Posts Tagged ‘Blogging’
Ways To Make Money With Your Blog
There are a bunch of different ways to make money online with your blog. Just keep in mind that you are not going to make millions over night, but if you work at it you can make a some extra cash. Making money with your blog all depends on how much work you put into your blog. My one suggestion is to make sure what you put on your blog is relative to what your content is. That way when people visit your blog they will be more attracted to click on ads, links or products. Here is a list that I compiled for you with links to resources to help get you started
Sell Ad Space on your Blog – I have a post where I explain how to add an "Advertise Here" button to your blog. You can check it out *HERE* Here is a great article by Darren Rowse from Problogger.net on what you should charge for Ad Space. Want to know How Much Should I Charge for my Advertising Space?
Affiliate Marketing – This is a big huge subject so I am not really going to go into detail with it, just the basics. Affiliate Marketing is where you promote other peoples products. For example you find a product that is related to your blog or niche, write about it on your blog and then promote it by driving traffic to that image or link that has your affiliate id associated with it. When someone clicks on your link and follows through with either their email or they purchase a product then you are paid a commission fee. If this is something that you are interested in I really suggest checking out 5 Star Affiliate Marketing Forum. This community is awesome and very helpful. Make sure you have some time to spend there and if you don't then you must bookmark it!
Sell Your Own Products – If you read my previous post on how to Make Your WordPress Blog Into A Online Store then you know that you can just add plug-ins to your WordPress blog to make it customizable. Add your product info and images and there you are. You will need a Online Payment Merchant Account and I recommend using PayPal.
If you need help developing your own product I really suggest checking out Product Creation Tips & Training by Gwen Tanner. She provides a ton of great information with tips that you won't find anywhere else on the web. I always get inspired reading articles on her site.
Sell Your Photos – Do you like to take pictures of random things. Well you can either start a blog and post your images there or you can submit them to other sites that will pay you for your photos. Here are some great resources to help you get started….
Photo Secrets – They even have a FR*EE ebook
These are just a few ways that you can make money online. And I hope these resources I provided will help you get started with your online money making adventures. Good Luck!
Using Social Networking Websites to Promote Your Blog
Do you know what the main purpose of a social networking website is?
If you are an avid internet user, you likely do. Social networking websites are online communities that make it easier for internet users to meet and communicate with each other. If you are an internet user who enjoys using the internet to meet new people, there is a good chance that you already belong to a social networking website.
What about an online blog? Do you have one of them?
If you do, do you know that you could use your social networking website to promote your blog?
Promote your blog? Why would you want to do that? Honestly, if you have to ask yourself that question you probably shouldn’t even have one. The whole purpose of a blog is to document your thoughts, views, and opinions on a particular topic, issue, or subject. What good will your blog do if no one reads it. In addition to sharing your thoughts with the rest of the world, did you know that you could also make money from your blog? You can sign up for affiliate programs or other programs like Google Adsense. If you are using your blog to make money then you will definitely want to promote it.
When it comes to promoting blogs, there are many bloggers who decide to let the search engine do the work for them. Search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN use special techniques that reads the content on your website. That content is then used to rank your website with particular keywords. This means that you run a blog on graduating from high school in New York, there is a good chance that your blog will appear in searches done on New York high schools. Although many blogs are successfully ranked in search engines, not all are. That is why you are advised against relying solely on search engines, when it comes to promoting your blog.
As previously mentioned, if you love meeting with or talking to people online, there is a good chance that you belong to a social networking website or community. The individuals that you talk to and that are in your community are likely the individuals that you wish to target. Since most social networking websites work to connect internet users who have the same goals and common interests, there is a good chance that your online friends will enjoy reading your blog. But, before they can read your blog, you have to let them know that it exists.
When it comes to promoting your blog on social networking websites, you have a number of different options. Your first option is to include a link to your blog in your community profile or profile page. This will allow other community members to checkout your blog, only if they wish to do so. The other way is to inform your online friends of your blog through private messages. Once you join a social networking website and create or join a network of friends, you should easily be able to communicate with those friends. Sending each of your friends a private message with information and a link to your blog tends to be more effective than just placing a link in your profile or on your profile page.
Although there is a good chance that you are already a member of a popular social networking website, you may not be. If you are not already a member, but would like to become one, you will need to find a social networking website to join. This can easily be done with a standard internet search. In your search, you will likely find a number of popular network sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, LinkedIn, and Myspace. Before becoming a community member at one of these networking sites, you may want to first examine the website to ensure that it is everything that you want it to be.
As you can easily see, there are a number of different ways that you can go about promoting your blog on online social networking websites. You never known, but, in addition to promoting your blog, you may also make new friends along the way.
How To Make Posting To Your Blog Fun
I knew that it would not take long before I would get discouraged blogging everyday. I had to come up with a different way to approach posting to my blog other than coming up with post ideas and writing the posts. I decided to come up with a theme for my posts on certain days of the week. Here is what I came up with:
Monday – Mommy Mondays
Tuesday – Top 10 Tuesdays
Wednesday – WordPress Wednesdays
Thursday – Tutorial Thursdays
Friday – Fabulous 5 Fridays
Saturday – Software Saturdays
Sunday – Social Sundays
You can personalize this idea to work for any blog. Be creative and make your readers want to come back for more. All you have to do is break your niche down into sub-categories and use them for your daily themed posts. Shoot better yet, take a look at your categories and use them. This will help organize your posts, keep a direction going with your blog, and will keep you excited to write about your blog topics.
So I am starting this new system tomorrow and I am really excited to bring you my first Fabulous 5 Fridays post. For short, I am going to call it Fab5 Fridays. I am going to list 5 Fabulous People that I have crossed paths with online and I feel others can benefit from.
Make Your WordPress Blog Visible To The Mobile World
Yesterday I was playing around with the internet on my phone and of course I went and checked out my blog. It didn't appear the way that I wanted it to. So it got me thinking "Why do some blogs show up on my cell phone, but my blog doesn't?" and "How can I make my blog viewable to mobile users?" I came up with some really great resources and I am really excited to share them with you.
The first thing I found were two WordPress Plugins that allow you and your visitors to communicate with on another via SMS (Text)
The first one allows your visitors to get updates of your blog via SMS. – SMS Text Message
The second one allows your visitors to contact you through SMS (Text) – Quick SMS
I though these were really cool. I can't wait to add them to my blog and play around with them a little more and see what they do. (I will keep you posted of my findings).
So now on to the really cool stuff I found. I really think that making your wordpress blog viewable to mobile phone users will benefit you and your readers. Just think more readers can lead to more sales. Adding this feature to your blog will give you more exposure.
Here are the plugins you need to Make Your WordPress Visible To The Mobile World:
MOBILE PRESS – This plug-in allows your blog to be viewed on mobile devices. You can use customized themes. Track your mobile stats and send ads to your readers using their recommended services. Since this plug-in is SEO enabled and detects the major mobile search bots like Google, Yahoo and MSN. This feature allows your blog to be indexed in the mobile search results. This is a very popular plug-in due to the indexing by major search engines.
WORDPRESS MOBILE PACK – This complete toolkit allows your blog to adapt to the type of device viewing your site. Some of the other features this plug-in has are different mobile themes to choose from, extra widgets and it even has a mobile wordpress admin panel that gives the Admin of the blog the opportunity to edit the site and add posts when a computer isn't available.
WORDPRESS MOBILE EDITION – This plug-in allows your blog to be viewed by mobile phone users. Mobile Browsers are automatically detected. You can customize the mobile browser list.
WORDPRESS MOBILE ADMIN – I guess you could say I saved the best for last. WordPress Mobile Admin is a fully functional control panel for your WordPress Blog that works on any mobile device. This mobile plug-in has a ton of awesome features. Add new posts, post pictures and dictate where they appear on the post (How cool is that?), post, page, tag and category management, moderate comments and reply to them, user profile page including color schemes, support for gravatars and finally it will translate to any language supported by WordPress.
If you have used any of these plug-ins I would love to hear any feedback about them…please comment below..
How to add an Advertise Here Button to my Blog
I am sure that you have seen on certain sites the "Advertise Here" box. Well that is called a Blog button. Today I am going to show you how to add one to your blog. This is a great way to earn residual income on your blog. Just think if someone rents that space from you, you will get a monthly amount. I guess it's kind of like being a property manager and you have tenants is those spaces.
I am going to give you a couple of different examples of how to add the "Advertise Here" button to your blog. You are more than welcome to right click the images to use on your own blog.
Simple Advertise Here Button
Details Advertise Here Button
How To Create a Clickable Image in your Sidebar: First you need to upload the image to your blog that you want to use. To do this click on "Add New" under the Media tab. When you add the image to your blog you will be given a URL for the image you uploaded. The URL is located near the bottom of the page. Copy and Paste it to Word so that you have it on hand. Now you will want to click on "Widgets" under the Appearance tab, select Text and drag it over to the sidebar where you want to place the image. When the Text Widget opens you can insert the html code below.
<a href="http://www.PUT YOUR URL HERE.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://THIS IS WHERE YOU WILL PASTE THE URL TO YOUR IMAGE.com" border="0" alt="You can put a description here"></a>
**FYI – To center the image put <center> at the beginning of the code and put </center> at the end of the code.
Once you have inserted the code with your info in it go ahead and save it and close it. Pull up your blog to check it out
Here is how to add a non clickable image to your sidebar
Download and Activate the Simple Image Widget Plug-in. Go to widgets and insert it where you want it on your sidebar(s). Upload the image that you would like there. Save it and close it and walaaaa! You have just now posted an image in your sidebar!
Here are some great articles that I would suggest checking out if you are planning to sell ad space on your blog.
Don't Place More Than One Advertise Here Banner On Your Blog
5 Ways to Make an Empty Ad Space Work for You
7 Tips to Sell More Advertising on Your Blog - **Make sure to go to the homepage – They have a directory where you can sell your ad space
