4 Ways your Blog can Pay your Bills

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4 Ways your Blog can Pay your Bills

March 21st, 2008 | 20 comments

Blog Profit Although this blog isn’t to a level of popularity like Maki, Yaro or Darren’s blogs; Its growth has exceeded my expectations in the short time it’s been around. I’ve never considered myself a blogger, but more of an Internet Marketer in general, so I’m happy with 400 daily RSS subscribers (and growing.)

However, the income generated by this blog is very small. If I were to take the direct revenue generated by this blog and apply it to my monthly bills it would not cover them!! But the indirect income would probably pay those bills plus some!

Am I saying blogging is not profitable? Definitely not; it is! But you need to monetize it appropriately. I refer to direct income as income generated by advertising, affiliate offers and other money makers that generate money directly from your blog. I refer to indirect income as income generated by leads etc. you obtained through your blog, which will earn you money down the road.

I use this blog as a leveraging tool more than a direct money maker. It’s a platform for my subscribers to discuss topics, it’s a landing page to collect additional subscribers, it’s actually developed into a hub for part of my business.

What I’m trying to say here is that your blog can make you much more money indirectly than it can directly! Sure, blogs with 20,000 subscribers can make plenty of sales off of one post, but that may or may not be a realistic goal for you.

So, I’ve come up with the following list for those of you who ultimately want to be able to pay your bills with your blog without thousands of RSS subscribers (this ultimately goes back to my previous post on retaining your visitors)

1: Generate leads to a Mailing List - Blogs are a great way to announce new, free reports that you’ve written. As long as they’re valuable, people love to download them. The more leads you obtain, the more potential customers you have.

2: Start a Mentoring/Coaching Program - Mentoring is a huge money maker for many. I don’t personally run a coaching program because I’m concentrating on other aspects of my business and I can help many more people by providing free info to the masses, rather than devoting a good chunk of my time on only a few. However, if done correctly running a mentoring program can bring big money and a blog is an excellent way to get one started!

3: Start a Membership Site - This one speaks for itself. Recurring payments add up! You can start a membership site in just about any niche in the world and there are infinite possibilities with them!

4: Promote Residual Affiliate Products - Same as #3 except you’re not doing all the work. Instead of starting a membership program, find a few you like and join their affiliate program. Residual income affiliate programs are always a big money maker!

As you probably noticed each of these techniques deal with retaining visitors in one way or another! Blogs are a great way to generate traffic and those bloggers who realize the importance of retaining that traffic into an income funnel are the ones who profit the most!!

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20 comments

Tony Shepherd (1 comments.)
21st March, 2008 at 6:23 pm

Hi Josh,

Nice Blog. It took me far longer than it should have to come round to blogging too - now it’s an invaluable cog in my internet marketing machine - actually truth told it’s actually the central ‘nut’ that hold everything together.

I didn’t start a blog to make a profit but it takes on a life of it’s own and ends up being the ‘Walmart’ of your business - people don’t need to go anywhere else - they can subscribe to my newsletter, check out new products, get in touch with me, leave comments and pick up freebies.

Everyone should have one if they’re serious about their online business.

Great post - you’ve really hit the nail on the head with your view on IM blogging. Now all you need is a picture of a sheep
Josh Spaulding
21st March, 2008 at 7:18 pm

Thanks Tony, looking for sheep right now lol
Heart Attack Symptoms (2 comments.)
21st March, 2008 at 9:58 pm

Josh
The fundamental principle of all 4 of the ways you describe is building customer trust and relationships.
Many Internet Marketers give lip service to this principle but very few actually walk the talk,
(very few = 3 lol : You, Jon and Ken Envoy

Paul
Caroline Middlebrook (31 comments.)
21st March, 2008 at 10:38 pm

Yeah same here. I have made very little money directly from my blog but I was able to launch my ebook off the back of the blog and that has made a few bucks. I’m hoping that the blog can help me launch future products in a similar way. Not enough bloggers do this - so many of them think they can just slap up a few ads and affiliate links and watch the money roll in.
Internet Junkie (9 comments.)
22nd March, 2008 at 5:55 pm

I am starting to see the benefits of having a list, after spending 6 months reading “the money is in the list”!
I guess I am one of your leads, and I am pretty happy about this (love the freebies!).
Olivier (3 comments.)
23rd March, 2008 at 6:25 am

Indeed, people seem to be indifferent to adds. I sure never look at them. Except if there is an article about the product or it is free :-).
I intend to do the same, and am creating some software now that I wanted to find on the internet for some time and it is not there. Looks like a plan to me …
Stefanie (2 comments.)
24th March, 2008 at 7:37 pm

Great post. Too many people get frustrated when they put up AdSense and make almost nothing, yet they fail to consider all the less obvious ways they could be making money.
Mark (4 comments.)
24th March, 2008 at 8:36 pm

baaaaa! baaaaa! great post. As is normal for you. You’ve got a life time member here, Josh.I’m just getting started in blogging and consider myself very lucky to have found you and your site.
Josh Spaulding
24th March, 2008 at 9:19 pm

@ Paul - That’s absolutely right and I appreciate you seeing that! Internet business can really be looked at in a “real-world” sense. Establish yourself as a expert and help people every chance you get and you’ll develop a “following” of people who trust you.

@ Caroline - I believe you’ve realized this quicker than alot of people because you didn’t start your blog as a direct money maker in the first place, but simply as a place to log your progress. Now you have a great foundation to build a very profitable business model…one that many others don’t initially have and wouldn’t know what to do with if they had!

@ Internet - “one of your leads” sounds kinda bad doesn’t it? How about you’re one of the people I’m devoted to helping? I may or may not make an affiliate sale recommending a product to you, but either way I’m going to constantly give you free info that if implemented will help grow your business. So, although list-building is extremely profitable to those of us who have built them, they are also very profitable to those who have opted in to them. Those that are run by people who care about your success anyway!

@ Olivier - I wouldn’t say adverts aren’t profitable, they just need to be served correctly and normally blogs aren’t the best at doing that. Good luck with your software!

@ Stefanie - yep, like I said above, Adsense can be profitable, but it needs to be implemented in the right way and on the right platform. Some models require different monetization and blogs are normally one of them.

@ Mark - Thanks for the support and compliments. Glad to have you as a subscriber
Vern (33 comments.)
25th March, 2008 at 9:24 am

Hi Josh,

Here is my questions but please,
I say this out of respect:

when are you going to do a membership
or mentorship program?

Vern
Mark (4 comments.)
25th March, 2008 at 11:02 am

shhhhhhh.Don’t tell him that. Now I’m going to have to pay for all this great content.:)
Josh Spaulding
25th March, 2008 at 2:43 pm

@ Vern - I’ve been considering it, but I keep going back on it because I can help many more people by keeping my schedule open as opposed to helping a select few all day and having to neglect the rest.

I’ve been pondering the thought though and I’ll eventually come up with something.
Vern (33 comments.)
26th March, 2008 at 3:47 am

Hi Mark .. LOL!

Josh,

no problem you do not even need to
have a personal consultation for a select
few.

Just you know a private membership
area that you manage. Its like a blog
only - better.

Don’t lose sleep over it though

Vern
Josh Spaulding
26th March, 2008 at 2:37 pm

@ Vern - I’m seriously considering a membership forum where I can afford to devote more time into the success of more people and where you won’t have to pay a thousand bucks for mentoring.

I’m thinking of something cheap, around $19/month.

I’ll be getting this set up and announcing it soon on the blog.
Make Money Blogging By ‘Selling’ Your Knowledge | Caroline Middlebrook
26th March, 2008 at 6:46 pm

[...] traffic or subscribers that the blog has. Also, have a read of what Darren Rowse, Yaro Starak and Josh Spaulding [...]
WebDiggin (12 comments.)
27th March, 2008 at 2:42 am

Josh - Appreciate the free info. I’ll soak up as much as I can while it’s free and by the time you move to a monetized means of distributing your wealth, you’ll probably have created enough buy-in from the pre-sold masses to do quite well.

I would agree with you about adsense and money making blogs. Different mediums require different monetization schemes, and I would guess that the average blogger doesn’t fall for adsense or blatent affiliate links… or those really annoying one pager sales landing page with the big font and testimonials.

But I assume they must work. What has been your experience with those one page sales landing pages? How well do they convert?
Josh Spaulding
27th March, 2008 at 1:43 pm

Well, once I get the program going I’ll still be maintaining this blog and running my mailing list, I’ll just be taking in select people who want to pick my brain a bit deeper.

Sales pages work. I’ll admit many of them are over hyped and annoying, but I judge a book by it’s content, not by it’s sales page.
NewSunSEO (2 comments.)
27th March, 2008 at 8:48 pm

Hello, this is a very informative article. You tend to learn new things every day and this is very good advice for those not sure about starting a blog. Blogs are fun and addictive.
John (1 comments.)
1st April, 2008 at 2:47 am

Hi Josh,

Just found out your blog and I must say a great blog with very useful information. Will surely visit often.
Bloggers - Internet Marketers Against Internet Marketing
22nd April, 2008 at 7:17 pm

[...] Not long ago I wrote a blog post stating that my blog is extremely profitable and important, but it brings in very little direct income. [...]