Comments on: Niche Blog vs. Social Blog

By: Saedel

Saedel — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:06:46 +0000

I take back what I said Frank… After re-checking my stat, I found out the Google traffic for my site is not 21%, it’s a measly 8%! Sorry for the misinformation. I guess I was looking at something else before I posted my previous comment. *embarassed*

By: jfc

jfc — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:32:46 +0000

Hi Saedel,

It’s been running about 8-10% here for Google search traffic. That was one of my main reasons for moving OpTempo into being more of a social MMO/Blogging blog rather than trying to be a hybrid which was my original plan.

By: Saedel

Saedel — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:19:25 +0000

Great post! Informative and useful, I could use this article in my future posts.

You are right about Google Traffic on social blog. My social site (click my name), received less than 20% from Google. However, lately, I’m receiving more hits from the Big G. It climbed up to 21% so far.

By: jfc

jfc — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 03:33:24 +0000

Thanks Grizzly,

Going pure niche monetizes so much easier.

I’ve kind of gotten in the mode of slipping in ads here to try them out before I put them on a niche blog. I figure if the jaded crowd here clicks them they must be good ads.

By: jfc

jfc — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 03:26:33 +0000

Hi Lin,

Search results can be weird sometimes. I get a lot of “[blank] sucks” traffic here because of my BlogRush Sucks campaign. I’ll sometimes even be #1 for the term until someone like Griz or Vic decides they want that spot.

Having both social and search aspects will result in higher traffic but usually lower advertising revenue. For example, when I was pushing a lot of social traffic toward my programming blog I had twice as much traffic but earnings were lower than they are now.

By: Lin

Lin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:59:45 +0000

It’s been rather interesting when I check to see where my social/authority blog traffic is coming from. I don’t use adsense on my blog at all, and don’t ever plan to. Google search traffic is definitely on the increase, which I’ve been working hard to increase by learning about keywords, thus helping to build the “authority” part more. Checking my stats and seeing what keywords people have used that brought them to my posts (especially archive posts) really helps me to better learn keyword choice for future articles. Having people come to my posts from google searches, and finding comments from my subscribers/visitors helps draw more subscribers to my blog, so I think being both a social blog and authority blog has its perks.

Someone did a google search for “is helping and enabling the same thing” and my article “Are parents helping or enabling their adult children” is Numero Uno in the results. Using the keywords “helping and enabling” puts that same article on the first page at number 6. Yeah!

By: Grizzly

Grizzly — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:01:52 +0000

Bang on Frank! An excellent post that couldn’t be explained more clearly or concisely. You are so right about monetizing a dual purpose site - very tough to do.

By: jfc

jfc — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:57:18 +0000

Thanks Y.S.,

On the Amazon ads, I don’t recommend them at all. The payouts are too low and rather hard to get. There are so many better options. But, it would probably work best on a social blog where your online friends buy through the ad to support your site. But unless you have a ton of regular, loyal, visitors this won’t make you much money.

By: Y. S.

Y. S. — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 20:42:06 +0000

I’m sorry for dropping a question or a comment every time I read one of your posts, but I can’t help it. I’m new to this (blogging) and you sound professional. Plus, I’m used to commenting a lot because I spend a lot of time on forums.

There is nothing that a thread writer (in this case a post writer) likes than a good amount of comments which shows that there are people interested in your work and writings. Otherwise, why put all this effort in it in the first place?

By the way, are Amazon Ads better for “social” or “niche” blogs?