Best Blogging Practices

Can You Really Make Money Blogging?

Blogging has been around for a long time on the Internet. It started out as a creative outlet for people to take their personal journals online to share with family and friends. It branched out into outlets of information to be shared by experts and now people use them for a money-making opportunity.

Blogs are excellent tools to earn some extra money without having to invest start-up cash. They're loved by the search engines because blogs are usually updated frequently, unlike websites that are updated less often.

Millions of people visit blogs every day for information or entertainment purposes.  A lot of the blog visitors are ones that come back to check in on the latest entries into a blogger's world.

They link their blog to your blog, which increases your reader base. The blog's traffic becomes so huge that your chances for earning increase.  Using AdSense ads are the most popular way to generate income from your blog.

By strategically placing the ads on the blog, you can entice visitors to click on them, with each click earning you a share of the profits Google takes in. While a couple of clicks earn you very little, a high flow of traffic and clicks earns you a substantial amount.

To make a lot of money with AdSense, you have to drive traffic to the blog. The most important concept with AdSense is to remember that you have to make the ads visible and not hidden somewhere in the blog where they can't be seen.  The more people who click away, the more money you'll make.

Another way some people make money from their blogs is by using advertisement space. Advertisers scramble to place one of their banners on the more popular blogs. They're willing to pay you based on the traffic numbers you generate and the prime space available within your blog. 

There are many ways you can monetize ad space.  You might charge a flat fee, take a commission based on the number of click-throughs, or make a deal where you get a percentage of the sale of a product, much like an affiliate marketer does.

If your blog is extremely popular, then there's more of a chance that advertiser's will compete to have their banners placed in your space.  Blogs are a good way to earn some money by sharing your thoughts, feeling and even your daily tasks.

Choose a topic that has a high number of searches, launch a free blog at Blogger.com or WordPress.com, and strategically implement your ads and offers to start seeing a steady income build over time.

Tips on Finding Great Content for Your Blog

In order to make your blog a successful money-making entity, you'll need to get traffic to it and keep them coming back. The best way to do this is to provide the best content you can in your niche and make it interesting to your blog readers.

Even the most successful bloggers start to run out of their own original content to post about. Some resort to scraping the bottom of the barrel to find things to discuss, but that ultimately loses them readers, which means less money streaming in.

Where do you find great ideas to post about?  There are actually many different things to use to get you out of your stuck-in-a-rut mode. These may be simple techniques to use, but they can be effective if used right. Here are some things to try the next time you get stuck for something to write about:

Scour the news sites - Search the news sites like CNN, MSNBC, and FOXNEWS and see if you can find a top story that you can blog about. Instead of just linking to the story, add your own accounting of it.

You can post about your personal feelings toward the story or ask your readers what their thoughts are on it. Just make sure the story somehow relates to your blog's topic.

Check out your fellow blogger's sites and see what they're blogging about - It may seem unethical, but as long as you're not stealing content, it's perfectly acceptable to see what the community is interested in. 

Is there a post that catches your eye?  Is there something you can add to that post?  A new spin you can put on it?  Media outlets always have an eye on the competition to see what others are doing - and you should, too!

Internet research - Do a search on the Internet for your blog's topic. See what information you can come up with concerning your niche. You may become inspired by something you've read there or you may think of some comments to post about it.

Join Google's experimental search option that lets you search in different ways - including timeline, information lists, and mapping details.  This can give you more ideas than using the traditional search route:

http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html

Check the video sites - YouTube has a zillion different videos out there that you can add to your blog.  See if you can find one that relates to your blog's topic. Post the video to your blog and have your readers share their thoughts on it.

Consider doing reviews - Reviews can be a good filler to use while you try to get inspired again. Choose some articles, websites, books or whatever you can think of that's related to your blog's topic and post a review of it. If it's a good review, add your affiliate link and make some money from your opinions!

Daily activities - Think about what happened within your day that you might be able to work into your blog.  If your blog is about flowers and you happened to go for a walk and saw some flowers on the way, use that as your post.

Let your readers know what kinds of flowers are seen in your neighborhood and if possible, take come pictures to add since visual stimulation enhances the reader's experience.

You can easily get back your inspiration for your blog posting if you look to other sources. They can help you come up with ideas of what you can share with your readers or they can give you a nice filler until your personal inspiration comes back. Don't lose readers just because you've lost your blogging muse!

How to Make Your Blog More Appealing to Your Readers

Every blogger who earns income from their blog knows that the only way you can make money is by getting and keeping the traffic coming. Without your readers, you wouldn't be making money at all.

There are lots of ways to get them there, but the question is - how do you keep them returning?  If a reader isn't impressed by your blog at all, then they'll leave your blog, never to return again.

With them goes their blog's traffic that you could've benefited from if they'd linked to you. Here are some tips to make your blog appealing enough to keep the traffic there to earn you some money.

The most common mistake some bloggers make is in their blog's design. Blog readers not only look for interesting and informative content - they also want to come to an inviting space to read it.

The blog's design needs to be inviting to them and comforting. It's crucial not to have anything that would annoy them to the point of leaving because they can't stand it. Make sure you're not annoying them with colored font that's hard to read or a bunch of graphics that are too distracting.

A few animated graphics are fine, but don't have flashing ads and glittering graphics detracting from your blog's message - or your strategically-placed advertisements.  It's fine to use colored font for your posts, but make sure it's easy to read.

A pale yellow font color against a pure white background may be too difficult for the visitors to read. They shouldn't clash with the background color either. Clashing colors can give visitors headaches, so they'll leave your site without bookmarking it for a later visit.

The other common mistake bloggers tend to make is with their content. Some bloggers don't update very often. If you only post once a month, your readers will forget you're there and won't return to your site. Post to your blog at least three times a week to keep human visitors and search engine spiders coming back.

Some bloggers also make the mistake of only providing text content to their blogs. Text posts are great, but mix it up a little every once in awhile with multi-media formats.  Provide some interesting pictures, audio files and videos. Offer a little variety and your visitors will come back to check and see what else you've been up to.

It's also important to stick to your blog's niche topic. If you're blogging about Homeschooling, then stick to that topic. Providing information about a celebrity's latest excursion will turn off your readers unless it somehow relates to homeschooling.

To make your blog successful in bringing you money, make sure you make the blog appealing to your readers.  If your readers keep coming back, your chances of making money from your ads and offers will increase.

A Guide to Choosing a Site for Your Money-Making Blog

For those just starting out in the blogging business, you're probably wondering which site is best to start your blog with. The three most popular blogging sites that most bloggers choose for their business needs are Blogger, WordPress and Live Journal.

Not all blogging sites are good for advertisements, so you'll want to check each one out. Here's a short comparison of the three sites listed here to help you choose what's best for you and your niche:

Blogger - This is usually the choice for beginners because it's the easiest one of the three to set up. Simply sign up for an account and they take you step by step through the process of getting a blog started.

Blogger is affiliated with Google, so even signing up for the AdSense ads is extremely easy to do. They walk you through that as well. They don't have as many blog templates to choose from as the others do, but this site is definitely recommended for those with no blogging experience who want to get launched without hassle.

WordPress - This site is a little more complicated to start a blog with. They still walk you through the setting up process, but there's a little more to their set up than with Blogger. WordPress allows you to export their blogs to your domain, so marketers who've blogged a little while can move their blogs when they're comfortable doing so.

WordPress offers plenty of different blog templates to choose from and many people create free templates you can download as long as the bottom of the blog gives them credit.  This is perfect because when you're promoting to a niche audience, the theme can set the tone and authority of the site for the reader.

LiveJournal - This is an excellent community-driven blogging site. It offers a free account to blog with as well as a paid account option. Unfortunately, you have to upgrade to a paid account to use most of its features.

Ads are a paid account benefit, so this option isn't the best choice for making money from ads with little to no start-up cost. Advertisers can pay you to place ads on your blog if you have a paid account.

The free account is good for use as a networking tool to get others to visit your blog on another site where you could make money.  Consider it a "feeder blog" that funnels readers through to another destination.

There are many other blogging sites out there to choose from, but most offer paid accounts to utilize the best services they have. Going with a free account now is the best option when you want to keep costs low and earning potential high.

You can always upgrade later on and get a paid account with one of the other sites. Be sure to research those sites to determine which one offers what you need.  Whether you're a newbie starting out or an intermediate to advanced blogger, these sites give you the best opportunities for bringing in income on the 'net.

Where to Advertise Your Blog for the Best Results

Getting your blog set up is the easy part of the process. Now comes the difficult part - getting visitors! You need to find traffic to come to your blog or it won't be a profitable investment of your time.

There are several different places where you can advertise your blog. Some will cost a small amount and others won't cost you a penny.  Start with the free options and as you begin to see a return on your investment of time, you can invest some profits back into marketing your blog with paid options.

Free

1.         Join message board communities. This is a simple way to advertise your blog. Interact with your fellow users and advertise your blog in your signature line, if it's allowed. If it's not allowed, there's usually a folder available within that forum that does allow you to advertise your sites. Use them.

2.         Join a social networking site. These sites are a good way to network with like-minded people who are interested in the same subject your blog is about. Join the community and get to know the other members and then you can supply them with a link to your blog. Many in social networking circles provide cross-promotions, so you'll probably accumulate a lot of valuable backlinks to your blog.

3.         Utilize social bookmarking sites. Write a great thought-provoking post on your blog and submit it to sites like Digg.com or del.icio.us. There are hundreds of people who spend hours at these sites searching for good websites to check out. Your blog can get a surge of traffic through this strategic and viral sharing method.

4.         Join a blogging community like Blog Explosion. This offers you a way of connecting with other bloggers who may do a review of your blog on theirs, which would help drive more traffic to your site.

Paid

1.         Use advertising campaigns like Google AdWords. Place an ad on the search engine result pages and pay only when someone clicks on the link. Make sure you use the best keywords to get the ad noticed, so that you can drive more traffic to your blog.

2.         Use text link advertising. Contact some of the more popular blogs in your niche and see if they would be willing to sell you some advertising space through text links. If the price is right, take the chance to have traffic driven to your site from theirs. Not all sites will be willing to do this, so keep trying different ones until you get one to say yes.

There are certainly more ways to accomplish effective advertising for your blog. You can market it the same way you would any other website online.  The key is to keep costs down while maximizing your selling potential within the blog.