Monetizing & Optimizing Your Blog — PubCon Vegas

We’re back for another PubCon liveblog session; other than needing a strong coffee on top of the espresso I had earlier, I’m doing exceptionally well for Day 3 Vegas. In this session, we’ll hear about how to make that blog work for your success. We have a three-person panel that’s going to share with us some tactical tips for monetization.

First up is Adam Riemer. He is going to talk monetizing your blog using affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is basically selling something you don’t  own to people you don’t know.

He kicks off with this slide:

Afam Riemer Blogging Session PubCon

How to choose a program:

  • Coupon code box
  • Adware
  • Sales funnel
  • Leaks
  • Trademark bidders
  • Responsive and knowledgeable managers
In house:
  • SEO, boosting your competition or helping your site
  • Payment issues
  • Tracking
  • Analytics and reports
Network:
  • Tools
  • Multiple networks  (multicookie commissions)
  • Auto approve
Branding and trust vs. user experience:
  • Test the merchant: Could this merchant cause lack of trust? Do they sell info? How much remarketing? Continuity with higher automated charges? Customer support issues? Design of the site? User experience? Is the site secure? How good is the actual product or service?
Tools you can use:
  • Data feed tools: Popshops; Make a Page; Goldencan
  • Auto link generators: VigLink; Content Engine
  • Coupon feeds: ForMeToCoupon; I-Codes
  • Value-add services: Currency Converters; Visa Application Systems
Next up is Julia Barrett from eBay. The importance of relevancy in blogging is important. More than 80 percent of users starts a Web session with a search engine. You need:
  • Content quality
  • Keywords
  • Structured data
  • Link value
  • Titles
  • Metadata

Julie Barrett Blogging Session PubCon

Tips for your blog:
  • Don’t shy away with partnering with your competitor for things
  • Make sure the blog is mobile-ready
  • Ad units should be front and center (300 x 250-sized banners a good size)
  • Affiliate links are a huge opportunity. VigLink affiliatizes text links for you. SkimLinks also does this. Reduces work and effort for you.
  • Luminate helps affiliatize images.
Michael David is up. He is talking about how marketing is heading towards engagement. If you’re running a blog and have readers — even in smaller numbers — it’s gold.
He says to read the book, “Blue Ocean Strategy.” The concept of blue ocean is a fresh, untapped market instead of a saturated marketplace (which is a red ocean).

Michael David Blogging Session, PubCon

He is a big believer in direct ads:

  • Approaches to direct ads: engaged readerships, readers are possible advertisers, cut out Google AdSense markup,  open us different avenues than just clicks — you can sell leads, for example.
  • Lead sales: His personal favorite. It has big payouts, easy to implementand advertisers go rabid.
  • Read ProBlogger from time to time. He set up an advertising kit/media kit to show what he offers, and highlights it in the side bar. Cold calls have yielded Michael’s company’s best prospects.
  • Get creative and fresh. Page skins are starting to get more popular. You can also look at page peels.
Paid reviews and advertorials:
  • Write and post reviews or products. This is more effective with engaged readers. It’s ethically tricky though; it can be just a paid links thing. Register with blog review marketplaces, but be careful because it looks like link marketplaces sometimes. One he shares with us are: SponsoredReviews.com
Email/RSS sponsorship:
  • Often overlooked
  • Stay in your niche
Direct ads action plan:
  • Get to the budget; much advertising is prebudgeted. It’s going to be spent with someone.
  • Click to brick: Ads that yields larger budgets than Internet hobby sites.
  • Find advertisers that have to advertise to keep running.

Jessica Lee is the founder and chief creative for bizbuzzcontent Inc., a marketing boutique that focuses on digital content strategy and professional writing services for businesses.

See Jessica's author page for links to connect on social media.

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