2nd
Free is where the money is… if you’re blogging for money
I just read a great list of do’s and don’ts for start-up companies. The blog post was focused on web start-ups, but many of the ideas apply to brick and mortar businesses too. The theme of the blog post was that the masses will not adopt your new service/product if it costs them money. The problem is people won’t pay for something later on that they previously used for free. Case in point, I had a beta key for a great screencasting product that I used for months. Once the service left beta they wanted everyone, including the early beta testers, to pay for the service. Needless to say, I wasn’t willing to pay and moved on to an alternative free product.
If you’re starting a business on the web and your revenue model is based on users paying for your service, go with that from your first public day. If you’re revenue model is based on advertising you better hope for a lot of adopters and market the heck out of your service by giving away free things like badges and widgets or even stickers to your end users in addition to the service. Why should you do this? Because it makes your early adopters and users feel like they’re a part of something new and exciting.
Very few bloggers make money from blogging. Most make their money from something else related to their blog. My uncle is a very successful marketer who blogs and hosts a website not to make money, but to promote his services and his clients. His money is made offline in part because he gives away so much great information online.
If I was really serious about making my blog to grow, I’d spend more time generating a widget, a badge, or perhaps a visitor map to distribute. The target audience for my blog is small to begin with so from a time v. benefit perspective it’s not something I’m rushing to do. I’m also not trying to sell anything or make money directly or indirectly from blogging. I blog because I enjoy it and it provides a service to other teachers.
