Free Blogging Guide Step by Step Make Money on Your Blog
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This Free step by step guide to blogging is a massive upgrade of 2 similar articles I’ve posted previously on this Blog for which I’ve thrown the whole kitchen sink of blogging in. This guide can be used both by people who Blog to share information and social network and aren’t blogging to make money as well as people who blog with the purpose of making money. I try to do both with the Gifts and Free Advice Blog which I’ve been doing for about 8 months and I wish I knew then what I know now. This Blog is supported by my huge Online Discount Gift Shop so if you need to buy a gift for a friend or loved one or present for yourself and want to buy it at discount, please check out our Discount Gift Store Click Here or any of the Discount E-Commerce Stores listed at the bottom of this guide. I’d be grateful.
The problem with starting a Blog and finding out what to do is there doesn’t seem to be a step by step source in plain direct simple English so I’ve created this one for you. It’s not perfect as its based on what I’ve learned about blogging and making blog money in the past few months and I’m sure there is plenty of improvement, so just use this as a rough guide. A base for information is better than nothing at all and you need to start from somewhere with your feet on the ground. I welcome anyone’s comments on things I should add to this guide and things I should delete. You can use this guide as I said if you just want to blog and aren’t interested in making money or if you want to blog and make money on the side without doing any additional work. Sounds like a good deal, OK! The first part of this guide starts with getting a domain name and if you are already familiar with that, you can skip that over and start with Section 2. Oh, I am listing and recommending the company I use for both my blog, e-commerce and hosting set up for which I’m receiving no financial renumeration and my recommendations are unsolicited. Feel free to use others. If you wish to follow my format, I’m giving you a way to do that too. This article is copyrighted by myself and any reproduction is forbidden without my permission.
(Optional) Section 1. Registering a Domain For Your Blog
The first thing you need to do is Register a Domain Name for Your Blog. I would suggest you only use a .COM domain and try to come up with the shortest simplest name you can come up with, without any dashes or numbers. You’ll find single names have all been taken, so think of a simple phrase or something memorable and you’ll probably find something available after a few hours. I use Godaddys free domain Search and use Godaddy to register. In my case I used GiftsandFreeAdvice.com because I’m offering free advice on my blog and selling gifts in my Gift Store. I would not recommend using a .net, .org, etc., no matter what the name because people tend to forget anything but .com, and if you use .net, chances are people will put a .COM instead and you will be giving another site free traffic and losing yours. Once you find a .Com that you can register for your blog, I’d go ahead and register it on Godaddy which is very cheap. If you don’t want anyone to know you are the owner of the domain which includes unlisting your name, number, address and email address, it will cost you another $10 a year or so for Private Registration, I would suggest doing this to protect your privacy. Basically, the contact info you give them has to match your credit card and financial information. Once you register, make sure you keep a copy of your GoDaddy Password #’s in a safe and secure place. You will later need hosting space for your blog site and blogging software which will be coming up in the later chapters. Do not sign with Godaddy Hosting if you want to use the company I recommend for everything including Hosting.
Section 2. Adsense
Adsense by Google is the easiest found money you will ever make in your life and there is no expense to you, if you wish to use Adsense. If you’re not interested in making side money from Adsense, then simply don’t put it on your blog, its up to you. The little Google ads and occasional larger image ads you see on web pages are Adsense. The way Adsense works is you sign up for free for the program and can cancel any time you want and in return Google puts these ads on your Blog/Website. All a person has to do is click an ad on your blog and you will get paid anywhere from 1 cent to $10+ a click. I usually average about 20 cents which ads up if you get 40 clicks a day or so. How much you get paid depends on a variety of things for which you should read adsense rules and policy. Adsense pays you once you reach the $100 mark and then you start again. I’ve made several hundred dollars in a few months which is pretty good for doing no work! Quite simply, the more traffic your blog draws, the more clicks you’ll have and the more money you make. Google is quite strict about the clicks being legit and if they see you violated their program even just once, they may kick you off permanently with no chance for reinstatement, seriously! Adsense has a Zero Tolerance policy. You need to read their rules and policies a few times for adsense. The main thing is do not click your own ads and don’t have friends or family do it either and do not ask people to click the ads on your blogs or you will be kicked off Adsense. The best thing to do is just have Adsense on your site and say nothing to anyone. Again make sure you read Google’s policy on what they will allow on Adsense. The Blog software I used (WordPress) already had Adsense in the Program and this Software Program is the one I will be referring to and giving you a contact address for in Section 4. Most other blogs as far as I know, you have to manually paste the Adsense Codes on the pages. The WordPress Blog program I use doesn’t require it. WWW.Google.com/Adsense/login/en_US/ explains Adsense I’d also recommend that you have Google deposit their Adsense payments to your banking accounts electronically instead of by mail.
Section 3. E-Commerce on Your Blog
I use an E-Commerce program called The Easy Store that’s a part of my Blog or Vice Versa. The Easy Store basically lets you set up a niche store of any or all of Amazon’s products and for any products purchased you make a 4-7% commission off the retail sales price as a general rule paid directly from Amazon to you. Amazon uses their exact discount pricing and shipping, maintains the inventory, processes the sales and sends out the product(s). The only difference is that Amazon instead of getting 100% of the revenue gets around 94%, you get 6% and the customer gets the same great discount prices. So if you order from me, you’re not paying any more than you would on Amazon and essentially Amazon’s 6% or so supports this Blog! For example see, www.GiftsandFreeAdvice.com The Easy Store isn’t free and it will probably cost you if you buy it with a custom logo around $200. Without a logo its probably around $120. The software isn’t complicated and the Software with the Blog software will be installed for free by Zeus Publishing who will go over everything with you and be available for technical help.
Section 4. Getting the Blog (WordPress) Software and Adsense, E-Commerce and Hosting If You Wish
As mentioned previously, I use Zeus Publishing to do everything for me and I am very happy with everything they’ve done for me. This isn’t meant as an infomercial as its my unsolicited non-compensated endorsement of a company I’m very happy with who does excellent, fast quality reliable work and are pleasant to deal with. Feel free to deal with other companies, I can only tell you what works for me and your welcome to deal with them. If you want a similar WordPress Blog set up like mine with Adsense installed, an Easy Store as part of the Blog and Hosting, I recommend you contact Zeus. Here is a contact name and number for you: Jim Foley, jimf@zeusdesign.us, Tel: (401) 625-1550 The price in my opinion is quite reasonable and affordable. Or as I said, feel free to go through different companies.
Section 5. Once You Have Your Blog Online
Here are some of the things I’ve learned if you want better traffic. Remember this won’t happen overnight.
1. Always use a picture or illustration on each of your Blogs. I made the mistake of not doing this the first few months and it cost me dearly. Try to use whenever possible something that will catch ones eye in a good way. I invested $30 in software that lets me merge 2 pictures as one master picture which I couldn’t do without in my blog called Picture Merge Genius
2. Always make the Title of your Blog as exciting and eye catching as possible with important key words under 66 characters including spaces whenever possible. Make sure there are Meta Tags in your software for the title of your article and they are picking up the title. Unbeknown to me, for a few months Google was picking up the wrong titles for my blogs because of some kind of error which I’ve since corrected. The easiest way to make sure this is correct is spot checking every once in a while by putting your blog post URL into the Google Search Bar like this one: www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/free_advice/free-blogging-guide-step-by-step-guide-to-blogging-and-making-money-revised/ and seeing that the title matches the description.
3. Write whenever possible on current, new and exciting things and ideas and people that are on the news and in the public’s eye as opposed to things and memories from your life unless it applies to everyone else. I read the news online about 10 times a day for anything interesting. The Internet is your main news source. For instance, I found a photo of Sara Palin pregnant 20 years ago and I put it next to a picture of her supposedly pregnant with Trig and made that into a separate Blog with my opinion of the whole thing, and I got about 15,000 readers. Mind you, I just got lucky but that beats hardly any readers reading about my favorite first grade teacher! It will probably take you a few months to pick this up. Just remember while you and your family may love your personal stories and your philosophy of life, most people could care less. I’m now up to about 90,000 unique readers a month most of whom probably found my Blog Posts via Google and other Search engines.
4. Make sure Google in fact indexes your Blog. I find that if you use http://blogsearch.google.com/ping manually each time your blog should appear within 30 minutes on Google or at least mine does. Every once in a while it may be a lot longer. Again to check that it is indexed, put the URL of the blog post in Googles search bar like www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/free_advice/free-blogging-guide-step-by-step-guide-to-blogging-and-making-money-revised/
5. Try to avoid alienating a large group of people if you don’t have to. I wrote many blogs on Sarah Palin that were not favorable and I’m sure I alienated many people from reading my blog again. On the other hand, I also gained many readers. This was something I had no choice in. However I was going to write a Blog about the kinds of women one shouldn’t date if you don’t want hassles but didn’t publish it as I figured it would alienate too many of my women readers who are a valuable audience. Use common sense. If the negatives outweigh the pluses, don’t write about it.
6. Try to be as prolific as possible. When I originally started, I thought I’d write 3-5 blogs a week. Instead I’m writing over 15+ a week, 2-4 daily. I find its best to start writing as soon as an idea comes to me. As I said, the beauty of blog writing is your Blog posts don’t have to be that long- This Massive Blog Pst is an exception.. The more prolific you are the chances are you’ll get a larger audience and make more money!
7. For your tags as well as Adsense use Google Keywords Tool Make sure you set this so it shows average CPC in descending order and remember there are 2 parts in this column! Under choose columns pick ALL. Use the highest payable applicable words and phrases. Whenever possible also try incorporate some of them in your post but don’t just list them or use them unnaturally because Adsense won’t count them as legit.
8. It you own any other e-commerce sites, list them after your blog ends as people might go to these sites.
9. Log on and Register for technorati.com Each time you publish a blog ping it on technorati. Just use your blogs original URL not the individual url of the blog post you just published.
10. Log on and Register for Digg.com Each time you publish a blog ping it on Digg. Use the blog you just posted URL which you get by going clicking its title on your blogs home page. In this case it would be www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/free_advice/free-guide-to-starting-a-blog-and-making-money-blogging-step-by-step/
11. I also have http://rpc.pingomatic.com in my blog which automatically pings me.
12. Get listed on Feedburner.com
13. Tags serve as Keywords for indexing in Browsers like Google.
14. I would have a short excerpt summary for each blog
15. You can have more than 1 categories for a blog as applicable.
16. I use WordPress. I would recommend you find out if you have WordPress All in One SEO and even though it essentially duplicates info you have in Tags, Excerpt and Title fill it out by just cutting and pasting as it may help you in the Google Search engines and increase your Adsense Revenue.
17. If you use the Hosting Package from Zeus (Madfire) you can check any time how many visits to your blog and see which blogs get the best traffic and which get the worst.
18. I would put the following generic statement underneath the ending of each blog post (Take the quotations out) “If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on Digg, Reddit, Stumbleupon, Propeller, or anywhere else.”
More on Pinging and Other Important Blog Tips
1. I would use http://pingmyblog.com/ Click Here to Manually Ping each time you post a new Blog as I get great results. Always use your Blogs Home Page URL not the URL of the Blog Post. I ping whenever I finish writing my blog regardless of the day or time.
2. To reiterate, use http://blogsearch.google.com/ping Click Here and manually ping Google with your Blogs URL not Blog Post’s URL and omit the “www.” when you submit it. I find this is the best and fastest way to get your Blog Post indexed in Google.
3. YouTube Video. You can put you tube videos directly into your WordPress blog (I’m not sure about other Blog software. You need to research this) without any additional software or plug ins by just cutting and pasting everything listed in Embed on the right side of YouTube videos (Note I couldn’t find anything for the Britain’s Got Talent Channel). Here is a great instructional video on this if you need help. Click Here
4. I’d limit the Number of Blog Posts on your Blogs home page from 5-10. I use 10 on mine. I’m not quite sure the reasoning on this but everyone says to do it that way. Always have your full Blog Posts on your Blog Home Page as shortened versions may possibly not be indexed.
5. Sign your up for as many important directories as you can. I honestly don’t quite understand this but its suppose to help your blog traffic.
6. When linking to another post, always make sure the link opens up in a new window or else the reader will have lost your blog page. You can link to another page by using this HTML language: For the bolded URL and the bolded Words, substitute the URL you wish to link to and your wording, leave the spacing exactly as I have it with the applicable space: <a href=”http://www.giftsandfreeadvice.com/free_advice/” target=”_new”>Gifts and Free Advice Blog Homepage</a>
Keep this Guide for Reference and the Main Thing to Remember is it will probably take a 4-5 months till you start drawing decent traffic and get the full hang of everything. As a rule, you can’t buy real traffic online even if you see ads that say you can. In my opinion you’ll be wasting your money with that “traffic” as I doubt any of them will click adsense or buy e-commerce items.
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