Next session at Cybermummy 2011 is about ‘Working with Brands and Making Money.’ Kerching!
First up …
Sarah wanted to talk about how from a brand perspective, and at engaging with bloggers:
“We’re not looking at paying bloggers to write about us but it’s important to have a genuine approach. Not so much ‘monitored’ but ‘open’ – we want bloggers to feel free to write what they want.
The importance of reading online reviews:
“Consumers are tending not to listen to advertisements but are more interested in hearing from a genuine person about what they think about a product. It’s therefore more important to give a voice to bloggers – so it’s a blogger’s voice, not a corporate voice.
At HP we have a specific process of how we engage with bloggers. We don’t want to talk about technology from a technological point of view but a more personal point of view – eg. how can technology enhance your life?”
Identify bloggers:
“Whatever is relevant, how can we bring that technology out when we look at their blogs. We work out how influential a blogger is. We look at Klout. How much does a blogger write? How fresh is their content? If it’s not being renewed on a regular level, we wouldn’t be so interested. We look at exclusive content, for example, if you write about recipes, how can we help you print them?
HP are very engaged on a social media level. We want to extend what bloggers write onto a bigger social media platform.”
Sarah showed some pictures of a recent ‘web-print’ launch. They found a famous vlogger from the Netherlands, whose interest is new technology. HP liked his personality and the ideas he came up with. Very important to them that it was genuine content – which it was. His traffic to his blog increased and HP got to tell a more ‘human-level’ approach.
Sarah continued: ”In the UK, we wanted to recruit some reviewers to test a new product. We originally wanted to find 10 people but had 1,500 applications. One blogger out of this ten is now being fed through all HP media channels.
HP tested one of their products against one of their competitors. It helped HP learn what people liked about their product and their competitors’ products. At the end of the trial, 5 out of 6 chose to keep the HP product. They had to then explain their experience in their blog.”
Sarah finished by asking: ”How can we help each other?”
Next up …
Erica’s site generates a great income. She began by talking about her journey from hobby blogger to ‘mumpreneur.’
“I started in 2006 when I had a 3 month old baby. I had no previous experience, and a friend set up a blog for me. Prior to blogging I was a debt collector, nursery assistant, a fine dining waitress. Blogging has helped me find out what I’m good at.
I earn £2-3,000 per month. I spend 15-20 hours a week on the business (I’m also doing a degree.) I make a full time income on part time hours. I’ve exceeded my husband’s 40 hour a week earnings – and now my husband has started his own blog!
In 2006, there was no advertising but I started being approached when I reached 100 visitors a day. I started selling banner ads, text links and sponsored posts. I realised I’d built up a lot of skills – marketing, social media, writing – and was disillusioned with previous jobs, so being able to be creative, be at home and earn money is really rewarding.
You don’t need a huge audience to begin to sell advertising. Advertisers are looking for a niche, targeted audience. Littlemummy.com began earning £500 per month.”
How do you get up to a full time income?
“I took my skills and started doing freelance writing and selling eBooks. I wrote a Mum Blogger ecourse. I realised my number one professional passion is creating eCourses and I’ve now co-created 2 eCourse and membership sites:
www.aceinspire.com and www.becomeamumpreneur.com
We have over 150 members so far.
While you’re a Stay At Home Mum, use your time to think about what you really want to do.”
My advice to make the transition from hobby blogging to making money:
“Pick a niche. Trying to monetise a parenting blog is really hard as it’s not niche enough. Advertisers will pay more for a targeted audience. Can you think of something more niche? What did you do for work before? Have you studied a subject at degree level?”
Consider monetisation strategies early:
“Start with banner ads, sponsored posts. Easy to sell. Once you write about something you’re passionate about, more opportunities will present themselves.
Have an ‘end goal.’ Think about your blog as an asset.
Take action today. Have a think about what to write about, what products you can create.”
Talking about inspiring stuff. Don’t know bout you, but I’m signing up for some of that shizzle STAT! Well done Erica!
Next up …
Natalie Lue makes a full time income from blogging. She’s the creator of the relationship website, Baggage Reclaim, and Bambino Goodies, the baby products site.
Natalie began:
“3.5 years ago, whilst on maternity leave, I quit my full time job and began two blogs. I also decided the advertising business model wasn’t for me – I felt I didn’t want to ever rely on advertising. People thought I was mad to start a business on my blog without advertising.
Used to lie awake at night, after another ‘dating cock-up’ and wrote a post - ”I’m tired of them – and quite frankly i’m tired of myself.” People connected with this immediately but it wasn’t until a year after this when I wondered if I could make money from this. I was anonymous to start with, took my relationship advice and started a new ‘relationship’ site.
Seven years on, I’m earning a living full time.
I’ve amassed an audience of over 350,000 visitors per month.
There is a wealth of opportunities out there. I still blog most days but the key thing to remember is you make money ‘with’ your blog not ‘from’ your blog – use it as a billboard, a springboard, a market stall – its your personal PR tool. Unless you’re going to literally sell your blog, be sponsored all the time or sell advertising (which is exhausting) – it won’t generate huge sums of money.
You need to think creatively. You need loyal people who are passionate about what you’re writing about. There are a gazillion parenting and relationship sites but what’s saleable is authenticity and ‘voice.’ People will decide who you are – that’s a commodity in itself. For example, if you write about parenting, tighten up your niche in that area.
The tone of what you put out there is what will make you money. Ask yourself, “What can I do? What can I be?” Whether it’s a course, eBooks or speaking at events.
If I can turn my shite relationships and love of shopping into sites, it’s possible to do anything! (Amen sista!)
Writing an eBook is a whole lot easier than chasing up loads of advertisers each money.
Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do this. Blogging gave me a wealth of opportunities and confidence. If you have the tenacity and passion, seize the opportunities.
DON’T FOLLOW THE HERD.
Decide what’s right for you.
Erm, WOW? Natalie was just so cool. She certainly has ‘that something’ about her – it’s kinda easy to understand how people bought into ‘her voice.’ Impressive stuff right there.
Next up …
Ellie Lee – Senior Lecturer at University of Kent
Ellie was going to talk about mummy blogging from a sociological point of view.
“The contemporary identity of mummy blogging and how they connect can be likened to peacework. Disclosure and non-disclosure is very interesting.
What seems attractive and innovative about mummy blogging is personified in Jen. If we look at China, intensive parenting culture is more universal than possibly first thought. At Centre for Parenting Culture Studies, we looked at why it first emerged. Why is it the case that in modern cultures we’ve decided that what parents do it has such an effect on our children? Why have we become committed to the idea that it matters so much in our lives? Reading to your kids, how you get them to sleep, what milk you give them etc, are now intensely debated matters and we are interested in why this has happened.
The fact that we work more as women, doesn’t mean we parent less. We’re spending more and more time on child rearing and spending time with our children.
Why do we panic more about our children?
If parenting is so important, why are we fed so much advice from professionals instead of just being left to decide for ourselves.
Through Jen’s Alphamummy blog, it showed me that the blog was a great interface between the academic world and parents.”
Jen said: ”There was a discussion in the States about how bloggers don’t “blog for a box of cereal” and that bloggers can’t be ‘bought’ that easily. The argument that just because we’re bloggers we should only be paid in kind, continues.”
Sarah: ”We really look at how we can have a fair exchange – a 2 way exchange.”
Erica: ”You’re worth what you think you’re worth. It’s very much a personal thing. You decide if you accept advertising. You set rates.”
Natalie: “I’ve never done a sponsored post. I implore you demand your value. A sponsored post is an ad that keeps running and running and running as it sits on your blog. A permanent ad worth ‘only’ £50 (for eg.) to you. Decide how long you want to run that ad on your blog so you don’t feel you’re selling yourself short. Negotiation is key.
And now for Question Time:
What is the best format for an eCourse?
Erica: ”We use an autoresponder coupled with a membership site which gives training material, a lesson a week, a link that’s sent to you so you can be sent to a site to download information. People like to learn in different ways, text, audio, visual, webinars with experts etc., look at the content you’ve got and how you can deliver it.
How do you go about getting people to buy the eCourse?
Erica: ”Build your audience. Become an expert in what you’re going to sell your eCourse on. Give away free training materials. ’Pull’ selling as opposed to ‘push’ selling.”
Natalie: ”I use an autoresponder and give away a free newsleter – runs over 90 days, but it does convert to a lot of eBook sales. I don’t do a lot of marketing. Word of mouth works, as does social media. You can do a mini version of an eBook (5-10 pages) to build an audience so that later if you have something you want to promote, more people will respond.”
What’s the etiquette of approaching mummber bloggers re. advertising? The absence of a framework is confusing.
Sarah: “We don’t talk about ratecards, it’s all about content.”
Erica: “Make your approach personal. Get to the point quickly. Ask your blogger what kind of advertising they do. We don’t want the same ads across lots of blogs so don’t do a ‘blanket’ approach. Look at the ‘About’ page on a blog – this will help your email pitch. Everyone has different rates. Some have media packs. Don’t treat us like we’re a ‘band of mummy bloggers.’”
Natalie: “The onus sometimes has to be on the blogger to explain what you want/don’t want. Have an ‘About’ page. Detail your rates and say ‘starting from’ so you can negotiate.”
Phew. Thank you ladies. You rocked.
Lunchtime!
Really interesting post – thanks! Have had a quick read and will be back again to digest more.
Thanks! I’m just going over them now as I uploaded them as soon as the sessions were over – need to check for typos!
Thank you so much for this post, I read it with interest and drew breath a few times at some of the figures. Think I need to give up the day job to concentrate on this though, very exciting.
Thanks for transcribing it
Glad you found it helpful. The figures are mad aren’t they, but I guess it shows it CAN be done – you just need to be focused, determined and want it bad enough