Blogging for Cash by Richard Khor - HTML preview

Blogging

For Cash!

Simple Secrets To Turn Your

Computer Into A Cash Machine!

Brought To You By

43WordPressTutorials

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Disclaimer

Please note that this eBook may be distributed freely or may be sold for a small fee as long as the contents within is not changed or ownership is overwritten. We advise you to print this eBook out in its entirety to help you get the most from this information!

This digital eBook is for informational purposes only. While every attempt has been made to verify the information provided in this report, neither the author, publisher nor the marketer assume any responsibility for errors or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional and the development of this eBook is bona fide. The producer and marketer have no intention whatsoever to convey any idea affecting the reputation of any person or business enterprise. The trademarks, screen-shots, website links, products and services mentioned in this eBook are copyrighted by their respective owners. This eBook has been distributed with the understanding that we are not engaged in rendering technical, legal, medical, accounting or other professional advice. We do not give any kind of guarantee about the accuracy of information provided. In no event will the author and/or marketer be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential or other loss or damage arising out of the use of the information in this document by any person, regardless of whether or not informed of the possibility of damages in advance. Thank you for your attention to this message.

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Contents

Disclaimer ........................................................................................... 2

Contents ............................................................................................. 3

Creating A Popular Blog ......................................................................... 4

Using AdSense In Your Blog ................................................................... 7

Other Advertising Options ...................................................................... 9

Affiliate Marketing .............................................................................. 12

Review Products ................................................................................. 15

Join a Blogging Network ...................................................................... 18

Create A Newsletter ............................................................................ 20

Create Your Own Products ................................................................... 22

Donations .......................................................................................... 25

Picking The Best Cash Generator .......................................................... 27

Explode Your Income Online! Discover The Secrets To Mastering WordPress!

........................................................................................................ 29

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Creating A Popular

Blog

If you want to make money through blogging, creating a popular blog is the key to success. If your blog receives very little traffic, you will not have much success monetizing it. No matter which method you use to make money from your blog, you will find the most success if you have a large readership. Because of this, making your blog popular and growing readership should be one of your primary concerns.

There are many ways to make your blog more popular. The first thing you should consider is who your audience is and who you are writing for. You should always write about something that interests you, and that will interest others. You may think that your new kitten is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there are probably not very many other people who want to read a blog about it. It is best to find a niche audience that is large enough to support a wide readership but not to vague.

One of the great things about blogging is

that you do not have to be a professional

writer to have a popular blog. You do have

to obey common grammatical rules and at

least be able to put together coherent

sentences, but you do not have to be a

highly skilled writer.

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Blog readers are looking for interesting, relevant topics to read, not the next work of Shakespeare. Make sure what you write is interesting, edgy, or even controversial. Popular blogs are never boring and add value to reader’s lives either through information or entertainment. Make sure your blog adds something of value to your reader’s life otherwise you will not develop a large fan base.

Making your blog popular is a lot like

driving traffic to a website. You can use

many of the same techniques to drive

traffic to your blog. Finding places to link

back to your blog is a good way to drive

traffic. Social sites such as Myspace,

Facebook, and You tube provide lots of

opportunities for this. You can also use

social book marking sites such as Reddit,

StumbleUpon, and Digg to promote your blog. Blogging on a popular blog site such as Wordpress and Blogger are also good ways to make your blog more popular as these blogging sites help to bring in traffic for your blog.

Whether you blog on a blogging network or you have an independently hosted blog, you need to make sure your blog is designed well. It is true that content is king and if a blog has great content is may receive lots of traffic even though it is ugly, having a well designed blog that is not ugly or annoying will help to drive repeat traffic. You want your blog to look unique, but not too unique. Keep with internet formalities such as blue links and use large font for headings.

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You should break your post up into small paragraphs each with a headline if possible as internet readers tend to scan the screen looking for relevant information rather than reading everything word for word. Make sure your colors do not contrast too harshly and that the text is easy to read. Using good design will make your blog aesthetically pleasing and make readers more likely to come back and remain on your page.

No matter where your blog is hosted, you should try to get it indexed by all the major search engines. Some forms of blog monetization require that your blog be indexed by search engines before they will allow you to participate in your program. The higher ranked your blog is, the more visitors you will receive and the more popular your blog will become.

All forms of monetization for your blog require readers to work successfully.

Before you try to implement your monetization strategies, make sure your blog has enough readers to make your efforts work. If there is no one to click your ads, visit your affiliate sites, or read your reviews, you do not stand much of a chance of making money.

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Using AdSense In

Your Blog

Now that you know ho to make your blog popular, it is time to profit from it.

One of the best ways to monetize your blog is AdSense, and this advertising program will work with just about any blog and if you receive enough traffic, it can be very lucrative.

AdSense puts relevant ads on your blog after you sign up and insert a few lines of code into your blog; this requires some basic HTML knowledge and a blog that allows you to modify the HTML. Don’t be intimidated, it is easy to do. The good thing about AdSense is that the ads are displayed based on the content of your blog, so readers only see ads that will likely appeal to them, increasing the chances that they will click on them.

AdSense operates by pairing relevant ads with your content. As long as your blog has enough content to support a few text ads, you will be able to run a few non intrusive ads along the side of your blog. You will need to have a blog that allows you to add a few lines of HTML code into your blog in order to use AdSense. If your blog is hosted independently, chances are you will be able to make the necessary modifications. If you blog on a network or on another site, you will have to check to see if it is compatible with AdSense, many are.

To get started with AdSense, go to www.adsense.com and sign up. It is free to use AdSense and if you have an existing Google account you can use it 7

as your AdSense account as well. Signing up with AdSense is free, but you must provide tax information and report your earnings.

You then choose what type of ads you

want displayed on your blog. You have

the choice of text ads that run along

the top, side, or bottom of your blog or

graphic ads that display an ad with a

picture on your blog, either in a size

like a banner ad or in a smaller size.

AdSense is a cost per click advertising program, which means that every time that a visitor clicks on an ad in your blog you get paid. Google does not disclose exactly how much you make for each click before you sign up, but you can track your daily, weekly and monthly earnings once you have started running AdSense and calculate how much you are making per click.

If you do not have a large readership base, most types of monetization on your blog will probably not be successful and AdSense is no exception. The more people you have clicking your ads, the more money you make.

Earnings will vary widely depending on how many visitors you receive and if your blog is very popular you can make a good income from AdSense alone.

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Other Advertising

Options

There are plenty of other advertising options if you do not want to go with AdSense. A search for “ AdSense alternatives” will net you a long list of other advertising opportunities.

Some work in much the same way as AdSense, others provide inline ads or banners. You should try a few different advertising programs to see which one works the best for your blog.

Some advertising opportunities are similar to AdSense and display text ads; others display contextual ads, the double underline words in the body of your text, and others work with graphic ads. Here is a list of other advertising sources for your blog, any of which may be the perfect advertising solution for you.

Clicksor – This advertising solution serves contextual ads within the body of your blog. These ads are simply words that are underlined twice and when clicked, send users to the sponsor’s website.

TargetPoint – Cost per click ads that display ads relevant to your content.

They claim to pay out 50% of click revenue and offer many customizable features.

Adbrite – They have a few different advertising options including text ads, banner ads, inline ads, and full page ads.

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Chitika – This advertising option is designed specifically for blogs and there are different advertising programs to choose form including text ads, inline ads, and graphic ads. Most of them operate on a cost per click basis.

Veoda – They also have different ad options including text, graphical, flash and inline ads. The good thing about Veoda is that they do not require a minimum number of visitors to sign up and do not require tax information which is good for small blogs that are just starting out.

Kontera – This is another inline advertising source where ads are placed as highlighted words that display a message when they are hovered over.

Text Link Ads – This site allows purchasers to buy text ads on blogs for a fixed monthly fee. The more popular your blog is, the more your ads will cost and the more money you will make.

Affiliate Sensor – This advertising solution combines the best of text ads with affiliate marketing. You earn revenue through Clickbank, an affiliate marketing program, without having to market directly in your blog. Text ads are placed, matched to your content, on your blog that link to Clickbank products.

AllFeeds – You can display a variety of ads through AllFeeds, from contextual ads, popaway ads, and text links. You can also display news and whether right form your blog with this service.

Bidvertiser – You only display ads from the highest bidder with this advertising soloution and you can block ads that you do not want to appear on your site. The payout level is set relatively low at just $10.

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As you can see, there are plenty of other advertising solutions for your blog, and there are plenty more out there besides the ones mentioned here. You can always sell ad space directly, to companies or businesses that are related to your blog topic.

There are a few things you should

remember before placing ads on your

blog, however. Unobtrusive ads will

seldom drive traffic away, but too

many tacky ads will cause visitors to

leave. You want to find a good

balance where you can earn income

but not chase off visitors. Make sure

your ads are relevant and not

annoying. Make sure that they do not

take up too much space or become

the focal point of your blog.

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Affiliate Marketing

If you do not want to run ads on your blog, or you are looking for an additional way to monetize your blog, affiliate marketing is a good way to make money provided you have plenty of readers to market to.

Affiliate marketing does not have to be blatant “hey buy this” advertising, rather bloggers can subtly slip in a review or recommendation for a product and include their affiliate link in their blog.

If you can find an affiliate product that is relevant to the topic of your blog and you do a good job of slipping it in, you can stand to make some tidy profits. Affiliate marketing generally pays more per sale than you would make per click with other forms of advertising, but you have to have visitors that both click on your affiliate link and purchase the product.

The best way to make sure readers purchase the affiliate products you market is to pick products your audience will be interested in and that are relevant to your blog. If you blog about outdoor living, chances are no one will respond to your affiliate marketing attempts at selling PSP downloads.

Make sure the product you are trying sell will appeal to your readers and that you can do a good job of including it in your blog without seeming to preachy or desperate. Keep your marketing attempts natural and make sure they fit in with the flow of your blog.

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There are plenty of places to go to find

affiliate marketing opportunities. Many

websites such as Amazon and eBay

have affiliate programs. Your favorite

website or company may even have an

affiliate program and it can’t hurt to

look, especially if they are related to

your blog.

You can also find affiliate marketing opportunities on websites that specialize in connecting companies with publishers. The good thing about using one of these websites is that you have a huge list of products to choose form and the website will manage your payments and track your selling statistics.

Here is a list of websites you can use to find affiliate marketing opportunities.

Clickbank – The most popular affiliate marketing website, Clickbank offers bloggers a dizzying array of products to market as an affiliate. All of their products are digital products, such as e-books and reports.

You can find things on virtually every product, arranged by category. So no matter what you blog about, chances are that you can find an affiliate product on Clickbank. Payouts range from a few dollars per sale to fifty dollars or more.

Commission Junction – This affiliate website operates in much the same way as Clickbank. Companies add their products to the Commission Junction marketplace and publishers add links to these products in their blogs.

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Commission junction offers a wider variety of products, however, some require visitors to buy a product for you to get paid and others require visitors to sign up for newsletters or fill out a form.

Link Share – Another affiliate website that connects affiliates with products to market. You can pick from a wide variety of products to market on your blog and like Commission Junction, you do not always have to sell something in order to get paid. Sometimes the required action is to get visitors to sign up for a newsletter or fill out a form in order to get paid.

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money from your blog.

Remember to keep your marketing attempts natural and try not to “sell,”

rather rate or inform. Most affiliate websites that connect you with products to market will keep track of your earnings and statistics which makes them very convenient.

When marketing as an affiliate it is always a good idea to build your list of contacts with a list server like Aweber and to keep in touch with them so that they will remember you.

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Review Products

Some bloggers do not participate in paid reviews and product inclusion because it can be misleading if you do not state that you are being paid for your testimonial or recommendation. If you feel as though reviewing products or recommending them to your readers without disclosing that you are being paid is dishonest, then the practice is not for you.

On the other hand, if you think the products you review are worthwhile and are worthy of mention in your blog, what better way to make money then sharing these products with your readers.

There are a few different websites that

will connect you with companies that

will pay you to include their product or

service in your blog. The pay ranges

per assignment and you may be

required to write a few sentences about

a specific product or a few paragraphs,

or even a whole blog entry.

Generally your blog has to receive a good deal of traffic to get accepted by these websites, and depending on how much work you do for them payment can be slight or substantial. If you want to try your hand at reviewing products for payment, check out these sites:

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Creamaid – While this site is not solely dedicated to reviewing products, many of their opportunities are for posting your opinion in your blog for payment.

Different “conversations” are started on the site and you pick the ones that look interesting to you. Some require you to review a product or website in your blog and other require you to post comments elsewhere; of course you can always include a link to your blog which will bring it more traffic.

Reviewme – This site is dedicated to connecting bloggers with companies who want reviews written. You submit your blog and if it is accepted, companies will request that you write a review for them depending on the content of your blog.

Reviewme states that you get paid between $20 and $200 per review. Your blog does have to have a minimum number of readers to qualify but you can always resubmit if it does not meet the criteria the first time.

Pay Per Post – Pay Per Post is similar to Reviewme. You submit your blog for approval and when it is approved you can start reviewing products and websites in your blog for cash.

Pay Per Post has a market place where you can pick which opportunities you want to write about and payment varies according to the assignment you choose.

Sponsored Reviews – This site lets you submit your blog and then pick from a listing of review opportunities or lets companies contact you directly and request a review. Payment varies by assignment.

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Smorty – Smorty is all about providing your opinion in your blog about an available advertiser’s campaign. You may not be reviewing a product per say, but you will be giving your opinion. Your blog has to be indexed by Google, older than three months, and have at least two new posts per week.

Posting your opinion or review for advertisers is a good way to make cash from your blog. You should remember, however, that like affiliate marketing blatant attempts to advertise to readers does not usually work as well as naturally including a review or opinion in your blog.

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Join a Blogging

Network

If you are just starting a blog, you should consider blogging on an established network. Most of the time, joining a network is free or low cost and can help greatly in driving traffic to your blog and with setting up advertising opportunities.

There are many blogging networks, some are more popular than others and depending on what your needs are, some may be better suited for you.

Some of the most popular blogging networks are:

Weblogs, Inc – Weblogs is one of the most popular blogging networks.

Sign up is free although you do have to apply for an account by submitting a few sample entries to make sure they are suitable for the site.

Blogger – Blogger is easy to use and free, and allows you to create your blog in a few easy steps. You can customize the look of your blog easily from the Blogger website and gain traffic from being a part of the Blogger network.

451 Press – Although they are still in Beta, 451 Press accepts bloggers who want to gain exposure and write about their passions. You can make money right from the site with your blog and there are plenty of blogging categories to choose from.

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Joining a Blogging Network may be the best thing for you, especially if you are just starting out with your blog. You should consider all the benefits of joining a blogging network, with the drawbacks before starting your blog.

If you already have a blog, but it is not receiving much traffic, you can consider switching to a blogging network where your blog will receive more attention. If you are just starting out, a blogging network will help you to gain traffic but it may limit you in the long run if you want to make changes to your blog or if your blog becomes wildly popular.

If you already have a successful blog, then joining a blogging networks is probably not a good idea for you. You will be limited by the bandwidth your blog can receive and may not be able to carry over your existing design elements.