Monetizing your blog can be fairly simple. All you have to do is set up ads right? Wrong, in order to successfully monetize your blog, you must have different types of ads and affiliate programs on your blog and they have to be in a close relationship with your niche. Obviously there are tons of programs that you can use to monetize your blog. Which ones should you use for your blog?
1. Google Adsense - the most popular program out there that bloggers use. You can display ads and get paid every time someone clicks on them.
2. ClickBank - Clickbank is an affiliate program that allows you to advertise Ebooks and other products on your blog. Every time someone buys a product that you're promoting you get a chunk of the money.
3. Private Ads - If you're blog gets a decent amount of traffic than you can sell ad space on your blog. The more traffic your blog gets, the higher the price should be for a spot.
4. Affiliate Programs - Sites that have referral programs are great for blogs. There are many companies out there that pay you every time someone signs up or buys this. Blogging about these sites can be a great way for beginning bloggers to make money.
5. Paid Reviews - There are lots of people out on the web who want their products to have some publicity. Why not offer paid reviews on your blog. You charge a small fee for a complete review of the product / site. You can include links and your perspective on the product. Plus it counts as a post for your blog!
These five programs are fairly easy to use, but can be very fruitful when it comes to make money with your blog. With enough blog traffic, any of these five programs and techniques should work.
Comments are a huge part of blogs. They show how popular a blog is and what the readers think about it. A blog with little to now comments makes it seem abandoned. Although commenting on a blog can seem tedious, it can bring your blog traffic.
How to Comment
When you write a comment on someones blog, make it sound legitimate (even if its not). Put some effort into the comment. For example don't just say "nice post". Say something constructive. Praise or criticize the post depending on your liking. Here are some tips to remember when posting comments on other blogs.
1. Make it worth your time. I just talked about this but make the comment stand out.
2. Don't spam. Man do I hate spam comments, and I know you do to. Don't put hundreds of links into your comments. In fact don't put any links in your comment. People will still be able to access your site by clicking on you name.
3. Go out a limb and give constructive criticism. Criticism causes controversy which in turn will make people curious about you.
It is also a good idea to comment on blogs that fall into the same niche as you. This will bring you more targeted traffic over time. Commenting on blogs won't bring in loads of traffic. But if you keep active on very popular blogs you should see an increase in blog traffic.
I hear this question a lot. How often do I create posts for my blog? There is no definitive answer to this question but a serious blogger should write posts almost everyday. This way the blog is updated by Google a lot since it has fresh content. Posting shouldn't be a problem if you have found a niche that you're familiar with.
Guest Posting can be a great way for new blogs to gain traffic and exposure. It drives targeted traffic to your blog and can be great for first time bloggers. Guest posting is becoming more used by successful blogs because their owners need help pumping out daily posts.
What Blog to Guest Post on?
When guest posting you are going to want to target blogs that are in your niche. In other words target blogs that write about the same topic / ideas that you do. This way it will be more likely to get accepted and it will bring more targeted visitors to your blog which is what you want.
How to Write a Guest Post
Writing a guest post is fairly simple as long as you follow these steps.
1. Make sure you write within the guest post guidelines. Many blogs will have these guidelines listed on their blog
2. Include 1-2 links in your post, but don't spam. This makes the post look bad as well as you.
3. Make sure the post is at least 250 words. This ensures that it has quality content and is worth reading.
Remember guest posting is good for both blogs. It helps promote your blog and gives good content to the other blog. Another positive thing about guesting posting is that it will give your blog a link from another blog. Posting on other blogs can be very beneficial.
Search engine traffic is great because it sends very targeted visitors to your blog. Visitors that are looking for a particular bit of information. This can lead to more money with Google Adsense or other sale through affiliate marketing. Sites like Google and Yahoo can send you consistent amounts of traffic over a long period of time.
Choose and focus on a few keywords
Keywords are the most important item that gets your blog on Google and other search engines. For example I am targeting the keywords blogger tips, blogspot templates, seo blogspot and other keywords that involves blogs. Where do you implement these; in your post titles and in your content.
Gaining Links
Writing articles, commenting on other blogs and participating on forums can be great way to gain inbound links. Sites that link to your site can increase your page rank and can eventually lead to more search engine traffic. The best way to have sites link back to you is to write good content.
Patience is Key
Receiving search engine traffic doesn't happen overnight. It takes patience and consistent posting to gain traffic from the likes of Google. Most blogs don't get search engine traffic right away which is why lots of bloggers give up on their blogs.
Remember, in order to gain search engine traffic you will need to gain inbound links. Your posts should be focused to certain keywords. Over time your search engine traffic will increase and your blog will become more successful.
Promoting your new blog is a must if you want to get it known out on the world wide web. A new blog needs to be discovered before it can become successful. Promoting your blog can be done in many ways including article writing, through social networking and by joining blog communities.
Article Directories
Article directories can be a great way to promote your blog. By writing articles and then submitting them, you show others that your are an expert and are worth checking out. Directories like Ezine and Article Base are great sites to start with.
Social Networking
Social Networking has the most potential to get your blog off the ground. All it takes is for one of your posts to hit the front page of Digg and boom, tons of visitors and your blog is known. Social Networking sites like Digg and Stumble Upon can be great for promoting your blog, especially if you write interesting posts. These type of posts will spread around and have the chance to become viral.
Blog Communities
There are many blog communities out there that provide you an opportunity to make friends with other bloggers. One of my personal favorites is Blog Catalog which allows you to join groups and enter discussions. Its a very good site for promoting your blog. You can also learn info from other bloggers at communities like Blog Catalog.
Getting people to look at your blog takes time and effort. Promoting isn't an easy task by all means. However, if you follow these three tips you should be on your way to getting your blog known by people around the world.
Starting a blog for the first time can be very stressful, especially if you aren't associated with blogging. Blogging can be confusing and frustrating until you figure out what you are doing. What blog platform do you choose? How do you create a blog? There are tons of unknowns when you're first starting a blog. Here are some basic tips for first time bloggers.
Start with the basics - Don't worry about putting ads on your blog in the beginning. Start off by writing posts and putting appropriate widgets on you blog. Ads can be implemented once your blog traffic increases.
Check out other successful blogs - Blogs that have lots of experience can help you more than you think. When coming across a very good blog, observe it and see what they are doing to becoming successful. Try to follow in their example.
Keep fighting - Every blogger has had their share of setbacks. If you aren't seeing the results that you were originally expecting, just keep fighting.
Blogging can be a very fun hobby that is capable of making money for you. Blogging takes lots of work to become successful. When starting a blog take these tips into consideration. First time bloggers just need some time to get their handiwork going.
So you want to start a blog but are having trouble finding a topic that you want to blog about. The niche is the overall topic of your blog, so your going to want to take it seriously. Your niche is important because its what you're going to write about on your blog. Your niche determines how your going to monetize your blog also.
Finding a Successful Niche
Finding a niche is a pretty easy task, but there are a couple of things that you will want to consider before doing so. Your blogs niche should be something that you know a lot about, or are interested in. This way you will be able to come up with enough posts to make your blog successful. Before you choose your niche make sure you do know enough about it. Take some paper and write some potential post topics that are relevant to that niche. If you can come up with 25 - 30 that will be enough to at least get your blog started. There are some other things that you will want to take into consideration when choosing your niche.
1. Does it allow advertising - If you want to make money blogging, then you will want to choose a niche that plays into that.
2. Is it widely used - You're going to want to take this into consideration when choosing your niche. How much competition do you have?
3. Will you enjoy writing about it - If you don't enjoy the topic or at least find it interesting, then you will want to move on to another topic.
The niche is what your blog is based on so make sure you put in the time and effort to find a successful one. The main topic of your blog is what all the content will be based to.
Most bloggers are worried about seo for their blogs or what they can do to increase traffic from Google. The thing that they end up forgetting is the content on their blog. Lets face it, if your blog content stinks, so will your blog. Visitors might end up at your blog but they sure won't stay long because your posts stink.
Writing Good Posts
There are a number of tricks that a person can use to make his / her blog posts original and worth reading.
1. Research the topic of post - Researching your topic before you write your post is great way to learn about it as well as forming your own opinions about the topic.
2. Keep it original - don't copy and paste bits from this blog and bits from that blog to form your post. Write down what you think on the subject. Be creative, its your blog.
3. Input lists / numbers into your posts - Putting lists into your blog makes the content easier to read and more towards the point. What I mean by numbers is this... "The top three ways to make money." Adding numbers certainly makes your blog posts more appealing.
4. Not too long - When writing your blog posts, you don't want to ramble on. Keep it to the point so that the reader can learn what he wants and move on.
Your posts matter tremendously to your Blogspot blog. Make sure you take the proper time to prepare for a blog post. A unique blog post can drive traffic from social networking sites and can get indexed by Google because its original.
The Blogging Pro Template is a great Blogspot template that has a very professional look to it. Its one of the cleanest looking templates that I have seen for Blogger. There are many options and features that the user has with this template which is why I like it so much.
SEO stands for search engine optimization and is key to gaining blog traffic from Google, Yahoo or and other search engine. Blogspot blogs require a little more work in the seo department but its not that big of a deal.
Improving Seo on your blog
Seo can be a hard concept to master. There are many ways you can tweak your blog so that it has better seo. Improving seo often requires changing of the html to your blog. This can easily be done by going to the blogger.com homepage, selecting layout and then edit html.
Improving seo can rather complicated. Here are some simple ways you can optimize seo for your blog.
1. Write good content - If you decide to only do one simple seo fix, this should be it. If your content is original and fresh, Google will be more likely to index a higher number of pages.
2. Links - Higher blogs that have links to your blog will help your blog out in the long run.
3. Keywords in Titles - Keywords in your post titles are very important because they tell Google what your posts are about.
This post generalized seo in nutshell. There are tons more tips out there to help you improve seo for your blogspot blog. Stay tuned for tips in the future.
The template of your Blogspot blog can be very important when it comes to utilizing ad space and making money. The templates that Blogger.com provides doesn't really give you options when it comes to ads and banners. When looking for a successful Blogspot template, you must consider the following.
Enough Ad Space?
If your looking to make money with your blog, then you need a lot of ad space, Google Adsense, Button Ads and Banner Ads all require space on your template. You want to have enough space for ads but not too much where your blog image suffers.
Appealing / Easy to Follow
When visitors first arrive at your blog you want them to feel like they're in the right place. You want your template to feel professional. A visitors first opinion about the blog is very important. Another important issue regarding your blogspot template is how easy it is to navigate. The easier to follow the more time your visitors will spend looking through your blog pages. I recommend putting a categories widget as well as a search bar into your blog template.
There are some great blogspot templates out there. The best thing about them is that they are free. Stay tuned or subscribe for reviews on all the great blogspot templates.
Article Directories are a great way to gain traffic and links for new blogs. Its a splendid way for you to publicize your blog. There are many blog directories out there, but only a few are worth using. The key to generating traffic with article directories is to write posts that leave your readers wanting more. That way they are more likely to visit your site.
One Way Links
Many article directories have high page ranks. When you write an article you have your link in it and in your author bio you gain valuable one way links to your blog. Many of these article directories have very high page ranks. This is very healthy for new blogs because it increases the chances that Google will index them (since they have more one way links).
More Articles = Greater Traffic
The more articles you write, the more traffic you will get. In order to gain sufficient traffic, you want to be signed up with two or three article directories. After you do this write 15-20 articles for each directory. They should be relevant to your blog.
Once you achieve this then you will see some consistent traffic coming in. This is a great strategy for beginners. Some of the best article directories are Ezine Articles, Ehow and Article Base. These directories have very high page ranks and are great for beginning bloggers and experts alike.
Having a program that tracks your blogs visitors and stats is extremely useful. Almost all successful bloggers have some type of program they use to help keep track of their visitors. StatCounter is a free program that allows its users to easily track what their visitors are doing. Its a great little gadget for any Blogspot blog.
Setting up StatCounter
StatCounter works very well with Blogger. Here are the steps to setting them up on your blog.
1. Make a free account with them. After you do that, go to Add New Project.
2. Fill out your project settings. You will want to block your own ip address and make your stats private.
3. After you click o.k, a blue arrow will pop up and say configure counter, click on it. You will get to choose what kind of counter you want on your blog. I recommend the invisible one since it doesn't show up on your blog.
4. Next it will ask you to choose your blog / web page editor. Choose Blogger / Blogspot (if you use a different editor just follow their directions).
5. StatCounter will give you your code. It also has a step by step process to help you install your code onto blogger. Once you have completed this you are done.
StatCounter Features
StatCounter has a number key features that allow the user to easily keep track of their visitors. Some of the cool statistics that StatCounter has is
- Keyword Activity
- Recent Came From
- Visitor Path
- Exit Link Activity
- Download Activity
1. When submitting your blog, you only need to submit the home page of your site. You will not need to include every individual page of your blog.
2. There isn't always guarantee that your blog will appear in a search engine. Search engines all have different standards. However if your blog is clean and has good info, it should get indexed my most search engines.
3. If your blog has been linked by higher blogs, than it might already be on Google / Yahoo. To run a quick check type your blog address into Google. If it shows up it has been indexed and there is no need to submit it.
Top Search Engines
I will list the top search engines because that is where the majority of your search engine traffic will come from.
Hello and welcome to my blog. I created Basic Blogger Advice to give tips, advice and tutorials for bloggers using the Blogger platform. These posts will help you optimize your blog for search engines, and make it a better overal blog in general. These posts will help both beginner and advanced bloggers.
