Blogging
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Asking for help from readers My last tip that many blog owners forget about is that there is nothing wrong with asking for help from readers. If your blog has quality content that helps, or entertains, your subscribers then there is nothing wrong with placing a donation button on your blog in the sidebar or as part of your post signature line. On a few of my purely informative blogs I have donation boxes to collect a dollar or two through Paypal or the Amazon Honor System (http://zme.amazon.com). I’ve noticed that offering free items such as eBooks and syndicating posts on article sites increased my donations enormously. Many readers want to make sure your site stays live so that you can continue providing little treats for free. If you are nervous about placing donation boxes on your site keep this in mind. The donation boxes cost you nothing and the worst your readers can do is not contribute. When it comes to donations the rewards far outweigh the costs. If you have several thousand unique visitors every month and even one quarter of them leave a donation you have cleared a pretty large sum. Donations can especially come in handy for when you, the blog owner, or your company is in trouble. There are times when business is not going well and all ad revenue has either slowed down or is not earning enough to keep your blog going. In situations such as those don’t be afraid to write a post explaining your situation and ask for a little help. You’d be surprised at the outcome. Another blog owner, and blog designer, I know was once on the verge of shutting down her blog permanently. She was extremely quiet about it and I only found out when I was trying to hire her to design a Wordpress theme. After speaking with me she, reluctantly, posted to her blog explaining that she would be shutting down her blog site at the end of the month because she could no longer afford the hosting costs. In addition to this we released a press release on several free online press release services. The response was astounding. Even though neither the post nor press release directly requested money the offers came flooding in. At the instance of some readers she placed a Paypal donation box on her blog and received hundreds of dollars in donations from fans of her work. This designer had been offering quality, free, Wordpress themes for years and this had not gone without notice. Before the week was through she was entirely caught up on her past due hosting bill and was able to prepay for the next year. How Can You Benefit from Blogging?
What on Earth is Blogging?
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