Can my blog be monetized?

or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blog

[roothewhirl]

Maybe it's too early? (My blog is about less than a month old.)

Maybe I am just getting discouraged too easily?

Anyway, I have started a blog about something I am passionate about.

Here is the link: <link removed>

Tutorials for the music creation software known as "Ableton Live".

Maybe it's too niche-y, I don't know...?

I have been doing the social networking thing, doing okay on Twitter (almost 1,000 followers, so far), posting my articles on Facebook, and posting quality comments on other relevant blogs.

I add almost a full quality tutorial a day. I say "quality" because e-mails and comment responses have been relatively positive. Also, I add tutorial screencasts once a week, as well as news posts almost everyday.

I am OK with SEO. I know enough to get by, but I am by no means a pro. I know the things I have power over: good titles, good content, quality keyword density, etc. (Like I said, I am no expert, I know just enough to get me in trouble.)

I started at 30 visitors, now I am up to 300+ and still climbing (All in less than a month.) I am not even sure if these numbers are anything to write home about. (Or, if I am even allowed to post them?)

The big problem is the click-through rate. It's very very low. I don't know what kind of details I am allowed to post about the data in here, so I will leave it at that.

Are my ads placed horribly? Are these people just too tech savvy to even want to click on ads? Should I wait to get higher in search engine rankings?

The reason I am asking all of these questions is because I am passionate about doing this, and would LOVE to make a living at it. (I know I am still an infant in the blogging world, and their is more than just Adsense when it comes to monetizing blogs, but I don't want to waste my time).

Okay, lets back up from that last sentence.

Disclaimer: You might think I am in blogging just for the money. Trust me, I am not, I do love this topic (Ableton tutorials), and am very passionate about it. But, I am still a realist, and would like to make money writing about something I love.

I could start a Gardening Blog and B.S. my way through it (I know NOTHING about gardening), but I think without a passion for the subject, the content will suffer, HUGELY.

Case in point: I started a Daycare Blog for my mom. She didn't know how to blog very well, so I sort of took it over. I know very little about running a daycare, but I did my best to update it with Frakenstein content that I basically regurgitated.

I sort of ran the daycare blog into the ground (don't update it, very little visitors.)

But here is the crazy part, the CTR is waaaayy better on the Daycare Blog than on the current Ableton Blog I am running. I am assuming it has something to do with the demographics.

Therein lies the conundrum; am I screwed because I decided to pick a topic so niche-y and tech savvy (but is my passion), that I am doomed to have a 0.01% CTR for the rest of my life?

Am I worrying about this too early in my "career"? Is there any advice you guys can offer about my niche? (Software Tutorial Blogs)

One thing is for sure, I love the community support and I LOVE trying to think of ways to write great content, but if all I can make is $30 a month, I don't see the electricity bill being paid anytime soon! No electricity = no more blogging. (Warning: that is more of a metaphor, if anything!)

Thanks sooo much in advance!

-Ryan

[edited by: incrediBILL at 2:17 pm (utc) on May 2, 2010]
[edit reason] removed URL, see TOS #13 [webmasterworld.com...] [/edit]

[alephh]

Some random thoughts:
+ Solid site.
+ Passion is good (=you know about the topic, and working daily with it is not problem).
+ Give it time. $1/month can grow to $10/month, which can grow to $100/month...
+ If you have any other passions in life, make a blog about them too (now you have the technical knowledge about site buidling, social sites, etc... so the process is quick).
+ Low CTR: Quality content often means that visitor is interested about the article, not about ads. Kinda funny+sad fact of life.
+ If niche has related ads, it can be monetized. Set up channels to see which articles (==keywords) generate income - then try to explore those topics/keywords more.
+ You can always push your ads more (place higher, among the articles, blend in, etc) to increase CTR but this will make your site look spammy (sooner or later).
+ Test different ad-units (text-only AND image-only) and locations (and test long enough time to get enough data!)
+ If your niche is tech savvy, there isn't much you can do about it, so don't worry about it. Remember that users coming from social sites often are more tech savvy - they may not click much, but they often link/tweet/etc more.

[londrum]

if your site is giving tutorials about a particular piece of software, then the people who visit will most likely already have that software.

if all of google's ads are offering that software for sale, then you're never going to make any money.

if you stick some reviews on there instead, rather than tutorials, then maybe you'll attract some people more interested in buying it.

[caribguy]

Agree with both replies before me. You want to get your pages viewed by people who are in the mood to buy.

If you enjoy writing tutorials and that is what attracts readers, maybe you could also start adding pages about other products that DJ's might use in addition to their software.

Maybe it's too niche-y

In that case, you could expand your tutorials and reviews to other products that people use to achieve similar results: Traktor, Serato, Mixx, what have you - it will broaden your audience while keeping it homogeneous.

[johnnie]

That's some great insight londrum!

[farmboy]

I know very little about running a daycare, but I did my best to update it with Frakenstein content that I basically regurgitated.

Er... Does this mean what I think it means?


FarmBoy

[graeme_p]

Why a blog? The distinguishing characteristic of a blog is chronological ordering which does not seem natural for tutorials.

Tutorial site, plus blog (for news and updates), and , maybe forums, would make more sense to me.