Today’s post is a guest post by noted online entrepreneur R.W. Jackson of NewsNotion.com. The goal of R.W’s site is to teach everyone how to earn money from the internet.
If it were easy, everyone would be able to make money blogging, but the truth is that to make money blogging is not easy. It’s a process that takes time and energy.
But, you CAN make money blogging. I’m doing it and so are plenty of other people. The top 100 bloggers are earning six digit incomes from blogging and most of them are more than happy to share the secrets with you. Just like I am doing now.
Since I started blogging in 2001, I’ve made a lot of money at it. Suffice to say that I’ve paid for my house, paid for travels to more than 20 countries, and made a lot of mistakes.
Here are the ten best lessons I’ve learned:
- Domains matter. SEO is not so much a science as a lot of guesswork. One thing I’ve learned is that no matter what anyone says, a domain that contains keywords about your topic makes a difference. My domain for this site is not good, in fact, it sucks. To shortcut your way to lots of traffic and pagerank, get a domain that sums up your topic. A unique short word might seem like a good idea but a better idea would be a longer domain full of keywords.
Not NewsNotion.com but instead BloggerMoneyPro.com, maybe someday I’ll move this, it would be a smart move.
- Tons of content and rich keywords. Most of the money I’ve made has been through having keywords that advertisers pay for, so while it might seem like a good idea to write about bums, bums don’t have money so a better keyword to use would be luxury watches or real estate investment. You can write these into your posts if you are creative. A solid word combo like asbestos lawyer is much better than something like beer can.
- Find a theme that suits your site. If you want to look like a circus or a flower shop, you will not have a great personal injury lawyer blog.
- Maximize your use of plugins. Plugins add functionality to your site, they make it more user friendly, and sometimes they make your site look like garbage…be careful with this one.
- To make money blogging you need to find a way to make money blogging. Research whether affiliates, contextual ads, or actual product sales are the best way for you to make money. If you have a craft site, you can probably sell craft supplies but you may not do so well with laptops and Kindles.
- Add new content as often as possible. The more words and pages you have, the more content you have to sell. Each word is a potential big money maker for your blog. To make money blogging you need to be prolific and creative.
- Bring traffic. No matter what they say about baseball fields, if you build a blog, they may not come. You need to find your readers and bring them to you. Become active in forums, participate on similar blogs by commenting, guest blog, and if you have to, pay someone to bring you traffic through advertising, links, or reviews.
- To make money blogging you need more than one person. A blog is about the people who write it and the people who read it. Never forget that when you write something you are making an agreement to the reader “I will write things you will enjoy reading, as long as you read it.” Break that agreement and you will lose readers. Period.
- Blogging is about people. If people want to read a technical manual about social engineering, they probably won’t go to a blog. People go to blog because they are extensions of people. Don’t be scared to share the person you are with your readers.
- Tricks and scams are short term ways to make money blogging. If you want to make money blogging consistently and for a long period of time, stay away from any sort of tricks and scams. Part of the reason people come to your blog is because they trust you, when you pull bullshit tricks and scams, you violate that trust. If you want to make money blogging, do it in a way you can feel good about. Maybe all those get rich quick schemers make money blogging about bullshit, but let’s face it, they all deserve to eat dirt.
That’s it. Dig around on NewsNotion for more specific tips, but even if you don’t, if you follow these ten easy lessons, you will make money blogging. I’m sure of it.
All the best,
September 24th, 2009 at 4:43 am
I think I had missed many things about this, most of what you have mentioned above, so, thanks.
(stumbled from zenhabits.net
Ayumi´s last blog ..Exotic Natural Scenery
September 24th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I’m having some difficulty in SEO, maybe I don’t bring much thought on it. Anyways, I will try to optimize this area. Thanks for this informative post.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Thanks Jackson for the very useful post. I agree with you about building trust with the readers. Totally no shitting on this. No tricks. no scams. Your blog will go a long way.
September 26th, 2009 at 10:52 am
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
September 26th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
:O So mush Info :O
September 26th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
To start earning money with your blog, initially use Google Adsense but gradually as your traffic increases, keep adding more and more money making programs to your site.
September 26th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
To start earning money with your blog, initially use Google Adsense but gradually as your traffic increases, keep adding more and more money making programs to your site.
September 26th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Having good content can only get you so far unless you also provide a good atmosphere to comment in
September 27th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Choose a domain that’s the best fit for your website concept. Should be concise and unforgettable.
September 28th, 2009 at 7:51 am
I just wish I had all of my domains and sites from 1998-2001, I bet those would be banking in down. It’s kind of sad to think about it, but those examples in your pictures worked their tail off, so major kudos to them!
Josh Zehtabchi´s last blog ..About V2interactive:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
I agree with the use of plugins. There are some sites who just love plugging in all stuff. It makes a horrible site really!
September 29th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
There’s a right use of plugin for a site. Should be careful when choosing one.
September 30th, 2009 at 7:47 am
I think I had missed many things about this, most of what you have mentioned above, so, thanks.
September 30th, 2009 at 8:37 am
i think the easy answer is to build a normal static website and add a nice layout with pictures etc…
September 30th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Add new content as often as possible. True, but add interesting content. Something unique and would grab lots of attention.
October 1st, 2009 at 1:16 pm
The good news about top 100 successful blogger are: They really share knowledge and experience with all who need it. They don’t push to buy product or join blog. They do it naturally. So you can distinguish real money maker from one-day beggar by how they treat you.
Bora Paris dot Com´s last blog ..Price Busters on Halloween Specials Spooky Street
October 1st, 2009 at 10:18 pm
You nailed it! Now I need to start begging.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:47 am
hey, your domain is good, it actually express authority on the first impression. NICE ARTICLE AND NICE BLOG!
thanks,
-Nhoel of http://keywordspeak.com
Nhoel´s last blog ..Foods You Can Eat While You’re On Your PC
October 7th, 2009 at 5:51 am
Couldn’t agree more about the more content the better. If you just keep posting, and keep the content category-specific, then you’re bound to score some good long tail keyword traffic eventually.
But there’s a downside: Knowing that you can never add enough content can make you feel guilty whenever you’re not sitting there cranking it out! So it’s very easy to just keep going until you are exhausted.
That’s why it’s good to have a break and smell the flowers every now and then!
Matt Hayden´s last blog ..Suicide notes on Facebook
October 8th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Stay away from scams. True. If you want to stay longer in this business, better be good.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Stop pulling bullshit tricks and scams. Trust me on this. You’re going nowhere if you think about these things all the time.
November 4th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
I think another key thing is “Don’t believe all the Hype”. There are some bloggers out there that say they are making money but if you look at their Alexa stats etc. They don’t have the traffic to be making what they report they do.
Blogging is hard work, I’ve only been doing it for about 3 month and it is wearing me OUT!
Great post..:)
Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..Free Ad Space!
November 11th, 2009 at 10:18 am
Good article for novice bloggers to maintain blog in effective manner
Earn Through Blogs´s last blog ..Earn Money From Youtube
November 12th, 2009 at 11:02 am
With more people opting to earn money from the comforts of their own homes, you have to be careful as online frauds are scattered around. You need to detect work at home scams, since you might be wasting your effort and time on nothing.
Before joining any money making schemes do research on the company and try to check on how long the company has been in the business.
Do not fall prey on these work at home scams. Keep an eye out for these signs, and if you detect one, report it to the proper authorities right away. You not only need to protect yourself, you need to protect others as well.
Supplemental Income Advocate´s last blog ..Finding the Right Legitimate Home Based Business
November 17th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I like this and I support it! This are main things about making money with blog, but each of this ten has ten more things to improve to make more money.
Top Tip Blogger´s last blog ..Why are all the craze with forex ads
November 23rd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
I just started a blog in hopes to make some kind of income off of it. your tips are very helpsful. i hope i don’t give up too soon.
November 25th, 2009 at 8:00 am
yes. your article is very useful.
December 29th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
I am glad to visit your blog, lots of useful information that I got, hopefully better next year again, happy new year 2010, success was always
February 15th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Proper use of plugins is important. You don’t have to put it all because your site will look like garbage if you do so. I commend you for bringing this issue out.
February 22nd, 2010 at 9:52 pm
Yes domains really matter. It is something that needs to be simple and can easily be remembered.
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:58 pm
I agree on tricks and scam that you pointed out. There’s just no room in stored for them. They deserve to go to hell if they scam on people!
March 1st, 2010 at 12:12 am
Wow. These are helpful tips especially to us who just started blogging. I can’t wait to bring some traffics to my blogs. Hopefully, I will make it.
March 1st, 2010 at 8:39 pm
By having tons of content plus interesting topics, your blog will be a big hit. Think also of your target audience. By this, you would be able to focus so you would have a right direction.