Archive for blogging for money
10 Tips to Start Optimizing Your Website – “Made to Stick”
Posted by: | CommentsYou have always heard that you must make a good first impression. The headlines you have for each post is your post’s first impression. If the headline doesn’t bring them to read the post then you will probably lose them. That is why you must make your headlines “Sticking”, it keeps your reader there to finish the article.
When writing headlines I have always found that you should keep it simple while in short explaining the subject of the article to keep the reader interested. What does this really mean? Keep words short, to the point, and at a level an 6th grader can read and understand. I’m not saying your readers can only read to a 6th grade level, just don’t make them have to think as much.
Lets look at two headlines.
“Learn how to use online media tools to help you create a second source of income!”
“Make money now by blogging!”
Which headline reads simple and short with a quick understanding? The top one is very correct but makes the reader have to think too much before they act. It also doesn’t stick with you for long due to the complex nature of the sentence.
The second one is short, easy to remember and quick to understand. This will stick with more people than the first.
Making headlines “stick” takes time and effort on your part. Test out headlines with co-workers and friends, see what they think. Experience is the only real way to get the hang of writing a good headline.
10 Tips to Start Optimizing Your Website – Getting Your Traffic to Act
Posted by: | CommentsHave you told your traffic what they should do?
You have to ask for a sale, all good salesman know this basic piece of knowledge. Your website is no different, you have to call upon your visitors to not just visit and leave but visit then act.
Being persuasive is a key goal to getting your traffic to act. Visitors have seen the overused buttons like “Click Here”, “Submit”, and “Read More”. so many times they tend to ignore them just out of habit. Call it a sensory overload, it is similar to when you walk into a room and smell something new. The longer you stay in that room the less you smell the scent, your nose is so overloaded with the same scent it shuts down telling you it still smells it. Your brain is the same way, once you have seen the same thing over and over your brain tends to start ignoring it.
You need to find ways to trigger the visitors brain to act and not go into sensory overload by offering the same old phrases. Instead of using “Click Here” try something a bit more persuasive like “See how to change your life forever” or “See how your income can be doubled in one month”. You have to get the visitor’s brain out of the surfing daze of the net into a mode to take act on what they read.
10 Tips to Start Optimizing Your Website – Trigger Words
Posted by: | CommentsExcite Your Visitors With Trigger Words
People navigate the web by “scent.”
Scent is described as a parallel between human’s information-gathering techniques on the web and animal’s food-gathering techniques in the wild.
People seek information through the “scent” given off by their trigger words. According to research, when a visitor found the trigger word on the landing page, they were successful at completing their task 80% of the time; if the trigger word wasn’t on the page, they were only successful 10% of the time. The scent of the key words kept them on the right path; lacking that scent, they stopped searching that particular “path.” Then you have lost the visitor and they will wonder off to another website following a new scent.
This means your visitors are on a mission, they are goal oriented, and if they don’t see the trigger words they came to the site with, they are likely to move on to a site that has the right scent. The solution is not that difficult. If a visitor arrives at a landing page having used a term like “Buy Wildlife Photos”, they must see “Buy Wildlife Photos” on the page.
Now Take Action
Make sure you have your visitors’ triggers words are visible, even use the scent for copy on each major button or link:
For example, instead of using a button that says “Click Here”, use a button that says “Buy Wildlife Photos”. The scent will lead them to where you want them.
The Nature of Advice on Making Money
Posted by: | CommentsI follow quite a few blogs and websites here on the internet. Many of them are usually those related to the topic or niche in the subject I have a blog or website in myself. It is a good way to keep informed. I also follow a number of websites/blogs on the subject of making money. They offer daily posts detailing the many ways and offers out there to get involved with to make money here on the internet. The sad thing about this is many people fall into these programs and advice since they lack the experience of having websites/blogs with the goal of making money.
These people quickly reach for thier credit card as soon as they see someone flashing a $100,000.00 check from Google or hear someone talk about how they got 10,000 visits to thier website the first day. It is a scheme and scam that goes around the internet a lot, even more so now that the net has become part of everyday life for most people. How much of it is real though?
The one thing I see from these sites offering advice and programs to get rich quick is they always talk about the good side of making money, but never the bad. The bad side is what they tend to leave out when flashing a $100,000.00 check from Google. Now you are wondering how can a $100K check have a bad side?
The bad side of making a large amount of money here on the net is “What did it take to get there”? For example, that $100k check looks great but how much time, effort, and money did it cost? How much is really profit? The three major things here on the net to make money is “Time, Effort, and Money”.
- Time: It takes a lot of time to create a website, time to build traffic, time for upkeep, time to add fresh content. You can’t avoid time and it will go by faster then you realize.
- Effort: Just in the process of getting a website up and running does require a great effort. Effort in design, effort in deciding what topic to create a website about, effort everyday just to get out of bed to keep adding content. The only way to get around Time and Effort or to speed them up is by speeding Money.
- Money: You hear the old adage, “Spend money to make money”. It will cost money just to get a domain name and hosting account. It will cost money ever time you want to shorten the Time or Effort it will take to create the website. It will also cost money to build traffic faster.
Time + Effort + Money = Success
How much success you have and how quickly will be decided by this equation. The more you put into each the faster the success will come.
So looking back at the $100k check being flashed, “How much of that check is really profit”?
Time + Effort + Money = $100K
This is the bad side of the making $100k, it is also the part many leave out when they start talking about how much they made. I can teach anyone how to make $100k from Google in a month, but I can’t say how much it will cost you. It is also the part no one thinks about when reaching for that credit card to buy into the program.
Traffic can be looked at in the same way. Don’t let anyone fool you, it takes time to build traffic to a website. The only way around it is to spend money. The more traffic you want the faster and the more money it will cost you. Getting 10,000 visits the first day to a new website is easy, it might cost you $5000.00 but it is just money.
Take some advice before falling into the traps and tricks people are using to get that credit card out of your pocket.
If you really want to learn to make money on the internet then take the time to gain the experience and knowledge you will require.
Don’t avoid the effort, the effort bring much needed experience to you plus when you do get that $100k check from Google you be much happier knowing you did it yourself.
Most of the information on making money on the net is actually free, yes free. The problem is most people don’t know where to look. Learn where to find the information you need, it is part of the experience and knowledge you need to be here long term. Leave the credit card in your pocket because most are just selling you free information.
Blogging Lifestyle
Posted by: | CommentsBlogging is a grind. A joy, but difficult to substain over a long peiod of time. Creating daily entries can often feel like a chore. No one is putting a gun to your head to write a blog entry, but some days it will feel like it.
The real pressure in blogging is creating daily entries over the course of months and years. This blogging lifestyle is what can be hard to maintain for most people. That is why you need to learn to live the blogging lifestyle and not force yourself into blogging. The only one holding a gun to your head is you.
A lot of bloggers jump in an set a pace that few people can manage over the course of time. A few days usually works out, but weeks and months later you will find yourself under so much stress you quit blogging completely. You need to set a posting rate which you can enjoy and maintain over the long haul. Other factors will play a role in your posting rate: regular job, family, kids, hobbies… All of these will play a part in determining how much you can post on a regular basis.
If you want to turn blogging into full time job, you will need to develope a lifestyle for blogging. Writing daily posts must become just a thing you do everyday, it isn’t stressful just another daily activity like taking a shower. If you want to be a blogger long term it is best to develope this lifestyle as early as you can. This rhythm of blogging will soon become a normal part of life.
One of the secrets to blogging is using Wordpress’s post-dating. That is when you write a number of blog posts all at one time and have a time and date set on each post to appear hours or a day apart. That way when you write a series each post in the series will appear on the blog at a time you set. You can write the entire series in a day, and be free to work on other things or future blog posts in that time. I use it for most of my blogs and it means I have much more free time in a row now then I ever had before.
Once you get use to the blogging lifestyle and all the little tricks you will find yourself keeping the pace and developing a readership that will be checking your blog daily.
Passive Income
Posted by: | CommentsThere are many different types of income. I’m only going to talk about passive income in this post.
If you don’t know what passive income is all about let me explain.
Lets say for example, you buy a house with the intention of renting it. Now the rent you charge is higher than the payment you have to make to the mortgage each month. The resulting difference will be your passive income from the house. Providing you don’t have to spend in in upkeep on the house.
Another example, you have decided to write a book. You spend a few months putting together a book about the intricate artwork of “Underwater Basket Weaving”. After some waiting you get the book published. The royalties the book will make passive income for years to come.
Those are short examples. The point is once you do the work to set up the income, the income source will need little to no help from you to continue making money.
There are many different ways to make a passive income.
Stocks
Real Estate
Writing
Websites
Investing
Music
There are many more, but those are just a few examples. The hardest part in passive income is getting your first one setup. Once you do however you will find it can be very addicting.
When I first started out with the idea of passive income it was with writing. I started writing fiction and within about five years was able to quit my regular job entirely. That gave rise to my search for other sources of passive income.
I will be writing more on passive income in the coming weeks, but lets see how many streams of passive income you can come up with yourself.
Finding New Streams of Income on the Internet
Posted by: | CommentsHow many different streams of income do you have here on the internet?
If you answer only one, then you need to start looking at the world of making money online a bit harder. Blogs tend to be very popular in the effort to make money online, blogs aren’t the whole internet, many other ways of making money online in a very passive way exist. Lets look at a few…
- Blogging
- Affiliate Marketing
- Writing articles
- Writing Ebooks
- Retail Sales
- Wholesale Sales
- Website Design
- Designing new themes for Wordpress and other blog platforms.
- Designing Plugins for Wordpress
- Creating Mashups
- Designing Applications for Iphone and Google devices.
- Starting a new service business (For example, new social networks are always starting up.)
So far I just named off a dozen possible ways to make money on the internet. Each one I listed can be done working for someone else, or for most of us being self employed. The beauty of some of the ideas I listed is that they are passive income.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, passive income is an income source that once you create it requires little to no effort to maintain but keeps providing income. An example would be designing an app for the iphone. Once you design it an put it in the Apple store and on the web for sale, you need to do little else. Upgrading the app is the only real thing you would need to do from time to time depending on the app.
Writing is always a good passvie income, a good ebook on “How to” do something here on the net can sell quite well. I have many works I wrote 2-3 years ago still providing an income through royalties.
I only listed twelve ways to other sources of income, I’m sure my readers can come up with a lot more. There is another effect of having multiple streams of income, when you do start that all important blog up and you find it didn’t work out the way you had hoped look at the fact it is a minor failure in the big picture. A failed blog is so much more easy to take and move past if you have other sources of income that need your attention.
Quick but Daily Blog Posts
Posted by: | CommentsThere are many times I find myself lacking one important thing – Time. I have all these blogs going, a retail business, and writing. Seems like I can barely find time in the day for anything else. So how do I mange to still post daily to blogs?
The one important thing you need to remember with blogging is post at least once a day to your blogs. Readers and search engines will be happy to see your blog being updated everyday. You don’t have to write “pillar” posts, but even just a few thoughts or an idea you are working on is a sign that you have not forgotten your blog. The quickest way to kill a blog is to not post.
You do need good content and the content needs to still relate to your blog. So you can’t post about your dog digging a hole in the neighbor’s yard on a blog which is about making money. Yeah, it is kind of a common sense thing, but there are those people who don’t think about it.
While this is a quick blog post in itself, it is also content to tell my readers to watch for upcoming articles on details aspects of blogging.
Blogging for Money – Traffic
Posted by: | CommentsI have heard it said many times, “Content is KING”. I tend to argue with that statement though, traffic is the real king in this online world. Great content, even good content, is important, but if you don’t have traffic content doesn’t mean anything.
Traffic is definitly proportional to the amount of money you will make online. The more traffic, the more money, yes it is that simple. How much more money will depend on a lot of factors though.
- Relevant advertising
- Good Content
- Website Design
- Topic of Website
- Domain name
These factors and more will determine how much money you will actually make from a website.
Traffic is another factor is this game of making money. Just any traffic won’t do however, the traffic must come from a source which gives the best chance for ad clicks. “Which traffic is that”, you ask? That answer gets complicated.
- Search Engines
- Social Websites
- Advertising
- Word of Mouth
- Commenting
- Link Exchanges
- Web Directories
- Article Websites
These are just a few sources of traffic for your website. All traffic isn’t made equal though, traffic can greatly increase or decrease the amount of money you make depending on the type of traffic.
If the traffic coming to your website isn’t relevant to your topic, they are going to leave and not make any money for you. If the traffic is just people surfing around the web reading, the chances of them clicking on ads are also little. Where to get relevant traffic will depend on the niche/topic of your website.
For example, lets say you have a blog on the tricks and tips to building model ships. Everything is setup beautifully on your website, even your ads are all relevant to building or the sale of model ships. You have a great site, great content, and a great design.
Where are you going to get your traffic? Search engines will provide a lot of traffic but only weeks after you get setup, search engines take time to get indexed and ranked, you will get very good traffic but time can be weeks to months down the road.
Social websites are a very quick way to get traffic. The key to social traffic is finding groups and communities which would love your website. Just any old social traffic won’t do, they must have an interest. So joining a group on the building of model trains will be just like joining a group on collecting rusted yard junk, the traffic won’t come to you.
Advertising is a great way to get traffic if you are willing to spend the cash. Unless you are paying someone to write the ads or are experienced in ad writing, it isn’t a place to start. You will spend a lot of money learning the ropes if you don’t know what you are doing, or at least the basics. It is something to think about later.
Word of Mouth is a great way to get traffic since relevant traffic is talking to relevant traffic about your site and recommending it. Like search engines though, it takes time. Web Directories and Link Exchanges are the same way, they take time to build up links and get relelvant traffic.
Commenting, a great way to get quick traffic. It takes time to locate and comment on websites and blogs that are relevant to your topic, but the traffic will be good relevant traffic.
I have just covered in brief a few ways to get traffic. Traffic isn’t something you get overnight, it has to build over the course of time. The hardest part in getting traffic is giving it time to happen. First time bloggers will spend days building a blog and then expecting it to get flooded with traffic all in a week. When they find out that their dreams of instant success isn’t going to happen, depression sets in and the blog is ignored and then shutdown.
How Professional Should Your Writing Style Be When Posting?
Posted by: | CommentsOk, so you have your blog started, everything is set up and you are ready to start posting daily. Have you thought about what kind of writing style you are going to use?
How well your blog will be accepted in the niche you have chosen will depend on your writing style. Some niches will require a professional style, where a personal blog will have a more laid back personal feel to it.
In a professional writing style you will often see a pattern to the article. A typical pattern to a professional article would look like this:
- Title
- Objective
- Information
- Summary
Common sense will tell you that section three will contain the bulk of your writing. The Objective and Summary will normal be a very short paragraph in which the information is introduced and then reviewed at the end.
The style of the writing will be very formal, correct grammar, sentence structure, correct spelling and word usage. In other words if you don’t know when to use “then” and “than” you will need to pick up a book on writing to help you get things under control.
When you are writing in a professional style think in the way you would read a typical newspaper article. Check out the style of writing in your local newspaper to get a good feel as to how your posts should look and feel. This will help a lot in the beginning and get you on a good track.
How do I know I should be writing in a professional style for my blog? Your niche will determine the style.
Niches like:
- How To
- Technical Reviews
- Product Reviews
- Science
- Teaching/Instructional
- News
These types of niche blogs should always be written in a professional style. The readers will be looking for information. “Just the facts, madam”, that is what you should be thinking with these kind of niches. Personal comments, humor, and anything that doesn’t involve “Who, What, When, How, or Why” should be left out. In these niches and with your professional writing you want the blog to look like an expert on the subject is writing all the content. Readers will want their information from an expert, if you can’t provide it then they will find another source.
What about personal style? Not all blogs require a professional style, the best example is a personal blog. Personal blogs tend to look more like diaries and tend to take on a warm cozy feel to them. You don’t have to be an expert on anything, and if you want to throw some humor or anything else into your writing your reader won’t care. Your posts on a personal blog doesn’t have to have any structure, but it should have the best correct grammar and spelling. While personal blogs are just that, if your reader still won’t weed through spelling problems and grammar to read posts. Readers do have a limit.
There are many other different styles in which to write your blog. For example, if your blog is intended to be funny, humorous, a place for fun, then you are expected to post that way. A professional writing style will run your reader off in a heartbeat.
Once you do decided on the writing style you will use, STAY CONSISTENT! Don’t start changing your writing style for that blog around except to get better in the style. Your readers will be looking for the same style each time they read a post. Changing styles will get your reader confused and they won’t come back anymore.
Since I said you need to learn good grammar for blogging I will give you a writer’s secret. There is one book which every professional writer knows by name. It has helped countless people become better at writing, plus these same writers keep it on their bookshelf. I highly recommend you purchase the book if you want to be a blogger and a better writer.
The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition
It is a small book, but it holds a lot of information on grammar usage.
