There are a few ways that bloggers make money:

(1). The most common way for bloggers to make money is through ads. When blogging first started, Adsense and Blogads were the way to create income. But since that time loads of other ways have emerged. Some of these are Chitika’s eMinimalls, Adbrite, Adgena, AVN, and many more.

(2). Sponsorships are another way to earn money with your blog. Once a few bloggers and a few companies figured out how lucrative this could be for both sides, it was on from there. They found it was an excellent way to advertise and to sell.

(3). Another way is through affiliate programs. By signing up with affiliate programs like Amazon or Clickbank, you can advertise and sell their products on your blog for a commission. If you’re a good marketer, this can be a very lucrative way for you to go.

(4). You can sell and advertise ’services’ as well and make money. These would be things like eBooks and tele-seminars or marketing courses.

(5). You can write for other people’s blogs. Lots of people who have blogs don’t do their own writing. You can write and post for them and earn yourself some money that way. If you’re good with SEO (Search Engine Optimization), then it might pay you to look into this.

(6). Some blogs operate strictly on a ‘donation’ basis. They leave it up to their visitors to leave something if they find any value in what they read or their experience on the blog. They put on a lot of free stuff, and then depend on charity for how much they own.

(7). Then you can sell retail. Blogs have become a popular way of selling retail items. Anything from T-shirts to kitchenware can be found on a blog. A blog is just a dynamic way to advertise practically anything.

(8). Consulting is another form of revenue earning on blogs. If someone is an expert on something, then they can set up a blog and interact with people and give advice and charge a fee. Most bloggers always try to come across as an expert in their niche, so keep an eye out for the so-called ‘experts’ in any given field.

Anyway, these are just a few of the ways you can make money blogging. If you’ve never tried blogging you owe it to yourself to see if you’re any good. Who knows, after a while you may be able to quit your regular job and make a better living blogging, and have more fun as well.

You ask your readers a question, and the response is a resounding silence. You need to find ways to gain exposure for your young blog.

And guest blogging is one of the most powerful ways of doing that.

When I first started Zen Habits, I faced this challenge, just like everyone else does. “I’m writing great stuff,” I would say to myself, “but no one is reading it. What do I do?”

I tried guest blogging, and it paid off big time. I now regrettably have to turn down requests to write guest posts elsewhere, just because I’m so busy writing. I wish I didn’t have to, because every time I do, I miss an opportunity, but there’s no question that guest blogging has been a major part of my success.

There are many things you can try, but I can tell you that most of them will flop if you don’t have many readers: submit a story to Digg, and it’s not likely to go anywhere. Submit a story to a major blog, and you could get lucky, but they get dozens of submissions a day, and can only link to a few.

But if you’re a good writer, you could get the chance to write a guest post for a more popular blog. Here are some reasons you should make guest blogging one of the main parts of your overall exposure strategy early on:

• Increased likelihood.
  While another blogger might not be that willing to give your young blog a link, he might be more likely to give you a guest blogging spot. Why? Because it gives his blog varied content and fresh ideas, and it gives him a small break from writing. Now, not every blogger will allow you to write a guest post for him, but if you ask 10, you might get a couple to say yes. Be sure to be friendly, positive, polite, enthusiastic, and offer him the chance to write one for you in the future. Also show him some of your best writing — that helps seal the deal.
• Helping out a blogger.
  By giving this blogger a little break from writing, you are helping him … and that’s one of the best ways to improve your standing in the blogging world. Never turn down a chance to help another blogger (assuming it’s for a legit reason) if you can possibly spare the time. Why? Because you’re building a blogging relationship, one that could pay off in the long run. And whether it pays off or not, you’re forming connections that could help form more connections … and that’s the best overall long-term strategy.
• Increased traffic.
  If you write a guest post for a bigger blog, with a link back to your blog, it will almost certainly increase traffic to your blog, at least for a couple of days. How much traffic will depend on how much traffic the other blog gets, but hey, any little bit counts in the early days, when you’re not getting much at all.
• Increased exposure.
  Aside from the direct benefit of increased traffic for a few days, you are also exposing your blog (and your name) to a new audience — and helping to brand your blog and yourself in the process. Sure, most of the readers of the other blog won’t follow the link to your blog … but they might notice the name of your blog, and your name. And the next time you write a guest post for another blog they read, they might notice your name and the name of your blog then too. After a little while, they’ll start to take notice. “Hey, this guy is everywhere!” They’ll also start to remember your blog’s name — that’s the nature of branding. And soon, they’ll decide that they just have to find out what this new blog is all about. Constant exposure is a good thing.
• Best advertising there is.
  You can pay to put an ad on another blog. You can beg for a link. You can get dugg and get 40K visitors in a day. But those all pale as methods of advertising compared to a guest post. Why? Well, an ad on another blog might contain a few words and a link … but many people will ignore it, and it doesn’t really highlight the best points about your blog. And it costs money. A link has the same problems (although it doesn’t cost money), in that it’s just a few words, and doesn’t do much to promote the blog.

  A Dugg story is great, but most of the people coming to your blog are probably the wrong audience, and will leave quickly, never to return. But with a guest post, people get to read your writing in depth, and can see what amazing stuff you have to offer. If they want more, they’ll click on over to your blog … and that’s the best kind of traffic possible, because these are people who are already interested in what you write, in the topics you write about, and they’re looking to read more. They’re the most likely to stay, read a bit, and even subscribe.

• New audiences.
  This is related to the above points, but I wanted to emphasize it: if you already have a readership, even a small one, it’s likely you’ve tapped into a portion of your potential audience. But imagine that there’s a much larger pool of potential readers out there, people who haven’t even heard of you yet, and they are contained in different pockets all over the Internet. Your job is to find these pockets, expose your writing and your brand name to them, and hope to attract them. The more of these pockets you can find, the better. So by guest blogging on different types of blogs, each containing different pockets of potential readers, you are find more and more of that larger pool of potential audience all the time.
• Future reciprocation.
  A great thing that could happen if you do a guest post for a bigger blogger is that they will agree to write one for you in return. Now, you can’t expect it to happen, but definitely make the offer. If they consent to write a guest post for you, be grateful! This reciprocal guest post is great for two reasons: 1) your readers are treated to some excellent writing from another blogger, possibly one they admire, and it’s fresh content that’s varied from what you provide; and 2) if you’re lucky, the bigger blogger will link to the guest post from his blog, thereby sending more of his readers your way. Win-win!

It’s no secret that the internet is a very saturated place. According to Archive.com, if you are planning to put some sort of content on the internet you have 85 billion competitors! Today’s internet users are nothing like the past, gone are days when the internet was used solely for informative purposes only. It should be no surprise to learn that today’s internet users want to be not only informed, but entertained as well.

So if you would like to learn a couple of outrageous marketing techniques that can keep you afloat while others are drowning, then read this article. But if your happy with the hopeless feeling you get when you check your web stats and don’t mind sinking to the bottom of the internet ocean, then why don’t you go ahead and click the red x button in the top right corner.

1. Content

This is by far the most important aspect of getting traffic to your site, I know I know I said outrageous but before you call me a lair let me explain myself. Writing great content is marketing on its own, imagine someone accidentally stumbles on to your site and instantly like whats on it, then its referred to someone else and it starts a chain, then this people often comeback to see if you’ve posted anything to inform and entertain them again. That’s outrageous!! Remember the average internet user has no patience, so always try and keep it has short and interesting as possible

2. Ethical Mind Control

Here you simply create a top list or award in your niche, you can allocate a page for this or simply make a blog post on it. I’ve noticed that most people who write content are often focused on themselves, by focusing on your competitors you are appealing to their egos and insecurities, which they will perceive subconsciously and in return, they will link back to you in some form.

3. Start Page Programs Or Traffic Exchange

This is a technique that even experienced online marketers have forgotten about, these are free programs that will allow you to advertise your site to other members, all you have to do is view other members site. Simple enough and more outrageously its free advertisement!!

4. Killer Headline

Have you been to the grocery store lately? precisely the checkout aisle, well somewhere in between the colorful array of packets of gum and the chapstick you’ll find the tabloids.You cant miss it, glossy finish and outrageous headlines, if I could get all the money I spent on these while waiting impatienly to pay for my groceries; you probably wont be reading this. I spend a fortune on those you know why? Cause the headline gets you and you want to read the juicy details. Your headline should create the same curiosity, force your readers to read the rest of the story.

5. SEO

Search Engine Optimization, well I dont know to much about this to be honest, but the key thing you should know is always tag keywords and have a decent URL and maybe someday you’ll be recoginsed by google. Outrageous right?

The information contained in this article does not guarantee your success, it is purely a guidline to help you with your online success. Ultmately, it is you who will decide if your are to become successful or not, so don’t come knocking at my door when you end up back at your 9 to 5.

What this means for our readers:

All articles, including new ones moving forward, will be published at FreelancerMagazine.com. Over time we will be publishing back articles from NorthxEast.com on this site. No update to your RSS readers is necessary – Freelancer Magazine RSS Feed.

Not only will you continue to receive articles geared toward all freelancers, but a wider range of articles devoted to helping independent bloggers promote and manage all functions of their websites. Here is a sampling of articles you will find at the new NxE / FM:

• NxE’s Fifty Most Influential Bloggers…and…
• NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers
• Good to Great: Why Some Blogs Succeed and Others Don’t
• Building a Super Blog: Part 1 and Part 2
• 19 Blog Designs that Are a Sight for Sore Eyes
• 10 Ways to Focus on the Reader and Build Long-Term Traffic

We appreciate your past and continued readership, and hope to provide some great resources for you moving forward! Feel free to comment on the new site, or add suggestions for the types of content you’d like to see.

Cheers,
John Cottone
NorthxEast.com, FreelancerMagazine.com

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First thing’s first…
There’s no point in the world trying to make an effort to grow awareness of your services in your locality without you offering damn good work so success in getting more clients at its core lies with your own abilities in whatever you’re freelancing in. If you’re a freelance designer, you need to be one of the best around, or you could choose to specialize in a certain field which also puts you at an advantage when a client comes looking for someone to work on a project within the scope of that field. That’s why I say, and I’ll keep on saying, practice, practice, practice!

Start slowly
When you’ve decided that your skills are now good enough for you to attractive some good exposure through viral “word-of-mouth” marketing, then you take the next step. Start telling your friends, family, work colleagues and acquaintances about what you do without making them feel akward. Go about it in a non-obtrusive way so that they don’t feel you’re just pitching to them; just bring it up in conversation somehow by linking it to a topic of discussion. This way it’ll be within the person’s mind that you offer such a service and therefore they will have the ability to passively tell other’s about it in everyday talk.

Do something unique
Once you have your surroundings (in terms of people) acknowledging what you do, it’s time to take a much bigger (and very important) step. This step involves doing some very unique and “attention-grabbing” (no, I don’t mean go into the middle of town dressed as a clown juggling pins). What I mean by do something “attention-grabbing” is do something that can potentially catch the eye of the local media. For example, I know a freelance artist who got permission from local authorities to do some art work using spray-paints on a wall of a building on a busy highstreet. Not only did he do one, he did many, and he garnered A LOT of attention for this and was swamped with people asking him to do art-work for them.

You could also try something like a charity event of some sort (but try to link it to what you do as a freelancer) – so you can show your support to those who are less fortunate than yourself. No one said you’re not allowed to do good on the way to freelancing success.

It may also be a good idea to subtly notify the local media on what you’re doing as nothing really happens without a little nudge sometimes.

Speak at events
The best way to get noticed and become an “industry expert” is to participate in local, related events in the forms of conferences, lectures, meet-ups etc. People have a keen sense of “association by face” so it’s always a good idea for you to be seen, especially at events linked to your work.

Establish a quality brand
As soon as those bundles of clients come gushing forth from your media idea, your next step is to “mould the minds” of the new clients you receive. It is of utmost importance that you and the clients you work with believe you are offering a valuable, quality service. Quality sells itself. If your clients know you offer a quality service, and have experienced that from you, there’s no doubt that recommendations will be made in your favour. Also remember though, that one bad move could quite literally crush a lot of your branding efforts, so watch out for bad clients, and always treat them well.

Continue the high client satisfaction
You’ve got that influx of initial clients, you’ve treated them well, they’ve referred excess business to you. Now, all you need to do is keep it up. Continue offering your quality service to whoever needs it – sooner or later you’re going to get to a point where you’re over-booked, and this is where you take certain economical steps such as raising prices or being more picky with what projects you wish to take on.

If your steam of clients start dying down, consider the second step again in order to garner more attention.

Live the dream
Freelancing takes a lot of effort, and with continued effort should come continued reward. Freelancers should typically be aiming for what I call “working freedom” where they choose whatever they wish to work on, when they want to, and get a rate which they choose – that is what freelancing is all about.

Don’t forget to sit back, relax, and enjoy your work freedom – you deserve it.

Questions/Comments
Have any questions or comments on what we’ve discussed today on Freelancer Magazine? The comments section is waiting for you below.

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The Client’s Psychology

Clients are people, and we as a people are very prejudgemental in our everyday lives, whether that be subconsciously prejudging the mindset of a person from their outward appearance, or prejudging the quality of a piece of clothing from its price tag. There are a lot of external factors that have no real effect on the issues that matter to us, but are considered subconsciously by the mind without us even knowing it. As a freelancer, you could use this to your advantage (in a non-malicious kind of way!)

Usually when a person asseses the price for a service when attempting to put a value on it, they will attempt to associate it with the “quality” of the work/product/service in their eyes. For example, if they feel that the end product(s) from your portfolio are better than the competitions’, then they are more willing to pay a premium for the service in mind. If however, they feel the end product is not of a high enough quality they will be less willing to pay a premium for it. This however, also works in reverse when it comes to the prejudgemental nature of us human beings.

Subconsciously, if we see a product or service with a high price tag, or “better” outward appearance (in terms of branding), we usually think it is because that product is of a very high “quality” (and I’m deliberately using speech marks here). This is rather deliberately triggered in our heads with all the subliminal marketing campaigns that go on in society on a daily basis. Therefore, it may well be a good idea to price yourself higher, in order to portray yourself in a better light. Pricing has a lot to do with establishing a quality brand.

So putting this all into the perspective of a freelancer, you could well be charging higher than the competition, establishing yourself as “quality” and therefore reap the benefits in terms of being able to charge more for your work.

If we further explore this mindset, you do come to realize though that your pricing also should rely heavily upon whom the client is – and not for discriminatory purposes. If you’re pitching to a business owner, then they’re inevitably going to be price-savvy and be looking for the best deal possible for work of a good standard (and that’s not to say the tactic won’t work at all); however, target the common individual and you could leverage this psychology and charge more for your work in order to increase your income and establish yourself as a quality brand.

You could also take the opposite direction, charge less, and in turn by my predictions attract a lot more business clients rather than what I’ve referred to as the “common individual”.

The Economics of Pricing

The economics of pricing is very important in the freelance-industry. Immediately, I hear you crying “but I didn’t pay attention in Economics classes!” – well, maybe you should have.

It’s a very basic concept which shows that there is a inversely linear relationship between price and amounts sold or in this case, number of pitches accepted. This means that as price increases, the number of pitches your clients are likely to accept are lower and vice versa. Simple – but again in such an industry this can be manipulated using the techniques described previously. It’s just something to generally think about when pricing as a general rule with a “bog-standard” product/service when quality of work is not taken into consideration.

I would put up a nice little graph to illustrate this point, but what the heck, it’s not hard to understand.

Hourly Rates

What I’ve covered so far has mainly affected the actual price you want to charge for your freelance services, but, how will you structure these charges? Well, hourly rates are a very good way to go about it. Why? Simply because it gives you a solid price structuring that you can always rely on instead of having to come up with a price per project. Again though, this has its disadvantages. In order to obtain a higher income, the only ways to do this would be to increase your hourly rate (which is a difficult step which could have great negative/positive effects) or work for longer periods of time. To me, this really goes against the “freedom” principles of freelancing if you were to take the latter step, as one core advantage of freelancing is being able to earn a good income with less hours of work in comparison to the typical 9 to 5 jobs.

Per Project-based Pricing

A lot of people think that per project-based pricing is something that is decided from midair. No. It is also based on hourly rates, but loosely. A good way of pricing per project is to first estimate how long a project is going to take if worked on at a decent speed (in hours – making sure the estimate is conservative) and multiply that by how much you wish to earn from doing the project per hour. You’d then add on certain premiums such as costs, and other extras.

What’s the difference?

So what’s the difference between per project-based pricing and hourly rates you ask – well, the answer to that is effort. When conducting the hourly rates method, you’ll be paid directly dependent on how long you took to complete the project. On the other hand though, per project is based on a conservative estimate on how long the project would take, and therefore allowing you to reward working more efficiently.

Just take a look at this example:

- John works on a fixed amount per hour.
- Linda works on a per-project basis.

John conducts his work at the rate of $40/hour. The project takes him 10 hours to complete, and therefore he sends an invoice of $400 to the client.

Linda estimates that the project will take 14 hours to complete (remember, it’s a conservative estimate). She wants about $40/hour whilst working on the project. She decides to multiply $40 x 14 = $560, and therefore prices the project at that amount. She then invoices the client at that price. Linda decided to work very efficiently and focus on the project and therefore gets it done within 10 hours.

If we do the maths, effectively Linda was paid $56/hour for the services she rendered, whilst John was only paid $400.

There are obviously a lot of factors which affect each situation that have not been considered in this case, but you get the general jist of things.

Conclusion

So, how do you think pricing should be decided upon? Do you have a particular formula in mind? Let us know your thoughts on the topic via the comments section below.

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Going back to the title of the post, the simple answer is yes, because there are a whole plethora of benefitting blogging could bring in terms of marketing to a freelancer’s portfolio.

I’m going to go into detail on what freelancers could potentially do with a blog if they choose to start one as an attachment to their portfolio.

Social Drizzle
If you like, you could take the path of total non-related drizzle. Meaning you could talk about your daily antics in the form of a blog. I know a lot of freelancers who do this, although in my opinion it should NEVER be an attachment to your portfolio. Instead, it is a blog outside of the working realm – which is where this kind of blog belongs. I’ve seen some freelancers who look to start a blog alongside their portfolio, only to realize that posting about what they ate last night isn’t going to get them anymore clients, it actually does the opposite. So I’ll re-iterate, if you’re looking to make a more social type blog, do not associate it with your portfolio.

Tutorials/Resources/Articles
At first, including a bunch of tutorials and resources on a blog which is related to your portfolio seems like a good idea, but it all depends on who you target with that information. If you’re targeting other web designers, writers, programmers etc. then it’s hardly going to bring in any new leads as they are people much like yourself who are looking to do work for other people. If you’re going to create tutorials and distribute resources of some kind, make sure you keep in mind the demographic you want to target.

For example, if you’re looking to attract web entrepreneurs to your website because you like working on creative websites, then you would probably want to distribute certain resources such as articles on the law of web business, or managing web businesses on your blog. When following such an example though, you must also keep the issue of relevancy in mind. Will someone come to a freelance-designers blog to hear about cooking? No, so a way of fixing this issue is to create a blog seperate from the portfolio on another domain, and instead advertise your portfolio on that blog.

Freelance-Related Blog
If you really want to create a relevant blog on your portfolio, then there should be nothing stopping you – after all, any new exposure, whether targeted or not will benefit you in some way or another. Maybe it’ll help spread the word about your services via ‘word-of-mouth’? Even if it doesn’t, it’s always going to have some positive effect. That’s why it could also be a good idea to produce a freelance-related blog. You may want to blog about the issues that freelancers go through daily (much like Freelancer Magazine here) and then do a few link exchanges with other well-known people in your field for that extra authority and exposure. The great thing about creating a blog like this is that there are a whole ton of ways you can market them and really get traffic coming into your blog and therefore looking at your services too.

Think out of the box
Also, when thinking about marketing techniques for your portfolio, or for yourself for that matter, then do not stay within the realms of the norm. Try to think of new and creative ways to bring in your clients, that way you could find a solution that you could execute easily and works wonders for you. Also, carrying out the usual methods of marketing can sometimes be a drag, and very repetitve so diversify how you gain traffic and exposure.

Conclusion
You’re thinking of freelancing or you’ve become a freelancer because you want to get away from the norms of society, so why not replicate this in your marketing techniques also and come up with some new and creative forms of marketing your portfolio!

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A: Good question Michael! It can be tough to stand out in a crowd in any market or profession. While there is no one fail proof path to recognition, there are some steps you can take to assure you are doing everything you can!

#1. Network! The first step (after establishing your service) is to network. I’m not talking about finding anyone you can and shove your web address down their throat- but find those in your field and befriend them. They can certainly help get the word out.

#2. Don’t make customers, make clients! Treat every potential buyer as a long term client. Provide them with the best customer service money can buy (and do that part for free!). Clients will provide more clients and word-of-mouth will get around!

#3. Obsess over what you do! Keeping up with the latest trends or tools of your trade can be tough but take time out of every week (or every day!) to read up on whats going on in your field. Knowledge is power, and the more up-to-date newsbreaking type of work that you do- the more the world will start to notice.

#4. Be unique! Don’t just do what everyone else does- you have your own mind and your own style… perfect it! Brand yourself! The more unique you are, the more you will stand out!

#5. If all else fails… advertise! Yes i know, a “duh” answer… but if you choose the right place to advertise and are willing to pry open your wallet, you can soon start making a name for yourself. The truth is, the more people see your brand or name, the more popular they assume you are… and remember, advertising doesn’t only bring in clients from that one advert but it brings clients from the one who’s seen your ad 20 times and brought it up in conversation when someone needed your service.