Saturday, June 28, 2008

An Experiment to Prove You Cannot Make a Living From Blogging

Can you make a living from blogging?

Well, this is a question that seemingly gets asked thousands of times per day. It is probably asked by new bloggers and "pro" bloggers. A new blog has sprung up and it is claiming to detail every aspect of a blog lifestyle whilst proving the theory right or wrong that blogging can make a living. I have been looking into this site and there seems to be many of the "old school" tactics hanging around and some new ones.

What is an old school, seo tactic?

These would include link building, site submission, blog submission, leaving comments on other blogs, meta tags and generally well constructed content.

What are the new school tactics?

The author has created a google gadget which can either be added to iGoogle or added to another blog / website. Interestingly enough though is that offline marketing will be used and results printed in the blog.

What really makes this site stand out from the rest?

The concept of "The web revenue experiment" has been brought about by having two angles of approach. It has the experimental website www.ghead.co.uk where all of the tactics are put to the test. It also has separate pages for different affiliate schemes, donations and ad blocks. The website is created using a custom built .net application, this is the brains of the experiment. It creates on the fly, fully optimised landing packs for each page created expanding its content exponentially whilst enhancing the users experience.

The other half of the concept is a blog located at http://blog.ghead.co.uk this is where tactics are discussed, suggested and explained. Here you will also see results of each of the experiments. You will also learn how the custom application works and you can suggest an idea you have been thinking of.

The experiment is due to run for exactly one year building its self up and reporting results along the way.

Some Easy Ways to Make Money From Blogging

This post is really useful for the bloggers who are willing to make money from their blogs. If you don't have a blog, create a new blog today on any of blogging engine whichever suits you. Let's discuss some money making ideas that any blogger can use on his blog to earn some cash:


Paid blogging - there are lots of websites available on the internet that pays you for what you are doing right now i.e. for blogging. These networks will ask you to write content on your website for advertiser's products and services they have. Some of famous advertising network are
Payperpost
ReviewMe
Linkworth
SponsoredReviews
Smorty
Text link advertising - text link adverting is one of the best way to make high amount of money from a website. In this kind of scheme, you have to place the advertiser's link in your website sidebar, header and footer. Advertisers always look for top blogs in their niche and pay to those bloggers to place their ads on their blogs. Some of text link advertising companies are:
Textlinkads
TNX
Direct Link ads
Linkadage
Textlinkbrokers
Banner ads - there are many advertisers available today in the market that will pay you for showing their banners on your website/blogs. Matched.co.uk is one such site which pays you for placing their advertiser's banner on your blog.
PPC program - there are many pay per click (ppc) programs available in the market today which shows ads according to your content. To start making money with any of these programs, you will need to create an account with them and submit your blog/website there. Some of famous ppc programs are
Google adsense
Yahoo Publisher Network
Bidvertiser
Adbrite
Chitika
Product selling - and in case you have a blog related to products or are willing to sell products, then you can use Amazon.com. Amazon will pay you for every sale that will be referred to it via your website.
Private ads - you can get lots of private ads if you are able to bring in lots of organic traffic on your website. When you have that, many people will be willing to pay you for placing their ads on your website.

I hope these tips will help you in earning lots of money from your blog. I have so far achieved great success with some of the resources mentioned in today article.

Blog Marketing Benefits

Blogs today have evolved more into low cost advertising platforms and are no longer recognized simply as 'internet journals' containing personal rants, experiences, or opinions of their authors. Blog marketing, from street corner entrepreneurs to big business, is proving to be a very effective means in which to promote products, solicit opinions, and collect feedback from your targeted audiences.

Your blog is absolutely one of the best low cost advertising tools you can find for any business today. Blog setups are very economical. Some are free while others that require a hosting service also tend to be at an affordable price. Blog marketing is tough to beat considering the cost and effectiveness.

In order to maximize the effectiveness of your blog it is wise to utilize various forms of traffic generation such as SEO techniques that involve the proper placement of related keywords throughout the blog to enhance its page ranking with the search engines. Also visiting social sites related to the theme of the blog or the subject of the post will increase your online profile provided you participate in a helpful, supportive, and constructive manner. The key here is to be sure you ALWAYS share your name and blog address much like a business card. Generally this is accomplished by incorporating this information in your signature box you've created for use within the site. Most importantly, the more you post within your blog, the more the search engines (and readers) will return to review the new content. Don't let your blog wither away by not supplying it with fresh content regularly.

Equally important is to show some personality and uniqueness in your postings. Be yourself. Let your readers get to know you. This will make for a longer lasting relationship with them. Blogs are interactive and it's this social interaction that makes blogs effective forums for communicating thoughts, opinions, and promotional activity.

Online videos, posted to your blog, are another low cost advertising approach that is a great way to promote your business and generate traffic.

These are all good reasons to create and manage a blog for any business. But creating a blog just because the others are doing it is a bad idea unless you personalize it. You must once again remember that a blog allows you the opportunity to deliver your message in your own unique way, don't ignore this potential advantage. Stand out by maintaining your individuality!

Since blogging is a more relaxed, social arena it's a great opportunity to really understand who it is that you are marketing to. A blog can be used as a tool that captures true feedback as to how customers feel about your products, ideas, or methods. Be sure to have your blog structured in such a way that is receptive to capturing responses, replies, and recommendations from the readers. What do they like and dislike, key in on this vital feedback and analyze it for future use.

Blog marketing is one of the most cost efficient and effective means to get the word out on your goods and services today. Do you blog? If not, isn't it time you started?

T.J Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For more information on succeeding in blog marketing and to receive a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit: http://blogbrawn.com

Blog Your Way to the Top of Search Engine Rankings

Blogs are becoming increasingly popular nowadays. There is hardly anyone on the Internet who has not heard of blogs. Blogs are all the rage today. A blog is easy to setup and one can get started immediately. There are many blogging platforms such as blogger, wordpress and live journal. It is very easy to setup a blog on any of these platforms and one can start blogging immediately.

Most webmasters have a blog associated with their main website. Their blogs allow them to increase visibility and get noticed very quickly on the Internet.

Blogs are search engine friendly. If you update your blog regularly then it gets indexed by the search engines very quickly and this in turn helps to index and crawl your website which is linked to this blog. This in turn helps to improve your site's Page Rank. You can promote your services and products through your blogs and get great traffic coming to your website eventually.

Blogs that have fresh content added daily are quite likely to rank higher then sites which are not updated frequently. This freshness of the blogs is what makes them so friendly to search engines. You may use your blogs to express your thoughts and feelings but you may also use your blog to give more exposure to your websites associated with your blogs and in so doing generate great traffic to your website. When you generate great traffic to a website it in turn will result in personal profits if you are engaged in some affiliate program or using Google AdsSense or some other ads to generate revenue.

Most amateur webmasters do not realize that they can optimize their blogs just as they optimize their websites. A properly optimized blog can result in high volume of traffic for the blog owner. This in turn means great business and profitability for the website owner. You should take some trouble and optimize your blob as well. Blogs often reflect who you are and hence it is very important to create a great looking blog with superb content. Believe me this makes a huge difference.

Blogs and blogging can be great fun and at the same time it can be a source of traffic. Hence great profits for the blog and site owners. Blogging is often an expression of inner thoughts and feelings but it can also be an instrument of getting greater visibility on the Internet.

So why not go ahead and start blogging. It is free. Remember to optimize your blog and put a few links to your websites as well. A great blog properly linked and pointing to your site is a tremendous asset.
Happy blogging.

Make Money Online - Blogging

Blogs are the latest and greatest way to earn an income online. It's so great because of the flexibility of a blog, you can write about whatever it is you like and be able to monetize in some way that makes you money. This means that no matter what your hobby is, whether it be basketball, or knitting, you can make a blog about it and be able to make a decent income online from it.

When you make money blogging, the idea is get the attention of a certain audience, this will be your "target" audience. Once you decide who your "target" audience is going to be then you can move on to deciding how your going to monetize (make money) from your blog.

There are many ways a person can choose to make money online from a blog.

1. Affiliate Marketing - place affiliate links related to your topics, so when someone clicks on a link and ends up making a purchase, you get paid commission on that sale.

2. PPC Networks - Sign up to a PPC network like Google AdSense, or BidVertiser, and display relevant ads on your site. Every time someone clicks on an ad on your blog, you will get paid for the click, no purchase is required.

3. Sponsors - Another way to monetize your site is with sponsors, you can rent ad space on your site, and get paid under a monthly basis by your advertisers.

4. Consulting - If you're helping others out in your blog, then it's not unusual that someone may need more help then others. In many cases you will receive an e-mail from a readers willing to pay you for one

Blogging For Profit - The Best Thing Ever - Part I

If you really want to know how to blog for profit, you'll know that it takes remarkable dedication and self-discipline. However, it's not meant to turn into 10-hour workday when you start to learn just how to blog for profit.

There's no simpler way to give up your potential than by focusing on the wrong things. In order to truly succeed, you MUST understand that you're after quality and a solid readership. Often times, new blogs tend to focus on how much money they are generating three hours after the very first post. That's not going to happen at all.

A good way to check for your true intentions is to ask a family member to read your blog. Ask them to rate the overall appearance (with ads and such) and see how they react. If they say "It's too cluttered and there's like no real writing on here", then you're probably focusing way too much on your ads and how many ads you're putting on the blog.

Remember that you want people to come back. The quality and ability to capture reader interest is absolutely vital. If you look at the A-List bloggers (Darren Rowse, John Chow), they write in a manner that is captivating and really gets the point across in an interesting way. Do your best to emulate them. Engage your audience.

One of the simplest ways to fail is to have no traffic, no readers. Basically, nobody is giving a care about what you write. Make them care! If someone visits your blog, do your best to have them stay. That's the first part in many of learning how to blog for profit.

Learn how to blog for profit and make it easy!

Pete Huang is absolutely the BEST when it comes to making money online and blogging for profit. He's known the top bloggers, their strategies, and just how they go about things. Take a look at his latest discoveries of income at http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-blog-for-profit

Technology and Creativity Combined - Ways to Customize Desktop Wallpaper

Perhaps one of the most appealing to computer users these days is the concept of having their own picture posted in their computer screens. To customize desktop wallpapers is considered an easy task and would only entail few clicks of the mouse to bring out the kind of mood you want to project. Computer users' preference varies from one person to another thus, creating your own desktop interface and image develops your sense of creativity without putting much of an effort.

Imagine a computer without any desktop background and anything that will give you a certain feeling of relief when stress surfaces, lightens up when the day seems tough and sheer happiness each time you look at your screen. Hence, there are a lot of reasons why customizing your desktop wallpaper is gleaned as one of the well-liked hobby that has been a home for millions of photos uploaded everyday. Since photography and a mere shots from your digital camera would provide you with the chance of uploading it in your database, this idea has been embraced by a lot of people benefiting from the modern technology brought by computers.

As the song hymns, a picture is worth a thousand words with many stories to tell, having it in your database makes the web a hub for moving and inspiring photography. Another reason behind the significance of setting up desktop wallpaper is the verity that prior to accessing and using a computer is getting a view of the desktop. Having a good desktop image might not be a big deal to some yet, few people know that a desktop image can set up a person's mood or it can even provide proper mind conditioning. According to research, using wallpapers dominated by one color can affect a person's overall aura and impression on things around him. Desktop wallpaper with a dominating color of blue can give a user good concentration, color red gives out energy; green brightens up the day and a lot of colors that will give out positive influence to a user.

To customize desktop wallpaper entails few easy steps that are easy to follow. First thing to do is have all windows and running programs closed to provide a smooth flow in customizing your wallpaper. Right-click on the desktop and click on properties and display properties then click on the desktop tab. Any uploaded file on your database can be used as a desktop background thus, you need to click on the "browse" button and choose an image of choice. Once done choose the appropriate setting and ensure that the image fits right on the screen and click "Ok".

There are many things that you can do on your computer and customizing your desktop is just one of those. Added to that is the idea of changing even the desktop theme, event sounds, customizing toolbar, display properties, folder options and screensavers which allow images to run when the computer is inactive. All these can be done and organized through the use of modern technology and a user's creativity.

The new free desktop wallpapers can only be found on kewlwallpapers where all wallpapers are arranged in categories making easier for you to find wallpapers, there is also a new collection of girls wallpapers and most importantly celebrities wallpapers which are all of them new and unique which you won't find anywhere else.