Despite what many get rich quick ebooks may say it’s not easy making a living blogging, or from any type of website. The truth is that many webmasters struggle to even pay their hosting bills from advertising or sales, so why do so many blogs struggle to make money?
No specific target market. This is a big problem with general blogs as they have no real specific audience and so can’t sell targeted advertising. In order for advertising to convert into sales you have know what your audience is looking for first.
Even if you are getting targeted traffic to a specific niche it still needs to be traffic with a buying purpose in mind. For example if you have a funny videos site there’s really no way to make money from it because nobody visiting is expecting to make a purchase at any point, either for you or your advertisers.
It’s easy to forget that the style and layout of your content has a real impact on sales/advertising/leads. For example if you’re promoting a specific product/service on your blog you need to get across fast why it’s so good and why people should buy it, good copywriting is a skill in itself.
I like flashy designs as much as the next person but your design should never get in the way of your sites usability. If people can’t find the content they want fast then they’ll be hitting the back button very soon. Use colors in the navigation that are easy to read and make sure you have a search that’s easy to use. You have to push people to the pages that make you money and site design is a big part of this.
Implementing the wrong type of advertising is another common mistake. I can’t remember the last time I bought something from a pop-up window so why do webmasters insist on using this type of intrusive advertising? Any ads need to complement and match your content in order to be effective.
So as you can probably tell earning a living blogging isn’t the easiest thing to do. But there is a big market out there for webmasters who can deliver both great content and advertising in professional way. I hope these tips help.
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