Nigel McFarlane

Monetize Your Blog the Right Way

Written by admin on July 4, 2009

When most people think of what it means to make money blogging, two words seem to come up almost automatically: “instant cash”. And yet blogging for money isn’t your ticket to quick wealth as it’s often made out to be. Many of today’s highest-earning bloggers worked at their blogs for years, eschewing SEO shortcuts and gimmickry in favor of long-term solutions that would help establish their sites within the blogosphere.

One of the first things that you have to do as a professional blogger is to get ready for all the work that lies ahead of you. Keep in mind that your blog won’t be the only one of its kind that’s already up and running, which means that competition for reader’s attention is much stiffer now. Like every other business enterprise, blogging won’t give you a lot of revenue at the start! In the beginning, you’ll have to devote a lot of time managing your blog. This can prove to be challenging if you’re already holding a full-time job that takes up at least 8 hours of each working day.

Despite these challenges, professional blogging can prove to be very fulfilling once your site has gained a foothold in its own niche and readership base. It’s like getting your cake and eating it, too: getting paid for writing about the things you love the most! Before you proceed, however, take note of these basic – but golden – rules for blogging professionally. Follow these principles, and you’ll find that blogging for money can be as enjoyable as it is profitable:

1.  Decide on a niche to specialize in, and plan out your blog accordingly:

Will you be writing about sports? Or will you be running a steady stream of political commentary on your site? Are you considering putting up restaurant reviews?  Whatever your chosen niche is, make sure that the rest of your blog fits well with it. Choose a blog template, for example, that matches your overall theme, and keep your blog posts within the bounds of your chosen niche.

You can afford to create an off-topic blog post every so often, but if you want to gain your readers’ trust and establish yourself as an expert, it’s better to be consistent with your blog entries. Let’s say that your blog specializes in making food reviews. If this were the case, you should try sticking to food-related topics and steer clear of those that are drastically out-of-place, such as caring for tarantulas or how to choose a new cell phone.

What’s more important, however, is for you to pick a subject that you’re passionate about. Think of a niche that’s interesting enough for you to write about. It’s hard to fake enthusiasm for a topic that you don’t actually care much about, and it’s a tactic that usually backfires. You shouldn’t put up a blog about Hollywood and showbiz gossip only for the sake of getting a lot of traffic.

Instead, choose a niche that you feel strongly about, whether it’s food, politics, religion, photography, or even something as esoteric as zoology.

Remember, a good blog is one that’s written with obvious zeal and passion, and dealing with a topic you love ensures that you won’t get sick of writing about it year after year.

2.  Update frequently:

Updating your blog regularly can make a big difference in the volume of traffic that your blog receives. You have to give your readers a good reason to visit your blog frequently, and one of the best ways to entice them into your site is by offering new content as often as possible. People don’t want to return to a blog only to find a post that they’d already read before! Make your readers’ visits worth their time by providing them with new content as often as possible.

Frequent updating also ensures that Google and other search engines index your site frequently, making your blog more visible and accessible to others. If you don’t want your blog to fall into obscurity, you have to work at giving your readers a lot of fresh entries.

3.  Take advantage of ad networks and affiliate programs:

Once you’ve got your blog up and running, you can look into more direct ways of earning money from your site. A good way to jumpstart this is by signing up for Google Adsense, which rewards you for each click that an advertising link receives from your site.

You can also sign up for an affiliate program such as Amazon.com Associates, Clickbank, or Azoogle. An affiliate program will reward you for every purchase or sign-up that a visitor of your blog makes, as long as he/she clicked through to the product offer from your blog.

At one point or another, you will have to use some form of advertising on your site if you’re set on blogging for money. In the end, however, the traffic your blog generates will make a big difference in the success of your affiliate program. A blog with a lot of readers will also have a bigger chance of those links being clicked on.

4.  Write quality posts:

No matter how frequently you update your site, and no matter how many ad networks you’re part of, you can’t earn any long-term revenue unless you offer your readers a lot of quality, credible content. Nobody wants to read something that’s poorly or shabbily written, so do your best to write as well and as accurately as you can.

When your readers realize that they can rely on you to give them solid advice and credible information regarding your niche, they’re bound to return to your blog, as well as create backlinks to your site that will boost your search engine ranking. Once you earn a reputation as an expert with credible opinions and insight about your niche, your readers will come back to your site again and again, generating traffic that spells into profit for you and your blog.

Although there are different ways through which people make money blogging, the best tactic is still to provide quality content to your readers. In the end, your visitors aren’t going to your site just to admire your blog template or the nifty widgets you’re using! Nonetheless, it’s also important to come up with a blog theme that works well with the niche you’re dealing with, as well as to use advertising networks and affiliate programs wisely. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you’re sure to be blogging your way towards a real and sustainable profit!

Two Way Communication with Your Readers

Written by admin on July 3, 2009

Calling all writers and freelance journalists, publishers and editors. It’s time to breathe more life into your copy. Turn your articles into living pieces that spark measurable debate, get closer to your readers and engage their mind and soul – we’re talking revolution.

As it was in the beginning

Publishers have for many years relied on letters to get feedback from their readers and although email has opened up this method of communication it is still time consuming and difficult to process with only a fraction of the received correspondence ever being used.

As well as being an overhead for the publisher, to most people it is an unrewarding medium in terms of the amount of effort required and response received, just consider the number of letters that go unpublished and unread.

As it is now

The Internet has brought new channels of communication and created opportunities that allow us to challenge traditional methods. The Internet is now a mature technology, no longer the preserve of the new fad brigade but a technology that has been embraced by a global population, young and old alike and it allows us now to re-evaluate the way things are done. Newspapers, trade journals, magazines and ezines now have the opportunity to change the mental process.

When people read an article that provokes thought they now expect the opportunity to comment either by writing a comment, sending an email or writing a letter. Emails make communication easier but it still takes time to compose an email and time for the majority, is what they haven’t got.

Although interesting a letters page or a list of comments are at best a snapshot of views or an endless unmanaged list of comments; a well crafted and well written letter on any given subject may hold the view of the minority, or the majority but due to the free text form it is difficult, or near impossible, to measure.

As it should be

Now consider the advantages of linking articles to online surveys where as a publisher you will have the ability to obtain valuable feedback from your readers and in a form that can be easily measured. Communicating with your readers is important but equally so is allowing your readers to communicate with you; and in a way that they know it will count.

Do you want to deliver a snapshot of opinion? Did they like the article? Did the readership agree with what was said or do they have a different view?

Now it’s easy

Historically surveys would have taken considerable effort to design and publish and altogether was a process too long winded and often reserved only for the niche and bigger topics.

However, using a hosted survey site surveys and questionnaires can be created and published via the Internet by anyone who has a pulse. Professional looking questionnaires and surveys created in minutes make the perfect complement to articles that prompt opinion and debate.

The advantages over letters, e-mails and comments are that with online surveys all the feedback gathered is properly managed and easily measured with sites like Survey Galaxy providing you with real time polls and charts that you can either keep to yourself or share with your readers.

It can even be complementary to sending an email

Link each article to an online survey and not only extend the life of the article as people have a channel to express their views, but involve your readers in the discussion where they now know their opinion will be counted.

You think people will still want to send an email? – no problem – include the facility within the survey and get the best of both worlds.

It’s fast, low cost, and easy to do; it will engage and empower the reader, provide excellent feedback and having established a dialogue you then have the opportunity to link to other related articles.

Try it for yourself and record your view of this article here:- Readership Feedback Survey

Christian Home Based Business and Web 2.0

Written by admin on July 2, 2009

There has been much talk recently, both in the IT world and in the media at large, about the new Web-based social collaboration tools collectively labeled ‘Web 2.0.  While several savvy companies have picked up on the usefulness of Web 2.0 to expand their Christian Home Based Businesses, there are many that fail to see the opportunity presented to them.   These new online services, where people and communities collaborate and share information, are known as Web 2.0.

I think the title is a bit overblown but there is some good stuff here relating to information literacy.  I think that Wikipedia is a wonderful example of human beings working collaboratively to gather and organize information on almost any topic you can think of.  The Internet has made information so readily available to share and consume, that with a little reading, almost anyone can become an expert on any topic. 

I’m going to guess that,  “Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts” will be “Hot Topics” as well as a few other new tools.  My great concern, and I blogged about this just now, is that things fall apart for grassroots organizations when they want to go viral yet aren’t well organized (I struggle with that word now) and don’t have clearly defined goals.  A lot has changed in the past decade and I expect that in the next five years the technology will be transparent and we will be energized by the collaboration that will continue to take place via blogs, podcasts, and wikis to expand many Christian Home Based Businesses.

This is an exciting opportunity for users to help one another while benefiting from the latest in dynamic Web technology.  The ability to reduce the need to click is a quantum leap forward on web sites that helps your site stay packed full of the information you want to share, without your site visitor having to scroll for eternity or click through hundreds of times to get what they want.  A normal website functions by delivering pages of information, with links that allow a user to move from page to page. 
 
Like individuals, businesses will have to give up some of their obsession with confidentiality and privacy in order to make use of these tools.  I agree that many Christian Home Based Businesses still need to see the tools and the basic ways of using them, no doubt.  Our explanations of the effectiveness of new tools needs to be detailed, persuasive, and comparative. 

From that point forward, they could turn back to the search engine at different times to assist them in the purchase.  The problem with search right now is knowing which of those multiple touch points the consumer is at.  And finally, we could start to pull away from the pure direct response tactics that restrict the effectiveness of search. 

Are you using social media to expand your Christian Home Based Business? Your Christian Home Based Business needs to be branded if you want to increase traffic.

Blogging Tips Made Simple

Written by admin on July 1, 2009

Blogs are a very popular way to create an online presence for business or personal reasons. You can easily build a blog for free and begin posting content in just a couple of minutes. But, what is great content if you have no readers. Here are ten great ideas and tactics to drive tons of traffic to your blog.

Of all the successful blogs that are {making money from blogs-make money blogging} on the Internet, hundreds more have failed. Running a blog is like running a business website. Unless you put the time in and work hard at first you won’t be a successful blogger for very long.

That is not to say that the failed bloggers weren’t serious bloggers. Mostly, new bloggers aren’t prepared for the work that goes into creating a successful blog. Just building the blog doesn’t mean that people will necessary come to you. You pursue the audience and give them a reason to see what you have to say.

1.Fresh Content – no one wants to visit a blog day after day and see the same old stale posts. Update your blog content at least twice a week. This will be easier if you write several posts ahead of time and upload them at the appropriate times.

2.Article Marketing – for niches that interests you and the subject of your blog. If it is interesting you will spend more time doing it. Always create content first for your blog but also submit to article directories and other blogs. Use the resource box to ad your link to your blog and so people can find you.

3.Web 2.0 Social Networking – these sites are everywhere. Join Facebook, MySpace, Squidoo, Twitter or a dozen others and make connections. You can join groups of other likeminded people who may also bloggers or entrepreneurs.

4.Viral Marketing – this is word getting spread about your blog by others. Talk to friends, family and strangers. Give out business cards that have your blog address on them.

5.Use RSS Feeds – RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication.” Readers can subscribe to your feed and get email updates when new content is posted. It is an easy way for them to keep up with your blog without spending all day online.

6.Submit Blog to Search Engines – doing this allows your blog to be ranked. Google and Yahoo! are two of the more important and popular search engines you want to spider your blog. It doesn’t guarantee top ranking, though. You will have to do more work for that.

7.Joining Forums – as a blogger you’re a budding entrepreneur. Right now you’re trying to get traffic and after that to make profit. Become a member of forums, work at home forums and other forums in your niche to meet new people and share ideas. You can add a link to your blog in the signature line so others can find you.

8.Visit other blogs – show your appreciation to your visitors by posting comments on their blogs. It is a kindness that shows others you are not just out to advertise your blog alone. Post your links in your comments.

9.SEO Marketing – whatever you write, use relevant keywords. Keyword density between three percent and ten percent is best for getting high page rankings in search engines. Base your postings on keywords you research to find the most popular search terms used in the search engines for your niche.

10.Social Bookmarking – submitting posts to social bookmarking sites allows others who are members of those sites to track you back to your blog.

Using any of these ideas will start the traffic moving in your direction. It will take time but eventually if you continue to work at it you will build your empire and the readership you want.