How to build a music blog: An Example For Beginning Affiliates. Pt. 5

OK, today I want to continue talking about mp3 music blogs as a vehicle for affiliate marketing. I know that some of you may be thinking what is this guy talking about. Well one of the things that I have advocated since I started this blog is that you should try to link various communities.

Well that is one of the things that I am trying to do in this series of post. I want to link the affiliate marketers and the audiobloggers. In my mind they are a natural match and it seems logical to me that every audioblogger should also be an affiliate marketer. And visa versa many affiliate marketers could benefit from having an audioblog or two.

A lot of information that you will read on affiliate marketing is not very concrete. No one is telling you exactly how to do it. No one is giving you good accurate information. Also technology is moving so fast that it is difficult to understand the best practices. This is true of both audioblogging and of affiliate marketing. That is why I thought it would be a great idea to provide some examples of how to do this.

Mp3 blogers, audiobloggers, what ever you want to call them, have an excellent format for affiliate marketing. So that is why I am continuing with the series. You could of course scroll down to see the post in this series, but if you are reading this for the first time here are the post in the order that I wrote them.

Please click links below to read parts 1 & 2.

How to build a music blog: An Example For Beginning Affiliates. Pt. 1

How to build a music blog: An Example For Beginning Affiliates. Pt. 2

How to build a music blog: An Example For Beginning Affiliates. Pt. 3

Some Lite Reading RE MP3 Blogs

So here in part 5, I want to give another interesting article that I think speaks to the point that I have been trying to make that audioblogging is blowing up. Listen. And learn. form the BostonGlobe.com.

And a small blurb from the article;

Bay Area music journalist and scholar Oliver Wang, 32, whose site Soul Sides many bloggers look to as a model for its clear presentation and Wang's thoughtful essays, spent 10 years as a college radio DJ. He began posting sound files in February 2004, making him a granddaddy of the genre.

This quote led me to Soul Sides So You Want To Start an Audioblog page. Which is the take of one of the people who started the whole audioblogging phenomena. Mr. Wang's take on it, I think complements what I have tried to say in this series and it is good to read the ideas of a sucessfull audioblogger and learn form his experience.

And Tofu Hut (another popular audioblog) also has a guide to audioblogging from back in 2004. Check out his, HOW TO MUSICBLOG: pt. 1.

Finally I would like to say, that I know there is a different mind set of some audibloggers, they are not interested in commerce. And some of them may even feel that they are selling out by doing affiliate marketing. But when you consider that many audioblogs get hundreds and even thousands of hits a day.

How to build a music blog: An Example For Beginning Affiliates. Pt. 3

Please click links below to read parts 1 & 2.

How to build a music blog: An Example For Beginning Affiliates. Pt. 1

How to build a music blog: An Example For Beginning Affiliates. Pt. 2

In this third part of my continuing series "How to Build an Affiliate Music Blog" I want to cover and concentrate on the tools that can be used by a begining affiliate to create a low (to no cost affiliate blog). I say low cost because I will be concentrating on tools that are for the most part free to use.

I am assuming that if you are reading this you probably have not created an affiliate blog before. That is why I won't to keep the cost of putting it together low. That is why I will also be recommending the use of free tools.

There are those who will tell you that you get what you pay for. Most of these people are trying to sell you something. I on the other hand am trying to show you how to make money. So for every tool that I list here there is a corrosponding version that can and will cost you large sums of money. Feel free to spend what your budget will allow or you can use the tools I mention here and when you understand how to use them better you can upgrade to the pay versions.

One of the truly revolutionary things that has happened in the online world is the proliferation of free online space. It is mind boggling to think of all the free space that a small business can find and use online. Basically the only limitations are your imagination. Google, Yahoo, MSN and several other online companies are battling for the hearts and minds of consumers and one of the ways that they are trying to intice us is by providing free online space.

2. Selection of tools

a. Blogging platforms - One of the coolest things about the environment that bloggers find themselves in today is the many free blogging platforms are out there. It really is mind boggling. I've noticed that some bloggers have the attitude that you really need to use a pay blogging platform to be effective. But I can tell you that some of the most successfull music blogs out there use the free blogging platforms.

And if like me you are parsimonious then you may want to wait until your blog starts making money before you spend money on a blogging platform. Also there is steep learning curve and unless you already know many of the ends and outs of useing a blog then you may be wasting your money. But hey it's your money, and as a business man I always urge people to spend money, who knows some of it may trickle my way.

OK enough of the soap box, here are a few of the blogging platforms that are out there for you to use.

-Blogger
-Live Journal
-Journal Space
-Wordpress

I have chosen Blogger for my example blog because it is the simplist and most elegent solution to the problem. You can build a blog in a matter of mineutes and within an hour you can have one up and running and be publishing stuff on the internet. I know this to be a fact, because I just did it a couple of days ago and we are going to do it again.

It is beyound the scope of my little "How to series" here to go into all the ins and outs of blogging platforms. But you can read a very interesting article by Susannah Gardner that I think covers most of the considerations that a begining blogger should think about. Her "Time to check: Are you using the right blogging tool?" is a great read and will help you decide what blogging platform you may ultimately decide on using.

One last point about my choice of blogging platform. The various blogging platforms are actually communities of people. We will use this fact to attract members of the various communities to our new blog.

b. Affiliate Networks to use. Because this is a music blog and becasue I already have many relationships with merchants who sell music online, I will be using those merchants and the affiliates networks associated with them. I am using these merchants as an example.

You can and should use affiliate networks that you have examined and decided that they fit your goals and the way you want to run your program.

You can read this post to better understand Affiliate Networks and merchants. And get some of the things that you may want to consider when you decide which affiliates you want to use.

How well do you know your Affiliate merchants

Just to clarify the affiliate merchants that we will be using while making this example blog are;

Examples of affiliate merchants include;

iTunes Essentials

Visit the Sony Music Store today!

Music123

Musicmatch Jukebox Plus

Amazon Associate Program

Musicmatch Jukebox Plus

Rhapsody - which has a free down load promotion going now

Also there are affiliate Networks that will administer many of these merchants for you, for example; LinkShare is an e-commerce business solution for over 3.5 million online relationships. Become an affiliate of the LinkShare Network for FREE and earn revenue by linking to over 500 premier online merchants.

And then there is also All Posters.com. Because they have many posters of musicians they make a perfect affiliate for this kind of blog.

I will close this post by letting you know what is left to cover.

• Using Referes
• Linking Strategy
• RSS Feeds
• Photos and Blogs

I will cover these topics in future post. And I hope this information is helpful and would love to hear from anyone who is trying this.

Reading to get ideas and an interesting article.

Wow, I already failed in my attempt to blog everyday for 30 days in a row. Well actually I have written in most of my other blogs everyday for some time now, but I really want to write in this blog everyday also.

I believe that content is more important than anything. And if that is true then I need to create some everyday. But even though I think about affiliate marketing everyday, I don't always write those ideas down.

One of the things that helps me to write about affiliate marketing or create content for any of my blogs is reading about the subject matter. I kind of have to keep my ear to the ground for ideas, by reading on the subject. But sometimes I even fall behind in doing that.

I recently however read a very interesting article Monetization Options for your Web Content by Carsten Cumbrowski at Revenews.com.

In the article Mr. Cumbrowski looks at the different ways to monetize content on the Internet. The common methods to monetize content on the Internet that he covers are; access/subscription fee, display advertising, sponsorships, contextual ads, and affiliate links. Then he list a few advantages and disadvantages of each and looks at various problems related to each method.

He then reaches some conclusions and discusses other problems with affiliate marketing. I think this article makes for good reading and may lead to interesting discussions in the affiliate marketing community.