Steve Andrews's Blog

Before the advent of Twitter, bloggers were generally segregated into two - the elite, high-end bloggers who were mostly full-time bloggers and excelled in their work, and the hobbyist or wannabe bloggers who couldn’t quite ‘get there’.

Being popular and having to work hard for long hours, probloggers were generally found lacking in conversations with smaller bloggers. Of course, you may point out some exceptions, but they were just that: exceptions.

Fast-forward to the age of Twitter, and bloggers of any stature are able to communicate with probloggers. The role of Twitter: to provide a level playing field. No longer would you have to spend time commenting on other blogs to get bloggers to notice you and give you a reply. Michael Arrington, Darren Rowse, Chris Garrett, Robert Scoble - they’re all on Twitter and a @tweet away.

Here’s my own experience: I have contacted and/or established acquaintance with Darren Rowse (Problogger.net), Daniel Scocco (Daily Blog Tips), Amit Agarwal (Digital Inspiration) and of course, PChere (this blog) for this guest posting opportunity.

Some benefits of using Twitter as opposed to IM or email:

• Bloggers can chose to receive tweets when they want. This can be a boon when you’re busy and hurrying to meet deadlines. It is almost like an RSS feed for your instant messages - you chose when to receive content. In other words, it is a ‘pull’ system of communication (where you decide when to get the messages).
• Bloggers are no longer considered rude if they do not answer immediately. When using instant messaging or emails, most people take offense if you do not reply. However, in the ad-hoc world of Twitter, there are several reasons why someone may not reply: Twitter fails to deliver tweets sometimes, the recipient may be busy (and may miss it when coming back later) and/or both parties may forget.

Ultimately, Twitter’s best use for bloggers comes from the fact that it helps smaller bloggers communicate effectively and clearly, and those who ask questions will be heard, whether you are a no-name blogger, an up-and-coming blogger or a problogger.

My plan has always been to build the base of my blog before worrying about monetizing it and as such I have not put much effort into the monetization piece of it until recently. I decided to give it a go for February and start trying to introduce some private ad sales and a few other sources of income. I am far from where I expect to end up but happy overall with my first real month of effort.

If you consider these two revelations, that people like income reports and I am starting to earn income from my blog then it would only make sense that I will start providing an income report. It goes against my nature and I am not sure that I will continue them in the future but we’ll see how it goes.

The income that I am reporting is 100% generated by this blog and this blog alone, I am not including any revenue generated via ebay or my niche sites. I didn’t see the relevance of that income as most are more interested in what they can earn via a blog.

Buying and selling ads without the middleman

When selling link and text ads on your site you have 2 options sell ads privately or use an agency such as linkworth, textlink ads or PPP. Their are benefits too both ways of selling advertising space on your website.

Benefits of using a middleman

Using an agency or middleman means you don't have the hassles of trying to find advertisers, telling them about your site, negotiating the price and then looking after them when they keep emailing you to say their links aren't there and THEY ARE THERE.

Ad Agencies

Selling ads using a middle man means you might have to sell them slightly cheaper, all publishers sell ads at a slightly lower price to agencies even large newspapers and TV Channels they don't have the costs involved with trying to find ad buyers. Rupert Murdoch would sell you an ad cheaper if you were an agency.