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cathyr19355 at 04:11pm on 03/05/2013 under blogging
cathyr19355 at 04:11pm on 03/05/2013 under bloggingSo I'm still semi-employed, and thinking more seriously about using my general writing ability to bring in an income. That naturally makes me think about blogging, and I know of at least two bloggers who have parlayed a personal blog into a writing career: Jen, of Cake Wrecks, and Steve Dublanica, who also turned his blog about his waiter career, Waiter Rant, into a book deal.
esrblog thinks I should try to build an empire based on one of my historical blogs. As most of my readers probably know, I've been writing a blog about historical costume, Loose Threads: Yet Another Costuming Blog for four years, and a historical food blog, Table Scraps, for about three. I enjoy writing them a lot, and I think I've made them into interesting and useful information sources.
But they are not blockbuster material. They are both Blogger blogs (because I wanted a platform that was free and would let me do some formatting without having to spend lots of time wrestling with HTML), Blogger automatically collects viewer statistics (since it's hooked into Google's AdSense monetization software), and those statistics have disinclined me even to try to use AdSense on either site. Consider this:
I update Loose Threads, on average, about 5 times a month. (In good months, I manage three times a week.) As of today, Loose Threads has 118 followers and a lifetime total of 124,186 page views. It averages about 100 page views a day. A lot of the page views are probably me, looking up some of the features on the site or correcting things in posts. Granted, there are probably people who read my blog regularly who haven't bothered, for whatever reason, to "follow" me on Blogger. But even if I assume my readership is 5 times, or 10 times, my "followers" figure, that's still not a lot of people in terms of making an income out of the blog.
I make a point of updating Table Scraps at least once a month, though I will write more posts if I am inspired to do so. It has a smaller following. As of today, Table Scraps has 17 followers and a lifetime total of 22,744 page views. It averages about 30-40 page views a day.
These figures in and of themselves don't bother me. I had been hoping, however, for more and livelier comments. By observing the sites over the past 3-4 years, I have finally figured out why I don't get more comments.
Simply put, most of my posts are about history, and history is a subject about which most readers know very little. So they are reluctant to comment. When I move into areas on which more people are knowledgeable--e.g., weaving, or sewing, or other types of craft--I get more comments.
Then I started thinking about blogs I read, and blogs that I know have been very successful, and I'm seeing trends from which I've made the following deductions.
1. The most financially successful blogs collect lots of readers. Having lots of readers doesn't automatically mean that you'll make money--but if you have lots of readers it becomes possible to monetize your site. This is not surprising.
2. The most financially successful blogs also collect lots of commenters. Granted, a relatively small percentage of readers of a blog actually comment, but all things being equal, a blog with lots of comments from lots of different people has a lot of readers. This is not surprising either.
3. The most financially successful blogs have subject matter that appeals to people from all walks of life and different interests. This makes sense--if you appeal to lots of different people, you're more likely to get the kind of volume to make a financial success of your blog.
4. All things being equal, people are reluctant to comment unless they know, or at least believe they know, something about the subject matter of the blog post. This did surprise me (though I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, since I certainly am unlikely to comment on topics on which I am ignorant).
5. It follows, from #4 above, that the most successful blogs involve subjects as to which most people believe they can contribute a halfway reasonable two cents. (Whether they are *correct* in that belief is irrelevant; what matters is that they have something to say that they are willing to type into a browser.) What subjects are those? The top ones, it seems to me, are politics and religion--two subjects which I can barely bear to *read* about, let alone write about. I suppose sports, sex and movies are up there, but I know so little about sports I can't be sure how much it's blogged about.
You'd think this would make Table Scraps fairly popular. Not so. More people are interested in cooking than they are in the history of food, and I cook more from necessity than enjoyment. So I mostly write about books and history, rather than about eating and cooking, and sure enough, I get few comments (and the comments I do get are mostly on the posts in which I discuss the historical recipes with which I've experimented).
So the question is whether I can manage to find subjects about which I could write about interestingly AND which would be popular enough to earn money. I'd really appreciate suggestions, even if they start with "I think your deductions are wrong!" Please feel free to comment!
One topic I'm not especially interested in discussing at this point is posting frequency. I do understand that it's important to post often, and I probably would get more readers for both Loose Threads and Table Scraps if I updated them daily. However, I fear the quality of the material I posted would suffer, and I don't think I'd get enough additional readers for either with daily updates to justify the effort.
esrblog thinks I should try to build an empire based on one of my historical blogs. As most of my readers probably know, I've been writing a blog about historical costume, Loose Threads: Yet Another Costuming Blog for four years, and a historical food blog, Table Scraps, for about three. I enjoy writing them a lot, and I think I've made them into interesting and useful information sources. But they are not blockbuster material. They are both Blogger blogs (because I wanted a platform that was free and would let me do some formatting without having to spend lots of time wrestling with HTML), Blogger automatically collects viewer statistics (since it's hooked into Google's AdSense monetization software), and those statistics have disinclined me even to try to use AdSense on either site. Consider this:
I update Loose Threads, on average, about 5 times a month. (In good months, I manage three times a week.) As of today, Loose Threads has 118 followers and a lifetime total of 124,186 page views. It averages about 100 page views a day. A lot of the page views are probably me, looking up some of the features on the site or correcting things in posts. Granted, there are probably people who read my blog regularly who haven't bothered, for whatever reason, to "follow" me on Blogger. But even if I assume my readership is 5 times, or 10 times, my "followers" figure, that's still not a lot of people in terms of making an income out of the blog.
I make a point of updating Table Scraps at least once a month, though I will write more posts if I am inspired to do so. It has a smaller following. As of today, Table Scraps has 17 followers and a lifetime total of 22,744 page views. It averages about 30-40 page views a day.
These figures in and of themselves don't bother me. I had been hoping, however, for more and livelier comments. By observing the sites over the past 3-4 years, I have finally figured out why I don't get more comments.
Simply put, most of my posts are about history, and history is a subject about which most readers know very little. So they are reluctant to comment. When I move into areas on which more people are knowledgeable--e.g., weaving, or sewing, or other types of craft--I get more comments.
Then I started thinking about blogs I read, and blogs that I know have been very successful, and I'm seeing trends from which I've made the following deductions.
1. The most financially successful blogs collect lots of readers. Having lots of readers doesn't automatically mean that you'll make money--but if you have lots of readers it becomes possible to monetize your site. This is not surprising.
2. The most financially successful blogs also collect lots of commenters. Granted, a relatively small percentage of readers of a blog actually comment, but all things being equal, a blog with lots of comments from lots of different people has a lot of readers. This is not surprising either.
3. The most financially successful blogs have subject matter that appeals to people from all walks of life and different interests. This makes sense--if you appeal to lots of different people, you're more likely to get the kind of volume to make a financial success of your blog.
4. All things being equal, people are reluctant to comment unless they know, or at least believe they know, something about the subject matter of the blog post. This did surprise me (though I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, since I certainly am unlikely to comment on topics on which I am ignorant).
5. It follows, from #4 above, that the most successful blogs involve subjects as to which most people believe they can contribute a halfway reasonable two cents. (Whether they are *correct* in that belief is irrelevant; what matters is that they have something to say that they are willing to type into a browser.) What subjects are those? The top ones, it seems to me, are politics and religion--two subjects which I can barely bear to *read* about, let alone write about. I suppose sports, sex and movies are up there, but I know so little about sports I can't be sure how much it's blogged about.
You'd think this would make Table Scraps fairly popular. Not so. More people are interested in cooking than they are in the history of food, and I cook more from necessity than enjoyment. So I mostly write about books and history, rather than about eating and cooking, and sure enough, I get few comments (and the comments I do get are mostly on the posts in which I discuss the historical recipes with which I've experimented).
So the question is whether I can manage to find subjects about which I could write about interestingly AND which would be popular enough to earn money. I'd really appreciate suggestions, even if they start with "I think your deductions are wrong!" Please feel free to comment!
One topic I'm not especially interested in discussing at this point is posting frequency. I do understand that it's important to post often, and I probably would get more readers for both Loose Threads and Table Scraps if I updated them daily. However, I fear the quality of the material I posted would suffer, and I don't think I'd get enough additional readers for either with daily updates to justify the effort.
curious
Recommendations
I'd recommend including more pictures in your publications. When people can't comment on the post, they might comment on the (relevant) pictures. There's a knack to get for the pictures, but you have the hang of it (for instance, the pictures of you in the fitted apron dress drew the first comment: "[...] I really like your dress [...]"). When it's a personal picture, relating to and commenting on them is easier... people may praise your work, or ask about a detail. You do post pictures, I know. But it's good to have (at least) a picture per post. And if it's personal, even better. Your writing style is already warm and personal; a visual compliment would compund the effect.
I'd not advocate for a change in frequency; many (financially) successful sites post thrice a week. I'd recommend at least fixing a schedule, so people know when to expect updates.
Add options for sharing in social networking sites.
Re: Recommendations
The problem with using more pictures is that it only works if I'm writing about something I can take pictures of. If I'm doing less sewing, I'm stuck with using public domain or Creative Commons images.
The scheduling issue is a good idea. I'll try to think of a way to do this.
I'm of two minds about the share button issue. (Note: on a Blogger blog such as mine, a share button automatically appears if the site is viewed in Chrome). On the one hand, share buttons can get you more eyeballs. On the other hand, I kind of dislike the idea of saying, even implicitly, "Please "share" me on Facebook etc." It strikes me as tacky, somehow.
Re: Recommendations
I don't think placing 'like' and/or 'share' button(s) would be like asking. In my experience, there is a distinct increase in sharing if you _actually_ ask (as opposed to placing the buttons).
If you don't ask, you're just making it easy for your niche following to share with others in your niche audience... so you're making it easy for them to share something they enjoy with people they think might also enjoy.
How can empowering someone to take action (for themselves) be the same as asking them to do something (for you)? You ain't askin' no favors, ma'am.
If that still hasn't bought you: you can try and make sure the buttons are on discreet places, and not bothering people.
Second: You'd sometimes be stuck with CC or PD images, alright. But still, making an effort to have a relevant image on every post is better than not having any, and having a personal image (or a few) is even better.
I just pointed to the best case in my previous reply.
Third: Consider enabling the "Read More..." feature. That helps navigation when browsing for a specific post, although it hinders continuous reading. But the real benefit is having real stats. I mean, if people go to your blog to read one, two, three posts, you'll never know because they don't visit the post's page, only the main blog page. That can be useful for a number of things, chief among those getting to know what subjects people read most (which you'll want to know and exploit for successful monetization).
Ah! A plus side to the schedule: if you ever write more than what you scheduled to, you can form a backlog (unless you have a special post which needs to be out quick or otherwise go stale). That's useful for vacations. Last time I checked there was no publication scheduling in blogger (as opposed to WordPress), so ymmv.
Re: Recommendations
I think I misspoke about what I detest about buttons.
It *is* different than asking people for comments. When you ask for comments, you're encouraging people to enter into a dialogue with you and other readers of the blog about the post and the topics it raised. That's the part I love about blogging.
When you place "share" and or "like" buttons, you're announcing "look at me! I want to be incredibly popular! I want to collect Shares like Girl Scout Badges, to show how good I am!"
I recognize that at least some of that is necessary if one plans to monetize one's blog, but I still find it extremely distasteful, and I haven't resolved that conflict for myself yet.
If that still hasn't bought you: you can try and make sure the buttons are on discreet places, and not bothering people.
Ah, but the issue is placing the buttons where they won't bother *me*, and that's a bit different. ;-)
I've been poking around on the Internet since you posted your last comment, and the only gadgets I've found so far that appear to be compatible with Blogger place the buttons under *every* post, which I think looks dreadful.
Re: photographs--I *do* try to have a photo with each post, but for a lot of them there's no CC or public domain image that is subject-matter appropriate.
As for the "read more" featuer, I have yet to figure out how to do that on Blogger, but I don't have anything intrinsically against using it.
Re: Scheduling. Actually, Blogger *does* have a scheduling feature but I've had problems with it. I do understand the value of having multiple posts prepared in advance, but I've been a bit short of focus and inspiration lately. I have a number of items in my "drafts" section in various stages of readiness.
Thanks for the suggestions!
Re: Recommendations
Re: Recommendations