Overview
We have assembled some of the best videos on blogs. Some we have made ourselves and we also use Tube Tutorials for others. Visit our special account at Brightcove now by clicking here. It will open in a new window so bookmark it under Blogging Empires.
How and Why Blogs Make Money – As I told you I don’t expect you to just believe me so I have gathered some of the top bloggers from around the world to help you. Listen in while Yaro Starak and Daren Rowse discuss the art of blogging. You can do this while reviewing this page.
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Why – Functionality
Blogs, like any website candrive traffic, make money and do everything a standard static page can do and more, after all they are a form of website, however the reason why they can do this is that they do not just rely on the traditional Search Engine format. They have a much a wider scope to get noticed.
- They are content rich which search engines love.
- They also use Ping and Tags which is another form of SEO.
- You can allow people to use your feeds which can syndicates your information on other sites.
- They are much easier to register in Web 2 formats like social bookmarking.
- You can easily add different plugins to make them a lot more sticky
Recently I set up a number of blogs around an accommodation affiliate program I belong to. I simply went into the affiliate admin of the accommodation program and dragged out a hotel or resort each day and posted it to my blog.
The company wanted to know what key words I was targeting as I was getting very good rankings for a number of the hotel sites. I told them I was using web 2 strategies which were blogging, pinging and social bookmarks etc. They just could not understand why I was doing so well. Most main stream affiliate programs think websites for sales and blogs to deliver information. They are wrong.
So you have a unique advantage over the market place at this time by gaining the skills of blogging.
The second reason is that most people have no idea how to add a lot of functionality to a basic website. Lets face it if you wanted to add a picture gallery or rotating adds you would have to know how to manage all sorts of scripts. Blogs do all this automatically. Google sitemaps, meta tags or secure contact forms, you would have to work out all the scripting etc whereas a blog has plugins which let you do all sorts of neat things like this and in most cases for free. Here watch my photo gallery of Thailand. I just uploaded the pictures and clicked on a link in the editor and I have a gallery. Just click to see the next image.
How – Diverse relationships
Here is the scenario: You have a sales web site and basically you have only a few ways to capture and interact with the visitor. Once you get them to sign up for an email campaign and second they buy a product.
With blogging you have many ways to interact with your visitor. You can do the above two things and you can also supply an RSS feed to allow them to read your information offline or through their own formats, allow them to comment on your posts, add your site to their social bookmarks, easily provide up to date information through posts and much more.
Ok I hear you thinking, I can do all this with a regular site, which is true but you have to set it all up whereas with blogs you load the plugin and much of it is automated.
If you like the standard web page format no worries as the new wordpress can be used like a CMS and have a static front page and then use all the other great features in the other parts of the site just like this one.
But how do you use it to make money?
You do it the same way you would off a conventional website. Join affiliate programs, create your own products, joint venture with other people.
Develop something around what you are interested rather than going for the money and then you monetize it with similar products and services. We are also going to show you how to monetize many of the tactics you will lean in this program..
Example: http://www.msiphotoshop.com I started using Photoshop at the beginning of the year though I have tried for many years before to get my head around it. I guess I am just not the smartest cookie in the jar.
A friend of mine took me through the basics and introduced me to tutorials, actions and some other tips and tricks. It became really easy once I learnt how, so I set up a blog to tell others what I was learning.
So all I do is when I do something I document it as I am doing it and add it to my blog. It really is that simple.
So here is the post I made that gets lots of traffic:
If your just a beginner I have made a very simple to follow beginners video for you covering some of the basics. I did this for my wife on a Sunday afternoon so you see my mistakes, hear the traffic etc but they will show you the basics and get you up and running quickly.
Click here to watch the video.
Here is the action script for the ebook covers I used in the above tutorial Download here. (zip file 117kb)
If you prefer reading here is a great pdf that will also take you through the basics.
After only a few days it was registered in the search engines and getting traffic. This is a shot of my statistics for 2 months and with developing Blogging Empires it is suffering a little but I think you get the idea. This has only been running since the 20th June.
And here is the one to show you that the august figures ar only for the first 19 days.
I monetize it with rotating adds, Commission Junction Photoshop adds, Ebay affiliate ads and I will add other products as it develops. Sometimes I change the advertising to Adsense to see if that is more profitable. I never just rely on one thing to generate income.
So there you have it. Just remember try to incorporate your adds as tastefully as you can in your blogs and you will make a lot more sales than just blatantly putting adds everywhere. Use the sandwich approach. Lots of good information then an add, then more good information then another add.
We will take you through many of the different strategies and tactics we use in the following tutorials so lets go have some fun. Believe me you will be amazed.
4 Quick And Easy Blog Optimizing Tips
1. Use Your Keywords In Your Domain Name
It might be too late if you have already created a blog, but if you start a new one, you should choose a domain name which will contain the keywords you are targeting. For example, if you want to rank highly on the search engines for ‘dog training tips’, then it may be a good idea to include ‘dog training’ somewhere in your domain name. This will make your site appear more relevant to the search engines and visitors.
2. Use Your Keywords In Your Text
Try to add your main keywords into the body of your text. Don’t pepper your text incessantly with your keywords because the search engines will think you are trying to trick them, but do add your main keywords a few times into the text and title of your post. This further increases your blog’s relevance with the search engines.
3. Use Keywords In Your Anchor Text Links
When posting comments on other blogs or posting in forums, include your keywords in your links if you wish to advertise them. For example, you’d want your link to show ‘dog training tips’. Anchor text links are one of the main ways to shoot up the search engine rankings.
4. Exchange Links With Relevant Blogs
Whenever you are reading blogs which are relevant to yours, try to find the owner’s contact information and contact him or her, asking if they would like to exchange links with your site. This is a win-win situation as it benefits both.