I've recently written on how to make money online and it did not include blogging. But I have read a considerable amount on the subject and will continue to do so. So although I am no "guru" on the subject I am going to share some of my thoughts and highlight the most profitable ways that I have read for people to make money blogging.
First up what is a blog?
The word Blog is an acronym for WeB LOG. Blogs are essentially an online journal sharing the writers thoughts on everything and anything with whatever audience is interested in the subject. Those journals evolved into what we have today and it seems every one has a blog and many companies both big and small will have a blog sometimes written by a team.
What is the difference between a Website and a BLOG?
A blog is still a website. The main difference is that a blog is geared up for easy publishing of content on a particular subject and it is updated more often than a website which is more static. Also the content is usually more bite size and opinionated when compared to the content of a website. A blog also allows for a two-way conversation as visitors to blogs are often allowed to leave their comments on posts.
How do bloggers make money from blogs?
There are many opportunities that are open for bloggers to make money online. The most obvious way that I have come across to monetise your blog is to use Google Adsense. A separate topic.
RSS Advertising is also an option. Though I have not read a lot on this option as yet.
Sponsorship or paid article writing is also where some bloggers get paid to write on certain topics by companies. This can often be a regular occurrence and there can be some big money in this type of writing.
The opportunity to make money from Affiliate programs is probably one of the more common, after Adsense. There are larger affiliate programs like Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank and Commission Junction but also literally thousands of others from the large to the very small.
Bloggers often advertise their own e-books, courses and tele-seminars has become hugely popular. This type of activity will only increase in future - in fact this week I've seen numerous examples of bloggers running courses.
Business Blog Writing Opportunities - as blogging has risen in it’s profile as a medium more and more businesses are starting blogs. Many of these companies have internal staff take on blogging duties - but an increasing number of them are hiring specialist bloggers to come on and run their blogs. Many bloggers get approached for such paid work. Check out Bloggers for Hire if you’re looking for this type of work.
Non Blogging Writing Opportunities is another way, if you are a good blogger you will become known and it is highly likely that you could get approached to write for newspapers, magazines and other non blog websites.
Some bloggers have ventured into merchandising, from what I have been able to ascertain you could become successful if you had one of the larger blogs. Large niche markets would be an example of how to make significant money online.
I am sure there are many other ways to monetise your blog and it is my intention to continue this search.
How To Make Money Online, but not through Duplication
Duplication. New members joining the Network Marketing industry in order to make money online are trained in the concept that their upline sponsor/enroller is successful because they have duplicated exactly the same system of prospecting, approach, enrollment, training, development and support as everyone else in the team. Have they now? My experience is that this is lip service and wishful thinking! I spent hours creating a Handbook for new members which contained everything I had learnt, the steps to go through, scripts for approaching people, handling objections and all the rest of it. I couldn't even get people to read it, let alone implement it! Why was that?
Because people don’t want to do these things – they want to do it THEIR way. Its very difficult to get a whole lot of individuals to act cohesively as a team! They act like herded cats … they do their OWN thing!
That’s another reason why this failure rate is so incredibly high! People are left to work alone in a system which was developed for people to work in a team support environment – there isn't one!
But … by far the most important problem of all with this duplication concept is that everyone is duplicating FAILURE! Why? Because 95% of people like you and me who join with stars in their eyes and enthusiasm and high expectations of success and easy riches – fail! So the majority of people you are copying are struggling to survive, have never seen anything bigger than a two figure commission for the return on their investment, most of them have probably lied to you about how much they earn and how many are in their team. It is a numbers game and they all need distributors and they are more than happy to lead you into oblivion!
The second problem is – leads! There is a huge cost here. Free leads are .....Any other lead is expensive, whether you buy them or create your own through pay per click campaigns. This is the most significant drain on your limited most expensive resource I have ever experienced! The Leads Industry is rife with those who want to rip you off by selling you long dead and over-abused names and contact details. Remember the thoughts of wealth you had when first starting this venture, to make money online and not to necessarily make others rich in the process. Don't get me wrong I am not advocating a free ride but you should be given what you pay for. If you buy fresh, targeted leads you should get exactly that.
Most of the leads you pay for have long forgotten what the form was they filled out and have already been hit up by the flood of boring phone calls from people offering everything but nothing they are remotely interested in! That’s if you even manage to get someone to answer the phone in the first place OR click on the link to your flashy website.
As I said earlier over 95% fail in this industry and when distributors, that you spent an inordinate amount of time in the recruitment and training process, leave you for another opportunity because they cannot duplicate - there goes your product volume, there goes your pin ranking and then finally there goes you! But …. If you had mostly customers and all they do is buy product .. isn't that a stable and strong business?
The solution should be obvious by now ….. have a product which is unique and “me too” copy protected or a series of products that are of superior quality at or less than other competitors prices. This then means they are attractive to the customer. AND …. have CUSTOMERS – lots of them and …. less salespersons! Turn the emphasis away from sales people recruitment and find customers instead! What a way to make money online, that's for me!
Make Money Online, The NEW Way
People have become disgruntled at the old ways of conducting a business online and off-line. The old ways to make money online, in particular, don't seem to work anymore.
The old way is really old hat. Go away and fill your note pad with every name you can think of and the go and get in touch with all of them and present your new found opportunity. I ca hear your sponsor saying it now, I don't care whether you call them, or do it face to face, as log as you do it! The more you do it the closer you will be getting to success. Blah, blah, blah. That was what was once thought of as the rule of duplication, the old ways don't work, duplication has now been replaced with delegation.
The new breed, what I call savvy entrepreneurs, are becoming better educated in the way that the search engines work and how to get their sites ranked by Google and noticed by many visitors looking for vital information.
You don't get many people today who are prepared to travel to the old hotel meetings or home parties. Travel costs are now too high and a lot of people are time poor or simply too exhausted to go anywhere.
This Network Marketing make money online paradigm shift is a breath of fresh air to a dying industry.
Once upon a time, as I said earlier, all a person really had do was to join a business and follow the leadership of the up-line, and perhaps, money could be made.
This is not the case in today’s marketing world.
Up until this point in time, the work from home Network Marketing role model has been closely followed by nearly all the multi-level companies. They simply build a program around a product or service, then use Email blasts, classified advertising, calling in friends and spheres of influence, and now the ready made Network Marketing business is in full swing. Add a little bit of salesmanship to this mix, and boom.
But wait!
Aren't customers the backbone of any business – NOT sales people? Shouldn't the business have MORE customers than sellers and be selling their products to those customers? In fact, the ratio should be greater than 100 customers per salesperson NOT 100 salespersons per customer! Because if it isn't, your business will fail.
That's where the shift is folks. How to make money online in today's market. Take a look.
How to Make Money Online - Start your Own Blog
There are many ways to make money online, but it is not easy, if you want to be in total control then setting up your own blog is a good way to go. If you are wondering what a blog is, it is essentially an online diary or journal and the name is a shortened version of "web log". If you have your own domain name and website it is very easy to begin. In this article I will cover such topics as what a blog is, the set up process, promotion, why a blog is a good thing to have and we will talk a little about making money from your blog.
The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Probably about 1994 when it started, as we know it, and has become more and more popular over the last couple of years. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs(Wikipedia). That is a lot of blogs, one of the good things about blogs is that they can be as structured or unstructured as you wish. They are cheaper than a website and pretty easy to maintain.
As I said earlier it is easy to begin and there are free services that you can start your blog on via Wordpress or Blogger. If you have your own online business you will be aware that the search engines love fresh content so once you start your blog try to post to it at least twice a week, keep them focussed around your website and your business, this will help your search engine rankings. By getting higher rankings you will get higher positions in the search pages, essentially free advertising. Keeping your content fresh will keep/increase your position with the search engines and gets your readers to interact with you and gives them a reason to return to your site in future.
There are many ways to make money from your blog, and I provide a few examples below:
Google Adsense - this is free to join and easy to set up. The ads will match the content of your blog, Google does it all automatically for you and you will get paid every time a visitor clicks on an ad.
Affiliate Programs – sign up for affiliate programs related to the topic of your blog and display links to those products on your blog. Do a Google search for “affiliate program” + the topic of your blog to find appropriate affiliate programs. Whenever someone clicks through your affiliate link and buys a product, you will receive a commission. If you are knowledgeable about your topic you could also write product reviews to help increase your affiliate sales.
Sell Advertising Space – if you have a popular blog you can charge for this space on your blog. This could be in the form of a text link, a banner or a graphic.
Your blog needs to be "up there" with Google and the like or people won't find you. As soon as you have started to post to your blog, which is promotion for free, you can get others to help the process.
Submit your blog to blog directories – just search for “blog directories” in Google
Ask other bloggers to exchange links with you – you put their link on your blog in exchange for a link on their blog.
Write an article related to the topic of your blog and post it to article directories.
Ping your blog every time you make a new post – pingomatic.com is an example.
Participate in forums related to the topic of your blog. Put a link to your blog in your forum signature.
Finally, the most important thing once you have your blog up ad running is to post regularly to it. This is a free and effective way to make money online. All it really takes is a little time to write you post. Once you get the hang of it it will become easy and will not seem a chore.
Simple Ways To Make Money OnLine
Before setting out to make money online, do not jump right into the first think that looks good. There is a wide variety of options, so make sure you do your research and find the best one to fit your needs and schedule. Some will require an investment, others require no investment but are more time consuming. Most are fairly simple and straight-forward to put into operation. Some require time before you see income as a result of the process, others provide income fairly quickly. It's just a matter of balancing the features of each program, or perhaps using several at the same time.
Surveys
A fairly simply way to make money online is to complete surveys or questionnaires regarding your experiences with a company's products or services. You sign up with a listing service or with a direct solicitation to receive notifications of various surveys. Once you have completed the profile, you will be notified when surveys are found that match the requirements on your profile. You complete the surveys and submit them to the company. You then are paid according to the policy of the company. Make sure you check and see if the one you pick is not a scam, beware there are a lot of them out there that just want your registration fee and you never hear from them again.
Data entry
To make money online with data entry jobs is also a great income opportunity. There are many types of data entry jobs, such as secretarial, rebate filing, articles or content writing for directories or web sites. Some data entry positions allow you to use your imagination and creativity. Others are fairly repetitious but are great for the person who is detail oriented. The advantage is that you can do as much or as little work as you choose to make money online.
Blogging
To make money online you can create your own blog and find a niche market and post information to drive traffic to a specific product or service you want to promote. The process is relatively easy to get started check out blogger.com. There are step by step instructions for you to follow to set up your own blog.
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