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“C” and “V” are two baby-boomers who have been best friends for more than 50 years. They consider themselves cowgirls, and their friendship began when riding stick horses all those years ago.
They signed up at blogger.com 2 years ago (September 2008) and started blogging together. You’ll find their blog at Stickhorse Cowgirls where they co-blog often and generously.
It’s a fun blog, and one I enjoy reading from time to time myself. They cover a variety of topics, and definitely keep it interesting. One thing I can say about these ladies is that they definitely love to blog!
But the time has come for them to ask the question: “How can we support it?”
As a group, let’s take a look at http://stickhorsecowgirls.blogspot.com and give them some collective advice and ideas on how they can begin to monetize their active 2-year old blog…
After reading through several posts and pages myself, I would guess that the idea of plastering ads all over their blog is not really appealing to them. That, or writing reviews and product recommendations, which might interrupt the flow and change the entire tone of their current “writing from the heart” style.
They have more of a personal blog with a genuine readership, than a highly optimized commercial blog. People subscribe and read Stickhorse Cowgirls because they like the content and the authors. They read it for enjoyment. “C” and “V” write it for the same reason – because they enjoy it.
Options to Monetize the Blog Include:
Very gently weaving contextual affiliate links into your posts. It may be easier to start with archived posts at first, than to try to write with this in mind. For example, in this post: C: Information, Please you could easily use Amazon affiliate links to hyperlink your Trivial Pursuit graphic to the game on Amazon, and also the iPad image & text. You could hyperlink “Best Buy” with an affiliate link to their website. There are actually several opportunities to casually hyperlink to resources & mentions as an affiliate in this post and others.Accept Donations. This is not one of my favorite methods, but it has been popular and even successful for some bloggers. You can simply add a PayPal button to the sidebar with a note, or there are plugins you can use for this as well.Work with Sponsors. This may be a great option if you have a loyal readership and good traffic numbers. Unfortunately Blogger doesn’t give you traffic stats (or they didn’t last time I looked) which could be a problem. But you may very well find interested advertisers or sponsors that would like to reach your audience.Create Your Own Products. You can create a store through CafePress and offer fun relative items. Perhaps themed products that go with topics your readers really relate to. You might also take your writings and create a book – a memoir or collection even. Items like this are fun and personal and will appeal to loyal readers. They can also be used in giveaways to generate interest.Obviously you can work in a combination of these methods, and weave them into your writing in a way that interests your readers. Many bloggers make the mistake of plastering Adsense or other advertisements all over the blog, which can be a big turn-off (and even cause a “reader revolt”). If you decide to create a book, talk about the creation and process of it as you go. If you take on a sponsor, introduce them to your readers and let them know why you chose that particular sponsor, etc.
One last note…
I highly recommend that you get your own domain name – at the very least. I would love to see you switch over to WordPress on your own hosting account as well. But at the least you do need to be in control of the address in case you ever need to change the location of your blog. See: Blogger vs Wordpress for good reasons to consider this.
Feedback From ClickNewz Readers
You’ve heard my ideas – now let’s hear from YOU! ClickNewz Readers are some of the brightest and most creative people I know. Take a look at the blog and leave a comment below for “C” and “V” with any ideas that come to mind:
http://www.stickhorsecowgirls.blogspot.com
What advice do you have for them?
Best,
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