Archive for Niches
On Your Blog – Go Niche, or Naff Off
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Image courtesy of Visualpanic
You’ve heard the stories about people making thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars a month from blogging. There’s some truth to those stories. People really do it. Some people really do make that much. But the vast majority of bloggers earn little or nothing for their efforts. One reason for the difference is the value the successful folks deliver.
Creating blogs is very easy and inexpensive. With just a little bit of training, most anyone can do it. It’s so easy to create blog that statistics indicate there are something like 100 million of them. But only a tiny fraction make any money. Perhaps the biggest reason is that most blogs, regardless of the effort their creators put into them, give the visitor nothing unique that would cause them to come back again. Read More→
The In-Growing Toenail Blog
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Image courtesy of Scragz
Day 132: Travelling on Public Transport
Pain Level at Rest: 3/10
Pain Level if Provoked: 10/10
Visual Unattractiveness: 2/10
My toenail is affecting my relationships with complete strangers. It used to be my personal secret, an embarrassing disability that is the subject of humor in ‘Carry-On’ movies but recently its shifted up a gear.
I could pull on a pair of shoes and for all intents and purposes I was a regular member of the public, no outward signs of distress or difference until the subway trip.
It started off well enough with a relatively empty train, plenty of seats and the relaxing hiss of second hand i-Pod music allowing me to play “name that tune” from clues consisting purely of notes exceeding 20,000Hz and the occasional mumbled lip movement. However as the car filled up I was compelled to give up my seat and as each stop fills the train, commuting becomes more like a Japanese game show where they explore the limits of elevator capacity.
Then it happened, an unintentional placement of a hand made leather Italian instrument of torture was guided on to my toe with the force of a 170lbs focussed by stiletto and a gum chewing secretary. Read More→
From Citizen Journalist to Blogployment
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The website Technorati, has produced an annual ‘State of the Blogosphere ’ report since 2004 following the growths and trends across the blogging community. The recently released 2009 report confirms that while “more bloggers than ever are making money from blogs” the actual methods by which they do it appear to be as varied as the topics that they blog about.
According to Lijit, between 2008 and 2009 there has been a 68% increase in the number blogs with ad tags installed. This indicates that monetizing blogs is high on the priority list of most publishers. However advertising is only part of the story.
Across the groups who make money from blogging, being a speaker at an industry event or contributing to print media is likely to contribute more to the bottom line than the monthly cheque from Google.
So if highly paid jobs in the “traditional” print media are become scarcer and few bloggers are getting rich on advertising revenues – where’s the money? Read More→
How Niche is Your Blog?
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Images courtesy of Samlavi and Tark Siala
Niche blogging is the act of creating a blog with the intent of using it to market to a particular niche market.
Neither blogging nor niche marketing is a new concept. However, only in recent years has the concept of a niche blog come into being. Usually, niche blogs will contain advertisements of some sort (pay-per-click or products or both). In some cases, the purpose of the niche blog is to incite the reader into visiting another website which may then attempt to sell the reader a product or service. Read More→
Seniors Blogging
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One of the miracles of blogging is its ability to flatten geography and demography. I’ve always been inspired by the way in which the Internet allows individuals with perhaps obscure interests to build a niche community forum and get participation worldwide.
But recently I’ve been musing on the fact that blogging allows another group who may suffer prejudice in the “real world”, to participate fully based on the content of their character rather than the wrinklyness of their skin. Yes, seniors.
One 80 year-old was quoted as saying, “My life would be dull without it.” Blogging has become a very popular trend for folks of all ages but for those who are older, the digital age has provided an alternative to shuffleboard and bingo. Many of the old bloggers mentioned in this article post on average to 4 or more blogs.
When you think about it there are numerous reasons why seniors have enormous potential both as consumers and contributors to the blogosphere. Read More→
