Blogging for Profit: Q&A

To close out our Blogging for Profit series, here are a few questions that readers posed which I’m taking a stab at answering:

I have been trying to figure out
how to get a coupons.com coupon sidebar so that my readers can print coupons from my site – how do I do this? -Sienna

Just go here and sign up. Once you’ve signed up, you can set up the coupon widgets as you’d like them and add the HTML to your sidebar. Do note that these coupons can cause a considerable lag in loading time for some blog pages.

Do you have a pricing policy for the ads that you solicit yourself? Or do you just price them on an individual basis? Also, how can I get those type of ads before I reach 500 visits per day on my site?  (My blog is dedicated to local deals and events.) -Gloria

I have a set pricing structure that I put together based upon my traffic, the length of time an ad runs, and where it will be placed on my page. When someone contacts me regarding placing an ad on my blog, I just copy and paste this information into an email and send it right over to them.

It’s not entirely impossible to secure advertising on your blog before you have 500 visitors per day, but, in most cases, unless the company is really small and your prices are exceptionally inexpensive, most places aren’t too interested in considering it. In addition, it is likely not worth your time to spend thirty minutes emailing with a company and setting up their ad on your blog for a very small payment.

That said, since your blog is a very targeted niche market, you might have more success than someone with a much broader market. I checked out your blog and noticed you had lots of ad spots open. My advice? Fill these up–with affiliate ads or free ads, if you need to. Just don’t let them sit there empty or it looks like your blog is not the “hoppin’ place” to advertise.

How long did it take you to build up your readership, and what specific techniques helped you in increasing your traffic? -Nisha

I started MoneySavingMom with a big advantage: I already had been blogging on my other blog for two years and had developed a loyal readership and a reputation for being a frugal zealot. Launching MSM from that springboard allowed me to quickly gain momentum without much work.

The quick growth of MoneySavingMom truly showcased the beauty of viral marketing–readers linked to me on their blogs and their readers liked what they saw and began linking to me on their blogs. Then readers began telling their friends who told their friends who told their acquaintances who told random people at the grocery store and on and on it went. I’ve heard quite the bizarre assortment of stories from folks as to how they first found MSM!

The traffic this little corner of the web gets continues to blow me away–and it’s thanks to all of you who have helped to spread the word far and wide. It’s also the result of a slow and steady build up of readership on my other blog two years before I started this blog.

My best encouragement for those wanting to build their traffic: write well, write often, and engage your audience. Keep them coming back again and again for more. A nice layout and eye-pleasing graphics to break up the monotony do help, but writing well and writing often are two of the biggest building blocks to a loyal readership.

(Please note: I’m still working on the writing well part; grammar is not my forte and I am sure there are very few English majors and English teachers who can stick around these parts for long without cringing!)

Well, I didn’t get to all the questions, but hopefully the above answers touched on some things which will be helpful to a number of you! Thanks again for joining us for this series!