I’m sure you’ve noticed that Digg button there on the right. According to Wikipedia, “Digg is a social news website made for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the Internet, by submitting links and stories, and voting and commenting on submitted links and stories. Voting stories up and down is the site’s cornerstone function…”
And peripherally, if Digg and other social media expose us to lots of readers, they will not only popularize our cause, they will also bring in money….down the line.
My friend, DeeNice , added Digg to the blog a few days ago. She surprised me. She’s the one who set up Birth of a Movement and she’s been administering it from the beginning. Her idea for this blog is to “monetize” it so that Let’s Get Global will get a stream of money every month, enough to keep the organization going. That means getting so many people to read it that advertisers will want to appear on our site. She says it will take a year to build the readership to the point where we will earn significant money.
I know lots of ads are keeping lots of blogs afloat; but I keep wondering if something like Digg and ads would turn people off rather than bring more business. I’m pretty low key…and my vision of this blog is to be chatty and friendly and basically to share the progress of LGG and the frustrations and successes along the way. I really do want to chronicle the development of our cause because I think we are going to change the population of our country and its relationship to the world. LGG is going to make history.
But for now, we are making friends.Of course we need money to keep the organization going; and it sure sounds appealing if we can do it more or less passively by “monetizing” this blog. (We will be seeking foundation funding as well, but not quite yet. As I said earlier, we have to have a Let’s Get Global website before we write for grants.) But I don’t want to lose you. Please let me know what you think about having links to Digg and Facebook and more. Social networks are the definition of PR these days.
How about ads? What if airlines and travel and sporting goods companies have ads here? What if Target and movies and foods want to advertise? Would it be a turnoff or a wonderful sign that the world is taking notice?
I would very much like your thoughts. Thanks, Rita
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Ads are fine as long as they aren’t flashing and annoying. Keep them tasteful, one or two per page length and I don’t think anyone will mind! It would be cool if you could get relevant ones like from travel agencies and such!
I don’t know a whole lot about the back end of websites either, but I read in a reader and only click through to the actual blog when I’m leaving a comment (like now). I think sometimes ads are based on actual page views so that might hurt your money… If you can get more people to comment by engaging on the blog and they click through you will make more money on the ads.
No issue with links for sharing on social networking sites. And I echo Krista’s comments on ads.