Six Figure Blogging
Table of Contents Introduction to Six Figure Affiliate Blogging............... 4 About the Author & Six Figure Affiliate Blogging My 12 Month Case Study to Profits The Concept of “Six Figure Affiliate Blogging�
Introduction to Affiliate Marketing............................ 8 What is Affiliate Marketing? How Affiliate Marketing Works Understanding Affiliate Pay Structures Using Affiliate Networks to Make Money
Blogging Game Plan..............................................14 Choosing Your Blog Topic? How to Find a Profitable Blog Topic
Going Live With Your Blog.......................................20 Setting Up Your First Blog & Web Hosting Why You Need a Custom Blog Theme Standing Out from the Crowd Proven Methods for Free Traffc Generation Proven Methods for Paid Traffc Generation Killer Content is Still King
Making Your Blog Profitable...................................35 How Bloggers Make Money from Blogging Top Earning Blogs Real Life Blogging Examples Finding Advertisers for Your Blog Breakdown of a Profitable Niche Blog How AsSeenOnTV-Products.net was Redesigned Using Wordpress for Lead Generation
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Blog Monetization Tips..........................................53 Understanding How Readers View Your Blog Convert New Readers into a Mailing List Improve Ad Sales with a Blog Media Kit Grow a Twitter Following While You Sleep
Taking Your Blog to the Next Level...........................58 Replicating the Process Outsourcing Your Blog Content Creating Your Own Product Buying and Selling Established Blogs Summary About the Designer
BONUS: Six Figure Blogging Interviews....................64 JEREMY SCHOEMAKER of SHOEMONEY.COM GARY VAYNERCHUK of WINELIBRARY.COM DANIEL SCOCCO of DAILYBLOGTIPS.COM JOHN CHOW of JOHNCHOW.COM ADII PIENAAR of WOOTHEMES.COM JOSH MULLINEAUX of UNIQUEBLOGDESIGNS.COM BRIAN CLARK of COPYBLOGGER.COM TIMOTHY SYKES of TIMOTHYSYKES.COM AL CALRTON of COOLEST-GADGETS.COM DAVID KLEIN of PURPOSEINC.COM
BONUS: Resource Directory....................................93
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Introduction to Six Figure Affiliate Blogging
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About the Author & Six Figure Affiliate Blogging My name is Zac Johnson and I’ve been an affiliate marketer for nearly 15 years. I first started when I was in high school, pushing traffic and sales to Amazon.com, and quickly found myself in the affiliate marketing industry. There are a lot of affiliate guides floating around, so I decided to create a guide with a different perspective, using affiliate marketing in conjunction with a blog to generate over $100,000 a year in sales and commissions.
Author, Zac Johnson Years Online: 15 Years Blogging: 3 Blogging Income: >$100k WWW: ZacJohnson.com
While I’ve been making a living for almost 15 years as an internet marketer, I started blogging less than 3 years ago. I started my own blog at ZacJohnson.com to share my stories, spread awareness and talk about what I love doing... making money online and teaching others to do the same. This “How to be the Next Six Figure Affiliate Blogger” guide isn’t about creating a blog on affiliate marketing, or getting lost in the “make money online” get rich schemes. Instead, it’s about finding a blogging niche and using affiliate marketing to generate revenue from that blog. Let’s talk some numbers. When I first started ZacJohnson.com, I never planned for it to explode and become another six figure a year project, but with massive work, branding and dedication to the site, it became just that. My bread and butter is still in the affiliate marketing game. Through this free guide, I hope to inform you about both affiliate marketing and blogging... taking them both to the next level and give you a winning business model. If you are to walk away with anything from this guide, you must understand that if your business is online, you can work virtually anywhere in the world as long as you have a computer and internet connection. No longer are you limited to hourly wages and a 5 day work week. With the winning combination of affiliate marketing and a successful blog, you can be earning money 365 days a year. Remember, it only takes $273.97 per day to make an extra $100,000 per year. Don’t quit your day job just yet... but how hard would it be for you to invest your time and efforts to make an extra $28 a day ($10,000 extra a year)... while building up a small business on the side? Get ready... I’m about to walk you through the process of how I brought ZacJohnson.com from a blank page domain name sitting around for a while, to a six figure a year blog… and how you can do the same.
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My 12 Month Case Study to Profits When I first went live with my blog at ZacJohnson.com, I decided to go with a very clean design and had no on site advertising. The beginning months of your blog are important for building up readership and focusing on content. For the first few months, there wasn’t much traffic to the blog, so there was no point in trying to find advertisers for the site. Instead I concentrated on building up readership, authority and my branding. The blog went live in March 2007, but I didn’t start trying to make a profit with the site until December 2007. It was in Dec 07, when I decided to launch a 12 month case study on the blog’s revenue performance. The first month, in which the blog went profitable, it earned $1,261.81. Before the end of the 12 month case study, the blog was already topping over $6,000 a month and is now earning over six figures a year today. A full break down of revenue earned during that 12 month case study is shown below. From December 2007 through November 2008, the blog made over $48,000 in profit and I had spent less than a few hundred dollars on small ad testing to bring in new traffic. Web hosting costs also weren’t an issue, as I was hosting several of my other sites on the same server. The main sources of revenue for the blog were from on site advertising and network referrals. You can view each month’s full report and breakdown in my “Blog Earnings” section on ZacJohnson. com.
ZacJohnson.com 12 Month Case Study Report December 2007 - November 2008 Total Earnings: $48,759.78 $7,000.00 $6,000.00 $5,000.00 $4,000.00 $3,000.00 $2,000.00 $1,000.00 $Dec-07
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The Concept of “Six Figure Affiliate Blogging” Everyone wants to live the American dream, and become a millionaire! That’s how it used to be… now people are just looking for a job and want some financial stability. I created this guide book not only to help newbie bloggers, affiliate marketers, and
Through this guide, you will learn everything from how to setup your own blog, to putting your established blog on autopilot and creating a new revenue stream that brings in money month after month. established entrepreneurs, but also for anyone who never fully understood the power of blogging and how to many money online. Through this guide, you will learn everything from how to setup your own blog, to putting your established blog on autopilot and creating a new revenue stream that brings in money month after month. I will also be covering the basics of affiliate marketing, which will be the backbone to your blog’s revenue. When you see read the title of this guide and see “Six Figure” mentioned, this may blow some of you away and think it would never be possible for you. Instead of looking at the big number, break this down. There are 365 days in a year, and your blog will be working for you every day of the year. This means your blog would only need to generate $273.97 per day to be making $100,000 a year. Depending on where you are currently at, becoming a six figure blogger isn’t you’re your immediate goal should be. Yes, it is possible to make a few extra hundred dollars a month, or even create a new six figure revenue source… but not without immediate action and dedication! Blogging is one of the slowest and hardest methods for generating money online, but at the same time it also has very low start up costs and if built correctly, can become of the most stable business methods around. Whether you are a newbie, or experiences online marketer, this guide has something for everyone… and hopefully inspires you to become the next Six Figure Affiliate Blogger!
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Blogging Game Plan
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Choosing Your Blog Topic? The toughest part of starting a new blog, is deciding what you are going to write about! It sounds cliché, but in all honesty, if you choose something you are passionate about, you are much more likely to succeed. Choosing a blog topic you have little or no interest in just won’t cut it. When you are passionate about the topic, your blog content will show it. This is what readers are looking for. Let’s break down your potential blog topics into three categories; Personal, Branding, for Profit. ÎÎ The Personal Blog There is nothing wrong with having a personal blog, as long as you fill it with personal content. It would be very difficult to create a personal blog, then try and monetize it down the road. The majority of personal blogs are never meant to generate income, but instead simply to inform, and are usually a first attempt at creating a blog. If you are going to create a blog for profit and potentially sell it the future, be sure not to use your actual name as the domain name, as this limits its use for anyone else. ÎÎ Branding Blog What are you good at, or known for? Whether it is your business, profession or even a hobby... blogging for branding is a great idea. As a “brand” blog, you will want to continually add new posts about your expertise and keep all topics tightly on target with your niche topic. Once you establish your creditability and audience, advertisers in this same niche will flock to advertise on your blog. ÎÎ Blogging for Profit Some want to blog for profit, but it takes more than creating a blog with a few affiliate links. It’s not easy to make money through blogging, but with full dedication and a business mindset from the start, it can make your success that much easier. An excellent way to blog for profit is to find a product or service you have an interest in, and build a blog around it. Continually build up content, reviews and resources to become a top blog within your niche community. It is also important to do the proper research and see if that individual product already has an affiliate program you can tie into.
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5 Steps to Making Your Blog Stand Out #1
Memorable Logo
#2
Unique Header
#3
Featured Blog Posts
#4
Custom Footer & Bio
#5
Plugins, Sidebars & More
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1] Memorable / Recognizable Logo One of the first things you notice when you get to the ZJ blog is the big caricature of yours truly in the top left corner. Not only is it a character of me, but it’s also well branded with a dollar sign on the shirt, money in the hand and most importantly a crown, referring to my parent company “MoneyReign”. Since going live with the ZJ site, there is no doubt that the Zac Johnson toon is now a well branded symbol in the affiliate space, and has greatly contributed to the overall success of the site. 2] A Unique Header Design While the top of the blog may seem to look busy and have a lot going on, it surely beats the dead white space of a basic wordpress theme. Within the header space of my blog, I’m able to get my branding and name across, while offering full site navigation, RSS subscriber information and even some high profile advertising spots. 3] Featured and Most Popular Blog Posts With over 650 total individual blog posts written thus far on ZacJohnson.com, how are my new readers supposed to find the best posts I’ve published. In the “Best of Zac” section near the header, you will see five of my most popular blog posts rotating on the site. It’s important to highlight your best blog posts and grab the attention of your new readers before they decide to move on. 4] Custom Footer and Author Bio It’s not the most important feature on the site, but it sure is a nice closing. At the bottom of most blogs you will find a simple sitemap or copyright message. Take advantage of the footer on your blog and create something interesting… it’s probably your last shot at grabbing the user’s attention before they click off to somewhere else. In my footer I simply added an author bio, site map, partner sites and a short list of recommended affiliate networks. I also remind user one more time with the ZacJohnson.com logo to keep that branding issue in the back of their minds.
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Getting Traffic to Your Blog
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Making Your Blog Profitable
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How Bloggers Make Money from Blogging As a blogger, the good news is you have a wide variety of options at your disposal to generate revenue with your blog. My favorite methods of revenue generation are through affiliate marketing, on site advertising and building a brand for myself. Here is a full run down on some of the top ways to generate revenue with your blog. ÎÎ Private Ad Sales / Banner Advertising The most obvious and well known method for generating income on line in general, is selling banner ad space on a web site or blog. In the early days, it was all about the 468x60 banners, but now banners are available in every size, and we often see the 125x125 ad spots selling on most blogs. Selling your own banner ad space on a blog is an excellent method for generating a recurring source of revenue month after month. ÎÎ Affiliate Marketing Generating revenue on your blog via affiliate marketing can come in many forms. You can place banners on your blog, create text links, or even write articles about a specific topic of interest. In all three of these scenarios, affiliate marketing techniques can be employed. The bottom line is, you are setting up links on your blog, and getting paid a commission whenever a specific action (remember from earlier chapters CPC, CPA…) takes place regarding those links. ÎÎ Contextual Advertising Not all text ads are created equal, especially on a blog. As a blog owner, you can link to various web sites, products or services using affiliate links. Any sales resulting from clicks to these sites will result in a commission. There are also many advertising and marketing agencies that want to place paid text link advertising on web sites and blogs. While this is generally frowned upon by Google, (because it’s a paid method of gaining back links) many of these text link ads are still generating millions of dollars.
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Six Figure Blogging ÎÎ Creating Your Own Product Possibly one of the best long term and profitable solutions for a blog is to inform and promote a product of your own! With your own product, not only are you building a brand, but you are also keeping all of the profit. When you are able to create your own product, you have the world of affiliate marketing available to help market that product. ÎÎ Membership Driven It’s hard to find anything better than month after month residual income found with a paid membership website/ blog, but the process of building a paid membership is very tough. When creating a blog that you expect readers to pay for, you must create and offer something original that provides real value to your readers. Once a blogger puts in the hard work of establishing a real value to their readers and is able to successfully create a pain membership program, you can expect to see earnings jump ten fold, and now on a monthly recurring basis. ÎÎ Blog Reviews Writing reviews on your blog is an excellent way to generate extra revenue. When writing a review, you have the option to write about any product, site or service, and you can link to the offer through an affiliate program, earning a commission on any sales. Another alternative is “paid reviews”, where you simply do a review on a blog or web site for a set price. Make sure to follow all “disclosure” policies when writing paid reviews, and always be honest. Don’t jeopardize your brand by recommending something you haven’t personally experienced. Even paid reviews can be less than stellar, maintain your integrity at all times.
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Top Earning Blogs Now that you have a basic understanding of the many different ways to generate revenue with a blog, let’s take a look at how current blogs are doing it. Below is a listing of top blogs in their respective niches, all easily earning over six figures per year.
BLOG
MONTHLY REVENUE
INCOME SOURCE
TechCrunch.com
$200,000
Advertising
Mashable.com
$200,000
Advertising
TimothySykes.com
$150,000
Products & Memberships
PerezHilton.com
$140,000
Advertising & Branding
SmashingMagazine.com
$60,000
Advertising
JohnChow.com
$40,000
Advertising
I chose the group of blogs in the chart above, because each of them represents a different niche and make money in slightly different ways. TechCrunch and Mashable are both mega blogs with multiple writers, focusing on both internet business and social media. Timothy Sykes was able to take his amazing success in trading stocks and turn it into his own product and membership site. Perez Hilton has flipped his crazy antics and celebrity gossip into a “brandable” celebrity blog. Smashing Magazine is a tutorial/design based blog that can drive advertisers to their die hard design readers. Lastly, John Chow originally created his blog with the concept of making money by telling you how he makes money. Not only has his name become infamous in the affiliate / blogging arena, but he’s now made a full time job out of it. Let’s compare two completely different niches and see how their respective blog advertising works. TechCrunch.com has millions of targeted users accessing the site daily who are all interested in tech news and business. There are three prominent banner spots shown on the blog, the top leaderboard is a 300x250 on the top right, then four 125x125 ad spots after the first featured article, and even more when you scroll down the page. All advertising campaigns are handled by iSocket and require a minimum commitment of $5,000 for consideration. Obviously TechCrunch is a major player.
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Taking Your Blog to the Next Level
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BONUS Six Figure Blogging Interviews
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Six Figure Blogger Interviews During the past decade plus, I’ve met a lot of people online and many of them have become close friends. I thought it would be an excellent resource to personally interview a few of them and how they’ve made six figures directly off their blog, or indirectly. The goal here was to select individuals who are making their money differently. In the articles below you will find profits being made from blog advertising, building a brand, creating a membership or building a product/service around the Wordpress platform. Six Figure Blogger Interviews: ÎÎ Jeremy Schoemaker (ShoeMoney.com) ÎÎ Gary Vaynerchuk (GaryVaynerchuk.com) ÎÎ Daniel Scocco (DailyBlogTips.com) ÎÎ John Chow (JohnChow.com) ÎÎ Adii Pienaar (WooThemes) ÎÎ Brian Clark (CopyBlogger.com) ÎÎ Tim Sykes (TimothySykes.com) ÎÎ Al Carlton (Coolest-Gadgets.com) ÎÎ David Klein (Purpose, Inc)
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JEREMY SCHOEMAKER of SHOEMONEY.COM
Please tell us a little about yourself. Sure, I am Jeremy Schoemaker. Husband, father, and small business owner. I started a mobile website called NextPimp. com in 2003 when out of the blue one day I got a call from Google asking me if I would run AdSense. I gave it a shot and was making good money pretty much out of the gate. From there I became a bit infatuated with how to make money online. When did you start blogging and how did you get into it? I just wanted a place to put my thoughts and experiences on. I started sharing lots of stuff I was learning about making money on the internet. Besides financially, how has blogging helped your business and brand? Blogging really helps you connect with your customers. It shows them you are human just like they are... and many times you can be a dumbass ... just like they are. How have you incorporated affiliate marketing into your blog? Occasionally I will talk about services or products I use. I will use affiliate links to the companies’ websites instead of direct linking. In your opinion, what is the single best way to monetize a blog? The absolute best way is to create a product. If you have a good RSS readership then obviously you have been giving a lot of value to your readers and they trust you.
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Six Figure Blogging What would you recommend for a new blogger, that was only looking to blog for financial gain? I would probably recommend they don’t start. I have never heard of a successful blogger who started because they wanted to make money from the blog. I have blogged for almost 7 years 1.2 posts a day on average. I wrote every day when nobody read the blog and someday if nobody reads again I will still blog my post per day. Any recommended blogs or resources for bloggers looking to bring their blog to the next level? I think problogger.net is the absolute best resource online for bloggers. Whether you want to make money or just blog problogger always has amazing content to help you.... and he publishes it every day. Do you have any big announcements or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about? Well I just launched the ShoeMoney System and that is going to keep me busy ;) Its a step by step training system for making money on the internet... and with a 100% no questions asked money back guarantee if you think its not for you.
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GARY VAYNERCHUK of WINELIBRARY.COM
Please tell us a little about yourself. I was born in Belarus, in the former Soviet Union, and came to the US with my family in the late 1970s with basically nothing. I have two incredible parents that gifted me with amazing DNA that is responsible for everything I’ve been able to accomplish. I’m Director of Operations at Wine Library and winelibrary.com, host the video blog winelibrarytv.com, co-founded a consulting company called VaynerMedia with my brother AJ, and wrote the book Crush It!, which became a NY Times bestseller. When did you start blogging and how did you get into it? In late 2005 I saw the Internet becoming more social, and saw video blogs like Ze Frank’s The Show and Rocketboom taking off. I had missed out on the whole blogging thing because I’m not really a writer, but I knew this would be the right platform for me. After the holiday rush, I started Wine Library TV in February of 2006 and never looked back. Besides financially, how has blogging helped your business and brand? The show has brought a lot of attention to the business, but also to me. I started being invited to speak at conferences, and eventually to consult other personal brands and businesses. How have you incorporated affiliate marketing into your blog? Affiliate was never the direction I wanted to head with WLTV. I could have made plenty of money with affiliate links to wine. com, but I went for a brand equity strategy instead of direct monetization.
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Six Figure Blogging In your opinion, what is the single best way to monetize a blog? I wrote a lot about this in Crush It! As eyeballs continue to shift from print media to online platforms, there are billions of ad dollars up for grabs. Great bloggers that target a specific niche and have the chops stand to make plenty of money by selling ads. What would you recommend for a new blogger, that was only looking to blog for financial gain? Make sure you are blogging about something you are passionate about. My litmus test is this: Can you come up with 50 blog topics to write about off the top of your head? Any recommended blogs or resources for bloggers looking to bring their blog to the next level? I like to read TechCrunch and Mashable to keep up with all the latest developments. Do you have any big announcements or upcoming projects you’d like to tell us about? Right now I am really focused on building corkd.com, the wine social network which is becoming a big content play for wine related information.
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BONUS Resource Directory
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AFFILIATE NETWORKS Adfinity
Copeac
Neverblue
Ads 4 Dough
Commission Junction
Offer Web
Affiliate.com
CPA Empire
Peerfly
Affiliate Venture Group
CX Digital
Revenue Ads
As Seen On TV
EWA Network
Revenue Street
Azoogle
Flux Advertising
Rextopia
B-Line Revenue
Hydra Network
Rocket Profit
Blue Phoenix
Linkshare
ROI Rocket
Cactus Media
Market Leverage
Shareasale
Click Bank
MediaTrust
Tatto Affiliate
Click Booth
Motive Interactive
XY7
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WEB HOSTING SOLUTIONS 1&1 Hosting
GoDaddy
Lunar Pages
Blue Host
Host Gator
The Planet
Easy CGI
Host Monster
PowWeb
Fast Domain
Host Papa
StartLogic
Fat Cow
InMotion
Yahoo Hosting
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WORDPRESS THEMES Affiliate Theme
Premium Themes
Theme Forest
Artisteer Theme Generator Press 75
Thesis Theme
Frugal Theme
SoloStream
Viva Themes
Gorilla Themes
Studio Press
WP Now
GabFire
Squeeze Theme
WP Remix
iThemes
Templatic
WooThemes
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WORDPRESS PLUGINS Add to Any
OIO Publisher
TweetMeme
Akismet
Poll Daddy
Vipers Video Quicktags
All in One SEO
SEO Title Tag
Wordpress Related Posts
Best Contact Form
SEO Smart Links
WP Database Backup
Broken Link Checker
Standout Comments
WP Page Navi
CommentLuv
Subscribe to Comments
WP Spam Free
Easy Adsense
Thank Me Later
WP Super Cache
Google XML Sitemaps
Theme Tester
WP Touch
Ninja Affiliate
Top Commentators Widget YARPP
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