04.13.08
Steve Hodson Needs to Learn About Competition
Steve Hodson at win extra wrote about how advertising for bloggers has to change… Well Steve if you can’t take the heat, get a real job. The problem is not the blogging model, it is having to face the reality that not everyone with a microphone is worth paying to listen to.
Whether you have a talk show on the radio, or an op-ed column in a news paper if you can’t bring in an audience you aren’t going to get paid.
The blog model is the same as the radio or TV model. Your job is to move ads, and sell product, and if you aren’t bringing in an audience you are failing. I will clear well over $150k on my various blogs, before the additional money from consulting, contracting, and my work with Vista Research as an analyst.
Some of my blogs are to sell products, some are to sell ads, and some are to build my brandwidth. I have had to put a lot of hours in to finding the right formula for each of these spaces. This site for example is just for my personal brand and there for doesn’t have any ads. Which is a revenue model I’m more than ok with.
As to your comments about Adsense dominating the space, yes they are my primary source of revenue, but mostly because some of the other sources I play with aren’t as dependable. If I move $20k worth of ads I want to be certain I get paid at the end of the month. Adsdaq by contextweb is a company that has cut me 5 figure checks in a month and I like working with them. More than Google even. Kontera doesn’t earn me as much as Google, but have also been great to work with. (though they both suck a bit because when all of you sign up I will get squat for referring them)
Steve, when you and I got into the blogging space there were very few bloggers. I remember when RSS 1.0 changed the online diary space, and really made it possible to be a Robert Scoble and read 300 blogs on a regular basis.
Then everyone wanted to make 6 figures working from home in their pj’s ranting about everything that came to mind, and that separated the men from the boys, or the people in it for the love, from those in it for the dollars. I compromised. I now have blogs I write for money, and ones that don’t pay as well, but I enjoy.
There is plenty of gold still in those hills. But this is a cut throat space and as it is cheaper and easier to enter the space you have to keep upping the ante to stay on top, and make money at what you do.
This post is in response to:Advertising for bloggers has to change
Extension: In response to Quintura…
Well you guys get "It" in a sort of ironic way. You used your blog to promote your product, got a Techmeme link, and that put will help you move even more of your services. If Steve would attach himself to Affiliates, Sponsorships, and Blogging for a company there would be more jingle in his pocket, and that is before you start looking at alternate revenue streams…. That said I’d have said it was odd that Techmeme doesn’t see this as a Splog.
There is a difference between using your corporate Blog to bring value to your readers, and getting a lucky roll and having techmeme decide your ad is relevant because you wrote one sentence about the article that you are linking to, and two dozen on why your product will help you get 70% more of your audience to leave your site and go some where else.
If you were focused on helping monetize blogs, rather than monetize your install base, you’d offer features that helped drive traffic, keep traffic, and create interactions that outperform the revenue generated by traditional ad models.