I tend to start projects on a whim. Since I also try to adhere to the “one niche per blog/site”, and yet I have so many interests, I start a lot before completely losing interest. I do that a lot with my fiction as well. And my crafts, and… Ok, you get the idea.
So, I’ve lost interest in another blog of mine. Rather than let it just sit collecting dust, I think of moving its past posts to my chatting blog, which was meant to be a catch-all anyway.
In addition to this, I’ve noticed my sidebar becoming, lets just say, cluttered. I’m hodge-podging again, and every time I think something seems like a good idea, I’m sticking it up there.
Now, I’ve been deleting other banners/ads/widgets as I’ve been adding new ones, but I still don’t like the look. And yet, I know that I’ve searched friends blogs for affiliate programs before making purchases as I figured I’d rather give them a cut on something I was buying anyway.
So my solution? Well, I could build a series of mini-sites for affiliate programs that I think would be of interest, but that would take a long time. What I’m thinking is to write a few posts with the appropriate banners- you know, one for hosting and buying domains, one for regular products that I recommend (like Adagio Tea, awesome), and maybe a catch-all post. Then I could simply link to the posts in the side bar, and just keep up timely ads (like the $10 sign on bonus as it’s only good through August, and the BooksFree which is appropriate to the blog and has a discount, as well as a miniaturized version of my shop). Maybe even have a “free stuff” post that I can update periodically.
I think I’ll be posting these pages to my catch-all blog. I’d hate to have this blog labeled as spam, and that one really is for just… stuff. In fact, now I’m getting excited about the idea, so I think I’ll start now!
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I’ve actually been wanting to ask you…because I’ve noticed you have ads on your blog…how you went about that? Is it through google adsense or is there another way?
Go into your dashboard, then click “layout” for your blog. Click “Add a Page Element”. It’ll pop up a window with loads of choices. For AdSense, you can just click the “Adsense” button, and adjust it. For other ads, you can choose the “HTML” button. Just paste in the ad code into the box, and save.
If you want to get ads, just join an affiliate program. I have PepperJam on the sidebar now, and they’re good, but are still growing their advertiser list. Commission Junction (cj.com) has loads of advertisers, but are a pain in the butt when it comes to reporting earnings. eBay is excellent for the auction widgets, and Amazon also for the widgets.
If you want more details on the different programs email me ( wordvixen [at] gmail [dot] com ).
I was thinking of writing up a tutorial on this stuff. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea.
I’m bad about the start-a-million-things-and-rarely-findsh-them thing. I have a lot of dead-end writing ideas, or articles I querried once, got rejected, then abandoned. Oh, then there’s my knitting… so many things to make, so little time! Good thing knitting costs some money which prevents me from going nuts with yarn.
About adsense – I’ve had it for many months and get nothing from it. How in the world does one make money from it? The rules forbid me from drawing attention to it, or telling people to click on it, so it goes unnoticed and does nothing for me. Any ideas?
I’ve never shopped from a blog, so is it really a venue to explore as far as a little income?
Argh, yeah. I can’t believe yarn costs so much! It’s cheaper to just buy the finished product, if not as satisfying.
There are a few things that you can do to make AdSense more appealing. I don’t bother with them on this blog since I don’t get the kind of traffic that clicks through anyway- mine’s mostly here to collect page views and the occasional friendly click.
One thing is to put the ad above the fold- when your blog first loads, before you scroll down, the bottom of the screen where you’d need to scroll down to see past it is called the fold. Also, for best results, you’ll want it set up to show more than one ad at a time. For example, the ad showing when I looked at your blog was for cats. I have no cats, so the ad doesn’t interest me (I clicked through anway, though). But if there were two or more ads showing, one may have been for cats, and another for nail care. I might have been interested in the nail care ad.
As far as really making money with a blog, you’d do better to blog on a niche topic. Personal blogs don’t often make money unless they develope a huge (and I mean huge) following.
Since you’re into worship leading, a blog about worship could be monetized with song books, worship cds (probably would be popular), teaching tapes and videos, adsense, praise flags/ribbons/tamborines/etc, and probably other products as well. You could blog about your experiences with worship teams (though for a monetized blog, I’d keep it in the form of “I recommend doing this when this happens”), tips on quieting the kids for private worship, new songs that would be ideal for worship services, etc.
Ok, now I want to go build a worship shop. I’m telling you, affiliate programs are addictive!