This week Nathan has decided to let aaron from beawesomeinstead.com guest write a blog post. We hope you enjoy and don’t run screaming the other way. Thanks.
I always thought the only way to make any money off of blogging was selling ads. I will totally I agree that I’m no “expert” on the topic of blogging or making money online, but let me give you something to consider. I operate two blogs, one is personal and the the other is for my wife.
When it came to my wife’s blog, I took things a little slower and have tried to be more precise about what I was doing. She is a Realtor in Dickson, TN and I wanted to use blogging as a way of increasing her online visibility. We really didn’t want to make a lot of money by selling ad on her site but instead have tried to drive local customers to use her real estate services because they found her site and/or have been reading her real estate advice online. Her site doesn’t get a ton of traffic but according to Google Analytics we are starting to see the bulk of our results from the TN area. I will keep working on it, but for having her blog for only 3 months we have seen some nice results because this is totally what I want. I could probably sell some ad space there but honestly I felt it was more important to keep the content there relative to Real Estate advice in Tennessee.
My personal blog, beawesomeinstead.com, has been around for about the same amount of time, but I wanted to take a different approach with it. Now I have so far made a killing off of adsense since starting….that was sarcasm people, try to keep up. I know Rome wasn’t built in a day but since starting my site I have made almost 2 whole dollars from Google…woo hoo! (That’s right I have a very impressive eCPM of about $0.51..I know, I’m trying to control myself too.) I try to blog about various topics but am really making an effort to post only about things that are awesome. For example, I try to spend tome time on drumming (a personal hobby of mine), my favorite television shows (How I Met Your Mother and Scrubs), and decent movies and garb such as The Princess Bride or my fabulous Inigo Montoya shirt that I always get compliments on (I choose to think the compliments are more for me and not just because the shirt it great).
Probably my most linked and viewed article so far is about a poster from an episode of How I Met Your Mother. The Awesomeness poster. This poster was mentioned in an earlier season of HIMYM and finally seen in the latest season. All I did was write a few blog posts about the poster and even took the time to make a variation of the poster that I have been selling on Cafepress. It’s not making a ton of cash but I have made enough to pay for the stock photo I bought plus some. Online shops and referrals seem to be a decent addition (or alternative) to adsense, especially if you site focuses on products like movies, television, games or clothing. Cafepress is a great option if you want to make custom clothing, poster, etc. They have base prices and then you can decide how much to mark up on top of that. I prefer to keep my price low so I can sell more rather than make a huge mark-up and sell less… then again I’m no expert, but it’s a nice way to make a little extra cash until my ad cash starts rolling in though.
Thanks to Nate for letting me blog today. If you haven’t found a decent hobby already I would keep looking here, he seems to be pretty good with the hobby ideas.
Stop and think for second and name just one thing that has happened to you all at once. I had a hard time coming up with something. I bet not a single person reading this blog has had the Publishers Clearing House show up and hand you a check for a million dollars. Most of us toiled through school, sent out resume after resume hoping that it would catch the eye of some willing HR department.
A couple of months ago when What Everyone Ought to Know About Parasites hit the front page of digg the traffic spike happened all at once. But the preparation for that moment dated back nearly 2 months. I ended up writing article after article hoping for the magic something that would propel my article to the coveted front page. I worked on the parasite article for a couple days before publishing it, and even then it took a couple of days before it hit the front page.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that nothing happens all at once. Whether it’s life, love, blogging, or your career. It’s a build up of experiences over time and it all happens little by little. Don’t expect to make $100,000 right out of school. Don’t take a brand new R/C airplane out to airfield and expect not to crash. Think you’re going to land the first big fish the you hook up on? It’s just not going to happen. If you approach everything in life, little by little, you’ll find yourself much happier, more productive, and willing to take on more challenges knowing that they’ll all pay off in the future.
I think Nationwide says it best with their “Life Comes at You Fast” advertising campaign. My blog has certainly taken a backseat the past few weeks as our family transitions from the in-laws to our brand new home.
Last week a truck showed up with all our belongings from Orlando, FL. Turned out we had over 9000 lbs of crap that makes a house our home. We unpacked over 70 boxes, arranged and rearranged furniture, and installed window coverings and cieling fans. After mowing the grass this weekend it’s finally starting to feel like home.
Work is picking up to. I’ve finally been assigned the lead Electrical Engineer of the the V-Flash product. Basically it’s a printer that is capable of printing an object as opposed to a picture or text on a simple piece of paper. I’m back in Los Angeles this week bringing 3 new printers online, but enough about work.
Thanks for sticking around through the dormat weeks. I assure you the time has come where my blog will recieve the priority status it deserves
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This poster was mentioned in an earlier season of HIMYM and finally seen in the latest season. All I did was write a few blog posts about the poster and even took the time to make a variation of the poster that I have been selling on Cafepress. It’s not making a ton of cash but I have made enough to pay for the stock photo I bought plus some. Online shops and referrals seem to be a decent addition (or alternative) to adsense, especially if you site focuses on products like movies, television, games or clothing. Cafepress is a great option if you want to make custom clothing, poster, etc. They have base prices and then you can decide how much to mark up on top of that. I prefer to keep my price low so I can sell more rather than make a huge mark-up and sell less… then again I’m no expert, but it’s a nice way to make a little extra cash until my ad cash starts rolling in though.
