Blogging For Money 6 

Earn money with your blog quickly and easily

Blogging today has become a profitable business, an invaluable marketing tool which, along with a couple of others, can help you make money 24/7, 365 days a year.

Being consistent

The thing is to understand at the outset that it is not a sprint but a marathon. Therefore you should plan that it is going to take at least 3 to 6 months to see the results of your efforts.  But if you stay consistent, see them you will.

When people search the internet, or even surf it, they are browsing with a particular goal in mind, usually to find out more, or discover a solution to their problem.

They are always searching for articles of interest and the search engines want to deliver to them the most relevant content.  So content that is fresh, lively, and dynamically generated through a blog is going to entice the search engines.

 It is also going to entice readers. So again, in much the same way as a newspaper sub-editor writes the headlines for maximum impact, you should make sure every one of your headlines is loaded with keywords so people will know exactly what it is about. There is no time to be coy in a blog.

Grabbing the right kind of attention

The introduction has to grab their attention, and tell them where you plan to go.  Write from a position of authority, even if it is only a product review for a product you are planning to sell as an affiliate.

Really DO use the product, don’t just fib about it. And of course, as we have mentioned, the greatest thing about being registered for different household name products is that you can shop too and save big.

Linking correctly to other sites

In addition, feel free to link to relevant sites for more information, not just use your affiliate links. Of course, your affiliate links should be coded correctly. You might want to set them up and buy a product or two, and then check your account, just to make sure that they are working correctly and the sales are registering properly.

There is nothing worse than getting a ‘free template’ on line for a blog or website in order to make money on, for example Adsense or an affiliate program, only to find out that they have provided their own ID links and you aren’t getting a penny in credit on the sales.

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Money versus passion

As we have said, it is easy to make money on line with your blog if you are an affiliate with top companies, selling high-quality things people really do want to buy.

However, don’t make money your sole motivation for your blogs, as it will soon become transparent to the reader. Writing the content in your blog should be your passion, and the extra income will help pay for the site and motivate you to go on even if you feel like no one in the world is reading you.

You can write reviews of the products, share your experiences using it, and indeed, you might even find that you are re-writing their sales letter because theirs does not seem to be working that well.

So long as it is relevant, interesting content, like an ‘infomercial’, you will be providing value and service for your reader.

Stay ahead of the curve

Also make sure you check out other blogs, to see how they are doing it, and link to them in a meaningful way, to help build your own traffic and reputation. Never spam.

You can also post some of your original articles at article banks, with a link back to your site. You will not only get traffic, you will be building your own reputation as the ‘go to’ blogger on your niche topic.

Stay focused

Choose a niche topic of interest that is sustainable, and go for it. Travel is a huge topic, so why not narrow it down. I adore the North Island of New Zealand, and have lived in Ireland, England, and the USA.

All of those are niches within the travel topic, and I can narrow them down to be as specific as I like, Dublin, London, New York, and narrow it still further, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and even narrow down Manhattan, Midtown, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and so on.

I can also sell sunglasses, suitcases, and but there is nothing quite like insider travel tips. If you can’t an ebook to sell as an affiliate from Clickbank or Paydotcom, write your own!

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Traffic is King

The traffic is important because you need a steady stream of visitors reading you, and hopefully buying from you. You can also generate income through ad clicks, product sales, affiliate sales, consulting leads, or donations if you are running a blog for charity.

Converting that Traffic is the Ace in the Hole

So, traffic is part of your key to generate more online income. The second part is CONVERTING that traffic from browser into buyer.

If you are converting 1 in 100 visitors, that is 1%. If you improve your sales pitch, and get it up to 2 or even 5 out of 100, that is 2% to 5%. You have already doubled your income, or even quintupled it. So then think what more traffic will mean!

Finding the Right opportunities is easy

Initially it might be difficult for you to decide on which potential stream of income to choose from, as there are many available in the market. The beauty is, you can try them all. But go for the low-hanging fruti first. People love how-to ebooks, and brands they recognize at bargain prices.

Make sure that the products you offer are relevant to the topic of your blog, or, if you really want to go shopping yourself in order to save money, set up your affiliate links in a mini-mall kind of format.

Otherwise, when selling products related to your site, make sure you provide content that will help lead them to the link logically, and to a purchasing decision.

Be keen to get started

The great thing is that you can get started with a blog TODAY. Literally all you need is a credit card and about 2 hours of your time.

Register your domain, pay for it and your hosting program, start writing content while you wait for it to propagate, upload wordpress into it, and it can be live within 2 hours, and most definitely up and indexed within 48 hours. It really is that simple if you use Hostgator.

While you are waiting for the full propagation, you can use those 48 hours to write more content, sign up for affiliate programs and get the links, and be ready to not only wow people with content, but be able to monetize your blog from the get-go.

Build your audience and the money will follow

Another essential tool is lead generation. If you can come up with an interesting free special report to give away in exchange for their email address, you have a captive audience whom you can mail your latest postings to automatically through RSS and autoresponder emailing technology.

You just have to keep up a steady stream of high-quality content thereafter, and occasionally administer to the account. The email technology does the rest. And again, you can have this up and running in the 2 day period while you wait for your domain name to fully propagate and go live.

Sounds good? It is.

Act on your enthusiasm

And, if you hesitate or delay, then you may miss the opportunity, as many buzzwords today are gone tomorrow. If you have a terrific idea or spin on what’s in the news and don’t implement it, you may simply lose out on the traffic, and thus the money.

You will also lose out on the chance to get visitors’ pingbacks, trackbacks, and comments, all valuable in establishing the reputation of your site.

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Be web savvy

You should be comfortable enough to surf the Internet, deal with some basic HTML code, and be familiar with some basic web technologies like search engine optimization, otherwise known as keywording your site.

It also helps to know about metatags and elements like the alt and title tags for pictures, and even hyperlinks.

All of these will help you attract visitors to your blog.

Be able to balance

You have to strike a balance between your needs as a blogger with those of your visitors, plus the search engines, and those linked with you.

The title of your blog is essential so that people are not mislead.

It should also be interesting enough to grab their attention, so as to draw visitors to the blog. Blog search engines help readers find new postings on topics they are interested in, so use your keywords precisely to describe your content accurately.

Try to stay ahead of the curve in terms of news and trends. Election on this year? Try to spin your content so that it is relevant to what people are talking about. Economic crisis—how do your solutions or content save money?

Blogging For Money

Blogs, a conversational and informal style of writing on the Internet, has provided numerous opportunities for bloggers to make money. This rewarding career has made bloggers spread their interests across multiple revenue streams.

But generating money from your blogs can be time consuming, and challenging too.

You have to provide the content, and have enough know-how to set up affiliate programs and their HTML links.

You have to provide a blog that is valuable and good in content and quality on a consistent basis, with new updates at least a twice each week.

And you have to do it even knowing that it may take months for people to start finding your blog and paying attention to it.

Then you have to research affiliate groups, and apply for them, then provide content which will logically lead them to make a purchase.

And once you join affiliate programs, you have to keep up with the latest deals and offers, which can be a fair volume of email from them, and mean a fair number of updates to your site even beyond the new content you have to post regularly.

In this series of articles, we are going to give you some hints and tips as to how to generate income from your blog.

At the very least, you should aim to recoup the $140 or so a year it costs you to maintain your domain name and blog. At the very best, you and your family and friends can save on shopping, travel, many of the items you would ordinarily have to buy anyway.

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The dreaded SPAM

Once you are up and running, you will find that in no time your readers will comment and link to the post. The question is, are they real, or are they just looking to get links to their blog?

The sad truth is that spam has already made its way to blogland, and it is a vengeful beast. It can not only pollute your site, it can even take it over if you are not careful and have too obvious a username and password. 

In Wordpress, there are settings which force a comment to be moderated. Make sure you turn this on. There is also a feature that they have to give an email address and be granted permission to join the site in order to post comments. This will slow spammers down, but not stop them entirely.

It wastes a lot of time and effort to get rid of spam from your blog, but the alternative is to have all your hard work ruined, so be careful and cautious in granting permission.

If it is a very general comment like I agree, this is usually a spammer trying to get a link, and it is also like a fly to honey—soon you will have a ton of spammers all glomming onto your site.

Also make sure that even if the comment looks legitimate, you click on the URL they have posted to be sure it is not porn or something unsavory. Remember that this is your ’storefront’ to the world, so don’t put anything cheap and tacky in it.

Legitimate trackbacks, pings and comments are a good thing, and once you have bagged a good number of readers for your blogs, then you have to devote time religiously to respond to all comments and suggestions coming from the readers.

You will not only gain their loyalty, but also get new ideas for developing some innovative content for your next posts.

If you are planning to sell online, the good news is that most of the time the customer service will be taken care of for you. However, people will contact you directly, so make sure your own personal customer service is prompt and courteous.

Finally, being an expert on blogging requires all of the above, and of course the will and courage to not only keep on going, but to be brave enough to step out from behind ‘anonymous’ to branding yourself.   

Again, your blog is your storefront for your business, your skills as a consultant, author, or re-seller of a product, so the more relevant and interesting your content, the more likely you will be to rise to the top within a few months to a year, and develop a following.

It does take time, but the rewards can be enormous, and best off, they can be coming in 24/7, 365 days a year, from all over the world once you establish your presence in the blog world and start becoming the go-to blog everyone wants to read.

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Getting content

Your main source of content should be your own work.   It is essential to have a passion for your blogging, and your and posts will reflect your attitude and either keep them reading, or send them to the next, more interesting site because you have not grabbed their attention.

Original and compelling content always wins a good audience.

A new spin on any old topic is also a good idea to rejuvenate it and present it in a more interesting, contemporary form.

All of these can display your unique witting skill in your blogs.  A dash of humor really vitalizes your writing, but don’t overdo it.

Blog writing is much closer to journalism than novel writing or poetry, so keep it tightly written, and again, be sure of your facts.  Cite other websites where you found your information or statistics, and you also get credit with the search engines for outward bound as well as inward bound links.

Always have a great title, your headline just like in a newspaper or magazine.   A

Great title can grab the immediate attention of your readers and hook them.

Use subheads as well to break up text, and skip a line between paragraphs. White space is your friend on the net. Also remember to choose a readable font—depending on what theme you have chosen, you could have some issues here.

Wherever possible, use bold, italics, spot color, and so forth to enhance meaning, but don’t overdo it!

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It’s easier than you think

Lead generation, affiliates, RSS feeds with email delivery of your blog content, it may all sound very complicated, but the technology is all there and a lot easier than you think.

Lead generation and sales are the lifeblood of any successful website, and in this case, even if you don’t make a lot of money, at least you will offset the cost of your blog site, approximately $140 a year.

So, you learn to blog by getting your own blog, and doing it. If you have a great title in mind, and a handy url which is not too hard to spell, go to Network Solutions http://www.networksolutions.com to see if the domain is available. 

If it is, then hurry over to Hostgator, http://www.hostgator.com, and register the domain right away for $14.95.  Get their ‘hatchling’ program, currently $9…95 a month, which comes with a really robust set of tools, and make sure you pay for the domain by credit card immediately, because believe it or not, there are people out there who will steal your domain. It happened to me three times! (Which just goes to show you how a great domain name and website/blog is considered to be a real goldmine!)

In the Hatchling program you get the Fantastico suite of programs as it is called and within Fantastico is Wordpress, extremely robust and easy to use blogging software. It takes only a couple of minutes to upload and start editing. So, you can literally get your blog up and running in a matter of a couple of hours. 

Then all you have to do is edit the Welcome content, and start posting, adding content to the site.

ALL? You might say.  Well, if you don’t have any content as of yet, that might seem like a daunting task, but be flexible about what you consider content, and you will soon see that you can get ideas, inspiration, and content from a variety of sources, to serve up great content on a regular basis for your readers.

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Your blog as a new stream of income

Not only is a blog fast to market, so to speak, and easy for one person even with few website skills to maintain, it also has the potential to make money for you almost from the get go.

You can become an affiliate through a variety of different programs, and produce content on the topics related to the products you are selling. Plus, you can write reviews, sell others eBooks, and more. (More about affiliates later and in the affiliate’s category at this site)

In addition, I could use it as a lead generation tool, giving people a free newsletter, either with unique content and a free special report that would lead to a paid product, or auto-delivery of my blog postings through an RSS feed direct to their email box every time a new article went live.

The more you contact people with relevant and interesting information they have asked for, the more likely it is that they will come to trust your opinions, and buy from you.

With my travel site, I am also able to offer big special discounts through my affiliates, deals they will not get anywhere else.

Frankly, these days, anyone who has a website can’t afford NOT to take the trouble to sign up as an affiliate, because even if you never ever get anyone to by, YOU can shop and win. That’s right, you can take advantage of any of the deals you post at your own site, and save some really significant cash.

You not only get the discount offered, you get commission back on the transaction. I get even more bang for my buck by using a credit card that gives me points or cash back on the transaction.

My favorite credit card of all is my Upromise one, because every time I use it, I am putting money directly into my kids’ college fund.