There is no right or wrong way to price your work or yourself. There are just options at your disposal and then your self-worth and knowledge to figure out which method you want to use. HEre are the options:

Here’s some hourly cost standards to give you an idea:

1. Costs + 10% + Tax = Price

(Cost would be based on your supplies. 10% is for gas and all that stuff related to getting supplies. This is for people who want to make sure they don’t lose money when they go to Michaels to buy supplies. )

2. Costs + 10% + Tax + The Cost of Your Time = Price

(This is for people who value their time and costs. Your time is valuable. If you are running your blog as a business, you must include the time.

Virtual Assistants range from $12 to $25 per hour
Social Media Managers get $20 – $60 per hour
Web Designers range from $40 to $200 per hour
Video editors range from $65 to $300 per hour
Marketing Strategists get $100 – $250 per hour
Speakers get paid $350 – $50,000 per hour

Where do you fit?
)

3. Costs + 10% + Tax + Time + Goodwill = Price

(This is for people who value their time and their costs. Plus they know that their influence and name have a value above and beyond that. Goodwill is the accounting term for the value of your name. If you are a household name, like Kleenex, you can charge a lot just to leverage your name. If you are just starting out and your name isn’t that big yet, then you probably haven’t earned the right to charge Goodwill)

4. $50 / 10,000 Pageviews.

(This is a pretty common standard for pricing based on pageviews. You can certainly up the price if there is something very “niche” about your traffic. If you are pitching Huggies to do a sponsored post and 95% of your traffic comes from “baby” related keywords you can pitch how much more valuable that exposure is for them. )

A media kit is a pretty important piece of the puzzle. It is not the end-all be-all by any means, you still have to create great content, be a steward to your community and be someone people trust.

But you need a media kit, often times, to get in the door. Other times your foot is already in the door and the PR Gal you’re working with just wants to put your media kit in the file.

And other times the media kit serves as a professional tool. In fact the next time someone says “Oh, that’s cute”, when you say you’re a blogger, tell them to take a look at your media kit. That quiets the ignorant.

So I’d encourage you to hire someone to help you make your media kit, get tutored on how to do it or buy this great ebook on making them.

If you’d like to hire us to create your most awesome super rockstar media kit ever, this is what we’ll have done for you:

Full Package – $350.00

• Conduct a reader survey that is tailored to your site via Survey Monkey (includes logo, coloring, questions, etc.)
• Provide you with an easy to read report on the findings
• Provide you with advice on going rates for advertising and sponsored posts of blogs in like size
• Take key insights from your reader survey and create a professionally designed media kit that is unique to your niche and editable.

No two media kits are the same. By using reader survey information, we are able to pull out key insights that brands are looking when they work with bloggers. That’s where the gold is and is what makes you stand out.

If you’d rather have experts do it for you, click this button and we’re off and running . . .

Five amazing bloggers (and us) who have created a business from their blogs have came together to share their work so you too can build a business blogging from your niche. This bundle isn’t limited by a style or theme. It isn’t limited by geography, finding a sitter or even your budget.

• Lisa Woodruff, Organize 365, How to Get on TV
  Lisa Woodruff of How to Get On TV will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about how to get on TV
• Kelly Snyder, Foxen Media, How to Write a Media Kit
  Kelly Snyder of How to Write An Effective Media Kit takes you step-by-step through the process of creating your own media kit – including the essential parts of a media kit such as an elevator pitch, demographic description, and your “about me” statement.
• Dan Morris and Crystal Collins (a bloggers collaboration), the Marketing Calendar Blueprint
  The Marketing Calendar Blueprint will show you that while a blog planner is a nice thing to have, it only make sense if you know how to use it. Marketing Calendar Blueprint is a plan to stay in front of your audience all year.
• Kat Lee, How They Blog, Blog Planning Kit
  Kat of Blog Planning Kit shows you more than just a way to get your blog organized. She shows you an entire system that will connect your blog dreams with your blog activities TODAY.
• Tara Ziegmont, Feels Like Home, 25 Ways to Make Money Blogging
  Tara Ziegmont of Make Money Blogging shows you how to monetize your blog through increased readership, ads (including the pros and cons of various different types of ads), and other opportunities. She even shares what works (and what doesn’t work) on her own blog.
• Kelly Gore, iBloom, Business Success
  Kelly Thorne Gore of iBloom in Business: Equipping You to Build a Successful Business & Live a Life You Love will help you fine tune your business, be a roadmap to success without all the detours, and serve as a life- long resource.

All 6 books if purchased individually would be $215 and you can buy the pack for only $37 which is a savings of $178.

This bundle will help even seasoned bloggers add income, define their purpose, plan their work and build their platform online and in media.

There are few jobs easier than blogging. In its simplest form there is little to separate the writings of a private diary to those of a blogger. With a computer, internet access and a willingness to pour one’s thoughts out over a keyboard –BLOGGING in essence is easy.

Unfortunately blogging as a business is anything but easy. Success, as we all measure it, isn’t the number of posts we write but the fans, “likes”, comments and money we get. Success rests on the fundamental understanding of the science of human behaviour, the mechanics of search engines, and that mysterious art of writing effective copy. Continue reading “What you need to know to increase reach and profitability”

I was honored to have a chance to speak at the Entertainment New Media Conference, the premiere blogging event for entertainment and travel bloggers.

One of my favorite activities is meeting with bloggers who have a different paradigm view of blogging. I absolutely love that. Sometimes it’s just bloggers of a different niche that are interesting, like the genealogy bloggers conference I attended, but this time it was something else entirely.

While travel, fitness and entertainment bloggers weren’t new to me necessarily, the culture in which they operate as bloggers was somewhat novel. But I didn’t “feel” it until several bloggers asked me what niche you had to be in to make money the way I help bloggers do.

Learning about that “mindset” was my favorite part of the weekend.

(Don’t let me fool you, meeting Mr. Sean Astin, hanging out with Erica I. Pena-Vest and meeting new people like Pilar Clark and Lisa Robertson were pretty darn awesome times, too. And meeting entrepreneur Andrea Schroder. . . come on. . super awesome. But that’s another story for another time.)

So let’s tackle that mindset.

Some of ENMN’s goals are to create industry-smart bloggers who know how to act around celebrities, what to ask of travel partners and how to be provide content that truly adds value. And they hammered it home all weekend using stories of great blogging experiences and great bloggers (and even throwing in some not so good examples).

During the training it was made clear that you’re not going to get paid cold, hard cash from hotels to blog about them, not that you won’t get unbelievable perks and value from them. But ENMN’s goal wasn’t discouragement by any means, rather education about the industry standard and expectation. With appropriate expectation comes grace and appreciation. Bloggers who lack this whine and make life harder for the rest of us.

[Tweet “With appropriate expectation comes grace and appreciation”]

But that in no way means travel and entertainment bloggers can’t blog profitably. In fact, unless you are independently wealthy or a spouse makes the income, you are ethically bound to produce revenue from that much work.

Take a look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Making sure that your family is loved, has shelter and enough food is the base of the pyramid. If you have no way to pay for groceries, spending 8 hours/day blogging for nothing isn’t in the cards.

How do we make money, exactly?

So the question was “how”? They asked me how they make money if the travel industry doesn’t pay. And the answer is simple as pie. The travel industry is the content you deliver. It is the goods. The money doesn’t have to come from the travel industry at all. The money comes from the readers . . . not only that but when your readers are also customers you have a lot more influence.

Readers not only will pay but they want to pay. You and I are one of them. We love buying stuff. We buy books while we’re at the airport, we buy umbrellas when it rains, we buy shoes because we want to, we buy tickets when we travel, we buy egg timers for the kitchen. When we spend money. . . it is because we WANT to spend money. If it makes our life better, we want it.

Let me give you some examples of things your audience would love to buy. Many would be excited to know that the product even exists

1. Ebook of your most popular tips
2. 1 tip per day travel club membership
3. Phone apps they can use to make their photos better
4. Insiders secrets club
5. Any “much needed” product via Amazon
6. Sample budget and vacation budget calculator
7. Your Guide to “____________” (Example Lisa’s Best Disney Secrets)
8. Book review videos where you review every travel book on the subject
9. Calendar of your favorite picks form some place
10. Your favorite niche “sayings” on shirts and hats from Zazzle or Cafe Press
11. Adsense and other advertising networks
12. Site, clothing, trip or event sponsorship
13. 21 Day Challenge to do something
14. Guide to saving $2,000 through phone apps and coupons
15. Webinar and interactive discussion with your favorite guru (Wouldn’t you pay $5 to be in a webinar with Bono?)
16. Complete budget, itinerary, grocery and shopping list
17. Printable coloring pages for kids to take on the plane
18. 30 Minute Strategy session with you to learn how to get the most out of . . .
19. Your actual book that you wrote
20. Audio Guided tour of a place they can listen to with their earbuds

The only thing you have to do as a blogger is serve. Serve them awesomeness. Make them better, make them smarter. And when you do charge money for your efforts. You, as the CEO of your company, are no different than Barnes & Nobles, Stephen King, Burger King, Fodor’s, or Nike.

[Tweet “The only thing you have to do as a blogger is serve.”]

When you produce value and others recognize it, they will trade their dollars for it. Gladly.

Remember. . . . There are no retired bloggers.

And guess what you get to do with the money. You get to bless your family with the rewards of their sacrifice. You get to bless another family if you hire a housekeeper. You get to donate to church and charity. You get to lend money to friends.

Be the professional you are. Your efforts deserve revenue. And that makes everyone happy . . .even the people paying you.

ENMN was great in its focus that you should learn what the industry is all about. You need to heed all that was said, listen to all whose experiences come before yours. Be the expert Erica expects you to be in her industry.

And make money doing it.

If you’re interested in learning more about monetizing your site, come to one of our Blogging Concentrated workshops nationwide and spend an entire day perfecting it.

In getting ready for 2014 and a new year of Blogging Concentrated, I’ve decided to part with some of my great training materials. There are a variety of books, audio CD’s and software that you’re going to love. This is a major collection of information that will keep your .mp3 occupied for 6 months of learning.

There is only 1 Bundle. 1st Buyer Wins

Take a look. I’m selling it altogether, one box to your address. So the first one to pipe up and pay is the winner!!!

Online and Offline Marketing Master Level Curriculum And from the Home Business Success Academy (Joshua Fuson and Marvin Lightbowne) comes this fantastic Offline and Online Marketing Curriculum. Wait till you see what’s included: Introduction How to use, apply and get success with your training (3 disks) Course 1: Non-Internet Techniques to generate huge quantities of targeted leads. How to get prospects to pay you to talk to them Information Marketing (4 disk) Offline Lead Generation (2 disks). There are some real gems in here. I thought the stuff about getting your readers to prequalify themselves was brilliant. Course 2: Time Management (4 Disks) How to Master your time and triple your results. Time to get focused. Some really smart strategies to get the important stuff done. Course 3: Business Strategy to maximize your results, increase profits and grow your organization Business Strategy (4 disks) Course 4: Advanced Prospecting . The Secrets to finding the right person and grabbing their attention (4 disks) Course 5: Advanced Prospecting and Closing Techniques 202 (4 Disks). From a copy writing perspective I thought this stuff was amazing. Overcoming objections, using social proof. It was awesome. Some of the examples are from telemarketing, which made it really easy to understand. If you can think of your blog post as a script. . . you’ll really get this. Course 6: Closing Overcoming Objections, Answering Questions and Demonstrating Confidence (3 disks) Course 7: Internet Traffic and Copywriting. How to drive huge quanitites of targeted visitors to your website and unleash the power of the written word to sell. Internet Traffic (4 disk) Copy Writing (4 disks)

Online Visibility Training And I’d love to introduce you to Denise Wakemen, an expert blogger who excels in improving your online visibility. Her book 5 Critical Tactics for Business Blogging Success (which includes an audio CD) is jam packed to boost your online visibility. It’s a fantastic read (or listen).  What I love about Denise is that she’s maintained the same core focus since I met her at NAMS 5 years ago. She’s not the Facebook lady today and the WordPress person tomorrow. She’s been about Blog Success since the beginning.

Google Website Optimizer / Experiments Training Google Website Optimizer training guide from ROI Revolution. If you’ve wondered about A/B testing pages, this is a great course on the theories and practices behind it. Google has recently renamed the buttons in Google Analytics, but anyone reading this guide will understand how to get it done.

Google+ Training from Chris Brogan Chris Brogan’s Google+ for Business Google+ is quickly maturing into an incredibly valuable channel for profitable business–and, because many of your competitors haven’t discovered it yet, it offers you huge new opportunities. Google+ for Business, Second Edition, will help you grab those opportunities right now.Top social media speaker and business advisor Chris Brogan will help you get great results fast, without wasting time or money. This fully updated second edition distills the experiences of leading-edge Google+ business adopters into powerful tactical recipes for everything from lead generation and nurturing to direct sales. Packed with new examples and case studies, it guides you through using Google+ for promotion, customer service, community building, referrals, collaboration, and much more. From start to finish, the focus is on results: generating more customers and more cash at the lowest possible cost!

Tax Tips for Writers and Entreprenuers Carol Topp’s Business Tips and Taxes for WritersAre you a writer serious about making money and keeping it? Business Tips and Taxes for Writers takes the mystery out of the tax code and allows you to understand the business of being an author. You will learn: >The best business structure for writers >Special tax breaks for writers >Legitimate tax deductions >Writing as a ministry >Simple and easy record keeping >Dealing with inventory and sales tax And, so much more! This informative book will help you keep your hard earned money and have the peace of mind associated with doing it correctly!

Teleseminars Training Cyndi Dawson of Teleseminar Secrets is legendary when it comes from how to profit from them. Cindi is the teleseminar coach that experts in every field depend on to keep them up to date on all the latest ways to use teleseminars for business building and profitability. In this audio she reveals 7 fantastic strategies to profit from teleseminars. (And an unrelated bonus because it fit into the picture) I met John G. Miller, the QBQ Guy, at the Beech Retreat Blogging Conference in early 2013. His talk on Personal Accountability was fantastic and is encapsulated on this audio CD. If you’ve got kids, you’re really going to love his message.  His QBQ stands for the Question Behind the Question and helps you understand how you can help solve problems that are often thought of as others

Learn the In’s and Out’s of Domain Names Audio Training Not sure if you’re familiar with Anthony Morrison, but he’s built a pretty awesome internet empire and informercial business. This 7 disc Mastery Level Education series includes: Domain Name Investing Strategies Domain Name Buying and Selling Strategies Domain Parking Google Marketing Media Buying Affiliate Marketing and 3 Quick Profit Tips

Google Adwords basics Adwords Basics for Dummies This mini guide covers how to set up adwords accounts, write winning ads and optimize your keywords. It’s a Google Special Edition, too. Topics covered include conducting quick and cheap market research, crafting a message that cuts through the clutter, choosing AdWords settings, bidding on keywords, setting a maximum daily spend, improving the Web page that an ad points to, testing strategies, tracking results, and using Web analytics tools

Photo Editing Software BONUS: Microsoft Digital Image Suite for organizing, editing, creating, sharing and archiving photos. (PC version NOT MAC)

This collection of educational materials is worth $4,321. For this holiday sale, I’m sending it to you for $277 dollars of educational joy. I’ve only got one. First person to the button gets the treasure

So I’m using “Black Friday” as a metaphor for any campaign you just undertook which also just ended. Just like list building, just like conferences and events, just like ebooks. . . a campaign is a tool to learn and grow your business.

If you don’t learn from it. . .if you can’t build upon it. . . if it doesn’t get easier each and every time then why are you doing it? Shouldn’t it get easier?

Think about the folks at Target the week, month and quarter after Black Friday. Think they got analysts figuring out what sold well, what didn’t sell, what products should have been on the top shelf versus the eye-level shelf? Did you visit Wal-Mart over Black Friday? Notice that they put bananas in all kinds of crazy places? They did that because it made them a lot more money last year. Think the Target guys are trying to figure out what sold at Wal-Mart that they failed to even carry? I bet they have entire teams dedicated to learning.

How dedicated is your team to learning?

So what analysis should you be doing now? And what analysis should you have done between Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Here’s some steps to print out and keep handy:

1. What did you sell? Let’s make a list of everything you made money on and how much you made. I mean everything from Amazon, ThinkGeek, AdSense, Coupons.com, GoDaddy . . . wherever you derive income. Don’t forget something because it is all important. Where you can, like Amazon, note whether the product was a direct link or something else they bought while they were there.

2. What did you promote? Let’s make a list of every deal that you published and promoted. If you’re using a spreadsheet put #1 in columns A and B and this one in column C.

3. What did people find organically? From Google Analytics export the keywords people searched to get to your site for Black Friday (or you campaign period).

ANALYSIS: Now let’s connect the dots between what we sold and how we sold it.

For instance if you sold 8 iPod Shuffle’s on Amazon during Black Friday but never once promoted nor have a web page about it. . . that would be an ancillary sale. That means someone clicked our Amazon link and then searched Amazon for other things. This is important to note because it tells us more about our customer’s actual interests. It tells us that’s what the customer was going to buy with or without us.

If we promoted the heck out of the “Nemo in 3D” DVD and sold 37, but find that not a single “Nemo in 3D” keyword was used to get to our site, then we know we were able to convince people to get it.

And if we sold a bunch of the fishing pole we posted earlier this summer, and see that “fishing pole” was one of the search terms people used to get to the site we know that organic search sold the product. That means we had the right product at the right place at the right time. If fishing poles didn’t show up in our search results AND we didn’t promote it, we know that people navigated around our site to find it.

If you really, really want to make more money next year then you’ll hire a VA in Australia, the Phillipines or New Zeland next year. And then at midnight on Black Friday have them start working on this analysis so you’ll have it when you wake up the next morning. Can you imagine how much more you’ll sell with this information on Saturday, Sunday and Cyber Monday? Seriously if a bunch of people bought that fishing pole you posted in July, might you want to republish that to your readers today?

And what about the products we promoted but didn’t sell? What about the DVD’s that we promoted just as much as “Nemo in 3D”. . . why didn’t they sell? What does that tell us about our readers’ interests? Where did our efforts go wrong there?

In Google Analytics look at the webpages that got good traffic but didn’t produce sales. Why didn’t they? Are we optimized for research keywords like “iPad features” and not commercial keywords like “cheapest iPad” or “Black Friday iPad deal”?

If today is the day before CyberMonday would it be good to use this kind of information to test and change the poorly performing pages? Would that be enough information to know what not to promote on CyberMonday?

And more importantly, shouldn’t we really be pushing the stuff that already sold? We can use the sales records to justify knowing what people want. Can we then start promoting that stuff? It does make sense to promote what people want to buy, right? And with a good month left before Christmas, might we want to work on our SEO for the products people are buying?

This is the kind of analysis you should be doing after each campaign to see how you’re performing, to adjust what you’re doing, to improve and meet the needs of your clients better. This is what running a business is really about. Growth and change.

With information comes confidence.

Dan R Morris