Blogging for a Target Market

Blogging is an effective way to earn an income while writing about something you are passionate about. It is sometimes too easy to let your blog run astray so make sure you always have your target market in mind.

The most effective blogs stay true to their main focus and primary target market. Your ability to keep your blog’s focus on your target market will be result in greater loyalty from your readers as well as greater opportunities to earn money on or through your blog.

You should try to get as specific as you can when determining who your target market is. For example, the criteria you may consider when determining your target market may include:

•   Age

•  Children or no children

•   Ethnic background 

•  Gender Geographic area

•  Income bracket

•   Marital status

•   Religious background

•   Sexual orientation, etc.

These are just some of the characteristics you can consider when identifying your target market.

Identify Interests of Target Market

Once you have identified your target market and described them you need to start to determine what interests them and what does not. You can use social media sites like Facebook to gain some insight into your target market.

Remember, your target market will have diverse interests so you want to try to identify trends and similarities. Try to stay as close to your blog’s primary purpose as possible. Identifying their interests will enable you to make appropriate references in your blog rather than add entirely new subjects that have little relevance to your primary subject.

Invite Feedback from Target Market

You can invite feedback about your blog from your target market on your blog or on social media sites. Input from your target market is a great way to make sure you are on point and will help you make sure your blog is serving your target market well.

Blogs should be viewed as conversations not monologues. Your readers will feel more loyalty if they can contribute to your blog and start dialogues with you and other followers of your blog.

Do not get in the habit of thinking you are the only one that should offer commentary on your blog or you will have very few followers.

Identify your target market, focus on their needs and welcome them as part of your blog and you can be well on your way to successful blogging.

Monetizing Your Blog -Make Money Blogging

Some people blog for the pure pleasure of blogging about something they are passionate about. Some people blog with the goal of making money. There are a number of ways you can monetize your blog. You can choose one or more of them depending on which is the most appropriate for you blog’s topic and your blog’s followers.

Making Money with Affiliate Arrangements

Depending on the topics of your blog you may be able to make money through affiliate relationships. If your blog is on a topic that relates directly to products you can almost assuredly make money by placing affiliates’ ads on your site.

For example, if you have a blog about accessories you can sign-up for affiliate programs from retailers of accessories. You can place affiliate ads on your blog as well as add affiliate links in your actual blog postings.
The affiliate relationships may even drive some of your content. If you can earn money by mentioning a new product or service on your blog and provide a link (with the affiliate tracking code) to a retailer offering the product you can earn a percentage of the sale.

You can also contact retailers directly and request that they offer your readers a coupon code. The coupon code would give your readers a discount and earn you a commission for every sale. This way both you and your readers benefit from the affiliate arrangement.

PPC Ads on Your Blog

You can add Google, Yahoo and Bing ads to your blog as well. You will earn some money every time someone clicks on the link from your blog. If you are going to do this it is important that you use ad filters so you can make sure that the ads that appear on your blog are appropriate for your target market.

You do not want ads for the sake of having ads. You want ads which are relevant to your target market. The more relevant the ads are the more likely the ads will be clicked on by your readers.

A high-traffic blog can make considerable money through PPC ads though perhaps not as much as if done through the right affiliate relationships.

The bottom line is you can monetize your site with affiliate relationships and PPC ads. If you are taking the time to write compelling content you should reap the rewards of your effort. Go ahead and monetize your blog in one or both ways.