“I think I will fly AirAsia X next. At the low cost airline conference in Singapore last week, Azran Osman Rani, CEO of the low cost, long haul airline, said that leaving the IFE out of their new 330s saved them 1.8 tonnes in weight.”
Yeoh Siew Hoon
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The million dollar question: How do I make my blog pay?As she gets ready to head off to Los Angeles to moderate a Bloggers workshop, Yeoh Siew Hoon is confronted with the most pressing question facing all bloggers. “So, if you keep a blog, is it better to build up your own database, do SEM or spread it through social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace or Youtube?” I sat up with a jolt. It was the most unexpected question at the most unexpected of times. We were, after all, sitting at a coffee place by the beach and I was looking forward to a leisurely morning of shooting the breeze with my friend. You see, since I retired from corporate life, one of my favourite meeting spaces has been at the beach. There’s something about drinkling latte, occasionally with my dog at my feet depending on whom I am meeting, and watching roller bladders whiz by that makes me feel that what I am doing is not work, but a lifestyle. Alas, it was not be to this morning obviously because my friend who started blogging a year ago is suffering from what I call the Early Blogger’s Disease. EBD can be summed up crudely as: “Oh no, what have I started? It’s so much work. But I love it. I love being able to express myself. I love the attention, the emails I am getting, the friends I am making. But it’s taking so much time. Time is money. How do I make money?” I had warned him a year ago when he first told me, “I want to blog, I feel I have so much to share” that he would arrive at this stage but it’s like telling a kid not to touch a candle because it will burn. We all need getting our fingers burnt before we learn. The Web has created so many bloggers that even the experts are losing count. As of February this year, Technorati said it was tracking over 112.8 million blogs and this does not include the 72.82 million blogs chalked up by The China Internet Network Information Centre. It’s blurred the lines between blogging and journalism. Between individual opinions and editorial comment. And a pet peeve with me – between works that are not edited and works that are. Most blogs have such appalling English and spelling and grammar mistakes that they wouldn’t have seen the light of day in another time. It sometimes makes me wonder whether I should start an editing service for bloggers but that would run counter to the culture of blogging – people blog because they want to say something and be in control. So back to my friend with EBD. He now wants to explore ways in which he can make money with his blog. I wish him luck. It’s one of the hardest things to monetise. I remember asking Reza Azmi who founded Wild Asia out of belief for a cause at the WIT workshop how he intended to monetise his content and he said, “I don’t understand your question.” Thing is, most bloggers start their journey out of “a love for writing”. They then find that love can very soon turn to labour because you need to keep feeding that monster you’ve created. Trick is, to know what you are doing it for. Is it like your name card or brochure? It tells people who you are, what you stand for and it opens doors and gives you leads and contacts for your other businesses. Is blogging part of your company’s bigger strategy – a way of engaging with customers in a non-threatening fashion? If so, be prepared to invest time and money in it and not see direct returns in the conventional manner that your financial controller is used to. Whatever your reason, be sure that whatever you are blogging adds value to the space. Become a domain expert. In today’s world of loss of trust and lack of time, sites that combine opinions whether they be through blogging or UGC with editorial judgement by experts will rise above the noise. Now how they can be monetised is another column which I will pen after I return from Los Angeles where I am moderating the PhoCusWright Bloggers Workshop on November 18. There, I hope to pick up tips from expert bloggers on how they have made their passion pay. And I will then have coffee again with my friend with EBD and hopefully, be able to give him some prescriptions. |
I'm surprised at this question - I think people who ask this question are asking the wrong question. But I suppose I should clarify exactly what I mean.
Bluntly put, I think people who write blogs to make money are going against what, for me, is the underlying ‘giving’ notion of what blogging is. A quick look on dictionary.com yields the definition: ‘an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page;’
People who used to (and still do I suppose) write diaries and log their thoughts on paper never, for one minute, expected to make any money from it. It was a very personal and private endeavor in almost all cases. However, the internet has, of course, provided those people with the possibility to link with thousands of readers and, in turn, encouraged those who may never have dreamed about keeping a diary or a log, to begin to write driven by the idea that it might not simply be a solitary activity given the possibility that thousands may end up reading their thoughts and musings. (There are countless examples of fame and notoriety of course from the most unlikely of sources through blogs and other forms of User Generated Content).
So, basically put, I don’t think people should make money from blogging. Blogging should be an altruistic and non- commercial activity. I’m encouraged to see how many companies now are using their own blogs to keep their customers abreast of product development, new releases and other company activities. I like this idea of a blog – it’s a platform for engaging with customers in a fairly personal and accessible way – kind of, this is what we’re up to, thought you might like to know and, by the way, there’s a place where you can let us know what you think.
But, let me be clear, I think attaching some advertising to one’s blog is fine – a few banners here and there of course and some Google paid stuff. Covering one’s costs or even making a small amount of revenue in a pretty stealth kind of way is fine. This indeed may have been the approach of Siew Hoon’s friend in the article – I do hope so.
Anyone who blogs to make money doesn’t deserve to make money. If you want to make money, then come up with a commercially viable on-line application or service and sell it but don’t jump on the wholesome notion of blogging and look to make a quick buck.