Blog Owners - Do You Blog For Money Or Traffic?

I was just talking to someone about blogs, specifically porn blogs who was telling me that a lot of people running their own blogs are making some very fundamental mistakes, namely, that a lot of affiliates/webmasters look at blogs as a way to make money when in fact, he has found the best way to use blogs isnt to generate income off the blog itself, but by redirecting that blog traffic to other sites of 'interest'.

For example, if he posts about mature women, rather than sending someone reading his blog entry to a mature sponsor, he'll actually send that reader to a free site or a link list that he owns, where the reader can then decide which of his sponsors they want to signup for.

I was just wondering, knowing that quite a few of you folks have your own blogs, if you fell in to this mistake, meaning, are you trying to 'sell' the surfer from your blog rather than gain the traffic and send it off to sites that are proven to sell the surfer better than a 1 or 2 paragraph blog entry could?

Regards,

Lee

Lee,

An interesting concept you've brought up.

My blog is a long term 'community' generator for my particular niche. The traffic my blog receives is traffic that might not neccessarily find its way directly to my paysites.

My blog is celebrating its 2nd Birthday early in May and so far I haven't done a hard sell on it and I'm currently working on a more subtle sell - your idea of directing the traffic to a MGP or TGP of my own could work.

I'll let you know how it goes.


Dave

Ok time to rethink what I am doing, sending to a TGP only makes sense, especially if all of the links on it are yours.

"...if he posts about mature women, rather than sending someone reading his blog entry to a mature sponsor, he'll actually send that reader to a free site or a link list that he owns, where the reader can then decide which of his sponsors they want to signup for..."

You're just delaying the inevitable. If you want him to buy something, don't make him jump through hoops or you'll lose him. If you're writing about mature women, he'll only click if he wants to see more of the same. If you re-direct him to something other than what he thinks he's clicking, he'll no longer trust you.

My answer would be both. I have some blogs making the money and others building traffic to redirect to a reviewsite or linklist.

I would never send surfers from a blog to a TGP, because it probably won't help to close the deal. Blog surfers are eager to buy something and you don't want to send them to a page full of free porn. The TGP might be enough for them to get off and just leave.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by barnkin

Ok time to rethink what I am doing, sending to a TGP only makes sense, especially if all of the links on it are yours.

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I wouldnt send it to a TGP where the surfer could find thousands of free galleries, id use a link list of a hub site.

Regards,

Lee

Not even a fake TGP? That is why I am here, to learn how not to make mistakes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by barnkin

Not even a fake TGP? That is why I am here, to learn how not to make mistakes.

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Well the idea from what i gather is to make the blog reader become a productive surfer by not giving them stuff for 'free' so sending them to a TGP, even a fake one, is going to start conditioning them to look for TGPs with more content on them.

IMHO its much better to send them to a link list (where they will see more of your ads than they will content).

Just like pocoloc said above, TGPs tend to allow surfers to get off for free, links lists not so much.

Regards,

Lee

That makes sense, Thank You !!

Barnkin, try to use to the following:

When redirecting a surfer to one of your other pages, do not give him more free stuff. Reduce the content and increase the possibility to sign up to whatever.

Example : (FAKE)TGP > BLOG > REVIEW SITE

You can also combine: On a blog you can offer a link to a sponsors tourpage AND a link to a reviewsite. Surfers who made up their mind, will click the link to the tourpage. Surfers who have doubts, will go for the review first.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pocoloco78

Example : (FAKE)TGP > BLOG > REVIEW SITE

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That actually seems to be the clickstream data im seeing for our hosted review site at Adams Reviews, a lot of blog owners, rather than sending the traffic directly to the site tours, are sending traffic to the reviews and getting sales from that.

Regards,

Lee