blogging

I’m a fan of unusual and creative RSS buttons. I love the red marble we’re using here at Kommein, and I enjoy seeing what other bloggers come up with.  In fact, I thought it would be fun to look at some of the more interesting RSS icons and sharing them here.

This apple icon is from a food blog called Cookerati that I run with my sister and was designed by the Sirius Graphix team – who also designed the Kommein RSS icon.

How can you not love the puppy & bowl RSS button at Search Engine Guide?

The Blog Bloke features an RSS guy getting down to business:

Actor Zach Braff uses an amusing little blimp that flies around on the page…literally.

My friend John Hewitt at PoeWar uses an aptly-designed book for his writing blog.

Lotta Guru‘s RSS button is so heavy it needs help staying up.

The blog at Spoon Graphics features a rustic brown paper and ink design.

Zen Elements gives off a colored pencil vibe.

The RSS button at Smashing Magazine is about to fly away.

Have you spied some blogs with funny or unusual custom RSS buttons? Share!

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One thing I love about blogging is the ability to receive instant feedback. If my community doesn’t like something I write, they’re sure to let me know. If they don’t like my sponsor or the ads or affiliates I’m using for monetization, they let me know. If my comments section are becoming a free for all, you guessed it, they let me know.

On the other side of the coin, I also know when I write something readers especially appreciate. After ten years of blogging and writing online, I think I have a good idea of the types of discussions readers enjoy, and how certain topics and attitudes send them in search of a friendlier blog.

Here are a few things bloggers should try to be mindful of when maintaining your blog.

How to Alienate Your Blog’s Readers in 5 Easy Steps

1. Insult them

The people who come to your blog every day don’t necessarily do so because they want to be insulted. They’re most likely reading because they enjoy your writing style or feel your have something important to offer. Why would they stick around if you constantly insult them? Calling them names because they follow a different blog you don’t approve of (“sheep” “minions” “misguided”) might cause them to believe you don’t respect their choices. Making them feel bad about going about things a different way, isn’t encouraging at all. Bestowing disapproval upon those who don’t do things your way, only means there will be more people will be turned off by your close minded approach than those who feel you truly have something to offer.

2. Allow your comments to become a free for all

Everyone says they don’t allow their comments to become free for alls, but more bloggers encourage this than you think. They either don’t realize it, or enjoy the controversy. For example, they have firm “no insulting others” policy, but then practice this – and encourage it – towards people they don’t like or approve of.  So it’s more like, “Don’t insult me or the ten people who visit this blog, but go ahead and insult competitors and their communities.” If rules can’t apply to everyone, consider not having rules at all. If fewer folks are commenting, it could be the comments are getting a little hostile and they’re not so much interested in participating. I’ve tried it both ways and I can tell you, only people who thrive on drama and negativity want to be part of a negative community.

3. Treat them as if they don’t know any better

If you have a steady, loyal readership they’re stopping by each day to learn and share. They trust you. Why damage that trust by talking down to them or making them feel bad about their choices? People like to make their own discoveries, not be called out for their decisions. If you’re blogging to give advice, by all means share. However, your blog isn’t a Rolling Stones song and your readers aren’t looking for their fair share of abuse. There are ways to offer tips without getting on a high horse and pontificating.

4. Constant negativity

Here’s something important I learned, people don’t respond well to constant negativity. They appreciate the truth and not receiving half-assed information. They probably even subscribe to your blog because they know you will set them straight and not tiptoe around the issues. However, daily rants, finger pointing, complaining and just whining about everything that’s wrong every single day is a turnoff.

5. Your way of the highway

“Don’t like what I blog about? Tough! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” If you don’t fight for your readers, you won’t have any.

What are some of the ways you see bloggers alienating their readers?

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If you have been following this series on how to sell a blog, you’ve no doubt realized that a lot goes into selling a blog and it’s not a decision to be taken lightly. For example, you’ll have to prep your blog for sale, determine a price and truly have a blog worth selling. That’s not enough though. Before you start looking for buyers, you’re going to have to gather some details. You see, it’s not enough to tell them your blog receives so much traffic and that it makes thousands of dollars each month in revenue. You’ll also have to back up your facts and prove your stats.

Keep screenshots handy for the following:

• All revenue sources – Potential buyers will want to see proof that you’re earning what you say you earn whether it’s Adsense, private ad sales, affiliates and even revenue generated through your blog from ebooks, courses, and other income streams.
• Traffic sources:  Buyers want to know about uniques, search traffic, how the social networks are working for you and on the whole, how many people read your blog each day.
• Indirect traffic sources: How many people read your blog via RSS, Facebook, newsletters and more.
• Press, awards and accolades: Keep links to all good news and mentions.

Basically you’re going to have to prove everything you use as a selling point for your blog. Plus, if you have good relationships with advertisers and other bloggers, your buyer is going to want this information as well. They’re hoping to have the same success or else it doesn’t make much sense for them to invest in your blog.

Each potential buyer will want to see at least three months worth of the above, some will ask for a year’s worth of information to check on the growth of your traffic and revenue. The best thing to do is to put together a kit featuring all the pertinent information and having it a the ready for anyone who asks. The easier you make things for a potential buyer, the more likely they are to make a good offer. It will also save a lot of back and forth for anyone looking for more information.

To ensure a smooth transaction, gather this information before you put your blog up for sale.

Would you ever sell your blog? What would it take to get you to do so?

Judging by my email, plenty of you are interested in this series. Please let me know what other questions you have on this or other blogging and social media related topics.

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The contents of my spam filter disappoint.  As someone who recommends everyone learn as much as possible about their customers and clients in order to do business, I’m tempted to contact some of these spammers and give them a lesson in basic marketing.

I do not, nor have I ever, nor will I ever,

• Need help growing male body parts
• Need to enhance my sex life
• Want to have an affair with a zebra dressed in a cheer leader outfit

I mean, come on. If you knew anything about me you’d know that I’m happily married, heterosexual, female and planning to stay that way, and am in no way turned on by zebras, no matter what they’re wearing. There may be a market for these, but this is not the place. If you, the spammer, took the time to read this or any of the other blogs you’re spamming you’d know I’m not your girl, and you wouldn’t have to send underpaid third world writers from blog to blog writing crap. You could save your ten cents a post and use it to buy a clue.

Spam disguised in commenters’ clothing

Do you think we’re not smart enough to know that “Cheap DVD” is not a real name and that posting, “Wow. I never thought of it that way. I’m going to have to visit more often” on every single blog post is an approvable comment?

One post? You may have a chance. Twenty posts saying the same thing? Not so much.

I’ll admit, I may have let a “Free Credit” go through when I wasn’t paying attention because, darnit, Free was so sincere with his praise regarding my blogging prowess. After some time I caught on, though.  I get that people come from all walks of life, and my favorite names aren’t your favorite names, but “Work from Home Typing Jobs?” Even the happiest teleworker wouldn’t damn her child to twelve years of schoolyard hell with that name. I have to say, though, it’s hard to let some of these remarks go.  They’re so good for my ego when they tell me, “You write the goodest blog. I wish I had your blog skills.”

Long winded spam

Also? Spammers? Brevity. Learn it. Use it. Embrace it. Love it. It’s one thing to let a brief, complimentary blog post go through because we bloggers want to believe the love coming our way is real, but what’s with the long lists of links?  That isn’t going to fly in comment world, whether you’re a spammer or the most famous blogger in the world. My comments section isn’t a blogroll, keep your link lists to yourself.

Put a little thought into your spam

What disappoints me most about spam is the lack of care and attention put into the comment. If I’m writing a post about building blog traffic, comments like this are just a little off topic:

Houses are quite expensive and not everybody can buy it. Nevertheless, mortgage loans was created to aid different people in such kind of cases.

And if I’m writing about the best places to find social media jobs, this is just a tad unrelated:

The credit loans are essential for people, which are willing to organize their company. By the way, that’s easy to receive a college loan.

In all fairness at least those are complete sentences. However, do the spammers think I’m such a comment-whore I’d let this one go through?

Buy vicodin online without….

Vicodin online. Vicodin withdrawl. Vicodin. Liquid vicodin. How l ong does vicodin stay in your system. Purchase vicodin online….

Come on, spammers. Put a little thought into it. Get creative. You’re wasting both our time with this silliness. If you’re spamming my blog in hopes of getting a comment through, make it look like something Askimet won’t catch and that a real human being will respond to. Use real names and become part of the discussion. Don’t tell us about your mortages or Viagra because that has nothing to do with the effing conversation.

A bit of advice, from me to you...

If you’re wondering why no one is actually clicking your spammy links, it’s likely we hit “trash” and they never get to see the light of day. If you wonder why they’re trashed, it’s because they’re idiotic. They make no sense and when they do they have some stupid “Buy Cheap Garage” name attached. We don’t care about your spam because you don’t take the time to care about us. Learn the market, learn how to talk to people, and just maybe we won’t even know you’re spamming us.

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Bloggers take blog comments seriously. We’re irritated with spam and rude remarks and wonder what’s wrong with our writing or topic when we receive no comments at all. We spend copious amounts of time researching and devising ways to receive more comments, doing anything we can to cultivate an active community.

For many bloggers, a clear sign of success is the amount of comments received, but is it more about the comment or the commenter? Personally, I find the best comments come when I write thought-provoking posts that inspire discussion, rather than creating controversial or bandwagon-y posts designed more for the comment factor than for the sharing. Still, there’s no denying we all enjoy a heated debate or intriguing discussion.

If you visit blogs but don’t participate, or if you’re an active member of a blog’s community, you might be interested to learn how bloggers (or at least this blogger) feel about your comments.

Below is a look at some of the types of comments and commenters that show up on most active blogs.

When it’s more about the link then the blog comment

One of the first bits of advice a more established bloggers offer to newbies is to visit other blogs and comment in order to promote their blogs and their names. Sometimes this doesn’t encourage comments as much as it encourages links.

You can tell when someone is more interested in dropping a link than actually commenting because they do everything they can to get readers back to their site. Though there’s a signature line specifically for links, some commenters regularly drop links into the body of a comment. Some will pull a “I had so much to say I wrote an entire blog post on this – here’s the link.” Once in a while that can fly, but when it happens in every post it’s flat out spammy.

Also, some of those only in it for the link are fair weathered friends. They drop by, comment, and once their own community begins flowing they’re never seen again…unless they want you to link to their contest or be an affiliate for their ebooks.

We notice.

Commenting in support of the blogger

I’m not a fan of “Oh I so agree” comments that don’t really say anything. However, I’ve come to realize that many of those comments are from well intentioned commenters who want to show support for the blogger, or share that they liked a post, even if they have nothing else to offer as a comment. Comments are a terrific way to give something back to a blog you enjoy and shows the blogger you read and enjoyed (or didn’t enjoy) the post.

Stirring up trouble

Bloggers enjoy a spirited discussion. It tells us our words touched our community. As long as the discussion remains respectful, all thoughts are welcome. However, there are some people who comment to stir up trouble every time. Maybe they’re looking for attention or to get links, or maybe they just crave drama, but every comment is a rant or counterpoint delivered just to raise hackles. This type of commenter may not even feel that passionate about his point, he simply wants to create a rift in the community.

Based on past experiences, I usually ignore this type of person. If an entire community doesn’t play into his hands, he’ll go off to find drama somewhere else.

Anonymous Comments

I’m supposed to tell you anonymous comments are cowardly and we need to own up to our comments and use our our names, but I’m not going to do that. I can tell you that many of the people who comment at blogs are using made up names anyway. Moreover, plenty of people are being anonymous not because they want to create trouble, but because they simply want to protect their online privacy.

I know of a few anonymous commenters who don’t use a real name because they don’t want their employers to know they’re reading blogs on company time or because they don’t want people to Google them and have their opinions keep them from a job. I once heard from a woman who uses a fake name because she doesn’t want an abusive ex-husband to find her.

Anonymous commenting isn’t always cowardly or abusive. Take it on a case by case basis.

Active participation

This is what we live for! An active community who responds to our blog posts and discusses the issues. This is more rewarding than money and a bigger treat than ice cream. .Most of us blog in hopes of cultivating an active community. Really, there’s nothing lonelier than a blog post with no comments and there’s no bigger thrill than a blog post with comments

We love hearing from you. Your comments are feedback and teach us points we may not have considered.  Don’t be afraid to comment to tell a blogger whether or not you agree or if you liked the post. Most of us can handle respectful disagreement.

Now, why not visit your favorite blogger and leave a comment?

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When I announced the sale of my blog, I tried to keep it low key. I especially didn’t get into the whys and how muches because I didn’t think they were important. I still don’t feel the amount of the sale is very important, and we won’t go there, but after fielding many questions from Twitter, Facebook and my former blog’s community, I feel it’s important to the people who visited my blog each day to know why I decided to move on.

Moving in Another Direction

I wrote about freelance writing and how to find freelance writing jobs for over five years. For the last six months or so, I haven’t really been feeling it and it shows in my writing. The truth is, I haven’t freelanced as a writer for quite some time. I coach occasionally and write the odd article or guest post, but most of my income came from my blog and social media clients. My options were to continue writing for the blog, hire someone to replace me, or sell.

It was time for me to move on. It was either grow as Deb Ng or continue being the freelance writing lady. As I don’t do much freelancing anymore, it really didn’t make much sense to keep it going. Now I’m talking about the things I really want to talk about and it feels good. I feel free.

Free Up My Time

Running a blog network is a full time job. Now add to that a book I’m writing, my job as conference director for BlogWorld, some other projects and family time. When I ran down the list of things that had to give,  it was obvious that I would never have time for my book project and growing my social media career while managing a blog network with almost a dozen bloggers on the payroll.  Now I have time to do my job, write, blog and even have plenty of family time.

Not Enamored with the Niche

I’ve been participating in the freelance writing online community for more than ten years. In that time I’ve seen it turn from a helpful, almost family-like community into one that’s divided over rates and content mills. I took heat for choosing to remain positive and was accused of being whiny if I defended my decisions. To be honest, I dreaded discussing certain topics or participating in certain discussions because of all the negativity. I didn’t visit certain blogs for feeling unwelcome. I didn’t always enjoy being part of the niche. They say if you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen. I decided to let the terrorists win and do just that.

The Money Isn’t Important…But it Is

My family is renovating and then we want to move from our starter home to a better neighborhood. While we’re not poor, the money from a sale would go a long way towards helping us to achieve our goal. It will also be nice to make purchases (like an iPad) without feeling guilty. Also, having money in the bank will enable me to work on the projects I enjoy without feeling pressure about money.

So, inquiring minds, those are the main reasons I sold my blog.  As you can see, it’s a difficult decision and much of it is personal. However, I have no regrets and feel it’s the best move for me, and for my former blog’s community.

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A common mistake made among bloggers is in not exploring alternative publishing options for their blogs. Your blog could explode beyond that of a web page if you’d only take the time to check out the choices available. As much as we’d like to think we have a loyal community who visits our blogs each day, the truth is, we’d have even more readers, beyond that of physical traffic, if we’d think beyond our URLs.

We bloggers like to think everyone is like us, that they’re online all the time and have time to read blogs all day. Truthfully, very few people have that kind of time. However, we can offer them the convenience of reading our blogs via less traditional methods so they can enjoy our posts during their commutes, trips to the beach, or afternoons by the pool.

Below are the various publishing options available. Some add a new revenue source, some will drive traffic and some will simply bring convenience to readers.

10 Publishing Options for Your Blog

1. Kindle: Did you know that you can subscribe to blogs to read on your Kindle? Yes, it costs money, but many readers agree it’s worth the convenience. After you sign up for a publishing account, you and Amazon will split the profit from subscribers and Kindle owners can read your blog without having to stoke up their machines. Here’s Kommein’s Kindle page.( Credit where it’s due: The inspiration for this entire post was Denise Wakeman’s post on publishing your blog on Kindle. Thanks, Denise!)
2. Smart Phone Apps: I read blogs, newspapers and sometimes ebooks using my Droid. It’s not my favorite way to read, to be honest, because my aging eyes like a big space. However, it works like a charm when I’m a plane or train, or waitng in line somewhere. There are a variety of ways to have create smart phone apps. Many bloggers will contact developers, but this can get pricey – up to thousands of dollars. You can also use a free service such as MotherApp. The MotherApp team will create your smart phone app and split any revenue from ads.
3. iPad: I didn’t find too many tried and true ways to publish a blog for iPad. In researching how to publish a blog to iPad, I came across Publisha, a service allowing writers and bloggers to publish blogs to Facebook, and create iPhone and iPad apps. I don’t know much about Publisha or how it works. However, if you have experience with this service or any other iPad app or blog publisher, I do hope you’ll share in the comments. I’ll probably test it out myself and offer up a review. Also, Kindle has an app for the iPad so iPad users with this app can view still view your blog.
4. RSS: Through owning a blog network I learned that most of my blog’s readers read via their RSS readers and not by physically landing on my blog.  In fact, a good chunk of my revenue came from Adsense on my Feedburner account. Just before I sold, I had between 3000 & 4000 daily visitors to the network and almost 11,000 readers via the feed.
5. Traditional book: More and more bloggers are turning their blogs into books or “blooks.” Some repurpose or create brand new content, while others package up all their blog posts. You can bypass the traditional publishing “find an agent and shop it around” route by self publishing.
6. Newsletter: A weekly newsletter will enable readers to receive news and updates in their mailbox to read at their convenience. I used AWeber for my former blog and it converted many newsletter readers to blog readers. It’s a paying service but well worth it. You’ll also find many free services if you choose to go the newsletter route. The beautiful thing about newsletters is that they also grow your mailing list so if you have something to promote such as a book, you already have a list of people to contact.
7. Facebook: I was a Facebook late bloomer. It’s not that I didn’t like or trust it, but that I didn’t want to get sucked into another social network. Guess what? Facebook turned out to be an amazing tool. For my last blog, I had over 3,000 Facebook subscribers who I interacted with each day. Also, subscribers were able to receive updates via their Face book statuses. If they didn’t want to come to the blog to comment, they could stay on Facebook and comment on the page. The Facebook fan page sent up to a few hundred readers directly to the blog each day. Hopefully I can achieve the same results with Kommein’s Facebook page.
8. Ebook: If you have a large blog with many pages, you can repurpose the best of your content into an ebook. Many new readers don’t have time to go through an entire blog but would enjoy the convenience of an entire book of posts to read at their leisure. There are many types of ebook publishing programs and affiliate programs so others can sell your books as well. Plus, interested parties can buy the ebooks to upload to their Kindles and iPads to read offline.
9. Email subscription: Many of your readers might prefer to receive updates via email to read on thier smart phones, laptops or to print out for later. If you don’t have an email subscription option available already, get thee to Feedburner or newsletter program and make plans for a daily mailing.
10. Traditional blog platform: Don’t forget to encourage folks to visit your blog anyway. It’s through your blog that they become a community as they chat about the issues and topics. This is also how they’ll support your advertisers and the best way to interact with you. Advertisers and potential buyers care most about your physical traffic, so don’t neglect the actual blog while building communities elsewhere.

Do you know of other ways to publish a blog? Will you be checking out any of these tips? Please share in the comments.

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• CardioTrainer for Droid: Geeky Fitness
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• How to Sell a Blog Part 2: Prepping for Sale & Determining a Price
• Shaming Unfollowers: Should We Really Take it So Personally?

Tagged as: aweber, blog, blog newsletter, blogging, ebook publishing, ebook reader, ebooks, facebook, feedburner, ipad, kindle, kindle for bloggers, mother app, publisha, publishing, smartphone app

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There’s a scene in the movie Julie & Julia when Julie reacts to receiving her first ever blog comment by jumping up from her cubicle and sharing her excitement with her co-workers.

I could totally relate.

I don’t know of any blogger who isn’t excited each and every time a blog post receives comments because it means people are reading and that what we wrote is important enough to warrant a remark. However, there’s no better feeling than that first ever comment. It’s validation. The lack of comments also inspires emotion. It can be frustrating for both beginning and veteran bloggers when the comments fail to come in.

In the ten years I’ve been doing this, I learned there’s a right and wrong way to encourage comments and I’m the first one to admit, I don’t always practice what I preach. If I could list my biggest mistakes in regard to blog commenting it would probably have to do with not doing enough to encourage comments, and allowing myself to be too busy to respond to comments as often as I should.

Here are my favorite tips for encouraging blog comments  :

1. Ask

I was taught to ask for the things I want. So if I want blog comments I ask. I try not to only say “what do you think?” and hope for a response. Instead, I ask specific questions. For example, at the bottom of this post I may ask for your tips for eliciting a response from your readers or to share mistakes bloggers make in encouraging comments. It’s my experience that a community is more responsive to specific questions and direction than if I were to only ask them to comment.

2. Leave room for interpretation

The beautiful thing about blogging is that it’s mostly sharing of opinion and experiences. This encourages others to share their experiences as well. When we state facts and leave it as “my way or the highway” there’s really nothing left to comment about. Leaving a blog post open to interpretation means more readers can participate.

3. Go for discussion – not controversy

Have you ever noticed certain blogs only receive one or two comments each day unless they bring up a controversial topic? Negativity definitely causes a reaction, but then we have to ask ourselves if this is the reaction we wish to receive. I think that if we have to go for controversy or negativity to stir the pot for a response, we also have to wonder why what we’re writing each day isn’t enough to encourage comments. Is it because our readers aren’t interested in the posts? Is it because they can’t relate to the post? Is it because it’s not stimulating a discussion? Try creating discussion worthy posts over controversy. Sooner or later negativity will drive people away, anyway.

4. Don’t Make Commenters Jump Through Hoops

I understand why some bloggers use CAPCHA or want their commenters to register. It’s to keep away trolls and spammers and makes absolute sense. However, if I have to jump through too many hoops to leave my opinion, I’ll probably pass.  It’s frustrating to have to take 20 minutes to fill out a form or to continue refreshing an unreadable security code. If it’s too hard to comment, no one will.

5. Create a Positive Atmosphere

If your blog, including the comments section, are a hotbed of negativity, folks are going to get uncomfortable. If everything you write is an attack on someone else, or commenters are sniping at each other, you’ll only attract more negativity.

A few more things to consider

• All bloggers want comments. Most want to receive feedback on their blog posts, plus they want to watch a discussion take place. Most of us also agree that we enjoy a spirited exchange. That isn’t to say we want fights and pettiness to take place, but rather, respectful disagreement. Debates are fun, but debates aren’t fights.
• One thing I need to work harder on is responding in the comments. I sometimes get so busy in my day I don’t have time to participate in the discussion. A blog’s community wants to participate in discussion with the blogger – as well as the community. Being AWOL might encourage everyone else to be AWOL too.
• Top bloggers disagree as to whether or not a blogger should respond to every comment that comes in. It’s understandable if a blog only receives a couple of comments each day, but when there’s dozens of comments it can be hard to keep up.
• If things get too out of hand, don’t be afraid to moderate and delete. I’ve been criticized for this in the past, but I’ve deleted abusive comments. I don’t delete comments that disagree as long as they’re respectful, once they’re abusive or attacks and snipes begin, I delete.
• A comment policy will help to set ground rules. If you especially post a lot of hotbed topics, you’ll receive hotbed comments. Nicely let folks know you won’t tolerate certain behavior such as attacks or cursing.
• Some bloggers don’t allow anonymous comments. Personally, I don’t mind a pen name if a person is afraid to publicly say something for fear of reprisal from an employer or a community – as long as that person is respectful. I prefer to know everyone by name, but understand that in the online world some folks wish to remain anonymous.
• Create a community not a clique. If the only comments are from you and your best friend and contain mostly private jokes and references to unnamed parties, you’re creating a clique, not a community. Include everyone or start a  private forum.

Notice these are only tips? That’s because I don’t believe there are any hard and fast rules when it comes to commenting. There’s a certain universal etiquette, but I’m not the social media police, and it’s not up to me to tell everyone how it should be done.

When a blog presents a positive environment, people will respond in kind. If you want your readers to comment, you have to give them a reason to participate.

What do you do to encourage comments? Have you noticed that certain methods drive people away instead?

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When I first began blogging, whether or not to monetize a blog was a controversial topic. Only sellouts and greedy money grubbers or Internet marketers put up ads. Then folks like Darren Rowse and John Chow proved that there was serious money to be made via blogging and all of a sudden it wasn’t such a scandal. Years later, there are still a few purists who don’t believe blogs should have ads, that it somehow sullies the content, but in most cases blog ads are expected and accepted.

The blog I just sold was heavily monetized and brought in several thousand dollars per month, but I did compromise the design in favor of advertising and I’m not sure I’d go that same route again.  If you’re just starting out and you’re not sure whether or not to place ads on your blog, I’ll give you a few things to consider:

• Ads are ugly: Ads are unattractive and they clutter a blog. It’s hard to be subtle with ads; if you choose click based advertising like Adsense, it doesn’t always work if it’s not in a prominent area. If you choose private or affiliate ads, they also have to be sort of obvious if you want people to notice them. You can’t post ads in the bottom corner of a blog and expect people to notice. If your sponsor has a big, ostentatious ad it could compromise the integrity of your blog’s design.
• Ads only work if you take the time to know your community: It’s hard to properly monetize a blog without knowing about the people who read your blog. For example, what types of products are they likely to buy? Do they have the income to spare? Perhaps they’re clickers and not buyers at all.  Knowing your community’s wants and needs will better enable you to choose the types of advertising that will work best for your blog.
• If you place ads on your blog some people will say you’re only in it for the money: It’s funny how no one will claim how accountants or dentists are only in it for the money, but that’s why they work, right? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being in blogging for the money, if that’s your goal.
• Not everyone will appreciate all your sponsors: Sometimes your community won’t feel the love for one of your sponsors. You’ll have to decide if you believe in the sponsor enough to risk losing readers, or if they’re worth the controversy.
• That disclosure thing: Affiliate ads are coo,l as are product reviews, but bloggers are now required to be honest about their affiliations and can’t neglect to mention a product review or blog post contains an affiliate link.
• The money doesn’t start rolling in on day one: I always recommend building traffic before considering monetization strategies. Without people, your ads won’t do a darn bit of good anyway. As mentioned earlier, you can’t properly monetize until you can guage the needs of your community. Plus, people want to trust you in order to trust your advertisers.
• There are other ways to monetize a blog besides advertising: Bloggers are trying out other ways of bringing in revenue instead of or in addition to advertising. Some are writing courses, while others are creating workbooks and ebooks. Bloggers are creating membership communities, pay to play job boards, and webinars. Tap into your expertise so you can profit as well.

If you look at any popular blog, you’ll probably notice at least one advertisement. Using advertising on your blogs can be a lucrative form of income. Just be sure to take the time to research the right types of advertising for your community. It’s no longer considered inappropriate to advertise on blogs, but it’s important to note that finding and implementing monetization strategies can be a full time job in and of itself. However, if you can earn a full time income with your own blogs, there’s no better way to earn a living.

Do you monetize your blogs? What are some of the lessons you learned?

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• How to Sell a Blog Part 2: Prepping for Sale & Determining a Price
• Does Social Media Matter to Civilians?
• 5 Things I Learned from Selling My Blog
• CardioTrainer for Droid: Geeky Fitness

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