Blog News Watch

The four or five owners of major newspapers with websites really took a bundle of cash home in quarter three, with a growth of 21.1 percent to $773 million compared with the same period of time last year.

Since the NAA started reporting online ad spending in 2004 the figures have continued to grow, grow and grow for - believe it or not - fourteen quarters in a row. The print papers, with advertising spending dropping off in huge sums, must be giving the online industry the envious eye right now as they pick up all the cash that wasn’t spent in the dying print industry.

What does this mean? Papers who are still print papers should jump ship now. Not only is there more money, but when a ubiquitous distribution system is in the hands of almost everyone you might want to distribute to, it’s simply irresponsible to continue running printing presses and contributing to an already dire environmental situation.

To anyone who still prints media: get online, now. Whether you’re Rupert Murdoch or grandma, I don’t care; the money is online. The responsible thing to do is to get online. I don’t know how much more clearly it can be said!

Are newspapers themselves becoming less of a source for the public and more of a source for gatekeepers who do not stick to a corporate bias? I’d love to see some comparative ad spending data, since in the end it’s all a matter of economics and if sites like Boing Boing, del.icio.us and StumbleUpon can continue to filter the mainstream media’s content the average individual gets to read more great content in less time.

Conga-rats to Jummy from Life Tips Daily who won last week’s Open Mic Talk Back Fridays comment contest! Jummy wins my editing services for one upcoming post - congratulations, Jummy, and thanks for playing!

How can you win the same prize? Simple - read the post below and comment away! The most original and well-expressed thoughts win. (And spelling counts! Or might. Depends on my mood.)

How Do You Monetize A Personal Blog? Should You Even Try?

Something a bit different this time: Jummy’s winning comment (OK, it was the only comment but still, it’s good!) poses a question about personal blogs, like Dooce.com. Namely: How do you create enough interest in your personal blog to make monetizing it worthwhile?

This is a great topic. There are a couple of schools of thought, I suppose. One - the odds are against you, so don’t bother. Or put your ads up, sure, but don’t expect a lot.

I think that’s rubbish.

Frankly, just because something’s hard, it’s never been sufficient cause to me to avoid even trying. How about you? All “hard” means is “time to buckle down and get creative.”

So, let’s help Jummy out - how do we create buzz over a personal blog?

Some ideas to start us out:

• Get arrested. Just kidding.
• Find a way to distinguish your blog. What’s your “unique selling proposition” to borrow a term from marketing?
• Write incredibly well. If you’re going to hold readers’ attention over your personal life, you’d best bring your A game, each and every single day. Impeccable grammar and spelling, perfect formatting, sharp and descriptive word choice, arc and development for each post’s “story.”
• Eye-catching design - visually and aesthetically pleasing, something sharp and unique, not your “top 10 Wordpress themes” unless you tweak it significantly…

What else can we do to turn a personal blog into a moneymaker? Post away!

personal blogs, monetizing personal blogs

I don’t know the stats, but I’d be willing to be a goodly portion of the new blogs started each day come fully equipped with the hopes and dreams of their publishers for big bucks - or at least, a significant little bit of extra income. But monetizing a blog - the act of setting it up so it brings in the green - isn’t a clear-cut recipe for most of us. It’s a subject near and dear to my own heart, as I’m preparing to launch my own little slice of the American Blog Dream pie: a project called “Goddesses in Progress.” While I’m not shilling for that site over here (especially not on 451Press’s dime and bandwidth) I do think the process I’m undertaking there is highly relevant to this blog’s subject matter, and of significant interest to its readers.

So it was with great interest I noted this article from Chris Garrett - “10 Simple Steps To Directly Monetizing Blogs.” (We’ll give him a pass on the split infinitive.) Chris notes the difference between direct and indirect monetization - the former brings in money without “extra” steps, the latter builds revenue by generating interest and leads for some other revenue-generating activity. An example of an indirectly monetized blog: my practice blogs - SC Bankruptcy & Consumer Law and SC Employment Law. A directly monetized site - this one, with its ad placements.

Over the next few months, I hope to write a bit more about my experiences with “Goddesses” and setting it up both as a creative venture and as a revenue maker.

monetizing blogs, blog ads