There’s an old golden rule in terms of choosing a career or venture which still applies today, even to blogging; love your work. Being passionate about our jobs, entrepreneurial endeavours, or daily routine can make the difference between success or failure.
From a personal standpoint, I’m passionate about growing this blog and covering the search engine world, but honestly, after 4 years of doing so, spending a sunny Friday afternoon onside to write about tweaks to an algorthim can be challenging.
Then, I talk to someone like Ken Savage, and I feel the invigoration of taking my first blogging breath all over again.
Ken’s Blog Story
A few years ago, Ken was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and in an effort to learn more information about the disease, and share that information with others, Ken launched the BattleDiabetes.com blog.
A search engine marketer for Kronos.com, during the night & weekends, Ken blogs about happenings in the diabetes research world and the importance of the prevention of Type 2 diabetes via diet & exercise. His wife does a lot of the research during the week, in what Ken says is a motivational tool to keep him on track.
Making Blog Money : AdSense & AuctionAds
What started as an educational project is now bringing in supplemental income, almost $40,000 a year – thanks to Google AdSense, AuctionAds and Text Link Ads.
The revenue generated from BattleDiabetes.com is split as follows :
- Google AdSense : 40%
- AuctionAds : 40%
- Text Link Ads : 20%
Ken says that his revenue really improved once installing the AuctionAds advertising spots on BattleDiabetes. Best of all, the eBay product auction generated ads do not interfere with Google AdSense, so both formats can be run on the site at one time, and by smoothly integrating the ads into the site, the click thru rate is higher.
Building Traffic to the Blog
BattleDiabetes.com attracts 7,000 to 9,000 pageviews on a given day and Ken says that the majority of traffic comes from search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Ask.com.
WordPress is used to power the blog and after some basic WordPress SEO Plugin installs the backbone can be made very search engine friendly. Ken also practices strategic linkbuilding, with sites like TheDiabetesBlog.com linking back to his blog.
But Ken says that one of the most recent jumps in search driven traffic came after he listed BattleDiabetes.com in major web directories such as Best of the Web, DMOZ, Aviva Directory and Business.com.
Ken also takes full advantage of the social media outlets like StumbleUpon, Netscape and Digg to build some of his traffic. Almost all articles are submitted to StumbleUpon, which can drive major traffic if its users give the article a ‘Thumbs Up.’
StumbleUpon actually requests that webmasters submit their own content for the SU community to vote upon, and this is paying off well for Ken, as Buzz.StumbleUpon.com/Health is one of his biggest referrers.
Submitting articles to Digg & Netscape is done on a more conservative note, as only the most informative and interesting pieces are submitted to each.
To wrap things up, using a balance of passion, education, sharing, basic SEO, link building and contextual advertising; Mr. Savage has taken the diagnosis of a major and life threatening disease and turned it around into a commercial opportunity; while at the same time combatting his own disease and helping to prevent others from developing full blown Type 2 diabetes.
