shelby7vdy: Affiliate Making Money

This guest post is by Karen Andrews of Miscellaneous Mum.

Personal blogging has changed a lot in the last two years. Some writers now run blogs or social media campaigns to extend their profiles for current (and future) readers; some bloggers are using their reach to find or be offered writing work.

The line between ‘writing’ and ‘blogging’ is blurring, which is terrific, but can also be confusing. I know this first-hand. So today I’m going to share with you some points I try to keep foremost in mind. Maybe they’ll help you too.

Making money is possible, but prepare for tough decisions

Here’s a description: you’ve built up a pretty healthy traffic flow, or a solid RSS subscriber count. Long before that, you signed up to an ad network, thinking that by this stage the money would be steadily coming in … except it’s not.

You think about selling private ad spaces, but worry that would be a turn-off for your audience. You’re hesitant about doing sponsored or affiliate-related posts for the same reason. And as for all those opportunities out there in waiting, the longer you’re stuck, the harder they seem to be to grab.

Does this scenario sound familiar? Well, I’ve got a message of hope for the personal bloggers out there. You have one thing on your side. You’re making decisions that matter every day. Here are just a few: how much or little do I reveal about myself or my family? What are some ways I can frame or contextualize a story for effect? What is the best response I can give if I’m challenged about an issue?

What’s needed to answer those questions? Integrity. Look into that part of yourself when asking yourself how far you’re willing to go to make money from your blog. The answer is often there waiting.

Making sure ‘I’ am enough

Here’s another description: you’re chatting to a friend who also blogs, but does so in more traffic-heavy niches (such as entertainment and technologies). You compare the time you spend and your blogging tactics, and are roughly doing it the same way. The difference is that your friend’s site’s hits are triple yours. You start to feel discouraged.

Does this sound familiar? My message this time is a little more sobering. Yes, it can be hard, but this is the time when you need to decide if you are enough. Does it really matter if your traffic isn’t like so-and-so’s? Perhaps your ambitions can be channeled differently, or your goals need redefining.

It never hurts to stop, take a step back, and see what personal bloggers have achieved in recent years. People who live with or are affected by mental or medical challenges, for example, have been able to raise their voices to advocate the networks which support them and are, in turn, worth being supported by others.

Personal blogging isn’t easy—you might be surprised how many other people feel the same way. This is why meetups and conferences are so important: they create opportunities for open discussion and learning among like-minded peers. It’s also worth remembering that your blog will go through its ups and downs, just as all lives do.

If you’re struggling, perhaps take a day—or a week—off to clear your mind and refocus. It might make the difference between two or three mediocre posts or one terrific one. It might make the difference between quitting or sticking it out. At these times we need to take care of ourselves. We’re all worth looking after.

Karen Andrews is an author, publisher, speaker and blogger at Miscellaneous Mum.

Hi, I’m Tris and I write books.

And I’m pretty excited about the coming age of ebooks and the potential of Google Editions. According to the WSJ, Google Editions could be coming to the U.S. soon and other countries soon after. TNW is right on top of the news about this, but I wanted to take the author’s privilege and wax poetic about what this might mean for writers and authors.

First, you need to know that I don’t write fiction, I write for Pearson Technology Group (Que, Sam’s, and many others). I write books on blogging, WordPress, and social media. My publisher is betting big on ebooks and how ebooks will make the books I write more interactive, in depth, and up to date than ever before. I gather from another WSJ article on ebooks that fiction writers are none-to-pleased with ebooks and how they are making less money since the dawn of “e”. Myself, well, let’s say Pearson is more forward thinking about how ebooks and authors and publishers are good for each other. In the world of tech writing, being able to be lighter and faster is much, much better than waiting.

Case in point, my latest book Using WordPress. There are three entire chapters (not to mention additional audio and video commentary) that we were able to keep electronically, though they couldn’t make it into the paper book. If it wasn’t for the electronic versions, you wouldn’t have that. Unfortunately, my publisher isn’t perfect. If you buy the book electronically, you still have to go to the publishers site to get the additional chapters.

But I digress.

Google Editions.

Several things excite me about Google getting into publishing. First is that they aren’t going to be tied to a physical ereader. They are starting off from the perspective of distributing content. Which is how it should be. But that independence might come at a price: adoption. I have an iPad, as you know, and I buy and read most of my books through Toronto-based Kobo. I’ve liked the Kobo reader from the start, it had a better reading experience from the get go (not to mention pulling the DRM from the books I bought so I could load them into iBooks wasn’t fun). However Kobo is affiliated with a couple of existing bookstores (up here it’s Chapters-Indigo), will I be able to read Google ebooks that I buy with the Kobo reader that has the rest of my books? Will I be able to read them in iBooks? Big question there about whether or not Google Editions will take off. I might be able to add another reader to my iPad, but Kindle, Nook, and Kobo Reader owners can’t.

According to reports, I sounds like I’ll be able to offer affiliate links for readers to buy my (and other) books through Google Editions, just like Amazon. This could be something that will help Google gain traction early on. We know that Adsense is a pretty successful venture for Google. We know it works and can be pretty good for earning money on a site. I don’t see any reason why Google Editions will be any different.

So, we have a potentially more independent book seller, not tied to a physical reader, who will also let me earn money by recommending books. I’m good with this so far.

But will Google Editions help independent publishers and authors? Will it help niche writers expand their audiences? I’m going to work off a couple ideas here to say: yes on both. First, if a publisher wants to push more electronic books, the production costs are certainly less with digital editions than “dead-tree” versions. So being able to take more risks on authors who they might otherwise pass on, is a win for us scriveners. On the distribution front, until now, Amazon ruled the roost for self-published ebooks. While details aren’t available right now, I would suspect that Google would love to poke Amazon with a sharp stick and offer ebook publishing services as well. That gives publishers and authors another outlet, that means competition. That sounds good to me.

Here is the bottom line. I’ve always seen ebooks as a boon for authors and publishers who can adapt to them. I’m not saying paper books are going anywhere (though for me they keep going in drawers), I’m saying that ebooks allow authors to offer books to a large audience while keeping costs low with lower print runs. If the ebook sells better than the paper one, well don’t print as many of the paper ones.

Yes, not everyone will be able to take advantage of this and Google Editions might wind up like Google Wave and Buzz, but I think that in the last few months we’ve seen more interest in epublishing not less and I think this interest is going to turn into success for Google.

If they don’t blow it.

But hey, what do I know. I’m just Tris, and I just write books.

bench craft company scament herbs

shelby7vdy

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Affiliate Making Money

Making money is possible, but prepare for tough decisions

Making sure ‘I’ am enough

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

<b>News</b> Corp's 'The Daily' pub to hit iPad in January? -- Engadget

FOX <b>News</b> Misinformed Viewers | Media Matters | MSNBC | Mediaite

Arrowheadlines: Chiefs <b>News</b> 12/19 - Arrowhead Pride

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