Tuesday, July 21, 2009

How to Make Money With Your Blog

This article is to show new and advanced bloggers how to make money with a blog.
How do you start a blog?
This is not hard. There are over 15 million blogs in cyberspace as we speak so it can not be that hard.
How much does it cost to blog?
There are many free services that allow you to start building a blog such as Blogger and Wordpress. I recommend using one of the free services to get a beginner idea and feel for blogging while playing around and moving things here and there to test. Now, if you are interested in making money with a blog, you will eventually need a self hosted account which is not that expensive usually around $9.99. This way, you look and have a more professional feel.


How to Get a Blogging Platform?
If you are just want to make some extra cash from your blog, try these options. But if you are really serious about eventually retiring from that horrible 9-5 job, I strongly recommend self-hosting your blog (We will get into this later..).
Blogger.com - Blogger is my first choice to start out. It is so easy, a 10 year old can use it and actually understand it. Now, there are limitations to what you can and cannot do here because it is owned by Google. It is, however, Free.
Wordpress.com - This is completely free, not that hard to set up, you can customize many things but like blogger, there are limitations as well.
Wordpress.org - Same as Wordpress com BUT this is where you get the self-hosting and your options are basically limitless. You are now free to roam around the cabin. lol.
Setting up a self-hosted blog
*skip this section if you are using any of the above methods*
I am sure you are serious enough to make money about blogging and are searching for the top way to arrange your blogs look and personality, then getting a self-hosted blog from Wordpress org is your best option. Wordpress is the number one choice for most bloggers. It does require a little work and does cost something: domain name purchase ($10/year) blog hosting ($10/month).
A gigantic advantage is that you can use your own personal domain name.
Choose a Domain Name
1. You should start by purchasing a domain name. GoDaddy is a great site to start. I would recommend going to for a .com rather than a .org. Most people today are more familiar with .com than anything else.
2. Choose a host for your blog
A web host is the site that you pay to keep all of your files in one place for your blog. Similar to a container holding onto your personal items in storage. There are many hosting companies out there. Choose wisely.
I recommend to go with larger companies who are more known for doing just this. They may be a bit more but at least you know you probably will not have a problem with them and getting in touch will not be hard if need be.
Affiliate Marketing and what it is
A great example of an affiliate marketer: There are millions of products. When you surf the net and see many photos and pictures of products, 9 out of 10 times, they are being sold and promoted through an affiliate marketer. Simply put, when someone clicks on that image, goes to the site where it is being sold, decides right then and there to purchase it, the affiliate marketer gets a commission for the sale. Sometimes it can be anywhere from $5.00 to $100.00 or even more. There are a thousands of Affiliate programs, Clickbank, Commission Junction, and Markethealth. MarketHealth by far is my favorite and has made me tons of money. Very easy to get going there. (Click on the link above and get started)
Does it take to make money from a blog?
This depends on your dedication and how hungry you are.
When I first started out, I knew nothing about blogging. Zero. I studied my butt off and searched all over the Internet for "help me do this" guides. Now days, things are easier to understand and there are tons of free blog tools and software to get you going. If you build it, they will come. But, if you build it and do nothing afterwards and sit on your butt expecting a parade of traffic to arrive, you will be very disappointed and they "will NOT come".
Blogging involves work but can be very rewarding if you follow some simple tactics and apply them. In time, when your blog becomes more popular, that is when you start to see the money coming in. If you are expecting to make a million dollars overnight from day one of your new blog, stop reading here now. Remember, this is not the lottery.
You have to build up traffic and members thus giving you higher page rank where big engine sites like Google, MSN and Yahoo will notice your blog and reward you by placing you higher and closer to the top. that is when things get interesting.
What do I do and Where do I start?
The first thing I would do is write a few well written articles about what ever your topic is and post them right away. Get the ball rolling.
Join many directories
If I were starting a brand new blog, the first thing I would do is Google the topic I want to blog about adding "directory" as well into the search bar. A nice list of web directories about my topic will show up. Here are a few to get you started with.
* Blogcatalog com ( This is my Number One Choice !!! )
* Blogflux com
* DMOZ org
* Yahoo Directory
Commenting on Blogs
One of the greatest ways for new blogs to get almost immediate traffic is by commenting on other blogs with the same topic or niche as yours. Always comment about useful things that can contribute. Never spam with just links to your site.
People do not like this and the odds are your comment will be deleted or worse, you will be banned from that directory so be careful at what you say. The blogging community is generally a very social community and those who are active in the community often receive the good traffic they are looking for.
Commenting on Forums
Similar to Commenting on blogs, You can find a forum that pertains to your subject only and comment away. I find that BlogCatalog is a great forum as well as the Warrior forum.
Article submission sites
Submit your articles to top article submission sites. These sites collect articles and most allow a link back to your blog. Here are a few good ones I use always.
* EzineArticles
* goarticles
* articledashboard
* articlecity
SEO tips for new bloggers
It will take some time to get a good amount of traffic from the search engines. The search engines like more established sites that have a lot of people linking to them already. It is very important to get good links from other sites so that search engines will notice your blog.
Be patient. In time your blog will grow.
What is SEO ?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are methods and tricks on getting your web site or blog to the top of the search engine listings. I could go on and on forever on this topic but for now, just stick with what we have talked about. If you are eager to SEO your site, type in "SEO help for bloggers" in the search bar and there will be plenty of articles and blogs to check this out.
If you do these steps the right way, you will be in a better place than most people who do not know a single thing about SEO.
1. The Title Tags
In my opinion, this is the most important part of SEO. The title of your web site is what web surfers will see when they are looking for a particular thing. If you have a lousy title for your site or article, then most likely, the reader will pass onto the next best thing.
2. The Anchor Text
Anchor text tells the search engines what other sites your site is about. Google really places a lot of importance on anchor text.
3. Keywords
Keywords are vitally important. Simply put, when someone types in the search bar what they are looking for, and something comes up, it is the keywords that they have used that pulls up the content of the page. If your site is about "Changing Baby Diapers" and people typed in some of those words, there is a great chance that your page will be listed but if you choose keywords that are irrelevant to your site, no chance.
4. Links
Try and exchange links with other similar sites. You may have to add someone else link to your blog but if they do the same, then all is well. This is a way to get more traffic. You want to be noticed right? .
5. Write articles people want and are searching for.
Try to reach out to other bloggers rather than trying to sell them something right away. Build a trusting fan base first before jumping into selling everyone in the world your affiliate products.
6. Add A Google search bar to your site.
Google is the King of search. By adding this, you will help your visitors find the information that they are looking for on your site and hopefully make some money in the process.
Install Google Analytics
This is an amazing statistics tool that will help you keep track of your visitors and analyze a lot of data about them.
Google Keyword Tool
This is the best FREE tool to get ideas about popular keywords.
Add A Feed to Your Blog
Feedburner is my first choice here. you will want to burn a feed to allow others to quickly see updated posts and info on your blog.
Most of all,Have fun !
Even though this article is about helping those who want to make money with a blog, I also realize that many people forget about the fun part of blogging. They get caught up in the technical aspects of SEO and Html etc.. One of the best things to do if you are just starting out is have some fun and play around. Make use of many of the free blog tools out there and experiment. You will make mistakes along the way but you will learn.
If you stick with the basics, I know that you will make money with your blog as long as you do not quit. There will be times of frustration along the way. Take a break, do something else, read a book about something entirely different, exercise...
then come back to your blog and start where you left off.

For help feel free to contact Goodness on goodnessadebo@yahoo.com or call +2347032973204

For info on jobs in Nigeria visit www.jobsvacan.blogspot.com

1 comment:

Mutuelle sante said...

Thanks a ton it is a very good guide, now to make money with our blog is definitely very easy with your tips. Thanks