The other day, I read a book about content marketing. The point of content marketing is to produce articles or whitepapers that lead readers to buy something that you are selling. For example, a blog may provide some free tips on how to be a blogger in order to promote the purchase of an ebook or training program about making a lot of money at blogging.
 |
| What Am I Selling Here? |
The author of the book on content marketing stated several times that if you are blogging and don't know what you are selling on your blog, then you're wasting your time.
This made me think: what is it I am selling on this blog? Of course, I am promoting my e-book with 101 tips to save money. I have sold 10's of thousands of copies. The problem (for me) is that it is selling for the price of free! Does it count if what you are selling is free?
Another thing I am selling on my blog is advertising. Last night I loaded the Penny Pincher Journal homepage on my cell phone and I noticed there were 2 banner ads: one for Honda featuring their new minivan and one for CBS featuring new episodes of Big Bang Theory. It's cool that international businesses like Honda and CBS are choosing to advertise on my blog. The good news (for you) is that this advertising doesn't cost readers anything.
Now that I think about it, something I am selling on this blog is: myself. By having a collection of published articles, I was able to land a nice freelance writing gig at Wise Bread. This has brought in some money and has lead to syndicated articles at time.com, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, and a number of other high profile places. I have also gotten to write some guest posts at other blogs due to my presence on this blog.
I did try making a few products that cost money:
- $3.99 for my Penny Pincher Journal e-book from Amazon
- $6.95 for an audiobook of my "101 tips" ebook from Audible.com
- $14.95 for an audiobook of my Penny Pincher Journal book from Audible.com
Two things I learned from marketing both free products and products that cost money:
- You have to sell free products. Just because it's free doesn't mean people will want it. You have to convince them that it is worth their time and hassle even if it is free.
- Free products are a lot easier to sell than products that cost money. Even if you are charging just a little bit of money, it is a quantum leap for most people to decide to spend money on buying something vs. a free download or viewing a free webpage.
I like this plan because it doesn't take money from those people who are here trying to find ways to save money! The money comes from advertisers who make money from the sales leads that the ads produce. Everyone wins. The trick is to bring in enough readers to make the advertising pay.
And I'll keep writing articles as a freelancer to sell to publishers. This gets my name out there, spreads my message, and brings in some money. This allows people who can benefit from information on saving money to get it for free. The publishers pay me for my articles and get paid from advertising revenue on their site. Advertisers make money from sales leads. Again, everyone wins.
So here's what I'm selling on this blog: I am giving away tips and resources on saving money for free in order to generate some revenue from advertising and to promote my ability to sell articles to other publishers.
For me, producing and trying to sell my ebook and audiobooks that cost money has been more of a waste of time than simply giving my stuff away for free. I plan to focus on promoting my free stuff, producing more really great free stuff, and not worry about selling anything.
Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Penny Pincher. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy
No comments:
Post a Comment