Stop Playing Follow The Leader
This is just the second post I’ve made since taking over BloggingExperiment.com, and apparently I’ve already started confusing people with my first post. How’s that for a first impression?
When I stated in yesterday’s post that I was going to change a few of the “copied techniques”on this site, this is what I meant…
For some reason, people think if they see something on a popular blog, then it’s automatically a good idea. While I do think it’s a good strategy to “model” your website after proven, successful websites, you do need to use some common sense and test different ideas.
I like to use what I call “common sense marketing” on my websites. I think people just don’t use common sense when they try to make money online.
Let me give you a great example…
I read a post on another blog a few minutes ago. This person broke down their income for the last month. It looked something like this:
- Affiliate program commission – $2500
- Private ad sales – $175
- Adsense income – $155
- Sponsored posts – $100
- Kontera income – $22
Ok, that’s great. He is making about $3,000 per month from his blog, not bad.
But, when I review his website, there is a huge problem (maybe you are doing this too).
I don’t want to call him out on it publicly because his actual site isn’t what’s important, it’s what he is doing wrong that matters.
(If your website looks like the one above, I don’t mean to offend you. If it’s working for you, great. If you aren’t making as much money as you want, then keep reading)
The blogger from my example above is not using common sense and focusing on what’s making him the most money. Instead, he spends most of his time and his “premium real estate” (ie – above the fold) on the things that make him the least amount of money.
On his blog homepage, he has an obvious paid review, which he openly states on his website are $20 each. The blog post below this one is loaded with Kontera ads, which drive me crazy. To the right of his post is a column with an adsense block and to the right of that are the 125 x 125 ads.
After reading his blog a bit more, I found that many of his posts are discussing advertising opportunities on his blog. Are you crazy?
About 85% of his monthly income is from affiliate programs he promotes. (I had a hard time finding these promotions because they were so buried on the site) The majority of his time and screen real estate was on promoting advertising opportunities on his blog, the thing that makes him the least amount of money.
A better solution for this guy would be to completely eliminate all the distracting, relatively low paying advertising on his site. By doing this, it would make his user experience much better for his visitors. Happy visitors means more links, more referrals, a better following and would help build a better relationship with his readers. The result would be an increase in his affiliate commissions 3-4 times more than his current figures.
I know it’s a difficult decision to remove any money making pieces of your site. But you need to realize if you remove the distracting things on your site, the other sources of income will skyrocket. Don’t take my word for it. Try it for a couple weeks and see what happens.
Increasing your website’s revenue is not rocket science. Just because you see someone like “John Chow” doing something, it doesn’t mean it’s always right for every business. Use some common sense.
The way to run a profitable website, blog, or any business is to look at the cold hard facts and make decisions based on those facts and those facts alone.
If you are making 85% of your money from affiliate programs, you need to FOCUS on affiliate programs.
Utilize your best website real estate for the things that are making you the most money. Rather than putting 125 boxes on your site, try putting a “Top 5 Must-Have Resources” box in it’s place, and have your best paying affiliate programs listed there.
The benefit to doing something like this instead of the 125 boxes is because of the possibility of additional sales. With advertising, your income has a ceiling. If you charge $40/month and have eight 125×125 boxes, the most you can earn from that section is $320/month.
With affiliate program links (or whatever else is making you the most money) in it’s place, you have the potential of making much more. Personally, I don’t have a huge problem with 125×125 ads themselves. I just think there are better uses of the space. When was the last time you clicked one of those ad blocks? I’m guessing it’s been a while.
When they first came out, they were pretty cool, but just like anything online (ie – banner ads), they quickly get overlooked. When these blocks get ignored, they stop being profitable for the advertisers, which means it’s harder to sell them on your site.
Just something to keep in mind while thinking about the monetization plan for your site. Rather than spending all your time trying to sell advertising, why not take a different approach? The way I look at it, there are two things you should focus on when you are running a website…
1) How much value can I provide my visitors.
And
2) What’s the best way to monetize these visitors after giving them value.
Today’s lesson, stop annoying your readers and stop playing follow the leader!
Ok, rant is over…
Now go make some money 
Comments
Michael Dunlop March 29th, 2008
I only started reading this blog as I heard it was sold and wanted to know how the sale went but this is a interesting post, I may try this out on one of my blogs.
Michael
Tom Printy March 29th, 2008
If you are talking about the canadian blogger that I think you are then you have to realize that the “commission sales” are those advertising programs that offer affiliate links to enroll more people. This whole blog is setup to soley promote those links as the blogger gets a cut . But at 20.00 for a review me add maybe I have the wrong blogger …..
-Tom
Bill March 29th, 2008
Dead on…even though I am ready to fight because I like my Recent Posts, Most Popular and Most Commented block at the top.
I think you lose something for pushing your content down the fold but you gain the ability to highlight and broadcast your BEST content to new visitors which will encourage them to check you out further.
Its a give and take and may work, may not. It’s a bit of a copycat mentality to always say that its best to put your content above the fold. I’d like to see some actual stats that back that up.
I know my pageviews went up when my Most Popular section went into play so who knows.
As for 125s I must be a dinosaur because I do still click on them if they grab my attention. Poorly done ads of any size will not get it done.
Now, even though you weren’t talking about my site, Put up your dukes…put up your dukes.
Solo Programmer March 29th, 2008
It amazes me how many webmaster use things like Kontera which generate little income and tend to annoy their users. Kontera is great for splogs and as additional income on MFA type sites but any site that wants repeat visitors should ensure they don’t drive away the people who do visit.
Bill March 29th, 2008
I try to be a man of few words….kontera sucks.
Max March 29th, 2008
@ Bill – I have no problem with using the Most Popular sections above the fold. Like you said, especially for new visitors, having your best content at top will help draw the readers into your site further.
There are many tests out there that prove the more choices you give a person, the less amount of action that person will take. If you have eight 125s, adsense ads, kontera links, banner ads and other distractions, there are too many choices for visitors.
By focusing only on your most profitable monetization techniques, you reduce the choices so your visitors will be more likely to do what you want them to do.
@ Michael – You have some great interviews on your retireat21 site! Just spent the last 40 minutes reading over a few of them. Looks like Yanik’s event was fun…
Bill March 29th, 2008
What if Private Ads are your most profitable technique?
I am going to commit Hari Kari right after typing this….but that is the case on John Chow.
cuzzy March 29th, 2008
that was a really helpful post. I am going to take a fresh look at my blogs and see if I can reinvent some of the ideas.
I am still in that phase of I just do it for fun and whatever cash comes is a bonus.
Max March 29th, 2008
@ Bill – If private ads are your bread and butter income source, then focus on those. Dedicate your prime screen space to those advertisers to make sure they get a return on their investment. If your advertisers are making money from your ads, they will continue to buy more ads from you.
Solo Programmer March 29th, 2008
@Bill – Chow is certainly an exceptional case with his 125s. Some quick calculations say that he’s charging $9 eCPM for each of them and there are 8 spots. If you can get those kinds of rates the 125s would be successful for you too but he gets that much because he’s John Chow.
Mike Huang March 29th, 2008
First day at work and already you’re making an impact. You’re absolutely correct that ads take over most of the blog. I have contacted my designer to re-do my whole header section, so that the header image does not take over the whole page.
-Mike
NBWeb.it March 29th, 2008
Great post, thank you
I am still in the first phase: building content (in my language, italian) and i haven’t thought how to monetize my blog yet, but your advices are great… i will re-read them when time to insert ads will come.
You wrote:
> What’s the best way to monetize these
> visitors after giving them value
by your opinion, which is the best time to start thinking on how to monetize visitors?
- Nicola
redwall_hp March 29th, 2008
Before I start picking this apart, let it be noted that I am in no way part of the “make money online blog” craze. I can’t stand reading John Chow’s blog. I provide valuable content, and any ads are a side note, not the point of the blog. I go out of my way to avoid the ad-mania seen on all too many blogs, and keep my design clean. Simplicity is a virtue in design.
On the Popular/Most Commented posts: If a page element provides a useful function, then it is not a waste of space. What do the boxes do? They drive readers to more content. The About box? A short bio helps orient new readers a little.
On the 125×125 ads: What are they? Banners. Not just banners, though. Compact, unobtrusive banners. I’ve been using them for about a month, and the income from my blog has increased significantly. They are a good way to monetize a blog without weighing the site down with ads.
On affiliate programs: Ugh. First, they are not a steady way to monetize a blog. You write a post with an affiliate line, and you *may* get some referrals. Then the post falls into the archives, and will likely stop bringing in the meager earnings it had originally. So you frequently write posts with affiliate links in them then? You’re basically writing paid reviews then… Banner ads beat-out affiliate programs here. They provide a fixed, but steady, stream of income.
Max March 29th, 2008
@ redwall_hp / Matt – I just reviewed your site and it looks nothing like the blog I was talking about in the example above. Your header graphic is small, great content in prime real estate locations. In fact, your site is a pretty good example of what I was telling people to do with their sites…
Focus on your most profitable assets. In your case, it’s your 125 ads and your content. You don’t have a bunch of annoying distractions. I didn’t see an about bio box either?
If you make the most money from advertising, then that’s what you should focus on. In your case, affiliate programs are not working out, so that’s what you would drop.
I’m not exactly sure what you are “picking apart”?
NBWeb.it March 30th, 2008
Hello Max,
tonight an email has dropped to my mailbox:
—
My name is xxx and I am looking to buy links from good websites as yours.
I will be glad if I can have a text link or a text box 120×60 or 125×125 on your site. Please advise what what will be the price for each of these ads, if it is placed:
1. On your homepage only
2. On all site pages
—
So, what would you do?
Max March 30th, 2008
NBWeb.it,
I’ve been getting emails like this a lot over the last few weeks. It seems to be Spam because they never mention my URL in the email. I think these people just collect email addresses from blogs, then shoot out this spam.
I wrote back two times and asked them which of my websites they wanted to advertise on. Got no response from one email and the other response said “all of your sites”.
Obviously this is not a REAL advertiser because they would want to target their ad only on related sites.
You can write back to them if you want, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up until you see they are really interested. They may just be looking to get stats about your business such as traffic or finding “comps” so they know how much to charge for advertising on their sites.
NBWeb.it March 30th, 2008
Hey Max,
thanks for the note.
There is full contact name on that email, and also it is clearly indicated my website url for their advertising request.
How much can i quote to “stay in the market”?
My domain is 6 years old but i have just started blogging, i had a “static” website before…
Any suggestions appreciated
redwall_hp March 30th, 2008
By “picking apart” I meant going through your post and commenting on various portions of the text. I tend to do that…
Tom Ross March 30th, 2008
Good post, but I don’t really agree with your idea of 125 ads being so static in terms of income potential… You can just ramp up their price as your site grows and therefore they can be just as valuable as affiliate ads or whatever else.
Terry Tay March 31st, 2008
I have found that if the content on a site is good enough I’ll keep coming back regardless of their ads on the site. I visit John CHow’s site regularly and he has a bunch of stuff trying to load which is pretty annoying, but doesn’t keep me away.
~Terry
Jason March 31st, 2008
I have a new blog in the works called newborntreasures. I Found your post interesting since I am currently creating my layout and theme.
I am not much of an expert in this and I am new to the online income scene. What do you recommend for a layout then?
I am trying to build a baby themed site since there are not very many out their and was curious on what your opinion on how it should be done up.
Great post! Keep them coming!
Jason
Andrea_R March 31st, 2008
More posts like this please.
It’s dead-on with specific examples of what does and does not work. Very straightforward, I liked it.
Frank C April 1st, 2008
For some of my niche marketing blogs I’ve gone with a single column minimalist WordPress theme that makes Wikepedia look gaudy. This works rather well so far as generating click-thru but I wouldn’t use it on a socially oriented blog.
One of the neater tricks I’ve seen on some blogs is the so-called “reverse mullet” look where the front page has all the promo stuff while the back pages are all business.
ericm June 5th, 2008
Great niche, I really like this post.. Its inspiring me!
trexpenn June 7th, 2008
I’m currently rethinking my blog. I’d surely factor in your advice here when I renovate it.
silver March 28th, 2009
Hi. I found your blog Googling for Kontera (heads up – the post in the SERPS was an old one where the previous owner of your blog was talking about how he was putting Kontera on the site – I only found your current blogpost by searching your site to see what the results were…)
I am experimenting with Hubpages and having a great deal of trouble with Kontera (my hubs are too new to put Adsense on, so the experienced hubbers tell me). I’ve only had Kontera for a couple of weeks – is the consensus that it is a complete waste of time?
StephaBon November 4th, 2009
Great post. I’ve been researching a lot about monetizing my blog, but I just can’t see the ads at the side working. I know I never click stupid little ads on anyone else’s sites. Maybe I just need a lot more people to visit, and then more people will click? If only I could get indexed!