It's OK to Use Blogspot to Make Money

I've had the question or suggestion here more than a few times about "getting a self-hosted" domain for the blog. While this is advised by many moneymakers, the Monetizer is here to tell all those who shun using Blogspot blogs that you can in fact make money and profit from them. A blog I recently discovered, Make Money for Beginners (also hosted on Blogspot) sums it up very well. Grizzly, the blog's author discusses the concepts of making money online vs. building up your snazzy looking brand/authority. For example, you can have a fancy looking Web 2.0 blog full of style and pizzazz, but usually this is best for building yourself as a brand and making yourself look good online. It can most likely help you if you get into the realms of serious e-book sales or affiliate marketing. There's nothing wrong with that. There's also the concept of making money, and using free methods to do it. Since Grizzly discusses the topic for beginners, he points out that using Blogspot is a good way to go. A free investment that makes you money is better than spending for hosting, wouldn't you agree?

Now, the Monetizer has had hangups and irritations with Blogspot as well. For example, the other day I went through and realized I needed to add sitemaps for all my blogs to Google webmaster. This can be quite a chore to do with Blogspot. Usually you can just enter your Blog's URL and "atom.xml" at the end as a sitemap, but sometimes it will report errors and not index properly. There seems to be an issue related to RSS feeds on Feedburner and your original Blogspot feed, but I haven't quite nailed this down yet. Another issue comes when submitting this blog to search directories. Often times they won't allow you to submit something if you don't have an email address from the same domain. There's no "@blogspot" email addresses, yet. Wordpress on self-hosted domains will obviously give you greater freedom and ability when adding a sitemap or having an email at your domain. It also gives you total ownership, at a price of course. It will make your site a brand, and give a site you can be proud of. You really need to determine your goals though. Having a flashy site to impress people and gain as many loyal fans, or making money through simply set up blogs and sites.

The choice is really yours. You can easily build 1, 5, 10, 100 Blogspot blogs and make your own personal army of "free" moneymakers. They do make money folks, so don't think having a domain and self-hosting is the only route to go. It may be advised by A-Listers and those who have built themselves into a brand (or those trying to). But if you want to make decent money, Blogspot can work just as well.

I'd also encourage readers to check out Courtney Tuttle's challenge here. It involves getting yourselves top search rankings and is definitely worth learning as it can help drive traffic to your blog while you're sleeping.

Tips for Running a Blog Contest

Running a contest is good for many reasons on your blog site. It will bring you new subscribers, links back to your site and ultimately reward one lucky winner with a prize. As the "Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer" is the first contest I've ever run on any blog, it's definitely been a learning experience in the early stages. It's had over 10 entries so far, so it takes some work to keep track of the various entry types.

Here's some things to consider when you set up a contest on your own blog:

1) Keep the rules clear and simple. Last thing you want to do is confuse people. I think following form of most other blog contests you've seen helps here. Take a look at the blog Contestblogger.com. They announce every contest around and you can see how sites set their rules. With this I also decided to make a minimum number of entrants. Entrecard is popular but you never know what you're gonna get based on current traffic, etc.

2) Promote the contest elsewhere - Not just on your blog itself. I'd suggest you make a clear link somewhere noticeable on your blog. Look to other blogs and forums to announce your contests as well. Especially if you're a newbie blogger and may not have traffic to get enough entries. With this contest I posted on the Entrecard forum and informed a Contest Blog. The word of "mouth" from other blog entries helps too.

3) Keep a spreadsheet - That's the best way I could come up with to keep track of who has entered and how they've entered. Have columns for each of the ways to enter, RSS, Email, and Blog Post. List out each entrant. Then put the appropriate "entry amount" in that column for each person. I've also used it to keep track of people's emails, blog post URL's and screenshot URL's. So it's a smart idea to set up an Excel Spreadsheet or even download the free OpenOffice.org.

4) Determine a Good Deadline - I set the contest to end February 1, which seems far away right now. I'm thinking 2-3 weeks is good for most contests, because the longer it runs the more potential entries you will get.

5) Make Sure You Have the Prize - I've read on another blog that someone won a Playstation 3 and never received it. In this case I'm good for the 777 EC's sitting within my Entrecard account, so have no fear ;)

Again I wish good luck to any and all who've entered so far. I've also decided I will provide link love on the post announcing the winner. That means every entrant will be listed in the post as well, with a link back to their blog site or entry. It's rather simple to enter and you can check it out here:

Hit 777 EC's With the Monetizer!

A Really Scary Ghost Story

Ok, Halloween is long past, but I wanted to share a really scary ghost story with you. The story is actually about each of us as individuals, and originates from Napoleon Hill's book, "Think and Grow Rich". The book isn't on the level of Stephen King horror, but it can be just as scary.

The story is that we each face the really scary "Six Ghosts of Fear". These vicious apparitions are what hold us back in our lives and prevent us from achieving the true success that we all deserve, even in blogging or making money online.

Six Ghosts of Fear:

Ghost 1 is the Fear of Poverty
Ghost 2 is the Fear of Love Loss
Ghost 3 is the Fear of Illness
Ghost 4 is the Fear of Old Age
Ghost 5 is the Fear of Criticism
Ghost 6 is the Fear of Death

As Hill mentions, many people will be quick to tell you they fear nothing, when in fact deep down in their subconscious they fear at least one of these. It may not be something they speak of often, but it exists and may even be what drives them. These fears are detrimental to our well-being and enjoyment of our lives though. They often lead us to other problems as well. For example a constant fear of love loss or illness can in fact manifest itself as illness in us. Bloggers most likely face the fear of criticism more often, or even the fear of poverty if they quit their jobs to blog.

So, I think that you'll agree this is a really scary ghost story. Often the scariest story of them all unfolds when we start evaluating our own flaws. That's not meant harshly, but often we are afraid to face these things. Others may be a better source of evaluation for what haunts us. Ask yourself which of these six scary ghosts do you really fear the most? Napoleon Hill basically says that once we face these ghosts of fear and learn to eliminate them, we can be on our way to true success.

And for a really scary ghost story on DVD, see:
The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen)

New Entrepreneur Tax Planning

The following is a sponsored review. When you set up your own new business, often times you're faced with the challenge of what you want to operate your business as. It may be a partnership or even a sole proprietorship. It's extremely important, as the type of business you operate as will determine how you handle your tax situation. At the following S Corporation site they discuss the dangers of being in a sole proprietorship or partnership. Stephen L. Nelson CPA, MBA and MS also explains the S corporation advantages. There's several articles on the site including Tax return preparations, setting salaries for the owners of S corporations and a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions section. Most importantly the site features $49 "do-it-yourself" kits to set up a S corporation in any state. It's definitely worth a look for entrepreneurs who are trying to figure out the best and most economical ways to set up their business venture.