Written by Garry Conn
Many people have blogs for a multitude of reasons. Some people enjoy blogging about their family and kids so that other family members out of state can easily view pictures, videos and read about the things going on with immediate family. Other folks really enjoy writing and want to show off their stuff to the world. All in all, there are many reasons why people have blogs.
Really only a small percentage of people have blogs because they want to make money from them. Consequently, even though the percentage of people who want to make money from their blogs is small, it still happens to be one of the most difficult challenges an individual can face.
I see so many amazing and popular blogs in the blogosphere that I know for a fact get tons of traffic, even more than blogs like John Chow dot Com or ShoeMoney.com. Yet, they don't make a dime. The reason being, is that making money online isn't really their focus. Their focus is basically expressing their thoughts and views on things without any care if people read their blog or not. These folks would be happy if only their grandmother read their blog or if a million people read their blog.
These folks are in many ways is what I call natural bloggers. Their minds haven't been tainted by the whole concept of making money online and they don't worry about keyword packing, proper HTML, or optimized post titles. Amazingly, these natural bloggers defeat the odds that search engine optimization expects preach.
A prefabricated blogger is an individual who has come to the realization that there is a ton of potential to make a lot of money with a blog. That individual then sets out to start a blog strictly for the purpose of making money online.
With that being said, there is nothing wrong with being a prefab blogger; however, in doing so or in being on, you still have to run and maintain your blog as if you were a natural blogger. If you don't then you're not going to get very far in your ventures of making money online with a blog.
How do I know this? Simple. I have quite a few blogs myself. I won't lie, other than this blog, www.garryconn.com, I am a totally full blown prefab blogger. I'll make a blog out of any niche topic that I think will yield me the most amount of money with the least amount of effort.
However, in my experience, some of my better performing blogs are on topics that aren't really so "PreFab". If you take www.opticalblog.com or www.airplaneblog.com for examples. Both of these blogs don't really look or feel much different than other of my other "PreFab" blogs; however, there is one HUGE difference between these two blogs compared to my million and one other blogs. That difference is the topic.
I have over 10 years experience with eyeglasses and twice as much involvement with airplanes. I know these topics both very well and writing on this blogs comes very natural for me. Same goes with www.garryconn.com.
People who read blogs, don't like "Prefab" stuff. Blog readers enjoy natural flowing content that is written from the heart. Blog readers enjoy getting to know the author of the blog in slow chunks and also enjoy having the author tie in their content with their personal lives.
So, when you go and seek out a niche topic to create a blog in, consider that people may get turned off if you build a blog that looks like nothing more than a spam house full of ads and links. I am soon discovering that you can do much better with having less on your niche blog rather than having more.
Just because Google AdSense allows you to put up to three ad units on each page, try running only one.
Just because you have found an abundance in affiliate programs that match your niche, try campaigning and promoting only one.
If you place more focus on capturing your readers and place more focus on converting your passer by traffic and converting them into people who will bookmark or save your site to their favorites, you might find that your blog will start to grow quickly.
There is much debate about whether or not a new blog should start out of the gate monetized. I'd say it's ok to monetize your blog from the start; however, I also suggest that you always keep your readers best interest in mind. People read your content because they like you as the author and like your content.
I am learning that people place much more value in what you say rather than what your blog advertises. Consider that when you're building and maintaining your blog.
For over a year, I have launched and maintained a ton of blogs that were built for the purpose of making money online with Google AdSense. However, now I am realizing that that might not actually be the best option for me. I am now discovering the power of running and maintaining a mailing list.
A mailing list has an amazing amount of power. Imagine having the ability to send out an email to thousands of people who actually want to receive your email and want to read what you write. This is huge.
So for me, being a AdSense Guru and a "PreFab" blogger, I am now starting to come around and remap all my blogs and do less article publication designed to capture traffic and then send them away through a Google AdSense click. Instead I am now starting to self promote my mailing list forms.
It is to the point of realization now, that I would much rather NOT have a visitor leave my blog off an AdSense click. Instead I would much rather that that visitor just the click towards signing up to my mailing list.
My ultimate suggestion to you would to be more of a natural blogger who blogs regardless of how many people visit or don't visit your blog. It is very likely that your topic that you blog about also is a shared interest among many other people as well. It is just a matter of time before these people find your blog.
The question you need to ask yourself is this:
When someone does find your blog, what are you going to do with them? How are you going to utilize their visit?
Are you going to:
A.) Make some pocket change off them via an AdSense Click, or...
B.) Are you going to get them to sign up for your RSS Feed or Mailing List so that they can come back to your blog again and again?
My focus is now being more of a natural blogger and less of a "PreFabricated" blogger. I suggest that you do the same. :)
You still have to promote and market your blog. You still have to make sure that your blog is search engine friendly. You still have to do all the things that you have been doing; however, the only difference is that you now need to take advantage of the traffic that you do have. In doing so, your traffic will begin to increase and expand.
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