A Brand new blog, Maybe?

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ello, my name is Patricia.  I am a single person with 2 nieces, 3 nephews,  and love for Disney. I aspire to work with any company that I (1) believe has most of the values that I cherish, and (2) I have had a good rapport with now and in the past.  These qualities fit Disney for me.  I am a little bit Disney crazy.

So, when I tell you that I am going to start my second blog about going to Disney when you only have nieces and nephews, you might think that I am a little crazy to do that.  My first blog closed, not by the web host's hand or Disney’s but mine. 

The first blog was named cutely, but long-winded “Travelling to the Mouse’s House”.  Yes, Travelling was spelled with two “Ls” in it because I could not decide if I was misspelling the word or trying to be funny about this spelling. 

What was it all about?

Photo by Pixabay

It was at first about the misadventures of an Ohio woman and her family trying to get to Disney World. When I was a child, I lived 2 hours from Disneyland in California, and I loved it when the family came to visit, and we would make that track up to Anaheim, and visit Mickey, Minnie, The princesses, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, You know the rest, and had a ball.  Then we moved to the East coast and New Jersey.  If you want some non-Disney fun, this was the place to do it.  Finally, when I was 12, we moved to Ohio, and I have been here since that time, and I have been to Disney World a couple of times.  I was also part of Disney Vacation Club, which was a treat in itself, but I had to let it go due to financial reasons.

So that is what the blog was all about.

If I were to start another blog….

…. It would be something like that.  A woman and her family trying to get to Disney World, but it would not stop there.  I would talk about Disney, my views on Disney, and I would even take you along on my Disney trips.

Finding a name.

If I were to start another blog about Disney, the first thing I would have is a name without the name Disney or any of its trademarks in it.   Disney frowns on that sort of stuff.  In fact, unless you are approved by a company, rather is a big company like Disney or Amazon, or a small home business like mine, P. Lynne Designs, you would have to get permission to use the name.  So, since I have a business, I am not going to bother about the step I have to take in order to have something like “Tricia’s Wonderful Disney Blog”, or “Tricia’s Mickey Trip”.  I will revile the name at the end of this blog post.

Finding a purpose.

If I were to find a purpose about this blog, it would be all things, Disney, right?  Yes, but I have to present it like, professional and stuff.  I cannot be selfish about this blog either.   I cannot talk about my family all the time, nor they would want me to either.  Since almost everyone at one point or another want to at least visit Disney World once, I have to make it that way.  So here is a rundown of some of the things I want to talk about:

• The parks
• The resorts
• The food
• The special events in the park
• Other theme parks.  Disney is not the only one with the theme parks in the Central Florida area.
• The merchandise.
• Disney Plus
• What’s showing in the Theater
• Disney Cruise Line.  You know they have one
• Disney Vacation Club.  Not too many people know about this, but it is a good investment if you visit Disney World Resorts often
• Other Disney Parks.

OK, that is a few of some of the things worth mentioning.  Of course, I can talk about any and all of them, and I will at some point.

I do not want to be a repeater.

One of the problems with my last blog about Disney was I live up north, while Disney World is down south, and I felt that since I was not going to the parks much, I was only repeating what was in the news.  Yes, I want to report them, especially since I do not live in the Central Florida area, but at what point do I want to sound like I grabbed the news from the internet and run with it.  I am determined not to let that get in my way again.

When you feel like you are in a place in your blog that sounds like you are repeating old news and things of the past, remember that not everyone is seeing it for the 1000^th time, report it like it is your audience’s first time hearing about it. In other words, put your spin on the news.   To give an example, unless you are not a Disney fan, everyone is going to report on the rise of ticket prices in the Disney parks.  Report that, but put your own spins, such as your summary, good or bad, talk about your budget as you plan your next trip as a Disney fan, or a parent with 2.5 kids and a dog who needs boarding. I have grown as a writer since my days as the owner of Travelling to the Mouse’s House.

Finding an audience.

One of my other problems is when you live as “an introvert with extrovert tendencies”, as my pastor says, is marketing this blog, and this should not be a problem, but it is.  The point is not to make it a problem.  Disney has its fans, and fans for not take lightly when you belittle their happy place.  No one does, when someone talks bad about that thing they love.

For me, that is no problem.  I will report the good, bad, and ugly about Disney, but I will exercise more on the side of good things.  I do not like hearing about the Walt Disney Company’s greediness, being expensive, and trying to monopolize the world.  Do you think that we as fans don’t know about it?  The difference between a fan and a hater is we are willing to look past the company’s faults and failures, and little ticks, while finding the good in that little tick.  In Disney’s case, it is that little tick that might mean a new ride, a new resort, or even better service.

As you explore whatever you are willing to devote your new blog too, help your reader become a forever friend of your blog.  You may have to report some bad news, such as your new crafting tool having some first-time flaws issues, your favorite Harley Motorcycle has a recall, a new rule that demonetizes your blog and takes away some of your devoted readers, but at the same time, report that   Overall, you want your reader to be informed of a profitable solution that does not cost them a lot of money for the fix.  After all, you are here to help, inform, and to educate.

workaround instruction how to call customer service, or that minor little discover you have made yourself that hopefully does not violate EULA (End User License Agreement).

Monetization

This is by far the hardest part of owning a blog, and although I am not an expert in this, I would like to educate and do research on how I can fund my blog.  This is what I am working on with the other three blogs, and I can say that it is not easy.  I will post a longer post on the monetization of blog posting, but there are the ways I am doing so:

            Affiliate Marketing- this is promoting business and its products.  The biggest affiliate is Amazon, but there are others, such as Sale-a-share, CJ Affiliate, Clickbank, and many others if you do not want to get into Amazon.  You can also go to a company to see if they have an affiliate program.   One example is I am a marketer of the Amazon Affiliate program, which has many facets, including being a seller.  I have a seller’s account.  Whenever you see this notation on a blog post,

“Disclaimer: P. Lynne Designs is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. “

Photo by Pixabay

On my blog post, it means that there is a product that I am promoting on that blog post.  It also means that I get a commission from your purchase, but you do not have to buy the product.  I have to by Amazon and the FTC that governs all affiliate programs, including Amazon’s. 

            Freelancing:  I am a freelancer is both writing and graphic work.  My specialties are Blog post, ghostwriting and regular document writing, and resume writing in the writing industry. Logo, stationery, cards (Both Business and Greeting Cards), invitations, and copywriting for Graphic Design.  This does not mean that I do not like a challenge.

The key is to learn how to set your own prices.  Setting them too high means no customers, but setting the prices too low also means no customers.  Set your ground rules, but offer something unique makes a returning customer, and they will bring new customers to you.

            Sponsorships and advertising:  I find that this is the oldest way to monetize your blog, and it is done by marketing another person’s product or concept. 

            Create a course:  People love to know how you made a buck or two, why not sell in the form of a course. You have something that is very valuable to the general public and plus it is a tried and true concept.  For example, I am always intrigued on the notion of getting to a million-dollar business while in my underwear.  This was the first course I bought in the early 2000s.  The concept is sound, and it was the same marketing concept I paid thousands of dollars for at the university I graduated from in 2003 (thank you Dr. Otte and Franklin University- I will be back for my master’s degree).   Anyway, I paid for this course, and I did not see any value in it because I had already learned it some months earlier, but that does not mean that another person who did not know this marketing concept could not benefit from this man’s teachings.

Today, I do not know how many emails I have gotten of people selling their concept of making a few extra monies for the bank account.  I also have taken 3 courses from a woman, named Renae Christine, who have some of the same principles as my former university, but the difference is she throws in a different teaching technique than any of my instructors did at the school.  There is also Freelance University, that I am attended right now, and it too teaches you how to freelance. 

The point is how to market the course and what to charge,

Selling a book or a product:  This my last point on the subject.   You can publish an e-book or a regular book, which is very easy if you go through sites like Amazon.  It used to take months to write down a concept, edit, and send it to a publisher. You can now email it or send it through Amazon’s vast website.  I briefly touched on products earlier.

So, to put it together:

To recap:

1. The concept of your blog
2. The approach or plan for the blog
3. You know your audience
4. You have the name of your blog, and
5. You know what topics you are going to cover.

Your blog is only halfway there.  If you are going to make some money with the blog, then you need to find ways to do that, and it varies from person to person. 

Let me know what you think about this concept of starting a new blog.  Is it something you are interested in the comments section.

Day 17: Making money

(c) 2015 P. Lynne Designs

Hello, and merry Blogmas 2015.

Today’s subject is a little on the “what can I do to make money on the side or a new career” type of blog post.  I used to do these all the time, and I felt like I was one of those scam artists.  Do not get me wrong, some of these methods do work, if you have the time and money to invest into it, but it was the way I presented it, and if I was uncomfortable with the posts, I knew in my heart my readers were uncomfortable reading them.

Showing people affiliate links to get started was one of the main basis of this blog when it was named My Blessed Life, and I had that type of blog post for a whole month, before I asked myself, “What the heck am I doing?” This was not me in a nutshell, and I did not want to come off that way.  I still think that you can make extra money by having affiliate links, but you have to do the research and be dedicated to finding that perfect product for the subject you are talking about in your blogs.  You cannot let yourself be suckered into every Tom, Dick, or Henrietta that comes your way.   You have to learn to say no if it does not fit you and your readers.

With that being said, I want to talk to you about You Tube for a moment.  There is an article on Fusion.com that I read last night, and in the article, the author talks about why you should not use You Tube to make videos and make money.   The article is called “Famous and broke on You Tube.”  I got angry and basically blow it off, because that was her opinion, and I do not value it.   Then, today, I tuned into one of my favorite YT Channels, The Nive Nulls, and Austin Null was talking about the same article, but because he has a working successful YT channel, his approach was very different from the author’s.  Now that the rat got loss in the cheese factory, here is my take on YT and making money there or anywhere on the Interwebs.

When I first got started on doing anything on the Internet, I was not thinking about the money aspect of it all.  I wanted people to know that I am here, in my own little corner of the world, and I have something to say.   This is how I got started with my first blog, MDN Creates (now P. Lynne Designs), and I moved on from there.   I knew about You Tube, I had been a subscriber since 2007, but I never thought about doing video at all.   I made my first video 5 years ago, showing the first mini book I made.  I never thought about hitting the monetarize button a vlogger can push to make money of their videos.  I was not even thinking about the views either.  (I still have only 85 followers).  The point was I am not on YT to make money, even though I did push the button.  I am not looking for sponsorship for the moment, at least not the way this author was putting it. 

If your goal is always money, you may not achieve that at first.  Your channel first of all has to be likable.  How do you do that?  First have something that draws a person to that channel.  A catchy title (such as The Nive Nulls, Gabe and Babe TV, and so on).  My channel just has my name for the moment, because I want people to know who is making the vlogs. Next, have a subject.  Some of the people I watch have daily vlogs where they vlog about 15 mins of their life, which is usually spread through the day.  Others have hobby vlogs, such as scrapbooking or skateboarding.  For those vlogs, the video usually contains a tutorial, anywhere from 15 mins to an hour, depending on the type of project being made, or technic.  Brands like Disney, for example, has vlogs on YT talking about parks, the movies, and almost all things Disney.  There are also the food vlogs and the stupid vlogs.  Do what make you happy on your channel.

If you want sponsorship, make the sponsors come to you, not the other way around.  Give them something that makes them say, “I want my product to be on that video, their viewers will come to us, and that will give them more brand awareness to that product.  Coming to the sponsor sounds like you are needy and desperate.  It takes time and patience before a sponsor will notice your channel in order for them to even contact you.  Same with subscribers.  Now it is ok to say, “if you want to see more, like, comment, and subscribe”.  This is how you get more readership (viewers).  It shows appreciation for the viewers who do watch you and brings in more.

Lastly, do not concentrate on numbers.  A channel has to be view so many times before you can get a million subscribers or views, and yes, YT does rewards you with plaques and invitations to workshops that help you to get even more views. One way is a Vlogger’s Fair held annually the last part of July.  If you are famous enough, you get to have meet-ups, and invited to be on a panel or two.  Gabe Flowers-Raider of Gabe and Babe TV told me once in a Google Hangout to stay consistent with your videos.  If you are going to make and upload twice a week, for example, try to make and upload videos twice a week.  Stick with the schedule for a while, then when you are ready to increase your videos, make an announcement that you are changing your schedule so your viewers can be in the loop.

Again, don’t worry about this, for the numbers will come.  Do not concentrate on the money either.  The more views, the more money, but it depends on how many clicks you get and who you attract to your channel or blog.  My top video has only 436 views.  My blogs have way more pageviews, but I will cover that at another time.  I will get more, when I make and upload more.   That is one of the goals of 2016.  The summary of all of this is, you will only get what you put forth in both your videos and your blogs.  Do not let the article steer you into thinking that you will never make on You Tube. 

The purpose of this post was not to discourage you if you are thinking about making money this way, but to encourage you to start if that is what you want to do, but be realistic if the money is not coming within the first year.  Not everyone is cut out for YT.  Remember, it does takes time and practice, but at the same time, make it only part time to start, and when the money is right, go full throttle.  Good luck.