Enkay Blog

When Should I Sell My Blog?

Everyone’s first blog is like their first car. No matter how much you want to keep it, there comes a time when you have to decide to let go of it. The problem is that with your first car, the signs such as an overheating engine, mounting repair bills and leaking engine fluid are common signs, there arent any defined signs for your blog. Well I’m hoping that I can help clear that up. Here are a few reasons why you should or should consider selling your blog:

1. You’re Losing Interest - Its a good idea to not wait till you’ve complete lot interest. The reason is because at least the new owner will be able to pick up from where you left off rather than having to start from scratch. Plus, selling the blog while its still relatively active means that you’ll be able to sell it for a higher amount. It makes your work and the work of the seller much easier.

2. Long Term Hiatus - The reason I mention long term is because usually a week or two weeks or even a month can be tolerated by your readers and when you return, things will slowly lead back up to where you left off but if you are going away for say 2-3 months or longer than you should consider selling your blog. The reason is that 2-3 months is a long enough period of time for readers to find a replacement and for your rankings to drop enough to be harder to recoup. Its a stage where you can “consider” selling.

3. Time Constraints - Most of us that blog are not full-time bloggers and that means that we have other jobs or attend school or college full time. Specially for someone like me who is at school 10 hours a day, it gets hard for me to blog. When it feels as though you are completely crunched for time you can consider selling your blog. Its a good idea NOT to post something just for the sake of posting something. Post only if you have something useful to say. If your posts start deteriorating just because you don’t have time, I refer to that stage as Blog Suicide. The name is fitting because instead of helping the blog continue by selling it and finding someone who can dedicate time, you eventually kill off the readership by blogging unnecessarily.

So hopefully this post was interesting. I like to focus on 3-5 points now instead of longer lists with the hope that the focus is more meaningful. Let me know your thoughts about when you think you’d sell your blog

Your Blog Is Your Resume

Your blog is like your resume. Just like your resume helps you get a job, your blog helps you get an audience. You’ve all heard the idea that your resume has to sell your skills and talent and its similar with a blog. Your blog has to sell your creativity, your knowledge and your skills. You have to let your blog do the talking and theres only a few ways you can get that accomplished.

1. Research - Just don’t blog about something because you feel that its interesting. Do your research and be sure to KNOW what youre blogging about. If you don’t do this step then you’d just sound like you don’t have a clue what youre blogging about. Research the advertising company, the concept or the service/product you are blogging about and know the ins-and-outs of it. Think about it, if you’re asked a question about a post and you have no response, does that really show that you did your research? Probably not, so do your research!

2. Tutorials - If you’re good at something, show it off! Well, not like that but, share it with your readers. It only helps build your reputation and your credibility. For example, Syed over at Balkhis really knows a lot about design and he puts up tutorials to help his readers about different aspects of design. It only strengthens your credibility and helps your readers realize that youre knowledgeable about the subject at hand. Consider this, you’d really not want someone to “attempt” to fix your car if all they had done was watch auto repair shows on tv. You need someone with experience and someone who can prove to you that they have experience. Its almost the same when it comes to blogging, so write up tutorials.

3. Accept Challenges/Questions - Sometimes you’ll have the occasional person who challenges your opinion or your standpoint or will ask you a question. If you’ve made a statement based on your knowledge then it would be a good idea to be receptive to such challenges and questions. Staying away or refraining from accepting a challenge or answering a question makes you appear incapable of being able to stand by your opinion. Its kind of like putting something on your resume and having no references to back it up.

Hopefully you enjoyed the post. I have been having some issues with my timestamp so thats why there was a delay. Ill have a post about that soon and I wonder if you guys have seen similar issues. Have a great weekend!

Does This Seem Fishy To You?

That image above is an actual screenshot from Buy.com. Apparently the original price on this processor was around $885,000 and after a massive discount, youre looking at around $330 with free shipping. Doesn’t really sound like a deal to me even though it certainly looks like a great deal. So how do you know whether bloggers are being real or fake with you?

1. No Credibility - If a blogger has no real experience or speaks of experience but has no proof of such experience, then you’re looking at a blogger with no credibility. Its somewhat like the time when you meet the occasional individual as you wait for your coffee at the local Starbucks and he tells you that he’s an English Professor even though his English is obviously not up to par. If a blogger constantly runs away from proof, then theres probably something going on. Another example, I was asked to give proof that InfoLinks was real, and I did that in yesterday’s post. Maybe that cleared up some doubts, maybe not but either way, I just wanted to show that it actually does pay.

2. I Lost 30 lbs Without Working Out - We’ve all seen those ads. If it looks like a buncha bull and it stinks like a buncha bull, then its most probably bull. If something is obviously missing in the explanation or something sounds fishy then it most probably is. The internet is a place where confrontation is easier because its done while you warm up the nearest computer chair. If youre unable to respond to someone’s valid criticism then theres a reason why. Its most probably because you are in the wrong. Clean up your act and be who you are. Don’t promote something that you arent.

3. Past History Is Pitiful - I mean, “I Pity The Fool” who decides to re-enter the blogosphere with a name so popular that even Google can’t handle the results. There have been bloggers who return to their scamming techniques after dissolving away a blog that helped them earn a couple thousand quick bucks through their non-existent contest prizes and magically hyped visitor and feedburner stats. I believe that someone who scams will always be a scammer so be careful who you trust with your information and which contests you get involved in. Most of the contests I talk about here are held by bloggers that I have personally communicated with before.

I’d Like To Hear From You
What are some signs of a shady blog in your opinion? I’d like to hear some of your opinions. Also, I’d like to see if you have ever found out that a current blogger was really not who he/she claimed to be? I can think of a few! Anyway, have a great weekend!

How Much Money Do I Make Online?

I was asked by AnotherMMOBlog a little while back to reveal how much money I make online. I know that its been a few months that I haven’t disclosed earnings but this blog brings in a nice little supplemental income every month.

Here is what the breakdown for last month looked like:

Private Ad Sales: $60
Private Review Sales: $60
ReviewMe Sales: $85
Market Leverage Comission: $75
InfoLinks: $75

That adds up to a little over $350. I’m not throwing Adsense in there because it wasn’t even substantial if you look at the other revenue sources. Also, keep in mind that I round up/down my income to make the numbers divisible by 5. The blog brings in a couple hundred every month regardless of the private ad sales and review sales. Having the review price at $20 really gives me an advantage in getting more advertisers and review opportunities.

The Private Ad Sales includes things such as the Peel Away Ad and the 125×125 banner spots. The Private Reviews are any reviews that advertisers purchase directly from me and the ReviewMe sales are any reviews or commissions earned through ReviewMe.

The new addition for the month was Market Leverage which turned out a nice $75 income and obviously switching from Kontera to Infolinks helped me jump from a couple of dollars to almost $75. As many of you have requested, here is a proof of payment from InfoLinks via PayPal.

I really don’t have any other online ventures at the moment but in the past with my web design work I have brought in a couple thousand. Not bad considering that was when I was between 12 to 16 years old. This blog has definitely earned a good amount of income during its lifetime and I know that not being diversified in more blogs is hurting my total income but, I really don’t mind considering I’m happy with it. So, how much money do you make online?

Picking Offers For Affiliate Marketing

So, you know that I’ve been playing with the idea of Affiliate Marketing with Market Leverage and the end of August concluded my experimentation and I realized that there are ways that you can pick offers to maximize your earnings specially as a beginner. I’m going to share a few tips as to how you can pick the right offers and what to look for:

1. Target Audience - Every offer that you pick to advertise has a target audience. If you’re advertising dating websites to a 60+ year old audience then it won’t be as profitable as advertising to an audience between 20-30 years of age. You have to keep your target audience in mind because thats how you can expect to generate the most leads.

You can do one of two things (1) select your target audience and then pick offers or (2) pick offers and then decide who the target audience is. My opinion is that the second option works better because after you have picked an offer, selecting a target audience after that will make it more accurate.

2. Dont Look at Just CPA - Sometimes individuals decide to pick offers that provide large amounts of money for a lead. Don’t look JUST at the CPA. Obviously, you have to look at it but don’t just pick an offer because it offers you a great CPA. Make sure that the offer you pick is the one you want based on the number of leads you can expect to generate. Consider this:

1 Lead with a $100 CPA = $100 for you
20 leads with $20 CPA = $400 for you

So its not really about how high the CPA is but how many leads you can generate from it.

3. Would You Click On It? - Sometimes you have to think whether you’d click and complete the offer that youre putting out there. Its not necessary for you to think that but sometimes the offers require quite a bit of information and you’d have to think whether someone would be willing to fill the information out.

Some offers that require emails or zips earn low CPA but they can convert really well since most people are okay with giving that information out. Others that require a lot of information and specially credit card information can tend not to do as well unless you know what you’re doing. I’m just suggesting that if you’re a beginner stick to the basics for now.

Conclusion
So hopefully you guys can take something away from this post. I know that some of you are getting started and I’d like to hear some advice from some of you who have already experimented with affiliate marketing. Let me know your thoughts! Have a great mid-week Wednesday!