Make Money With a Blog

I think it's important to find a niche topic that your blog will focus on. I know you love your dog and want to blog about him, but if you're serious about making money with a blog, let be up front and tell you that people really don't want to read a blog with mindless ramblings about how your dog sleeps all day and you have a boring life.

With that said, let's get on to your niche! I would pick a topic that you have a strong interest in - something you feel totally passionate about. If you don't like elephants, then don't blog about elephants! You want to blog about something that you feel that you're an expert at and can speak on with authority. When you feel passionate about a topic, you'll never run out of things to say!

TIP: Sit down with a piece of paper and a pen and write down all the things that you love to do. What are those things that put a smile on your face? I'm sure you can come up with a pretty decent list. Remember how I said that I have eleven blogs? Well, each of those eleven blogs represent topics that I love!

If you don't already have a blog, then creating a blog account would be the first thing you'd want to do! There are many blogging platforms out there - some free and some paid. When I first started out, I signed up with Blogger because it is a free service and is owned by Google (a search engine I truly support, by the way!) Actually, the majority of my blogs are with Blogger. I use Moveable Type with a few of my blogs and only one blog is with Wordpress.

If you're just starting out, then Blogger may be the way to go. If you sign up with a free Wordpress account, you'll be limited with the design of your blog and you may have a hard time setting up affiliate links and banners (more about this later). At least, those are the challenges I faced when I tried to set up a blog with a free Wordpress account.

However, if you do like a little challenge and are a quick learner, then perhaps you may want to go with a paid blog account like Typepad or Wordpress. Depending on what hosting you use you may also get to choose your own domain name to go with your blog.

>>>> Get a free preview on building your own blog.

What you write on your blog is going to be the most important activity - besides marketing. You want to provide helpful and useful information to your readers so that they will become loyal and keep coming back for more! Here are a few characteristics of successful blogs:

They provide helpful and useful information

The blogger has a unique voice and shares his/her opinions

They are entertaining. Make people laugh once in awhile! If you're a natural comedian, well, you'll do just fine!

Blog posts are relevant to the topic. If your blog is about business blogging, then don't talk about furniture!

Need blog writing tips? I highly recommend reading Successful Blog if you feel a little uneasy about writing. I recommend just being yourself and simply letting the words flow. I know, easier said than done.

Ok, now it's time to get down to the nitty gritty! The second part of this lens will cover all the different ways to make money with your blog. Keep in mind that this isn't a comprehensive list because every week I'm learning and discovering new ways to monetize my blogs. I will be covering all the methods that I currently use to make money with my blogs.

Adding Google Adsense ads to your blog is probably the most common way that people make money with their blog. Visit just about any blog on the internet these days and you'll see a set of ads somewhere within the blog with the phrase "Ads by Google". When visitors to your blog click on any of those ads, you make money based on how much the advertiser bids for the ad.

3 Ways To Improve Your Adsense Earnings

1. Concentrate on one format of Adsense ad. The one format that worked well for the majority is the Large Rectangle. This same format has the tendency to result in higher CTR, or the click-through rates. Why choose this format out of the many you can use? Basically because the ads will look like normal web links, and people, being used to clicking on them, click these types of links. They may or may not know they are clicking on your Adsense but as long as there are clicks, then it will all be for your advantage.

2. Create a custom palette for your ads. Choose a color that will go well with the background of your site. If your site has a white background, try to use white as the color of your ad border and background. The idea to patterning the colors is to make the Adsense look like it is part of the web pages. Again, This will result to more clicks from people visiting your site.

3. Remove the Adsense from the bottom pages of your blog and put them at the top. Do not try to hide your Adsense. Put them in the place where people can see them quickly. You will be amazed how the difference between Adsense locations can make when you see your earnings. Learn more about positioning your Adsense ads at Problogger.

It is important to know that ads are displayed because they fit the interests of the people viewing them. Focusing on a specific topic should be your main priority because the displays will be especially targeted on a topic that persons will be viewing already.

Sponsored blog posts are growing in popularity with the launch of PayPerPost and other similar companies. Basically how it works is that advertisers pay bloggers anywhere from $5 and up to do a write up about their company.

Here's a list of some of the places where you can find advertisers who will pay you to do reviews:

Linkworth

Sponsored Reviews

ReviewMe

This is related to the sponsored reviews I mentioned above. If your blog receives a substantial amount of traffic, you may consider selling your own advertising space. Many companies are abandoning traditional advertising venues such as newspapers and TV and instead are advertising on blogs because these companies know that more and more people are turning to blogs for news and information.

You can sell ad space yourself or use a third party company to sell ad space for you. One of the more popular companies is Text Link Ads. I still have yet to use their service - only because I have to have the updated version of Blogger to use them. (I choose to use the old version of Blogger for flexibility of design.) However, I know that many of the "big blogger ballers" use Text Link Ads with much success.

If you already have a decent following to your blog, you may consider creating a paid membership website and link it to your blog. You can create this membership website to coincide with the topic of your blog. To attract members to this website, you can offer your blog readers a discount on their membership fee.

Click here to start your membership website and make residual income every month!

Find out more about membership websites by reading this article I wrote: 3 Reasons Why An Online Membership Website Is a Great Online Business.

Subscribe or bookmark this lens for updates! I will be adding more ways to make money with your blog soon!

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