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Networks, Blog Ads & Affiliate Programs

Now we're explode ads and affiliate programs all right? So you've probably seen these you've seen blog's and you see a bunch of ads all over they're part of an affiliate program of some former another this means that they've signed up, they've gotten approved, they probably have enough traffic to make it worth it for this company and so for them tow. So for all these company to add ad advertise, it isn't an individual company that's coming to them. This is sort of a hive of ads through a company, so they're they're getting paid, probably for click throughs um for each of these, you have to have a decent amount of traffic to get this kind of deal, but if you do have traffic it's a great way to monetize bought chris, I know that earlier you were asking, how do you monetize your block? This would be one way to do it for this particular for a lot of the programs you have to actually have traffic already, though, so you're not going to make money on your blogged on day one you're just not y...

ou have to you have to pay or do this a little bit unfortunately, so what's required to get started on these so a network is a method of virtual syndication for your block content, so the most well not known one is blawg her we all heard a bog her yeah it's so funny and there doesn't seem to be a dude equivalent like there doesn't see it like all of these networks, everything that I found was something hershey or whatever, I guess because maybe the percentage of women that are percentage of people that read blog's might be higher women or maybe they're the ones who spend the money I don't know, but it is what it is so this so you can write for block her and it would either it would probably go on your web site and then it would also go on their website, and so then it would be syndicated to their audience and there's some kind of payment for clicks or whatever you do you get a little bit of payment by just being in their network, which is cool and it's a great way to get started. There are some limitations to it there's some limitations on what they do have sort of saying what you can post, how long like how many different places you can post it original content, that kind of thing but it's a really good way to sort of build that traffic you could use that to build the traffic so then later you have some traffic, you no longer work with them and then you start working on getting the ads to yourself so the very minimum to get started with with a network like blogger is that you need to have a blogged that looks professional, and now they're so user friendly that anybody can build one word press in particular. It makes it so easy blogger to just have a nice, clean looking blawg don't go crazy, the most professional looking blog's air, the cleanest looking boggs, so don't think that you have to just throw everything up all at once. It's, you know, you wouldn't want anybody throwing that much information at you. Clean, concise, beautiful, all right. It needs to be at least ninety days old, and that means e I should also say it needs to be at least ninety days old and you need to be regularly posting. You get this posted in the ninety days later, they want what they want is they want establish content. They want to know that your content is consistent. They want to know that you can write and or present, and they want to know that you are in it. That you're not going to jail basically so they need that that quarter of the work on but it needs to be updated at least weekly we're in this we're in in this age of instant gratification and also out of sight out of mind so with social media you have to be posting all of the time and that includes blog's our pharmacy over social media they're also bone foreign publication but they they truly are so you need to make sure that your viewers are getting regular content that they know that they can count on having something new so that then they become loyal loyalty is your friend right? All right, what are blogged ad company as well you just saw in that first slide that there was a bunch of ads that's what I was talking about there are companies like adsense blawg ads and thrive I believe that I included all of that in the bonus material and they aggregate influential blog's on dh then sell them as highs to sponsors so just like you're getting a hive of ads they're getting the sponsors getting a hive of blog's so back in the day when I used to do this I don't no longer do this I was a part of I want to say I think it was block ads and all of a sudden one day I woke up and rosie o'donnell hadn't adam my on my block like I was like then I realized that she probably just bought a craft hive. I mean, nobody else knew that, so I was still feeling good, but but that's what it is so ah, company would come and say, I'm looking for a demo of women eighteen to forty nine who love baking, you know, or who are big baking bloggers that were trying to reach out to their consumer? And so they would say, we have these top ten influential, you know, baking bloggers, your ads are going to go all the way on all of those they pay, and then you get whatever their structure is, you would get a cut of that, um for this, though, all of these companies require a minimum of traffic and it's it's not a low minimum it's really not? I I want to say that so I have a friend her she has a site called create really awesome free things, so craft putting free and you here in your your l is not a bad idea when you're trying to get traffic not a bad idea, she gets crazy amount of traffics and so she made traffic so she makes enough money off of her ads toe pay I'm guessing probably double her mortgage just off of that, but she gets tons of traffic most people are going to get that, but what if you just made two hundred bucks a month? But if you just made fifty bucks a month, better than being poked with a stick, you know, you got to start somewhere, right? So what? Our affiliate programs, you've probably heard of the he's amazon affiliates is a big one. They always ask you to a lot of times, it's, just you're gonna put a little banner on the side of your block, and if they click through, you get a couple cents here and there, other companies ask you to create your own spirit specific you are all so they can track where it's coming, and again, you're getting paid on click throughs aa lot of times you can do these without, they're being a minimum requirement for traffic, so this is something that you could try, probably sooner rather than later. So this is a affiliate program is a marketing program, or one can receive a commission based on traffic or sales via personal late personalized length. So this is amazon associates, craftsy affiliates, et cetera, on dh there's, usually not a requirement to get started, but if you're not getting any traffic on your block or social media, then you're also not been and make any money so there's no reason to do it, um, my friend jennifer perkins, she contributes to block her all the time, but she used to be the d I y editor there she's also be a creative content designer from doj network on block her and she's an ambassador for tito pia you may also remember her. She was a co host on the show. I was one of a host for called stylish iss back in the day, and she was the host of craft lab for dia, but she said that the main benefit and we kind of talked about this already is joining a block network like blogger is a great way to build an audience and make new connections. The connections thing is important, so you're going to bring people so, she says, not only will they send more traffic, but it's going to potentially get your block post in front of corporate sponsors, see how that works. So even if you feel a little constricted working with a network because of him, I have guidelines think long think big picture, you're not going to do it forever, but give it six months give it a year, whatever it is that's going to build your brand because you're going to have eyes on your site that would normally be there, and some of those eyes might want higher you okay, let's, wrap this up with a call to action. If you don't have it already getting google analytics it's free and have it added to your blogged almost every company that I've ever worked for uses google analytics to decipher how much traffic you're getting it's also I mean it's also good just as a business person to know your numbers right and so s so you know what's working what's not working if you notice that you have you know a thousand more viewers today than you did yesterday well what did you post today? How can you mimic that? How can you tweak that it's also just a great tool tohave so stop take a moment go and grab google analytics either send it over your web developed for teo add to your block or else it's actually I think it's pretty easy you can probably just even do it on your own all right let's do some questions. Yeah laurie quayle's edwards says I knit and produce fine art do I have one block or a blogger for knitting and went in an artist website? Okay, so I am a big fan of the all encompassing hashtag I think that if especially if you're doing your own grassroots marketing which means that you're doing all of your tweeting you're you're instagramming your pinterest pending all of it you can on ly spread yourself so thin and then you become un effective so I think that if you have less brands to promote then you're the ones that you do promote are going to be stronger, so I always suggest creating one one place with different categories now you can always if you feel like it's going to look less professional for you to go teo, you know, an art gallery in paris with your kraft site, then you can also have a different you earl for it it could be I am artist dot com, but you just have your web developer have a pointer and it would go to my awesome place slash I am an artist I say put it all in one house make each category its own room and then you don't have to people don't ever have to wonder where they need to go to find you viewer ass. I love what vicky said about empowering people to create themselves by selling patterns, can you can she elaborate a bit more on that? Um, I think that education through pattern writing on through writing tutorials is a really accessible way for people to get started. There is a little bit of technique there's a lot of technique involved in writing actually wear patterns, so make sure that you get a tech editor to make because you don't want to put anything out into the world that has full of mistakes it happens you know, don't fret, but you wanted to look clean and professional if you're going to charge for it because there's so much free content out there there's so much that it's really hard to get knitters and crow shares to spend the money on a pattern so if they're spending the matter money it better be flawless it better not have a ton of mistakes or mistakes at all it better have great photography it better have a nice chart if that's appropriate and there better be a way for them to contact you if they have questions on it. So I definitely recommend doing that knowing that you're probably most definitely not going to make one hundred percent of a living that way, but especially if you're trying to just supplement your income it's really great and the other thing is you can use it as a litmus test in a way to see what sells for when you're pitching when you're pitching a book or your pitching a magazine or whatever idea if you see that you have five hundred downloads for this, you know, asymmetrical scarf but only three downloads for these lacey got once that you made, I would maybe move my focus to more projects like that one and then create a pitch for a magazine or a book or an article or whatever, so I thought this question is really interesting because for artists you know, when we monetize aircraft sometimes suffer from burnout or it becomes a job and sharon durant's question was has monetizing your craft which you have been doing for some time now reduce your enjoyment of it and how do you keep it exciting? Yes, it depends on the day so I will say it's funny I was talking years ago there's a there's a very well known mitter her name is debbie stoller and years ago wayward this both on deadlines and we're both like oh so tyre knitting you know, but I think you feel like that about any thing about anything you feel tired, you can get tired of even your most favorite things I think I go through periods of loving and hating, but I will tell you this if I get tired of it, I'm never away for a long and when I say long, if it's a day, I'm surprised really how you keep it exciting, what I've really tried to do and I wasn't very been at this for a while is trying to take time to at least work a little bit on somebody else's pattern or project so I can because then it's not a work project and I'm not invested in the same way so then I always not only is it a great lesson because everybody writes and designs differently so you can really learn but also I don't have to have my mind focused on ok how am I going to explain this how going I get to let just let it flow so it's really important for your own creative spirit to either if your new york co saying either just free form if that's your gig or for painting or whatever experiment or if you want another pattern just do something with that you can coast on that you can learn on that you are emotionally attached to it takes time that a lot of us don't have so this is why I always say keep little projects in your car or in your bag or whatever so that you can steal those minutes here and there it's a little bit harder if you're a painter but you could bring you could bring pens and a pad so that when you're waiting in the grocery line or on your kids you know at your kid's soccer game or sitting in the doctor's office you know in the unfortunate gown waiting for the doctor you know you can at least be getting some time for yourself because you again I said this before you have to keep filling that creative well and candy holden had a question for you about learning more from your audience so she asked would you she asked about creating surveys for doing that for learning more from you know it is what are some good questions to ask well, I think that you first have to know what questions you want answered, right? I mean, that sounds that sounds, you know, obvious, but I think it's true, what are you hoping? What is the outcome that you're hoping for when you get those answers? So if you're if you're wanting to know what color palette people want for your next line that's pretty straight up, you would show them like a color, three different color palettes, and you'd say x y z, but if you're trying to get something that's more abstract, if you're wondering like what brings more joy to you, if you use this method or this method and how todo you're going to lose a lot of people in, you're not going to get us much answer, so I would probably just do a smaller group. Um, I think that it's really best to have really simple, concise one or the others. I think if you give too many options in one survey, you're going to get less effective answers so I would keep it simple. If you're doing something like a facebook pol, I would keep it really short, like three questions if you're doing like a like a monkey survey where it might be long. Don't don't have it take any more than like two minutes to take you're going to lose people and instead of just hitting submit halfway through they're just going to hit close that action you're going to lose them so keep it simple give them clear answers and know what the questions are no what answers that you want to get before you go into it so you see we have a few more questions we're going to go back a little into the other lessons and when we talked about and one question one user asked at what stage in your craft career is live teaching the most realistic his live teaching yes, I think that you can do it as soon as that you have something to say to people as soon as you as soon as you feel competent in your skill I don't think that you should I don't think that there is I should also say this for anything that doesn't require like a certain amount of traffic like some of the block ads there are rules there just tips, right? So I wouldn't start teaching if you feel like you're a hot mess talking to people and you can't really explain things but if this is something this is your wheelhouse this is your craft you know this you've got this give it a start and that will give you the confidence once you have other people saying I can't believe that you taught me that I've never been able to wrap my brain around this or else you just see their faces light up, that's going to give you the confidence to do bigger, more, um, you know, and faster, so great, so candles and another had another question. I think this is sort of related to a question we had before, but we may be able talk a little bit more about it. She has. When deciding what creative product to run with as much as I love creating one of a kind pieces, it seems to me that mining the miners developing and selling creative supplies and resource is maybe a better idea you have thoughts about that I don't, I don't believe in better is, to be honest with you, I have a feeling that probably your the meat of your money at first would come from selling the supplies so you would just do that is like your main state, but that would fuel that would be what was sort of like gave you the foundation of the ground for you to be created to create those commission pieces, so I actually would recommend doing both. If you can maybe just start doing a few big commission pieces, have that gallery on your etc store wherever it is, but then have that other place so that other people who aren't ready to lay down that money and they are it takes people a lot of times, a lot of a lot of coming back and clicking back before they actually make a purchase. But but little things. People get it's very psychological, so I would I would definitely do. I would do both. One might be the media for your business for quite some time, but I'm assuming that the one of a kind pieces is where your heart lives, so have that is your endgame. Have it up there, don't put it on hold, but how have that on your own game?