Most of you are aware that I don’t profit from my book sales. As I’ve explained elsewhere, the money earned from my books is given to the poor and used for ministry expenses. Part of my personal income comes from this blog. And today I can say that I’m a “professional” blogger in that most of my personal income is derived from the blog.
Since this blog is free to read and subscribing is free as well, how do I generate income from the blog?
The answer: from advertising and affiliates.
Specifically, if you look on the right hand side of the blog, you’ll see a number of advertisements. Those are all paid ads.
In addition, when someone buys a book that I feature on a book review or on my Top 100 Best Christian Books Ever Written, Amazon gives me a commission. I also receive commissions from other products and services I personally recommend and promote.
Anyway, here are the steps I took to become a professional blogger:
1. Get a reliable, inexpensive hosting service. I recommend BlueHost for this. Most professional bloggers I know use it. You can’t go wrong with them. If you already have a blog, I recommend switching over to their hosting service.
2. Use WordPress for your blogging platform. If you click on this link, I show you how to start a WordPress blog in less than 10 minutes using BlueHost. This covers both #1 and #2.
3. Get a beautiful blog theme. I’ve used two kinds of themes. The Standard Theme and Studio Press. Studio Press is better in my view and less expensive. Click here to check it out. When you’re on the page, click the blue “Shop for Themes” button to see all the awesome themes they carry.
4. Post once a day for a year. I did this all throughout 2012 and it made a huge difference in my traffic.
5. Make most of your posts 800 words or less. You can exceed this sometimes, but don’t make it a pattern.
6. Participate in the comments. Be gracious, non-combative and non-defensive when people disagree with you. How you handle disagreements, criticism, and personal attacks are a measure of your spiritual stature. See Three Types of Critics & How to Respond to Them.
7. Moderate comments yourself or have someone else do it. Never approve a comment that slanders another person or trashes them in any way. Your blog must be a safe place for people where civil dialogue is rewarded. If you allow gossip and slander on your site, you devalue your site and you’ll lose your smartest readers as a result. (If you’re a Christian, giving a platform to the sins of slander and gossip is participating in those sins yourself.)
8. When your blog gets over 25,000 pageviews per month, start receiving advertisements. In my observation, if you have less than that, it will be difficult getting advertisers. Not impossible, but difficult. So work on building traffic first.
9. Write content that is thoughtful, unique, inspiring, encouraging, and challenging. If you tear others down, you lose credibility and very few people will pay attention to what you have to say. The same if you’re constantly lifting yourself up above others. Usually, those who tear others down lift themselves up at the same time. Be encouraging, inspiring, and edifying.
10. Promote others on a regular basis and lead readers to valuable resources. I seek to do this regularly (see the “Reviews” section in the Archives for examples). Because I feature so many authors and books, the blog was rated #4 in the Top 100 Book Related Blogs recently.
11. Make it easy for people to subscribe. For example, you can see my subscribe button on the top right of the blog. You can’t miss it. Give them a choice of Email or RSS subscription.
12. Use social media wisely. Leverage social media to share your posts, but do so without exclusively promoting your own work. See 10 Twitter Mistakes That Make You Look Clueless. You can get by with posting on Facebook about twice a day. For Twitter, 3 to 12 times. But again, make your posts edifying, inspiring, and encouraging. Never abuse the platform (see #9).
While all the above suggestions will not guarantee that you will become a professional blogger, it’s how I was able to do it. So at whatever level you are at in your blogging journey, these recommendations can start you on your way. At the very least, they will improve your blog.
BTW, if you’re interested in advertising your book, blog, service, or resource on this blog, click the Advertise link for information. We have a number of spots available for the coming month.
If you use affiliates and advertisements on your blog, what tips can you add to the list? And what affiliate programs have you found to be successful?
Hello Frank, I was sent here by Michelle Schaeffer. I have subscribed to your blog and look forward to receiving updates. I think that it’s fantastic that you give all your profits to the poor. May God richly bless you.
Hi Frank,
I checked out Blue Host and I agree with you. They are a definite place to move Inspiration Point from a personal blog to a magazine. Now, it is time for the planning stage and I could use some input from the community.
My personal vision for Inspiration Point is to create a magazine style blog; where one can find encouraging stories from a Christian perspective. Some of my writings have taken a gentle prodding tone. I am sharing this, with a purpose.
Frank’s site model is roughly similar to what I want to do. I see that I should add a review section. What are some things I should consider for my site? What are some other sites that I could look at that’s similar to what I’m doing?
I honestly believe that Inspiration Point could make the transition. If there be any tips; I’d recommend doing what I just did. Seek wise godly counsel from others who are doing a similar thing.
Tips:
1. Sign up for BlueHost using this link: http://www.bluehost.com/track/fviola/?page=/wordpress
2. Pick a blog theme at http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=346200&u=745829&m=28169&urllink=&afftrack=
click the SHOP FOR THEMES button and pick one of the gorgeous themes that impress you the most.
3. Then start blogging . . . that’s the only way. You’ve got to start.
Hi Frank,
I want to thank you for writing this post. I like your writing style, so I will be adding you to my RSS feeds for daily reading. Keep up the good work, and once again, thanks.
I have trouble posting every day but I am trying to be better and make sure I do it. The next thing I need to work on is the page views and I see you left a comment on things to do to do that so I will check it out now. Thank you.
This is great guidance, Frank. Thank you for putting it out there in an easy to understand and follow format.
As far as affiliate programs, what I’ve found most successful is just to look at what my audience is already buying (or should be buying) and recommend based on that.
For my particular blog, that’s two different types of things: blogging related tools (Genesis themes, CommentLuv, other plugins, etc) and business building programs or workshops for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
And I’m with Jeff. Creating products/services for my readers based on what they want from me is what’s really helped me to monetize my blogging and be of service in a bigger way.
Good article Frank – I think its interesting you mention to blog every day for 12 months to increase traffic. Definitely going to increase the production in my blog to give a boost. Thanks for sharing your tips on professional blogging.
Wow, this is so helpful, Jeff! Especially knowing that you are actually making a living with your blog means that you know what you’re talking about. But how to get to 25,000 pageviews per month? Any concrete advice how to get there?
Amy: Read my “Advice for Bloggers” in the Archives: http://frankviola.org/archives
Thanks Frank! #4 is definitely the challenge. How do you post daily while staying true to your core themes? I suppose some newspapers and magazines accomplish that fairly well
. Engadget, Techcrunch to name a couple. This is an awesome list. I’ll post on my bulletin board.
Yes indeed. One has to have a lot of content. You can see how I did it here: http://frankviola.org/archives
Thanks so much Frank. This was a great article. One of my goals in life is to become a reverse tither. In other words, tithe 90% and live on 10%. I am hoping to be in your position one day! I truly appreciate your articles.
Linda
Thanks, Frank. This is a huge help to bloggers. Aiming for something like this myself, I appreciate the tips.
Thanks so much for the information. I really desire to be a better writer.You are one of my favorite authors. I really enjoy reading what God has deposited in your heart. Thanks for sharing information that can benefit others. It is truly a blessing to see.
thanks,
Johnny Mengarelli
Thanks, Frank. I appreciate your desire to help others in this area. I’ve gained a lot from your suggestions
Interesting list, Frank. I think one an additional great list to make money online (that you can feel good about) is ask your audience what they want from you. Then deliver it in the form of a product you can sell. Charging for it allows you to invest more time into it (thus making it better) and it also causes people to value it (and therefore use it). Creating products and services for my blog readers has literally changed my family’s life.
Thanks Jeff. Helpful as usual.
It’s awesome to see you recommending StudioPress / Genesis Framework. I use that as well and actually build all of my client websites with Genesis. Definitely the way to go. Great other tips as well!