What Is Your Blog’s Trajectory?

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Your Blog’s Trajectory

Writing a blog is a set of choices.  Where is your blog headed?  Do you have a plan?

“Write without pay until somebody offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this circumstance with the most implicit confidence as the sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for.”  -  Mark Twain

Do you want to monetize your blog?

Ultimately, if you plan to make money on your blog, you have to sell something.

Advertising Space

If you want to sell ad space, you will need a lot of traffic.  Ads come in a couple of flavors. Some ads require clicks, which don’t happen without a lot of visitors.  Some ads rely on thousands of views, which also takes a lot of visitors. AdSense ads are a hybrid.  You also sell ad space on a per month basis or run a job board.

Want to see the complete list of ad possibilities organized into a cool chart at Problogger?  

Affiliate Marketing

If your blog is an affiliate for products, you earn a commission when someone clicks on the product and buys it.

Writing and Selling a Book

People will buy books that are good.  Are you a writer?  A blog is a way to market books, whether they are paper books or e-books.

Direct Marketing

Do you have a product you can sell to people?  Do you make stuff?  Do you have access to a wholesale source?  Are you interested in packing and shipping?  Do you love foam peanuts?

Marketing Yourself or Your Business

You can advertise your services as a writer or designer (or squirrel farmer if that is your dream profession, but there aren’t that many openings).  You can attract customers to your brick and mortar business.

Or ???

There are other methods to make money using your blog. You could create a social network where people could leave messages for their friends . . . Oh, it’s been done.

If you want to make money blogging you have to have a plan

If you don’t believe me, listen to the inspiration for this post.

I follow the work of Steve who runs a blog called EndingTheGrind.  Steve recently posted this interview with Penelope Trunk.  It isn’t the usual sunshine and flowers encouragement so prevalent on blogs. 

Do you think Penelope was too hard on Steve?  Or was she offering some “tough love” every blogger should hear?

Oh, there’s one more reason to blog:  Because you love it.  

This happens to people.  If you’re one of them, you have my condolences and I hope you leave a comment.  P.S. I love you.

“Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody is watching.” – Mark Twain