This post is a commentary on “There’s No Money in the Long Tail of the Blogosphere”.

Many blogs started by aspiring probloggers fall into this “long tail” category in terms of traffic and readership. I haven’t read Chris Anderson’s book but the concept of the long tail is quite simple. We can apply the concept to blogs and websites. For example, having many niche websites is to try to capitalize on the long tail effect. If you have some traffic to all of these sites, the total of all the sites in your network would generate quite substantial traffic.

Instead of building a general catch-all site, build smaller tightly niched sites and capture highly targeted traffic. Then when you think about monetizing those sites, you may see that your conversion rates are higher than if you have a huge general site.

The same goes for blogs. Think about the audience you are writing for. Although blogs in the true sense of the word is a “weblog” i.e. a web journal or a web diary, for probloggers, they are writing mainly for an audience and not for themselves. The question is then how do you monetize your blog based on the audience you are writing for?

The key is to build traffic in your specific niche. Even if you’re not pulling in massive traffic like Engadget or Perez Hilton, you can still build up your traffic base by advertising on other blogs with readers that will be interested in your blog. For example, if you’re a personal finance blogger, your readers may also be readers of blogs about making money online. Tech blog readers will probably also be interested in gadget blogs.

The question isn’t if there IS any money in the long tail. The question is HOW MUCH. How much money is enough?

Technorati Tags: long tail blogs

Popularity: 29% [?]

Seems like bloggers who make money online are getting younger and younger.

Here are 3 I’ve found recently.

If they can do it, why can’t you?

www.techzi.net - Age 12

www.moneymakerboy.com - Age 12

www.carlocab.com - Age 13

What’s holding you back? Start today!

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Technorati Tags: make money blogs, youngest bloggers

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Here’s an article from the Christian Science Monitor that talks about bloggers who are making money from their blogs. It’s from Feb. 2007 but the principles still apply today.

Bloggers Can Make Money But Most Keep Day Jobs

Here’s a quote from Darren that I like:

Several highly successful bloggers also caution that there’s no free lunch. “I worked anything from eight- to 16-hour days over the last three or four years just trying to do this,” says Mr. Rowse. “And a lot of people don’t see that.”

Technorati Tags: problogging, make money blogging

Popularity: 47% [?]

Danny Choo is a blogger who has nearly 10 million pageviews and 56,610 unique visitors PER DAY in Oct. 07 (see his Oct stats here). What draws visitors to the blog is content and DannyChoo.com has tons of it, some of which are user-generated. The blog is primarily drawing anime fans and folks who came through the various stormtrooper videos posted on YouTube. (Hint, hint - that’s a good way to draw traffic to your blog if you have something funny that you can post on YouTube)

Yeah… videos like this one:

Revenue generation is through AdSense where he uses a revenue sharing model. Affiliate sales also generate revenues for the site.

So what are the earnings for DannyChoo.com?

Here are some quotes from the site:

“Google Adsense is actually the lowest generating form of income for me.”

“On a good day I get about 50 USD and make enough from it to pay for all my monthly bills (hosting, telephone, electric, gas yada yada), my monthly mags and a few figures.”

“The most I have ever made through all my affiliate programs is just over 1000 USD per day last December (06) - my next goal is to keep it a steady 1000 by Q4 of this year - nearly there. ”

Since these data are a bit dated (from around April 07 or thereabouts), going by the reported affliate+AdSense earnings, I’m guessing that the site is now making around $40,000 - $50,000 per month.

Danny used to work for companies like Amazon and Microsoft before deciding to venture out on his own. He is using the earnings from his blog to fund his company rather than taking money from VCs. You should definitely check out his site and learn from his success.

Technorati Tags: Danny Choo, blog earnings

Popularity: 76% [?]

Better known as AshBo on her MySpace profile, Ashley Qualls is the owner of the website Whateverlife.com. Her success has been featured in Fast Company. She’s just 17 and has already achieved a lot of financial success with her website. It just goes to show that anyone with enough passion and know-how, at the right place and the right time can do it.

Here’s an excerpt of the article:

“At 17 going on 37 (at least), Ashley is very much an Internet professional. In the less than two years since Whateverlife took off, she has dropped out of high school, bought a house, helped launch artists such as Lily Allen, and rejected offers to buy her young company. Although Ashley was flattered to be offered $1.5 million and a car of her choice–as long as the price tag wasn’t more than $100,000–she responded, in effect, Whatever. “I don’t even have my license yet,” she says.”

So what does 7 million unique visitors and 60 million pageviews translate to in terms of revenues? Ashley reportedly rakes in around $70,000 per month. Revenue is mainly from advertising to the target market - teenage girls who want to customize their own MySpace page.

Content

In terms of content, there are tutorials on just about everything you need to know about MySpace. You can also grab layouts, banners, fonts, glitters, buttons, etc. The homepage of WhateverLife also features music videos. Leveraging the reach of the site, Ashley has also helped to launch the music careers of Lily Allen and the Jonas Brothers.

Site Growth

Ashbo has surely been keeping busy. To further leverage her brand, she has also launched WhateverLife Magazine, ShopWhateverLife.com and the SnazzyBoot forum.

The sites are growing so fast that she is even hiring for help.

So the lesson here is that you don’t have to have a lot of experience to start being successful at a young age. What you need to have is a passion for something and focus on that passion. The money will follow. If it doesn’t, hey, at least you’re doing something you love.

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Technorati Tags: whateverlife.com, ashley qualls, ashbo, myspace layouts

Popularity: 53% [?]