Gift Buttons

The ever popular ‘Buy me a beer’ buttons suggest $3 a pint, or $7.50 for a pitcher. What people who donate like about this option is that the amount is small, and they prefer the feeling of buying you something over just handing you money. It’s exactly the same result in both instances, but gives a feeling of gifting.

It doesn’t have to beer either. There are many options and graphics and text for cups of coffee, martinis, gift certificates, etc. Use your search engine and type in what you would most like to receive to find the appropriate payment button. Make sure you do a bit of research. Not all buttons work on all blogs. The ‘Buy me a beer’ button, for instance, only works on Wordpress.

Your Best Criteria for Receiving Donations

If you have a blog that is all fluff and no stuff, you may have a hard time raising funds. There are some attributes that increase your chances of realizing some cash through your donation buttons.

Value. If your blog offers something helpful to your readers, they are more likely to throw a little money in the pot. It’s a mutual back scratching thing – you give to them, they give to you. If you blog site typically offers free downloads and such, that only increases that feeling of giving back for them.

Little or no other commercial activity on the site. If you plaster ads all over your blog, you lessen your chances of people clicking your donation button. They think you’re already making money off of them, and that your need is not as great as it would appear without the ads.

Tons of readers. It just makes sense that the larger your readership, the more money you’ll make. Only a percentage will give, so the donations will rise in accordance to the higher number of visitors.

A Couple of Suggestions

There are some things that you can do to encourage people to give. If you engage in proactive fundraising, that is make a plea in your blog posting for readers to help you out financially, try enticing them and make sure you don’t bug them.

Offer incentives. You could do it on a ballot basis, giving all benefactors a chance at winning one of x number of prizes. If need be, approach local or online business and ask them to donate. It’s free publicity for them, and a premium for you to use to attract more cash gifts. This just may be give that little extra push to those readers who are sitting on the fence deciding whether or not to click the button.

Keep your fundraising requests to a minimum. If you repeatedly ask for donations, you’ll pester people. They not only will stop giving, but they’ll start to avoid you and that means your readership will fall, as well.

Knowing how to monetize your blog with donations is not only good for you, but for the people doing the donating. It makes people feel good to help and give if they can. Do yourself and them this favour. Everyone gets rewarded.

The most obvious and basic thing you can do to encourage sign ups is to provide genuinely helpful and unique content. If you do nothing else, practise this essential consistently to ensure return readers and interested opt-ins.

If you are providing a blog that people are considering valuable, they will be easily encouraged to share and forward your newsletter to others. Naturally, your newsletter should have an opt-in box for the recipients to easily register with. This step presents the opportunity to double your list of email addresses. Think about that – double, with very little effort. All you’re doing is asking your readers to share. If they’re enjoying your writing, they’ll be happy to oblige.

Should you find that you’re not getting as many referrals as you’d hoped from doing the above, try a little motivation.

• Offer an incentive to those who help you increase your number of registrants. It doesn’t have to be costly, though you could offer cash payable through PayPal. People are often pleased to receive a free report about a subject they’re interested in that pertains to your business.

• If you really want to thrill and excite them into helping you, offer to write a blog post about them. Every person who brings you X number of new sign ups will have their business highlighted on your blog.

• You may already be offering a free report on your blog site to entice new sign ups. If so, don’t forget to explain that the email address being entered will be added to your list. People don’t like feeling that they’ve been tricked onto a list. Honesty may lose you an address or two, but will win you an integrity that will take you much farther.

• Along the same vein, give your readers a feeling of being in control by segmenting your lists according to subject matter. Readers can then sign up only for the topics they’re interested in.

• Why not try something that survey sites use? Offer a contest ballot each time a reader gets a referral to join your list. The prize could be anything mentioned above, or something else your loyal supporters deem worth winning.

Another benefit to the personal touch is that your readers will feel part of a fold that has the inside track to success. It creates a team atmosphere that will in turn create motivation to help build your list. When this happens, you have people on board that feel rewarded and really want to help. The more interested and involved your opt-ins are, the better your list and therefore the selling potential within it.

Tons of people are using their blogs to implement subscriptions, as well as increase their numbers and keep everyone happy that they signed up in the first place. Have fun with the process and enjoy the interactions with your faithful readers, and the subsequent increase in sales.

Once you learn how to use your blog to build your email list, you’ll wish you’d started using the strategy sooner. It’s easy, and only involves a little work. The return you’ll get on the time spent will be more than worth it.

Many novice bloggers have this notion that all you have to do is set up a blog and wait for the subscribers and money to roll in. A bit of experience teaches people that it takes a bit of time and consistent posting to build up a list that trusts you. After some time passes, most hit the point where they have a great list, but aren’t seeing an income of any kind being generated as a result of all their posting.

If you’re at this point, don’t get too discouraged, there may be a payout for you yet.

While there are a few things you can do, turning your blog into an ebook may be the quickest way to see a return.

You have all the makings for successfully selling a digital product – trusting potentials and a niche subject that is already written in your posts. If the topic is one that you are passionate about and know well, your blog entries are probably interesting. You know they have value because you have loyal readers. People don’t usually hang out at a blog that doesn’t offer them anything.

By going digital, you are providing a service to your loyal supporters and drop-ins alike. Think of it as the home game version of your blog. Buyers have your info in a convenient, tidy package and they get to keep it.

Here are a few pointers to keep in mind:

• Use a nice, neat format. Keep it easy to read.
• Organize the information in a logical way, grouping subjects.
• Have a table of contents near the beginning to help readers find what they’re looking for.
• Make it easy to download and email. Clients won’t appreciate technical complications, or files that are too big.
• Use a proofreader (can’t be stress enough!). Doesn’t have to be a paid professional. Someone you know who has good grammar and spelling skills will do.
• Make it interesting to look at as well as read. Attract people to the content with visual interest.
• Use titles, subtitles, and sidebars where it makes sense to. People like to be able to read quick synopsis, and find what information they’re looking for fast. Make it easy for them to do so.
• Add graphics or photos if it makes sense. No copyright infringement! You can equate this to putting pictures on the walls of your home. They add that extra touch.
• If you have the funds to invest in dressing up your ebook, you can have a nice cover and box designed especially for your product. There are several online companies that offer that service.

You don’t have to have a lot of money to convert your blog to a digital product. If you have Word, you can save your finished document as a pdf file, and you’ll be ready to go. After that, you only need to choose your selling method.

So, now I’ll bet that you’re going to earn money from your blog and go digital. Do I win? Try it at least once and see for yourself.

Make Reading Your blog A Habit They Can’t Shake

It may seem obvious, but the most important thing that you can do to endear yourself to your readers is to give them a steady supply of great, original content.  That means plenty of entertainment and value packed into an easy to read format. Don’t forget to make your words positive.  Negativity turns people off and readers away.  If you can perfect all that, you’ll turn the blog reader into a junkie for your words.  They won’t be able to resist coming back for more.

Feed The Habit

Once you get those repeat returns, don’t ignore them!  Use your brilliant copy to encourage comments, and be sure that you respond.  Answer any questions posed, and make a remark or two about notes left.  Don’t forget to thank anyone who takes the time and trouble to leave a few words.  Make sure your loyal followers know that you appreciate them, and they’ll respond in kind.

Get Them Addicted

Another way to give your readers warm, fuzzies about you and your blog is to link to them.  Allow hyperlinking of their name, have a sidebar list of recent visitors with the hyperlinked name, or if appropriate, occasionally incorporate a reader’s link into your copy, making sure that you do it in such a way that it makes sense, of course.  Your popularity will skyrocket with readers who will feel like they’re part of your ‘club’.    You’ll have spotlighted them and made them feel important.  That’s like gluing a person to your blog.

Seal A Bonus Deal

If you want to go one step further, then surprise your loyal readers by visiting their blogs or sites and leaving comments.  You may even want to invite some of the more talented folks to submit a guest post.  You’ll be building relationships that will last a long time, assuming you continue good care.

Get The Word Out

It probably goes without saying, but make it easy for people to sign up for email alerts.  You’ve gone to all the trouble of making a really good blog and taking good care of those who read it, so now encourage them to leave their names and email addresses in a simple and easy to find form.  Let them know that their life will be made simpler by taking a second to go to the trouble.  Every time you post a new entry, they will receive a notification in their inbox, complete with handy link back to your blog.  Initially, if it’s a new blog, you may only get a few, but if you’re providing a really good, useful read, the numbers will continue to grow and grow.

Not all people are into using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds yet, but it’s a good idea to make the option available for those who aren’t shy to use it and for those who dislike signing up for emails.  You may still get some of the traffic with the feed button that would otherwise be missed.  As it is automatic and time saving, there will be some for whom this quick method will be perfect.

So, now you know how to increase reader loyalty on your blog.  If you follow the suggestions in this article, you will have a dedicated group of readers who will support you for a long time to come.
Happy blogging!