How to Make Money With Your Blog: Can It Really Be Done?

Do you write a blog? If so, you may have thought it would be nice to make money doing so, but good luck with that, right? Actually, no. You really can make money with your blog, and in some cases, it can even turn into a very nice income. The key is to do it right from the start.

Things you can do to make money from your blog include:

? Through "passive advertising"

Passive advertising happens when you allow companies to place ads on your blog; in exchange, you either get a small monetary sum every time someone clicks through on a particular ad to a website, or you may get a commission when someone clicks through on an ad to the website selling the particular product or service and actually makes a purchase.

The nice thing about this type of income stream is that you really don't have to do anything once you set up the program and decide where the ads will appear on your blog. As you generate more back links with each blog post, you will be more visible to people. As you get more traffic to your blog, more people will click on those ads that appear on the blog either to simply investigate or even to buy. In effect you get "paid" by your blog, with very little work and effort beyond maintaining your blog itself.

? Through selling products or services, either as an affiliate or on your own

If you're an affiliate for a particular company, you can use your blog to sell that company's products or services. You can either do so simply by placing an affiliate link on your blog site for a related product or service, or you can do so by using the blog itself to sell that product or service. Either way, you can make money as an affiliate through your blog.

In addition, you can use your blog to market your own products and services; it's an easy and effective way to both advertise what you do and to keep prospective customers apprised of new developments, new offers you've got going on at the moment, and so on.

? Through contributions

Using contributions as an income stream can be slippery and can be seen as distasteful, in some cases. However, if the advice or information you provide is valuable and you offer it for "free," you can ask for donations or contributions from readers so that you get some form of compensation for your time, effort, and expertise, even if it's not an actual paycheck. Contributions can be a great way to generate some decent income, and you don't actually have to "sell" your advice. Instead, you can give it away for free, and those who want to pay for it, can.

These are a few ideas you can start using now to make money with your blog. There are really no special talents or skills needed to earn a substantial income using this method - are you ready to make money?

Tess Tackett offers hundreds of internet marketing tips, strategies, how-to's and resources at Prosper with Tess. Tess also offers unparalleled SEO content writing services at SEO Content Connection, where along with other writers she writes website pages, articles and more.

How to Get Your Blog Noticed

So How Do I Get My Blog Noticed?

As a blog writer, we all at one time or another face the elusive question, how do I get my blog noticed? Another way of putting it is how do I get traffic to my blog? There are really no magic words like "hocus pocus" or "open sesame" that will instantly open the floodgate of people wanting to read your blog. I've done some research on the subject and these are my findings. Hopefully this can help you navigate around the ocean of getting blog traffic.

Quality ContentBlogging ConsistentlyPing Your BlogSocial MediaRelevant Forum Participation

1. Quality Content

This may seem like a no brainer but the fact is you must have value in order to attract people to your blog. Not to mention, others are more likely to share their find if they really benefitted from it. Marketing 101-Word of Mouth. Think about it, the age-old example, if you went to a restaurant for the first time and they have amazing food, service and great atmosphere. Not only will you be returning to the restaurant, but you'll most likely be telling others about it as well.

2. Blog Consistently

It's vital that people can rely on coming to your blog for fresh new content at a certain interval. Obviously the best would be to be able to blog daily. But if you're not able to blog daily, you're much better off blogging consistently at a time you are able to invest into your blog. You can blog daily, every other day, weekly, or monthly. The more often you blog, the more you will get results.

3. Ping Your Blog

There are many websites out there that will "ping" or let many of the services out there that you've an updated blog. Normally, pinging will help you to rank quicker through link building with popular top 3 search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. I've listed a few of the ones I've found very helpful. They are in no particular order. Pingler, Ping.fm, Ping-o Matic, Bulk Ping, Eze Directory, and FeedShark.

4. Social Media

The top 2 social media that are indispensable are, drumroll please.... Facebook and Twitter. The mindset needs to be how you can help others instead of how to market your blog. People are smart and can figure out your motives quickly. But, you can turbocharge it with social news sites such as Blog Engage, Digg, Reddit, and Blokube.

5. Relevant Forum Participation

This is a great way to get people who are in the same niche as you are to enhance your visibility in the world of the internet. First, you need to find forums that are related to what you're blogging about. It is vital that you first develop relationships with people in the forum. Over time, you will gain trust and also people who may follow you. You offer answers to their problems and taking a genuine interest in them. Please be aware this is not a place for spamming. You can however put a link in your signature as a way for people to connect with you naturally.

I would love to have your feedback as to what have worked for you to have your blog noticed!

There you have it, the 5 things that will help get your blog noticed!

May Anderson is a veteran entrepreneur. She has coined the word "Mapreneur" to represent all mothers with the entrepreneurial spirit. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Maryland. She had been in the business world since she was 10 years old. She had owned and operated multiple brick and mortar businesses successfully in the past. She enjoys teaching what she had learned through her triumphs and defeats. She is a citizen of Heaven. May is also fluent in 3 dialects of Chinese as well as English. She is currently a business developer specializing in internet marketing. Watch this FREE video

14 Blogging Mistakes A Blogger Makes And How To Put Them Right

In this time and age the easiest way to connect and engage further with your customers is by blogging. And for this reason many businesses whether small or big have recognized the powerful impact a blog can have on business achievement, which is important. But one major challenge is that their blogs are going nowhere which gets them discouraged at the lack of results and finally giving up on blogging completely.

So, are you worried about getting results you desire as a blogger?

In this guide you are going to learn the mistakes that most bloggers make and also how you can put them right.

#1 Blogging Mistake- Not Having A Strong Niche

A blogger needs focus. You can not be everything for every one. You must clearly define what your mission for blogging is. For instance, if you are writing about dogs, you should not waste time and energy writing on online jobs.

Try and write on what you are passionate about, because by so doing you can never get enough to write about.

#2 Blogging Mistake- Inconsistency

Like I said earlier, blogging is like any other business. A blogger needs to start and keep to it. Many newbies expect to start a blog and see it receive a lot of traffic quickly. When this does not happen, they become impatient and frustrated and finally give up without even giving their blog a second chance.

Patience in blogging pays. When you start blogging you need to keep to it. Remember that consistence, interesting and relevant posts will demonstrate your enthusiasm to your business and clients.

Entrust yourself to the upkeep of your blog. You can start to put more effort, for at least one blog post per week then work your way up.

#3 Blogging Mistake- Not Connecting With Your Readers

Another mistake that a blogger makes is to misunderstand who their audiences are. Misunderstanding the audience simply means that the topic is right but you do not connect with the audience. As a blogger, it is wise to understand the problems that your audiences are facing so that you may convey helpful information that will solve their problems. Let me say again that "content is king", and for that reason you should provide value in your content for your readers.

Readers are self-centered because they like information they can use; in that context, avoid writing posts that are full of information that an audience can not put to use.

#4 Blogging Mistake- Focusing On Money

A blogger can start a business focusing on making money, which is not a bad thing. However, I would like to emphasis that if you put too much concentration on making money, you will never write good articles. Lack of good articles can easily kill your blog since people will not have trust with you because all they will know about you is that you are more of a marketer than a blogger.

Whenever you are writing your articles, always picture yourself as the receiver of the content you're producing and by this you will think completely different.

#5 Blogging Mistake- Using Big Words

I can guarantee it that we have all, at some point made this mistake while blogging. The use of vocabularies is common to many bloggers. You can add vocabularies so that your post may look executive, BUT what you do not know is that they make your post complicated and your readers will not understand. This may really affect your business since prospective clients would leave your site and never come back because of using big words that they do not understand.

Avoid writing your content like you are writing for PhDs. Learn to use simple language that your readers can understand.

#6 Blogging Mistake- Lack Of Supporting Images

Many bloggers use images that do not support their key messages. While some do not use any images at all. Images help readers to extract the messages at a quick look.

Sometimes proper images can really be self explanatory. Using the right images can take your blog to another level since your readers will have an easy time going through your posts, hence encourage them to participate more in your blog.

Never forget to alt-tag your images.

#7 Blogging Mistake- Neglecting SEO or Doing Heavy SEO

SEO helps visitors to find your blog. Visitors never find your site by mistake. However, as much as SEO is important, you do not need to apply it excessively. You can know that you are optimizing excessively when your keywords in posts and titles suddenly stop making sense.

On the other hand, you also need to look at how many keywords you are stuffing into your information. Too much SEO'ing means that you are purely writing for the robots, and that is very much against the guidelines of blogging since it may lead to spamming.

Gain knowledge of SEO - always keep your readers as your number 1 priority.

#8 Blogging Mistake- Not Engaging With Your Audience

This is one simple big mistake that a blogger can make. You should take time to engage with readers in the comments section. When you respond to comments you build your relationship with your readers; readers who are approved are likely to come back.

People keep you in mind when you take time to reply to their comments.

#9 Blogging Mistake- Disorderly Blog

When a blog is disorderly, it is not appealing to the eyes. Visitors do not like excessively busy sites because they can not easily access what they want. Too many choices make the visitors rather confused and so they opt to leave your site.

Do not try to do so much with your blog. Make your blog visitor friendly; when it is easy to navigate a visitor will always have an easy time hence they will come back again. As a result, you will make money online since the prospective clients are visiting your site.

#10 Blogging Mistake- Uninteresting Headlines

Titles are the most significant basics of a blog post. They tell readers a great deal about the content, and often can be used to set expectations. They are descriptive and enticing.

Unless a title is enticing and descriptive, it's not going to have the desired effect.

#11 Blogging Mistake- Putting Attention To Quantity Instead Of Quality

This is a mistake that is very common with bloggers. There is this assumption that you need to blog a number of times on a weekly basis so that your blog may seem updated both to search engines and human perspective.

The upside of doing this is that you will gain page rank while the down side is that you might loose quality to your articles.

To avoid such mistakes you need to take time to write a good post, and always remember to edit it. Alternatively, you can also hire a team for professional writers who will be assisting you is writing posts.

#12 Blogging Mistake- Plagiarisms

Copying of other bloggers articles is called plagiarism. This act is illegal; it is an offense under the copyrights. Some bloggers depend on copying and pasting instead of putting up their own thoughts using their own words.

Google loves originality. Original articles are unique, and also you can express your thoughts with ease.

#13 Blogging Mistake- Concentrating On The Blog Design

Having a beautiful and appealing blog design is wonderful, however some bloggers dwell so much on the blog design that they even forget about the content. There is no point of having a wonderful design if the reader leaves your site without any benefit.

However great your design is, make sure your reader can tell what your site is all about at least at a glance.

#14 Blogging Mistake- Excessive Use Of Plugins

As much as most plugins are free, this does not mean you can use all. Excessive use of unnecessary plugins can result to slow loading of your page and this can really make visitors leave your site immediately.

Make use of a few plugins that are vital for your blog.

Conclusion: This topic is so diverse, there is a lot more to say about the mistakes. Feel free to use the comments section below to share the mistakes you see bloggers making.

Are you worried about getting results you desire as a blogger? Do not wait to learn from your mistakes, because in this guide we have listed the mistakes that most bloggers make so that you may learn how to avoid them. To get more insights on blogging, please be sure to check on our site http://www.homebusinessprospects.com/

5 Steps on How to Make Your Website Load Faster

Most blog owners are modifying their website to meet the requirements of Google Panda. Google Panda is not a fan of slow websites so blog owners around the world are looking for ways to make their blog load faster. A blog's loading time is an important aspect for determining a site's rank. Here is this article I will provide some basic tips to improve your page's loading time.

#1 Use a CDN Service
CDN or Content Delivery Network is a service which improves our site's loading time by reducing our server load and offloading static resources like, CSS, JS content, Image, Theme etc. I personally prefer MaxCDN as it improves a site's speed to great extend.

#2 Use a Caching Plugin
This step can be termed as the most important of all steps. This step is very effective for WordPress based sites. As WordPress is based on PHP language so when a site loads up a lot of PHP calls are executed. This plugin cache your page and stores it as HTML files. There are many cache plugins, but I personally prefer Total Cache Plugin. You can use Total Cache Plugin and MaxCDN service together to give a boost to the loading speed of your site.

#3 Use a Clear Design
Using a clear theme will decrease your site's loading time on other device. It will also decrease your site's loading time on PCs. If your site loads faster in portable devices like tablet PCs, Smartphone etc. then your site will see an improvement in traffic which in turn will popularize your site.

#4 Turn off Commenting
This is a step which many blog owners will try to avoid, as commenting is one of the ways to see how popular a site is. So blog owners do not execute this step, but believe me turning off commenting will allow your site to load faster. You should also avoid using external commenting system. Comment systems use huge scripts, and large files which could increase the loading time even further. Intense Debate, Disqus, LiveFyre, Facebook Comments uses Java Script to perform, which in turn increases a page's loading time. It's entirely up to you whether you should execute this step or not.

#5 Try avoiding a dense footer and sidebar
Many blogs use their sidebar and footer to showcase different widgets. These widgets slow down a website's loading speed by consuming heavy server load. To avoid this many blogs nowadays use minimalistic design to increase its loading speed. Remove unwanted widgets from the footer and sidebar to decrease your site's loading time. To increase site's loading speed even more you should try to remove individual post widgets also. Social sharing buttons beside a post and in home page reduces site's loading speed. So try to remove those buttons to increase your site's loading speed.

Not Making Money Blogging - Here's Why

If you're not making money blogging and you've been at it a while there are typically some common reasons that make this the case! The most important thing to understand is that an internet marketing blog serves two primary purposes, one that focuses on readers and the other on the goals of the internet marketer! Of equal importance is to recognize that without loyal visitors you have no way of earning an income therefore a bloggers top priority is in creating content that attracts and retains people!

Having made the above points let's examine 3 common errors an internet marketer tends to make when using a blog to earn an income!

Inconsistent Effort

Bloggers whether they intend to make money or simply gain a large and loyal following need to maintain their focus on creating content! In doing so their efforts need to be consistent and NOT whimsical mainly because people want to know what to expect! Operating an internet marketing blog this consistency is even more important since your goal is to get these same people to make purchases with you! If they can't count on you how do you expect to win/earn their business?

Weak Commitment

The responsibilities of an internet marketer and a blogger are very different in terms of the effort and thus the commitment needed to succeed! Having a successful blog is much like rolling a boulder up a hill, every break in effort results in losing ground! Traditionally however online marketers do NOT necessarily have to be as committed to the efforts they invest for fear that they'll lose momentum since they can generate traffic when wanting to generate income! This lack of commitment can easily sabotage the effectiveness however of a blog in terms of sales!

Always Got Their Hand Out

For the internet marketer who chooses to work on a blogging platform it's important to curtail their typically aggressive 'mindset' of constantly promoting! Pushy sales tactics that place readers needs second to making money will stall or even destroy any chance to develop a properly functioning internet marketing blog! This platform requires a give and take that results in the blogger 'giving' more than they take! In other words serving the reader's interest is the MAIN priority and once that has been successfully done your selling efforts will be more effective! It is important to note however that this approach be maintained for the life of the site if earning a steady income is your desire!

For those not making money with their internet marketing blog the reasons are often common and easy to remedy! For starters the internet marketer needs to recognize their readers are NOT arriving at the site to be sold a damn thing! Their primary interest is in the information the site offers therefore of chief importance is creating content readers find worth their visit! Understandably most marketers are 'gun ho' about earning an income however when blogging this can NOT be their top priority! The 3 common errors that limit people from making money on their internet marketing blog are discussed above! These errors are all related to a lack of consistently creating content thus placing income before reader satisfaction! By placing the interests of the people who visit your site first and foremost you'll find your blog can be the 'cash cow' you hoped for!

TJ Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina.
To learn more about why you're not making money blogging and to also receive a free instructional manual that teaches valuable niche research techniques for your online marketing needs simply visit: http://blogbrawn.com/

5 Things To Know About Adding Content

This is about the 5 things to know about adding content to your website, blog or social media. I'm sure you're thinking "only 5", how can that be? Here's why...after much research and a lot of hair-pulling, I've got it down to the 5 key points.

Top 5 Things About Adding Content For Your Readers

Let's begin on the 5 things to know about adding content for your expected reader. Never forget, it's all about the reader...what they want to know and how you can provide the information.

Time - How much time do you have to write original content? You can paraphrase, or out-and-out copy, but search engines love original content that offers relevant information to the reader. Don't just write junk to fill space and don't keep saying the same thing re-worded.

Reader Involvement - What do you expect from your readers? Even if you are providing content that is interesting to your readers, how much can you throw at them without burn-out? Most readers have an upper limit on what they can digest in a short period of time.

Length - For goodness sake, get to the point! Everyone wants their information and they want it quickly. Keep it short, to the point and easily readable. Search engines love 350 words or less, and they absolutely love FAQ's (frequently asked questions), which are always brief and to the point.

Topic - If you are a tech site, there's no end to the interest in content. The readers of tech sites want lots of information in condensed form...and you can't give them too much. If you're writing medical, outside of a directory of terms, you can burn readers out quickly. You want participation not irritation.

Reader Type - Different articles attract different readers. If they are information junkies, they can't read too much - like techies - they are able to consume lots of info quickly. An older reader, especially the not tech driven, wants and needs less information...probably no more than 5-6 times per week.

There's an ongoing argument about how much and how often you should add content, articles or blogs. If your audience is tech driven, there's no limit on how much you can put out there. If not tech driven, the average is about 8 times a week. That does not include FAQ's. They can be posted more frequently. Being one who is on a never-ending search of information, I find I can only take so much before I don't even want to see the caller ID...it's just too much!

Alice J. Ross is President of R&S Marketing, a full service advertising agency in St. Louis providing services in web development, broadcast media, social media marketing, search engine optimization, production, graphics and design.