I am in the middle of a project of re-designing my blog . I started this blog just over a year ago because I found social media fascinating and also a touch obsessive and it was started from a passion. The online audience seems to agree, with my  blog traffic approaching nearly 100,000 hits per month, so I must be doing something right.

Facebook the social media monster has gone from “Mainstream” to “Madstream” and almost daily is mentioned in the mass media for all the right and wrong reasons, from its manic growth to the latest privacy concerns.

Twitter has grown from 8 million visitors per month to over 180 million in 12 months. So where there is obsession and growth there is power, so how do you tap that in a credible and ethical manner?

I recently ran an online survey which  asked the question “Should Bloggers Get Paid?” and 79% said yes. This wasn’t surprising as almost everyone wants to make money and a lot of my readers have a blog so this result  was a bit of a no-brainer.

On the other hand there are a lot of people who blog because they just want a voice and want to change the world.

At the other end of the spectrum there are bloggers who have perfected the art of scamming without offering any value except to rip people off with get rich quick schemes. So how do you monetize a blog and maintain your tribe, subscribers and followers.

So I have started to research how to monetize this blog. The challenge is?

• I don’t want to be spammy,
• I want to offer real valuable information
• I want to help other bloggers be successful
• I want to help companies optimize their website to drive leads, enquiries and sales and consequently make great revenue from their website whether that be an eCommerce site or a dynamic and content rich online presence that is compelling and keeps their sales teams so busy, productive and successful that the CEO looks forward to waking up each day.

So if I am able to make this fly then the next step is to help you have fun and monetize “your” blog or website.

So here are just 10 initial ways ways that I could monetize my blog. (this is what I would call an open discussion on possibilities)

1. Affiliate marketing: This is done on a Cost Per action (CPA) basis meaning the customers have to take some kind of action from signing up to a newsletter to actually buying a product. This where you can sell other people’s products that you trust and know that offer great value to potential buyers.

2. Write Sponsored Reviews: This where you can write a review about a product, site or service and you are paid per review. John Chow says that this is his blog’s biggest money maker and uses ReviewMe. ReviewMe allows advertisers to buy sponsored reviews on your blog. Review prices are based on your blog’s Alexa, Technorati and estimated RSS numbers. The only requirement is that a review post must be at least 200 words long. Below is an example of a sponsored review from JohnChow.com

3. Kontera Content Link: Kontera ContentLink allows you to make money from advertising without giving up any current advertsing spots. Their technology reads your posts and turns certain words into an ad. The highlighted are double underlinesand an ad pops up when you hover over it.

4.Text Link Ads: This is done by selling text links you see under “Featured Sites” . The links offer advertisers traffic and search engine benfits and readers don’t seem to mind because they are not intrusive.

6. Google Adsense: Google Adsense displays simple text and and image ads on your blog and they are targeted  to what you are writing about.

7. Create Your own premium content whether that be online training and courses and sell it on my blog. The upside to this is that you increase your margin and have much more control. TimothySykes.com provides an example of how this is done with his high quality learning systems and DVD’s.

8.Selling Banner Advertising on my blog: This can be banners that generally measure 125 x 125 . It can provide a recurring source of income month after month.

9. Selling Monthly Memberships to  to premium content: TimothySykes.com provides an example of how this is done. Tim is well known for turning his $12,415 in Bar Mitzvah gift money into $2 million and starteda hedge fund during his senior year at high school. Timothy’s site shows how to invest in the stock market by following what he is doing.   Membership rates range from $49.95 per month to $1,497 per month

10. Promote My Presentations to obtain more keynote speaking bookings.

How do you think I should monetize my blog without compromising the content?

I wrote a post a couple of days ago about Ford vs General Motors and which company was currently winning at social media marketing. Christopher Barger, Director of Social Media at GM responded to my blog post on a weekend, within a few hours (you have to be impressed by that) … and on a Sunday, with a lengthy comment. In essence he disputed the recency of some of my sources, but didn’t argue with the main thrust of my blog regarding General Motors not  proactively engaging with social media rather than just reacting (read the post and the comment here). He also informed me that the post was timely and that General Motors was about to engage in a Social Media Marketing Competition starting the next day (March 8), which would be crowd sourcing “social media folk’s” contribution online as they compete for the main prize. So GM have not been asleep at the wheel, but merely cruising, but that is all about to change as they hit the loud pedal.

So what is the competition according to GM’s Blog post titled “Chevrolet’s SXSW Road Trip Challenge” ?

“Starting the week of March 8 (the week before SXSW), eight  teams of social media folks from across the United States will embark on a combination  road trip/scavenger hunt competition from their hometowns to Austin behind the wheel of some of Chevy’s newest products. Along the way they’ll need to complete 50 “challenges” in order to determine the winner. The winning team will be the one that not only has completed the most challenges, but has done the most interacting with their community on Twitter and their own sites. But what’s really going to be fun is that you get to help us decide all of the tasks the teams are going to have to complete along the way!

Here’s how it works: starting today and running through February 28^th, we’re asking you to submit your ideas to @chevrolet on Twitter, or to facebook.com/Chevrolet, of the challenges you’d like to see the eight teams complete on their trip. We’re selecting 10 tasks  from each of five different categories:  Charity (ex: stop at an animal shelter and walk the dogs), Collection (ex: collect a sample of water from a famous body of water near you), Physical Challenge (ex: climb a rock wall, or stuff your trunk full of balloons), Interaction (ex: meet up w/one of your followers and give them a test drive, or get a group of people to sing a famous song, flash-mob style), and Digital Image (ex: take a photo of a cactus or rock that looks uncannily like one of your team members). We’ll take our favorite 45 ideas that come in to @chevrolet or to the teams involved, and make them required missions for the teams on the road trip. (We’re going to pick one challenge for each category ourselves; hey, it’s our promotion, so we get to pick at least one, right?) On March 8, when the teams are starting to head off to Austin, we’ll reveal the 50 missions – and then you get to follow along and see how they’re doing!”

To  follow the competition go to Chevrolet’s Facebook page or checkout Chevrolet on  Twitter. 

I have asked Chris to to provide updated information on the progress of the competition. So if I hear more from him and the Social Media Team at GM I will keep you posted.

What do you think of General Motors Chevy Social Media competition?

I was begged the other day on Twitter to stop writing and Tweeting about a certain online retailer and a blog comment for a recent post on “17 Revelations On How An Online Retailer Went From Zero to $1.2 Billion” went like this.

“Jeff, you are one of my favorite bloggers but honestly I am so sick of hearing about Zappos I could hurl. The blogosphere needs to come up with a few new success stories.”

I was almost convinced that he  was right to request me to refrain, but as I am an evangelical believer in blogs, I had to write it.

So this obsession though has one more chapter, so I apologise in advance to those who have thus far tolerated my compulsive and annoying behaviour.

So why have thirteen blogs? A very good question that may have some answers.

1. Because they have the resources and they just “can”
2. I have a sneaking suspicion that they feel they have 13 different persona’s (market sectors) that buy their products  so they have a blog for each type of customer
3. It will make the company look real and transparent
4. It will position them as a “thought leader” in different sectors
5. They realize that interesting and unique content including video will  attract attention

Note: I am sure there are a lot more, you can fill in the rest

So here is a snapshot of the Zappos blogs which may provide some inspiration for you to take some ideas back to the office.

Blog One:  Zappos Blog

This seems to aggregate the other blog posts into one location. I did a quick count and there were ten posts for one day (feeling a little blog challenged are we?)

Blog Two:  Couture, also known as the “The business of designing, making, and selling highly fashionable, usually custom-made clothing for women”

Of course the latest two blog posts were about the latest

• Womens Handbags
• Womens Boots

Note: Guess what guys, not one “male” fashion item to be seen

Blog Three: Inside Zappos (for the curious) This includes an ecclectic mix of interesting and humourous content, including videos about the goings on around and about Zappos, as well as the use of certain housewares items. (even a donut eating contest)

Blog Four: CEO and COO (Real and transparent messages and articles from the Top Dog Tony Hseih) including

• A CEO email regarding the Amazon Buyout

• A post by Tony on “How Twitter can make you a Better and (and Happier) Person” where he talks about 4 things

1. Transparency & Values: Twitter constantly reminds me of who I want to be, and what I want Zappos to stand for
2. Reframing Reality: Twitter encourages me to search for ways to view reality in a funnier and/or more positive way
3. Helping Others: Twitter makes me think about how to make a positive impact on other people’s lives
4. Gratitude: Twitter helps me notice and appreciate the little things in life

Blog Five: Running (this is for the running road warriors) The latest 2 posts being interesting articles that will engage the runner in us.

• “Weekly Tips On Preparing for a Triathlon: When You Should Race”
• “Run The Outback” (that happens to be in Australia by the way, my part of the real world)

Blog Six: Zappos TV (To appeal to the video centric crowd with a dose of humour) Two recent examples of the content

• “The Weirdest Office Presentation Ever“
• “Coworkers with smelly feet”

Blog Seven: Coach (this one is to provide some daily inspiration and shine a bit of sunshine into the dark corner of your room)

Example: the “Happiness“  Post

Blog Eight: Rideshop (For those who like getting in the saddle and getting on their boards or skates)

Best Ski Resort of the Week: Big Bear Mountain Resorts

Blog Nine: Outdoor (For those who love to get down and dirty in the great outdoors)

A recent post for the iPod enabled cyclist  was about “Outdoor Playlists for Your iPod: Cycling Tunes“

Blog Ten: Comfort (both mental and physical)

“Stress Management Tips: Managing Information Stress” (I will have to read that one !! )

“History Of Shoes: Ugg Boots” (they were invented in Australia apparently), From Winter Wear To Hollywood Runaways

Blog Eleven: Parents (such as articles about those important things like maternity and kids)

“Maternity Style: Workout Clothing Essentials for Mom-to-Be”

“Thanksgiving Cooking With Kids” (now that sounds like a nightmare)

Blog Twelve: Health And Fitness (for the healthy minded individual)

Such as “The Best ’80s Workout Videos: Sweatin’ to the Oldies (this is could be real scary)

Blog Thirteen (The final one): Fashion Culture (where celebrity and fashion meet)

Of course there is an article on Michael Jackson  “Rocking Rock Star Style: Fashions Inspired By Michael Jackson“

Now have you been inspired about how you could apply the above to your company blog? Would like to hear some inspired comments on what you have included in your blog.

What is Social Media?

Well here is a definition…Social Media is about community networks on the Internet that allows for hyper-connectivity between individuals and content. The social software enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content, and to form communities around shared interests.

The most well-known communities are Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Youtube with a plethora of blog sites. However there are numerous other social networks online with many having a focused interest, such as Travel, Finance, Parenting, Business.

Social Media is now a mass-communications channel and too important for any organisation to ignore.

What is Social Media Advertising?

Social Media Advertising  is using rich media and interactive widgets, on paid placement across social networks and blogs, where content can be created that affords a truly interactive advertising experience that is proven to yield a higher ROI propensity.

3 Types of  Social Media Marketing

1. Word of Mouth: This is getting a conversation going, participating in the conversation, creating content and resources people can engage with and pass on.
2. User-generated content: This could form any number of scenarios from using simple ratings and reviews on your site, which garners high conversion rates, to inviting users to participate with your content, join your own community, post their own materials.
3. Advocacy: Through carefully crafted opinion scales, we identify and engage your advocates (from your own customer database to external on the social web) to engage them to be your recommenders. The power of recommendation is the most important channel of influence that the social media channel delivers.

What is Social Media Optimisation (SMO)?

Making the content travel and making it visible on search engines. Social Media Optimisation radically improves your SEO results. It is important to optimise your social content, and use a solid link baiting strategy to ensure you are part of the social web

So what are the Benefits of Social Media?

• Live research and insights into your brand, your customers, trends and market places
• Engagement in the online conversation they are having about you today
• Reputation management
• Highly effective brand visibility
• Drives traffic and generates sales
• Increases SEO results
• Wide distribution channel to disseminate your messages
• Improves CRM
• It is completely measureable
• The most credible form of marketing

Finally….5 Key Steps to Social Media

1. You need to do the research first, then listen, analyse and benchmark
2. Train your team to enable them to understand the opportunities of Social Media
3.  The research determines the social media approach and the strategic recommendations 
4. You then implement & manage
5.  Then you measure