How Many Different Ways Are There to Make Money With A Blog?

I want to apologize to the few people I’ve managed to pick up as subscribers this month for implementing so many monetization strategies at once. If you're tired of the make money online topic, I don't blame ya... The reason I have done this is not out of spite or adverse intent but rather in scientific experimentation. It's time to test the waters so to speak!

This blog is dedicated to teaching Blog Basics for Beginners but I will admit that sometimes I fall off track with other money making tactics. In the future I will try my best to write content and provide information that assists bloggers and webmasters in their goal to make money online via internet marketing and blogging.

Be aware that I will explore other avenues of making money online for the simple fact that eventually this site will receive targeted traffic for people looking to make money online, work from home, get paid for their opinions and intent of that nature.

It seems only fair to provide information to those people that can assist them in their goal as well. Not everyone has a talent for writing, some people would much rather sit around and complete surveys or tutor people via the web or watch advertisements for money.

To get back on track, there are a few things I had originally intended to discuss in this topic. Some of the current monetization strategies I am implementing on this page include:

1.) Google Adsense
2.) Kontera ContentLink
3.) Tradepub White Pages and Trade Magazines
4.) Various Affiliate Programs (Commission Junction, etc..)

Beyond the typical methods of making money online there are a lot of different start-ups that seem very interesting, one of them that I find really interesting is called Me2Everyone. Basically it's a virtual world organized like a co-op and each person that joins gets their own shares that they will eventually be able to trade on the open market.

Anyways, those are just a few of the ways you can make money online with your website. As this blog starts to receive more traffic I will most likely do some optimization and cut back several of the programs that don’t seem to be earning in an effort to provide my readers with a higher quality experience.

In regard to helping bloggers make money online, some basic questions to ask yourself, that I have found helpful when starting a new niche site include :

What do I want to write about?

What type of traffic would I like to receive?

How do I want to accommodate my visitors?

Is this site going to be strictly for monetary purposes or will I be using it as a hobby and writing about a topic I’m generally interested?

How will I plan to promote my blog or website?
Generally, if you write about things that interest you, I think that you will find that there is much more to say. Even though this site will address how to make money online, I also plan on touching on topics directly relating to blogging, internet marketing, search engine optimization, page rank, ways to get paid for your opinions etc…

If you write about something you love, why not earn money online while you’re at it? As long as we keep our readers best interest in mind, its alright to make a buck or two as a result. Generally, I think you will find that your readers don’t mind helping you out from time to time.

In regard to Google Adsense text links, hopefully your readers will be courteous and not click on things unless they have a true interest in the product or service offered. If they click on ads simply to help you out, Google will penalize you by possibly smart pricing your account. If you’re not familiar with the term smart pricing, that is when Google pays you a fraction of what you typically earn for an ad in an effort to provide the highest quality service for their advertisers.

Think about it, if you were an advertiser, would you really want to pay people for having their friends or loyal readers click on your ads for the sole purpose of making you money. Well, that’s how they feel also. Besides, ideally most of your traffic should come from search engines and it will as long as you focus on the basics of internet marketing like search engine optimization, backlink generation and fresh content. If you write quality articles directed towards your niche, there is a snowball effect that will take place, you will see that your target keywords will move steadily up in the search engine rankings and before you know it you will make money online.

If you’re not concerned with how to make money online and your just blogging for the sake of blogging that may work out even better. There are other benefits to having your own website or blog.

Why should I make a blog?

Having a blog will give you a place to share your ideas and opinions with the world. It will also provide you with traffic and people that may be interested in the same things that you’re interested in.

Ok, let’s address the original question and stop beating around the bush…

How Many Different Ways Are There to Make Money With Your Blog?

There are a million different ways! Be creative!

Bloggers - Get Paid For Your Opinions

Isn’t it funny that most people have jobs not because they want to work but because they need the money? Actually maybe it’s not funny, its just a fact of life right?

Wrong!

Blogging is one of the only ways to get paid for your opinions.

Lets look at the ways we can benefit from our opinions in regard to blogging.

Get Paid for Your Opinions

1.) You can write a review on your blog about something that you have tried and liked. Make sure to give the affiliate link to people so they can try it too. If they decide to follow your advice, you have helped them and yourself… Generally I find its best to recommend something that I like myself so I’m not left with affiliate remorse.

2.) You can write reviews about products and services that you didn’t like. Not only will you be providing the rest of us with a great service but you will be creating useful content that will eventually drive more traffic to your site.

3.) You can do paid reviews of products on your blog for companies like PayPerPost or Associated Content

The fact of the matter is that there are a million ways that you can get paid for your opinions. Why not take advantage of them?

Backlinks - 3 Ways to Boost Your Web Traffic

I've noticed my traffic dipping a bit these past few days. It's only natural but something I'd like to avoid as much as possible. The best way to keep growing traffic is to keep writing content right? Not just any old content will do though, it needs to be informative and useful as well! So to make a long story short this article is about increasing your visibility.

I've been monitoring my link popularity as new strategies are implemented for this blog and the results are staggaring. Some of the greatest benefits regarding backlinks as of now are coming from Article Directories.

1.) Submit to Article Directories -

There are a million directories out there and believe me, I get overwhelmed too trying to sift through all the reviews and figure out which ones have the best ROI. So, here is my advice... Focus on the following sites.. These are directories I have seen significant results from in the past few weeks :

EzineArticle
GoArticles
Article City
Buzzle

2.) Surf the Relevant Blogs

I'll be honest, this week I probably visited upwards of 250 different blogs! Most of them are in the same niche but a large quantity of them were in unrelated fields as well. Regardless of your niche, quality content and great ideas are abundant in blogs of all shapes and sizes. For example, a recent SEO site I visited had an article explaining how backlinks work and advising that relevant backlinks are better but backlinks deemed irrelevant will work almost as well!

This author was an SEO genius and his work is all over the net.. Just type SEO into google and I'm fairly certain you will come across one of his sites. Anyways, the number of new contacts I made this week will drop your jaw.. I'm currently in the process of exchanging backlinks and I have gained new subscribers from surfing!

3.) Social Networking

Go make a profile on Technorati, Zimbio and StumbleUpon.. These are great sites that will help you immensely to gain readers and make new friends! Also, make sure to use PingOMatic to let all the social networking sites know that you have new content.

Conclusion

There are a billion ways to boost web traffic. If you feel disappointed about the rate at which your blogs are growing in regard to traffic, do something about it! Write some content, do some networking, submit a few articles, drop by your favorite social networking sites and ping your blogs!

Hit me up if you wan't a few more ideas... Lets build our traffic together!

How To Make Money Blogging : 2 Different Approaches to Blogging

Blogging can be a very profitable business if you have the tools, dedication and knowledge to create and implement. There are several ways that people make money online with blogs and several different types of blogs that they make money with.

The following article will discuss two different approaches to blogging. Both of them can be quite profitable; however each approach will result in an entirely different blog and will require a different marketing campaign strategy as well.

1.) The Enterprise Blog

This blog is an example of an enterprise blog. It is my goal to educate the masses about internet marketing, search engine optimization and page rank strategies as much as it is to make a living from it. If you decide to create an enterprise blog, the key to success lies in delivering a large number of high quality articles, growing a significant readership base and focusing on ways to gain a huge share of web traffic.

An enterprise blog should be based on a broad niche which will give the writer the ability to touch on a ton of different topics that are interrelated.

In my opinion, the enterprise blog is the best route to take. Why not build on something that you have a passion for? Isn’t it better to make money while helping people at the same time? If your blog has quality content and articles that actually help your readers reach a goal, you are already on your way.

Some of the benefits in creating an enterprise blog include high traffic, loyal readership base, direct advertising opportunities and a brand name that requires less paid advertising then a typical blog. People gravitate towards your brand name and content, you’re products will practically sell themselves.

Please keep in mind that this blog will take a lot of time to build and maintain. There are shortcuts but it may take a while to find and implement them. Eventually you may decide to hire a copywriter to take over some of the content creation responsibilities… You may also decide to outsource some of your sales and marketing responsibilities as well.

2.) The Small Niche Blog – Affiliate or Advertising Purpose

This is an example of the enterprise blog with a twist; generally the small niche blog would be focused on generating affiliate or advertising revenue by focusing on a particular product or service. This is a very common route that many bloggers chose to take. The first thing you will want to do is find a niche that is very profitable in regard to affiliate and advertising revenue. Examples of sites like this include: Forex, Credit Cards, Car Loans, Vacations, Expensive Products i.e. Plasma TVs.

The key to success with this type of blog is to target desired keywords and provide content that matches with those keywords. The ultimate goal being that someone will search for the product or service, find your site, read your review and then click on one of your adsense links or affiliate product ads. The best way to do this is to create long tail keywords in your article titles. This will increase the chance you will be found in the search engines for a particular keyword.

These types of blogs are generally easy to set up and get going but may not be very profitable unless you either convert them into enterprise blogs or focus on creating hundreds of similar sites in different niches.

Conclusion

The two methods discussed in this article are just meant to help spark creativity in regard to making money from blogging. There are millions of other ways to make money from blogs and websites but hopefully this article has given you a few ideas to implement or consider in your search for a blogging strategy.

Blog Basics for Beginners: How to Make Money Online With Blogs – Step 4

I know this stuff can be a bit overwhelming at first, its hard work getting to the top of Google, MSN and Yahoo but if you do a few things every day in your favor, you will see your readership grow exponentially. Some people may say that they don’t care about things like page rank, but think about it; if you want more people to pay attention to your blog, you’re going to have to find a way to let them know you’re out here.

Making money online is just an added bonus… So that being said, let’s talk about factors that Google and other search engines find useful in determining what order your blog/site should be placed...

The following variables are extremely important in determining your page rank:

1.) Article Content

Focus on creating high quality content for your blog or website; this content should be unique and helpful to your target audience. Content that is not unique i.e. copied from another source verbatim will get you nowhere as Google is adept at recognizing duplicate articles etc... In fact if you were to copy someone else’s work word-for-word chances are you would be in a lot of trouble for copyright infringement, Google would penalize your page ranking and the author that originally wrote the article would get an added bonus by jumping up in their Google ranking..

2.) Article Length

Google and other search engines place more value on longer articles. It is important to elaborate on a subject if you want authority. Generally if your article is longer then your competitors in the same arena, you will become the authority figure for that particular subject. Remember there are algorithms at work here behind the scenes that are unknown to the general population, if we knew the exact formula we would most likely be millionaires right? Regardless you will want to make your posts/articles around 400-500 words each if you are counting on them to increase your page rank.

3.) Keywords

This is extremely important when it comes to SEO and increasing your Page Rank. If you remember me discussing this previously, it is our goal to rank as high as possible using keywords that apply to your particular niche, generally it’s a good idea to use your target keywords several times in an article but don’t go overboard or else Google may decide to mark the particular article as spam. Generally if you use your keyword three to four times in any given article you will be on the right track to gaining momentum in this arena.

4.) Volume

Keep in mind that after your page gets indexed, Google and other search engines have bots that crawl through your content regularly looking for updates and new posts…. The more content you can provide your readers with, the better your chance of getting listed as a site of importance; also, it is inevitable that your keywords will be used in higher volume which is a consideration in page rank as well. If you only have a few articles/posts, chances are you will not be considered as noteworthy as a blog with a huge quantity of valuable articles similar to your own.

5.) Backlinks

If you’ve made it this far, its obvious that you are dedicated to this subject for one reason or another, what is unclear to me is how you arrived here in the first place but its very possible that you reached this page through a backlink that I have placed on a different website.

What is a Backlink?

A backlink is a link that connects a forum, directory, website or blog back to your page. Generally in regard to page rank this is the bread and butter. Without a high quantity of quality backlinks you’re essentially dead in the water. They are very time consuming to create but it should be your goal to spend half your time writing and the other half reading and commenting on other blogs/sites if you want people to take time out of their day to review your content.

Don’t forget that the links you create should be relevant to what you write about. If your subject is the Amazonian Rainforest, it won’t do you any good to post a ton of backlinks on blogs and forums about skydiving. Get my drift?

6.) Age of Content

This is one of the least important factors in regard to page rank but none the less it does have merit. Think about it, if your blog or site is brand new, how much credibility should it get at first glance? Should it be considered as a credible source right out of the gates? How much credibility would you give a baby when it came to important matters? Just focus on the first five topics primarily because this is a variable you don’t have much control over… The older your blog or site gets the more credibility it will receive as long as your content stays fresh!

Well, that’s a lot of information to take in all at once… Take some time to reflect on the following six topics and try your best to apply them to your blog.

Also, you may want to try getting backlinks with the content you’ve already created. There are several sites in which you can post your articles in addition to your blog, you will receive credit and obtain one-way backlinks for your effort! One way backlinks are the most valuable and coveted in regard to page rank. I will discuss how to do this in the following post:

Blog Basics for Beginners: How to Make Money Online With Blogs – Step 5

If you’ve enjoyed this series up until now, please go ahead and leave me a comment with your feedback, recommendations etc.. Also, if there is anything that I discussed in this series you would like me to clarify or elaborate on, please go ahead and let me know!

Blog Basics for Beginners: How to Make Money Online With Blogs – Step 2

So you’re ready to create a blog… The first thing you might want to consider is what your blog’s topic should be. I would recommend that you spend some serious time thinking about this; generally you will be the most successful in your efforts if you pick a subject that you are seriously interested in. Because really, why not going ahead and learn something on your journey to financial independence?

After you have decided on your topic, the next step will be determining where you would like to host your blog… Many people decide to set up a website as a permanent home for their blog. If this is your first or even second blog, I would recommend setting up a free blog at one of the following sites :

WWW.BLOGGER.COM

Or

WWW.WORDPRESS.COM

Both sites have great features and benefits and either site is an excellent choice for setting up your blog. For the sake of this article, let’s go ahead and set up a new blog at Blogger. After you go to the website, you will see an option to -> create an account

Go ahead and pick a name, I picked “Blog Basics for Beginners” as I wanted to create a blog to assist other bloggers in setting up and monetizing a niche site. See if the name you want is available. If not, you may have to play around with your name like I did… Because the URL “blogbasicsforbeginners.blogspot.com” was already taken, I decided to add dashes in-between all the words so effectively the same keywords were used just with a slight variation (this will make sense later in my series).

Try your best to use keywords you’d like to be found with in your blog’s title and web address.


After the first step you will be asked to select a template, I used Minima for example because it is set up to work perfectly with Google’s search engine. This will be important when it comes to SEO – Search Engine Optimization…

Click the publish option to change objects on your blog… If you click edit in the top right corner it will offer you additional features you can add to the sidebar of your blog, I would recommend selecting the Adsense option. It will go ahead and ask you for your Adsense publisher ID number. If you haven’t already signed up for Adsense, I would recommend doing so by going to the following URL: http://www.google.com/adsense

At this point your blog is ready to go complete with your first advertising channel. Follow me to the next step in my series entitled “Blog Basics for Beginners: How to Make Money Online with Blogs – Step 3” for information setting up your first post.

Written by Locke D.