Monetizing your blog posts i.e the content that you write on your blog has been a much discussed topic. Will people pay to read your blog posts like they do to read articles on WSJ? That’s the question!
Maki of DoshDosh says in this regard:
It is important to keep in mind the reasons why you are publishing blog post after blog post, all full of ideas and information and giving them away.
Do you know that you might generate more income by creating content and packaging it into the form of an affordable eBook, or perhaps a membership site? In terms of earning efficiency, premium/paid content might be a more lucrative venture than the act of simply giving away all your content away. source
Bloggers churn out thousands of new blog posts everyday — all for free. Even the “make money online” blogs give away free blog posts to make some money on the advertisements ;)
As for Maki, his reason for blogging for free is to build a brand, as he explains in the last part of his article.
What if, you already had the brand name?
If you had the brand name on the net, would you be still writing good articles one after another every day like DailyBlogTips does? (no pun intended, DBT is a great blog that consistently publishes quality posts. Hats off to Daniel Scocco!) or Would you shut down your blog and turn to other ways of media like what Jason Calacanis did?
“Will you come out of retirement at some point?” Clark Kent, Daily Planet
Jason Calacanis: No. Absolutely not. This is not a Michael Jordan or Jay-Z ploy. I’m done. It’s not over one instance, and it’s not because–give me a minute [editor's note: Calacanis looked down, fighting back his emotions]–I can’t handle the pressures of being an A-list blogger. This is a very personal choice that I’ve discussed with my family, and it’s the direction we want to go. I’ve done blogging and now it’s time for the next chapter. source
Jason shut down his blog and now has a 4,000+ member newsletter readership, to which I am also subscribed (sign up here). However, his articles from his newsletter still appear on sites like TechCrunch “How To Demo Your Startup” and ValleyMag “PR Strategies for Startups (Part One)“.
So, why did the A-List blogger like Jason Calacanis quit blogging? When everyone else wants to achieve what he has already achieved?
In his own words, he said he did it because he wants to build a deeper relationship with people… “I’m going to try and build a deeper relationship with fewer people–try to get back to my roots.”
he also said…
“Starting today all of my thoughts will be reserved for a new medium. Something smaller, something more intimate, and something very personal: an email list.”
Why Email List (in other words Email Marketing)?
Email List seems to be the answer to the questions in the beginning of this post. That is, should you charge for your blog posts? Should you monetize your words? If yes, will people pay to read your posts? And how to go about it?
But before that, why email list is the answer? Here is a great post by Yaro Starak which describes why email list has a better earning power than blogging. If you read Yaro’s post, he questions too… “why bother blogging if email list is a better option for making money online?”. His answer is, you should use your blog to build your email list!
Hmm… that makes sense. Is that why Jason Calacanis shut his blog and started an email list? I don’t know. But he certainly doesn’t need a blog to build his email list. People will subscribe to his email list anyway.
Currently Jason is trying to syndicate his email newsletters to some of the highest profile sites on the net! (see twitter message to the left). And if he does that, I am sure he would get some kind of deal that would affect his bottom line positively.
Summary
So, do you see where we are getting at? Destination seems to be the Email List, and blogging is the journey that takes you there. Some bloggers like Calacanis, Yaro and Maki are aware of that, and they have a clear picture of where they are heading. How about the rest of us? Why do we blog? “To make money” you will say, yes, but that’s like… being on a journey and having no idea where you are heading!
Or in other words, you are planning for a short-term, whereas Yaro and Maki have a long-term plan. And I think that’s one of the reasons why they are successful at what they do, and why they are always one step ahead of the rest — because they plan strategically!
Ok, I will leave you with that…. you comments are most welcome.
P.S How to start your mailing list? read this post.
I think it’s a sin to even talk about charging the readers a fee to read anybody’s blog! Blogging itself is a free mode of communication and hence shouldn’t become like press news/magazines etc.
Cheers,
Ajith
I really do think that many bloggers that desire to make money need to pay attention to this post.
When it comes to monetizing your blog, what is the most important thing to consider?
Well, what most bloggers need to know is that the most important asset that you can leverage to build your income is the email list….period!
Blogs should be only used to funnel traffic so that you can build your list….and then establish greater trust and relationship with your list through your newsletters.
So this is what I’ve been focusing on for the past few months. My motto is this:
**Blogging for the sole purpose of building my email list!**
Hope this helps someone.
Melvin Perry
http://www.list-building-videos.com
Yeah build a brand first, then start/grow a list, then if response is good, site membership is in order
I think many bloggers got the order of the above the other way round
There’s definitely benefits to having a mailing list. My original website had access to a monthly slot on a mailing list of 100,000+ and built up traffic on the back of that and sold advertising on the site because of it.
Nice article by Yaro. I just saw some other cool stuff on his blog.
Yeah, article is great. Points well taken regarding Email Marketing. A lot of useful in this post. Really appreciate that.