Enkay Blog

Does The Economy Affect Blogging?

As many of you who live in the United States know, the economy has gotten quite rough over the past year and this means that people are losing their jobs, they are being unable to pay for their cars and homes and its just a tough situation for quite a few people. The big question here is, how does this economic crisis affect bloggers?

Well it seems as though, bloggers are only mildly affected. Since most of our income is derived from advertising, there isn’t really a reduction in clicks or even impressions for that matter. I personally think that advertising networks are showing a bit of a down time as offers are not selling as much as they used to. However, you should remember that when I say down time, its really not that big of a down time compared to some of the other industries such as automakers or the housing market.

The Housing Market
There have been lots of polls recently talking about the housing market and this article on MSN talks about the 5 best and 5 worst housing markets. Surprisingly New York comes in at the best and San Francisco comes in last. One of the states that is actually doing quite well is New Jersey and mainly due to its association with New York. For some of you outside the US, you should know that a lot of people that work in New York, actually live in New Jersey so that means that New Jersey’s economy gets a boost. So much so that they are actually the second wealthiest state in the US. The Real Estate New Jersey is actually on the rise. Aside from that, the top 5 housing markets were pretty much located in the North Eastern part of the US and the worst 5 were spread around a little bit with a majority of them in the Western part of the US.

The Auto Market
Moving on with the subject of down time, I would not be doing my job if I didn’t mention the staggering $9.6 billion dollar loss posted today by General Motors for its quarterly report. Thats a huge hit to stockholders and the US auto market in general. This comes after recent reports that the auto sales have dropped a little over 30% compared to last year. I recently met with some associated at Mercedes Benz and discussed how the recession is affecting their auto sales. The response was not what I had expected. The two sales representatives said the same thing – that their car sales were affected, but only by about 10% at their location and about 12% over the state of Texas. This makes sense, considering that Mercedes announced a slight price increase on some of its vehicles. Sounds a bit crazy, right?

Huge Job Losses
Either way, with the slowing housing market, a drop in US car sales and the highest rate of job losses in a while with December 2008 being the 12th consecutive month in the decline of jobs. With companies going bankrupt, and others cutting back, it is understood that there will be jobs lost. Take a look at this New York Times article from earlier this month that states that almost 600,000 jobs were lost in January 2009 alone. That is a huge loss of jobs and that doesn’t really help boost the economy either.

Does The Economy Affect YOU?
The point is, how does this all affect bloggers? Well, although it seems like this crisis is affecting a lot of people. I really don’t think that bloggers are affected by it as such. I know that I have still seen the same amount of blogs pop up, I’m still seeing large income reports and as far as affiliate marketing goes (maybe Market Leverage can confirm this), I don’t think that they are being affected as drastically as some of the other industries. I know that there are some cutbacks taking place in terms of investing into affiliate marketing and such but that is expected in such an economy. Do you guys think that the economy is affecting your blog and your online investments or projects? I’d like to know and I’m sure others would like to know as well. So, until next time, I’ll be waiting to read your responses. Have a great rest of the week!

Seeing Your Blog As A Money Maker?

Hey everyone, so I’ve been gone for a while and I just wanted to write you and let you know that I will be changing a few things on the blog. First off, I will be posting more frequently than I have been posting and I’ve already got the plan under way for that. I’ve had a rough couple weeks settling into my schedule that spans from noon to midnight every day resulting in no time for blogging but I’ve decided to dedicate atleast an hour every day to blogging to help keep this blog alive and active. I’ve done it before and I’ll revive it again.

So, today I wanted to talk about bloggers who only see their blog as a money making machine. This happens frequently and we see bloggers who are only trying to pretty much go out there and promote all sorts of products and services just so they can make a quick buck. There is a line between blogging and advertising and some bloggers are forgetting to keep that line in mind. This is how some bloggers are transforming their blogs into money making machines:

1) Newsletter Sign Up Popup Forms - I completely hate these newsletter sign up forms that pop up when you go to your favorite bloggers website. Its as though, if you don’t sign up, you can’t read the content. It becomes annoying even after you sign up for the newsletter and you keep receiving the popup. You really can’t be that desperate to expand your audience and your bottom line by adding the newsletter popups on the main page of your blog.

2) More than 8 125×125 Adspots - Usually having 4-8 Adspots for 125×125 ads is common but when you go ahead and try to expand that into a 12 Adspot sidebar then you’re risking your entire blog audience. Its really not that attractive to have that many ads plus after a while, it gets a bit distracting. Doubling up your income could cause you to lose it all, so you have to decide what you prefer.

3) Poker/Gambling Paid Reviews – I have seen these around lately and I’m not even sure why money making bloggers are associating themselves with gambling paid reviews. I mean, I understand that you can make money from gambling but its definitely not niche related at all. I think that attempting to go for paid reviews about unrelated topics time and time again or going for too many paid reviews at one time could be devastating and doesn’t result in good publicity for you at all.

4) Traveling Ads - I call these ads traveling ads but they’re the thin ads at the top of your blog page that scroll down as you scroll down a page. I find these highly frustrating and although for some small bloggers, it can add around $10 or $20 a month to your income, its definitely not something that I tend to enjoy looking at when I visit your blog.

So, whats the solution you ask? Well, the solution is pretty obvious, keep it simple and visitors will return. If you try to go out there and cover up every inch of your blog with ads, then you’ll be disappointing your loyal readers. Thats not something you want and so you should avoid that. So, I hope you enjoyed today’s post. I have another post coming up that will talk about using an RSS reader so I hope you’re looking forward to that. Thanks again guys!

Video Services To Help You Stand Out

Dont you wish that sometimes your web videos or web episodes had those cool intro pieces? I know that I’ve done quite a bit of video editing in the past and it can be quite tedious to make everything look just right. Well, Recently I was contacted by Richter Studios which is a Video Production Services company and they create high quality interactive videos for your business, blog, tv or for training.

Creating videos of high quality will help you get noticed better and whether you want them to come out and actually shoot your video or you already have the raw video that needs post processing, they’ll be able to help you out. The idea is that being creative and standing out from the crowd can help you get noticed and you can achieve that with the help of professional video services such as those provided by Richter Studios.

They have talented and creative editors and animators that can do anything from 2D graphics, 3D animations, text and logo animation as well as several other effects. Richter Studios knows exactly what they are doing and they have been in the business of creating presentations for over 10 years and have handled custom presentations for multi-million dollar bids. They have extensive experience to create state-of-the-art presentations that are sure to impress.

They even handle services such as helping transform your website from 1.0 to 2.0 or helping you with flash work. They are able to create interactive flash based animation and web 2.0 websites for all types of clients and companies. They are well trained in PHP, SQL, Lingo, Actionscript, HTML, SML, ASP, you name it, they have it!

So, if you need help with setting yourself apart from the group whether its flash animations, video production or even video services, then be sure to check out Richter Studios! I’ll be back Sunday with a post about why you shouldnt just see your blog as a money making machine!

Who Wants To Go On A Free Vacation?

I was recently contacted by the good folks over at Direct Agents Interactive who asked me to let you guys know about a really new and exciting contest of great proportions. This is no ordinary contest, considering the fact that the prizes are not only unique but very interesting. If I’ve already got your attention and you want to sign up then you should do so by clicking here.

Direct Agents Interactive and Bidz.com are holding an excellent contest that starts on February 15th and March 31st. All you have to do is drive the most number of leads and you can take away the top prize. Now, you might be wondering what the prizes are so lets take a look at the list of prizes:

First Place: Trip for Two To the Caribbean
Second Place: 42″ Flat Screen TV
Third Place: $300 Gift Card

I’m sure the list of prizes is more than impressive so if you’re looking to sign up then all you have to do is click here. Also, if you have any questions, you may want to check out the list of FAQ’s or you can leave me a comment here.

Direct Agents is a very popular advertising agency and they offer customized performance marketing solutions that help advertisers such as you and I reach the highest numbers of customers possible. They allow advertisers to access top tier publishers and new emerging media. They are a performance based network and they know exactly how this industry works and can offer their clients some great results.

Some of their featured clients include Blockbuster, Vista Print, SnapFish, Merry Maids, Omaha Steaks, DirectTV and many other popular companies. Their list of clients is just as impressive as their current contest so I hope youre as amazed with the list of prizes as I am. Hope to see you guys sign up for this contest! Good Luck everyone!

What Does Success Mean?

Everyone seems to have a different meaning of success but it seems that sometimes we are so involved in the present that we forget about the future. We forget the long term goals in order to try to resolve the short term goals. The point is that success is what you make of it. I hear this all the time, and I’m sure you do too, “Oh man, that guy is a successful blogger”. What does that even mean? To you, it could be that he makes close to a half a million a year. To someone else that could mean that he has 40,000 subscribers. To someone else, it could mean that he has great posts and an active commenting community.

What Does Success Mean?
Success is defined as “The achievement of something desired, planned, or attempted”. Success is actually truly determined by what you make of it. Its about a goal you set for yourself and how you go about to achieve it and when you do achieve it, that is what is referred to as success. What do you picture when you picture success? Do you think of a big house, nice cars or do you think of a life filled with peace and tranquility or do you think of a life where you are committed to helping others and finding happiness in their happiness? Its all about what you make of it.

Success And Your Blog
To help you make your blog successful, you have to realize that you should always do what you believe is best. You should remember a few things while you go about achieving your goals though. These are some tips to help you achieve your goals related to your blog:

1) Do not step on toes – Its kind of like that saying in business, its not good to burn bridges. What that means is that don’t look down upon bloggers that you think are not good or you dont like or those who are just new. You never know where they will end up and how far up the ladder they will go and when you might need their help. Be friendly and be accepting to everyone who is willing to do the same back.

2) Blogging is a community – Just as I mentioned above, blogging is a community. We are all part of this community in which we interact and communicate. Your readers are part of your community. Be sure not to annoy them or cause them to stop reading your blog. You have to find ways to keep them interested. Interacting and communicating with your readers and your fellow bloggers will help you get noticed faster and will help you in the long run.

3) Bring something new to the table – This is something that everyone talks about. Bringing something new to the table means that you have to stand out. You have to be unique in order to be noticed and in order for people to notice you. If you do what everyone else is doing without doing anything new then you’ll come and go without even being remembered. So make sure to find your niche, be yourself and wow your readers.

So thats all I have for today and I do hope to keep posting more normally. Things have been a little rough adjusting to a schedule that spans from noon to about midnight every day. I will definitely keep up with it though and I hope to see you guys around for the next post. Let me know what your thoughts are on this post and if you’d like to see the follow up that I have for this called Success In Your Life. Have a great Sunday!