Monetizing Your Health, Wellness, Fitness and Nutr…
So gang, in terms of monetizing your blogs, what is and isn't working for you all? I personally have chosen not to incorporate AdSense on to my blog. My monetization has primarily come from consulting I've taken on as a result of the blog and eBook distribution.
I've tried various Commission Junction campaigns, have yet to generate one sale off of them. Anyone having any luck with CJ or other Affiliate Networks?
User Comments
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I would also love to know what works and what does not. After blogging, commenting, writing...Do you think it is just a little of everything we do.Any info I can get I value...carol stanley author of For Kids 59.99 and Over. -
The only thing that's worked at all for me (and it admittedly has not worked very well) are Amazon book sales - just providing a link in a post where I discuss a book I like.-
Do you have to pay for this..???Can you just give an opinion and promote your book???? Carol
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I never had much luck with Amazon myself. The 4% commission is ridiculously low and I just decided to remove the widgets from my site. Not worth the inventory they were taking up.
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I sign up for affiliates through clickbank, such as workout ebooks, nutrition ebooks, etc. I also use amazon for some book sales as well.-
How do the affiliates work? Success? carol
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I have been promoting several click bank products and have had no success yet. I changed my site bodybuildingmuscleshaping.com from a site to a blog. It has been getting a lot more traffic, and I do get clicks more and more, but no clickbank sales yet. My commission junction I have gotten a check from, small, but success. I have several affiliates from shareasale, but no purchases yet. I get more clicks on text links either in the blog or in link lists on the side than on any banners, no matter what size.
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Carolee,
If you have a book you want to promote you would contact Clickbank and let them know you want to be an Advertiser. They would then market your book to affiliates, to whom you would pay a commission for each sale. Clickbank is the largest eBook affiliate network on the web .... very successful. -
Hi Susan,
I'm hearing that blogs are great for relationship building / authority status, but poor for lead generation.
This may change once you are getting 1000+ unique visitors per day (which may go some way to explaining why some get CB commisions via banner ads and others don't).
I'm currently looking at a PPC/CB/Blog model and have been recommended: Commission Blueprint
Noel-
Thanks for the info. Will check it out too.
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Hi Noel,
Thanks for posting about Commission Blueprint. I'll have to look in to that.
I'm not surprised that blogs haven't been deemed successful to date in regards to lead generation. And yes, I agree that the more traffic a blog receives, the greater potential for generating leads that individual blog will have.
With that said, you have to be in it to win it. Right now the large direct marketers by-pass blogs in lieu of email lead gen. That worked well up until 15 months ago, but with email deliverability in the trash in many instances, direct marketers need to find new forms of media.
This is the time where blogs need to present themselves in aggregate. A single blog with 50 unique visitors per day ... not so big. But, gather 500 of those blogs and all of a sudden you have reach to 25,000 unique visitors per day.
One can argue that in the scheme of things, 25,000 isn't all that relevant to a direct marketer, but this is where I believe the true power of blogs comes into play -- TARGETING.
Category specific blogs such as those in the health/wellness/fitness/nutrition category reach a very specific audience. These blogs also tend to have a following of loyal readers. I'm betting that as a group, we can convert very successfully for particular campaigns.
As an aside, my background for the past 8+ years has been in email direct marketing. I left that space in July of this year to get my Nutrition Fitness Coach certification, blog, write for online health pubs, and explore other opportunities in the fitness space.
With that said, I've since become so taken with blogs and the blogging community that I felt I minimally I owed this as a pay-it-forward model to fellow bloggers.
I suppose time will tell, but I'm hoping everyone is willing to give this model a shot!
Susan-
Susan
I really appreciate you adding me to your list. I just launched my site and blog about two weeks ago. I Obvoiusly have a lot to learn and plan to start by covering this site. You had mentioned email direct marketing as your past. In reading your post, are you saying email direct marketing isn't working anymore. Specifically, for a beginner like me, buying a list to help generate or should I say jump start my traffic. -
I agree with the comments on traffic (need more to make these things pay out), targeting (highly targeted lists and sites get more $$ when they can get it) and aggregation of blogs (small blogs unite).
I'm now part of a coupon network for health and green sites/blogs and that's been pretty cool. It's new, so I don't have a lot to report yet, but it's promising...a steady stream of paid coupons. Blogs have to qualify based mostly on quality of content, presentation and traffic.
There's some info at www.understanding-meditation.com -
Sorry, the correct link for the coupon network is: www.healthygreendeals.net
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Your vision is impressive
I was an early adopter of blogs and it's a slog if you try to run solo - hence my presence here and at My Blog Log. I realise now the value of having CB products yourself, so that "your network" links back to your blog (because they have a financial incentive to do so).
I now run just 2/3 blogs (instead of 5/6) and am working on a hybrid business model which includes blogs, membership sites, lead generating "direct response" sites, and a solid online presence (video, audio, articles, social media).
Again time will tell ... because everything continues to move fast -
On my site fatlossdoneez.blogspot.com, Im only generating money from my adsense and thats about $3-$5 a day. None of my products are selling. Im thinking about increasing my advertisement thru adtoll.com and see where that will lead me. So far so good advertising thru adtoll has been a success. But I need more traffic and hopefulll the sells will come. -
Mnlewis - what does your current traffic look like?
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My traffic is not much, Im getting about 100+ page impressions a day, that's thru Adsense. SO not much. I noticed when I advertise with adtoll Im getting more visitors. So next month I will probably spend about $100 in advertising thru adtoll, maybe more. I noticed thru toll to get more clicks to your site it costs a little more. So Im willing to spend that amount to get the exposure. Do you have any ideas?
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Mnlewis, I'm also at around 100+ page impressions per day and right now, am pretty happy with that traffic. My audience has engaged with the content on my site and I'm hoping to grow traffic organically, versus paying for it.
On that front, I'll continue to extend reach to a target audience through writing (I'm a contributor to MindBodySanctuary.com and Gyminee) and I've also been interviewed for an article that will appear in an upcoming issue of Oxygen Magazine.-
You have probably posted this somewhere but how long have you been blogging? I just went live with mine about two weeks ago. All I hear is write good articles and start participating in other blogs. It seems a bit owerwhelming trying to do everything and all the research on how to build traffic.
I was thinking of purchasing a email list but decided against it after asking you. Thanks for the information.
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My traffic is probably a bit higher, but then again, I started my blog, thegreenbeautyguide.com, about four months ago. StumbledUpon usually gives me a wonderfully explosive boost in traffic. What earns me most of my online income? I believe in good content. I am a journalist, so it's naturally the easiest way for me :)))
I played with affiliate programs on my news websites a few years ago, and I found that nothing really worked except Google AdSense and good quality banner networks such as Tribal Fusion (but you have to produce 2000+ uniques a day to qualify). So far, I am sticking to Adsense with my money-making news sites and I focus on good content on my blog to generate interest to my book. -
"Blogging to the bank" 3 has just been released and it's all about affiliate marketing rather than adsense. As a journalist "greenbeautyguide", you obviously have an advantage in producing good content, and Adsense works for passive income if you do it right and you have enough daily hits. Affiliate marketing means setting-up quality reviews + ecourses; simple links aren't sufficient.
So I still think a good blog can combine all 3: Good free content (relationship building), adsense + affiliate marketing (your own products). As for banners + ads I've been testing different styles at: www.cbproads.com -
Greenbeauty guide ... love your site content! Can you share specifics in regards to how you're generating revenue via your content?
Noel, I agree that there is room to combine multiple earning opportunities although I've had zero luck to date with banner rev-share programs using Commission Junction and other affiliate networks.
I'm going to re-purpose this space for the lead generation program launching in Q1 2009. CPL programs have had tremendous success via email (the industry I was in for the past 8 years) and I feel if we aggregate blog media, we can introduce an entirely new spectrum of brand marketers to lead gen. -
Joy, what campaigns have you run through Commission Junction that have generated revenue for you? Can you share?
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Thank you for the invitation Susan! I'm new to the blogsphere. This forum is an excellent source of information for new bloggers such as myself. The blogsphere is hard enough to maneuver without having to also learn which marketing campaign will yield a return. It took me five months to learn and get a clue about social bookmarking, any time saved - although I'm all for learning lessons - is time well saved.
If you had to give a newbie any piece advice, what would it be? -
Great question Blogreco.
I've had a difficult time finding a consistent means for monetizing my blog. With the exception of e-books (Turbulence Training), nothing has really worked which is why I've developed the widget that will be launched early 2009.
My best advice would be the share information with the other bloggers in this group. The more we can learn from one another in regards to (specifically) what works and what doesn't, the more ability we will have to leverage this medium. -
Rsteinert,
To clarify, email is still an effective means for generating leads and sales. With that said, as email deliverability becomes increasingly challenging for mailing companies, performance in regards to raw numbers does suffer. If the email doesn't get delivered into the inbox, the consumer cannot click over to a given site.
Additionally, renting email lists for the purpose of marketing your blog seems like a risky proposition to me. ISPs are paying closer to attention to the permissions consumers provide when opting in to receive email. It's doubtful that consumers have agreed to receiving information about blogs, and the last thing you need is a negative reputation with the ISPs.
However, you can register site visitors to your blog and receive permission to market directly to them. Your deliverability will be very strong in this scenario as you have a direct relationship with said consumers. This obviously isn't a traffic building strategy, but rather a relationship building one. -
Hi
I too am contemplating removing Adsense and Amazon. I have little traffic at the moment due to my blog being very new but I have a feeling that anybody who happens upon my site will probably not click them anyway. Many of them (Adsense) seem too sensationalist and sales orientated which will probably put off people seeking genuine information. I also feel that, perhaps with the former statement in mind, that the presence of intrusive ads will raise some cynicism with regards to the information I am trying to convey.
I envisage that I might generate some sales by reviewing useful books for Amazon Associate commissions (obviously by reading them first!) and perhaps some Clickbank sales of e-books I have tried. However I have only bought two Clickbank products ("Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle" & "Combat the Fat") and whilst these two are excellent e-books, I can't envisage making much money promoting them - even though they have reaped me some success in the areas they promised to address.
With the above in mind, I am hoping that by providing a substantial amount of genuinely useful, high quality content, that my blog traffic will increase to the point where I may be able to sell advertising space on my blog. -
ExerciseJunkie, I'm a firm believe that content is king, and especially in our category (health and wellness) when you're a new blog looking to find your audience, building credibility needs to be the priority.
AdSense works well for high volume sites but to your point, I worry about the quality of the ads and as such, never launched the program on my blog. I've made some revenue via Amazon, but have also made it a point to only promote products/books that I actually use (to the credibility factor). Revenue has been minimal but no harm, no foul.
What I will say is that if you've had personal success with e-Books, I do believe you want to promote them. Just make certain you do so in such a way that while promoting the books, you're also educating your audience on the product. I do this with both Turbulence Training and Precision Nutrition on my blog.-
Totally agree Susan that content is king -- but it has to be the right kind of content. Just publishing your workouts and random fitness tips online won't get you there.
Google "themes" your site based on the types of content you publish and how cohesive that theme is -- this drive long-term rankings. If you are all over the place with your content -- even if it's loosely themed around health or fitness -- you'll have issues with your content ranking.
This is why there are thousands of personal fitness "journal" sites that have lots of entries, but are almost impossible to find through natural search. Every now and then, you'll hit gold by accident with this approach, but it will be a nugget, not a goldmine.
Frequency of publication has its benefits in terms of SEO -- but don't underestimate the power of one really good article each week. I built a lot of my traffic on that tactic alone. -
Speaking of content is king...one thing I've had moderate success with is paid posts. I have been experimenting with www.blogvertise.com and, although their offers are really low (like $5 and $7 per post), the offers are legit and you can accept or decline them. It's worked better for me than other paid post services, like sponsoredreviews.com, which never presented anything I wanted to write about.
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Great discussion here.
Normally I'm pretty quiet about what works and what doesn't (we are kind of competitors in some sense), but Susan was nice enough to invite me, so let's share some stuff. Execution is always the hard part, not coming up with ideas.
Here's what I've found after eight months of running AnswerFitness as a side project to my "day job" which is in Interactive Marketing for a very large online financial services company.
First, running a content site that attracts traffic is extremely labor intensive. One article typically takes me 4-8 hours to write -- some require more, some require less. If your plan is simply to pass your wisdom on through "journal/diary" like articles, the chances of building much traffic volume will be slim. It doesn't scale, though you'll have a few stark-raving fans.
So the first thing is learn the fine art of SEO -- nearly all of my traffic (I get about 50K visitors a month and steadily growing) comes from natural search. But doing SEO right takes a lot of time and patienc. You can consider outsourcing some of the content creation, but then you start to lose your "mark" on things. It is an option, however. I've chose not to do it ... at least for now.
Second, don't expect social media and social networks to drive meaningful, sustained traffic. Yes, you can build incremental traffic, back-links, etc., by attracting people to your site that are part of the "technorati" -- but this will not let you build tremendous volume. It helps in other ways, but not in immediate traffic gains. This may change as these networks become more popular, but aside from some nice spikes you might see from something like Stumbleupon, social networks aren't volume drivers: organic search is.
In terms of $$$ and advertising:
I run Adsense and have some partnerships with very targeted affiliates (generally bigger brands that I think bring value and credibility to my site.)
Adsense generates revenue, but I'm not thrilled with some of the advertisers in the network -- especially the weight loss "scams" which are pervasive. Blocking them is tedious and a constant battle since they are relaunching with new urls daily. I may pull Adsense if they can't give me a better way to screen ads on my site. Damn the dollars -- there are some principles you need to stand for.
AdSense rev is also extremely variable and unpredictable because it's a dynamic marketplace. So some days, clicks could be very high, with low-total earnings for the day, while other times, they could be low in volume, but with bigger payouts. And because there still is no good way to know which ads are performing for you from a CTR and RPC/RPA -- or even based on placement on the site (without using a ridiculous amount of channels -- and even then, you still can't see based on advertiser/creative) it's very difficult to optimize for anything other than ad location and CTR.
Google really needs to provide us with more insight here. There is a beta for Google Analytics on its way that is supposed to provide some data based on top performing pages on your site and ad clicks, but even that doesn't go far enough.
Also, the whole idea that Google is serving up the most relevent ads on your site that perform the best for you is a bunch of hoeey, in my opinion. Pretty much any diet-related creative will trump any other ad creative that shoes up on your site, regardless of if it's relevent to the article it's running in or near. If you have a diet or health site, you're going to get a bunch of anniesdietblog.com crap ... even on an Under Armour review. Now, maybe those ads generate lots of cliks and higher payouts, and that's why Google is preferencing them -- but I have a hard time believing that an more targeted ad for a product actually related to your post won't perform better from a CTR than "1 Rule to A Flat Belly!" Maybe I'm wrong though ...
In terms of affiliate, I think the trick is to pick brands you believe in and trust, and then write highly-targetted content that would attract the person who has a propensity to buy those products. Again, though, this is very labor intensive. So be prepared for that. You have to do your research and spend the hours.
The other issue with affiliate is that the CPA model leaves you at the mercy of how good the advertiser is at landing page optimization. I have one advertiser who I love, but because of how they set their Atlas tracking up, I can't deep link into their site and to specific products based on what I know about my user and the advertisers products. I've had some pretty lengthy discussion with them about this, and they "get it" -- but their agency is totally missing the boat by not fixing the limits of their tracking. If I could control the landing pages, I could probably double conversion for CTR to sale. If you have affiliates like this, you should continue to lean on them to enable deep linking. Amazon does this (and the new Google affiliate network has some advertisers who enable this), but all advertisers really need to get on the ball around this. The problem with Amazon is that people just don't seem to convert well, period -- even when you deep link. And payouts are way too low.
The issue, IMO, with Amazon is that they are everything to everyone. So people just tend to click through and browse around a lot and get distracted. Direct relationships with certain brands, however, avoid some of that. And the payouts are usually double Amazon's.
I've also avoided offering ebooks from other sites because they just feel spammy to me. There are some great books out there (Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle), but I'm actually trying to figure out some products of my own that I can develop and sell directly on my site. I would prefer to take that approach.
I guess I'd say the real key is to build some strong traffic volume -- I'm talking plus 1,000 uniques a day. This starts to get you attention, and give you more leverage to open up biz dev discussions with brands. I really like using Hungry-Girl.com as an example of this. She started as an email newsletter to friends, and then went to a blog-style site, and then expanded outward to sell apparel, adverts to very select companies and now ... the cookbook (hardbound, to boot!)
I'm not interested just in running an affiliate marketing site -- I want to run a trusted, well-written site that people want to read and talk about. In my case, I'm going to be spending more time in the next couple of months working on branding type things (yes, you heard the DM guy say the "B" word.) That means adding more personality into my site and having a real "hook" -- versus just being another blog with a bunch of fitness tips.
I think to be able to quit your day job (which is not my intention -- and that gives me a certain freedom with my site) and just pay yourself from blogging requires either a very strong hook and brand image (and lots of traffic) or a series of sites that are basically just built to capture traffic and drive clicks and sales.
If I launched another couple niche sites, I could probably triple my earnings. But I didn't start Answer Fitness to be an affiliate farm. In fact, I didn't even start running ads until two months ago -- and I'm resisting how many I do place because I don't want the site to look like the side of a NASCAR.
One last thing: If you are selling eBooks, you really need to be a hardcore direct marketer and use the types of tactics and landing pages people like "Bloggingtothebank" use. Yes, they are kind of cheesy -- but look at Benwell's page (www.bloggingtothebank.com). It uses every DM trick in the book -- testimonials, pictures of his toys, promises of "secrets", etc. I bought the book .... so it worked for me and I've been in this industry for a long time. We all respond to the same things deep inside -- and that's why these pages work.
I guess my biggest piece of advice would be to realize that we're in the middle of a major revolution in publishing -- the power of content generation and dissemination is no longer just in the hands of the "big guys" with the printing presses and boat loads of capital and trained journalists. Don't think of your blog as a "blog" or online journal -- think of it as a niche publication. Wordpress or Blogger are just publishing tools -- basically really nice, free content management systems that in some ways are as powerful as the CMS systems that the big publishers paid huge $$$$ for to publish their online content.
If you just want to make a little extra cash on the side, then throw up some adsense and affliate links and you'll make a couple hundred extra bucks a month. But if you want to give the big sites a run for their money, you have to think about nine steps ahead and align everything toward that end. Think big ... but act in small, focused ways that move you closer each day to whatever that big idea is.
Hope this helps!
Cheers ...
matt
Matt Cardwell (aka The Fitness Nerd)
www.answerfitness.com -
Matt, welcome to the group and great insights. I'd like to elaborate on the blog content issue ...
Early on I spent a significant amount of time evaluating the source of my traffic. When I started posting articles referencing "push ups", I saw a significant spike in traffic generated via search engines, and as such, I increased the frequency of "push up" related postings. These postings helped to jump-start my readership which, in turn, increased readership.
It's important to keep in mind that your audience is your best source for marketing your blog. As such, everyone should be spending time evaluating the source of your site traffic, and leveraging that information.
I also cannot echo enough your sentiment in regards to credibility. I've personally walked away from revenue opportunities from advertisers who wanted to "purchase" positive product reviews or buy product placements on my blog (products which I was not comfortable promoting).
Unlike static websites Blog's are on-going conversations between the blogger and their audience. As such, building a level of trust with your audience ensures repeat visits and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.
It's imperative to keep this in mind if you're blogging about your passion versus blogging for profit.
Susan -
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Good discussion, my 2 cents worth. I have a few blog/hubs, one I structured for Adsense and the other for Opt-In. Article writing gives great backlinks and takes your blog to the top in the organic search. Now for Adsense, the most excitement I had was a $30.00 day. This came from answering 5 questions on Yahoo Q & A. I answered these questions at 5pm went to dinner and checked back at 9 pm and discovered 50 impressions and 15 clicks from that platform. I was so excited and ready to go at it the next morning. Talk about highs and lows when I opened my email the next morning a message from Yahoo....Your account has been suspended. TOS violation. The funny thing was the short time I did this 2 of my answers were voted the best answers. They provide a source box below the answer box and I put my website in there after I answered the question. Anyway, they booted me. I just stumbled upon this site and never expected much, but what a surprise. I didn't spam the answers, they were good helpful answers with a little open ended invitation to my site for expanded details. Yahoo provided a source box and I thought this was a fair exchange for good answers. If you visit them look at some of the crazy answers they let through. It's worth a look for some quick targeted traffic, just read the TOS so you know the rules.
RB-
Good feedback RB!! Thanks for sharing!!
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I also had some success with Yahoo Answers, but the problem is..you have to keep it up or it just spikes your traffic temporarily. I never experienced better clickthrough on AdSense from my Yahoo Answers traffic, but I definitely noticed added traffic. Maybe I should go back to working that network. Thanks for the share rb77.
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How profitable is the amazon.com affiliate program? Their operating agreement states that they may pay webmasters in the form of a gift card to be used in the purchase of products sold on amazon. That's effectively keeping the profits for themselves because you would not be free to spend your earnings anywhere but with amazon.com which gives me the impression that hosting amazon.com product links may not be worth the effort.
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Healthypeople, my primary issue with the Amazon program is that the rev share is so low (I'm at the 4% level) even with multiple sales you're not generating much revenue.
Most of my sales to-date on Amazon have been through 3rd party Sellers. I've generated a total of 6 sales which have amounted to $1.41 in referral fees.
My eBook sales on the other hand have generated over $220 in revenue over the same time frame.
Based on these numbers, the amount of blog inventory I allocate towards eBooks versus Amazon becomes a no-brainer.
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Has anyone heard about SocialSpark? It's a social marketing platform that brings bloggers and advertisers together. It was created by the people behind PayPerPost. From what I've read about the latter, readers and bloggers had some misgivings about some of the stipulations (for lack of a better word) that bloggers had to comply with regarding content and opinions of content written for advertisers. I had no experience with PayPerPost but I'm interested in SocialSpark. It seems to be a way of increasing blog traffic and earning some money from writing sponsored articles. And in this case the blogger can write whatever he/she chooses about the product. This would be useful in that a blogger can give his/her honest opinion about a product or service and this would benefit people who want more knowledge about the given product or service.
Any opinions on this?-
Never heard of SocialSpark but just took a look at the website (www.socialspark.com).
The Opportunity Search functionality seems very limited. I searched the keyword "Health" and the search results included a jewelry company, Hilton Hotel and other Opportunities which didn't seem category specific.
Additionally, if you're truly writing credible, honest reviews, you need to own the product or have used the service you're reviewing. The sites code of ethics states "if you don't own the product, or if you can't be honest we ask you to pass on the Opportunity.". This makes perfect sense, but based on the payments being offered for reviews, this seems more like a cost center than money maker for bloggers. -
I also do not like Social Spark. They have never given me a good opportunity to do anything.
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I am having the most success promoting affiliate offers through networks like Hydra and Convert2Media. Acai was a big seller, and I've also moved some Green Tea and a couple other products. Visitors enjoy the free trials.
Adsense is small beans, but it adds an extra $500 or so to my back account each month.
For generating traffic, I think you need to hit all avenues. SEO is important, but so is networking with other fitness sites, and so it social bookmarking. I haven't used PPC much, but it's just another way to get high levels of targeted traffic quickly. -
Steve, if you like those affiliate network offers, stay tuned. I'm actually bringing at least one product to market over the next couple few months, and the payout will be very lucrative for affiliates. Personally, I don't promote the stuff on my blog ... it's a separate business venture for me.
Our health club lead gen program, Gymjit, is underway. We have one nationwide health club on board. Once we have a total of 2 nationals and 3 regionals on board, the widget will be made available to bloggers. Hopefully by the end of Q1 2009!! -
Susan, why don't you talk about your Gymjit program a little more?
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