My Two Most Valuable Blogging Lessons of 2007
This post was guest blogged by Jimson Lee of Speed Endurance, a blog about running and being the best that you can be.
I went live with Speed Endurance on May 21, 2007. The Blog was originally inspired by Steve Pavlina’s Blog as a way to write the book I never wrote.
From there, I came across John Chow’s site from his targeted ad “I love Steve Pavlina… Your blog that is. Keep up the good work” campaign. Little did I realize that John lives in the same city as me!
After 7 months of blogging, here are the 2 most valuable lessons for 2007… the year of my blog:
1) You Can’t Predict the Future from Traffic Sources
I didn’t expect the power of a global audience. Where I thought I’d get the most traffic, I didn’t. Where I didn’t expect to get the most traffic, I got hammered. My site is primarily a running blog, and I was expecting most of my referrals from USA or Canada. However, traffic from South Africa and the UK are increasing weekly.
A lot of my traffic came from articles not written by me. For example, a guest post was Stumbled upon, which spiked the traffic on my server. This shows the importance of having a solid reliable web hosting company.
A lot of my traffic came from articles not about my niche, but it was “speed endurance” related. I had a personal story of a friend attempting a world record in pull-ups, and I kept a journal his last 8 weeks of training. I also included a video of the record attempt. Hence, a personal voice and video certainly draws readers.
2) Monetization Methods Changes Like the Weather
Who would expect Google to change their ad format to prevent accidental clicks? Only the URLs are clickable; white space around the ads can no longer produce a clickthru. This happened on Nov 14, and it certainly hurt a lot of Google Adsense publishers with a drop in Page CTR and Page eCPM.
Then there was the controversy over the sponsored links debate and Text Link Ads. Once upon a time it looked like a sure money winner with consistent monthly payouts and residual income, but now they are losing customers faster than Ben Johnson because they are afraid of Google and a drop in PageRank! Bloggers who relied on Google SERPS for their traffic quickly removed TLA. Other sites, like John Chow or Tyler Cruz, still maintains their TLA.
Thus, like the old cliche, never put all your eggs in one basket!
2008 and Beyond
I wonder what 2008 will bring us? Will we see the end of blogging? Will cell phones and text messaging become the new medium? Will PC sales drop in favor for hand held devices?
I was also surprised when checking my server logs, Internet Explorer and Firefox were the top 2 browsers (no surprise there). But I noticed an influx of the “Playstation 3″ browsers recently. With a lot of my readers being athletes, video games are their next best friend!
One thing is certain: death and taxes, but that’s another story. Which reminds me, you do have to declare ALL of your income from your ad networks!
Happy New Year!
- Posted in The Net
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I think more and more notebooks/UMPC-s will be sold in 2008, but I don’t know what will happen with the monetization methods. I mean we didn’t expect that Google will change the size of the clickable area of the Adsense ads…
Reply to this commentAs living in Northern Europe I’m not up to speed with the use of cell phones in America. But, here in Scandinavia SMS (text messaging) is big! A normal 14-15 year old kid sends 1500 - 3000 messages/month!
I think blogging is going to be bigger and more niche oriented in 2008.
Happy new year to you all!
Reply to this commentIt’s weird that the situation is similar in Eastern-Europe. Kids are sending crazy amounts of text messages daily.
Reply to this commentOf course, the WWW-equation has a lot of variables, but not all things change. Even if the Web’s infancy, as a visitor, if you liked the information you’ve come across (even if I still can’t get over how downright unappealing websites used to be as far as design is concerned back then), you would visit the website again. Has that changed? Of course not, and personally, I doubt it will anytime soon.
Alan Johnson
Reply to this commentI am also not able to reach out asia countries instead my blog is read by USA visitors and they take up 70% of my reader board.
Reply to this commentIf is giving useful information then it will still be on.
Reply to this commentI find that the second lesson on the list is true. My AdSense earnings go up and down like a roller coaster.
Reply to this commentWhile you do have to declare your income, you should be able to write most of it off (unless you’re making a lot) as business expenses. It’s important to know how to set up a home business and learn how to write about things that will allow you to write off your expenses. I assume that one of the reasons the John always writes about his dinners out on this blog is so he has a legitimate reason to write off the cost of those dinners as an expense for this blog. be creative and you can greatly reduce the amount you pay in taxes.
Reply to this commentThat’s a good idea… Hmm… I plan to get a new laptop next year so I can write the whole thing off.
Reply to this commentNice post there Jimson. Speaking of mobile devices, my blog is being viewed by hundreds of iPhones and iPods according to Google Analytics. It’s nice to see readers spending time on blogs like mine through their mobile devices.
Reply to this commentDo you test your Blog (i.e. design, usability, download speeds, etc) on a mobile device?
I only test mine from my Blackberry… if it passes that acid test, then great!
Reply to this commentNever put all your eggs in one basket!
Reply to this commentThats a lesson, most people earn every year when they keep doing the same thing over and over again!
Reply to this commentexactly what you said!
Reply to this commentI’m going to make a run for it with my $20 in income from ad networks
NO TAX! 
-Mike
Reply to this commentYou are working hard… you will get there
Reply to this commentBuild your business (or blog) site on solid foundations by investing some money and good time before you can expect to get some return. Nothing in this world is for free. Not even I am writing this comment for free. I am writing it in a hope that some one may visit my site as well. So, if anyone really serious about online business or blog, need to invest as well.
Reply to this commentOh man, my two worlds collide. I have always enjoyed Jimson’s blog and John’s blog and now they both meet. How in the world did running and making money come together?
Shane @ elitefeet.com
Reply to this comment@Shane - ever since I was challenged to monetize my Blog to see if it could match my coaching income.
The catch was ALL the information on my Blog must remain free of charge. Other sites were charging a “monthy membership fee” and I wanted to steer away from that.
The world has more poor athletes than rich ones. I choose to serve the former.
Reply to this commentJimson, congratulations on your monetization approach. There is nothing wrong with making money with a website which provides value to the Web such as yours. Your readers will definitely not mind since they are interested in the information you are providing, not in how many ads you place on your website.
Alan Johnson
Reply to this commentwell.. change is the only constant thing in this world.. that’s inevitable..
adsense lesson: had to get even with google since they kick me for accidental clicks ..
as per traffic logs; most of my traffic came from the u.s not from asia where i belong i.e. philippines. (no doubt coz jc
)
castles in the air: i agree with justin when building castles in the air just put foundations into it..
as a summary for my 6 months of blogging: i only see 3 types of bloggers in the bloggosphere..
average people : who blogs for money so they work hard (break even)
Reply to this commentabove par: who blogs for money so they work smart and they enjoy (earns money)
gifted : passionate about sharing their expertise through blogging and earning is just a bonus for being passionate.. no big deal for them if they earn or not but in the long run they earn more money..
rodel: btw, where’s the domain .ph?
Reply to this commentit’s located in the philippines..
Reply to this comment.ph domains were actually for phones but t’was given to our country instead and most webmasters find it useful since most of the domains are taken already..
Right now, as newbie bloggers, we get traffic from unexpected places
and little traffic from expected places. 
What could be more fun? 
Reply to this commentA couple of good points - interesting about the PS3 surfers
Reply to this commentPS3 surfers: very interesting- i don’t have visitors that use ps3 for browsing
Reply to this commentDint hear that before but interesting.
Reply to this commentYou can’t predict traffic sources, but you can give them a boost from where they are coming from i.e SEO, making “friends” on social bookmarking sites etc
Reply to this commentI learned the first lesson the hard way with my podcast and with the blog that hosts it. In the podcast space the digg.com / slashdot effect can be caused by being promoted on iTunes. The first time it happened it took out my server which was still running on a server in my home office. So I gave up some valuable traffic they were trying to send my way.
—
Chris Christensen
Reply to this commentAmateur Traveler podcast - http://AmateurTraveler.com
Tripinator - Travel 2.0 - http://tripinator.com
Traffic sources are sometimes really unpredictable,
but any ways,
I have a good news, within first three months my blog alexa rating is raised from 61,00,000 to 4,05,023.
Thanks to all my readers
Reply to this comment-abs (http://www.snackaday.com)
that’s indeed very good.. i started mid-october 2007 from the 4M+ ranks ..now i’m 800k+ for just 3 months as well and.. JC of course helped a lot..
Reply to this commentYou both know that alexa rankings are complete crap right? And even if they weren’t, going from 4m to 800k in three months isn’t all that impressive.
Reply to this comment