Monetizing Your Blog

by Jack Humphrey on Oct 2

Seth Godin tackles the tough questions of how to promote your stuff and make money with a blog without seeming like an endless commercial.

“When I launch a new book, it gives me a headache to mention the launch/sales of the book more than twice, unless I’m riffing on an idea. I feel like I’m imposing.” Godin remarks in this post.

The refreshing thing, accompanied with a twinge of frustration for not having the answer ready and neatly packaged, is that Godin is asking the same questions we all ask at some point, or should be asking.

“How much is too much?”  “How little is too little?”  “Can you stay fresh and cutting edge if you are repeating promotions over and over in order to hit the market properly with more than a couple followups?”

Part of me loves that even Godin doesn’t know all the answers.  Part of me is mad at him for not giving us a formula that will work on any site, any topic, all the time.  Why is that unreasonable to expect?

  • http://perfectprogram.com/ourhouse tecHead

    I’ve always been an advocate of the ‘soft sale’; maybe this is an indication of things to come, in this arena?

    Time will tell.

  • http://www.contentdesk.com Jack Humphrey

    Depends on the site and the bloggers goals. A balance HAS to be struck between giving readers what they want and paying the bills.

    I can understand how people have 100% fallen in love with free information, but they have to stop and think about the fact that bloggers put A LOT of work into making a great site and most are not wealthy hobbyists.

    So balance is key between extremely good content and doing what needs to be done to support that content through sales, PPC, whatever.

    This is a big part of my “job” so I have to get paid or the web would certainly lose me as a contributor on this type of platform.

    Draw your own conclusions as to whether that would be a good or bad thing. :^)

    Jack

  • http://www.contentdesk.com Jack Humphrey

    Depends on the site and the bloggers goals. A balance HAS to be struck between giving readers what they want and paying the bills.

    I can understand how people have 100% fallen in love with free information, but they have to stop and think about the fact that bloggers put A LOT of work into making a great site and most are not wealthy hobbyists.

    So balance is key between extremely good content and doing what needs to be done to support that content through sales, PPC, whatever.

    This is a big part of my “job” so I have to get paid or the web would certainly lose me as a contributor on this type of platform.

    Draw your own conclusions as to whether that would be a good or bad thing. :^)

    Jack

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