Blogging Tips — Page 4

Blogging Tips: Getting Started with Integrate.com

Affiliate Marketing: Integrate.com

When you want to start earning an income with your blog, the first step for most people is to get started with Affiliate Marketing. {To learn more about the basics of Affiliate Marketing, read Earning an Income with Your Blog} And many of us get started with the same affiliates, like Escalate Media, MySavings Media, and Logical Media. All three of these companies are really similar – once you learn how to use one site, you can easily use the others. But logging into Integrate for the first time can be a bit intimidating! It’s VERY different than most of the other affiliate companies that I’ve worked with in the past – but once you learn the basics, you’ll see that those differences are what make it awesome.

Getting Started: Your Integrate Dashboard

If you’re not signed up with Integrate.com yet, you can get started here – Integrate Sign Up. Go on and get started – I’ll wait.

Ok, now that we’re all members – Let’s log in! You’ll find the log-in button on the top right side; there are options to log-in as a Buyer or a Seller – Buyers are companies that are paying for campaigns, Sellers are you – people who are sharing those campaigns for earnings. Now you’re in your Dashboard, which is the most important part of the site for you, and the main thing that you need to learn about. There is a lot of info on Integrate, but I’m only going to cover the basics of what you need to start earning, deal? If you want to learn more, contact your affiliate manager {find their contact info on the bottom portion of your Dashboard}, or read the FAQ page.

Messaging:

This is pretty obvious – these are your messages. Click Notifications to see a list of campaigns. Click a campaign, and you’ll see some options pop up – “View Campaign” shows you more info about that offer. “View Profile” shows you info about that company. Then you have “Agree” and “Counter” – this is where you can agree to accept that campaign, or counter by asking for a higher payout. Or, just remove it altogether if it’s not something you’ll run. Sometimes you’ll also see unread messages in this tab – these are from companies running campaigns, sharing info or asking you a question.

Campaigns:

This is the most important tab. Click it to see your Active, Pending, and Inactive campaigns. When you sign up at Integrate, you’ll give some info about your blog. Integrate then uses this info to automatically match you with campaigns that they think you’ll do well with – these will show up in your Active Campaigns. Click on a campaign name to see the Payout {how much you’ll earn per click or conversion}, your allocation {the max you’re allowed to paid for}, and the description. On the left you’ll see a link for campaign creatives – this is where you can find banner codes to place on your site. Pending campaigns are offers that are awaiting approval – Click “Start Negotiations” to make a deal on price and allocation with the Buyer, so you can start running those campaigns.

Helpful Tip: Once you are matched with a campaign, you have 48 hours to either accept it or begin negotiation with the Buyer. If you do not take some sort of action within 48 hours, the match will expire.

You can also Browse Campaigns – this is where you find new campaigns to run in addition to the ones that have been automatically matched to you. If you find something that you like, click the Request box, and enter the info you want to send to the Buyer – how much you want to earn, and the allocation – which means, how many leads do you think you’ll send their way? Leave a personal message if you want, and send it. If they accept it, you’ll see it soon in your active campaigns!

Accounting:

You can click this tab to see your monthly statements, to view your earnings. You can also view your earnings by going back to your main Dashboard, and checking out the Quick Stats chart – The first box lets you view by clicks, conversions, or earnings, and the second box lets you view by month, week, or day.

Campaign Fulfillment:

This is another fun tool – the little pie chart on your dashboard. It gives you a visual of what percent of your earnings are coming from each offer that you’re running. I love it.

Great Campaigns to Run:

I’ve had a few people ask me which campaigns I’ve had success with so far, so here are a few you can search for if you’re having trouble finding campaigns that you like:

CID: 6965, Baby to Bee – $1.32 per conversion
CID: 6531, Bake Pops – $7.82 per conversion
CID: 5782, HomeSav – $2.04 per conversion
CID: 4498 Disney Movie Club – $16.02 per conversion
CID: 6632, Food on the Table – .75 per conversion
CID: 5995, Fooz Kids – $18 per conversion

Negotiations:

This is one of the really cool features that sets Integrate apart from other affiliate companies – you can negotiate for higher payouts! If you’re doing well with a campaign, you can ask the Buyer for a higher payout, since you’re driving them so much traffic. Or, if they’ve only given you a small allocation, and you’re bringing way more traffic than that – ask them to give you a higher allocation! You have to be reasonable, and have respect for the Buyers budgets – but it’s very cool to have that ability to contact them. Integrate is more of the “middle man” – they aren’t paying us, they’re connecting us with Buyers who want to pay us, collecting those payments, and then lumping it together into one check for us.

{Blogging Tips} Earning an income with your blog- Part 1

There are tons of ways to earn an income from your blog, if that is one of your goals. For me, my blog started out as a fun way for me to share all of my tips on getting daily freebies, finding sweet deals, and winning giveaways. But when I lost my job, I decided to focus on the blog as a business, and see if it could help me stay home longer with my new baby girl while still paying the bills.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is when you are compensated by a company for promoting their business. There are tons of different ways that this can work.

Click here to view a larger version.

[Image provided courtesy of the Sugarrae affiliate marketing blog.]

Direct affiliate relationships with companies: Some companies let you sign up {often through an affiliate management site} to promote their store or site directly, and you earn a percentage of sales on every purchase that someone makes, if they arrive at the site from one of your affiliate links.
Finding Partners: A great way to find new affiliate partnerships is to check out some sites for companies that you already love, and look down at the very bottom for something that says Affiliate Sign Up. That will either bring you directly to an application, or most likely, to a management company like Revenue Curve, Commission Junction, Pepperjam Network, or one of the million other sites out there.
Not for Newbies: I signed up for a few of these when I was a brand new blogger, but I don’t advise doing this until you’ve had your blog for at least 6 months. After you sign up and are approved for a site like Commission Junction, you get to choose companies to partner with, and you apply for that opportunity. Many of the companies I liked didn’t accept me because I was so new. Plus, most of these sites require you to reach $100 in revenue before you can cash out, which is really discouraging when you’re brand new. Most of these partnerships only pay you when someone makes a purchase, which is good and bad. Good = You can earn some big profits when you use this type of affiliate relationship effectively. Bad = If you have really low traffic, it’s going to take a long time to earn enough to cash out.

Great Options for New Bloggers:

Here are some of the sites that worked really great for me right away, and that I’m still using today to share quality content, deals, and sites, while also earning some income. Amazon pays you a small percent of anything purchased through one of their links, but since they have such great deals and huge selection, it’s an easy way to find great things to promote.

The other three affiliate programs work very similar; you choose an offer, post the graphic or link to your site, and earn money either when someone clicks on it, or when they sign up for a cool offer you’ve shared. Easy peasy!

Amazon: Learn more about their easy to use program, and sign up as an affiliate, Amazon Sign Up.
MySavings Media: Promote brand name coupons and free product samples on your web site or blog. Great selection of offers and companies to promote. Click Here.
Escalate Media: Very user friendly, with amazing service and support. I participated in one of their live webinars/chats, and it was super helpful. Sign Up here.
Logical Media: Get $25 free in your account when joining through this referral link. Click Here.

Tips for Affiliate Marketing

There are a million places to learn some great tips for maximizing your affiliate earnings; check out some sites like Copyblogger, Savvy Blogging, and Blogelina are some of my favorite resources for blogging tips and great info.

Here are my best tips for getting started with affiliate marketing:

Promotion tips: Only promote a service/offer/company that you would use yourself. You want to be promoting things that you already love, and new things that you find that YOU want to use too, and not spreading around a bunch of random offers just to make some cash. If I read a blog, and they start promoting offers that are sorta spammy, or start posting about companies that aren’t at all relevant to me, I’ll stop following them. You’re FIRST focus is sharing quality content. Find affiliates that can help add to that, and you’ll make your readers happy! Reading about a hair club for men? Not helpful to me. Reading about a really awesome sale on Diapers from Amazon? Very helpful :)
Use ’em yourself: If you use sites like Escalate or MySavings, sign up for the sites that you share with your readers! Example: I only promote survey sites that I personally use, so that I know they’re legit. I would NEVER promote something to my readers that I don’t know much about. Once in a while I come across something that looks cool, so I share before I fully check it out… Big mistake. I once shared what LOOKED like a cool giveaway, but once I tried to enter it, I realized it was FILLED with spammy offers! Yuck.
Always remember… The offers should be providing a benefit to your readers! Ask yourself, “Why am I sharing this link?” Is it a cool brand or product that you think your readers would love learning about? A great sale, or cool freebie site? Make sure you are sharing because your readers will benefit, not because you might make some money. {I mean, obviously earning an income is your goal. Just make sure to do it the right way, you know?}

Ok, so all three of those tips are kind of similar, but good stuff to keep in mind!

Ad Networks:

You can also set up an account with an ad network like Google Adsense, to earn some income on your blog. This can be a pretty easy way to earn, since you usually just set up these ad’s in your header, footer, or sidebar, and then earn money per click or action taken by the reader. It’s the same idea as affiliate marketing, except that you’re not choosing the ads or companies, the ad network chooses for you.

Google Adsense: Get started with an account here- Adsense Sign Up.

BlogHer Ad Network: I haven’t used them yet, since they are not accepting blogs in my category right now. But I’ve heard really great things about them. BlogHer Ads.

Federated Media: I haven’t used this yet, but I’ve heard good things about it. You can sign up here and learn more about how it works.

Sell Your Own Ads!

A lot of bloggers also sell their own ad space, and this is a great option to consider. I plan to start offering paid ad space soon, {I’m in the process of getting a whole blog redesign done by Angie over at Strosgirl Designs, and am waiting until I get the new site launched!}

Selling your own ad space can be a great way to earn some consistent revenue, but has some challenges too. You need to decide how much to charge, what size of ad space to offer, and what the terms will be. This is something that will be TOTALLY different for every blog, and every blogger. The best tip to help you figure it out is… How much value do you think you can provide to the person who buys that ad space? What would YOU pay for that same space on someone elses blog? This will help you determine not how much you can get, but how much is FAIR to charge.

Conclusion:

Adding some affiliate marketing or ad space can be a really simple way to start earning revenue from your blog; it can also be a way to earn a real income once you gain some traffic! The options are endless… You can start with a service like Escalate Media that is super user friendly and easy to get started with, or use a site like Commission Junction to partner with some top brands. Every blog is different, and will have different goals, so check out a few places to find the best fit for you!

Time to share!

I’d love to hear what networks you guys use, who you’re happy with, who you think could use improvement…. Do you sell your own ad space? What advice do you have to share? Lets get some chat going on in the comments section! I love learning from other bloggers :) And if you know someone else that could benefit from this series, feel free to use the share buttons to add this to facebook or twitter.

{Intro} Blogging Tips: What are YOUR Blog Goals?

Starting a blog is loads of work, but can also be loads of fun. In my short time blogging, I’ve already met so many great new people, made great relationships, partnered with some awesome brands, and have gotten some cool experiences!

About Me- The face behind Sunshine and Sippy Cups

As many of you already know, my name is Meagan, and I’m the stay-at-home momma of a little girl who will be turning a year old this month. I started Sunshine and Sippy Cups back in February of 2011, so I’ve only been blogging for about 6 months… But, I do it almost full time, and put a lot of work and effort into learning as much as I can. I was a totally NON-techy person when I started this site, so, um… It was challenging, to say the least! I was SO proud of myself when I realized that I had just purchased a domain name, installed WordPress on a Blog Hosting at GoDaddy.com account that I had set up all by myself, and now had my very own self-hosted WordPress blog! Wooo! I thought that the hard part was over, and it’d be easy peasy from then on.

I was wrong, lol.

There have been HUGE challenges… Learning some basic HTML code, SEO tips, how to add photo and video to my blog posts, and, even though I swore I’d never do it, I had to learn how to use Twitter! {A social networking site that EVERYONE uses but me, then not being able to figure it out, made me feel much older than my 31 years…}

But there have also been HUGE rewards! I’m steadily growing in followers, revenue, and partnerships, which is so exciting. I’ve gotten to partner with Baby Brezza for their new cookbook {you’ll see the baby and I in their new book, released soon!}, I’ve learned so much as a syndicate partner for the ultra-amazing Digitwirl weekly videos, and had a blast learning and connecting with some great ladies at the recent Lady Bloggers Society Online Conference. {I highly reccommend this one if you are a newer blogger who can’t yet afford the time and money to go to one of the big blogging conferences!}

Sharing is Caring, right?

So, since I learned a lot from the advice and tips that other bloggers shared with me, I want to give back and share some of what I’ve learned! I felt like it was really hard to find blogging advice that applied to me when I first started, so I hope I can share some helpful tips with you guys, and answer some questions that I’ve been asked really often lately.

Blogging Tips Series Starts Today!

Over the next two weeks, I’ll be sharing at LEAST one post a day, maybe more, filled with tips and resources to help you be a better blogger.

I’m starting today with some tips on increasing the revenue you earn from your blog, since that is the question that I get asked the most. Over the next two weeks I plan to share on the following topics:

Giveaways: How to run an effective giveaway, some do’s and don’ts, how to promote your giveaway and get more entries, and how to get prizes for those giveaways!
Followers: When I first started blogging, I would publish a post, and it seemed like I could hear the crickets chirping, you know? Was ANYONE out there reading my posts? I know we don’t do it just for the attention, but it’s nice to know that someone is reading, and that you’re information is appreciated. I’ll share some tips on how to get your blog seen by more people, and how to find some new faces!
Product Reviews: I’ll also share a TON of great resources that can help you get FREE products to review, some tips on effective review writing, and more.
Networks: There are so many great networks out there, you’re sure to find a few that are a good fit for you! Joining a network is an amazing way to learn from other bloggers like yourself, ask questions, and partner with others for fun events. You can also find great brand sponsorship partnerships through some of these networks, to get paid post opportunties and giveaway prizes.
More Revenue Options: Like I mentioned, this is the question that I get asked the most, so I’ll have 3-4 posts sharing different ways to earn money from your blog. There are a million different types of blogs, and a million different goals, so I want to give you a lot of fun options to choose from to help you meet YOUR unique goals as a blogger!
Social Networking: Some tips to make the most of Facebook and Twitter, some etiquette tips, and some stuff thats just for fun.

Share your questions and goals!

I’d LOVE to hear more from you guys, about what you want to learn. I don’t know everything {surprising, I know}, and am no expert on blogging at all. But I’ve read a ton of books, subscribed to a load of great newsletters, and have learned so much already. I know many of you are also working full time jobs in addition to blogging, and don’t have as much time to track down the info you need, so I hope the resources I share will help you!

Share your goals for your blog in the comments… One of the things that I like most about blogging is the community of it. I love sharing my thoughts, and then getting to hear back from others when they add to it with their comments. So share with me, and the other lovely ladies reading: Why did you start blogging? What are your goals? What are your biggest challenges? Or, if you have a great tip to share, post it!