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About Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter at , Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Written on 5/24/2013 at 2:54 am by

How to Create a Blog Purpose Statement in 3 Simple Steps

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Blog Tips 30 Comments

Yesterday, I shared a series of questions to help those bloggers seeking a little clarity when it comes to what their blog could be about.

Today, I wanted to share 3 more questions – these are not so much focused upon YOU as a blogger but upon your readers.

Hopefully they’ll also help you achieve a little clarity.

  1. Who are your readers?
  2. What do they need?
  3. How will they change as a result of reading your blog?

Answer these 3 questions and you will actually have a pretty good purpose statement for your blog.

You could certainly go into some real depth on each question but even doing it at a low-level will be helpful.

For example on dPS I would answer the questions as:

My readers are camera owners (who they are) who are not using their cameras to their potential (their need). Reading dPS will help them to gain creative control over their cameras (the benefit).

I shared these questions on my Google+ account a few weeks ago. Yesterday, I received an email from a blogger who set aside 15 minutes to answer them. She told me that in doing so she realised that she’d created a purpose statement for her blog which she also turned into a tagline for her blog.

Give it a go and let us know how you answer the questions in comments below.

Written on 5/23/2013 at 2:28 am by

7 Questions to Ask Yourself to Bring Clarity to Your Blogging

Filed Under: Miscellaneous Blog Tips 32 Comments

Do you feel like you’ve lost clarity around what it is that you’re trying to do with your blog?

I’ve recently bumped into a few bloggers grappling with this idea. Some were new,  even ‘Pre’ Bloggers, while a couple had been blogging for a while but had lost some direction.

Out of these conversations, I put together a set of questions to help them think it through.

The questions revolve around asking:

What are YOU About?YOU

While I won’t guarantee you instant clarity on answering these questions I hope that putting a little time aside to work through them might help – please let me know if they do!

  1. What interests do you have?
  2. What experiences (good and bad) have you had?
  3. What expertise and skills do you have?
  4. What are your passions?
  5. What gives you energy?
  6. What do you talk a lot about to friends?
  7. If you could write about anything – what would it be?
Written on 5/21/2013 at 2:21 am by

Are You Balancing Emerging Technology with Effective Strategy?

Filed Under: General 13 Comments

Last week I was asked at a conference to reflect upon the future of digital and among other things I made a reflection that seemed to resonate with those gathered. It was:

Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

As online publishers we see a steady stream of articles being written about new and future technologies, companies and trends in the online publishing space.

It is certainly an exciting time to be doing what we’re doing with such amazing development happening all around us and some amazing projections being made about what is ahead of us – however in the midst of all this development it is easy to overlook some of the most effective ‘old’ technologies and trends that we also have at our finger tips.

The reality is that while many new and future technologies are exciting and promising the world – that many of them are still either untested or not yet reaching their potential.

The example I used last week was to compare the effectiveness of social media against email in my own blogging.

On Digital Photography School we have

  • around 300,000 social media connections (mainly Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest)
  • around 300,000 RSS subscribers
  • around 700,000 email subscriber

Last week we

  • updated our social media accounts around 150 times over the week
  • published 14 new posts to our blog (and RSS feed)
  • sent a single email to our email list

Which was the most effective for us in terms of driving traffic?

Hands down it was the email we sent. I’d estimate that last week the single email generated well over 10 times the traffic that the 150 social media updates and the 14 RSS updates combined.

Our previous testing also shows that when we launch a new eBook that a short series of emails will generate over 90% of our sales of our eBooks over launch even though we promote it to social media numerous times during the launch too.

By no means is social media a waste of our time – it helps with multiple objectives that we have (it does drive some traffic, builds community/engagement, helps with branding, drives some sales) but my point is that an old technology like email still has an exceptional return on investment in our situation.

I will continue to invest time, energy and resources into developing a social media strategy – however not at the expense of ‘old’ media that is a tried and true strategy.

What about you – have you got the balance between the ‘new’ and the ‘old’ right? I would love to hear how you approach it?

Written on 5/20/2013 at 1:56 pm by

How to Blog Like a Pro: Workshop on the Gold Coast Australia – Next Week

Filed Under: General 10 Comments

Next week (29th May) I’m running a special workshop at the Internet Conference on the Gold Coast here in Australia.

The workshop is titled – How to Blog Like a Pro – and you’ll get 4 solid hours of teaching in it – all delivered by me in a workshop limited to 40 people only.

The workshop has only previously been available to those signing up to the full 3 day conferences as an add-on but there are a few tickets still available and so I asked the organisers if we could sell them as a stand-alone ticket (i.e. you don’t have to come to the full 3 day event).

I’ll share how to get your discounted ticket ($75 off) below.

The Training will Cover

My goal with this day is to pack in as much information as possible – so come ready to learn!

1. My Story

  • How I got started and what can be achieved with blogging

    • 2. Introduction to Blogging for your Business

    • Why starting a blog is good for your online business
    • Recommended tools and platforms for blogging
    • Setting goals for Your blogging
    • Identifying Your Blog’s Reader – the cornerstone of great blogging

    3. How to develop a content strategy for your blog

    • How different types of content will help you achieve different goals
    • The Power of adding a Personal Touch into your blogging
    • The 3 ‘I’s’ of creating effective blog content
    • 9 types of compelling blog content
    • Developing an Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
    • The power of storytelling and how to collect them

    4. How to build a readership for your blog

    • ‘Build it and They Will Come’ doesn’t work
    • 9 Steps to finding readers for your blog
    • How to create content that people will want to share for you
    • How blogging fits into your overall social media strategy
    • 20+ techniques for finding new readers for your blog

    5. How to deepen reader engagement and build community on your blog

    • Why building community around your blog will take it to the next level
    • How to convert first time visitors into long term readers
    • 19 strategies for building community on your blog
    • How to deal with Trolls

    6. Monetizing blogs

    • An Introduction to 37 ways to monetize blogs.

      • 7. Questions and Answers

      • I’m happy to take any questions through the day and after the workshop – I’ll hang around for an hour after if there are any questions you don’t get the chance to ask during the actual workshop.

      Note: while #2 above is more focused on those who have an existing business that they want their blog to support – the rest of the workshop will be more general and relevant to all types of blogs.

      Also note – this workshop is focused upon teaching beginner to intermediate bloggers. We won’t have time to get too advanced but instead my goal is for you to come away from our time together with a good grounding in the key areas you need to go away and work on to build a successful blog.

      Other Details and How to Get Your Ticket

      Date of Workshop: Wednesday 29th May
      Time: 10am – 3pm (we’ll break for an hour for lunch)
      Lunch: is included in your ticket price
      Price: The full price of this ticket is $350 but for ProBlogger readers it is $75 off that price – so $275 AUD.

      To get your ticket simply head to this page, add your details, add ‘How to Blog Like a Pro’ to the Pre-Conference workshop field, choose the ‘Pre-Conference Workshop’ ticket option and enter the coupon code of ‘prop1375′.

    Written on 5/17/2013 at 2:23 am by

    How Much Content Should I Have Ready to Go When I Launch a Blog?

    Filed Under: Writing Content 53 Comments

    I recently had the opportunity to sit with a small group of Pre-Bloggers – people about to start their first blogs.

    One of the questions I was about how much content should be written before launching a new blog.

    My answer came in two parts:

    1. The Ideal Scenario
    2. What I actually have done

    The reality is that what I ‘preach’ isn’t always what I ‘do’ – so let me tell you about both!

    Note: we give a lot of teaching and some great exercises on this topic in ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging.

    The Ideal Scenario

    OK – here’s what I’d do if I was creating a strategy to launch a new blog. Following this strategy would leave you with around a month of content and content ideas ready to go!

    Dreaming goals

    Mark Aplet – Fotolia.com

    1. Have At Least 3-5 Posts Already Published

    My ideal scenario for launching a new blog is to have at least a few posts already live on the blog.

    The benefit of this approach is that when you launch the blog, people arrive and see more posts than just your ‘I started a blog’ post!

    These early posts should cover a range of topics within your niche and give your first readers a taste of what is to come in terms of topics, a sense of who you are and an idea about the voice that you’re writing in.

    2. Have 5-10 Posts Ready to Publish in Drafts

    When launching a new blog, it’s also GREAT to have a few blog posts written and saved as drafts.

    The reason for this is that often, when launching a blog, you can easily get distracted by other aspects of the launch. Design tweaks, getting a server set up right, promoting the blog, setting up social media accounts etc.

    While you might have a lot of this done before launch, there’s a good chance something will go wrong (it’s Murphy’s Law). If you have at least a few blog posts already written and ready to go, you’ve got a great backup.

    Having posts in reserve also takes a bit of pressure off and won’t leave you with that stressed ‘what am I going to write about today’ feeling!

    3. Have 20 Blog Post Ideas Brainstormed

    One of the hardest parts of creating regular blog posts – particularly in the early days – is coming up with ideas of topics to write about.

    As a result I highly recommend doing some brainstorming before you launch, when the pressure is off. Put aside time to come up with as many blog post ideas as possible by what ever means suits you.

    I personally like to use Mind Mapping to come up with blog post ideas (I’ve written about mind mapping here and here).

    Keep your post ideas handy and add to them regularly, and you’ll find you are never stuck for something to write about!

    What I’ve Actually Done

    OK – so the ideal theory I’ve outlined above is all good and well – but the reality is that I don’t know a whole heap of bloggers who have always stuck to their launch strategy, including myself.

    My own experience is that often, when starting a new blog, excitement and adrenaline kicks in. When you’re passionate about your new project, it’s easy to be more impulsive!

    Here’s the brief launch story of my two main blogs:

    ProBlogger – I launched ProBlogger in September 2004 after writing about blogging tips and making money blogging on my personal blog, in a category dedicated to the topic.

    When I launched ProBlogger.net, I brought all of those posts that I’d previously written so when I launched there was already 60+ posts live.

    I remember doing some brainstorming of post titles but I didn’t have any posts saved as drafts. Instead, I was so excited about starting ProBlogger that I published 40 posts in the first 10 or so days!

    In hindsight – that was too many. I was naive, but I was so excited!

    Digital Photography School – when I launched dPS back in April 2006, I set out with a year and a half of extra experience and so I decided to take things slower.

    The dPS blog was something of an experiment and I didn’t know if it was going to be much more than a hobby. But I decided to create more content before launching and went through the brainstorming exercise, with mind maps that I linked to above.

    I had 20 or so post ideas mapped out and even wrote a couple of posts that I’d published before launching – but didn’t have too many posts written as drafts on launch.

    My plan at launch was to only post 3 posts per week while I got going but again I got a little excited and in the first week I published 6 posts and from then on it was pretty much daily!

    Can you see a theme here? I tend to get very excited with new projects and holding back and being measured isn’t always easy for me!

    How About You?

    I’d love to hear about your blog launching strategies? Do you publish many posts before launching or have posts ready to go? Any other tips for new bloggers?

    And if you are looking to launch a new blog – check out ProBlogger’s Guide to Your First Week of Blogging for more tips and exercises to help you get your blog launched with the right foundations!

    Written on 5/16/2013 at 2:47 am by

    Blog This! Sometimes Going Back to Basics Leads to the Best Posts

    Filed Under: Writing Content 27 Comments

    Today, I’m preparing some slides for a keynote I’m doing tomorrow. I included this diagram – something that Chris Garrett came up with years ago as a way to show new bloggers what they should blog about.

    blog-this.png

    The idea – obviously – is to find the connecting point between what YOU know (lessons you’ve learned, problems you’ve overcome, experiences that you’ve had etc) and what your readers (or potential readers) want (or need) to know.

    The intersecting point is GOLD!

    The problem with this diagram is when I show it to people they sometimes respond saying, ‘I don’t know anything‘!

    I understand this feeling. However, I would encourage anyone thinking that to think again. In many cases, you simply overlook what you know because you think it is too basic to share!

    As I was preparing for my keynote, I was reminded of a post that I wrote on dPS back in 2007 that illustrates this pretty well.

    The post was How to Hold a Digital Camera.

    This post came about when I was looking through submitted reader photos to select some to critique in our forum. Many of  the photos I was looking at were blurry and I realised that a common mistake was ‘camera shake’ (or the camera moving while the shot was being taken).

    One of the most common and obvious reasons for camera shake is that the photographer is not holding their camera still.

    There was an obvious need among some of our readers to learn how to hold their camera to keep it still while shooting.

    I knew the theory of how to do this after being taught it in a school photography class but I remember thinking it was simply too basic to write a blog post about.

    But I wrote the post anyway.

    I hesitated for several days before publishing it, second guessing myself the whole time. I envisaged being laughed down.

    The post was a hit. It got a lot of traffic early on, quite a few comments (in which many suggestions were made of other techniques) and it has been shared many hundreds of times around the web on social media.

    Today, as I prepared for my keynote, I decided to check my Google Analytics to see how many times the post has been viewed since 2007.

    The answer surprised me…

    The post has had over 560,000 unique views!

    Over half a million people have viewed that post over the last 6 years and still gets an average of 150 visitors per day to it (mainly search traffic).

    Sometimes even the most basic advice – things you take for granted – is the advice your readers really need to hear.

    Written on 5/14/2013 at 2:46 am by

    How Many Posts Should a Blogger Post? [Pros and Cons of Daily Posting]

    Filed Under: General 116 Comments

    Almost every time I do a Q&A at a conference I’m asked this question – How many posts should I post?

    The frequency of blog posts is something that gets talked about a lot and there is no perfect answer for all blogs – but here are a few thoughts on the topic.

    The Pros of Daily Posting

    I’ve heard many people answer the ‘how many posts’ question with the suggestion that you should aim for a daily post.

    While I will name some reasons why this may not be ideal below there are certainly some benefits of posting on a daily level including:

    Daily Posts Can Help You Get into the Groove

    I’ve had a variety of approaches to blogging frequency over the years and I have to say that getting into a daily blogging frequency has helped ME, as a blogger, make writing part of my daily workflow.

    I find that if I post less often than ‘daily’, writing begins to slip off my radar as I fill my day with other tasks – and once I stop, I find it hard to get going again.

    The more you practice as a writer the better you get (hopefully)!

    Daily Posts Help with Reader Expectations and Engagement

    It is amazing how readers will adapt to your posting frequency and will even look for your content to be published at certain times. I find that the less you post – the less engaged your readers will become.

    Of course this also depends on how and where else you’re engaging with your readers. For example if you’re tweeting every day, answering comments every day and answering emails every day then this will certainly increase engagement.

    I guess more regular content builds your brand also (if the content is good content).

    More Posts mean More Doorways into Your Blog

    I’ve spoken about this over the years many times on ProBlogger. The more posts you publish over time, the more doorways you present readers with to enter your blog.

    1 post a week means you’ve got 52 doorways at the end of the year – daily posts means 365 doorways at the end of the year. This means people are more likely to see your content in RSS readers, in search engines, on social media etc. Over time this adds up. For example, here on ProBlogger today I’m publishing our 7001st post! That’s a lot of doorways!

    The Negatives of Daily Posting

    There are definitely some positives with daily (or at least a higher frequency of) posting. However there are also some costs including:

    Blogger Burnout

    Perhaps the biggest danger with setting your posting frequency levels too high is that you run the risk of burning out as a blogger.

    Posting something new, engaging, compelling and helpful every day over several years can, over time, begin to feel like a chore – particularly if you have competing pressures of life (family, work, social life etc).

    Reader Burnout

    There is a fine line between giving your readers too little content to be engaged and overwhelming them with too much content to be able to digest it all.

    I subscribed to a blog recently that I thought would be great to follow but they posted so many posts per week that it was too much and so I ended up reading none of it.

    Some topics and styles of blog will sustain a higher frequency of posts than others. For example, some technology blogs have been posting 10-20 posts a day for several years – but their posts are usually short, sharp and easy to consume (and they are read by content hungry, tech savvy readers).

    Decreases Reader Engagement

    Related to this, I’ve noticed when I slow my posting frequency down that comment numbers often go up.

    Fewer posts means that your most recent post sits on the front page of your blog longer which increases the chance of people seeing, engaging with and even sharing it.

    Traffic might be lower overall to your blog – but hopefully each post will be read more!

    Advice on Posting Frequency

    Ultimately you need to decide what is right for you as a blogger. Your blog posting frequency should come out of a variety of factors including:

    • How much time and energy do you have for blogging? Remembering that there are other tasks that need to be done on top of writing
    • How much time do your readers have to read content? How thirsty are they for content?
    • How big is your topic/niche – how much is there actually to write about on that topic?
    • How long are the posts you write and how much time do they take to complete?
    • How old is your blog? (sometimes in the early days it can be good to have archives that are a little fuller so there’s more for new readers to explore)
    • How much do you have to say right now? Most bloggers go through bursts where they just naturally have more to write.
    • Is the quality of your posting suffering because you’re posting too often?

    Keep in mind that over time your posting frequency may change. For example, here on ProBlogger I have been as high as 18 posts a week but these days we’ve slowed to 5-6 (with a change in the length and focus of the posts). Slowing our blogging frequency down has led to a higher engagement, higher quality of posts (at least that’s our intent) and steady (if not slightly higher) traffic.

    Also remember that YOU as a blogger are probably a lot more worried about your posting frequency than your reader. We tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves as bloggers. Slowing down to increase quality of your posts and to look after yourself won’t be the end fo the world!

    The last piece of advice I offer is to aim for regularity rather than daily. Readers will adapt to your posting rhythm and they will begin to expect that what you do one week is not too far different from what you do the next. So be consistent.

    Here on ProBlogger we never switched from 18 posts in a week one week to 5 the next – it’s ebbed and flowed very gradually over time.

    How often Do You Post?

    I’m interested to hear how many posts you do per week on your blog?

    Is that the same amount of posts each week or does it change?

    Has that frequency changed over time?

    What factors come into play for you in deciding how many posts per week is right for you?

    Written on 5/10/2013 at 2:59 am by

    My April Blogging Income Breakdown

    Filed Under: Blogging for Dollars 48 Comments

    Yesterday I published a post telling my story of adding 12 income streams to my blogs over the last 10 years.

    Screen Shot 2013 05 08 at 12 24 58 PM

    One of the comments and tweets I had a number of times was a request to make the diagram I used shows how the 12 different streams of income go towards making the overall revenue on my blogs today.

    It has been a over a couple of years since I did an income breakdown so I decided to put together the numbers today. The categories don’t completely coincide with the 12 income streams mentioned in yesterdays post (for example I no longer do consulting and I’ve combined all the affiliate income and all the ad network income – however you’ll get the picture.

    Income streams breakdown

    The above breakdown is for last month’s income (April 2013). It is worth noting that while I chose April as it was a pretty typical month for me that things can vary quite a bit from month to month depending what the monetization focus of my blogs is.

    For example if I were to show you December last year you’d see Affiliate earnings and eBooks dominating the chart more as we do a 12 days of Christmas promotion on Digital Photography School that promotes a series of affiliate products and our own eBooks over a two week period.

    Or if I created a chart for March this year you’d have seen ‘Events’ as a bit bigger as we launched our ProBlogger Event Early Bird Tickets that month.

    I hope it helps to see a visual of the breakdown of what I was talking about yesterday.

    What was your #1, #2 and #3 income stream last month?

    Written on 5/9/2013 at 2:43 am by

    12 Blogging Income Streams [And the Story of My 10 Year 'Overnight' Success]

    Filed Under: Blogging for Dollars, Featured Posts 141 Comments

    Today I was speaking with a blogger (I’ll call her Alice for the sake of this post) who was feeling a little overwhelmed with the idea of monetizing her blog. She expressed that as she looked at other blogs in her niche, everyone seemed to be doing such amazing things. She said she felt she’d never be able to compete.

    Other blogs in Alice’s niche were running online courses, selling out hundred people live events around the country, selling ads to fortune 500 companies, authoring best selling eBook and more. The thought of even beginning to monetize her blog in these ways was completely paralysing Alice!

    It is so easy to be overwhelmed to the point of paralysis when you look at what other bloggers are doing. I know this from personal experience!

    My advice to Alice was to keep in mind that all those other amazing blogs started in the same place that she was – without any income streams at all.

    Often it is easy to forget this and see a successful blog as always being what it is today.

    By way of illustration, I shared my own story

    When I started blogging, I did it as a hobby. I had no intention of it ever being more than that and there were no examples of people directly monetizing blogs.

    Over the coming year and a half, my blog grew in popularity and the hobby became something of a passion and obsession. It also began to cost me money to run for hosting, domain, design etc.

    Phase 1

    Blogging Income 6

    I began to dabble in monetizing with the hope of simply covering my costs. My first experiments were with Google AdSense and the Amazon Affiliate Program. The results weren’t spectacular but they were encouraging enough for me to keep trying. A few dollars began to trickily in but more importantly – I was learning a lot!

    Phase 2

    Over the coming months I continued to experiment with AdSense and Amazon. I vastly improved how I was implementing the programs (better ad positioning, writing reviews for affiliate products). I also began to think about how to drive more traffic to my blog. I even started a second blog (and then more followed)!

    The results were that my income began to grow. I began to see my blogging as a part-time job and even began to wonder if it could one day be full-time.

    Over the coming year I also began to also look at other forms of monetization.

    Blogging Income 6

    During this time I started promoting affiliate programs with other online stores. I also did something that terrified me but which became a great income stream, I picked up the phone and began to sign up advertisers directly. This was a period where I had to bite the bullet and start to treat blogging not just as a hobby – but as a business.

    Again – these new income streams started small and were experiments. My first ad sale was for $20 for a month long ad. It didn’t bring me overnight riches but securing the ad taught me a lot and contributed to my overall income.

    It was around this time I realised that while none of my income streams were enough to sustain me alone, a blog could actually sustain multiple sources of small income that could add up to something significant.

    My goal was to go full time as a blogger. To do that I knew I needed to grow multiple streams of income and my blog’s traffic.

    Phase 3

    It was around this time that other Advertising Networks began to appear. I experimented with quite a few but the one I had most success with was Chitika. At the time, AdSense was my #1 source of income but putting Chitika on my site almost doubled that income overnight and allowed me to go full time as a blogger!

    Blogging Income 6

    Of course it wasn’t just that Chitika worked well. I’d also been growing my traffic, building reader engagement/community etc – but the extra income stream helped a lot.

    Phase 4

    It was around this time that I’d started ProBlogger as a blog along with a whole new range of income streams. I did monetize ProBlogger in the early days, using all of the above income streams but I found that ProBlogger was actually better to monetize indirectly.

    By ‘indirect monetization’ I mean that ProBlogger began to grow my own personal profile and authority on the topic of blogging and I began to be approached to provide products and services that I could sell. The blog itself didn’t necessarily make money – but it enabled ME to make money as a result of the blog.

    Blogging Income 6

    For example, it was through ProBlogger that I landed my first paid speaking opportunity. I was asked to fly to Washington DC to speak at a conference – (all expenses covered plus a small fee paid).

    Around the same time, I was approached to write the ProBlogger Book (the hard cover one that is now in it’s 3rd edition). This only came off the back of the ProBlogger blog.

    Similarly, around this time I began to offer my services as a consultant to help people with their blogging strategy (a service I don’t offer any more).

    Once again, these income streams started small (in fact writing a Book isn’t generally a big income stream for most authors) but they each contributed to the overall revenue from my blogging, which was now adding up to be a lot more than I’d ever earned from any other job (keeping in mind that I’d been blogging now for 4-5 years).

    Phase 5

    Most of the above income streams have continued to grow but other opportunities have presented themselves as new technologies emerge. While I’d previously been approached to create a hard copy book, we began to see the emergence of eBooks. While people previously had asked me to speak at their live events we began to see people delivering content via virtual/online courses and conferences.

    Blogging Income 6

    I began to experiment with creating eBooks and membership areas to my sites. eBooks have gone on to become my main income stream (both with ProBlogger eBooks and Photography eBooks). The main income from eBooks tends to come in fits and starts, when we either launch a new eBook or run a sale/promotion on one but even when we don’t have these events happening they still steadily sell each day in small numbers. Again, contributing to the overall revenue.

    I also added the Job board here at ProBlogger.

    The job board is an interesting example of what I’m talking about today. It has never been a spectacularly huge income stream but it has actually been a pretty steady source of income over the years. We generally see 1-2 new blogger jobs advertised every day and that $50-$100 per day in income adds up over time. I’ve not got the exact figures but I’d estimate that over the last 5 years it has brought in over $100,000! I’m glad I started it!

    By this stage my income was growing to the point where I was able to bring on others into my team. This started with some very part time outsourcing of small jobs but in more recent times has enabled me to hire a number of team members to help run different components of my business.

    Phase 6

    The final income stream has become a growing focus of my team and I (although I have to say it’s not a massive income stream at this point) has been running events and conferences.

    Our annual ProBlogger Training Event here in Australia has grown in number each year and this year we think it’ll probably turn a small profit. Having said that, my intent with these events is not to make a lot of money. Rather, it is about giving something back to the Aussie Blogosphere (it is also great for branding and gives me a lot of personal satisfaction and fun).

    We’ve also started to run some smaller more focused workshops (our Email Marketing workshop in Melbourne still has a handful of spots left).

    Blogging Income 6

    My suspicion is that events will be something we’ll see expand a little in the coming years.

    Final Thoughts

    Let me sum up with a few thoughts, disclaimers and words of encouragement:

    Keep in mind that all of the above has happened over 10 years. While today there are obviously 12 or so income streams (although I’m sure I’m forgetting something) they all started quite small and as experiments.

    There have been moments where it did seem like I had rushes of income, those rushes were usually the result of several years work and investment of time and money.

    I also would say that in each case, I started each experiment not really knowing what I was doing (on at least some level) but really seeing the experiments as a chance to learn. For example, my first eBooks were taking previously published blog posts and updating, completing and adding to them to offer readers a more convenient way to access my content.

    At the time I had no idea if that would work and the design and delivery of the eBooks was fairly basic. In time I learned what did and didn’t work and was able to grow the sophistication of my delivery systems, design, authoring and marketing to the point that it’s become a fairly well-oiled machine.

    The key is to pick something to try and to see whether it connects with your readership and to learn as much as you can while you’re doing it. Often you end up evolving what you do to the point that it is a better fit for you and your blog – but you’ll never get to that point without starting.

    Update: I’ve since published a followup to this post that gives a split of the different income streams.