Newbie from the Mountaintop

Hi everyone. I'm a blogger and literary writer who wants to learn more about how the whole pro-blogging, monetization thing works. I'm really sort of lost and am hoping to find some reading material that will help me grasp it.

I live in an off-beat location in Tennessee and write about Appalachia, goats, country living and my unconventional life. I'm a good and well respected literary writer. I write good content within the specs of what I write about.

I've been blogging for six years--three of those really aggressively in the niche of Appalachia blogs. The years I wasn't writing the blog, I was photoblogging on Buzznet. I held the top Appalachia spot for a while, but have slipped a bit due to trying to juggle social networking. Then Technorati lost its mind and I've sort of changed direction to focus on my fiction writing and publication record more. So my standing has slipped a bit, but I still have a PR of 5 and am told my "authority" is good (whatever that means).

Anyway, I started getting these emails from people offering me money to mention them on my blog. I suspected there was a nice Nigerian gentleman with an inheritance behind it all so I ignored them. Then I followed up on one of the emails and it turned out to be legit. I found I sort of liked getting paid as long as it didn't interfere with the spirit of my blog. So I'd like to learn how to be more deliberate about making money from my content.

I'm not interested in AdSense or Amazon since those things have been a bit of a bust. Just not worth littering my page up with them. I'm still carrying Amazon since I link to products they carry that I like, but will most likely clean them out soon. If I can make a hundred bucks just by writing an article about a product I think my readers would like--in my particular style of writing--don't see a reason I should give them 24-7 free space.

But, I'm basically here to learn. Any links you could share on direct advertising and how to make myself more accessible would be appreciated.

 

Direct advertising is a good deal if you've got a lot of traffic to your site. Since you've already been approached by people wanting to buy blog space, that's a good sign.

I'd suggest you make a post in the advertising section of the buy, sell, and trade forum offering advertising on your blog. You may get some good offers, again, depending on your traffic.

hahaha, nice.

 

Thanks. I think I need to be here for a while before doing that, but that's okay since I have some reading to do anyway.

My understanding (such as it is) is that these vendors were after my authority rather than my traffic. I'm not exactly sure why that is worth money. I've got decent traffic for a blog my size and it's fed onto FB for my 1000 + "friends"--but nothing like a some sites. I've always been tight with the mommy bloggers since there's an edutainment value to the blog--but I'm still a bit bemused why I'm being approached. Hopefully I'll be able to figure that out while I'm here--and perhaps some ways to widen my traffic. Unfortunately, I'm on a 24K dialup, so my visits to other bloggers have been curtailed as the technology races past my area. I'm prolly going to have to move to satellite access in the next year or so if I'm to continue.