There are times when I’m maybe a little harsh on the lifestyle blogging community, but more than anything it’s a Judge Judy kind of tough love. What I really want is for people to grasp the concept that just because some people (who happen to be exceptional writers) are able to make money being lifestyle bloggers, doesn’t mean everyone can. However there are steps everyone can take to make their blog more attractive to advertisers, and increase the likelihood that they will turn a profit from their blog.Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president had this to say about television advertising:
We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive, we’re in the business of connecting with consumers.
Like television stations too many bloggers and blogging advocates think advertisers owe them a living, this is especially true of bloggers on webmaster welfare using google adsense. Few bloggers give any thought to what an advertiser is looking for on a blog, and what they can do to make their blogs more attractive to the people who actually spend the advertising dollars.
During the last economic downturn when a lot of people where home, unemployed, and under-employed blogging flourished. As the number of layoff’s climbs higher I suspect blogging is going to change again, and it will be just as violent an upheaval.
Newspapers are dying, slowly but surely people are switching away from dead tree dinosaur media. There will never be a world without newspapers, but print newspapers will play a smaller role in every-one’s lives, and people consume more of their information in distributed forms. Reporters and writers will start shifting to the web, squeezing out bloggers who are popular solely because of their legacy status. Hobby bloggers who do it out of love, and not because it’s a business, will still exist, but unless your are a top tier author, the only way you will be profitable is to offer a space that an advertiser wants to pay to be in.
You can go the display advertising route or the affiliate marketing path, or if you’re really clever, evolve and use both. Whichever way you go, now isn’t the time to sit on the fence, paralyzed with fear, embrace your passion, and find a way to make it profitable.
Reminds me I really need to get to work on my new theme cause it looks kinda old and clunky round here.