How To Blog For Earn Money
What Are Blogs?
A blog is a type ofwebsite or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order.
Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites.
Many blogs provide commentary on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs,Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (art blog), photographs (photoblog), videos (video blogging or vlogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio (podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.
As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.
How To Blog For Money! What Topic Is Right?
How to blog for money - Topic selection for a blog is similar to niche selection for a business. What you decide to write about determines what type of audience you attract and how you make money from that audience. In today's e-commerce landscape, content is the driving force behind traffic and purchasing decisions online, so topic selection is a big deal. Today I want to offer a simple answer to this problem, to help choose what topic and niche is right for you. I say simple because it's possible to make this a very complicated choice, with in-depth keyword research, market analysis and other assessable factors weighing in on the decision process.
Unfortunately I find that many people who do extensive research become paralyzed. With more data comes more awareness of the different variables at play. Sometimes knowing less is a good thing because it gives you a clear next step - an action you can take that actually moves you closer to a result. This is especially important for newbies and people with personalities that demand they know everything about everything before taking that first step into the big wide world. As someone new to Internet marketing, learning about all the different ways to research a potential topic may be so much work and such a big learning curve that it takes months before any action is taken to actually test the topic in the market. You have to learn how to choose a niche before even choosing a niche! I'm not saying you should bury your head in the sand and take a leap of faith when choosing a topic, but you can certainly make it easier on yourself.
Spotting Opportunities
Let me explain how I have selected topics for the businesses I have run in the past. In almost all circumstances the process has gone something like this - By virtue of my day-to-day activities I'm exposed to different markets (people) and observe first hand their needs and wants, or I personally am part of the market and experience needs and wants myself.
After realizing the need or want, I brainstorm ideas on how to solve it (in recent years focusing solely on Internet based solutions) and then determine a basic business or blog concept in my head.
I go online and create a website for it and begin the marketing process.
That's basically it. Yes it lacks any in-depth research process prior to launch and probably would benefit from a little more analytical and competitive analysis, but there's one fact you have to realize - the barriers to entry on the web are virtually non-existent. Because it is so easy to test something online I find the best research tool available is putting something out there and giving it a real world trial. No amount of pre-launch research will ever tell you as much as actually attracting an audience and/or making a sale to a customer (or finding there is no audience or no people willing to spend money or that you hate what you are doing). What's especially great about my three step formula is that it simplifies the lead-in process so much that your first action step is actually testing the idea in the market. This doesn't mean that I don't go in completely blind. The brainstorming process to cement my idea takes into account everything I have done online and may include looking at what sites already exist. Having already done a lot online I can call on what I know from experience. This is not an advantage a beginner to Internet marketing has, however I still argue the best way to gain this experience is to action an idea rather than analyze it to death before it even has a chance. That's what I did when I was a beginner.
What About Keyword Research?
I've used keywords to help come up with elements to tweak for the SEO of my websites, but I never use it as a decision making tool for choosing a topic or business idea. It's good to know what words to use in the title of a blog post or in tags, but that's about the extent of my keyword analysis. Keyword research is great if you care a lot about the numbers. People who like the process of making money regardless of the niche that the money is made in will probably think what I do (or not do in this case), is crazy. How could you not find out where the money is and how many people are looking for something before starting a project? For those of you who don't like keyword analysis or number crunching the fact that I have achieved what I have online without focusing on analytical tools and data should give you hope. You can succeed without ever looking at keywords, if you are willing to take action.
My Favorite Online Research Tool
What I rely on to come up with ideas for topics, or businesses, or products or even just blog posts, is people. People are the driving force behind the statistics. If you can assess what people are asking and isolate the emotional drive and the logical decision making process going on in their head, you can determine everything you need to know. There Internet is made up of people so you don't have to look far to find answers to your questions, provided you are able to form assumptions based on observable behavior (a little intuition and familiarity with your market helps). My favorite place to observe behavior is in forums. The great thing about a forum is just because it exists (assuming it is popular), demonstrates there is a market of some size. For those who like numbers, forums also provide great statistics for free - things like total members, active members, number of posts and topics, and number of replies to a topic, which can tell you what's hot and what's not in a particular niche. There are thousands of online forums that right now have the answers to your question of what topic you should cover, or what blog articles you need to write to answer the most popular questions, or what product you should create next or what business you can launch.
Look For Common Questions
The key when researching forums is to understand that you are looking for patterns of popularity. When a topic is started with a question and it evolves into a hot conversation thread, that thread alone offers a wealth of information. Even if the conversation leads to a conclusion and supposed answer to the question originally asked - that doesn't mean you can't take that question and address it yourself through an asset you control, like a blog or a product you create. Even an extremely popular forum represents only a small portion of the overall population of a niche. No forum has the entire audience, and if you create your own resource that answers the common questions you can take a share of the audience. Look for common questions, provide the answers and you have the formula for a successful blog.
How To Blog For Money - It's Not Quite That Easy
Obviously there is more to it than just what I outlined in this article. Just because someone asks something and it leads to a hot thread in a forum or there are many people all asking the same questions in a forum, doesn't guarantee there is money to made in that topic. What's important is a forum can tell you about the behaviors, desires, goals, motivation and interests of a group of people and best of all, it's very detailed, specific and - raw - real responses from real human beings. This information alone is enough to guide you towards a topic you can develop into a blog or a business. I can promise you that the direction will change over time, but the important thing is that you take action in the first place and put something out there. If forum research can give you enough clarity to determine the next step, that's a great result.
How to make money from your blog:
Many people who write blogs today simply want to share their opinion on something. But then there are the business-minded folks, who have found a way to use blogs, or Web logs, to bring in a little extra cash too. If you're interested in taking it further -- blogging for bucks, if you will -- here are five strategies that could turn your blog into a moneymaker.
1. Sell advertising.
This is likely the most common means of leveraging a blog to generate income. If yours happens to become a well-known blog, or one that is well-received in a particular niche, it's always possible to sell ad space on your own. Services such as Google's AdSense or BlogAds, bloggers can establish ad programs. AdSense's -- which lets you select several ads that are consistent with the content of your blog -- pays you based on how many readers click on the ads for further information. Even better, it's free. BlogAds, on the other hand, hooks bloggers up with would-be advertisers and levies a commission in return for any ad placements that result. "The nice thing, too, is that the ads are relatively unobtrusive," says Scott Allen, co-author of The Virtual Handshake: Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online.
2. Help sell others' products.
Here is another click-through opportunity. Affiliate programs enable your blog to serve as a conduit between readers and online sites offering various goods and services. One popular choice is Amazon.com. If, for instance, you offer book reviews or even just mention a book in passing in your blog, an affiliate program provides a means for your readers to click directly from your blog to Amazon to obtain further information about the book. If they break out the checkbook or charge card, you get paid as well.
3. Ask For Donations.
Ask for contributions. If, for instance, your small-business blog supports a cause or issue in some fashion -- say you repeatedly mention tax reform, health care or some other topic -- you can always ask for reader support. Even if you've attracted a group of regular followers who simply enjoy reading what you have to say, they may be willing to underwrite their loyalty with a little financial help. Programs such as PayPal make it easy to establish a simple on-site contribution collection button. "There are lots of worthy 'cause' blogs that would qualify for donations from grateful members of the blog community," says Las Vegas communications consultant Ned Barnett.
4. Market your services in your blog.
Blogs are an ideal venue to share your thoughts with others, but don't overlook their capacity to generate new business as well. When appropriate, work in references to what you do and, in turn, what you may be able to offer any would-be client or customer who may be reading your blog. That can spread your opinion and your business moxie at the same time."Instead of short commentaries that begin a dialogue with readers, as many blogs do, I write the equivalent of journal articles that demonstrate my abilities, strategies and perspectives on specific issues," Barnett says. "When it resonates, it means money. Since starting this approach, I have generated three new paying clients and brought in about $10,000 on revenue -- directly attributable to specific blogs." Also check out backlink building to increase traffic to your website
5. Use a blog to deepen your existing customer relations.
Nor does any marketing material inserted in blog content have to be limited to bringing in completely new business. By using a blog to regularly communicate with existing clients as well as other readers, you can take advantage of the opportunity to fully inform them about everything your business does. That may expand your readers' understanding of the full scope of your products or services."My blog has helped existing clients determine the range of my skills and services," says Ted Demopoulos of Demopoulos Associates, a Durham, N.H. consulting and training concern. "One client who had only used me for training in the past was surprised at my range of expertise and is now using me for a consulting project. Another who only used me on technical projects is now considering me for a more business-oriented project.
6. Blog Sponsored Review and Pay You to Blog Sites.
Blog sponsored review sites and pay you to blog websites provide a place for advertisers and online publishers (such as bloggers) to find each other. When an advertiser has a product or service to promote online, he might want to generate blogger buzz about it spread the word among blog readers. He can find a blogger who writes a blog that people who are likely to be interested in his product read, then pay the blogger to write a post about his product or service with links to his website and any other information he chooses. The blogger is paid based on the terms of the opportunity or maybe a commission after the post is published.
Sponsored reviews and pay you to blog opportunities are typically easy ways to make money. The assignments are generally simple and require only a small investment of time to complete. The pay can range from a few dollars to hundreds or thousands of dollars depending on the terms of the opportunity.
