How to Make Money With a Blog - The Easy Way

Do you want to, or do you already, consider yourself a professional blogger; one who considers blogging not simply as a hobby, but a professional money making activity that pays a full-time living? Or, are you learning how to make money with a blog to simply offset some Internet Marketing costs, and perhaps gather some leads and prospects for your full-time business?

In regards to becoming a professional blogger, allow me to encourage you to do a careful and thorough research on this subject, and after so, to only embark with reasonable expectations. Those who succeed in the blogging profession and master how to make money with a blog are the minority that put in the extra effort, time, and patience it takes to give their blog staying power. Most just don't have the stamina or the ongoing determination to make it happen. Pro Blogging is definitely not a Get Rich Quick plan, no matter what you might read about it online. Below are just a few of the costs that I've run into with hosting my own professional blog. But, keep reading, there's another option.

$ 19.00|mo. Autoresponder/List Building$ 7.00|mo. Website or Landing Page$ 15.00|mo. WP blog, Thesis theme, plug-ins$ 4.95|mo. Hosting $ 24.95|mo. Shopping Cart$ 9.00|mo. Helpdesk Ticket System

Supposing you're just looking for a platform to share some content that will produce leads for your primary business; using how-to articles, information articles, videos, images, etc. That's called Content Marketing. And, at the same time, on and through your blog, you have a way to sell an inexpensive product that will cover advertising costs for your business. Marketers call that a funded proposal type of system, and another means how to make money with a blog!

I recently came across a blogging platform where professional bloggers and ordinary people who want to market any type of business can get started for as little as $ 25 per month. It's a fully functional optimized blog accessible through Empower Network. The company offers complete training that shows you how to make money with a blog, and carefully lays out the steps you want to follow to create leads and profit. The training teaches how to choose a topic to write about, how to publish your very first blog post, how to market, and so much more.

If you like to blog, and are trying to find a type of Network Marketing business, that's also available at Empower Network. The company paid over $ 4,000,000 in commissions to affiliates in their first four months of business. I 'd say they definitely know how to make money with a blog!

For more information about the Empower Network and How to Make Money with a Blog go here ==> The Empower Network.

To Blog or Not to Blog - There Is No Question

New clients ask this all of the time. They want to know if they should set up a blog on their site. Let me nip the suspense on the bud here - YES, they should, and so should you.

The follow up to that decisive response usually revolves around the concern that perhaps their industry doesn't warrant a blog. For example, business owners in the manufacturing sector may feel that the topic may be a little "dry" for a blog gobbling audience. Who wants to read your thoughts on cement mixers? I don't, but do you know who does? Your customers. They're out there and they are online, searching for information on your product/service and by adding a blog to your communications "mix" you have a better shot at getting their attention.

This article, or blog piece, details why blogs are an important part of your online marketing strategy:

1. Google Gobbles Blogs

Google likes fresh content. Correction - it loves it. Google rewards (rankings) websites that continuously update their website with new and valuable content. However, for many businesses, adding new content to their website appears redundant when the site simply exists to provide set information about a product/service offering. For example, if you own a moving company, once your website is optimized and ranking well on Google, you don't want to mess with the success you've had so far by shifting things around for the sake of it or by adding new pages that repeat the same content that is found elsewhere on the site. Google is wise to this practice anyways. Adding a blog however, provides your website with a channel to deliver fresh new content on a weekly basis.

2. Perceived Authority

You own the business and thus are considered by default to be an expert in your industry. By providing your take on your business and your product/service by maintaining a weekly blog you further validate yourself as an authority in the industry. This increases customer confidence.

3. Added Personality

In the past, a simple photo of a CEO, President, or GM planted beside the company mission statement in quotations or providing "team bios" did the trick to convey a personal touch. Today, the public demands more. By writing a weekly blog, complete with an avatar and personal online signature, you develop a personality for your business, one that customers can relate to.

4. Conversation with Customers Equals Conversion

Not only are customers better engaged when you provide them with a frequently updated blog to follow, you can optimize the blog to encourage two way conversation. By allowing comments from readers, you create conversation. They can ask questions for you to respond to and once that rapport is developed it is much easier to sell them in the future.

5. Encourages Social Sharing

Blogs optimized for readers to "like" and "share" articles on their Social Media networks allow you access to the sharing individual's network of friends and associates. This kind of referral is an invaluable "word of mouth" tool for dramatically increasing the reach of your marketing message. In addition, maintaining a blog provides your business with fresh content to use for posting on your own Social Media accounts.

Conclusion

OK, so if this article did its job, you are convinced that maintaining a blog for your website is essential. However, as with many of our clients, the prospect may feel like a daunting task, especially if you're not confident in your writing skills. This is when you dig into your businesses human resource reservoir to identify those with such a talent. Most writers "at heart" will jump at the opportunity. Another option is to outsource your blog contributor by securing an internet marketing company with a talented content developer ("ahem") to write the blog for your business, in YOUR voice.

Marcus Maraih, Content Developer, http://www.standardmarketing.ca/

Why Great Blog Design Is So Important

Over the last couple of years there has been an explosion of new blogs on the Internet, quite literally thousands every day. The main reason for this is that many business owners are starting to realise that blogging can help them achieve authority, build customer relationships and introduce their products and services. Other bloggers also explore the market for some extra income through affiliate links etc. Even if your blog is personal you may still want to see it bring a small cash injection every month. Whatever your reasons to blog, various factors have to be considered. One factor that many ignore is the design. Google is now including good coding and design into their algorithm so having a great design can really help improve your traffic.

Why It's so important

Some may say that design is not that important and what really matters is the content. Yes that's true but focusing on just one factor is dangerous. Let's face it, as a visitor to a website or blog the first thing you notice is the design, the ease of navigation, loading time, advertisement banners and thumbnail images. The number of bad designed websites that I visited over the years is staggering. Not only does this make me not want to read the articles I am also likely to leave very quickly and not come back.

One example of a bad designed website I happen to come across today had the following - small green text on a black background, flashy ads, pop-ups, slow loading time, and the sidebar seemed to have dropped below the post. The website actually has some decent information but it was not possible to read due to the size of text and distraction of flashy ad's and pop-ups. I would rather read a blog that has clear, light design with easy navigation - it's more professional isn't it.

But before you rush to your website to change anything let's start by having a clear idea of what direction you want your blog to go in. Great design needs to fin in with the content of the blog, appeal to the target audience and help best promote the product and services you are offering.

So let's look at some main design features to make your blog more appealing to your customers and followers.

Simplifying access and navigation

As I already mentioned, great design is not just about great pictures and striking colors. Your whole sites functionality depends on your design. This is everything from action button placement, to ease of navigation, quality of read and loading speeds. Because we live in a fast passed world and your customers need to find exactly what they are looking for with ease otherwise they will go elsewhere.

It can be quite frustrating searching a blog and not being able to find what you are looking for or eventually stumbling across it 25 minutes late. Therefore by providing your readers with ease of navigation will result in more happy users and may even boost your authority.

Creating the right banner

The first thing visitor's notice is the area above all the content called the banner. This is a good space to place your logo, blog title or social media profile links. Some banners are too high hence visitors need to scroll down to reach the post content. A good banner size should be between 150 and 200 pixels. There are also a number of softwares available to help you design the perfect banner. On that I recommend to my clients is SWFT, it's around 2.5 download MB and it will contains over 200 different effects and functions to assist you with a great banner design.

Choosing the right colors

As I described in the first example, using bright colors can be quite annoying. Some webmasters may thing that it helps draw attention however it doesn't and should be avoided if you want to look professional or even representative. This is a common issue a lot of newbies face. They create very colorful pages but if they could see it from eyes of their visitor they would know that the color scheme doesn't do any justice to their blog. Chose your colors wisely, check other blogs in your niche, ask friend or family for ideas, do some testing and ask some of your readers for feedback.

Avoiding Sidebar Clutter

Your sidebar is useful for navigation and sharing some information about your blog. Sometimes blogs have a couple of sidebars but usually just one. The sidebar is used to help user navigate through the site, but some webmasters tend to make their sidebars messy with overcrowded widgets, add-ons and ads. Take a look at your sidebar and ask yourself, will the used benefit from all these widgets? Another reason not to fill your sidebar with irrelevant stuff is because it will take focus away from content.

I hope these tips will benefit those of you who are starting in the world of blogging or want to change something about your current design. Avoiding these obvious mistakes will benefit you, your blog and sales in many ways. Having an edge over competition is what matters in this competitive world.

Aliosha Kasin is the founder of Melting Posts, a web magazine covering latest web trends, social media, and tech. He consults small and medium sized businesses on social media marketing and SEO efforts.

Three Reasons Why Your Opt-Ins Won't Work

These are three of the most common mistakes made by e-mail marketers.

* Your incentives are just not good enough. These days people will not give you the e-mail address without getting something reasonably valuable in return. It used to be that giving a free report was good enough, but not now. If you are giving an incentive for people to sign up for your list, there is a fine balance between offering something of real value but at the same time not giving too much away. For instance, let's say that you have something which gives value, such as software. What you could do is offer a "lite" version of your product. You have to be sure that what you are giving away actually does work in a basic sense, but impress upon the customer (after they've downloaded) that they can get the missing features (which are not necessary but highly desirable) if they pay a modest fee to upgrade.

* It is too difficult to sign up. This is enough to drive potential customers away in droves. If the signup process is too hard, people will get frustrated and quickly look for the red cross in the top right-hand corner. In order to overcome this, a marketer should have a squeeze page which is easy to read and is very clear to understand. The signup buttons should be as large as possible, so that the customer cannot miss seeing them. Another thing - don't ask for too much information on your signup form, because all you really need is their e-mail address. In fact, on my signup page that is all I ask them for - I don't even ask them for their name. Strangely enough, I get more signups when I just ask for e-mail address than I do when I asked them for their name as well.

* A confusing call to action. Now that we have assumed that you have got the customer sufficiently interested to actually sign up, your squeeze page must have a large and very distinctive call to action. The last thing you want is for your customer not to know what to do next. Even saying "click here" may not be enough, it is far better to have a large type button which says "click here to get your free report" or whatever incentive you are getting.

Of course there is a long hard road to go down to even get people to go to your squeeze page in the first place, and if they cannot find your squeeze page, then however good your opt in techniques are, potential customers will never see them. You have got to do whatever you can to get your squeeze page out there. This would include such tried and true methods as press releases, blogs, PPC marketing, social networking and forum marketing, just to name the obvious ones.

Remember, e-mail marketing is just like any other form of marketing - it is only effective when it is used properly. The above three points provide a good basic check list which you should match against your own opt in forms.

Peter Phillips is now a retired accountant living in Canberra, but hoping to go to the Gold Coast sunshine in the very near future.. He now devotes his time to building websites and helping small businesses in Canberra.
His main websites for doing this are:
Canberra mobile websites
Money making opportunities

How a Blog Can Improve Your Business

Most of you have heard the term "blog" before, but how many realise what a blog can do for you? For some, they're dismissed as being something of a hobby, or a kind of personal journal. But blogs can hugely benefit your business in a lot of ways. If you're a website owner, a blog should be an an essential part of your online strategy, and here are a few reasons why.

First, What is a Blog?

For those who aren't completely sure about the definition of a blog, it's the short term for "web log", and means a website or section of a website where a number of entries or "posts" are presented in descending chronological order (ie, the newest ones appear at the top). There is no limitation on what the topic of a blog can be, so it can match your site exactly. Typically they share a range of content, information and opinions.

OK, So Why Do I Need One?

There are a huge number of benefits to adding a blog to your website. The most important ones are:
Blog content appears as real-time results. One of the main trends with search engine development over the past few years has been to bring fresher, newer results to searchers. With updates such as Google Caffeine, having a constant flow of interesting, sharable content will make the search engines love your site.
They can generate back-links. One of the most important ways to prove to Google that your website is high quality and worth recommending is to have other websites link back to it. This is no easy feat, but the social nature of a blog makes it much easier. The more interesting your content, the more people will link to it. And don't forget to utilise Facebook and Twitter!
It's a great way to communicate. Blogs are a super low-cost way to make additional contact with your customers. Use it to talk about new products and offers, as well as specialised advice and opinion pieces, and you'll have a solid, dedicated online following

Some Tips For Blog Writing
Post regularly - at least once a week.Know your target market - think about who your customers are and what they want to know.Choose topics carefully - select subjects that are relevant to your business, but also interesting to read about.Link to your other sites and social media accounts.Include keywords - choose relevant keywords and use them carefully to appear higher in the searches.

Blogging is a great new way to think about your online presence. If you haven't already, consider whether adding one could bring a whole host of benefits to your site.

The tech world is full of exciting developments, and it's important not to get left behind. If needing a blog is news to you, consider subscribing to a internet newsletter that keeps you up to date on new internet marketing techniques every month.

Productivity Apps for Content Writers

IP is over the quota
IP is over the quota

Content writing for the web requires creativity as well as conformity: Content writers need to offer unique, engaging articles and website content, while respecting and following the web's specific conventions. Productivity apps can help content writers manage some of the more uniform tasks and conventions to make sure your content follows web best practice, letting you focus on creativity and originality.

Here are 5 productivity apps that help content writers produce effective web content every time:

Google keyword tool and Google Insights for Search
Your web content needs to be easily found by your audience, so understanding the keywords your audience uses to look up related topics can help you position your articles to be seen by more readers. Look for low competition, longtail keywords for your blog posts and use the keyword in the title, first paragraph, and final paragraph as a minimum.

Inbound app writer
This fantastic web app helps you ensure you are using your keywords sufficiently and scores your web content based on whether it is optimized for search, to maximize AdSense revenue clickrates, or a mix of both. Free accounts allow writers to assess 8 new documents every month: a great starter for any content writer.

Popplet
This ideas platform app lets you outline your web content articles visually and to generate new ideas about how related ideas are interconnected. Visually thinking about your content can lead to that creative breakthrough that makes your web content inspiring and thought-provoking. You can also outline how you plan to add graphics or videos to enhance web content readability. Your article outline popplets can even be embedded into your web pages, offering a readymade graphic with an intriguing and playful aesthetic.

Freedom
If you are easily distracted by checking emails or scanning twitter feeds, Freedom could be the tough love app to help you stay focused on your content writing output. Available for both Mac and PC, Freedom helps you set time frames to focus on your content writing and forces your internet connection closed for the duration.

Boardreader
This social media tracking tool lets you see what your potential audience is asking about and discussing in forums and online postings. Like google insights for search but for forum discussions, widgets can graph the data trends of recent community discussions and show you interest levels in the topic you are writing about. Like Popplet, these embeddable tools make great visuals to go with your online articles and provide your readers with a deeper insight into how people engage with your subject matter.

What is in your everyday toolkit of productivity apps for content writing? Are there any other must-have tools you recommend for content writers?

Mark Boyd is a content writer for the web specializing in software as a service (especially productivity apps!), smart cities technology and data-driven research and analysis.

Mark Boyd is a freelance writer for SaaS businesses, specializing in web 2.0 marketing, smart cities technology, and data-driven research and analysis.