A Fresh Look At How To Make Money From Your Blog

If your a blogger or you might be among those few, who don’t have a blog yet but they’re eager to find out what’s all about and ready to start one.You have probably  heard great success stories about how a blog helped many people to improve their financial status, or  helped entrepreneurs to develop and to brand their personal businesses.

Either that's the case, or you're someone who has something new and great to share with the world, you should or actually must nowadays have a blog of your own and start self-publishing (blogging) and self-marketing (social media).

Know Your Audience

Start by identifying your audience, what problems they face and most important what can you do about it. The thing with blogs is that everybody can write one, but most certainly just a few will get revenue from it. And there's a simple explanation for that: you have to put value in what you write. If your posts are relevant to your followers meaning that by writing them you reach your audience's needs, the chances are that your blog will be successful.

One way of finding your niche (and one of the most popular) is to ask yourself what do you like/know most ? In what area of interest are you feeling most comfortable talking about? After reaching a conclusion you then need to put that against what will most likely answer to a reader's problem. Once you've climbed the three this far, you can start enjoying the fruits. From the plethora of monetization models available, you'll find below a handful of solutions that will make your blog sell.
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Five Strategies To Immediately Boost The Sales Of Your Business Blog

Guest Post - Our host is Aileen Pablo, In this post focused on Business Blogs Aileen has tips to boost your sales.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

You have a young business that is organized, staffed, and ready to go through the roof. Your product or service is sound, and now all you need to do is focus on boosting sales.

But how should you go about doing this in a way that won’t completely break the bank? One of the best ways is by creating a blog to help drive traffic to your business’s website. This will help boost the sales of your business in more ways than you ever thought possible – but you have to follow the right steps and use your blog correctly.

Here are five strategies that will boost your business’s sales through the use of your blog:
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Which is More Important in Blogging: Money or Reputation ?

Guest Post - Our host is Jessica Simmons, Jessica looks at the fine line between making money on your blog and keeping a good reputation with your readers.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

Choosing between money and reputation is like choosing between meat and bread—there is fulfillment with reputation, but money offers a special kind of satisfaction.

It’s true that for a lot of blogs, the quality of the website diminishes when earning money is prioritized. Most of the site’s space that was once dedicated for relevant content is now replaced by random advertisements.

The problem though with standing up for a good reputation is that it may affect the availability of income-generating resources that are essential to sustain that good reputation. Without sufficient funding, running your site may be terminated.

To better weigh both options, here are actual blogging experiences that were once caught in this dilemma.

Reputation Matters

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How To Use Video To Increase Your Website Revenue

Guest Post - Our host is Neil Davidson, Here using examples and studys Neil shows how video can benifit bloggers and webmasters.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

If your goal is to increase the revenue generated by your website or blog then video is a tool you should most definitely consider. Video is being used online more and more and we are reaching a stage where video is no longer a luxury; people expect it. Take the analogy of two candidates applying for the same job (in this case, your website and a competitors website are the two candidates). Both have exactly the same qualifications and experience... except one of them has a video explaining their benefits. Who is going to get the job? The answer is the one with the video.

Video has qualities that engage viewers far more effectively than static websites displaying lots of copy. Video is visual which is an immediately convenient factor; people prefer passively watching video to putting effort into reading large amounts of text. Also, video is emotional. If used intelligently it will set off emotional triggers in your audience which could be the difference between a sale and someone leaving your website.

Here I have looked at some long-term and some short-term ways that video can help to increase website revenue and offered some handy practical tips for harnessing these to your advantage.
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Are You a Poor Blogger? Here’s How Your Blog Can Make You Richer !

Guest Post - Our host is Efoghor Joseph Ezie, In this post he looks at how many Bloggers are struggling to monetize their blogs and provides some tips to help.See How To Become a guest author on Spice Up Your Blog.

You can be considered a poor blogger if you’ve been in blogging business for over six months and you cannot make at least a hundred dollars per month. If you have been investing your time, money and intellect into your business and your AdSense account is still in the reds, then you don’t have a success story.

How about having been on the Net for over two years and your Google AdSense account is no where near $50? Your guest is as good as mine. Blogging is supposed to be a full time business to a lot of people who are doing it; and when for months and years no tangible income comes into your pocket you are a poor blogger.

I know some would like to criticize me by saying that blogging success is not only measured by the amount of money one gets. They may want to excuse themselves by saying that success could be measured in terms of the number of people who have benefited directly or indirectly from your content.

But providing quality content and making others happy but you end up a debtor, with no money to renew your Internet subscription, pay your domain and hosting renewals and even feed yourself still does not translate to a success story.

If you are still in the categories mentioned above, here are a few things you could do to change you story:
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Make Money On Blogger With Google Affiliate Ads

Blogger have introduced a new way to make money with your blog.Google Affiliate Ads can be easily added to your posts to display links and image ads connected to your content.The ads run through your AdSense account, payments will be added to your AdSense account so of course you will need an AdSense account to run the Affiliate ads.The ads can be easily added via the post settings in your Blogger Post Editor.Importantly Google Affiliate ads are only available to Bloggers in the USA.The Blogger team put together the video below to explain how it works.
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BuySellAds.Com Review And Interview With Founder Todd Garland

In this post we will look at BuySellAds.Com (BSA), a site that makes selling direct advertising on your blog quick and easy while leaving you in control.I also have a short interview with Founder and CEO Todd Garland, Todd took the time to answer a few questions i thought would relate directly to Spice Up Your Blog readers.

BSA was created with the intention of taking the pain out of buying and selling ads, a process that otherwise is time consuming and frustrating.They also display your blog to potential advertisers you otherwise would not be able to attract, advertisers can find your blog in the BSA directory when searching for suitable publishers.

So lets first take a run through the process.

Quick Overview Of BuySellAds.Com

1. Submit your blog - BSA review all blogs before they can join the programme.Your blog must be established, have unique content and a healthy number of monthly impressions.

2. Create Your Ad Zones - Once accepted you can log in and create some zones for ads, Popular zones are the header and sidebar.The main script must be added first then you are provided with code for the actual area the ads appear - Create An Ad Zone Tutorial.

3. Advertise Here - Once you have the ad code in the zones the grey "Advertise Here" banner will appear.Visitors to your blog can click on the banner to view your directory page and purchase ads.

4. Ad Sold - As soon as an advertiser buys an ad the Advertise Here banner will automatically be replaced with their ad.

5. Cash Out - You can request a cash out via Paypal, Cheque or wire transfer once you have $50 Now $20 in your account.

6. Our Fancy Colorful Effects On Banners - You may have noticed the cool effect we use on the BuySellAds banners.Find out how to create it on your blog here : Buysellads.com banner ad effect tutorial.

Remember you are in control of the ad spots you make available, the price you charge and you can change your settings so you have to pre-approve any ads before they are displayed.You can get a full list of help articles from installing the ad zones to getting paid here - BuySellAds Help

Interview With BSA Founder Todd Garland

I asked the BSA Founder and CEO a few questions, here is what he had to say.

Spice Up Your Blog - I notice most of the sites selling ads on BuySellAds are in the Technology And Web Design Niche.First, do you accept sites from all niches and have you advertisers looking to advertise on other niches ?

Todd Garland - Yes, we accept sites form all niches, from cupcakes, to weddings, to motorcycle blogs and more. We are much stronger in the tech than other verticals, but we’re always working to increase activity for both advertisers and publishers across many verticals outside of tech.

SUYB - As most of my readers are Blogger users have you a policy when it comes to accepting blogs using the Blogger Sub Domain (Blogspot) ? I hear blogs using the sub domain are less likely to be accepted.

TG - That is correct. In our experience, .blogger sites tend to have lower traffic than is required to sell ads directly to advertisers with a system like BSA. Sure, there are edge cases and this does not apply to all .blogger sites.

SUYB - Are the links in the Ads Do-Follow ?

TG - We don’t specify. The ads are served us using JavaScript and we do not sell them with the intent of the ads passing any SEO value.

SUYB - Apart from Impressions what do you think is a sites main selling point (Alexa Rank, Page Rank, Followers, Fans etc..) ?

TG - I think it’s the quality of content on their site and the number of existing advertisers they have.

SUYB - What tips if any would you give to users to help sell more ads ?

TG - Write the best content you can write, hustle, and grow your community.

Sponsored Tweets

At the time of writing BuySellAds.Com have just launched a new feature called Sponsored Tweets.As the name suggests advertisers can "Buy A Tweet" on your Twitter account.For more information check out the BSA Blog Post On Sponsored Tweets.

You can view the Spice Up Your Blog listing on BuySellAds.Com or Submit Your Blog to BuySellAds.Com and start selling ads today.

Drop Your Comments, Views And Questions Below.

How To Syndicate Blogs For Backlinks And AdSense, Amazon Revenue

AdSense revenue sharing websites are popping up all over the place right now, it seems to be the current Hot trend.Many of the AdSense revenue sharing sites are article submission and Bookmarking sites, basically you sign up and add unique Articles to a site like InfoBarrel or Bookmark your blog posts on 'Digg Type' sites like SheToldMe.These sites publish your content, place AdSense on the pages and share the AdSense revenue with you.This can be a Great help in your efforts to Build those Vital Back links to your blog and making a few AdSense dollars is a nice extra.

I have to admit I'm a fan of both these styles of sites and have build countless back links to my blogs from them.Recently i Stumbled Upon an intriguing website called YouSayToo.Rather than Writing Unique articles or logging in to Bookmark your latest post you can syndicate your entire blog onto their site.Your posts will be grabbed via feed and posted in full on YouSayToo.How will this help your blog and your pocket ?

You Say What ?

When you publish new posts they are syndicated in full on YouSaytToo providing not only back links back to the original post but also bringing your blog to a whole new audience.AdSense and Amazon units are added to the pages with your posts and you get half the earnings from both.It takes less than 10 minutes to Register and add your blog or blogs and your done everything else is on auto pilot.

Getting Started On YouSayToo

1. Follow this link to YouSayToo

2. Click the Join Now Button and fill in your details, verify you Email.

3. Click The Add Your Blog Link and follow the steps of Blog Title, URL, Feed etc..You are also required to add a link to YST on your blog.

4. Add your revenue settings, AdSense ID And Amazon ID.

Your Done all future posts will be automatically syndicated onto You Say Too, you can add more blogs if you like.

Official YST Video

- More Videos And Info

The links in this post are Referral Links so you will join referred by me, once you join you can also referr new members and make extra from AdSense and Amazon.We have more great posts on Making Money From Your Blog and also check out our Blog SEO posts.Have you joined or if your an existing member share your experience in the comments !

Build Backlinks While Earning AdSense Revenue

Back in September i told you how i had been Bookmarking my blogs on Xomba and not only getting Free back links but also earning AdSense revenue.Today i have another great tip for Building easy back links to your blog and once again you earn extra AdSense revenue in the process.This time the site we are looking at is Best Reviewer a brand new website that lets you create 'Tops Lists', put links to your blog in the lists and shares the Revenue from the AdSense with you.In fact you get 100% from the main AdSense unit (Directly under the title) and you also choose what size you want that unit to be.

What Are Tops Lists ?

Tops lists are Top 5, Top 10 style lists in fact you can create a list anywhere from Top 3 to Top 20.You give the list a title like 'Top 10 Blogger Tips And Tricks', name each Tip and add the URL to that tip ! So if you have for example a cookery blog you can create top 5 recipe lists and link to each of the recipes on your blog, once you publish you will have just built 5 back links to your blog.As all you need is a short introduction and conclusion along with your list and a line or two of text on each of the top 5, you can create a full list in less than 5 minutes.Also when filling out your account info you can include your Blog or website address and it appears at the foot of each top list you write, so even if your writing a fun top list or a top list to other sites you still get a back link.

Screenshot - See below a Top 5 List I Created Of Best Magazine Templates With Links Circled



-Each Of The Top 5 Link To A Different Post On Our Template Site www.BestBloggerTemplates.Net

How To Join

Joining is easy, follow this link to Best Reviewer then click the Log In link, you will be provided with the option to create an account.Give your desired username and Email and you can also add your AdSense ID at this stage or leave it until your ready to start creating Tops.Best Reviewer will send you an Email with your new password and a confirmation link.That's it your ready to start building back links and earning AdSense.Note - They generate a password for you but i suggest changing to something you will remember as soon as you log in (Edit Your Account).This site is new so you can get in at the ground level and have your Tops in Most viewed lists etc..Also Best Reviewer is from the makers of popular Article website 'She Told Me' (She Told Me Is Also A AdSense Share Site Check Out She Told Me Here) so you know it will be a success.

Final Note - Remember you can create Top on any subject and you don't have to link to your site or any site you can create fun lists and still Earn some cash, Enjoy !

Also make sure to check out the post on building back links on Xomba here - Paid To Bookmark.

Earn Extra AdSense Revenue And Build Links To Your Blog

In this post i will share with you a way i have not only been building links to my blogs but i have been earning AdSense revenue in the process.When you read the posts in the S.E.O. or Blog Promotion category on Spice Up Your Blog one of the things you will see repeated time and again is the importance of Backlinks.But its not just our posts that repeat the importance of backlinks, no matter were you look for help in promoting your blog and moving your posts onto the first page in search engines the theme stays the same.

For search engines like Google a link to your blog is seen like a recommendation.When Google find a link to your blog on another website or blog they take this as that website or blog recommending your blog.This helps in many ways including helping to boost your blogs Page Rank, a higher page rank will result in Google placing more importance in your content thus placing your posts higher in search results.

You can keep track of the number of links there are to your blog by signing up to Google Webmaster Tools.Your job is to build as many links to not only your blogs homepage but also individual posts on your blog.If your blog is relatively new you should work extra hard, but even the most established blogs still work at building backlinks.There are many ways to start building links to your blog, remember if you provide quality content people will want to link to you and share your content.Bookmarks and Bookmarking websites are one of the most popular ways to get backlinks, sites like Digg, Reddit and others let you and your readers bookmark your posts thus creating a backlink.

Getting Paid To Bookmark

One of the ways i have been Bookmarking Posts from my blogs and building links is by using a site called Xomba.On Xomba you can create a Xomblurb which is the same as a Bookmark.You can create a Xomblurb for your posts and other content from the web in a similar way to Digg, but the sweet part is Xomba display AdSense on their site and give you half the earnings from clicks earned on your pages !




How To Start Bookmarking And Earning

Your first step is to set up a free account, simply Click Here To Go To Xomba in a new window.Follow the steps to open your account and submit your AdSense publisher ID.Once you have published your latest blog post you simply log into your Xomba account and choose the option to create a Xomblurb.You are required to add a short Title and Description as on other Bookmark sites, add the link to your post and publish.That's it you have created a Backlink to your blog, if someone lands on that page on Xomba and clicks an add you will get half the AdSense earnings...Easy...

Bookmarking The Bookmark

You may find the Bookmark you created on Xomba actually ranks higher in search results than the actual post on your blog.This is not a bad thing as it will bring extra visitors to your blog and of course you are earning from the ads on Xomba.So why not also promote your Xomblurb ? You can Bookmark the Xomblurb on other sites like Digg, Twitter and Facebook etc..

I have been creating a Xomblurb for all the posts on my Blogs as well as other interesting content i find.The result is 100's of links to my content and an increase in my AdSense earnings.

Xombites

One of the other options Xomba offers is a AdSense revenue share on full articles.While a Xomblurb is a short Bookmark a Xombite is a full article you can write on any subject.Many Bloggers feel restricted by their blogs and writing on only one subject, Xomba can be a great place to write on a range of subjects and make some money.Once you sign up your can check out how it all works.

Xomba Sign Up Page Here

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post or Click here for other Rss Options. If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

There are other similar websites popping up and im currently checking out two revenue share bookmarking sites.If these sites turn out to be Genuine you will be the first to know.

Let us know your opinion on Xomba once you have signed up..

What Other Ads Can Be Used With AdSense On Your Blog

For bloggers AdSense is the main option when it comes to making money from blogs.In fact AdSense is the only option when it comes to target advertising on your blog.There are two reasons behind this, first under the AdSense terms and conditions (T.O.S.) you may only use one target advertising service on your blog or website.By target advertising what is meant is an Advertiser like AdSense that crawl your blogs content and deliver Ads based on the content of each page.The second reason AdSense is the only option for target advertising is the competition is at best poor.You can only use one so the smart money is on AdSense and not a competitor like Bidvertiser.



Note : Their are some affiliate links in this post for Infobarrel and Chitika.

I go in to this in more dept in a recent article i wrote for InfoBarrel that you may also want to check out for ways to make more money from AdSense that are within the T.O.S. - 12 Ways To Make More From AdSense without getting banned.In fact Joining Inforbarrels AdSense sharing scheme will also help increase your AdSense earnings, you can get all the info on joining here - Make Money From Info Barrel.

Getting back to the subject, we know we cant use two advertisers that use content to target ads at your readers so what advertising can you use ? Lets first look at a few options and then i will tell you what in my opinion is the best option.


Types Of Ads That Can Be Used With AdSense

Directly Selling Advertising On Your Blog - You can sell ad space on your blog, you can sell the ad space directly or use an outside agency to sell the advertising for you.The outside agency like Buy sell ads provide you with "Advertise Here" banners and when people click they buy that space from the agency.The agency is a middleman and takes a cut for it's services.The problem with selling ad space or more to the point getting people to buy the ad space is you need traffic and lots of it.If your blog is not getting a few thousand page views a day its likely to be a waste of time as you wont find buyers.

Affiliate Advertising On Your Blog - Affiliate advertising works in a similar way to selling ad space, you place banner ads on your blog for other websites.The big difference is when you sell ad space you are paid Weekly/Monthly or for impressions with affiliate marketing you get paid when someone clicks and ad on your blog and buys a product or spends money on the advertisers website.You will get paid a commission and the commissions vary for each advertiser.

Some of the options for affiliate advertising include the popular Amazon which can be added automatically for Blogger users.Google have their affiliate branch (Of course) the Google option is the Google affiliate network and this can be connected with your AdSense account.In fact their is no shortage of affiliate marketplaces such as Clickbank and Commission Junction to name a few.

Search Targeted Advertising - While i do display affiliate ads from both clickbank and the Google affiliate network the advertiser i make most from after AdSense is Chitika.Chitika ads work on a Pay Per Click system like AdSense but because they target the ads in a different way you can use them along with AdSense.

How Chitika Ads Work - While AdSense crawl your blog and base the ads on the keywords and phrases used Chitika ads are based fully on search traffic.Once you Sign Up For Chitika and add the code to your blog ads are only displayed to search traffic.So if someone finds this blog by searching Google for Blogger Tips they will be shown ads based on Blogger tips, if someone comes to this blog in any other way Chitika ads will not be displayed (You have the option to use filler ads).

I have Chitika ads in the sidebar of this blog right now - If you came here via a search engine you will see them, if you came directly or via any other link or feed they are not visible.

There is a bit more into the workings of Chitika ads that you can find out on their website or help pages.I would defiantly recommend checking it out and you can get all the extra information and sign up options here : Chitika Ad Network.

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.
If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

With any advertiser including AdSense traffic equals cash plain and simple.But you don't need to be getting monster amounts of traffic, a steady flow of a few hundred page views a day may help pay for your family holiday.

Have You Had Success With Chitika Or Any Of The Mentioned Advertisers Mentioned ?

What advertising if any do you use on your blog ?