Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Blogging For Profit: It Succeeds With A Long Term Plan

By: Jo Han Mok

Many people dream of blogging for profit, and this goal is not far beyond the reach of someone with average intelligence, a willingness to work hard, and a basic grasp of blogging technology. However, very few people manage to reap the profits they want from their blog. Most people who attempt to make money with their blogs do not succeed for two reasons.

Often, bloggers have unrealistic expectations of how fast their readership will grow and how much money they will make, and when these expectations are not met, the disappointment can crush the desire to continue blogging. The other trap that many bloggers fall into has to do with lack of planning. If you want to turn a profit as a blogger, the key to success is to make a realistic plan and stick with it.

To succeed at blogging for profit, the main thing that you will need is a large readership. The higher your traffic, the more advertisers will agree to pay you. However, cultivating the regular visitors that you will need in order to make a profit isn't easy. As more and more blogs appear each day, having a great idea or a wonderful writing style is no longer enough to get attention. You need to be able to market your blog effectively.

Too many bloggers spend all of their time writing posts and almost no time marketing their project. To be certain, updating as often as you can is a great way to keep your blog high on blogrolls and high in blog search engines like technorati, and once your readers know that you update frequently they will return to your site on a regular basis.

However, it does not matter how often you update if nobody is reading your page, you won’t get the profits that you crave. So don't skimp on the time that you spend drawing visitors to your site. To make your dreams of blogging for profit a reality, try decreasing your number of posts and using some of that time to draw new visitors by setting up link exchanges with other bloggers, making contacts in the blog community, and following other established modes of winning traffic.

Of course, even if you are a marketing genius or have a really great idea for a blog, success is not going to happen overnight. Building the kind of readership that blogging for profit requires takes time, and in all likelihood it will be at least several months before you are able to turn much of a profit. Try to stay committed to your blogging project during this initial rough period.

To stay motivated, set goals for how often you will update and how many readers you want to attract, and then reward yourself for sticking with your plan.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com/

Jo Han Mok is the author of the #1 international business bestseller, The E-Code. He shares his amazing blueprint for creating million dollar internet businesses at: http://www.internetmillionaireblueprints.com/

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Blogging - The New Home Business Model

By: Joshua Watson

Blogging, a form of online journaling, has become one of the most common activities for internet users in the 21st century. In fact, more people publish or read a blog each day than read a newspaper.

It's only natural that there would be an increase in the number of people using blogging to make an income. With companies like Blogger and BlogToolKit, almost anyone can publish their own blog in minutes and start making money online.

But how does a blogger go from making 10 or 20 cents a month in ad clicks to over 6 figures a year? Is there something special that millionaire bloggers have that most people do not?

Simply put, the answer is yes. Profitable Bloggers have something that most other people do not. In order for a blogger to make any money at all they need:

  1. To get noticed.
  2. Provide something interesting to read.
  3. Provide an incentive for the reader to come back.
When looked at it from this point of view, a successful blog has the same qualities as a successful website. In fact, the only difference is that a website usually has a product that they are trying to sell, whereas a blog simply provides something interesting to read.

Let's take a look at each of the requirements for a successful blog.

Standing out among millions:
Getting a blog noticed is not all that difficult. There are hundreds of ways to spread the word about your blog and attract readers, the simplest of which is telling friends and families about it.

Think back to a recent email that a friend or family member sent you that had a funny story or link to a popular short video. The person that sent it to you found it interesting enough to forward it to you. Chances are that you found it interesting and shared it with your friends as well. We all get emails like this and we all share them. It's called viral marketing and if you can master it, you will be rich!

The first step is to share your blog. Send an email to all of your friends and family with a link to your blog imbedded in the email. Ask them to check it out, add it to their favorite's folder or homepage, and share it with their friends and family.

Don't bore your readers:
Much like the uncle or grandfather that goes on and on about something only they are interested in, no one else wants to read you going on and on about irrelevant things in their life. No one wants to hear what you ate for breakfast or that your imbedded toenail infection is starting to clear up. Write about something specific and something interesting.

There are literally millions of topics that you can choose from. The more unique and on-topic your blog is, the more popular it will become.

Let's look at a blog on pets as an example. You can easily start a blog on your favorite type of pet. Anyone could do it and it's easy to include links or news stories about pets that would attract readers. But, ask yourself this: is anyone passionate about pets? More often than not, a reader will be passionate and interested about a specific topic and if your blog is generic you will never make a dime.

Now, what if the same blog was about German Shepherd dogs. It's much more targeted and interesting to the reader that likes that breed of dog. The more interested that your reader is, the better chance you have that they will come back and share your blog with others.

Keep them hanging:
Attracting readers and providing something interesting to read is all well and good. But, the big bucks will not happen unless you get your readers to come back again and again.

Writing a cliffhanger or some subtle foreshadowing will ensure that your readers bookmark your blog and come back.

If you make sure that you update your blog daily and give an incentive for the reader to come back you cannot fail. As your repeat readers increase, so does the likelihood that they will click on an ad, thus increasing your profits.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Joshua Watson has co-authored Make Money Online, How To Guides and Creating Good Portfolio Sites.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Why Blogs Are Money Makers

By: Jason Oickle

There is a great deal of hype and talk about blogs, but when one strips them down and looks at them clearly, they discover that a blog is nothing more than a web site.

In essence, a blog is a website featuring an easy to use content management system that allows for quick updating in chronological order.

The roots of blogging trace back to online journaling and community-building efforts. But approached from a business perspective, blogs are uniquely positioned to make you money.

Their structure, treatment from search engines, and ease of use make them a wonderful moneymaking tool.

The structure of blogs is perfect for revenue-producing efforts. This is because the sites are, invariably, heavy on content and are naturally organized in an intuitive fashion.

Regardless of what platform one uses for blogging, they will be able to produce a content-based site featuring a series of potentially well-targeted pages.

Search engines love content. Textual content keeps search engine spiders well-fed and persuades them to visit again and again.

Google, Yahoo and MSN reward informative sites chock-full of information with better positioning in search results and index these sites quickly.

Because blogs are content-driven, they serve as a model for how to build a "cooperative relationship" with a search engine.

In the end, effective blog use produces high search engine rankings and, thus, great traffic levels.

Traffic, of course, is a key to profitability. It is hard for a site to profit if no one sees it! The traffic advantages vis-à-vis search engines is one of the chief selling points of blog use.

If you are familiar with running a traditional website, you have undoubtedly learned two things. First, success will hinge, in large measure, on your ability to provide fresh content to your visitors. Second, adding new content to a static site can be a definite hassle.

One must write the content (or pay to have it written), convert it to HTML, insert it into the static page and then upload the page to the server again.

The inefficiency of doing this makes it all too tempting to "overlook" making updates as frequently as one should.

Blogging solves this problem. All major blog platforms allow users to create new "posts" (which are nothing more than blocks of content) via an easy interface and to add them to the blog with a few simple mouse clicks.

The result is empowering. Instead of dreading content updates, webmasters can actually look forward to adding new material in moments.

Whether a blog user writes their own content or outsources the job to a pro, adding the new text is a simple and convenient proposition. This makes it easy to build the content-rich sites that soar to the top of the search engine rankings.

It also creates a heightened level of stickiness for the blog, making return visitors far more likely. That traffic, when coupled with the right moneymaking strategy produces impressive results.

If you are relying exclusively on traditional static websites for your online ventures, you may want to reconsider your perspective.

Using a blog affords some unique advantages and can be a great way to create profitable, highly-visited sites that require minimal effort.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

For more information about cashing in with blogs check out: Blogging - The Complete Guide