A presentation from: Freek Bijl Internet strategist at eFocus (Dutch) Blog: Bijlbrand.nl

So, I am a blogger .

Big chance you are a blogger too .

I’m not a big blogger celebrity.

I don’t reach many people.

But, I reach the right ones .

I am micro famous .

If you are a blogger, you are probably micro famous too .

I spend about 5-8 hours a week creating content. With content I mean: blogposts, tweets, video’s and slideshows. ( )

Not including time reading other blogs. (About 10-14 hours a week.)

I would like to spend more time.

I also would like to make some minor investments in hard- and software.

Why ?

To make better content and reach more people that share the same interest .

So, what is my blog going to cost coming year ?

about 8450 euro’s (12.339 USD)

That’s not cheap . But it’s reasonable.

Until now I’ve only invested . Never earned a dime.

My one man blog needs a business model.

So, what choices do I have ?

Off course, I can have advertisements .

But I don’t reach a lot of people.

I would earn only a fraction of what I need to cover my expenses.

Off course, I can have a lot of advertisements.

But advertisements are just irritating , because they interrupt me from what I’m doing with something that isn’t relevant to me at that time.

I could also make content that is more popular and get more traffic from Google (and then earn from advertisements) .

But, that would just kill creativity and quality .

So, let’s rethink the blog business model.

What is there to earn from having a blog ?

First of all, I have myself to earn.

?

Just like any brand my personal brand is worth something.

There are other intangible things that could be worth something. Like knowledge and a network .

So, my personal brand , my knowledge and my network could increase in value .

I call this soft income , because this doesn’t create any value on my bank account. Only theoretically in the future .

How about hard cash ?

I could sell stuff.

Since I’m not very good in arts and crafts, I could sell services like doing a presentation or reviewing something.

But, I have a job I really like. I’m short on my main resource: time .

Talking about my job…

My company pays money for advertisements .

My company also makes costs for recruiting people and creating leads for new work.

I could make a blog bonus deal!

For every person that’s hired thru my online activities I get a fee .

For every click to the company website I get a fee . (so they can spend less on Google Adwords. I deliver better traffic)

And, for every commercial lead that I create with my online activities I get a fee .

In fact this is a form of affiliate marketing .

I could do more of that with services and products that are relevant to my audience.

Since I have a small audience that I’m familiar with, I can better create relevance .

Last, but not least there is an almost forgotten asset where people could pay for…

content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content content

I hear you: content needs to be free .

I think people would pay for extra quality or commercial usage .

proof

Ok. Let’s sum it up.

BLOG INCOME SEP’08 – AUG’09 Soft income: Personal brand 5.000 Knowledge 0 Network 0 5.000 Hard income: Affiliate company marketing 1.000 (recruitment, traffic & leads) Products & services 1.000 Advertisement (affiliate) 300 Paid content 0 2.300 ----------- TOTAL 7.300

On the last slide of this presentation you can read all about the details of this calculation.

You can count: my blog is still making a loss .

Just like any startup blog it will take some time to break even .

Maybe you got the idea that I’m in it for the money .

wrong . You’re

Blogs need a better business model.

For better reading and writing the web.

I would like to head your opinion and ideas .

.end More (in Dutch), check out: http://www.bijlbrand.nl

credits The girl with the laptop is Julia Allison: celeb blogger in the USA. Picture with people from inlinegirl (Flickr) http://flickr.com/photos/inlinegirl/40838183//

The girl with the laptop is Julia Allison: celeb blogger in the USA.

Picture with people from inlinegirl (Flickr)

http://flickr.com/photos/inlinegirl/40838183//

About the calculation… There are many ways to calculate what a brand is worth (check out: http://www.interbrand.com for instance), but I couldn’t find any good models to calculate what a personal brand is worth. So I defined the value of a personal brand as the money that an employer would be willing to pay extra because of your personal brand. I estimate this about 10% of a market conform salary in my type of business. Knowledge and network are worth nothing in the first year, because people/readers aren’t given me any extra knowledge at this moment and the network isn’t that big that it creates extra value. I recon that the value will increase in the coming years. About the hard income. This is an estimation based on what I think my company is willing to pay for recruiting one new employee and creating an fair amount of traffic to the company website. About the advertisement: this is based on a calculation about # pageviews and estimated revenue per click.

There are many ways to calculate what a brand is worth (check out: http://www.interbrand.com for instance), but I couldn’t find any good models to calculate what a personal brand is worth. So I defined the value of a personal brand as the money that an employer would be willing to pay extra because of your personal brand. I estimate this about 10% of a market conform salary in my type of business. Knowledge and network are worth nothing in the first year, because people/readers aren’t given me any extra knowledge at this moment and the network isn’t that big that it creates extra value. I recon that the value will increase in the coming years.

About the hard income. This is an estimation based on what I think my company is willing to pay for recruiting one new employee and creating an fair amount of traffic to the company website. About the advertisement: this is based on a calculation about # pageviews and estimated revenue per click.