- How To Make Money On Line
There are a ton of different ways to make money on the Internet. This article is not going to cover all of them. This article is only going to cover one of the very best ways to make money on the Internet. It is the method that we personally use. It is called niche blogging.
If you don't know what a "blog" is, we encourage you to read the following article by Darren Rowse: "What is a blog?"
The truth is that there are literally millions of blogs on the Internet today, but very few of them are successful and even fewer of them make a decent amount of money.
But that is our goal.
In fact, that is the goal of most bloggers.
So how do you do it?
How do you build blogs that will make you money not only this month, but for many years down the line?
The truth is that there is not a "magic formula", but in this article we will give you the information that you will need to set up a "niche blog" and how to give it the best chance to rank high in the search engines.
But none of the tips that you are about to read will replace hard work.
Without a ton of hard work you just are not going to make a lot of money on the Internet.
So if you are looking for a "get rich quick" scheme you have come to the wrong article.
But if you are willing to learn and willing to work then you can make money. Thousands of people are making excellent money by setting up niche blogs even as you read this.
Okay, so are you ready to get started?
#1) Choose The Niche For Your Blog
When setting up a "niche blog", the first thing you need to do is to pick your niche. Successful bloggers tend to pick a subject to blog about that they know a lot about and that they are passionate about. Personally, my wife and I have set up a LOT of blogs, and the blogs that always do the best are the ones that are about a topic that we truly love. So don't necessarily gravitate toward a topic that you think will make money - especially when you are first starting out. Instead, we encourage you to pick something to blog about that you really love. Blogging about a subject that you are really into will help you from getting burned out as well.
Once you have gotten your feet wet by starting a couple of blogs, then you can branch out and start selecting blog topics based on their potential profitability. In fact, the short video below will guide you through the process of choosing a profitable blog topic for a niche blog....
*Video: "How to Start a Blog - Step 1: Pick Your Niche"
#2) Select Your Keyword
It is going to be extremely important to select a good keyword for your blog. This is how search engines are going to find you. For example, "cat sweater" is a keyword. People who are interested in finding a "cat sweater" are going to type that phrase into Google. In order for Google to rank your niche blog highly for that search term, you are going to want to put that phrase into the title of your blog, into the description of your blog, into the titles of many of your blog posts and you will want to sprinkle that phrase throughout your blog posts. But don't overdo it or Google will penalize you. The key to all of this is for people who are interested in the topic of your blog to be able to find it. If you name your blog "I love potato chips" when it is all about cat sweaters, Google and the other search engines are simply not going to find you or bring much traffic to your blog.
#3) Select Your Domain Name
You will also want to incorporate your keyword into your domain name. If you wanted to use "cat sweater" as your keyword, ideally you would choose something like "catsweater.com" for your domain name. However, often the best domain names are already gobbled up, so you might have to use something like "catsweaterguide.com" or "catsweatertips.com". Having your keyword somewhere in your domain name is going to give you extra juice with the search engines. The following short video will give you additional information about how to select a domain name....
*Video: "How To Choose A Domain Name"
#4) Register Your Domain Name
The next step is to register your domain name. This is the part where things start to get a little technical, but after you do it the first time it is a piece of cake. So don't get intimidated - the end result is very much worth it.
We purchase all of our domain names from the same place. GoDaddy.com is the world's #1 domain name registrar, and they have incredibly cheap prices and great customer service. We have purchased dozens of domain names through them and it is always very quick and easy. You can purchase a domain name through GoDaddy.com right here.
If you are doing this for the first time, we highly recommend that you follow the step-by-step instructions in the videos below. It can be a little tricky the first time through, but the videos will get you through the process without any problems....
*Video: "How To Register A Domain Name"
#5) Sign Up For Website Hosting
Now that you have a domain name, you will need somewhere to host your sites. You can do that at GoDaddy.com, but we use Host Gator because they are less expensive for hosting and they do a great job.
We have not had any problems with Host Gator and they handle spikes in website traffic very well.
Hosting your website on Host Gator is really easy. You can sign up for a hosting account on Host Gator by clicking here.
Once again, don't let this process intimidate you. It is not that hard. In fact, if this is your first time doing this, just let the two videos below guide you step-by-step through the process....
*Video: How To Buy Hosting on Host Gator
*Video: Pointing Your Domain At Your Hosting Account
#6) Install And Set Up WordPress
WordPress is the blogging software that the vast majority of professional bloggers use. It is free, easy to use and it is being constantly updated. Once you have set up hosting with Host Gator, installing WordPress and setting it up is a breeze.
The following three videos will take you step-by-step through the process of installing WordPress, setting up a new WordPress theme for your site and installing the very important "All-In-One SEO Pack Plugin" for WordPress....
*Video: Finalizing Hosting And Installing WordPress
*Video: How To Install A New WordPress Theme
*Video: How To Install The All-In-One SEO Pack Plugin For WordPress
#7) Start Blogging
Before you put up any ads, you will want to start writing and putting up articles. This is the fun part. If you are new to blogging, we encourage you to read over Darren Rowse's excellent blog about blogging: ProBlogger.
#8) Choose The Right Ad Programs
Once you have got your blog going for a bit you can start to put up ads. This is how you are going to make money. People are going to come to your blog and then they are going to click on the ads. That is the beautiful thing about niche blogging - you never have to sell anything, ship packages or deal with customers. You make money from the ad revenue that your blogs bring in. You will want to select ad networks and affiliate programs that relate well to the subject of your blog. After all, a blog about cat sweaters is not going to do a very good job of getting people to click on ads about football jerseys.
The following are the ad networks that we use. Each one has different policies and procedures, so be certain to read the rules for each ad network as you sign up for them....
*Ebay Partner Network - If you sign up with the Ebay Partner Network, we highly recommend that you use the phpBay Pro WordPress plugin to feature Ebay items on your website. That plugin will enable you to create pages that are constantly updating with the latest items up for sale on Ebay that relate to your niche.
#9) Write Great Content
This is the most overlooked step by most bloggers. The truth is that there is a ton of garbage out there on the Internet. In order to get your blog to stand out you are simply going to have to write something either really good or really helpful. Always remember - content is king in the world of blogging. If your articles are great then your blog has a good chance of succeeding in the long run. If your content is trash, you might be able to generate some blog traffic for a little while but in the end your blog will be a failure.
For much more on how to succeed as a blogger, we recommend the following excellent resource from Darren Rowse: ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income.
#10) Build Your Links
Once you have built your blog, you are ready for the traffic to start pouring in. But it will not "pour in" at first. It will come a little sprinkle at a time in the beginning. In order to get a ton of traffic from the search engines, you will need to get on to the first page of Google for your keyword. To get on to the first page of Google you have to build lots of links to your blog. Google basically looks at links as "votes" for your site. The sites that get the best and the most links are the sites that are going to rank the highest for that keyword (everything else being equal). The Google ranking formula is actually extremely complicated, but links always have been, and probably always will be, an absolutely crucial factor in determining how high your site will be ranked.
So how many links will you need to get your blog on to the first page of Google? For a non-competitive keyword you may only need 10 links, while for a really competitive keyword you may need a million links. A great tool for seeing how competitive your keyword is going to be is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. That tool will show you how much traffic is typically generated for your keyword. The higher the traffic that keyword typically generates, the more competition you will probably have.
When you are first starting out, it is best to target keywords that are not highly competitive. After you have been successful in getting on to the first page of Google for some non-competitive keywords, then you will have the confidence to battle for some bigger keywords.
So how do you build the links that you will need to get on to the first page of Google. The two articles listed below provide plenty of ways to start getting those links....
*Article: How to Really Build Backlinks and Dominate Google
*Article: Getting Website Traffic in 2010
#11) See What Is Working And What Is Not And Refine Your System
The Internet is constantly changing, so you must continually monitor your results. If you do not know how to use Google Analytics, you will need to learn how to. It will tell you how many visits your blog is getting and where your traffic is coming from. When you find something that is working for your blog, you know that you can repeat that for another blog. When you find something that is not working you know that you need to refine your system.
Becoming a very successful blogger is not going to happen overnight.
It takes time and a massive amount of hard work. In fact, in your first month of blogging you will be lucky to make a couple of bucks.
But if you stick with it you can definitely make a lot of money blogging.
In fact, one day when you are sitting at home working in your underwear making more money than you ever dreamed you will want to thank us for telling you the truth.
Unfortunately, statistics show that over 90 percent of those reading this article will not stick with blogging long enough to succeed.
If you want to be a successful blogger, tell yourself that you are determined to be in the 10 percent that simply will not give up until you have achieved victory.
It is not easy, but great rewards have always taken incredibly hard work.
After all, who ultimately becomes Olympic champions - the thousands that just dabble in a sport or the few who commit everything that they have to becoming the best that they can be?
If you are willing to commit and work very hard, you can be wildly successful at blogging and you can make a lot of money on the Internet.
But will you?
