First, lemme say…if you emailed me today and your name begins with a “T” (I think?) and you were inviting me to a conference, mentioned Clutch, etc., please resend your email. I got it while I was driving and said that I would answer you later when I was back at a computer. Now I can’t find you and don’t want you to think that I’m ignoring you :O( FOUND IT!!!!
Alright, now…I feel like having a bit of a(nother) bitchin’ moment. If you don’t like that side of me, please exit the blog now. Further, if you feel like you’ve heard it before, you might wanna go bye bye too. Lawd…
So last night while having a chit chat with a friend of mine on IM about blogging, advertising, making money, etc., I thought about the advertising agencies that I deal with now and realized that, at the moment, I have not pursued all advertising sales options heavily, INCLUDING soliciting for my own ads for the site.
I have a friend of mine who works to solicit ads and we were going hard around Thanksgiving but it sort of dropped off. I have another person that I recently hired on to handle sales but something tells me that that relationship won’t last long. I’ve given her a couple of instructions and to date, she hasn’t followed nann one. I’ll be getting another one soon and showing him what to do.
Anyway, I figured that since I had a Youtube channel with over 23k subs, why not do a quick video about it there? But apparently I’m going to need to show my mug for people to understand the serious in the upcoming statement….
I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to understand or believe it but…when you visit some of your favorite blog sites (whether mine is included in that list or not really doesn’t have anything to do with point of this argument), you’ll notice that at the top of the blog, along the sides of the blog, in between blogss, etc., there are advertisements. Do you think that ANY of them are running those ads for their health?
Newsflash: Bloggers earn money through advertisements. It might not be their primary way but it is the way.
Imagine my surprise when I woke up with emails from a million and one people, all crunk for Jesus about advertising their product or service but when I asked (some of) them the basics, like how long they’d like to run the ad, how BIG of an ad would they like to run, etc., so I could give them an accurate price quote, I got answers like this:
“I thought you were offering it for free or somethin’.”
“Why would I pay to advertise my own business?”
Umm…boo, ain’t nobody paying for advertising!
Word? So you mean to tell me that, if you’re flipping through the pages of one of your favorite magazines and you see an ad that reads: “Need to advertise? Contact us for advertising options,” you somehow think that this translates into free?
I don’t mean to sound rude or ungrateful b/c in the 7 (yes SEVEN) months that I have been working as an entertainment blogger, I have been abundantly blessed beyond ANYTHING I would’ve ever imagined. So I made the commitment to turn it into a business that could be the avenue to other things that I want to do. My goal is NOT to be famous. I had a VERY VERY small (even minuscule) taste of that and quite frankly, no thanks. However, I don’t pay for my own services to give OUT free services.
Yea, it just might sound slightly unprofessional of me to blog this BUT at least I did it without cursing (yet) AND if you were me, you’d understand my annoyance. I (along with my dear friend, Brandi) have successfully sold several ads for MissJia.com. I don’t try to cheat people, I won’t nickel and dime you, but you won’t play me either. No matter what type of business you start, you are GOING to need some type of airtime for your business to succeed. Be it word of mouth, taking out ads in circulars, through blogs or just plain ole networking so you can be heard, if you give a damn (sorry) about your business, you’ll take the steps necessary to help grow your business.
If you’re not serious enough about your business, how will anyone else be? Seriously…
So again, if you inquire about advertising on my site, be it through me, my sales assistants, one of the ad networks that I work with or WHOEVER, don’t expect a handout b/c it’s JUST NOT HAPPENING!
Goodnite!
You gotta pay for ads in the newspaper, you gotta pay for ads on billboards, so what makes a website/blog so different? How in the world do people think you make money from blogging? And another thing, how are these people gonna have a product/business and not know that they have to pay money to advertise just about anywhere? People need to stop looking to get something for nothing.
I don’t get what makes people “think” so. It’s frustrating but at the same time, I just chalk it up as them needing a bit more business training. #kanyeshrug
Jia…. please tell me people really aren’t that dumb. If you have a business and you are dumb enough to ask “Why would I pay to advertise my own business,” then you obviously are not smart enough to have a business. And that tells anyone who hears that to have nothing to do with that business, because it’s poorly ran. Advertising on anything worth something will cost you. Jia… I’m through with stupid people, but they seem to be everywhere
Have you ever thought about getting college students to work for you for intership credit? A friend of mine almost started a small free fashion guide here in the ATL and she got free assistance from college students. I’m assuming that you have a team of folks who help you, but if not maybe you can look that way because even though you have a love/hate relationship with Youtube, it must have provided the crux of much of your popularity (or I could be wrong).
I think the videos are your best tool. If you can get college students to crop pics and filter through emails, maybe that will free you up some.
I know, I’m getting way deep into this when I have no idea about your set up. I have degrees in Communication and Marketing and tend to be interested in how businesses advertise and reach out to their markets.
Just nosey as usual. LOL