Are You Selling Out?
A lot of people have this concern that if they monetize their website, whether it be a blog, regular site or whatever, that they have sold out. Have you sold out? How does that phrase make you feel? It has kind of a negative feeling to it, but it really shouldn’t.
While I was at BlogWorldExpo last weekend one of the speakers made a very good point. I’ll have to paraphrase a little bit here, but basically what he said was that if you want to make any money online, you have to sell out. And, you need to be comfortable with that. Honestly, anything you do to make money could be considered selling out.
What Is Being a Sell Out?
Is there something wrong with making money? I get the feeling all the time that to some people it must be a crime to make money. I always wonder where they got that idea from. Personally, I have no problem making money as long as I’m doing it honestly and ethically!
So if you have a blog and you do paid posts, you’ve sold out! If you show affiliate advertisements you have sold out! If you have an ecommerce business that sells products you have sold out!
Now here’s the one that a lot of people really don’t think about: if you have a job you have sold out! You’re selling your time for whatever your boss is willing to pay you, whether it is an hourly rate or a salary. Either way you’ve sold out. So why is it a bad thing?
Be Open About Selling Out
Now that we’ve established the fact that it’s ok to sell out, let’s talk about being smart about it. You see, if you have an ecommerce store for example, you should be proud of that fact. When people come to your site it should be very obvious to them that you have something to sell. Those are the people we want to have come to our site anyway!
That’s why your home page for an ecommerce store needs to look like a store! Why hide the fact that you have something to sell? One thing that’s for sure is that if you do hide that fact, you won’t make any money. And isn’t that why you started your ecommerce business in the first place?
If you run a blog, it’s ok to have affiliate links, AdSense, and other types of marketing on your site! That’s how you make money! Now, I won’t go into how to use these tools effectively in this post, but you need to be ok with doing these things. Test them, see what works, and then use them the best you can. You don’t have to hide it.
Here’s a great example of not being shy about trying to make money from your site. This is just one line from the disclaimer from ShoeMoney.com:
You should assume I have motivation for linking to everything on this page and will benefit from it somehow.
Well, this post may seem like a little bit of a rant, but I assure you it’s not meant to be. I hope that you can understand that it’s ok to make money online. Keep working at it - don’t be shy - be smart.
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I wrote an article titled “Everyone Should Have at Least One Sales Job”. It’s so true - everyone is a salesman in one form or another. You have to “Sell Out” if you want to succeed in any business endeavor.
Think about it, if you are interviewing for a job, you’re “selling yourself” on why you’d be the best fit. If you’re telling me that you hate selling, you’re “selling me” on the fact that you SUCK AT SALES!
If you don’t have an overall objective to make money with an online business, you should probably look to work for someone else and get out of this business!
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Dan Reply:
September 26th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Well put Nate! There’s nothing wrong with selling out cause you have to in order to make money!
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I love making money…who the hell doesn’t? If you have a blog or website or lemonade stand you should be proud of the opportunity it gives you to make money. Money management is what it’s all about. Blogosphere peeps use the term “sell out” cause you are doing something other than just spreading the good word online, I think they are selling themselves and their families out by not putting some bread on the table considering all the time they spend blogging. Rack me!
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Dan Reply:
September 29th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Well put! In that case they’ve just sold their time for nothing, and I’m not into that. If you’ve helping other people in some way, you should also be compensated. Maybe I’m just not one of those “I do it to feel good” types.
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“You have sold out” that would be music to my ears.
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Dan Reply:
September 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Sounds like a good song
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I actually have the fear of getting that impression from people… since the first day of my blog i got adsense up already. thanks for this article, it’s an assurance that I’m actually doing the right thing, and that is selling out.
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Dan Reply:
September 29th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Good work Irvin! I think its a good idea to put ads on from day one so that your readers know that you’d like to make some money. If they’re offended by that, may you didn’t want them to be your readers anyway! I actually heard Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net also recommend that you should start monetizing from day one for the same reason.
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Who cares if you are a sellout, right? As long as you are happy with the money you make, screw what anyone else thinks about you. If you provide a good, quality product, you deserve to make as much money as you want off of it.
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Dan Reply:
September 29th, 2008 at 5:58 am
Amen Bryan!
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I don’t like the term, “Sellout”, either — but what can you do really? There is still this thought out there that blog content - no matter the form, should be free of marketing. If somehow, you can attract enough people consistently, day in and day out to view and share your content that you might be able to buy a Venti Americana with it once a month, or maybe support your family like Heather Armstrong from dooce.com does — more power to you.
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Dan Reply:
September 29th, 2008 at 6:00 am
I think a lot of that opinion comes from people who just don’t understand business and want everything to be free or given to them. Who knows, maybe they’re just jealous of those that do actually make money
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While I personally blog just as a hobby, I don’t have a problem with people making money through it. This is still America after all!
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Dan Reply:
September 30th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Amen! Even though it is a hobby, I hope that if you want to you can find a good way to monetize it!
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People treat their blogs as a business so should be able to make money from it like a business would. Even if you are just blogging for fun i see no wrong in adding some applicable advertising on the blog to help pay your hosting fees.
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Dan Reply:
September 30th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
I agree. If you treat something like a business it really does make a difference.
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ya thats true I too agree that making money is ok…. but one should not indulge in things like spamming etc…. rest is ok….. and there are some people who will poke there finger in your work no matter how well you do.. so best bet is to avoid them….
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Dan Reply:
September 30th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Good point, there is a line where you can really overdo it and ruin a perfectly good site. I think that also goes back to the idea of treating like a good business.
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well after raeding all these comments and above all the post i think i am also selling out something for promotion of my website well this is the fact i was not aware of before….
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Dan Reply:
October 2nd, 2008 at 6:44 am
Welcome to the sell out community!
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Abram Reply:
December 4th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
Agree with you.
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I think with any job you have to “sell out” whether it is keeping your opinions to yourself or going along with what a supervisor says just to remain on their “good side” or telling that buyer just how much you “love that purple and blue blouse” they’re wearing just to keep a job or make a sale. So what! If you’re not breaking the law who cares if someone thinks your selling out. Are they paying your bills? I think not, so tell all those HATERS to mind their business.
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Dan Reply:
October 8th, 2008 at 5:31 am
Well put Dawn! Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, and if that’s called selling it, well we all do it from time to time!
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I think if you are blogging and you are delivering quality information then you deserve to monetize for your time and your knowledge…there’s nothing wrong with that.
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Dan Reply:
October 13th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I completely agree. Who likes working for free anyway? I mean, if it is just a hobby then that’s one thing, but I think most people would rather spend their time in a way that actually benefits them.
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If you don’t know what your talking about then your not selling out. Your just sellimg.
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Dan Reply:
October 13th, 2008 at 9:02 am
Good point!
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Boy, do I ever need to sell out right now!
I’m going to get back to work and hopefully trade effort for some cash.
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Dan Reply:
October 14th, 2008 at 10:32 am
I like your attitude! Just keep reminding yourself of that from time to time!
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Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, and if that’s called selling it, well we all do it from time to time!
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Paid for reviews are a definitely selling out, and stuff like that should always be disclosed to the readers.
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Thanks for article. Every time like to read you.
Have a nice day!
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