bripblap.com

Hi all - I've been working for several years (since 2007) on bripblap.com, a website with a broad focus of advice - health, family, money, career, etc. I've been struggling with it recently. I make a few thousand dollars a year off of it, but I'm struggling to keep posting content and I wanted some independent feedback on the site - should I keep at it or is it simply too much work for too little return. Is it too busy? Could I focus on a particular topic? What could I change?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Steve

bripblap.com

bripblap@gmail.com

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Brad Smith on December 8, 2010 at 9:45pm

Steve,
You have a page rank 4 site with 1870+ subscribers which means you are probably generating at least a moderate amount of traffic, and you have a ton of articles. What I did not see on your site is much in the way of product offerings. It looks like you are selling a few google ads and perhaps a handful of targeted ads.

While google ads are OK, you are not going to make much money off them unless you are generating hundreds of thousands of visits a month. What will make you money is affiliate products or even better your own products. The people that follow your blog likely would pay to see more from you - a course, some video, a book, ebook, webinar, seminar, consulting, etc...since they already enjoy your stuff. Take a lesson from Dan Miller - he offers a variety of products centered around his flagship content - you can do the same with your blog.

I also strongly recommend setting up an email list, even though that means packaging some more content. The people that sign up for your email list are "de-facto" opting into you and your content. Use the email list to send more great free content (perhaps you can repackage some of your older stuff), along with an occasional offer from you. Response rates to email lists are an order of magnitude above what you will get from your blog.

Two minor points - but the ad image that is top left on most pages featuring your own site which links to www.bripblap.com/go/zentodone is actually a broken link which is probably losing revenue for you. Also I'm not sure why you are featuring facebook on the front page - the space top right of your web page is prime real-estate - you should have your most important call to action there - an email opt-in form or product offering there.

You've already done all of the heavy lifting in building the site and audience, now you just need take some of that great content and package it into a product or products your audience might enjoy. If you don't know what to develop, just put a post or web based survey on your blog and ask your audience - they will actually tell you what to do next.

Brad

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Schoenly on December 9, 2010 at 8:26pm

Wow, Brad, thanks so much for the feedback. Honestly I was just expecting a little critique on the appearance or something along those lines, but you've given me a great deal to consider. I sincerely appreciate it - that's exceptionally helpful and I'll definitely think about, and work on, your suggestions. Thanks so much! :)