Blogging for a second income - does anyone else here do this?

Bigbase

noodlepoopsie wrote: »

Can someone give me some advice?
I have a website on a subject of my interest, with a blog within; have been running it alongside a Twitter for 2/3 years, with around 25,000 monthly hits and just under 20,000 followers.
I had Google Adsense on it, but they suspected fraudulent activity (or something along those lines) months ago and disabled the ads (I lost the protest too, and am still unsure as to what the issue actually was).

Literally have no income from this now but would really like to have! It takes up a huge amount of my time, but it's a bit frustrating that I have no idea how to make some kind of income!

The site is built with webs.

Thanks in advance x

Have you tried any affiliate services?

noodlepoopsie

Bigbase wrote: »

Have you tried any affiliate services?

No, I don't really know what they are or how they work? x

floopnoodle

daz501 wrote: »

It's rare to hear of ANYONE making good money with Amazon unless they have hundred of thousands of hits on their site. Play.com might be better if you're targeting UK readers. You can sign up to the Play affiliate program through Affiliate Window.

No, it's not.

People just have a downer on it because it's capped at £7 commission per order and 24hr cookies. What they fail to realise is that they have an amazing conversion rate and upsell strategy so even the least likely of buyers may come away with something, perfect for an entertainment blog where people aren't specifically searching to buy a product.

sequence

floopnoodle wrote: »

No, it's not.

People just have a downer on it because it's capped at £7 commission per order and 24hr cookies. What they fail to realise is that they have an amazing conversion rate and upsell strategy so even the least likely of buyers may come away with something, perfect for an entertainment blog where people aren't specifically searching to buy a product.

I've had amazon on most of the pages on my sites for nearly two years and not had a single conversion, despite having over 1 million hits in that time. It may work in some situations, but it just doesn't work for me. Adsense works well though.

shmeeko69

sequence wrote: »

I've had amazon on most of the pages on my sites for nearly two years and not had a single conversion, despite having over 1 million hits in that time. It may work in some situations, but it just doesn't work for me. Adsense works well though.

That's an incredible amount of hits without a sale - you must be doing something wrong not to have got a sale by now? I create individual free blogs for product reviews with Blogger, Webs.com and Wordpress sites. This gives me commissions of £300+ per month on the Amazon UK affiliate program alone. The most important things are keyword research and choosing the right products.

Bigbase

Hows everyone getting on? If you need help on anything just PM me and ill reply when i can.

Anton123

Those $5 for 400-500 word articles are basically regurgitated crap that no longer rank well because search engines like Google's algorithms have become clever enough to suss them out. You either pay much more for quality content or write yourself to ensure best possible quality.

daz501

Anton123 wrote: »

Those $5 for 400-500 word articles are basically regurgitated crap that no longer rank well because search engines like Google's algorithms have become clever enough to suss them out. You either pay much more for quality content or write yourself to ensure best possible quality.

"Spun" content. There is software that uses thesaurus technology to rewrite old content. These shortcuts to gaining content and traffic are never worth it.

Anton123

daz501 wrote: »

"Spun" content. There is software that uses thesaurus technology to rewrite old content. These shortcuts to gaining content and traffic are never worth it.

Sometimes spun, and sometimes the writer pieces it together by copying and pasting bits from different sources but making enough changes to avoid Copyscape detection and therefore being seen as unique. These articles will gradually stop ranking because Google's algorithms (like in the Panda update) have gotten more clever. If you feel a piece of content will not add value to the web, then don't upload it. Sites with great content will always rank well in the niche they are in.

Of course, then there are also great sites such as this which bring a lot of their traffic through word of mouth and an insane amount of repeat traffic.

mizzbiz

Those articles also hurt your business. Web users are getting more savvy at skimming the junk sites and even if they click on, they are more likely to click straight off than click your ads or buy your wares if you're using spun content services. You can spot it from a mile off and Google is working very hard to eliminate it altogether from it's search results.