The subtitle of the Business of Blogging panel was “Beyond Add Networks” and these guys got my juices flowing with their creative ideas on generating online income via methods other than adds and pay-per-click adds.
Donna Maria Coles Johnson of the Indie Business Blog, Nichelle Stephens of Cupcakes Take the Cake and Navarrow Wright of Global Grind shared their expertise with us and I got bunch of useful take aways.
Donna Maria gave us a couple of good tools to consider. Ever wonder where those online surveys come from? Good chance that one of them is SurveyMonkey . Not only does it create surveys though, but the site also generates charts for your survey data so you can get a statistical feel for what your responders think.
If you’re considering podcasting Donna Maria uses CinchCast as her platform. It also has a number of other useful features to help you optimize your account so check it out and install a podcast on your site.
Another of her suggestions for an extra income stream is one many of us have heard over the years. Blogging for hire. Follow and contact companies on their blog sites and offer your blogging services for their team. Donna Maria’s efforts show that initiative online can pay off just as in the physical world.
Nichelle contributed some great ideas as well. In fact she was representing two enterprises. Her own Cupcakes Take the Cake is about everything cupcakes. If you enjoy home baking or are a lover of deserts you’ll enjoy this site. She also had a table for Pepsi We Inspire which she edits. It’s a site for women to uplift and entertain each other with encouraging expressions. You ladies should definitely look into Pepsi We Inspire.
Two online resources that Nichelle recommended were new to me. Quantcast helps you to identify your audience to improve your marketing efforts. Having trouble nailing down your target demographic? Quantcast is worth looking into.
Another site helps you to compare your site to others. Compete uses a variety of analytics metrics on other web sites to see how your competition is performing. It’s a great competitive intelligence tool.
Nichelle is quite the enterprising lady and I really appreciate the tools she informed us about.
Although Navorrow is best known for the Global Grind blogsite he suggested excercising more technical expertise for profitable blogging. Specifically, create something useful for others. He told us to create technical products that are needed like apps and widgets. Considering all the Facebook games and feed apps that regularly come on the scene this shouldn’t be too difficult an idea for the programmers among us to take to heart.
Navorrow is well respected in online world and if any one knows about tools that work it’s him. His personal consultancy Maximum Leverage Solutions is proof enough of that. He knows the value of providing good tools so all you coders, get those great ideas online and in circulation right away.
I really enjoyed this panel because of the practicality of information given by the presenters. There was something for everyone and no doubt if you’re serious about your blogging and social media pursuits there’s something here for you too. If it’s been in the back of your mind today is a good day to create “top of mind awareness” for yourself and get more serious about the business of blogging.
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