The Shocking Truth! Is Your Blog Throwing Away Advertising Revenue?
Blogging is hugely popular and blogs range in sophistication from humble online diaries to massive corporate promotion machines. For those who intend to make money from their blogs, there are a multitude of methods and techniques available in order to do that. One of the best ways to make money with your blog is by making it attractive to advertisers.So why are so many bloggers throwing away this opportunity?Well, the simple answer is they probably aren’t aware of it. So let’s look at the most successful ways of attracting advertisers to your blog so that you can make money from your hard work.Most bloggers wanting to make money with their blogs start by adding pay per click ads. These will earn you a few cents for every click they generate, but the downside is that once that visitor has clicked the ad, they are taken away from your blog, never to return.Some of the more enlightened bloggers are turning to more intelligent ways to make money from advertising. More importantly, they are looking at ways of ensuring their visitors stay at their blog.There are several ways to make money doing that, most notably by using advertising space to promote affiliate products. By coding the link so that the vendor’s site opens in a new window or tab (for those using the Firefox browser), they not only earn considerably more in commission for a sale, but the visitor stays with the blog because the window or tab is still open. This is something that cannot be done with pay per click advertising because the terms of service often forbid the company’s code being tampered with in any way.But the most lucrative way to make money from your blog is to attract advertisers.There are several companies already set up that act as go-betweens to put advertisers in contact with blog owners. The usually have set tariffs and pricings to suit a blog’s page rank and Alexa rating, by which they gauge a blog’s traffic potential. This is fine for most blog owners as all the hard work is done for them, they just have to make the space available for either text or banner ads and then sit back and watch the money roll in on a monthly basis.Fine, except that the middle man takes around half the revenue generated by the advertisement.While this represents a substantial loss in a blog owner’s potential advertising revenue, it’s not particularly great news for the advertiser either. Some of the bigger companies that have large advertising budgets may see this loss as a mere drop in the ocean. But there are plenty of smaller companies that would like to use blog advertising space to make money for themselves only to find that fifty percent wastage on their budget too much to lose. So they look to other, probably less viable but cheaper methods of spreading the word and the blogger loses out.There is a solution to this dilemma that suits both the blog owner and the advertiser.That is for the blog owner who really wants to make money to set up their own advertising page and deal directly with the advertiser. By doing this yourself, you can offer advertising space on your blog direct to smaller companies who can afford the lower cost per month by cutting out the middle-man.This is easier to do than a lot of blog owners realise. By missing this opportunity it could be costing them a small fortune in lost advertising revenue. Blogs are very easy to customise and one of their great strengths in this department is the ability to add new pages as easily as adding new posts.So it’s a simple affair to create a new page on your blog and label it “advertise here” or similar.On that page, you set out the advertising tariff that best suits the popularity and average monthly traffic stats for your blog. That work is done for you if you have already set up an account with one of the ad company go-betweens. They will have suggested a monthly rate for text and banner ad space.So to keep things simple, you just use their figures. Once this is done, you can then approach advertisers and offer your advertising space for half the price the middle men want to charge them for the exact same space.Think the advertisers won’t bite your hand off?You should offer a choice of text ads, banner ads and even one-off reviews of sites or other blogs including a link that will remain in your blog’s archives indefinitely.So now all you need to do is to attract advertisers to your blog.How is that done?Well, the usual traffic promotional methods still apply. Article marketing attracts visitors to a blog or website in great numbers. Amongst those visitors will be owners of sites who may want to place some low cost advertising but don’t know where to go to do it. By simply marketing you blog and mentioning that there is a policy for direct advertising for a reasonable cost, those potential advertisers will then know where to go. They’ll visit your blog and read the “advertise here” page.If they like your tariff, they will get in touch.Another solid method of spreading the news is to get busy social networking. This takes the form of registering with some of the top social networking sites and getting yourself and your blog known by the members. This also increases your traffic, making your blog an even more lucrative advertising medium. It won’t be long before certain members will seek out your blog to advertise on.Don’t forget the established mainstay of site promotion: The forums. Use your forum signature to direct members to your blog and post about the advantages of direct advertising. As long as you’ve established yourself with that forum, you’ll create interest amongst the members which will turn into more potential advertisers.Whatever methods you use to attract advertisers to your blog, be patient as it may take a while for the first tentative inquiries to find you. Remember, it only takes one very high profile site or company owner to take a shine to your blog and others will follow suit in droves.By ensuring that these advertisers are kept happy knowing that their advertising budget is being used economically, you’ll start to make money in your sleep from your blog as more and more advertisers find you. It’s one of the nicest win-win situations to be in!
Owner Financed Homes AKA Seller Financed Or Owner Carry Homes – Trampling Myths
Owner carry has been around since the beginning of time. It is annoying to review posts where experts provide their keen insights on a topic they apparently do not know a lot about.This article is going to discuss 3 prevalent myths that are perpetuated. The three myths are: owner financed homes will carry a higher interest rate, seller financed homes are difficult to find, and lastly, only financially strapped sellers sell owner financed properties.1st Myth Trampled: While it may be true that owner financed homes may carry a higher interest than what a typical lender can offer for a loan, this does not have to be the case, and in my dealings, has not been the outcome. The terms of the loan including, but not limited to, the interest rate, loan amortization length, balloon payoff, principal and interest, or interest only, etc are all completely negotiable between buyers and sellers. There are really no rules and both parties are completely free to do what they would like.2nd Myth Squelched: Again, yes, it can be true that an owner carry home is seemingly more difficult to find than a home with mass advertising, it is not beyond belief to find. The main reason most folks never buy a home with owner financing is because they do not know how to seek and find. What we have is less than expert, professionals making false claims to fatten their pockets, yet they have probably never offered to buy owner financed. I will, however, be the first to tell you most seller financed properties are not advertised as such. Most owner carry deals are hand crafted between two parties.Third Myth Squelched: The belief that only sellers in financially strapped situations choose to seller finance their homes is incorrect. I understand there are many homeowners near you who would be joyous to move their home and earn a regular monthly payment from you, while earning monthly cashflow from their principal by holding the financing. Untold numbers of mutual fund investors have seen their principal be slashed over the last 18 months. Their dividends are far from certain, and nothing is guaranteed. Just receiving of that constantly flowing income stream is advantageous for most people.
Do You Make These 5 Marketing Automation Mistakes?
Marketing automation has become a vital tool for businesses of every size. It can help you gain and sustain a competitive advantage. Speed up sales results. Plus, enable you to engage more contacts with personalized messages sent at the right time. So you can build good relationships.Yet not each marketing automation system is the same. In fact, very few have all the essential tools in one package of services. If so, that can cause you to integrate system parts from third parties that can cost you time and money, especially when things go wrong down the road.That is why it’s vital to first know what a full all-in-one marketing automation system is all about.Marketing automation is a server-based software that integrates different technologies.4 Automation Technologies Most Vital for Marketing CampaignsFirst, it includes a CRM that allows you to collect, store and use information about your contacts. To be able to segment your contacts by custom fields and tags, behavior – such as opening emails and clicking on links, plus purchases.Second, it includes an automated messaging system for emails, text, postcards and tasks. This allows you to send each message to contacts based on when they opted in, a date, behavior, purchase and more.Third, it has eCommerce functionality. It integrates order pages with a form and payment gateway for one-click purchases. Plus it can allow you to integrate with a shopping cart if you prefer. Most of all, it can automate processes based on successful or failed transactions, subscriptions, trial periods, payment plans, coupons and more.Fourth, it must have a campaign builder that enables you to take each contact on a personalized journey with measurable results. This allows you to create multiple campaigns for opt-in, sales, upsell, downsell and retention.A marketing automation system such as one by Ontraport can provide additional features. These include marketing tracking to help you see which ads, landing pages and emails are generating the most cost-effective results. Affiliate marketing and membership site to help you boost the number of customers and sales. Landing page and form builder to enable you to design professional looking sites in minutes. And a lead router and scoring system to help you and your sales team follow up leads and convert them into customers.Three key benefits of a marketing automation system are that you can customize it for your business. You can have multiple marketing campaigns at the same time that operate 24/7. Plus you can automate processes specific to contacts along their journey. But there are also marketing automation mistakes you can make along the way.Marketing Automation Mistake #1: Sending eMails to Contacts Who Did NOT Opt-in
Marketing automation involves permission based emails. That means you send emails to contacts who give you permission to send them information. You can get permission when each contact opt-in to your system. However, importing a list or manually adding contacts to your marketing automation system is a violation of SPAM rules. If you do this you can compromise the delivery of emails even to those whom give you permission.Marketing Automation Mistake #2: Not Maintaining a Database of Active Contacts
Even after you get a contact to opt-in, you must keep them active. That means, you must continually send them emails with relevant content to engage with at least once per week. Otherwise, they may forget you and not open the few emails you send. Over time, they can become less engaged, diminishing email delivery of your entire database. A re-engagement campaign is an effective method to get non-engaged contacts to interact with your emails again. You get these contacts to tell you if they’d like to remain on your list or opt-out. So you can maintain a consistent and clean contact database.Marketing Automation Mistake #3: Focusing on the Wrong Metrics
Marketing automation allows you to measure the results of your campaigns. This includes opt-ins, sales conversion, email open and click link rates, landing page visits, sales, ROI and more.However, focusing on the wrong metrics can cause you to misinterpret the true results. For example, you may have two campaigns where one has much higher open rates and lower click rates. Yet when you calculate click to open rates you can see an entirely different result. Before starting each campaign, it is vital to know the metric you seek to focus on to determine success.Marketing Automation Mistake #4: Not Split Testing Campaigns
All campaigns differ by the type and number of contacts, content and more. Split testing campaigns is the key to finding what works right. But the key to split testing is to test just one variable at a time. Such as a headline, price, offer, design or target audience. The campaign that wins is the new control. Then you can test other campaigns against the control.Marketing Automation Mistake #5: Not Having a Certified Consultant on Your Team
Marketing automation is both an art and a science. It requires a mix of technology know-how with direct response marketing expertise. Plus an objective mindset that is not biased toward the company or product. These are why it is best to have an independent consultant certified in the use of the marketing automation software on your team. To develop the strategy and build a custom automation system for your business. Plus, to train your team on using the system.