Ever sit down one morning atter enjoying 23 cups of coffee and say to yourself:
"Jeepers Self, I wonder if my blog’s sidebar is proactively Being All It Can Be and helping beef up my bottom line, compared to sending visitors screaming frantically in search of white out for their computer screen?"
Yep, me neither. However!
It IS a fact that your sidebar can either help you make money online…or simply wrap itself like a decayed sodden iron ball and chain around your hopeful future income.
And here’s how.
Step 1.) Take stock of how many ways you have to make money via your blog.
How ARE you making money from your site? You don’t have to make money today, you know…simply building your list or gaining subscribers goes leagues towards increasing FUTURE profits down the road.
Do you have an optin:
- Newsletter
- RSS feed
- Free ebook
- Free 7 Day eClass
If so, make certain to carve out a spot on your sidebar for that.
What about affiliate programs? Do you have favorite affiliate programs that you market?
If so, not only can you include links to specific products, but you can also use Amazon.com or eBay.com to add precisely targeted products as a final afterthought.
What about Adsense/PPC/etc.? Now, I personally don’t really use Adsense myself anymore (eBay is far more profitable for me) but hey, your mileage may vary. Make sure to incorporate that as well.
And hey! Do you have any OTHER favorite blogs? You can incorporate an RSS feed to those sites to showcase your other writings, your Twitter stream, your favorite stumbles etc.
What about your favorite links? You can create several link categories like so:
- Favs – (here you’d put in your favorite blogs that you visit)
- Resources – (here you’d put in affiliate links to your favorite products)
Now, you might be asking…why would you add links to your favorite blogs if you do not make any money off of them?
Simple!! For one thing, it’s good manners to highlight the sites you follow and appreciate…and for another, you can create some rather nifty blog exchanges with others in your niche.
This has the fantastic benefit of gently increasing visibility to both parties (you and the people to whom you link). That ensures more and more people find your blog online.
Co-operation and sharing online – it works wonders!
And wow, speaking of sharing…you probably have a presence in social networks, right?
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
Stumbleupon
Your sidebar is a prime location to easily give people a quick and easy method for networking up with you.
Hey! And I almost forgot – Blog Advertising (ie, those cute little 125×125 squares you can put on your site and then charge people for the privilege of advertising there!)
Once you’ve decided just what you want to add in your sidebar, move to:
Step 2.) Open a notepad and jot down EVERYTHING you want to include.
Yes, I know….keeping track of things is so non-computer-like. But trust me…it’s sooo easy to let critical items slip between the cracks when updating your sidebar.
Once you boldly have made the decision that YES I SHALL PREVAIL! and are ready to start tweakizing….
Step 3.) Ask yourself….HOW should I order them?
The most valuable real estate on your website is the top. Thus, you should have the most important business-relevant (ie, monetizing, networking, customer generation, etc.etc.etc.) resources right where your visitors simply CANNOT miss them.
For example, perhaps your main goal with your blog is to build your list.
You should blazingly offer your autoresponder optin as one of the most prominent features of your sidebar like so:
Or perhaps…you want to allow people to spread the word about your posts instead.
In that case, you’d highlight prominently all the ways people can Stumble or Digg or what have you…your post like BarbaraLing.com sidebar:
Once you finally have sketched out in your mind just HOW you want your sidebar to look….it’s time to:
Step 4.) Make It So!
Ah….make it so.
Now, if you’re comfortable hacking your wordpress theme (and it’s really not that difficult to do at all – my book, 21 Days to a More Profitable Blog goes into that), you can easily look at your sidebar.php code and add all the necessary tweakies. Remember, you might want to include your:
- Newsletter
- RSS feed
- Free ebook
- Network with me
- Promote This Post
- Other writings
- Popular posts
- Affiliate Programs
- Favorite Links
- Networked Sites
- Advertising
to name a few.
If, by chance…you DON’T want to hack your code, you can see if your WordPress template has widgets that let you define, drag and drop blog components to your site. There are tons of useful widgets out there that will do what you desire such as:
- WidgetBox
- 15 Useful Widgets and Scripts for Blogger
- Top 6 Popular Site Search Widgets
- WordPress Widgets: The Next Generation of WordPress Plugins
Once you’re at the point to add components to your blog, make certain to have your notepad of resources to add….
and then check them off one by one once you’ve incorporated them into your site.
Rinse and repeat….until you’re done. And that’s it.
Some notes!
If you’d prefer to use tools for some of the tasks above, definitely check out Big Sellin Optins (that makes it easy to add your autoresponder/newsletter signup/etc. to your sidebar). And if you’re looking for an easy way to incorporate adsense/affiliate marketing, use the theme on which this site is running – FlexSqueeze (it’s really quite brilliantly done).
This concludes Part 1 of my tutorial about the 6 Most Terrifying Ways to Monetize Your Sidebar – tomorrow’s post will showcase some of the free and paid resources I use myself to get my sidebar…."just so". Catch you on the flip side!
Enjoy,
Barbara Ling
ps – speaking about monetizing your sidebar, have you seen:
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PS - Speaking about making money, have you seen:
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Barbara, don’t you feel that you can put too much in your sidebar and on your blog? It is easy to make it look messy and cluttered and I know that a lot of people are turned off by that (I am also).
I know that this post is only part one but don’t you also feel that testing is vital? If you put something in your sidebar and it doesn’t perform as expected (or at all) then you should remove it right?
/Mikael
Hi Mikael,
Sure you can put in “too much”. Testing should always be done…that’s a great point you bring up. Regarding the “too much” aspect, you can also lessen that impact by generous use of white space, headers, etc. I’ve seen blogs where everything is kinda sorta mashed together in the sidebar…that certainly is non-optimal in the extreme.
You have to ask yourself, what is the goal you’re trying to achieve? For example, some blogs are meant solely to build up your list…in that case, perhaps you’d want to have ONLY your optin, your networking, your popular posts, etc.
Other blogs might be meant ONLY as a selling point/portfolio of your services. In that case, perhaps having links to your popular writings, your portfolio, your interviews, etc. might be more optimal as well.
Other blogs (like mine) are meant to appeal across a broad spectrum of interests. Not only do I want people to optin to my list (first section of my sidebar), I also like having people network with me (3rd section).
Regarding networking, My Favorite Stumbles (5th section) give readers a sample of what I deem useful/valuable online…which a.) lets readers know what to expect when I recommend something, and b.) help drive traffic to the authors site (thus generating a trackback in THEIR blogs, thus alerting them to me).
My “Want a Laugh?” (6th section) shows the best humor site I’ve found online…every now and then I like helping folks out and showcasing them online.
Other sections (I’ll analyze them in more detail tomorrow) give direct links via the eBay affiliate program – if someone is motivated to sign up with eBay or bid or what have you, that’s a commission for me! And because more and more people are accessing blogs via their mobile phones, I opted to showcase Smart Phones in that section.
But also remember the following point as well. If you’re serious about building a fit income, people will constantly see your name and blog again and again online…and even if they’re unmotivated the first time by your sidebar, will see it a second and third time once they realize your content overrides your layout design. It’s all part of a long-term process development.
Hope that helps!! And thanks for your comment, I appreciate it greatly.
Barbara
Fascinating timing! lol
I just finished having my design upgraded (to be unveiled soon_) and I actually have such a list. About 20 items so far for either he side, top or even bottom..all that’s left is to prioritize them.
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Hi Barbara. I enjoyed this post. A good common sense approach to making your blog all that it can be. I have some of these happening on my blog, but there’s always room for improvement. Thanks for putting this together.
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Wow.. I was only looking for a short answer
but thanks. So when it comes to testing how do you do it? Are you testing one section at a time or are you doing multivariate testing?
My pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it.
I confess that I simply will either poll my list or ask me friends. I know there are folks who will proceed with massive split testing and data gathering – with my passel of kids, 2 mooses, flock of Twitter Budiges etc. I have to choose to where I put my time. That’s not one area.
Of course, your mileage may vary…..
Yep, I hear you there! Given that vCoach is one one of me blogs, I used a different priority system than what’s in my others.
Barbara
Hey Barbara, love what you’ve done with Flexsqueeze, don’t you just love it. At first I thought you opted for a single sidebar and then I realized you just played around with the top sidebar. Love the spacious look that gives. Also liked you ‘network with me’ section. Is that a plugin?
BTW, thanks for leaving a comment on my blog.
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Hi!
Nope, it’s not a plugin, I simply hand-coded my 4 prominent social profiles. I got that staggered look by NOT putting in a (br clear=all) after each list item.
Thanks for stopping by! Oh, and did you check out the new forums at www.virtual-coach.com/forums/ ? I’d love to hear your opinions…..
Best wishes, Barbara
Well, it is a great look. I will certainly check out that forum.
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Thanks! I just wrote about my adventures in modifying it over at www.barbaraling.com/insights/forum-makeover/ – hope you enjoy it!
Barbara