Six Easy Steps to Making Money With Your Blog
I’m going to give you 6 quick pointers on how to optimize your blog to drive traffic and hopefully earn some extra AdSense and affiliate income.
One huge benefit of using blogging as a means to create your site vs. trying to build your own is the ability to monetize your content immediately and not have to worry about page layout, graphics, hosting, domain names, and content management. This is a massive time saver when using the free bloggers such as Blogger or WordPress hosting. The downside is that you cannot fully control the fine tuning of your site for specific optimizations. Nevertheless, you must let go of this desire and focus on your content – which is a very good thing.
So, let’s start with the key topics you need to consider when optimizing a blog:
1. The Blogging Service
2. Layout
3. Links
4. Keywords
5. Traffic
6. Site Tricks
1. The Blogging Service – this is a very important choice because some of the free blogging services do not allow you to place context ad such as AdSense on the free blogging service (they allow it if you host your own blog). Because of this I strongly recommend using Blogger as your free service since it is easy to use and is ad friendly.
2. Layout – since you are using a free service you must get over the desire to control your site. Let go! Most free blogging sites allow you to tweak the layout somewhat. There are some tricks you can use to easily keep your site a blog but at the same time add sections as if you were on your own site. For example, keep one blog entry for all of your favorite external links and descriptions. This is where you can continue your link sharing with other sites and continually add new ones. Now, add a specific link to this article on the sidebar so that there is a direct reference when the article gets archived. That way any readers will always find the links article and not have to search or stumble upon it. (Note, you can use this same technique for additional pages that refer to specific topics so that you have a directory of topics on your sidebars).
3. Links – besides the links I noted in #2 you should always use plenty of linking from within every article you publish. The internet values links and the more you use from your blog entries the better. Other sites pay attention to who’s linking to them and when they see a referral in their logs your appreciation level increases. Also, add your favorite affiliate and topic links to your sidebars.
4. Keywords – I cannot stress the importance of this but I’m not going to go into detail on keyword identification other than to say that each blog entry should focus on a SEO keyword phrase or name – especially the title. Be sure to use your titles carefully and use the same keywords in your entry. This will mark the blog entry to the keyword topic (remember, each blog entry is a separate web page that can be indexed). Also, be sure to include the keyword near the end of the blog entry as well.
5. Traffic – don’t forget to promote your blog to drive traffic! Use all the means possible to do this – forums, articles, reprint rights, etc. Be sure to post well written comments on other highly ranked blog sites. However, don’t make the mistake and write only a quick comment. Always write your responses in a way that is interesting and direct to the point. There’s enough free material out there to do this!
6. Site Tricks – another simple technique is to place hard coded links to your favorite blog entries and articles in the bottom of the Blog template. That way it will show up on every page. Eventually you can make this your site map which is very important to the search engines. The last thing you want is your blog links to be archived!!
And, of course, don’t forget to add your AdSense sections.
Just by completing these 6 simple tasks you can get your blog monetized in no time at all!
Author: D James
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cellphone news
New WordPress Plugin – A Viral Marketing Plugin
New WordPress Plugin is a viral marketing tool that puts a contest on your blog and gets you a ton of traffic to your site by integrating the use of Twitter. The new viral marketing WordPress Plugin is called Contest Burner. And you will be able to see it in action as the site holds it’s own contest.
Not only are there over $5,000 worth of prizes to can win on this new site but it provides a plugin that runs contests like these on any other site as well. Come and join the fun of success and sign up for their newest contest, the $5,000 Viral Marketing Contest. Signing up for this contest not only provides a great opportunity to win valuable SEO marketing, personal coaching tips from Bill McIntosh himself and even some cash but also signs anyone up for their very own viral contest plugin.
Also the new marketing WordPress Plugin is expected to have some extra features like incorporating video according to the admin of the website.
One of the upcoming features for the plugin was the ability to reward users for posting youtube videos. Unfortunately… that’s not ready yet In a future upgrade anyone who unlocks the premium version will be able to do that.
Right now if you sign up for the marketing WordPress Plugin Contest Burner, you’ll be able to give this plugin a test drive very soon.
I’m a blogger and I do affiliate marketing on the side. I started blogging over 5 years ago and I didn’t get into affiliate marketing until a little over a year ago. I love using the Wordpress blogging platform. If you use Wordpress like I do, you love the many plugins that are built specifically for bloggers and web designers that use Wordpress.
This marketing WordPress Plugin is the creation of Online Marketing Teacher Bill McIntosh. I have been following Bill for over a year and I can honestly say that he has given me tons of information that I incorporate every day in my own marketing campaigns. Without ever spending a dime of my own money, Bill has taught me lessons in online marketing that people would pay thousands of dollars to learn.
Author: Thomas Guard
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Latest trends in mobile phone
More Traffic With WordPress Blogs (Part 1) – How a WordPress Blog Can Increase Your Traffic Fast
Do you have a WordPress blog? You should. It’s amazing what they can do for your traffic. Read on to get the scoop on how exactly you can put their traffic-generating power to work.
First of all, you need the correct kind of WordPress blog, and that’s the version of the blog that you host on your own hosting account. It’s not a huge hardship, neither work-wise nor financially, and it’s more than worth every penny you put into it.
Why WordPress blog? Because Google loves them. Of course you’ll have to do your part too — by picking good keywords and posting a lot of content.
Here’s how to get started:
First of all, you’ll need a domain name. Before you pick that name, think about what the main theme of your blog will be. Then do some keyword research, and find the domain name that fits it most closely and contains your keywords. Try to get one that ends in .com if at all possible.
Next, you should make sure that you have a hosting account that offers C-Panel and Fantastico. You’ll need those to easily manage your blog. In fact, Fantastico allows you to install a blog in minutes. No kidding!
You also want to get a theme that you like. Don’t stick with the WordPress generic theme — that just screams “amateur.” You can find many free ones all over the internet.
You also want to get some plugins, one that sets up a sitemap for you, which is basically a table of contents for Google. And one that makes sure that your posts are SEO optimized.
Then start writing away. Make sure each of your blog posts is focused on one narrow topic, one that is related to the overall theme of your blog. And use the keyword in the title, plus assign it a suitable category as well.
And before you know it, you’ll be climbing on Google, and you’ll start getting visitors, especially if you do a few other things to drive traffic to it as well.
Author: Matthew Rhodes
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Information
The Right Mix of SEO Strategies Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust!
When you think of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) what do you think of?
Some marketers think of Web 2.0 and everything that goes with that.
Hubpages, Squidoo, Propeller, and other free sites may come to mind. Some marketers prefer this way of communicating with potential buyers. These are also great ways to get back links to your site.
Others have implemented strategies involving PDF distribution, software distribution, or even video distribution.
For many other marketers, submitting articles to article directories has worked well. If you can spill out words fast and get your ideas out clearly, this might be the most effective method for you.
Wordpress blogs have been in favor with marketers for a while because this technique flat out gets results. It’s a good way of staying in touch with your customers as well as keeping them updated as to what is current in your business.
These techniques work individually and depending on our strengths we tend to implement one over the other. We may dabble in one or the other but when we see results in a particular one we tend to stick with it -after all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
But is that really where we want to end our efforts – with what worked last? Of course we must continue to do what works, but we should also experiment.
Doing a few of these at a time tends to have a multiplying effect. One area will supplement or even magnify the results of another area. The end result could be something you would be very pleased with!
If you have been focusing your SEO efforts on Hubpages, Squidoo, Propeller, etc, you may find a great benefit in article marketing and linking these pages together for a one-two punch – each of these pages then providing a link to your money page.
You could pass up your competition as a result and leave them miles behind!
Or if you have never tried videos and youtube, now may be the time to try that. In your line of business you may be able to expand your market and even cut into your competition’s market.
And if you have never tried blogging, now may be the time to do it. Search engines love unique and updated content, which is what blogging provides.
The bottom line is that any one single technique will work – up to a point. But a good overall strategy which implements multiple of these techniques is a good business strategy and worth pursuing.
Author: Tony Buel
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera News
