How to Make Money Online: Part Two (Blogging)

By
FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com
 – January 19, 2011Posted in: Money

Previous: How to Make Money Online Part One

So this is something I have a little experience with, with this blog and The Everyday Minimalist. With a blog you can make money quite a number of ways. Blogging is more time intensive than searching on Swagbucks but a heck of a lot more fun.

Disclaimer: I am not a “pro” blogger nor do I ever want to make a living off my blogs

Blogging doesn’t replace my income.

If you are more serious about your blog than I am, you can make it your full-time job but it’s not a cakewalk.

AN IMPOSTER FB AROUND THE WEB:

I’ve noticed in my Google Alerts that someone posing under my name “Fabulously Broke in the City” has been going around the web and making comments.

Some nice comments with others quite rude!!!

I want to make it clear that this is not me. I normally post under “FB”, “Fabulously Broke” or “FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com”. Thanks!

The Start-Up Work:

  • Find a blog theme: What do people want to read? This I’ve struggled with but now I think I’m in a groove.
  • Find a blog name: Seriously difficult. It defines your blog and like this blog’s name, it’s hard to get rid of.
  • Figure out your angle: “Real” bloggers with pictures & names do far better than semi-Anons like me. 🙁
  • Set up your keywords: What keywords are people searching that make the most money?
  • Set up a custom domain: You’ll eventually buy a name. Something short, easy to remember & spell.
  • Set up a hosting provider: With a domain you need to host it. I use Bluehost but many people hate ’em.
  • Design your blog: Highly recommend WordPress. You need to pick a design, set up the plugins, etc.

Once all THAT is out of the way, you have to start blogging a lot and consistently if you are serious.

Keywords and rankings are especially important, and doing a little research on what people want to know the most about, and then writing about that will usually do the trick.

Or at least, that’s what they tell me 😉

Me, I have no plan. I write about whatever I want.

How often should you blog?

  1. Once a week with dense, thought-provoking posts
  2. 3 times a week so you don’t overload people <– my approach
  3. Daily so you get people coming back to the page everyday

Because of time considerations, I moved from blogging daily, sometimes multiple times a day to three times a week.

This really helped with my scheduling too, seeing as I tend to write many posts at once, and I just keep scheduling them up, building a buffer.

That said, I do blog daily when I find there’s just too much and it can’t wait for 2-3 months.

The Avenues of Money Making:

While you’re blogging, you can make money in a few ways:

  • Google Adsense: Place ads on your blog and hope people click on them if they’re interesting.
  • Amazon Associates: For stuff you’d really buy (or have bought) put links to Amazon and get a commission
  • E-Junkie: Advertise other bloggers E-Books
  • PayPerPost: Write sponsored posts for $1 – $20.
  • SocialSpark: Sister site of PayPerPost. Sponsored posts for $1 – $20.
  • Advertising offers: Companies will email you with advertising links or posts.

Finally, you can Sell the Blog

Then at the end of it you can sell the blog. There are plenty of people out there who are blog flippers.

They pick a niche, pick a name, they set up the keywords and put the time in to write relevant content to drive traffic to that blog, then they sell it.

Or they keep it going and collect the $$ in Adsense revenue. Even at $30/month, multiplied by having 10 other blogs like this, you’re looking at $300/month with a potential for growth.

Don’t think that this is easy either. You have to learn how to build and drive traffic for those keywords towards your niche site, and that kind of work doesn’t happen over night.

It also isn’t as fun, and sucks the life/love out of blogging (for me anyway). It’s not my style.

Blog Worth Calculators:

FB`s PERSONAL EXPERIENCE:

As with everything there are always exceptions. You could start one month and get 3000 subscribers the next, depending on how you go about it.

(I have never reached this, but I know of other bloggers who have claimed to have done this).

But make no mistake, this is like a part-time to a full-time job.

I am not joking when I say that there are days where I put in 7 hours fixing the site, replying to emails, writing content, setting up posts, taking pictures and so on.

On average, I check and work on the blogs at least half an hour to 3 hours a day.

You can always manage to do it if you have a schedule in place.

I see it more as a free, fun hobby than a way to make money, which is probably why I’m not really into blog stats, doing keywords and all that blog ranking stuff (other than for fun).

I don’t think I have a LOT of ads on my pages, and I always struggle with myself to keep it clean and ad-free, but not so much that I don’t make any money.

Credit

TO BE A GOOD BLOGGER, YOU HAVE TO BE A GOOD READER!

Think about your blog this way: Would I read what I am writing about and find it interesting?

If yes, carry on.

If no, well.. you know what to do.

This is what I mean when I say “I write for myself”, I basically imagine myself as the reader and then I write accordingly.

As a reader, I do tend to be all over the place, so I like that my posts on here are not all about money management, or about a career. It’s a lifestyle blog with money talk.

Not everyone will love this approach (sorry guys), but it’s what makes me happy.

Build up a good amount of scheduled posts

You don’t need to do a huge buffer like I do (I realize I’m insane), but it sure takes a lot of pressure off on having to post when you have posts for the next while or so.

For me, with a full-time job, a life and stuff that has to get done, I couldn’t make it without my scheduled posts at least 3 times a week.

And what if I travel for a month? I won’t have time to write. Hence, scheduled posts.

As for finding the inspiration to write posts, I make a note on anything I think might be interesting and then I sit down and bust it out.

I don’t write outlines or ideas for posts and call it scheduled. When I schedule a post, it means it’s ready to be published in full, with pictures, links and content.

I’ve also picked up the habit of revisiting my posts before the go-live date, and tweaking as the day goes on.

Spend time on your blog design

Ugly blogs make me cry.

Coincidentally, I JUST finished re-modeling The Everyday Minimalist (I threw in the towel and hired someone to help me with the PHP).

Go check it out 🙂

As a reader, I am not very likely to enjoy going to the blog if I can’t do any of the following:

  • can’t find where to comment
  • can’t comment at all (some blogs have messed up code)
  • makes it difficult for me to comment because of captchas, registration BS, etc
  • can’t find an RSS feed to subscribe to
  • …or no RSS feed at all!
  • can’t find a contact form or email address to talk to you
  • colours are jacked up and hurt my eyes because things aren’t lined up, or the font is all weird
  • blog is too cluttered with either ads, posts, or just isn’t very pleasant to look at
  • have to watch the loading times

I use a lot of photos, and I like to cram a lot of info into a page, so I am trying to find a balance between both blogs with beauty, info and advertising. I experiment a lot, and see what works and what doesn’t.

Of course, if the content is awesome 100% of the time, it could be black text on white and you would never need to work on any blog design.

I am not there yet, and I like prettiness 🙂

Spend time building your networks

  • Read other bloggers’ blogs and keep finding new ones to read and promote
  • Comment on their work with meaningful questions or comments (don’t leave a pithy comment)
  • Promote other bloggers, including putting them on your Blogroll if you think they’re good
  • Help the community by offering suggestions and your expertise
  • Don’t comment on blogs for the sake of publicity (bloggers can see right through you)
  • Use Twitter and do not be a deadbeat by not replying to your @replies
  • Join Facebook and network a bit here and there (honestly, I rarely use Facebook directly)
  • Be available and open to questions and reply as honestly as you are able to
  • You can also ask to be on other people’s blogrolls, but I’m not a fan of doing this
  • You can also sign up and get a Formspring account so anyone can ask you a question, but I don’t do this

Avoid alienating or annoying your readers!

  • Only commenting and linking to other blogs in your network — surefire way to alienate the rest of us
  • Leaving the default as auto-subscribe to your comments feed on a post
  • Sending automated & impersonal “thank you for commenting” emails — I delete these & never return
  • Having annoying pop-ups on your blog to subscribe to your stuff
  • Having 3 levels of security for others to leave a comment. 1 or none is enough.
  • Promoting your blog (not posts, but just the blog) all the time or the new book you just published
  • Constantly blogging about stats and rankings as a weekly post
  • Obsessing over your rankings on anything and ASKING people to love your blog & posts
  • Not writing at all because you are stressing out over being perfect or a superstar
  • Writing posts about how sorry you are for not writing
  • Never allowing people to see flaws or mistakes you’ve made
  • Not connecting and interacting with your readers even on Twitter when they @reply you
  • Trying to cram too much advertising into links you share or posts, or whatever

These are most of the things I have been guilty of at one point or another, with the exception of some.

Write from the heart

Forget about stupid blogging advice like: it’s easy, just write awesome content.

Well DUH!

Look, if I could write awesome content 100% of the time I would do it!

But sometimes even your best efforts fail. I write posts I think are great, and people are ho-hum. Then I write some random piece while munching on chocolate, and it goes gangbusters.

Write often, write from the heart and do not try so damn hard.

Your writing voice will come to you. In the beginning you are unsure and new at it all. It takes a while to find what works for you and brings the best results for you so don’t freak out.

You are going to make mistakes, and you will make big ones (I did, anyway). You will alienate readers, and push away lots of good advice and things in the beginning because you’re such a know it all (still talking about myself :P).

Now, I feel older and wiser. I’m on my 4th year of blogging (it’s been 3 full years so far), and I think I have finally found a style of writing that works for me.

I think.

Making money online is impossible without hard work

You can certainly do things like fill out surveys and all that, but it doesn’t take a lot of thinking, and isn’t very difficult. For the things that bring in more money, they are usually more time-intensive and difficult.

Anything worth getting, is worth working for. I find that blogging fits with my lifestyle best, but it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Good luck!

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About the Author

Just a girl trying to find a balance between being a Shopaholic and a Saver. I cleared $60,000 in 18 months earning $65,000 gross/year. Now I am self-employed, and you can read more about my story here, or visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist.