It seems that social networking is the double-edged sword in the life of the average blogger. While bloggers use social networking to promote their blogs, they are also experiencing competition when it comes to advertisement sales.
Krista Peck of Style Epiphany, a women’s style and shopping niche blog created in November of 2007 believes social networking sites are causing independent blogging to suffer. Peck has a theory that Facebook and Twitter may be the biggest culprits in her declining ad sales. She still does all the right things: networks, posts unique content at least 5 times per week, utilizes SEO, hosts giveaways, sends out a weekly newsletter, etc. However, Peck has seen a 94% decline in ad sales in the last 12 to 18 months, which happens to coincide with surges in the popularity of Facebook and Twitter.
Independent bloggers like Peck worry that they may be dropped from affiliate programs due to poor performance. Almost weekly, Krista receives an email from an affiliate partner who has noticed that she hasn’t generated a sale in the past six months and would love for her to get active in the program.
All Peck can do is cross her fingers and assure these companies that she continues to use their text links, rotates their ad banners and promotes their companies on Facebook, Twitter and in her newsletters. A blog is usually not entirely free to run and a blogger’s time is worth something, so bloggers like Peck rely on ad sales to keep their blogs afloat. Only time will tell if the average blogger who hopes to make a profit from their blog can survive being smothered by the big names in social networking. With patience and hard work on the part of the blogger and some understanding on the part of companies with affiliate programs and ad dollars, independent bloggers may survive.
To read the full article, go to FashionablyMarketing.Me.
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