If you are considering blogging as a job, they key term is “monetization.” How do you make your blog profitable? No specific ingredients exist to get this right. There are, however, guidelines one can follow. The foundation of your blog should take into consideration the following:
A blog, by definition, contains the writer’s experiences, observations and opinions. So, naturally, you want your blog to be of relevance to you. The first example in finding your niche is Julie Powell’s blog about cooking. Her blog focused on Julia Child’s recipes, from the daunting cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking, fashioned by a non chef. What better way to strike relevance amongst your readers than to tackle something they thought was impossible? The blog led to a book, and the book lead to a movie by Sony Pictures starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams.
With a fashion sense said to repel men, Leandra Medine took that sense and turned it into a blog called Man Repeller, which focused on trends that men hate, yet women love. Her niche is her sense of fashion that resonates with millions of women to the tune of 2.4 million hits a month to her site. Her viewership allows her to charge for advertising on her site.
Once you have defined your niche, you want your readers to come back to your site constantly. The best way to do so is by giving them a reason to visit your site. They discovered your blog because your niche is relevant to them; now how often will you feed their desire?
Lastly, your relationship with your readers is very important. Through social media, the conversation can keep going even after you have published a post. So make sure you have the right social media channels set up, with Facebook, Twitter and Instagram being the top three.
If you concentrate on your platform and strengthen its foundation, your opinion will not go unnoticed, and your blog will stand out from the crowd.
Josue Mora can be found blogging at
Blog All About It
by Josue Mora
I’m sad to learn of the passing of one of our clients, Jim Kingsland. I’ve never met Jim in person, but we had many in-depth conversations by phone and often talked about two topics he was expert in—the economy and the turbulent changes taking place in the media. In 2011, I wrote a story about him “In whom do you trust? The new gold standard”
Jim had a long career in media and started in radio at the age of 13. He was with Bloomberg Radio and TV and Fox Business News for many years.
Jim was also an avid coin collector, an expert in numismatics and the author of Precious Medals and Coins published by Random House in 2010. Aside from his expertise, Jim had a kind and gentle way about him that you don’t see too often. Even though he was battling diabetes that resulted in a liver transplant and a failing pancreas, everything about him exuded compassion, integrity and his deep faith in God. Jim is survived by his wife and three young children. We will miss him!
Jim Kingsland
in Memoriam 1963-2013