All I really knew was that I wanted to make money using only free blogs and without any capital outlay. That was, if you like, my Mission Statement.
Here are a few things I have learned along the way that may be helpful to newbie bloggers wanting to make money. I don’t claim that everything mentioned is original but it is my slant on things.
This is Part 1 of 3 Posts. They really all need to be read to get the complete picture but, whatever you do, good luck.
(1) CONTENT IS EVERYTHING.
A blog must have good content, otherwise the whole exercise is a complete waste of time. It’s got to be of value for the reader, they won’t bother to return if it isn't. Somehow it's necessary to find a way to give information that will be of use - preferably this should be something original and written by yourself. When I say 'value' I don't necessarily mean this has to be monetary.
When writing try to get over your personality, don’t be afraid to be controversial. Say what you really think and let your readers know who you are. Tell them something about yourself. In my opinion it’s no good being some anonymous hidden person - be upfront and try to be as genuine as possible.
Blog content, of course, builds up over time but it doesn’t have to be forgotten. Two things I feel bloggers should do is:
(i) Refer to previous posts (with links) whenever the opportunity arises. We don’t just want visitors to come to our blogs. We also want them to linger for as long as possible. The longer they stay the more opportunity there is that they will see something that will make you money - an ad, an affiliate program and so on.
I’ll cover making money later. Funnily enough this isn’t the immediate priority when starting a blog, even if your aim is to make money. The important thing when you start out is to develop a good system with your blog, a routine if you like that you follow.
(ii) Make a list of links to what you consider to be your ‘important’ posts in your side column. Do this right from the beginning. Okay a lot of your posts may not be too memorable initially but, hopefully, in time they will be. You can keep this updated and amended when necessary.
Again this is setting a good working practice and, more importantly, it helps to retain your visitors. If someone spots a good title in your side column they must just click on it and stay with you for a few more minutes.
The longer visitors stay the better chance you have of ultimately earning money.
I’ll cover getting more visitors later in this series but four of your main objectives at the beginning must be to:
(i) Write good, informative posts to the best of your ability.
Try to analyse what you write. If you were the reader, and not the writer, would you have gained anything by reading the post? Would, what you have written, make you want to return to the blog to see further posts?
Make sure you have a good title for your post. Give this as much thought as you do to your post. Include ‘keywords’ within your title. Read more about keywords: Keywords Bring Money Making Referrals.
(ii) Attract as many quality visitors as possible.
I’ll cover ways to do this later. Just one thought to emphasise for now: It’s quality visitors you want, not just numbers.
I discovered this for myself when I dabbled with Hit Exchanges last year. These got me lots of visitors but I found they were of little value and were mostly cosmetic. I wrote about this back in December 2006: Is Traffic From Hit Exchanges Worthwhile?.
(iii) Keep visitors on your blog for as long as possible (by providing useful information). Further reading: Make Money By Keeping Visitors On Your Blog.
(iv) Make it easy for visitors to return to your blog.
I would suggest using some form of subscription service. You will see on my posts that, at the end of each one, there are options to subscribe to my blog. At the moment I am using FeedBurner which, like everything else associated with this blog is free to use.
I will leave it there for today, otherwise the post will go on for too long.
One final observation though before I go today. I feel that making money with free blogs. and without expenditure, takes time. It's not a quick buck. When you read of high incomes earned by bloggers most of these haven't happened overnight. They have taken years to develop.
Where some claim to have done so quickly the facts they forget to quote are their outgoings, their advertising costs etc. Nothing wrong with this. Spending money to make money and using good marketing is fine. The truth is, however, that if you don't want to invest money, it'll all take a bit longer.
Go to: Part 2.
Good luck,
Mike.
Subscribe to Mike's Money Making Mission
Subscribe to Mike's Money Making Mission by Email
