How to Make Money with your Blog

Before I get started, I want to tell you right off the bat... there is no easy way or special formula for earning money with your blog. Just like any job that pays, you need to expect to put time into your blog in order to see any revenue.

Most people that blog won't see a problem with that... because they are already putting in the time performing the single most important task..... Blog entries.

If you want to earn money with your blog, you need to post an entry EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Now, how can you make money? There are really 2 ways, you can sell a tangible items, or you can sell advertising.

Digital items or electronic items are very easy to sell on blogs. All you need is a product, (ie. Electronic book, digital photographs, music) a Payloadz account (http://www.payloadz.com/ is a method of selling digital downloads) and a Paypal account (I'm sure you know, that http://www.paypal.com/ is a method of receiving payments online)

If you don't have a product, you should consider the second method for making money, Advertising.

Again, there is really no easy way to make money.... but there are proven methods that work.... or don't work. Adwords is popular because it takes the keywords from your blog entry and displays ads for items that are similar. If you are using a free blogging platform like www.blogger.com or www.wordpress.com they have automated the implementation of adwords. That means, once you sign up for the Google Adwords account... and following your blogging hosts instructions to ad the widget... your work is done.

I have not had much luck with Adwords. My blogs don't get the traffic that is required to make advertising money in that way. However, if you are writing to a particular niche... the amount of traffic... is not as important as the quality of traffic.

However, the second option, affiliate advertising is a different story.

In essense affiliate advertising allows you to find products you trust and enjoy... and earn money promoting them. For instance, I recently purchased the program Rob Benwell - Blogging to the Bank


I have been blogging for years and was only making marginal income.... it wasn't until I read this 54 page ebook that I realized what mistakes I was making.

This is really a great product, and as a result I have a great time promoting it and earn a commission each time it sells.

If you are interested in investigating affiliate earnings, there are several places you should visit... www.clickbank.com and www.cj.com both of these websites are basically warehouses for companies that will pay you a commission for people that purchase items by clicking through your site.

In closing... it's important to keep writing. It's important to enjoy your topic, so that you can engage your reader... and it's important to find products that you are excited about so that you can promote them honestly on your blog.

Have a great day... keep blogging.

Choosing Your Blog Topic - and Making Money

Choosing your blog topic is easy.

Choosing a blog topic that will make you money..... not so easy.

Here are some tips.

#1) Write about something that you enjoy. I put this first, because... well, it's 4:58 am right now, it's important to me to be excited and WANT to write in my blog. I have several blogs and each morning I pick which topic I feel motivated to write about. Why did I pick this topic... Well, I enjoy looking for new ways to make money from home.. and I enjoy sharing that information. My friends are a little tired of me constantly trying to tell them about these great opportunities... so, that's where you come in... my extended circle of friends! :)

#2) Write about something you know. Let's face it... I may enjoy airplane rides... but I don't really know ANYTHING about airplanes. This also ties back into writing about what you enjoy, you are going to have to do a certain amount of research. Perhaps googling your topic in the morning to get ideas... or checking other industry specific resources... Unless your topic is your family... or (in my sister's case) her backyard garden... then you may have to do some research

#3) Third party content. I never thought about this when I first started blogging, but my readers are happy that I eventually did... Sometimes I access third party content that is related to my topic... it gives that particular entry the different voice that is required to keep people interested. Of course, you have to have permission to reprint someone else's materials, but if your topic is popular there will be other means for putting together the daily entries that are required to keep your blog popular

#4) Popularity. Many blogs are found by chance... if your topic is too popular, you will be buried pages and pages down from the initial search, if your topic is too obscure, very few people will be searching for it... It's a fine line, start with doing some searches of your topic. Go to Blogcatalog.com and see what the most popular blogs are being written about...

#5) Affiliates. As I've pointed out before, a great way to make money with blogging is by attaching affiliate advertising to your blog. These are links that will pay you a percentage if someone clicks through and purchases the product. There are a couple of different ways to locate affiliates in your topics... and I will go over them in a later article, but for a sneak peak at some popular affiliates you can go to www.sharpstarters.com a page devoted to "Money Making affiliates"

...yawn... only 3 more blogs to go! I love this job.

Have a great day!

How to Make Money Blogging

How to make money blogging, this article is courtesy of Rob Benwell, you can check out his ebook for more info.

There are two ways of making money blogging, one more profitable than the other. First of all, small business owners find a great advantage in the use of blogs that provide rich informational content and the opportunity for great marketing promotions. But let's take a look at how you can turn blogging into a profitable activity. There are two possibilities: you either get paid for allowing other business owners to advertise on your site or you can include the blog in one of the many affiliate programs that enjoy such a popularity on the Internet nowadays.

In case you choose to exploit the advertising potential of your blog, the best program to work with is Google Adsense; you'll get paid every time an ad on your site gets clicked, regardless of whether this action converts into profit or not. The logical question that may rise here is: how can you get more clicks for the ads on the blog? Don't think about clicking your own ads to make some more money; fraud clicks are a very hot subject in the business, and Google teams are very efficient at identifying them. Such dishonest practice could cost you dearly if you dare to use it.

You can increase the profitability of the ads on your blog by taking advertising into consideration when you design the site. For instance, the fonts and colors used for the ads should be only slightly different from the rest of the page, without standing out. Why? Because the more visible you make them, the more likely it is that they'll annoy the user, and the entire purpose of your blog is to get people to spend quality time on the page. Adsense is a program that displays only those ads that are related to the domain the blog tackles with, so that you cannot complain about too large a number of irrelevant visitors.

Last, but not least, you can use the blog as part of an affiliate program, which involves promoting the products or services of a specific business. For instance if you've got a blog dealing with diving, you can very well turn into an affiliate for a company that sells diving equipment. The amount of money you are supposed to get is usually part of the individual agreement you sign with the other party, and it usually depends on how well you manage to use the blog to actually convince people to purchase one of the products. Friendly links, special discounts, promotions and e-news letters are all part of an affiliate campaign that could turn a simple blog into a great revenue generator.

For more information about Making Money Blogging, check out Rob Benwell's Site by following this link.

What the Heck is Social Networking

What the Heck is a Social Network

Back in the day, you know in the 80’s, social networking was called “getting together”. “Getting Together” translated into hanging out in the woods around a fire pit with a couple of guitars singing Arlo Guthrey tunes. Today, no one really “gets together” unless they are away at sleepover camp. Today, it’s all about social networking, which is a global interactive interaction between people that want to see and people that want to be seen.

Like a big ‘ole planetary party the social network sites all vie for the same audience… everyone.

Each site offers an interface (or in English – a way to get in and look around) and each site wants to be your main source for activity on the internet.

Here are a couple of common “social networking” sites, that I checked out for this article. If you are interested in reviewing a more complete list… check out the list on Wikipedia at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites or you can google the key phrase :list the social networks, and you will see several sites with a long long long list of what’s available.



My Space
I thought it was - 3 foot perimeter around my immediate vicinity
It turned out to be - Website where people upload their pictures, personal information. Apparently this is a great way to meet other people on the planet "virtually" -helps not spread disease

Flickr
I thought it was - When the lights dim momentarily
It turned out to be - Big Huge Online Photo album available for free

Linkedin
I thought it was - a combination of popping beads together to make a necklace and the word "in" which means hip or cool
It turned out to be - This is a business social networking site. Similar to MySpace but for more serious people.

Facebook
I thought it was - Interesting combination of words. First, there is Face. Obviously the part of your head with eyes. Then Book, used to be something made with paper pages.
It turned out to be - Similar to MySpace, seems to be a little less popular and a little less sleazy.

Piczo
I thought it was - the sound a tire makes when it is rolling down the street with a pebble stuck in the tread.
It turned out to be - Another website where individuals are provided space to create their own page advertising their pictures and personal information, not as popular as My Space or Facebook, easy enough to join, but I don’t feel the need. It’s just a little … blah

StumbleUpon
I thought it was - Finding something you really like at a garage sale.
It turned out to be - This site was a little hard to understand at first. Then within minutes I grew to love it… NOT because of the site, but because of the toolbar. The toolbar rocks! Basically as you use the internet you give thumbs up or down to sites that you find and I believe that helps other people “stumble upon” them. I will definitely be spending more time here.

Digg
I thought it was - What the Diggingest Dog did
It turned out to be - Interesting website, needs more time to review but it looks like it's more or less a method for linking and thus almost voting on the popularity of articles, blogs, websites, videos. The membership page is nice and clean and easy to navigate

pownce
I thought it was - once spelled pounce, was what a cat did to a mouse
It turned out to be - This is another social networking site, that during the setup of your free account allows you to "import" your friends from the following other networks: digg, facebook, twitter, flickr, gmail, hotmail, aolmail, yahoomail. I'm not crazy about this site. I'm not really sure what it does and frankly I don’t like thinking too much

Twitter
I thought it was - The sound a baby bird makes
It turned out to be - A micro-blogging site. I tried this one a while ago and it's great if your friends are also on twitter, if they aren't, then you are reading about what a bunch of strangers are doing. However you can send links to web pages so I have seen some neat videos

KickApps
I thought it was - Well, Kick used to mean, to strike someone with your foot… but now it means, something more like "excellent". Apps used to be a common typo for Alps, but is more of an abbreviation for applications or appliances or appaloosa ponies.
It turned out to be - This website of ALL the websites is serious product for people in communities or interest groups. I saw some really great groups and communities. Perfect for large followings and fund raisers and family reunions and projects and all kinds of things.

If you take a minute to check out the Wikipedia list you will see that there are over 300 social networking sites out there. So when I say there are just a few, I’m not kidding.

I hope this helps.

For more helpful hints, tips and tricks check out my blog at http://mombloggerworks.blogspot.com/
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