Product Blogging..?

[zach]

I was reading an article about "product blogging", here:

http://www.jagsenghera.com/how-i-transfo...instantly/

Having webmastered many merchandise sites, I am not sure how this can work. It would be great if someone could explain it. If you dedicate a blog to a single product, is the idea to get paid per sale or per click to the seller's site?

Has anyone tried this, and if so, what was the revenue like?

Thanks

Zach

[llegent]

Similiar to product blogging technic, I have also see some super affiliate promoting products using their newsletter. One of the newsletter that I join is thru this site :- http://ebooktimes.com/ . Almost every week the owner will be sending me some news and review on some products. And of course, if I do purchase the products, the webmaster will be earning some commission.

The thing that I noticed is that, for these type of product blogging or thru newsletter distribution, the affiliate will really need to have huge reader's base. The bigger the base, the better the earning will be. It is similiar to PPC based, just that the webmaster will have a better chance of putting more words to push the products and make it sell.:p

[andreww38]

ok, i'm coming from the internet marketing perspective.

as i'm blogging abt IM issues in my blog, I'll come across products which could help enhance marketing efforts, increase traffic, or increase closure rates.

i'd mention it in my blog, explain about how i've used it successfully, how it's increased my sales (eg. from $400 to $1000 in jag's case) and include the link.

so the blog has to have an overall focus (eg. sports betting, internet marketing, pet grooming, etc) and i'd introduce related products (not just one) to the community.

if they feel it's of value, they'd buy it.

does that make sense?

[vicki2]

It does make sense to me. If I take a consumer's viewpoint, if it comes up when I google it, I'll probably read it, and if it makes sense and is well-written, I might click to the product itself. So, the blogger's trick is to get it searchable.

[zach]

mmm... i still have trouble with that. Unless you have buyers who buy on the spur of the moment, I think it would be difficult to get someone to buy through clicking your link. I run a few Amazon affiliate sites, and I get many many click throughs, but few if any sales.

Does anyone know where Jag's product blog is so I can check it out? I don't see him advertising anything...

Zach

[jagsenghera]

Hi guys,

Zach. I dont advertise that particular blog for the security of my own income. I hope you understand that.

The Idea here is to get paid per sales. You dedicate the blog to a single deep niche not the product however you promote 1 product. You dont just put a link and send traffic to a site like Amazon and hope to convert sales.

You pre-frame you visitors on the product. Handle all their issue with regards of investing on the product. Show them its worthwhile and best if you show them how you used the product and made a difference. After you got them in the right frame of mind you tell them hey this is the link to go get the product. Am I making sense to you now? can you see what Im doing here.

Let me explain more. I have been blogging in that particular niche for almost 1 year now before I started to promote the prodcut. And I already have a regular bunch of readers that participate in that blog and I get more then 1000 uniques visitors to that blog daily. You can say that blog is quite establish in that niche.

By replacing the adsense links to the affiliate link (oh by the way the affiliate product Im promoting has a history of converting well in that niche) All I did was get rid of the middle man which is google.


Adsense Model

Your Blog => Google Adsense => Product Owner



Product Blogging Model

Your Blog => Product Owner


By doing that I was sending traffic to the sales copy of the affiliate product. What Im doing here is very similar to marketing to a email list however instead of emails I used the blog. Let me put it this way. If you know the Google Cash method. its about finding a affiliate product and advertising on google to send traffic to the sales page right. Well this is the same except I took google out of the picture. And use my blog which already bringing in traffic from natural sources to send traffic to the sales copy. Its that very hard to believe?


How could I get that amount of sales and high conversion rate?

1. I got alot of traffic and I used this traffic and funnel it to the sales copy using my blog.

2. I manage to convert higher because I dont hide what I was doing. I told my visitors upfront that clicking on the link will send them to a sales page of a product and I told them that it was worth investing in that product. They believe me because I have relationship with them that I build over a year by poviding them quality content and info.

3. You must follow basic Affiliate Marketing rules here. Its not just having a link on your site. You must make sure everything you do leads to your visitors believing that the product is worth the investment. Imagine your blog as a very long sales letter.


I wish this was something I found or discovers however the top blogger out there have been following this method all this while. Even Darren Rowse from problogger.net admits that this is a good way of making money from blogs.

Product blogging wont work if you are blogging on general niches or communities based niche (I just found this out). Its best works with a specific deep niche.

Please go ahead and test it out for your self.

[zach]

Thanks Jag, that's very interesting.

It seems to me (i might be wrong) that you are creating communities which are based around a specific interest and then try to feed merchandise to its members (in that order). You say that you have been working on your site for a long time, and have gained the confidence of your members. But in this sense, I am not sure that "product blogging" is the most appropriate term, because the blog is not a product blog, but rather an interest blog which feeds merchandise to its members. People dont go to your blog to buy stuff, and if they did they wouldn't come back so often - they go to your site because they have an interest in your nieche.

It must be hard to start a 'product blog' from scratch, instead of starting an 'interest blog' and then monitizing it later (as i think you did).

Zach

[triumph]

This can be a worthwhile if you have a large number of regular readers who have a high level of trust in you. You can then take that trust to promote products. Just be careful to do your homework. Too many bad products and you will lose the trust and the golden goose.

Unfortunately most people are not in a position to do this. If you don't have traffic, you can not do it, and even if you have a lot of traffic, if they are not hardcore loyal followers of your blog, you will not get them to act.

Not to mention if the blog just turns into a product placement push, you will use users as well. The key is being subtle but strong.

[vicki2]

This is an interesting exchange because I see more and more blogs getting really specific about content, and although most of them aren't using it as well as Jag, I can see where it's a trend. It really takes blogging out of the prose, editorial comment category into a bona fide money making site. Not without a huge amount of work though.

[andreww38]

i think the lesson here is that if you are looking at a sustainable business, you have to be willing to invest the time.

eg. domain parking/auctions: keyword research, bidding, selling

product/affiliate marketing: community building, product research/shortlisting, follow up, cross sell, upsell

adsense-supported blogging: niche research, consistent blog posting, traffic building, adsense blending.

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i guess the adage that anything worth doing will require time and effort holds true!