4 Ways to Expand Your Blog

You'll find it repeated on many of the make money online blogs, the concept that your blog is a business. As a business you want the blog's audience and income to grow. Someone like John Chow did this successfully, going from about $300 a month to $30,000! I'm a big fan of Google Adsense, which everyone uses these days to produce income, but I'm always looking for ways to add even more income to blogs I run. Eventually you may find that your blog's earnings hit a plateau, and you want to increase them. While it could included more advertsising and marketing costs, you can also consider ways to expand your blog as a website. Here's 4 ideas to consider.

1) Add a forum - The obvious choice, and a great idea for all those who love Adsense. Adding a forum to your blog gives readers and passers by another spot besides comments to leave opinions. It also can help you keep readers around, and attract them to your latest blog entries. Adsense and other advertising or affiliate programs can work well with forums, in addition to your blog.

2) Offer an online course - If you have a particular area or subject you want to teach readers, offer enrollment for a class. This may be one of the New School ideas for adding additional income to your site. It's something that John Cow & Garry Conn both have employed in their blogging battle, to teach readers. Make sure you've prepared materials for the course in advance, and syllabus, so that you can give readers what they pay for. Affiliate programs tend to work well as you include references to them in your ebooks or other course materials.

3) Offer catchy extras - The best example here involves social media sites. Offer readers applications they can use on Facebook, graphics for their Myspace or anything else you can think of. With Facebook it will take some skill, but many claim building useful applications is where the big money is to be made. Another option involves the ebook which could include affiliate or referral links to produce more income.

4) Merchandising - Some may view this as egotistical, but consider your blog site as a brand just like Coca Cola or GE. You can easily create catchy items with your logo, phrases and URL over at Cafepress (using art programs to design). If you don't have the graphic design savvy, enlist someone to help. This is a great offline way of expanding your blog into new areas. It makes you visible in the "real world" and if you design something catchy enough, it just might become a big moneymaker offline.

Keep these 4 ideas in mind with your blog site. A smart approach may be to invest in web hosting early on that will also give you a forum and other extras. Setting this up early on may give you plenty to work with in the future as your blog audience grows. The last thing you want is to hit an earnings plateau!

Spotting Opportunities = Big Money!

Are you able to see potential moneymakers, both online and offline? One of the keys to making money is to always be tapping into your creativity, according to Napoleon Hill. And many times there's opportunities all around us for moneymaking. Think about the area you currently live in...

Is there a need for a service or product in the town/city you live in?

Are you skilled at a certain hobby that you could translate into a successful blog?

Does a nearby restaurant or business need a website? If you have the skills, why not help them out?

Did someone say to you the other day, "I wish they had something that does this?"

Of course if someone says I wish there was a way to time travel, that may be far-fetched, but never let go of big ideas...There's no stupid ideas, and from failure often comes success..You might just spot a different opportunity from the failure!

Perhaps the biggest opportunity right now comes from the poor US economy. With gas prices so high, there's bound to be untapped sources of big income online. The key is just coming up with that great idea. Right now people are hesitant to make travel plans, or drive places. So the key might be bringing services into their home, minus gas or shipping charges.

The people who learn to spot the opportunities could be the ones to profit most in economic downturns, or internet bubble bursts. So always be listening and watching for that next big idea!

Waiting for Ximmy to Show Me the Money..

The Monetizer is patient, but when it comes to websites paying up, I like to see them do so as their FAQ state. In fact if it's money we earned through our efforts, it should be payed to us in a timely manner. After all, bill companies don't let us decide when to pay, or else we are assessed fees. Some affiliate sites online are iffy when it comes to payments, so I want to share this cautionary tale. For example, Ximmy, a site like Digg that pays, offers the following for affiliates:

When do I get paid?


You get paid once you generate $25 worth of commissions. Payments are made once per month (the 1st of the month) for the previous month.

Simple enough right? The Monetizer has hit the threshhold for a payout in May, but has yet to see it come through. The 1st of June was of course a Sunday, and many businesses don't operate then. That's all fine and dandy, but you'd think that payment would show up the very next business day, Monday. No show from Ximmy. This is just a minor rant here, as it's only a small $30 payout.. but it's good to be aware that some sites take their time in paying you, so keep on them about it! I don't want to completely trash Ximmy as a site, so I've emailed them and pending response and payment, I'll gladly inform everyone here that Ximmy is an honest payer (just that they don't always pay on the 1st).

You can give Ximmy a try yourself, as they also offer payment based on points for commenting on content at the site, or for getting content you submit onto their front page. Be careful of course that you don't expend too much time, because as of yet I'm not sure of the reliability of payments. If anyone else has seen a payment from Ximmy come through, let me know about your experiences as well.

The Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

Several posts ago the Monetizer revealed the 17 distinctions between rich and poor people, as written by T. Harv Eker in his excellent book. Eker's book "Secrets of the Millionaire Mind" is designed to put you right into the mindframe of a rich person. The basis may seem similar to other books on the subject with the motto "Think Rich, Get Rich". After all, people who think money is a problem and controls them, will have a very hard time getting rich. In Eker's book he outlines the various distinctions between rich and poor people and the end of each of them gives you some homework to do. For example jotting down phrases your parents used to say about money. Some parents might have thrown around phrases like "money doesn't grow on trees" or "you think I'm made of money?", and those impact how kids view money as they age. So if you get the book, consider getting a notebook or journal to accompany it.

Eker provides sound advice towards saving in terms of setting up various accounts for specific purposes, but overall he seems to teach positivity and money management. One technique is to get in the habit of managing every dollar you have by taking 10% of it towards investments or your savings accounts. You'll find some great tips and techniques to employ throughout. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, although at times it can get downright wacky. One example is Eker's suggestion for the reader to go out and buy a brand new tuxedo or elegant dress, then come home, put it on, get down on one knee and declare "I'm worthy from here forth!". It's silly, but it might be exactly what seem people need to get inspired for moneymaking.

I give the book a thumbs up, and if you can find a copy at the library or even buy it online at Amazon, you're doing yourself a favor. You're bound to get some interesting perspective and ideas from Eker. Also, with the more positive material you read, whether it's on money, personal development, health or any other positive subject, can only help you advance yourself. You don't necessarily have to subscribe to every word written, but there might be just one nugget of valuable advice that inspires you , so the book will pay for itself many times over.

Order Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth at Amazon.com to get yourself in the mindframe of a millionaire!