It's funny how whenever you mention to any person not familiar with the blogosphere or making money online, the idea that you can make money online, they become stunned. Multiple questions are raised and the wheels start turning...
"How does that work?"
"How do you do that?"
"They really pay you?"
"Is it LEGAL?"
Most recently included in the naysayers and non-believers was the Monetizer's own mom. After explaining some of the concepts weeks ago, specifically Google Adsense, out of nowhere mom declares "I need to start a blog". And so my mom now officially has a blog, which of course Monetizer has assisted with. Mom doesn't realize that blogging does take effort and work. If you could just throw a blog up with Adsense and be a millionaire, you wouldn't be reading any MMO blogs.. Anyways, with Mother's day approaching I feel this blog will be a gift that "keeps on giving", as it already is turning a profit, with minimal traffic.
Now for a bit of the background on Mom's niche blog which is a work in progress. I won't go into the topic, but here's the basics.
- - The blog is a free one, set up on everyone's favorite Blogspot.
- The blog was started about a month ago.
- The blog is monetizer using LinkShare.com
- Traffic has been generated via Craigslist, Entrecard, social bookmark sites, and some search engine rankings work. The blog currently gets anywhere from 5 to 30 visits per day.
- The blog has about 12 entries and is updated maybe once or twice a week, if that.
- The blog ranks first page for a few keywords that bring in thousands of searches a month.
What's been done:
- We've submitted two different articles to over 20 directories with links in the resource box below the article.
- We rotate the Craigslist advertisement by US city maybe once a week or so. Craigslist has been an impressive way to really target specific traffic. You just have to list the blog or site right without being spammy.
- The Monetizer has been using Directory Submitter to submit to search engines. Google, Yahoo and MSN were among the first submitted to.
- We use Social Marker to bookmark specific posts we want to rank for on Google, and it's worked very well.
- I also tinker with which ads will offer the most profit on the blog. So far we've done well despite low traffic from search engines. That tells me with more traffic comes more profit, the basic principle most MMO pundits and bloggers will tell you.
Where we go from here:
- Wait for Bidvertiser to hit the minimum $10 payout. While Bidvertiser can give some additional income, it's not nearly as targeted to your topic as Google Adsense. Therefore a switch could mean more clicks and eventually a bigger payout from stray search engine traffic!
- Continue using LinkShare.com
- Continue updating content on a weekly basis, and submit to more directories. Another article or 2 may be in store to submit to directories as well.
- Submit to blog directories and RSS directories. This is something I haven't even touched with the niche blog yet.
- I'm also considering the idea of using Clickbank to find a good product to recommend on the blog.
- Another thing that is always on my mind is the look and feel of a blog, which is just like a website. You may want to convey professionalism to visitors with banners, layout, etc. However, there's schools of thought as to "crappy-looking" blog sites will make more money, because visitors just want to "click out".
- I always toy with buying a domain name once a blog has churned out enough profit to buy it. However, you can't go wrong with free. One thing I never like with domain names is the WHOIS listing which gives the owner's name and address, forcing you to pay more $ to keep your identity safe.
So that's all there is to it.... Another day, another blog is born! With this I'm already starting to think of more niche blogs to open up, to get more income rolling in! I will continue to update the progress made on this latest project for dear ol' Mom.
The Monetizer wishes a Happy Mother's Day to Moms everywhere this coming Sunday. Hopefully you're blogging, or your offspring are setting one up for you! Be sure to check out the recent article below from Problogger discussing why Mom Blogs are the best thing since Moms and Blogs!
Also see:
Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs are the Blogs to Watch at Problogger
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