There are many ways to make money from a blog, either directly or indirectly. The websites listed on this page list some of the most popular sites that bloggers use to make money from their blog. It is not a complete list but I’m sure it will point some of you in the right direction
A Cost Per Action (CPA) affiliate network which lets you offer hundreds of offers to your readers. Most programs pay per lead or per sale.
TLA is the most popular place on the net to buy and sell text links. You can also sell in content text links too.
Kontera is an in-text advertising service which lets you place PPC ads within your content.
BidVertiser lets you add text ads to your blog. You are paid on a per click basis.
Adsense is the most used advertising network in the world. You can display text or banner ads on your blog. You can also add your adsense code to your youtube videos.
Netklix is a text based PPC network. You can choose the type of ads that appear on your site and Netklix offer all major ad formats.
SocialSpark offers bloggers a variety of ways to make money through their blog. You can review products, websites and services and you can display sponsors ads on a per day basis.
LinkXL lets you sell a maximum of 10 links on individual pages on your blog. You can set the price according to PageRank and you have an option of using nofollow as well.
Sponsored Reviews is a marketplace which lets you see paid reviews on your blog.
The PepperJam ad network have a wide range of merchants for you to choose from. Most companies per on a CPA or revenue share basis.
Performancing is a banner ad marketplace which is very popular with bloggers. Bloggers are paid 60% of the ad sales they generate.
An advertisement marketplace which is popular with some bloggers. You can sell banner ads, text links and peel away ads.
The controversial ad network which got into trouble with Google, PayPerPost remains a popular way for bloggers to make money through their blog.
Brought to you by the same people as Text Link Ads, ReviewMe is a marketplace for paid reviews. You can let ReviewMe determine your review rate or you can set your own price.
Similar to Performancing, BuySellAds lets you sell banner ads directly on your blog. They mainly concentrate on 125×125 pixel banner ads.
LinkWorth have a wide range of ways for you to make money through your blog including text and banner ad sales, in text advertising and paid reviews.
Ana Rincon, About.com’s Guide to Online Business, has an article on How To Find Products To Sell Online. It’s a good starting point for anyone who’s looking in to setting up cyber shops or considering doing the online auction route.
My personal favourites out of her suggestions:
1) Garage sales and flea markets. This is especially great if you have a good eye for bargains.
2) eBay. Yes, even for stuff that you wish to resell on eBay, you can find some good wholesale deals here.
3) Local Businesses. Not all business have online presences. If you know of a great product within your area that doesn’t have web stores yet, you might consider selling their products.
4) Importers/Exporters. This is especially good if you have some background in the import-export industry, or if you have at least have contacts in countries where you can get inexpensive goods that you can resell for a good profit.
If you’ve recently moved to your first hosting package you may be struggling to get to grips with getting the files you want online. This guide should explain how you upload your blogging files and images online to the webspace you have with your hosting space. If you still have some questions at the end of this guide please let me know and I will clairfy and update this post accordingly
Step 1 – Choose your FTP Client
In this example I will be using Netfile however the steps I will be showing you are applicable to most FTP clients. The client you use really is a matter of preference. I personally prefer Netfile and it’s the one ive grown accustomed to however there are many other popular FTP programs like like Cute FTP and Smart FTP which are also pretty good. Download.com is the best place to search for FTP software.
Step 2 – Input your blogs hosting details
Most FTP clients work in the same way. They ask how to connect to the hosting space you have and then give you the option to save this information in a profile attached to the site so that you can connect to your website next time without having to input the connection details again.
Here is a summary of the information you need enter to connect. I red titles are the areas your info has to be 100% correct to connect to your host.
Site Profile Name : This part allows you to name the connection. The name is irrelevant really and is just a way for you to remember what site/blog the connection is for – you could call it ‘My Blog’ or ‘Monkey Monkey Splash Splash’ – it really doesn’t matter…..although if you call it the latter you might want to seek medical help
Address : This is where you tell the FTP client what server on the web you are trying to connect to. You do this by either putting in the main address of your blog or the ip address of your server (which you will have details of in the confirmation email sent to you by your hosting company). It doesn’t matter what you use as both refer to the same server on the internet.
Port : You don’t need to worry about this at all as its always 21. You can see some basic info about this here.
Initial Path : The initial path section allows you to connect directly to specific folders you want on your host. This can be incredibly handy if you have a lot of subdirectories as you can set up multiple profiles to connect to all the different areas of your site. For example, if I wanted to create a connection directly to the forums section of BloggingTips I would enter /public_html/forums/ in this section.
Anonymous FTP Site : If you click this box then you will not have to input the username and password however, most hosting packages require you to connect securely so this will probably not be used that much.
User Name & Password : When you purchase a hosting package you will get login details sent to you by email. 99% of the time the username and password you need to enter here is the same as the username and pass you need to access your hosting admin area (eg cpanel) however 5 or 6 years ago I had used a host for a few months which gave me different login details for accessing the hosting admin area and accesssing the ftp area so in the offchance your hosting company does give you different logins, this information can be found in the hosting information email sent to you after you purchase the hosting (if you still cant find this information contact your host).
Description : This adds a description to the connection profile. I’ve personally never used this however some people might find a use for it.
Most FTP clients let you decide how you upload the files. You may upload using Auto, ASCII or Binary.
You should always set this to auto unless the installation instructions of a script say otherwise. ASCII files are simply text files and binary files are images however auto can tell the difference the majority of the time. There have been scripts I have installed the past that have to be uploaded in ASCII mode but in such a case the website always tells you such so leave this in auto unless requested to.
Step 3 – Connecting to the correct area
When you connect to your host you are not taken directly to the main folder of your blog which has all the files, you are taken to the folder directly above it. The top folder of your hosting area has various areas including stats, email account info and whatnot. The folder where you upload all the files to your live website is here too. With the majority of hosting websites this directory is callled public_html however it can be called anything. If public_html isn’t there then consult your host to determine where your main directory is stored (public_html is nearly always used with linux hosting, windows servers sometimes use something else like www).
The highest level of your hosting space not being where you upload your website files is something that causes a lot of problems for new webmasters. The most common error is uploading all files to this area or a random subfolder instead of under public_html.
Have a look at the screenshot below to see what I mean :
You will notice that there is a trash folder, temp folder, email folder as well as some other files. This should be the kinda thing you see if your host is using cpanel.
If you want to upload index.php then you need to upload the file to public_html/index.php for the file to be live on your blog/site. If you upload it to /index.php or /tmp/index.php then the file will not be displayed on the internet.
Remember the ‘Initial Path’ section in the connection details. If I had to enter /public_html/ for the BloggingTips connection then when I click connect I would be taken directly to the folder which has all the files for the blog and forums.
If you look back at the screen print you will see a folder called www. You can also upload files to this folder (nearly always!). The www folder simply redirects to the public_html folder – ie. you could upload your index.php file to the www folder but the relative path should still be something like /home/blogsite/public_html/index.php. This is simply because www is simply a shortcut.
In Summary, always make sure you upload to the correct file directory – this is nearly always public_html but check with your host if it isnt there.
Step 4 – Uploading your files
At this point you should now be at your main file directory so its just a matter of choosing the files you want to upload, right clicking on them and then choose upload. A lot of FTP’s work a little different and have your hard drive folders and your web space folders side by side in a vertical display with an upload and download button in the between. It really doesn’t matter how your FTP does this – all you need to do is click and upload.
Some FTP’s allow you to overwrite files automatically when you click upload. If your FTP lets you do this I encourage you to choose to manually check all uploads as it’s very easy to click on the wrong file for upload – this is when you appreciate the skip button!!
That’s it – You should now be able to upload the files you want to your hosting space!
Summary
If you’ve been running a blog a while then you probably know all of this already but I hope i’ve helped some newbies with this I am going to explain file read and write permissions in the next week or so but in the meantime, if there’s anything you are unsure about in this article please let me know and i’ll explain it in more detail.
If you decide to blog for a content network (such as b5media), the only primary skill you need is creating content. Of course, knowing how to research, promote, market, and network will be very useful too. But, they’re ‘extra skills’ rather than primary ones.
However, if you want to ‘go at it alone’ as a blogger, then you probably have to brace yourself and consider yourself a business person from here on. And, like any other business, you have to learn how to wear several hats at the same time.
Some of the skills that independent bloggers need to equip themselves with are:
1) Technical skills: Make sure that you know all the basics – from purchasing domain names to setting up a weblog, from troubleshooting issues to maintaining servers. Other technical skills might also include: the use of multimedia (photos, videos, etc), computer maintenance, and formatting your content.
2) Creating content: No matter what topic you decide to have, the best of your time will probably be spent on writing blog entries. Editorial skills such as planning content, proofreading and creating tight copy will definitely come in handy.
3) Promotions and Marketing: Yes, if you want to make money from blogging, the work doesn’t end with setting up your blog and writing your content. Knowing how to promote your blog and increase your readership is a very important part of the job. SEO, networking, and press releases, are just a few of things that will come in handy.
4) Advertising: Regardless of what type of advertising you choose to have, some basic knowledge of what works will help you. Finding out all about the different ad programmes – from AdSense to running your own ads – will definitely be beneficial.
5) Research. Knowing what works and what doesn’t in terms of tools, networking, content, topics, etc. A good deal of research goes in to these matters.
6) Networking. This is more than just promoting or marketing. It’s also about making those necessary connections to help you succeed as a blogger. You have to meet people and connect in various levels.
7) Design. Unless you have the money to outsource designing your blogs, you will need a certain level of design skills to create logos or headers, blog buttons, and even templates. Yes, even if you get free pre-made templates, chances are, you’ll still need to learn how to tweak them.
Accounting/Finance. Being able to keep financial records and make sense of money being made and spent on your blogging business is a very important part of the job.
9) Administrative. Yes – be prepared to have plenty of paperwork. Even if you’re the only one working on your blog. And, be prepared to do more paperwork when you involve contractors, etc.
10) Business Development. In order to make your blog successful and profitable, independent bloggers should learn how to ‘take things the next level’.
I’m sure other folks might be able to think of other useful skills like project management, legal guidelines, and desktop publishing, among others. And, no, you don’t need to be an expert in all of these things to make money from blogging. But, as I said, some basic knowledge of these skills will definitely come in handy.
It’s nothing new – since time immemorial, Google has been hitting websites that used to be doing well in earning organic search traffic with its now-no-more-traffic-love whip.
What could be the reason behind this Google action? Google folks will usually say that you violated its policies and others would mention many other reasons why all of a sudden your site does not get any decent traffic from Google such as PageRank-passing link selling or the selling of links on your page without using the no-follow attribute, the use of duplicate content or putting same exact texts on different websites, robots.txt, meta-tags, etc.
How do you get a site re-indexed? Google can only recommend that you submit a reinclusion request after you’ve complied to all its rules if your site’s diagnosed to have violated any policy. However, this step does not seem to work well.
Because if it does, gazillions of owners of sites that have become de-listed won’t complain how in the world they’re still not getting same amount traffic before Google de-indexed their websites when they have already done everything that Google told them to do.
Oh and if the reinclusion request works so well, College Startup’s owner/s won’t offer a $10,000 bounty to anyone who can get one of his sites re-indexed.
Over a month ago, I wrote about blogging for cash and polled our readers about this issue. An overwhelming 70%+ said, “Yes – definitely! Show me the money and I’ll blog.” No questions about disclosures and blogging ethics, etc.
And recently, The Boston Globe raised this issue again – about bloggers who’re willing to blog about a product, service or company for a fee, without full disclosures.
Jeff Cutler was quoted saying:
”People should be trained to take what they read with a grain of salt,” said Cutler, 40, who also was paid to promote credit cards and car insurance on his blog, www.jeffcutler.com. ”A person is not spending their time to throw something up on the Internet unless they have an objective or an ulterior motive. For me, it was making a few bucks and disciplining my writing.”
On another note, if you’re wondering how much top bloggers really make with their weblogs, this nypost article says:
While Matt Drudge brags he makes close to seven figures from his drudgereport.com, even the little-known, academically-inclined Jim Romenesko is making serious coin from the Poynter Institute in Tampa, Fla. According to the rival newsblues.com Web site, “haughty media blogger” Romenesko is paid $170,000 a year, which works out to $680 a day (figuring 250 work days annually). The tabloid-detesting Romenesko wouldn’t confirm or deny the number, but told us: “Money is deposited into my checking account every other week, and I’m happy for that.”
Pretty serious cash coming from blogging, don’t you think?
At first, I thought this is about hotel scandals sold to video sites. But it’s actually about getting paid for a video that gives an idea to anyone who’d like to place a booking at the hotel filmed – a review video.
Tripr.TV is the website that’s offering payment for every booked hotel that resulted from the viewing of the submitted hotel video.
If a video review submitter achieves the Pro status which can be attained with the help of a good camera work, good lighting, video sound, and other criteria that add to the quality of the video review, one can earn 30% of the total commission.
This is a good source of extra income for those who travel a lot and can’t live without their video cameras.
1) Trying to make a living online sometimes turns us in to hermits. It is important to keep going out there and actually living offline. Yes, to make a living online, one must never forsake to live offline.
2) Generosity opens up more avenues in making money. Giving away what we learn and what we know, in order to help other people, doesn’t take anything away from us. In fact, it enriches us. One cannot accept gifts with closed hands. We need to have our palms open in order to receive.
3) Know your target audience as well as you can. There are several tools out there to help you with this. And, I found out that Microsoft’s AdCenter Labs is one good place to do this.
4) Some people go through such great lengths in order to learn all they can about building businesses and making money. But, those who actually find success aren’t in it just for the quick cash. Those who find success and happiness in their money making ventures almost always are passionate people. They believe in what they do and they want to make a difference.
5) Positivity, humility, integrity, and patience are always desirable virtues. And yes, there’s always room for these even when (or especially when!) trying to make money online.
Elly asked to me: “If you start blogging and would like to earn some money with it, what should you do in the first 6 months?”
One of the quickest ways to make money with blogging is to join a blog network, like b5media.com. There are other blogging networks that pay bloggers too, and if you’re interested, check out this List of Sources of Blogging Jobs. Of course, different blog networks offer payment in various ways. Some offer flat fees, some offer revenue share, some have a mix of both… Obviously, those that offer some kind of flat fee or “minimum fee guarantee” will ensure that your efforts are paid off more securely and quickly.
But, if you want to ‘go at it alone’, then here’s a suggested month-by-month work schedule (of course, you might choose to approach this differently, depending on your working style, availability, resources, personal tastes, etc). This is basically just a guideline to show you what a new blogger can do to get started with making money online through blogging.
Month 1:
Decide on your blog’s topic and purchase your domain name and hosting. However, if you wish to use hosted services (if setting up your own blog, etc isn’t something you wish to do), you can use Blogger.com (free) or TypePad (monthly fees apply).
Once you have your blog set up, start adding content. Different topics will have different types of popular content. It’ll be good to start creating ‘evergreen’ or ‘pillar’ content at this stage.
Develop some kind of an ‘editorial schedule’. Know how often you can blog. Set yourself some targets.
Consider adding 1 or 2 advertising options. At this stage, something like AuctionAds or Adsense might be something you can consider. Although some people might argue that it’s not a good idea to add advertising to a new blog. This really is up to the individual blogger. But, I will definitely caution against adding too many ads.
Implement at least one of your promotional strategies.
If you haven’t added an advertising programme yet, consider doing that at this stage. You might also consider trying another ad programme that you haven’t tried yet.
Add at least another two (2) ‘evergreen’ or ‘pillar’ content, as a minimum.
Month 3:
Implement at least another one of your promotional ideas.
If you haven’t done it yet, consider working with one or two other bloggers in your area – or better yet, a complimentary area. Carnivals and blog projects are just two good ways to collaborate.
Add another 2-3 ‘evergreen’ or ‘pillar’ content (minimum).
If you have no affiliate programmes running yet, consider adding a handful that ties in well with your blog. It’s very tempting just to add an arbitrary or popular affiliate programme like Amazon. Well, it’s okay to work with Amazon. But, consider linking to specific products with your affiliate link instead of using just a general affiliate link.
Months 4 and 5:
Consider doing some round-up posts, if you haven’t done them yet. Make sure to highlight your ‘evergreen’ content as best as you can.
Again, add more of those evergreen content.
Implement at least another promotional strategy.
Make sure you continue to network with other bloggers by linking to other blogs, leaving comments on other blogs and participating in various conversations.
Review the results of your existing advertising programmes and affiliates. Consider experimenting on adding 2 -3 sources of income for your blog. Other possibilities are Tip Jars and Product Sales.
Get your readers and visitors more involved, if you haven’t done so yet. Introduce other community features such as polls, content rating, Q and As, and contests.
Work on your Search Engine Optimisation. Learn more ways to improve your SEO practices and rating.
Month 6:
By this time, you would’ve collected at least a dozen ‘pillar’ or ‘evergreen’ content. Make sure that they’re properly highlighted on your blog.
By the 6th month, you should’ve been able to implement a minimum of 5 promotional strategies, if you followed the 20/20/20/20/20 Rule. Consider which ones are working for you and which ones aren’t giving you the results that you’re looking for. Look at experimenting with other strategies.
If you’ve worked on your SEO and there are no issues with Google and other search engines, you’d probably see a better PageRank at this stage (if not sooner). This will open up better advertising and monetisation options for you.
Another review of your existing revenue is called for at this stage. Add, remove or retain ads and affiliates, depending on the results on your blog.
So, there you go. A working plan to get you started with pro-blogging. If you have other suggestions and ideas (or if you did things differently when you started your own blog), feel free to share your thoughts and feedback too.
An anonymous JMMO reader recently sent me an email with the subject line “Help Me” and it contains this message -
I have had a blog for 4 years and am FINALLY now looking to make some money off it. I am going to have a web designer recreate it, but can you help me out to make some money off it? Do you make money off yours?
I receive a lot of this type of messages. As in, A LOT.
And, no matter how many times I receive and try to respond to such emails, I always find it a bit difficult to come up with the right answer.
It’s not because I don’t know what to say. In fact, I pretty much have the same answer each time.
I just find it difficult because it makes me feel that these people want a “magic answer”. A simple solution on how to rake in the riches from blogging.
The problem is: There’s no easy solution. No magic answer.
Yes, I make money off my blogs. I run a few, you see. Not as a full time job, mind you. So, I don’t get to spend much time on them. But, that’s just how I like to run my online life at the moment. Much as I love it all, I’m keeping a bit of a distance, as I explore my other interests and live the rest of my life.
I know other people have decided to make this as their full-time gig. I know I have in the past. That’s why I know it’s possible to do it.
So now, how can I help others make money off their blogs? Well, that’s one of the biggest reasons I maintain this site, JMMO. It’s a way for me to write down different ideas on how to make money online. It’s how I try to guide those who are starting out and experimenting in finding ways to make some money from the web. That was the reason I started in this MMO niche in the first place some 4+ years ago. I don’t see myself as a “business” or “marketing” blogger. I mainly do this because I receive so many questions and find a number of leads and ideas in this field. That’s why I keep going with this blog.
But, I digress.
Now, back to the main question: How do I help this person to make money off his/her blog? There really are so many factors with making money from one’s blog.
The longevity of the blog is one important aspect – although not the most important one. A new blog will always have a bit of an uphill battle, as it tries to build content and readership. A four-year-old blog, hopefully, will have enough readers, PR, content, and pageviews to attract monetisation.
So, my next suggestion is to learn as much as you can about making money from blogs. There are so many things written out there, of course. And, JMMO alone has several ideas that I shared over the years. Since there are a number of posts to go through here, perhaps, checking the “Best of JMMO” page might be a useful start. For bloggers, the “Making Money in the first 6 Months” might be a good place to gather some ideas.
Don’t go overboard with the research! Just get enough information to help you gain some confidence about implementing ‘best practices’ — then get in to the action. Make some choices when it comes to revenue models. Then, try to implement them bit by bit. Experiment, take notes, then try some new things. Rinse and repeat – until you find the right formula for your particular circumstance.
If you set some realistic goals, then hopefully, you will begin to see the results of your labour. I wish you all the best with it!
RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a useful tool for keeping updated on your favorite websites. RSS makes use of an XML code that constantly scans the content of a website for updates and then broadcasts those updates to all subscribers through a feed.
By using an RSS or news reader you can check all of your favourite websites and blogs in the one place. Your reader will show you the latest posts on the blog so you can see when new articles have been published. Some blogs only display an excerpt of the article however many blogs (including this one) allow you to read the article in full from your RSS reader.
When you come across a website you would like to add to your aggregator, you can do so in one of two ways. Most sites that offer an RSS feed have an “RSS” or “XML” button on their homepage that you can click on and it will instantly add that feed to your aggregator. Depending on your aggregator, you may instead need to copy and paste the URL of the feed into the program.
A few weeks ago, I came across another content site where you can make money online. It’s called HubPages . The basic idea is that you can make money either through (or both):
1) Affiliate Referrals – You sign-up in their affiliate programme and you promote different articles called “hubs” using your unique affiliate referral tracking links.
2) Writing Content via Revenue Share – You write content about any topic you might have in mind (or create content as a response to requested topics).
With the revenue share, you need to provide your affiliate account info with: Google Adsense, Amazon, Kontera, and/or eBay Affiliate Network. From HubPages:
After you’ve joined the affiliate programs from eBay, Amazon and Google, ads for these three companies (and we’re looking to add more) appear on your Hubs. Any revenue generated during one of your impressions (a click-through with Google, an actual purchase with Amazon or eBay) is 100% yours.
HubPages splits the impressions with you in the following way:
1. Your own Hubs: Hubbers receive 60% of total impressions. 2. The HubPages Affiliate Program: You can refer new writers to HubPages and they become Hubbers within 30 days, you receive an additional 10% of their Hubs’ lifetime impressions. 3. Traffic Referral Program: If you send traffic to any Hub, you’re entitled to either 9% or 12% of total impressions. You’ll receive 9% if the Hub you’ve referred people to already has impressions allocated to an Affiliate. If there are no Affiliates, you’ll receive 12% of the total impressions.
Whatever is left from the splits above goes to HubPages. Note that these splits apply only to HubPages and User Profile pages. On all other pages, such as a referral to a Tag page or the HubPages home page, you’ll receive 30% on a traffic referral, with HubPages getting the rest.
Basically, it reminds me a lot of Squidoo, with some adjustments here and there (and not as many affiliate link partnerships). One thing I like about it is that it seems to have a decent community. And, the points system seem to encourage better content quality (or at least, better networking skills).
I have yet to see what are the advantages (or disadvantages) of Hubpages, compared to other content revenue/affiliate sharing sites. If you have any experience working with HubPages, I’d love to get your feedback.
If you’re looking for a place to make money with books, then check out Alibris. This online bookshop offers three ways to make money online:
1. Join the affiliate programme – If you wish to sell products from Alibris, you can earn commissions by signing up as an affiliate through Linkshare. You can sell new and used books, movies, CDs, and textbooks.
2. Sell your own used items – Have an old textbook that you don’t need anymore? Any DVDs or CDs that you wish to clear out? Head to Alibris and make money from your items by selling them online.
3. Review books – Every month, Alibris runs a raffle for all their reviewers. Five winners are chosen each month to receive $100 gift certificates that enable the recipients to have Alibris shopping sprees.
Alibris has both U.S. and U.K. versions. However, they do ship internationally. They accept Paypal.
One of the very first social networking sites that I have enjoyed is Multiply. But, it doesn’t seem to have the same pull as MySpace or Facebook. In spite that, I know a few people who are using Multiply actively. In fact, some of them are using it as a commercial platform, as some of its built-in features lend to ecommerce.
If you’re thinking of ways to monetise Multiply, here are some ideas*:
1) Use Market Feature – This has to be the most obvious built-in ecommerce feature of Multiply. Basically, when you sign-up for a Multiply account, you get a section on your Multiply site called “Market”. There, you can add products that you wish to sell – just upload photos, add a description, and include other details like pricing and categories. I know some users who build a full online store using this function. However, one drawback is that it doesn’t really have a shopping cart or built-in payment system. You have to arrange this yourself, either by finding ways to incorporate something like Paypal links to your market listings or coming up with alternative payment systems.
2) Create Affiliate-Linked Reviews – Another built-in feature of Multiply is a section called ‘Reviews’. It pretty much does what it says — you can write reviews of just about anything. Some people then review books, music, and other products – and add affiliate links to their reviews.
3) Write Other Affiliate-Linked Posts – As long as you don’t overdo the affiliate linking, you can actually add affiliate links to Multiply’s ‘Links’ section or even write-ups on the ‘Blog’ section. Just make sure you also include other interesting content for your contacts. Otherwise, you might just be seen as a spammer.
4) Create Gift Items for Sale – If you upload photos on your Multiply account, you can easily turn them in to gift items such as photo books, calendars, cards, and prints through Multiply’s Shop. Once you have such items available, you can sell them – anywhere you want (including your ‘Market’ section on Multiply!).
* Please note that you must always check the Terms and Conditions of the site before following any of these ideas.
Just recently I posted on my blog over at www.digitalmoneyworld.com about working online and the hazards of invoicing, getting paid via palpal or ebullion and registering as a soloist for tax etc. Many freelancers who work on line like us bloggers, writers, social network engineers and the like, need to be paid. Yes we have mortgages and grocery bills too! So how do you get paid? And even before that, how do you find companies or individuals willing to hire you for the services or brain power you’ll bring them.
The answer is networking. Yes that little old nugget “networking�. However, just going out to dinner,coffee mornings and wine bars with people who you want to do work for, and just hoping they will hand you a contract, probably won’t work. People may be fascinated about your writing and even envy you, but they don’t understand how you get your money.
So how do you make peace with promoting yourself?
Plugging into a peer group can really help you to get with the movers and shakers. Here at b5media we have that big peer group of bloggers. We are a community, we write to, we learn from, we feel with, we advise, one other.
There a great conference going on in Switzerland this Friday called “going solo” www.going-solo.net Visit the site and see if you can attend, pass the word around, or put a badge on your site.
When I first wrote about Domain Cash Parking, I wasn’t quite sure how it all worked. But, ever since then, I experimented with various domain cash parking services like Sedo and GoDaddy, as well as Chitika’s domain cash parking service. And, so far, I must say that I haven’t really seen any benefits from this practice. There must be more to it than what I’m doing, though. So, I decided to give it another go.
When I saw that Google Adsense is now offering the Google Adsense for Domains service, I immediately decided to sign-up a couple of my undeveloped domains. Since it comes free with my existing Adsense account, I thought, why not?
These are the basic steps that you need to take to get your domains on to the Google Adsense for Domains service:
1. Sign in to your existing Adsense account (or start one if you haven’t got one yet).
2. Go to ‘Get Ads’ tab and select ‘Adsense for Domains’ in the list of services.
3. Click on ‘Add domain’ and follow the instructions that Adsense will give you.
4. Instructions include signing in to your domain registrar and making changes to the account information. Adsense provides detailed information on how to do this with most popular registrars.
5. Once you’ve set-up your domain according to Adsense’s specifications, wait until it gets approved.
6. When your domain’s approved, you can then edit some of its settings (palette and keywords).
7. Wait for the money to roll in! (or not! :-) )
I’m curious to see if domain cash parking with Google will be different. I’ll have to see and let you know.
What about you? Have you tried domain cash parking just yet? Have you looked in to Google Adsense for Domains? If you have, do let us know what you think of it!
When I first heard of OIO Publisher, I became quite excited. It seems like a great solution for D-I-Y advertising. And, although it took me a while to give it a go, I finally did just a few days ago. And, I’m quite happy that I did. It’s actually one of the best D-I-Y ad solutions that I’ve come across so far. Here’s a quick review for those of you who may be looking for a similar solution -
Pros
Works as a Wordpress plugin. Yes, if you run WP, then this is a fantastic way to run direct advertising on your blog.
Works as a standalone application. If you don’t have WP, then you can still install it on your own server and run it on a Blogger/Blogspot blog, or any other system.
It’s relatively inexpensive. Just $47 for a license.
For a single license, you can use it on as many sites or blogs as you wish. No need to pay several license fees.
Offers several ad solutions – banners, text links, and in-text ads. You can even sell reviews and run your own affiliate programmes.
Has a central ad marketplace that’s easy to set-up.
Offers several automated features – including auto payments via Paypal or Entrecard.
Available email templates to send.
Tracking options. You can even serve ads to a particular demographic only.
Statistics – you can check # of impressions + clickthrough rates, etc.
Cons
Doesn’t have a ‘homepage only’ option for running ads just on the homepage. At least, not that I’m aware of.
Can only run one type of ad per zone – no big deal, really. But, I thought it would’ve been great if I can alternate let’s say a 250×250 zone with several 125×125 instead, if that spot goes unsold.
Has a single number of days option per zone. So, if you set a particular zone for 30 days, an advertiser cannot choose to buy 60 or 90 days in one go.
Does not have other payment options other than Paypal or Entrecard. It’s okay with me, but some people might find that limiting.
Bottomline
It’s definitely an app worth investing in, if you’re seriously considering selling direct advertising on your blog or site. It’s easy to set up and run. And, it will make your life as an online publisher a lot easier. You’ll probably get a quick return of your investment if you already have enough people showing interest in advertising on your site/blog. Plus, they run an affiliate programme, so you can even make some money promoting the application. Absolutely two thumbs-up.
Blogging either on your own blog, with blog networks or doing corporate blogging, is a proven way to earn money online. However, the earnings can differ considerably depending on various factors such as:
- popularity of the niche
- how the blog is monetized
- payment arrangements, etc.
But if you’d like to get a good view of how much blogging can earn you, Jennifer Chait, a well-known network blogger has a good round-up of probable blogging wages and her tips on what it may require for you to earn per income bracket are very informative as well. If you’re planning to get into network blogging, it’s definitely a good read.
If you decide to blog for a content network (such as 
Accounting/Finance. Being able to keep financial records and make sense of money being made and spent on your blogging business is a very important part of the job.
It’s nothing new – since time immemorial, Google has been hitting websites that used to be doing well in earning organic search traffic with its now-no-more-traffic-love whip.
At first, I thought this is about hotel scandals sold to video sites. But it’s actually about getting paid for a video that gives an idea to anyone who’d like to place a booking at the hotel filmed – a review video.
A few weeks ago, I came across another content site where you can make money online. It’s called 
If you’re looking for a place to make money with books, then check out 
One of the very first social networking sites that I have enjoyed is 
Blogging either on your own blog, with blog networks or doing corporate blogging, is a proven way to earn money online. However, the earnings can differ considerably depending on various factors such as: