How to Make Money With A Blog

Make Money Online For Dummies-The Basics

Terry — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:31:37 +0000

If you are thinking about starting an online business and don’t know quite where to start or how the process actually works..read on.

To start your own online business you will need to understand some basic language and terms. In this article I will set out the absolute fundamentals before you set your foot in the water and get gobbled up by the sharks.

Your online business is going to have to sell something, whether a product or service. You can sell your own products or service or other peoples. Initially it is easier to sell other peoples and to do this you will need to set up some sort of site or blog from which you can send your visitors to the sales page of whatever product you are selling. This is called affiliate marketing and you will initially be an affiliate for some other vendor who has created his own product.

As you grow you can sell your own product which can be a physical product or an electronic, downloadable product. At this point you can actually recruit other affiliate marketers to sell your product as well as generating your own sales.

So you can’t sell? You don’t really have to. What you will be doing is giving people information which will warm them up before you send them to the sales page of the vendor which should convert a percentage of these prospects into sales. At this point you will be paid a commission which can range from 50% to 75% for electronic products for each sale you refer. Check out Clickbank which is the largest online affiliate program of downloadable products. And have a look at Commission Junction for a huge range of programs which allow you to become an affiliate for physical products ranging from golf clubs to swimming pools.

Your investment will be either your time or money or both. If you have no money you can build your business through writing articles like this one which will ultimately bring you visitors and backlinks which help you rank well in the search engine results pages.

If you have money you can accelerate the traffic to your site through the Google Adwords program.

So that is it in a nutshell..you can sell your own products or somebody elses and you can spend your time or money.

Internet Marketing-Why Neglecting the Marketing Will Doom You to Failure

Terry — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:30:30 +0000

Making money online is not easy, but it is possible. This article looks at 5 keys to succeeding and being in the small minority who do.

The vast majority of people who attempt to make money online with their computer fail. This is an unpalatable fact for all new entrants to the marketplace but the sooner you recognise the pitfalls and cast aside your dreamy ambitions the sooner you might put in place a system which will allow you to succeed where others fail.

Internet marketing is a loose term that describes the activity of marketing products or services online for profit. Many people enter the industry with the idea that because they can use the computer and are all too familiar with surfing the internet that they too can succeed.

But what they fail to recognize is the second word in the term, the work marketing. Just because you are familiar with surfing the net does not mean that you are a marketer. And this is where many people fail because you can not consider writing and submitting a bunch of badly written, uninformative articles as internet marketing.

If you don’t have a real feel or empathy for marketing or sales then you will find it tough going trying to make money online. You can transition from an offline career where you did not have to sell or market to a successful online marketing career..but it will be much more difficult than for someone who comes from a sales or marketing background before discovering the internet.

You can succeed but you will need to take the time to acquire new skills..lots of them. These skills will range from the technical challenges posed by setting up websites or blogs to developing the necessary marketing skills to creating the correct look and feel of your blog and your sales offering.

To do this you will need to understand who your target market is, what is their demographic, male or female, young or old and so on. Are they comfortable buying online or just looking for information, are they mistrusting or reluctant to give away their credit details to buy?

There are many hurdles between you as an internet marketer and the ultimate success..a sale. You can overcome them, but you have to work incredibly hard and acquire the necessary skills which will take time.

How To Make Money Online-Don’t Make This Mistake

Terry — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:28:59 +0000

Making money online is not difficult, but many people make it very hard for themselves by making this mistake..

Many newcomers to internet marketing or trying to make money online are initially intimidated by the whole process. There is so much to learn and most beginners start in a blaze of enthusiasm but after 6 months or so get very disillusioned with the whole process and quit.

Don’t let yourself make this simple mistake. They acquire various skills and understand the various definitions and terms that are bandied about such as what affiliate marketing, list building, Amazon affiliate programs, eBay affiliate programs, Cost per Click, Cost per Action and so on actually are.

The major mistake that is then made is that they are intent on putting all the newly acquired skills to work and end up with a blog or blogs that are a mish mash of various business models.

What is essential at some point after obtaining the necessary skills and techniques and a full understanding of article marketing and SEO is to decide on the business model that you intend following.

Because it is absolutely certain that the look and feel of your site if you decide to do affiliate marketing should be completely different than if you decide to build your business model around, say, Adsense income. The look and feel of your site must reflect the business model that you are pursuing and I will give you a simple example..if you decide to do list building and building a relationship with a list of subscribers then the one goal of your site should be to capture names and email addresses.

However if you decide to also slap up some Adsense blocks on the same site your preferred outcome is in doubt as the one outcome you desire will be diminished by the presence of the Adsense. What will happen will be that you do not get a sufficient number of sign ups to your list and your click through rate with your Adsense will be poor as well.

Decide at some point what your business model will be and stick to it..don’t get caught with a hotch potch of a blog or site that does not lead to one successful outcome.

How To Get More Traffic To Your Blog-2 Critical Keys

Terry — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:27:27 +0000

Setting up a blog or website nowadays is the easy part..driving traffic in sufficient numbers to your blog is the hard part.

In this article I will look at 3 critically important ways to generate traffic to your blog or website.

1. Article Marketing

Article marketing is the simplest, cheapest and best way to generate long term, sustainable traffic to your blog. The reason for this is simple-once you have written a good, content filled article that offers value to the reader and an article that you can be proud of, that article if properly promoted can act as a silent, inexpensive salesman for your blog in perpetuity.
You only have to write the article once but you can distribute it widely across the internet among the top article directories and it will always be findable and new to somebody.
Your article will also be picked up by other blog owners and webmasters who in turn will send traffic to your site. The increase in your traffic will be incremental at first but can easily become exponential when it is picked up by a number of webmasters and placed on their blog.
Your article will also provide you with a very valuable backlink from a top article directory and as well as helping your blog to rank well in the search engines, the article itself can also rank well in it’s own right.

2. Social bookmarking

The use of social networking has become a phenomenon and whereas the number 1 search activity on the internet has traditionally been “porn”, now it is social networking. The success of Twitter and Facebook have been truly phenomenal and the astute of social bookmarking and engaging in sites such as Stumbleupon and Digg will, combined with article marketing, will increase the traffic numbers to your blog very significantly.

It is important to use both of these methods because the traffic from social bookmarking sites may not be as targeted as you would like but they will provide you with an initial boost and help your site to get ranked quickly in the search engines.

How To Build A List-Why List Building Can Be Ineffective

Terry — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 16:25:23 +0000

In internet marketing circles it is always said “the money is in the list”. But it isn’t that straightforward..

In this article I explain why building a list is not all it is cracked to be and that it is not the size of the list that is important but your relationship with that list that is key.

You will read various boasts on the internet by internet marketers who claim to have built a list of thousands in double quick time. What they do not tell you is how many and how quickly a huge chunk of those subscribers unsubscribe.

Anyone can build a big, unresponsive list by giving away a free gift, whether that is a video or report or ebook. Really successful internet marketers build quality lists of responsive and loyal subscribers.

How do they do this?
They give away free stuff alright but very valuable free stuff..great content or reports. They do not abuse their subscribers by trying to peddle every affiliate product that is released. They recognise that the most important aspect of their list building is the relationship with their subscribers and do not abuse the trust that is placed in them by peddling rubbish at every opportunity.

They ascertain the needs and wants of their subscribers and cater for those needs by giving useful, relevant free content.
After a period of carefully building trust and a relationship with their list members, then and only then are they in a position to exploit the valuable asset that is their list.

Invariably a subscriber will face a choice between purchasing a product from a number of affiliate marketers. It is quite obvious which marketer will win with sales and conversions-the one who has built a relationship with quality content and tips.

The next time you see claims about the size of list made by some hot shot affiliate marketer, think about how responsive that list might be, how high his unsubscribe rate is and what his subscribers really think of him.

Many people have no problem signing up for the free stuff..converting those people to purchasers takes a little more skill, integrity and a more subtle approach.

How To Make Money Online-Don’t Make This Mistake

How To Avoid Failure In Your Home Business-2 Fundamental Keys

Terry — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:24:47 +0000

If you want to set up a home business you are a smart cookie. But you will fail as sure as day follows night if you don’t avoid these 2 fundamental mistakes.

The great thing about a home business which you run from your computer is that it is just so easy to set up. But it is this ease of access, this low barrier to entry, that leads so many to failure like lambs to a slaughter.

Fundamental 1
Acquire the necessary skills.
So many people think that because they have spent some time surfing the internet and can build a basic Wordpress blog that they are equipped to take on the big boys in affiliate marketing.

Don’t make this mistake. The skills to be a true internet marketer can be easily acquired. But this will take time to do properly so don’t rush it, take your time and make absolutely certain that these basic skills are clearly understood and that you study the experts in the various disciplines and watch closely how they operate.

For example, the skills and mindset that you will need if you decide to create multiple micro niche blogs which will depend on Adsense for your income will be very different from the skills you will need if you intend doing affiliate marketing.

And the skills in affiliate marketing will in turn be differentiated if you intend making your sales directly from your site as opposed to just gathering a mailing list and then following up with affiliate offers.

Fundamental 2
Choose your poison carefully.
By this I mean decide at some point before you commit fully precisely what your business model is going to be. Will it be affiliate sales, will it be a membership site, will it be adsense related, will it be cost per action?

You need to decide at some point which area you will operate in and you will need to make this decision based on a number of factors such as your personality and budget.
If you have a budget you may consider Adwords to drive traffic to your site and if you are short of funds you will have to rely on article marketing..which is very effective.

If you decide to use Google Adwords extensively and can’t be bothered with all that article marketing stuff, then you had better do some extensive research on Adwords and how it works. Because if you don’t your big budget will become a small one very quickly as you can burn cash at an alarming rate if you do not know what you are doing.

How To Avoid Being Conned As An Affiliate Marketer

Terry — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:25:25 +0000

If you are a new affiliate marketer then you will need to be careful as to what affiliate program you sign up for..because if you don’t you will never make any money online. This article looks at one particular type of “sharp practice”.

In this article I will set out a vital part of your due diligence that you need to carry out before you decide to promote a particular product. I am referring to products that are available at Clickbank and other online marketplaces for digital downloadable products. I have learned this lesson the hard way, by sending a truckload of traffic to a program that I never stood a chance of making a sale with.

How it Works
The sharp practice to which I refer is simplicity itself. The vendor has an opt in form on his sales page. The visitor is persuaded to put his name and email in the opt in box and a lot of people do this to get the freebie and the traffic you are sending is targeted traffic which means they are warm already. The freebie can be a free report, free downloadable product, mp3 recording or whatever.

Once the potential customer that you have sent is signed up to the vendor’s email autoresponder program the lead you supplied is followed up by the vendor with a series of emails. When your prospect decides to buy and clicks on the link in the vendor’s email he is taken to an order form. This is an order form with a difference though because it offers the Clickbank product, which is only downloadable remember, as a second option.

The first option is to pay a little extra and get the program by way of a CD or Video or DVD from the vendor. This though is a physical product which does not involve Clickbank and you will be cut out of your commission.

Why would the prospect go for this? Because the vendor will explain that it is a big file and if you have a bad internet connection it will take a long time, you will always have the DVD/Video/CD or whatever but you could lose the downloadable one if your computer files were lost of infected with a virus.

In summary do your due diligence before you sign up with a vendor and if you must sign up with a vendor who has an opt in form..test it. Sign up, follow the subsequent link through to order and see who is being credited with the sale.

Affiliate Marketing-Have You Been Conned With The Outrageous Promises?

Terry — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:24:19 +0000

For anyone thinking about getting in to affiliate marketing now, or for those who are struggling now on the back of outrageous promises I will lay bare how you can be fleeced by unscrupulous operators..

Affiliate marketing has become incredibly popular in the last few years for a number of reasons but the principle ones are
1. You can start up with virtually no capital
2. You only need access to a computer and an internet connection
3. You can work from home
4. You can set your own work hours and visions of telling the man where to stick his job come flooding into your mind.

The truth of the matter is that you can make money online through affiliate marketing. But you will have to work enormously long hours, commit completely to your new business and maintain incredible discipline to keep plugging away in the early days and months to see any, and I mean any, return.

You will have been seduced by the powerful claims of incredibly effective sales letters promoting various “make money online” programs. But remember this..these sales letters are written by incredibly well paid stars of copywriting who make their living from pushing every psychological, visual and emotional button that you have.

Their one function is to appeal to every weakness that you have in order to persuade you to whip out that credit card and purchase. Next time you read one do yourself a favour and step back and sleep on it.

Then in the naked light of day, make a cold, rational decision that you will not regret.

There is no doubt that many of these sales letters are pieces of fiction, dangerous fiction designed to part you from your money and thread on your dreams. Fake testimonials have been used, false representations of Clickbank/Amazon/Ebay earnings have been produced and outright misrepresentations made as to the success of the product.

Another trick is the use of the “buy now before midnight” ploy. How can anybody describe a product that is electronically stored on a computer be in limited supply? Buy now while stocks last? This is pure rubbish and is a psychological ploy to get you to make your decision now..not when you have had time to think.

There are ethical and integrity filled affiliate marketers, but your’s will be a difficult task separating the wheat from the chaff..

Making Money With a Website – Will a Blog Make Money Online

Terry — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:15:17 +0000

The growth of blogging and blog creation has been exponential in the last few years. And a huge part of this growth has been brought about by the creation of blogs by internet marketers.

The question arises thereofore..can a blog make money?

They have recognized the huge advantages of blogs over static websites in the pursuit of profit.

The main advantages of blogs over static websites are 3 fold-

1) The advantages of blogs from a search engine optimization view point. This occurs automatically with the use of the correct plugins because each time you make a post the search engines are automatically pinged or informed that there is new, fresh content on your site and their robots will come and check it out.

If your content is good and of benefit to searchers on the search engines you will be rewarded with free traffic from searchers.

2) Flexibility and ease of use are also huge factors with the ability to change themes, which dictate the look and feel of your site, with the click of a button.

3) Speed – the speed with which you can have a site up and running with a blog platform like WordPress means that you can set up a blog in an hour..and have it indexed within a day. This sort of speed and flexibility and ease of use means that in an industry like internet marketing where time is money and the fleet of foot and thought are rewarded.

There is no doubt that making money with a website is a realistic goal… but it is almost certain that you will need to employ blogs to do so and scale up to profitable levels.

Can a Blog Earn Money-How to Make Money With a Blog

Terry — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:56:34 +0000

Can a blog earn money online? The odds are stacked against you but it can be done.

The failure rate is very high for people who see making money online as an easy task. Falling for the rubbish claims and grandiose promises from various quick buck artists will lead to tears and failure because these claims only attempt to create an optical illusion.

The truth is that you can create “make money blogs” but you had better be prepared to work hard..real hard. And anyone who tells you that they have a system for making money online with blogs and there is no work involve should be avoided like the plague.

If your methodology or system is sound you can make money online with blogs..but even if the system you use is innately profitable you will still need to spend considerable time maintaining your blog, checking stats and most importantly of all..promoting it.

The creation of a good content rich blog is the first part of your overall strategy but you will need to promote it relentlessly. You can achieve this by way of a number of methods including article marketing, paid advertising and social or Web 2.0 promotion.

So the answer to the question posed at the beginning of this article is yes, a blog can make money online. But to succeed you will need to treat it like any other business and work at it, particularly the promotion and marketing of your blog.

The odds are against you but you can give yourself a better than evens chance by learning a system to execute relentlessly.
And you can blog for profit.