Blog monetization without alienating your audience is a very difficult task. It’s no secret, you probably already know that I would like to go problogging on my own full time at SEO 2.0 if I could.
Right now I earn my money mostly with SEO 1.0 client work which is rather tedious and repetitive.
Basically it’s still fun, but I have outgrown this pair of shoes! They do not fit anymore. Although I also offer SEO 2.0 services like “blog boosting” where I will set up a blog for you, write the content for it and make it known, so in the end you have a 100/100/1000 after three months. 100 subscribers, 100 Technorati authority and 1000 visitors daily. If a blog reaches this point it can survive without me or thrive with a little assistance of mine.
I want to be completely independent though. Now today I checked my RSS subscriber stats. I have already almost 350 of them, or rather of you. So now I have a question for you: If you could get more of SEO 2.0 than you get now, would you be willing to pay for a premium subscription? If you would have to pay 10$ a month for more content, exclusive premium content, delivered via email?
Already my idea is taking shape very fast so I have by now some tools and methods on my mind how to both accomplish this and make my premium subscribers feel it’s worth it. And do you know what? In fact it’s ridiculously easy. In order to satisfy you, my premium subscriber, I can easily guarantee you a return on investment of 200%! You only need to earn 20$ a month due to reading the premium version of SEO 2.0 to make it happen.
Basically if all of my subscribers would make this commitment right now I would get 3500$ a month just for blogging. That’s even enough to feed me and my family in Germany. I could quit my client work right away! Oh no! I forgot that my clients read my blog too! No, of course not nearly 100% of my subscribers would do that. I guess 10% would be realistic. I would rather need at least 50% to pay the 10$ to make SEO 2.0 not really profitable but to make it worth it.
So I want to get some feedback from you, would you be willing to pay the 10$ for some premium content delivered daily 5 times a week? Just imagine: I manage this blog with more or less 2h per day (if I write a post), not counting my social media activities and my stats addiction, I would spend the time anyways. Of course you noticed that I did not write every day last week (only twice, that really sucks!). So imagine I could write for 2, 4, 6h daily!
So please comment or write me an email to onreact at onreact.com if you would invest 10$ monthly. I want to know how many people already would now.
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This thing has 9 Comments
Tad,
Thanks for the link. I’m not sure if I would subscribe or not. It’s kind of unique, so I think a lot of readers would have to be sold on it. In a way I guess it could be compared to having an SEO 2.0 consultant for only $10 a month. When I look at it that way it sounds pretty good.
I would pay :) your content is great, I really enjoy reading ur posts.
I just started reading your blog and like the site. Your last entry about SEO vs SEO 2.0 was excellent. Would I pay $10/month to read premium content on SEO 2.0? No.
There are a lot of excellent sites on SEO and web development that are completely free that enjoy a lot of traffic and are fully supported by advertising.
One of my daily reads is John Gruber’sDaring Fireball. He supports himself full-time with his blog. I think he gets around 50,000 visitors/day and the his site is completely free. Kottke.org is another great site that is supported by advertising.
You’re an SEO expert. Why not work on building up the traffic of this site and generating revenue with advertising? I’m sure that you could reduce the amount of tedious client work you do and spend more time doing what you love - blogging about SEO.
I think I have to agree with Kerr. I once bought an ebook with “premium” content but it contained no more than what you can find for free online.
Since I am very reluctant of this kind of paying sites.
Olivier.
Steven: You’re welcome. I think it’s a good point you make here. You get daily updates by the leading SEO 2.0 consultant. ;-)
Esteban: Thanks! I may contact you to ask you some questions reagarding my future offer. Would it be OK to answer some questions?
Jay: Also good point but if you look a little closer you will notice:
http://daringfireball.net/members/
;-)
Also SEOMoz, the top SEO blog and company will make you pay 50$ as a premium member and you mostly get some pre-written stuff and some tools you can laso get for free:
http://www.seomoz.org/lp/landing-general.htm
Kottke is one of the true first generation a-list bloggers so it’s like saying “look Boing Boing is financed by ads”.
Exactly because I am an SEO I know that most problogging money making schemes are not my way to say the least. I don’t want to use the term bogus, but most probloggers rely on the stupidity of their audience reselling them ad solutions they say will make money while in reality only the leading probloggers make the money off the stupid audience who clicks the affiliate links to “make money online”.
Dosh Dosh is an exception but I hate his ads anyways. I would not advertise for most of this questionable offers.
So I do not want to wait 2 years until I get 3000 subscribers, I want to start now.
Also take note, I am not saying you’ll pay 10$ for the existing RSS feed. You get extra content that will enable you to earn money yourself on the Net. At least 20$ a month ;-)
Olivier: Thank you for your honest opinion, but once again: I am not talking about a one time one size fits all pre-written type of “premium” content. I am talking about daily updates, how-tos and tutorials. Right now I ‘m just scratching the surface in the spare hour I have to blog. You need time to devise in-depht tutorials.
Sure! Feel free to contact me via mail or MSN (same mail)
You have some really valid points here.
I think I would much rather pay $10 a month to get premium content, than to see SEO 2.0 filled with ads.
It is an interesting point. To me, this is a far better way of going about it. Can you make a living doing it though - in fact, can you expand the idea in such a way that it not only makes enough money to live, but enough money to live extremely comfortably?
As much as I hate seeing ads on other sites, and I cannot remember the last time I clicked on one - if ever - I know that many people do click, and it can make buckets of money for the blogger.
I still visit the sites because I like the content, but boy, I wish there was a better way. Maybe this is it.
I’m looking forward to what you will do; maybe teach the rest of us how to work smarter.
And sure, I’ll pay $10, especially if the ROI is 200% - who wouldn’t?
Hmmm… If you say that the ROI would be 200%, I don’t see why I wouldn’t subscribe to your premium content. So, yes, I’m interested. :)
PEEDIT BAL UDDHAR GREEHA
(Home for Rescue of the Afflicted Children –HORAC / Nepal)
Lalitpur-2, Kupondole Kathmandu ( Nepal )
Phone: 00977-1-5520104, 5523087 cell: 9851093701, Post Box: 21214
Email: horacnepal@yahoo.com web: http://www.horac.org
OUR REQUEST TO ALL THE KIND HEARTED PEOPLE
( A hope begins with you !! )
HORAC / Nepal is a child focused non-governmental organization established in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2005. The main purpose of this organization is to preserve the interests & rights of the deprived children who are victims of political conflict & natural disasters in Nepal. These children have lost their parents due to political conflict in the recent years and suffering from extreme poverty. HORAC/Nepal has set the specific goals to ensure their overall human rights. Presently this organization is serving 70 children aged between 3 -14 years. It does not have any other resources to support these children’s basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. This organization is facing the most difficult situations presently.
Vision :
All the needy children assert their rights to education, survival & protection.
Overall childhood development and participation in various activities.
Major Objectives :
1. To educate, promote, rescue and preserve the neediest children.
2. To assure the children of their rights and make them aware of HIV/Aids and drug addiction.
3. To impart them the knowledge of Ayurved and Yoga and create public awareness for the same.
4. To establish child health focal points in almost schools of the rural areas of mid western region.
“A hope begins with you”
Our Request / Appeal
We would like to inform you that “HORAC / Nepal” an NGO, a non profit organization has decided to build its own children’s home for the afflicted children in near future and would like to request all the generous people for joining hands and support financially or in other ways. Besides this we plan to set and perform various programs to raise funds for food, clothing, education and medicine for these children. We expect generous contributions from all the concerned and kind hearted people.
Thanks !
Mr.K. B. Shah
President, HORAC / Nepal