To create a successful blog, unique content is always a good thing – Google loves it and so do readers. The quality of the writing however is open to interpretation. If you want regular readers who Stumble your site to come back every time you post then you will need articles or posts that people enjoy reading. You want them to go away saying ‘Hey that was a fantastic idea/post/joke” and they will bookmark your blog or sign up for an RSS feed’. The content for your blog should normally be something you’ve either written yourself or you’ve paid a ghost writer to write and post on your behalf.

I won’t explain what a blog is and what it’s used for in this article. I’ll just concentrate on ways you can make money with your blog. There are five main categories we’ll look at to make money with your blog.

1. Selling advertising
2. Selling other peoples products
3. Soliciting contributions
4. Marketing your services or products and
5. Deepening your customer relationships.
   

If I was to ask anyone to name a company that was synonymous with the word ‘web’ or ‘internet’ I bet they would say Google. The big G is by far the biggest advertising company in the world. Lots of people would say “But they are a search engine aren’t they?” – to tell the truth not really. They only really show you the content they want you to see. They index every page they come across and then choose what sites to show you when “Google” a keyword phrase. They show you the best sites related to that keyword phrase and they attach ads that are relevant to those keywords. What they do well is sell advertising in addition to providing high quality search results.

Advertising by using contextual ads on a blog is by far the most common means of making money off your blog. You place a simple bit of code on your site (after signing up to the advertiser’s service) and it will show ads that fit your content. So if you were writing about televisions your ads would show ads for televisions and so on. People click on the link in the ad and you get paid. Mostly pennies but they all add up.

Affiliate programs are also a really good way of making money with your blog. Let’s think if you were talking about the latest album from a top singer on your blog, you could easily put up a link or picture that would take them to either Amazon or CD Baby and you would make money when they buy the CD.

Using an old cap in hand trick – you could easily put a quick button on your blog asking for donations. Paypal can help you with this and you would be pleasantly surprised how many people donate.

If you have a product or you offer a service – keep a blog about it, tell people what you sell or that you will make a bespoke website for them – again a very direct way of making money from your blog.

Something most people don’t think about – a blog can also be a way of keeping your customers ‘in the loop’ of the happenings of your company. Keep them informed, give them a chance to comment and they will stay a customer for years to come!

I’ve put together a list of my favorite WordPress Plugins that will optimize your [tag-tec]Wordpress[/tag-tec] blog for the search engines. [tag-ice]Wordpress[/tag-ice] is already SEO friendly but these plugins will supercharge your blog.

You can download the list of my favorite WordPress plugins  on my NetBizExpert website

The deadline passed on Saturday for Yahoo’s response to Microsoft’s bid to merge the two internet giants. Microsoft feels that they need to join forces with Yahoo for both companies to survive the Google onslaught. Alone Microsoft or Yahoo doesn’t stand a chance.  Marc Andreessen has a great analysis of the deal in his blog at:

http://blog.pmarca.com/2008/04/if-microsoft-go.html

The Wall Street Journal also has their take on the deal at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120928269478947675.html?mod=technology_main_whats_news

Meanwhile Yahoo is busy making paid search deals with Google and has approached other companies like AOL/Time Warner about merging. It looks like Yahoo will try anything to avoid merging with Microsoft. There was no word today from Yahoo or Microsoft so stay tuned. Are they working out a deal or are they just avoiding each other. Something big is going to happen before this ends whether it’s a new company called MicroHoo or Yahoo will jump in bed with someone else to avoid the hostile takeover bid.

I’ll keep you posted!

I’ve been learning about web 2.0 and playing around with it for about 2 years now. It is a really effective tool for building relationships, attracting clients, and driving traffic to your blogs and websites. My business is booming and i have a steady stream of leads coming in daily. The downside, it can be a full time job being "social". If I spend 40 hours a week building relationships online, when do I have time to do the work for my clients? When do I have time for myself? I’m working at least 6 days a week right now and spending at least 12 hours each day in front of my computer. Although I love playing with technology and new sites on the internet, this isn’t the perfect lifestyle I wanted to create.

I found a great blog post today Chris Garrett’s blog at http://www.chrisg.com/need-digg-power-account/ that discusses the obsession with trying to dominate the social media pages. It’s very difficult and time consuming to get a post on the first page of Digg or del.icio.us. It’s even harder to stay at the top over time. Chris reitterates the fact the you shouldn’t worry about dominating the social media sites. Just focus on creating high quality content that helps your prospects and customers and the social media gurus will find you.

Blogging has been around for some time now but most people still think blogs are just personal diaries written by lonely people that ramble aimlessly. Blogs have come of age and today there are many really cool blogs that contain very useful and entertaining information. In fact, many businesses now use blogs to carry on extended conversations with their customers.

If you’re in business for yourself and you’re not blogging then you need to read this article I found in the New York Times. Read this article to see how you can make a huge impact with a very small investment of time and money. Check out the article at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/27/business/smallbusiness/27sbiz.html

Feel free to comment on this post to let me know if you’re blogging and if it’s working for you. If you’re not blogging leave a comment and tell me why you’re not blogging.

Until next time.

Ted