around these offerings. This also keeps people on the site longer and
encourages them to sign up to newsletters. The other benefit is that you can tailor your ad campaigns to these three items and adjust the landing pages, content, and messages based on the results. - Offsite sales channels: There is an exception to what I said above. For example, I sell other products through my email list that never appear on the site. Why? Because, I segment the email lists and offer different products (usually special offers I run with co-partners) to each list. Email also allows me to upsell other products and migrate customers across different lists. With their permission, of course.
When starting out, don't defeat yourself by taking on too much. When you work on the implementation phase, put other tasks on hold for a while and give this all your attention. It's tempting to stretch yourself and do more than you can.
I've created a project plan in Google Docs that shows me what I need to do for each phase. I recommend developing something like this that works for you. Not only does it keep you on track but it helps prioritize what needs to be done today. The siren song of email can wait until tomorrow.
Month 3. Split test
What this means is that you test different pages against each other, see which performs best, and adjust accordingly.
You can also go one step further and test, for example, the layout of ads on different parts of the page, the color of the Buy Now buttons, and the size of your email subscription box.
You can also determine top performing revenue streams and pages with Google Analytics and other tools, such as CrazyEgg. Experiment and test different:
- Designs: Where is the best place to put your products? Above or below the fold?
- Layouts: Does two or three column work best? Examine ProBlogger very carefully and note where the search, social media icons, email subscription, products and Facebook fan page are placed.
- Colors: Understand how colors influence customer behavior. Analyze sites like Amazon and see how they limit their color palette (e.g. to orange and blue).
- Landing pages: If you sell products, test the pricing, Buy Now buttons (large vs. small, green vs. blue, Paypal vs. Clickbank etc.), sales copy, and incentives. Minor adjustments can have a considerable impact.
- Popups: While this increased email subscriptions, I removed it as it frustrated my most loyal readers. Also most of those who subscribed, unsubscribed rather quickly. Why? They didn't spent enough time getting to know the site before engaging. Now, I try to keep them on the site longer, which seems to work better.
After a few weeks split testing, orange worked best for the Buy Now buttons. Red signaled emergency/error/warning to readers (at least in the west) and green was too passive. Orange seems to get the balance just right. Your results will be different. Check out Paypal's ecommerce resource site for ideas.
Month 4. Analyze results
We're now at the mid-point of our six-month plan. If you've ever been on a diet, you'll know that looking at the results shows what works… and what doesn't. Once you've analyzed the results, you're much better placed to refine your blog and capitalize on those areas that perform the best.
For example, I noticed that my video interviews had very few comments but ranked very high in the search engine results. Likewise, when I cross-posted them on YouTube, I got more traffic and increases in email sign-ups.
Be careful in the metrics you use to analyze your site. If I used comments to judge my success, I might think the site was failing but these turned out to be my top landing pages. So, I added more content and slowly began to get more comments.
- Metrics: Examine what’s working against the goals you'd set earlier. Don't get distracted by items outside the scope of your plan. Focus on a few key metrics and really zero in on these. Traffic is probably the weakest metric to use as numerous factors (often outside your control) can influence it.
- Demand: Determine which products are viewed, queried and sold the most. Look at the traffic to these pages, the percentage of bounce-backs (i.e. signals lack of interest or poor web copy), percentage of shopping cart abandonments, and percentage of sales. Note any trends that may explain why they are performing so high/low and what you can do to resolve this, for example, change the price, content, call to actions or offer better incentives.
- Sales vs. Profit: Look at the net profit for each sale. Sometimes you have to pay a commission to third parties or use expensive shopping cart software that eats into your profit margin. You also need to look into the 'hidden cost' of answering emails, dealing with support queries, re-shipping lost products, tracking goods via FedEx none of which add to your profit margin.
- Upsell opportunities: In addition to selling your own products, look for ways to upsell other items at, or just after, the purchase. For example, when I sell items through eJunkie, it allows me to offer other items after a sale has been made. The advantage of building your own products is that you can offer these items are part of a bundle or at a discount.
- Tools: One of the issues I had with previous sites was paying for the best ecommerce software ($75 per month) while trying to keep costs down. Ecommerce software such as 1ShoppingCart.com are very powerful but probably out of most bloggers' price range when starting. If you're selling physical items, consider PayPal (which let's you hold monies in different currencies) or eJunkie and Clickbank for digital downloads. Make sure to research all these products and identify potential issues with refunds, payments, commission rates, and other problems.
- Financials: The final step in this phase is to review the financials, for example, check that you're within budget. Examine where you spent your money, look at the cost of ad campaigns, and expenses such as graphic design work. This helps determine the net profit and see which areas you need to focus on.
Tip: if you are running ads, for example on Google Adsense, make sure to cap the maximum amount for each campaign, so it doesn't keep running in the background. Also, remember to cancel recurring payments and subscriptions. I signed up for an online software tool, forgot about it, and got re-charged the next year without my permission. Getting the refund proved to be very difficult.
One thing I've noticed is that higher value goods tend to have less customer support issues, whereas goods under $10 often generate many nitty-gritty tech support queries. Another issue is refunds. If you're selling ebooks (for example via Clickbank), you have to offer a 60 day return. What this means is that even if you make sales, some customers will demand the refund. Don't take it personally.
Month 5. Refinement
At this point, you should have a good idea of what's working on the site from a financial perspective. In addition, you should see trends and opportunities begin to emerge.
If so, consider adding these to your product offerings, possibly on a limited basis to gauge the potential interest. I use a combination of different Excel spreadsheets to track all financial activities.
Based on the results, do the following:
- Change placement: Experiment by switching the products in different places on each page and rotating banner ads to different parts of the sites. For example, you can test to see if specific products sell better on different days of the week or even at different times of the day.
- Mix: Another tactic is to see where you can combine different products that may not seem complimentary or create special offers for low-selling items. Sometimes it's easier to sell “2 for 3″ special offers rather than discounts. My interpretation is that the idea of getting something for free is stronger than getting a few dollars off. Or maybe that's my customers!
- Update marketing strategy: In the first three months, I tested different ways to get publicity, network with others, and find ways to increase my sphere of influence. For example, creating an online glossary of terms for the technical writing industry worked very well. I emailed this to others who then shared it to with other writers. In a low key way, it went viral and generated lots of backlinks. You can try something similar on your site. It just takes a little creativity. Keep your marketing strategy flexible and adjust it based on the results you've seen to date. Also, don't blindly follow what others experts suggest you need to do. What works for them may not work on your site.
- Email campaigns: You've probably heard the saying, “the money is in the list,” and it's
true. When I started out I used Google Feedburner, mostly as it was free. Feedburner is fine for emailing your blog to readers but is essentially a one-way email broadcast tool. Email marketing tools such as Aweber (or MailChimp) let you segment your list, send special offers, and create a stronger connection with readers. While Aweber is not inexpensive, learning to write and implement different email campaigns paid for itself within a few months. The trick is not to abuse the list (which are real people, remember!) and provide value above and beyond what they get on the site. - Buy advertising: Now that you understand your customers a little better, it's easier to invest (not spend!) in more advertising. I took out small ads on other tech writing blogs which generated very good responses. Most of the bloggers I contacted were very open to the idea as it gave them some income, even if it paid for the hosting. Maybe you can identify 5 medium size blogs and run some ads on their sites or in their newsletters. Another alternative is to swap ads across each others site. Also remember to change the budget allotment for different ad campaigns, for example, on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google.
During this phase, the emphasis is on refining the overall model without making any drastic changes. Resist the temptation to change too much at once. Why? When you examine the changes in a few weeks, it will be very hard to determine which adjustment had the most negative or positive reaction. Instead, make small incremental changes.
One of the problems with my technical writing blog was that most technical writers buy things thought their company, i.e. they don't use their own credit cards. What this meant is that I had to give them enough information to persuade their line manager to buy the product. If you're selling a product, one suggestion is to include a feature list or product matrix (with a PDF download) so others can print it out and share with the decision maker. If you're selling a service, include endorsements, headshots of happy customers, and links to professional bodies, if possible. Don't underestimate social proof.
Month 6. Track and optimize
We've now come full circle. We've defined the financial opportunities, implemented the products, tested the results, and made the adjustments. The final stage in the process is to track the different revenue streams and optimize where possible.
To do this, look at:
- Statistics: You can link together different Excel spreadsheets (i.e. sales, returns, tax, goals, costs etc) so you can monitor sales at a high-level and also drill-down into more granular information. This doesn't need to be complicated but I'd recommend having systems in place where you can see (and print out) your sales performance and see at a glance any warning signs or trends that need special attention.
- Goals: In Google Analytics, setup different goals; for example, enter the date when an ad campaign starts, and track its performance for the campaign's duration. This gives you a more objective view of your site's performance and is more reliable than your subjective feelings about what's working. You can export Google Analytics as a .csv file and import it into Excel.
- Investment: Plough the sales profits back into the site. Everything I earned from the site in the first 6 months, I put back into it. This helped the site gain traction faster, build a larger audience, and establish itself as an authority, albeit in a very small niche.
- Quality: If you plan to develop your own products, which I highly recommend, explore how you can improve the quality, not only of the product but for all associated activities. For example, how can you improve the design, boxshots, security, ecommerce software and customer service? Having a dedicated tech support email address gives customers more confidence in your business than a Hotmail or AOL account. Small things like this undermine your credibility very fast. Remember to include a phone number!
- Monitoring: Create (low-tech) ways to monitor your product's performance and adjust campaigns, marketing tactics, and campaigns as needed. Don't defeat yourself by creating very complex systems. Instead spend a little time learning how to use Excel and analyze the data.
Tip: If you do decide to sell the website, having this data will put you in a much stronger position.
Six months to problogging
There's a saying in sports: “fail to prepare, prepare to fail.” If I could share one thing with you regarding running a successful blog, it's that the more planning you do, the more likely you are to succeed. Why? Regardless of how much you read, tweet, follow, or blog, unless you have a system in place, it's hard to make real progress.
While you may have random traffic spikes and good sales days, unless you can pin-point what's really working—and know why it's working—it's almost impossible to develop your blog into a real business. And that was the purpose of this post. If you want to move from a blogger to a problogger, see your blog as a business and give it every chance to succeed.
This is the framework that's worked for me. What have I missed? What would you add?
Ivan Walsh has worked with IBM, Intel, Accenture, NEC, and the Dept of Justice in the US, UK, and China. Learn how to develop an internet business plan here and follow him on Twitter at IvanWalsh.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
From Blogging To ProBlogging in 6 Months
Переслать - Announcing ProBlogger Melbourne Training Day – Register Your Interest Today
Today I’m excited to give ProBlogger readers advance notice of a special training day in Melbourne for bloggers—the second ever ProBlogger Training day. I’ll share the details below (you can express your interest in attending or sponsoring below, too), but first let me fill you in on the backstory.
In July 2010, and very much on the spur of the moment, I came up with the hare-brained idea to run a small conference in Melbourne.
Within a couple of days I’d booked an international speaker (Chris Garrett), had convinced four local bloggers to speak, booked a venue, and had announced to the world it was happening. We released 100 tickets (I thought I was ambitious, given there were only three weeks until the event) and I stood back to watch what would happen.
The event sold out quickly and we ended up upgrading our venue room to accommodate another 50 people. The day was amazing—it brought together 150 great bloggers from across Australia (and one from New Zealand), and some amazing speakers. There was a real buzz in the room (and around the Web as it trended on Twitter). You can read about the day here. The overwhelming response was that people wanted another event (although they wanted more notice and a bigger venue, as it was squashy).The details so far
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been working on the next Melbourne ProBlogger Training day. Here are some advanced details (although as we’re a few months out there is still a bit to be filled in):
- Date: Friday 21 October 2011
- Time: all day (9am-5pm for the conference)
- Networking Event: we’re looking at adding an evening networking drinks after the conference part of the day free for attendees
- Cost: TBA but we’re aiming to keep it affordable again
- Venue: we’re still finalizing this, but it looks like being in the CBD of Melbourne. The venue is larger than last year in terms of capacity, but also will allow us to spread out a little more.
- Speakers: the only person I’m able to talk about at this point is myself … but I’ve already had confirmation from two overseas speakers and am talking to a number of local bloggers.
- Schedule: last time we had everyone in the same room for the whole day; this time we’re booking a venue where we can have multiple topics running at once. You can set your own schedule depending on your needs. I’ll update you more on this as it gets closer.
Interested in attending?
We’re currently putting together a site with all the information about the conference, and anticipate launching it and starting to sell tickets in August. However, in the meantime, if you’re interested in attending please add your email address below and you’ll be the first to be emailed about it (this advanced email list bought the bulk of the tickets last time, so you’ll have every chance to attend).
Note: if you can’t see the email field above you may need to disable ad blockers, as some are a little too aggressive and block this form.Calling sponsors
Do you have a company or product that you’d like to get in front of 200 or so Australian bloggers? If so, we have a limited number of opportunities for sponsorship on this event. Last year’s attendees numbered 150, but they were an influential bunch. We tallied up their combined readership and it totaled millions of readers, so this is an opportunity to get in front of key influencers.
These sponsorship opportunities are limited to a handful of companies, though, so please don’t delay in contacting us via the contact form here on ProBlogger. We’ll get you information on these opportunities a.s.a.p.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Announcing ProBlogger Melbourne Training Day – Register Your Interest Today
Переслать - Time Management for Ridiculously Busy Bloggers
This guest post is by Stepfanie Cuevas of The Lady Bloggers Society.
I used to be a huge multi-tasker. I was always taught that you can juggle at least a dozen projects at once, and that it was an art form that you could boast to the rest of your blogging buddies. I spent nights writing blog posts, getting assignments turned in, tweeting, Facebooking, and replying to emails. After a whole day's (and plenty of nights) of work, I was completely exhausted. After all that juggling, the list of things still needing to be done had only grown not shortened whatsoever.
Blogging was something that I loved to do not only to connect with people, but was the perfect way to work from home doing what I loved. So when I found myself sorting through hundreds of comments while trying to figure out what to make for dinner and who was going to take the dog to the vet, I knew something had to change. I'm proud to say, gone are the days of multi-tasking. I learned to embrace the new rules for time management for ridiculously busy bloggers like myself.
Multi-tasking is dead: set time aside
When I tried to juggle several items at the same time, I ended up completing a bunch of crappy work, or sending out tons of insensitive emails. Committing myself to one task at a time resulted in amazing blog posts and personalized emails and tweets. Complete with flowers and butterflies.
Not only did I break up my tasks, but set a timer for each item I was working on. Say I wanted to reply to emails in the morning, I set a timer for 20 minutes, and when that time was up, moved on to the next task on the list.
Schedule blog posts, tweets, and your favorite pizza man
For a long time, I turned my nose up at scheduling blog posts and tweets. In addition to my blog for blogging women, I also have a parenting blog, where I pride myself on spontaneity and creativity. Little did I know that I would be so flustered and busy that my time for creativity would almost disintegrate.
I learned to batch write, take guest post submissions, and schedule out a majority of what I wanted to say. With all blog platforms, you are able to schedule blog posts. I also use Twuffer to schedule all of my tweets. Craig is also scheduled every Thursday evening to deliver two large pizzas to our home. Yes, he knows this as well.
Take advantage of mobile apps
In connection with scheduling blog posts and social updates, I keep on top of everything using the golden iPhone. With the WordPress app, I can quickly scan comments and reply. The Mailchimp app lets me easily see how many new subscribers I have, as well as keep up with my email reports. I can also quick reply and DM anyone using the simple Twitter and Facebook apps.
It usually takes me about ten minutes to scan through everything without opening up my laptop whatsoever. I do this about two or three times a day, and then I'm off enjoying the rest of my day laptop-free.
Eliminate the unnecessary
Take a look at your blog. What are you using and what are you not? Is your blog filled with ad networks you no longer use? How about your email? How many mailing lists are you on that take 20 minutes to delete?
Spend a half hour going over your blogs and your email, and get rid of all the unnecessary items that take up your time, space, or crowd your mind. When these things are gone, you'll have fewer things to manage, and more time to actually blog.
Focus
Last but not least, I'm caught red-handed when it comes to taking on too many projects at once. There was one time when I was working on two of my own blogs, writing for three other websites, all while freelance writing for parenting and entrepreneur magazines. I had to take a step back and re-think what it was that I really wanted to do. I had to choose and focus on what was worth my time and cut back on what was not.
Take a break and see where your time and energy is going. Does the work you are doing right now reflect where you want your blog to go? Instead of ad building, maybe you should be participating in communities to network with other people. Instead of applying for all these blogger opportunities, maybe you should try guest posting on blogs to gain more credibility.
Focus is the ultimate tool when it comes to time management. Have you found this in your blogging?
Stepfanie Cuevas is a blogger and social media enthusiast. She is the founder and editor of The Lady Bloggers Society and writes for many different parenting, entrepreneur, and social media sites. Stepfanie is also organizing this year's Social Online Conference for women bloggers. Visit her at Stepfane.net
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
Time Management for Ridiculously Busy Bloggers
Переслать - How to Turn Your Blog Traffic into Money
Over the last three years as an online publisher, my business has undergone a complete transformation in its approach.
Whereas I previously slapped some code from a couple of ad networks into my blogs’ templates and relied upon people clicking those ads to generate income, I’ve increasingly focused my energy upon creating my own products (largely ebooks) to sell.
The change in approach has been gradual and it has been a lot of work, but the results have made it worth doing. Last week the total of ebooks that we’ve sold moved past 62,000 units, with a combined revenue of around $1.1 million (note: that’s not all profit).
The cornerstone of my new approach
Numerous factors have contributed to these results, but one that I’ve recently been focusing on more and more is that of “landing pages.”
A landing page is a page on your site to which you direct traffic with the goal of converting those who land on it to take a specific action. This action can be many things, but might include:
- convince your reader to buy your ebook (or other product)
- get your reader to opt in to your email newsletter list
- convince advertisers to advertise on your blog
- convince your reader to buy an affiliate product that you’re promoting
- welcome anyone arriving from a social media account, and convince them to follow you
- introduce your blog and give new readers a tour of content that’s especially relevant for them
- thank people for subscribing, and encourage them to confirm their opt in to your list.
The list could go on and on, but the common thing is that these are pages to which you drive traffic, and on which you call readers to take a specific action.
Landing pages have been key in my own approach. I’ve used them in all of these ways, however, using them as sales pages has been the most effective tactic in selling ebooks.
Specifically designed landing pages work better
One of the key progressions in my own use of landing pages was to transition from using the default layout in my WordPress theme, to using specifically designed landing pages.
Previously, I used the default page that came with the theme that my blog used. As a result, landing pages looked pretty much the same as any other page on my blog. The result was good, but not great.
The problem I faced was that readers not only had a call to action to buy my ebook, but also numerous distractions in my sidebars and navigation areas (calls to subscribe, advertising, calls to visit other parts of the site, etc).
Readers were distracted from the main call to action on the page—to buy my ebook. A change of approach was needed, so we designed a landing page that had one single focus, and one call to action only.
You can see an example of this page on our latest product page at Digital Photography School—Going Pro (an ebook for helping photography enthusiasts to make money from their photography).
While the page is consistent in design with our normal dPS theme (in terms of color and branding), it doesn’t have any of the distracting elements of a normal page on the site.
There’s none of the normal navigation to other parts of the site in the header area, and there’s no sidebar. All people can do when they arrive is to read about the product—there are no other options to click or read.
When we switched from using default pages to a specifically designed landing page for the sale of our ebooks, we saw a significant leap in conversions. I don’t have the specific figures but it was in the order of a 30-40% increase—which in time has lead us to many thousands of dollars in extra revenue.
These landing pages were something I knew I should institute for a long time before I actually did it. The reason why it took me so long was simply that, as a technologically-challenged blogger, I consistently put it in the "too-hard basket". In the end I only did it when we redesigned the blogs and I had my designer create a template specifically for the job. That was a couple of years ago, and about a year after I should have done it.
As a result of that inertia, I lost considerable sales, and I still kick myself about that regularly. That was two years ago—today it would have been a lot less difficult.
Landing pages made easy with Premise
Earlier this year, the team at Copyblogger released software for WordPress that’s all about creating landing pages that convert—it’s called Premise.I can safely say that if I’d had this plugin when I first started selling my ebooks, my sales numbers would have been a lot higher. It takes the "too hard" part of landing pages, and completely eliminates it.
The idea with Premise is that instead of having to have a designer create a template specifically for each type of landing page for your blog (or having to learn to do it yourself), this plugin helps you create those landing pages yourself.
Premise focuses on three areas:
- Creating pages: they let you choose from seven types of landing page styles, and then add graphics and copy to them to create clutter-free and beautifully designed pages.
- Creating compelling copy: the design of your page is one thing, but the real magic happens in the copy that you create for the page to convince readers to take the action you’re suggesting. Premise gives advice on how to craft the type of landing page you’re creating, right in the WordPress interface. You also get access to some great copywriting seminars (keep in mind that this is from Copyblogger—the masters of creating compelling content and copy).
- Optimization: improve your conversion rate and search rankings with more tools and guidance, including easy split testing and SEO features.
One of the most amazing features of Premise is the graphics library. You could easily pay more than Premise costs just for a set of graphics like this, and it ensures that every landing page you create is unique.
Check out Premise for yourself. Just like I learned, the extra income you earn from quality landing pages will make Premise pay for itself many times over.
Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger
How to Turn Your Blog Traffic into Money
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