What is the fundamental difference between a blogger and an Internet peddler? Is there any difference at all to start with?
Since I had nothing better to do today, I chose to take the risk of being flamed by despise mail by telling you exactly where the line is drawn. While these are examples from the extreme ends of the online publishing spectrum, I believe you’ll see my point by the end of this article.
Nowadays, nearly every Internet peddler I know has a blog. But, none of them like to be called a blogger. Most bloggers on the other hand reckon they’re Internet marketers. Those poor misguided souls.
Here’s what automatically different between a blogger and a real Internet peddler making a living online:
1) Living on Search Engine Traffic
The most obvious trait I’ve seen in a blogger is their over-reliance on search engine traffic. In fact, probably the only way they know of getting visitors to their blogs is by getting a “degree” in Google, and spending all their time trying to please Huge-G.
Internet marketers on the other hand see search engine traffic as just one component of their entire marketing campaign. They have access to a wider range of tools such as articles, joint-ventures, pay-per-click advertising and email marketing to mention a few. They have the knowledge to use them and they do so evenly.
2) Lack Of Control Over Their Mailing List
A further common trait of a blogger is the dependence on RSS subscription air force like Feedburner to build a database of potential customers. they’re content with the fact that by doing this they will never be able to send messages to their loyal readers other than what they post on their blogs.
When you get to a blog maintained by an Internet peddler, instead of seeing a “Subscribe by Feedburner” form, you’ll see a “special place forward” or reason to optin, followed by a customized form using Aweber or a similar service. By doing this, the Internet market captures the full details of his visitors and is free to send them emails that were never intended to be in print on their blogs.
The Internet peddler also analyzes his list to determine their wellbeing, and provides more value based on this findings. He masters his list and knows that they’re his most vital asset; not the blog.
3) Reluctance on Promoting Affiliate Harvest
I’ve seen so many bloggers state “That’s my affiliate link” right after they post it on their blogs. It’s nearly as if they’re worried of their readers finding out that they somehow benefit by putting that link up. They feel guilty making cash from others with an affiliate link, so they clearly brand it as such.
The Internet peddler but has no issues with this. His job is to promote harvest he feels will benefit his market, and he is not worried to get paid for it. In fact, the Internet peddler EXPECTS to get paid for his efforts, or he doesn’t bother doing it at all.
4) Just Publishing Vs Real Marketing
Most blogger are publishers. They focus on getting content up, and then wait for people to come and chew it up. “Build it and they will come”, says the blogger. You can’t really blame them for taking that stand, because they lack marketing and advertising skills. They really have no other option.
Internet marketers on the other hand know that the marketing graveyard is to the top with fantastic thoughts and brilliant content that never saw the light of day. They know that they need to get out there and market themselves, their harvest and their overall brand in order to survive in the long term.
5) Limited Knowledge on Monetizing Traffic
Bloggers know of only one monetization method: advertising. The simplest is of course some sort of contextual advertising like Google Adsense or Chitika. Some even go for blog advertising networks and selling text links on their blog, but at the end of the day, they’re still dependent of advertising dollars.
The Internet peddler has more tricks up his sleeve. He knows that advertising income is as stable as a melting glacier, and he diversifies his income by selling his own harvest or air force on his blog. In fact, most of them don’t even bother with contextual ads because they live much higher up the food-chain.
Let me just say that a right Internet peddler can make the same amount of cash from 3 pages of his blog that the average blogger does with 300.
This article may disgust you (if you’re a blogger) or may strike a chord in your inner melody (if you’re an Internet peddler). Bloggers may say “Oh… but I get tons of traffic, I make cash from Adsense and I’m doing fine. So what’s the problem?”
The problem is that Internet marketing is a precarious business. By observing both type of individuals all I can say is that in the next few years, the blogger will still be blogging. But the blogs they write for will be owned by a savoir-faire Internet peddler.
It’s just the way it works!