HomeI've sure you've heard before that it's a possibility to make money with your blog and you may be wondering how this is possible. And were they really meant for making money or just for journaling your personal thoughts? I'm not sure what they were intended for but they are great ways to make money.
I have a personal blog which is just my own private little place to go online and jot down my thoughts, but I also have my business blogs.
Back In The Beginning
Now to be honest with you in the beginning of my blogging experience I really wasn't sure what I should do with my blog. I knew I wanted to make money with it, but I didn't know how. I didn't know what I could do to not only be a value to others so they would come back to my blog, but that I would still enjoy writing it.
So it was really important to me that I find a topic in which I would be excited about, and have enough to offer so that I could blog every week or so. After starting a blog that was meant to just be an add on to my business at MommysPlace.net and struggling with the direction of that blog, I came across one of Alice Seba's blogs. Which she used to write about her experience through a traffic product.
Every couple of weeks or so she would update her progress through this course. She would tell us all about her successes with this product and how great it was for her business. And it made me think of how I could do something similar.
Product/Service Focused Blog
This is when the light bulb moment went off in my head. This is when I realized what I should have been doing all along. I have been a member of a exclusive coaching program for mothers in business.
Since joining this program my business has seen great success. My income has increased more then five times what it was before I joined and my traffic has increased even more then that.
I enjoy and believe in this coaching program and it happens to have an affiliate program. I often got email from other work at home mothers who wanted to know my thoughts on this program.
Taking a cue from Alice's blog I decided to start my own such blog. And named it http://MomMastermindsJourney.blogspot.com - okay, not a catchy title, but I'm no good with picking names
I used this blog for the purpose of documenting my successes with my business. My projects, new content added to my website, keyword phrases I was ranking for'etc. Basically anything that had to do with my business, that was directly or indirectly because of my joining Mom Masterminds, I jotted down.
Not only was this the best move I could have made for my promoting this affiliate link it also served as a great way to really see for myself the successes my business was achieving and also to keep me on track.
This is one way you could make money with a blog. There are other ways you could make money with a blog if you don't want to devote a blog to one service or product you're promoting.
Side Kick Blog
For instance, my blog at http://www.mommyworkingvirtually.com is a side kick to MommysPlace.net and my forums. This is a blog in which I update my members on additions to the website, newsletter and forums. Updating any important telecommuting or business news and can promote my adsense and any other affiliate programs.
So this blog serves more then one purpose. My main goal with this blog is to get traffic to certain sections of my website. I have a large website and it's not always easy for people to find my information. So this is a great way for me to keep certain new pages or sections of my website in the public eye and get traffic to those pages. It also serves as a way to make money with adsense and affiliate programs. And lastly it gives exposure to my forum and my newsletter.
There can be many ways and many topics in which you can make money and gain exposure to other businesses you may have or can help in creating you as an expert in a certain field.
Just take the time to really think about what you could be writing about and then how you can make money with that as well. You can take a look at others blogs to get an idea and see what other people are looking for.
Making Money With Your Blog - Resources:
Blogs to Riches- is an ebook that details ways you can make your blog profitable. And the really cool thing with this is if you list the publishers link on your blog for 45 days he will give you this ebook for free! If you don't want to wait that long you can also purchase it for a low price. Read more about Blogs to Riches - www.blogstoriches.com
Increasing Adsense - is an ebook about how to increase your adsense revenue. This ebook isn't specifically geared towards blogs, but the information you will learn you can use with your blogs. (As well as websites and forums...anywhere you have adsense.) www.adsense-secrets.com
* Don't know what adsense is? Go to www.google.com/adsense to learn more.
Ready To Blog?
Are you ready to take the leap into a blog? If so, it's really very easy to set up a blog. The one resource I have used for all my blogs has been blogger.com. This is free, easy, and fun. There are many templates to chose from and you can customize yours if you would like.
I have used the general template for my mom masterminds blog and I have customized my http://www.mommysworkingvirtually.com blog with different colors and fonts then what it came with. I also have that hosted on my own domain, but you certainly don't have to do that.
Submit Your Blog
After you create your blog you will want to submit it to blog directories to help get your blog out in front of the public. Some of the directories you can try are:
BlogWise - http://www.blogwise.com Blog Search Engine - http://www.blogsearchengine.com Blog Hub - http://www.bloghub.com Blog Daisey - http://www.blogdaisey.com Get Blogs - http://www.getblogs.com Is Blogs - http://www.lsblogs.com
Feeds
Next, you need to add feeds to your blog. What is a feed? Good question. I don't know the exact way to describe a feed nor do I have a lot of valuable information on this subject.
This is still very new to me, but I can tell you briefly what a feed does. You add a little graphic to your blog. It can be for someone's yahoo page, msn page and other ways.
When they click on that they can add your blog to their personal yahoo page. Then every time you add a new post they are alerted on their yahoo page that you have posted AND it even shows the topic of the post and how long ago it was posted.
This is one of the best resources I've found in keeping people coming back to your blog. They can subscribe to it so easily and they will be automatically updated whenever you have posted. It's pretty easy to add an RSS feed to your blog. The resource I personally use is at www.feedburner.com
Watch Out Blogging World - Here I Come!
Now, see how simple this really can be? You can make money with a blog, gain exposure for another business or websites, can create yourself as an expert on a certain topic, can create a blog for free, get it listed for free and start an RSS feed for free! Now get out there and start blogging.
About the author: Nell Taliercio is the publisher of a weekly telecommuting newsletter that helps moms and dads work at home. Read more about the newsletter and get your free listing of job links at http://www.telecommutinganswerlady.com - and for more telecommuting and home based business information head over to http://www.mommysplace.net
